Dr. Maria Fouad Abou Nader is a second-year pediatric critical care medicine fellow. She grew up in Lebanon, where she completed medical school and  her first pediatric residency. After moving to the United States, she completed residency at Indiana University School of Medicine, Riley Children's Hospital, and then moved to Colorado for fellowship.                 

Dr. Fouad Abou Nader’s  scholarly pursuits center around global health and medical education, with a specific focus on improving critical care and cardiology education in developing countries. Her current project involves a needs assessment to  better understand the educational needs of pediatric residents in Lebanon related to the care of children with congenital cardiac defects . This work is particularly important given the country’s socio-economic instability , and it will lay the foundation for Dr. Fouad Abou Nader ’s goal of  developing and implementing new educational resources to enhance existing curricula in Lebanon .                

Seeking to deepen her expertise in medical education, she applied to SEELS with the goal of acquiring the necessary knowledge and skills to become a proficient clinician educator. Dr. Fouad Abou Nader shared that SEELS has proven to be invaluable in bridging her knowledge and skill gap in medical education, offering highly focused content through  in-person educational sessions , and providing mentorship from Program leaders.   

Dr. Alison Celello is a second-year pediatric hematology-oncology fellow in the Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders. She completed medical school in New York City and pediatric residency in Cincinnati before continuing her steady move westward to Denver. She has a longstanding interest in medical education as a tool for building capacity and addressing disparities.   

Dr. Celello’s overarching research interest is to find tangible ways including educational interventions to address the outcome disparities that we know are persistent in pediatric cancer and blood disorders. Given a growing population of refugee and immigrant patients and families, she recognized th ere were no guidelines or best practices for providers about how best to support this patient population with unique medical and psychosocial needs. With the guidance of her research mentors, she is working on a multi-institutional provider needs assessment , which will drive the development of such guidelines and an associated educational platform.  

Through the SEELS Program, Dr. Celello has found mentorship, scholarly support, and an educational community both at CHCO and within the broader University of Colorado community.    

Dr. Saez is a second -year pediatric rheumatology fellow. She hope s to integrate medical education into her career as a rheumatologist. Since starting fellowshi p, she has developed an interest in the education of primary care providers about pediatric rheumatology since exposure to this subspecialty field is variable amongst providers , especially given the national shortage of pediatric rheumatologists.

Dr. Saez’s scholarly project aims to describe the reasoning and trends behind the use of ANA in the evaluation of a patient with possible rheumatologic disease. She plans to apply the data from this needs assessment to develop an intervention to address any knowledge or resource gaps that exist in primary care.

She has thoroughly enjoyed getting to meet other medical educators across the CU campus and learning about the different ways to get involved in medical education through the SEELS Program .

Pablo Napky  Raudales, MD - Pediatric Critical Care Medicine

Dr. Pablo Napky Raudales is a second-year pediatric critical care medicine fellow. He was born and raised in Honduras, where he attended medical school. He then moved to sunny Miami for his pediatric residency. His academic interests include medical education and global health.         

Dr. Pablo Napky Raudales combined his passions into his scholarly project, "Pediatric Critical Care Medicine Education in the Pediatric Residency of Honduras. ” It is a multiphase project that includes a needs assessment to better describe the educational gaps of pediatric residents related to the care of critically ill children in Honduras. His goal is to develop, implement, and disseminate educational content that is meaningful, impactful, and accessible to local learners.

She is excited to be a part of SEELS which she finds to be an inspiring group of trainees and faculty who strive to make medical education effective and meaningful.

Ashley Cowan, MD - Perinatal-Neonatal Medicine

Dr. Ashley Cowan is a second-year neonatal-perinatal medicine fellow at the University of Colorado and a graduate student in the Master of Education program at the University of Cincinnati. She completed medical school in Texas, residency in Southern California, and spent a few years working as a NICU hospitalist in Hawaii before deciding to pursue fellowship in neonatology and her master’s degree in education. 

Dr. Cowan’s research interests include artificial intelligence, wellness, and education leadership. Her scholarly project aims to explore the benefits and limitations of using artificial intelligence’s large language models in medical education

The SEELS program has provided community, mentorship, scholarly support, and invaluable insight into the career opportunities medical education can provide. The educational sessions provide knowledge and skills laying a strong foundation for future careers in medical education. 

Jessica Frelinger, MD – Pediatric Critical Care Medicine

Dr. Jessica Frelinger is a second-year pediatric critical care medicine fellow. She completed medical school in Chicago at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Sciences before completing her pediatric residency and chief year at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. Her scholarly interests generally include medical education and the role that gender plays in the clinical learning environment.

With the guidance of her research mentor, one of her current projects explores how the gender of pediatric critical care fellows influences the learning experience of leading interprofessional teams during acute resuscitations and code events in the pediatric intensive care unit. She is also exploring gender-related differences in leadership assessments among pediatric subspecialty fellows.

Dr. Frelinger is excited about the SEELS program because of the formalized longitudinal curriculum offered for fellows pursuing careers in medical education, mentorship from medical educators across differing subspecialties, opportunities for learning about applications of research methodology in medical education, and, of course, community!