Contributors

Gina McDowell is a licensed professional clinical counselor with Big Lots Behavioral Health Services at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. Gina currently serves as a clinical educator, assessing training needs and developing educational opportunities for Behavioral Health therapy staff to promote ongoing use of current, evidence-based practice.

Tracy leads the Translational Research team for the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children's Hospital bringing close to 20 years of experience in management, research, marketing, communications and health education to her role. She works both behind the scenes to formulate strategic media outreach plans for the center and in front of the camera appearing in both national media such as The Today Show and the New York Times and local outlets.

Abbie (Roth) Miller, MWC, is a passionate communicator of science. As the manager, medical and science content, at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, she shares stories about innovative research and discovery with audiences ranging from parents to preeminent researchers and leaders. Before coming to Nationwide Children’s, Abbie used her communication skills to engage audiences with a wide variety of science topics. She is a Medical Writer Certified®, credentialed by the American Medical Writers Association.

Brianne is interning as a science writer and editor for Clinical & Research Communications at Nationwide Children's Hospital. She contributes to a variety of publications, including Pediatrics Nationwide and PediatricsOnline.

Deipanjan "Deip" Nandi, MD, is a cardiologist with the Heart Transplant & Heart Failure Program at Nationwide Children’s. Originally from Fort Worth, Texas, he went on to receive an undergraduate degree in Biochemistry from Harvard University, and his medical degree from Duke University School of Medicine. He also obtained a Master’s of Science in Health Policy as a US-UK Fulbright Scholar from the London School of Economics. Dr. Nandi completed his internship and residency at CS Mott Children’s Hospital at the University of Michigan. He then moved to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, where he completed his general cardiology fellowship as well as an advanced fellowship in Heart Transplant & Heart Failure. His clinical interests include pediatric heart failure, cardiomyopathies, transplantation and mechanical circulatory support. His research interests include comparative-effectiveness research focusing on the management of pediatric heart disease, as well as outcomes research in pediatric heart transplantation.

Dr. Neff completed medical school at the Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine, Athens, Ohio, and a pediatrics residency at the Doctors Hospital of Stark County, Ohio. She is the owner/pediatrician of Hometown Pediatrics in Jackson, Ohio.

Jessica Nye, PhD, is a freelance science and medical writer based in Barcelona, Spain. She completed her BS in biology and chemistry and MS in evolutionary biology at Florida State University. Dr. Nye studied population genetics for her doctorate in biomedicine at University of Pompeu Fabra. She conducted her postdoctoral research on the inheritance of complex traits at the Autonomous University of Barcelona.

Michael D. Patrick, Jr, MD is a member of the Section of Emergency Medicine, medical director of Digital Health for Nationwide Children's Hospital, and an assistant professor of Clinical Pediatrics at The Ohio State University College of Medicine. His clinical interests include helping sick and injured children in Nationwide Children's off-site urgent care network and the main campus emergency department. He is also interested in parent and patient education. Since 2006, he has hosted and produced PediaCast: a pediatric podcast for parents. This popular program covers news parents can use, answers listener questions, and interviews pediatric and parenting experts. PediaCast is the most-listened-to online source of pediatric information with over four million downloads to date. PediaCast is available wherever podcasts are found.

JoAnna Pendergrass, DVM, is a veterinarian and freelance medical writer in Atlanta, GA. She received her veterinary degree from the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine and completed a 2-year postdoctoral research fellowship at Emory University’s Yerkes Primate Research Center before beginning her career as a medical writer.

As a freelance medical writer, Dr. Pendergrass focuses on pet owner education and health journalism. She is a member of the American Medical Writers Association and has served as secretary and president of AMWA’s Southeast chapter.

In her spare time, Dr. Pendergrass enjoys baking, running, and playing the viola in a local community orchestra.

Jeb is the Managing Editor, Executive Communications, in the Department of Marketing and Public Relations at Nationwide Children's Hospital. He contributes feature stories and research news to PediatricsOnline, the hospital’s electronic newsletter for physicians and other health care providers, and to Pediatrics Nationwide. He has served as a communications specialist at the Center for Injury Research and Policy at The Research Institute and came to Nationwide Children’s after 14-year career as daily newspaper reporter, most recently at The Columbus Dispatch.