2026 Southeast Region Chair Election

Candidates

Program Director Vice Chair

Vice Chair – (Term: 1 year), Chair – (Term: 1 year), Immediate Past Chair – (Term: 1 year)

(three-year term, 2026-2029)

Emilee Dobish, MD
Associate Residency Program Director
University of Tennessee HSC

Hello! My name is Emilee Dobish, and I am excited to be considered for the role of Vice Chair of the APPD Southeast Region! I grew up in Maryland and received my B.S. in Neurobiology and Physiology from the University of Maryland and my M.D. from Penn State University College of Medicine. I completed my Pediatric Residency at University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) and Le Bonheur Children’s hospital in 2014, and my Chief Residency in Pediatrics at the same institutions the following year, which is where I was first exposed to APPD! I completed my M.S. in Epidemiology from UTHSC in 2020. Serving as a chief resident reinforced my love of resident and medical education and created a goal to return to APPD and residency leadership as part of my career.

I was lucky enough to return to APPD as an Associate Program Director for the Pediatric Residency Program at UTHSC in the interim role in 2020 and then fully in 2021. I became the Senior APD in July of 2025. One of my focus areas as APD has been serving as the chair of the Clinical Competency Committee and working to use these meetings to allow for early identification of struggling learners and create a coaching system for residents to improve areas of deficiencies.

I am currently an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at UTHSC and an Academic Hospitalist at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital with bedside teaching rounds 16 weeks a year, working with medial students, Pediatric and Medicine-Pediatric residents, and Pediatric Hospital Medicine Fellows. I have a passion for teaching and in 2017 and 2023 I was awarded the Golden Apple for Teaching in Pediatrics by UTHSC. She also received the Department of Pediatrics Excellence in Education in 2021.

Another passion of mine is advocacy and medical legal partnerships. In 2018, I became the Medical Champion of the Memphis Children’s Health Law Directive (Memphis CHILD), which is a Medical-Legal Partnership (MLP) between Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital, UTHSC, Memphis Area Legal Services, West Tennessee Legal Services and the University of Memphis Law School providing free civil legal services to pediatric patients whose families have legal needs affecting their health. I serve as the medial liaison between attorneys and physicians, interpret medical records for the attorneys and provide education to medial staff on how legal issues adversely affect patient health. In this role, I have created an elective for residents to immerse themselves in the MLP and broaden their understanding of the intersection of health and law.

Being in residency leadership and a part of APPD is a highlight of my job. The supportive nature of APPD and the collaboration between residency programs to ensure best practices for Pediatric Residency education is inspiring. As Vice Chair for the Southeast Region, I hope to continue to foster this collaboration, especially as we prepare to transition to EPA based evaluations and as we continue to navigate the challenges of Pediatric Residency Recruitment.

Thank you for your consideration!

Steven Hannigan, MD
Associate Residency Program Director
Carolinas Medical Center

Steven Hannigan, MD is honored by the nomination for APPD Southeast Region Vice Chair position. Doctor Hannigan is a clinical assistant professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Hospital Medicine at Wake Forest School of Medicine Charlotte and Atrium Health Levine Children’s Hospital. He completed his undergraduate and medical school degrees as a member of the Siena College and Albany Medical College Science and Humanities Program. He completed his residency at Atrium Health Carolinas Medical Center Pediatrics in Charlotte NC, served as chief resident, and became an Associate Program Director at the conclusion of his chief year in 2018. He married his beautiful wife, Anna, in 2020, and they are expecting their third child in August, 2026.

Clinically, Doctor Hannigan enjoys the breadth of hospital medicine. He spent the first five years of his career covering subspecialty services as a hospitalist and now splits his time between the special care nursery of a community hospital and the inpatient floors and nursery of Atrium Health Levine Children’s Hospital in Charlotte. He is passionate about high value care; residents have described him as anti-Benadryl and pro-discharge.

Doctor Hannigan’s primary focus as Associate Program Director has been resident recruitment. He helped guide the program through its transition to digital applicant evaluation, virtual interviewing and the Thalamus platform. He overhauled their holistic review process incorporating principles learned through the Atrium Health Diversity Certificate program and best practices from the APPD. Doctor Hannigan continues to run resident recruitment and is now responsible for resident evaluation; he runs the Clinical Competency Committee and is spearheading the transition to EPAs. He also oversees individualized curriculum. Outside of these leadership roles, he is a longtime member of the Program Evaluation Committee, Clinical Competency Committee, Hospital Medicine Hiring Committee, and more recently joined the Hospital Medicine Billing and Coding Committee.

Doctor Hannigan has been an active member of the APPD since 2017. He completed the APPD Leadership in Educational Academic Development (LEAD) course in the spring of 2023 as a member of Cohort 10 and regularly attends the spring conference. He looks forward to serving the Southeast APPD Region.

Plan for the Region

The Southeast Region of the APPD is a large geographic area and the fastest growing area in the country. Our rapid growth highlights the need to recruit the next generation of pediatricians as we will be disproportionately affected by the physician shortages in our future. Our recruitment efforts would be bolstered by professional social media guidance—topics, templates, cadences—and this could be a sensible use of our funds. More generally, regional transparency around residency budgets could enable some member institutions to go and advocate for more funding. It is also important for us to continue to subsidize attendance from new regional members

Mark Krom, DO
Associate Residency Program Director
Prisma Health Upstate/University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville

My name is Mark Krom, and I’m running for Vice Chair for the Southeast Region. I completed medical school at VCOM-VA in 2013, pediatric residency at Prisma Health-Upstate in Greenville SC in 2016, and after a chief resident year have been an associate program director for our pediatric residency program since 2017. Clinically, I work in both the inpatient (PHM) and outpatient clinic settings with residents and learners, and my focuses in our department have been on quality improvement, health equity, and mentorship. As someone who has completed training in this area and now my wife and I are raising our three boys here, representing the Southeast Region would be a humbling and meaningful opportunity. As your representative, I am excited to further delve into the issues facing our programs –

· Recruitment, further identifying and addressing our regional barriers, improved clarity of signaling, and regional unification around second-look standards and weekends

· Budgeting and cost analysis

· CBME transition, especially in regards to remediation and consistent resident expectations.

Mostly, I’m excited to listen to each of you and learn about your programs and needs as well. Thanks for reading, and please reach out with any questions.

Amy Levenson, MD
Vice Chair of Education
University of North Carolina Hospitals

Amy Levenson, MD, is a Professor of Pediatrics at the UNC School of Medicine, where she serves as Vice Chair of Education, Director of Fellowship Training for the Department of Pediatrics, and Pediatric Endocrinology Fellowship Program Director. In these roles, she oversees educational programming across all pediatric training programs, including residency and fellowship education. Nationally, she serves as an At-Large Member of the APPD Fellowship Executive Committee and Chair of the Pediatric Endocrine Society Training Council, where she has led initiatives to strengthen fellowship education and foster collaboration across institutions. Dr. Levenson has dedicated her career to advancing graduate medical education through curriculum innovation, collaboration, mentorship, and the professional development of faculty and trainees.

If elected, Dr. Levenson will work to strengthen networking and communication among pediatric educators across the Southeast by creating meaningful opportunities to share educational innovations, best practices, and solutions to common challenges. She is committed to expanding collaboration and mentorship opportunities for both new and experienced program leaders, and highlighting the outstanding educational scholarship taking place throughout the region. She also aims to ensure that regional meetings are highly interactive, relevant, and focused on practical strategies that members can implement at their own institutions. Through these efforts, she hopes to build a more connected regional community that supports educators, fosters innovation, and advances excellence in pediatric medical education.

Candidates

Program Manager Vice Chair

Vice Chair – (Term: 1 year), Chair – (Term: 1 year), Immediate Past Chair – (Term: 1 year)

(three-year term, 2026-2029)

Savannah Britt, MHA, C-TAGME
Program Administrator, Pediatric Residency
Vanderbilt University Medical Center

My name is Savannah Britt, and I am currently the program administrator for the pediatric residency program at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. I have been in this position for the past three years, with previous experience in healthcare administration. Originally from North Carolina, I have spent the last ten years living and working in middle Tennessee. Having lived my entire life in the Southeast, I have had the opportunity to see firsthand both the strengths and challenges that healthcare in our region faces.

In 2019, I received my Bachelor of Science in Healthcare Management followed by my Master of Healthcare Administration in 2021, from Austin Peay State University. I also recently earned my Training Administrators for Graduate Medical Education certification (C-TAGME). In addition to my experience as a residency program coordinator, I have previously served in both Chair and Vice Chair positions within other professional organizations, like the American College of Healthcare Executives – Middle Tennessee Chapter (ACHMET).

Since entering the field of graduate medical education, I have had the privilege of becoming a member of the Association of Pediatric Program Directors and actively participating in this community. This upcoming Spring will mark my fifth time attending an APPD hosted conference and I even had the opportunity to present in a workshop last year with my organization centered around our holistic application review process.

I am honored to be nominated for the position of APPD Southeast Regional Program Manager Vice Chair and hope to bring a valuable perspective to the current leadership team and our region. One of my passions as a program administrator lies in recruitment, and I see an opportunity for our region to partner in the advancement of pediatric recruitment across the Southeast. Ultimately, my goal would be to connect our programs, share successful strategies, and identify areas for improvement so that we can continue to build a strong, sustainable network of care for our children. I look forward to contributing to these efforts, hopefully in the role of your Southeast Regional Program Manager Vice Chair.

Derrell Bryant, B.B.A.
Pediatric Residency Program Manager
University of Tennessee HSC

First and foremost, thank you for thinking of me to serve in such an important leadership role within the APPD Southeast Region.

I am a proud native Memphian, and my connection to pediatrics and Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital began long before I ever imagined it would become part of my professional journey. Growing up with severe asthma, I spent a significant amount of time in the emergency department at Le Bonheur. The exceptional care I received there allowed me to grow up healthy, graduate from high school, and go on to earn a degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Management from Tennessee State University.

When I graduated, I thought my career path was going to be in banking. I began my professional career a Regions Bank and later joined First Tennessee Bank, now First Horizon. Although I gained valuable professional experience, I quickly realized that banking was not where my passion was. Much of my work centered around sales, including selling financial products to young college students, and I never felt truly fulfilled by what I was doing.

Then, unexpectedly, faith intervened. Due to organizational changes and job cuts at First Tennessee, I was laid off. Interestingly, I did not feel the sadness I expected. Instead, I felt a sense of relief—and, thanks to a decent severance package, I was given something even more valuable: the opportunity to pause and consider not just my next job, but my next career.

That opportunity led me to UT Medical Group, where I began working in the billing department. Although healthcare was unfamiliar territory for me, I quickly discovered something I had been missing in banking: a sense that my work contributed to something bigger than myself. I enjoyed being part of a team and contributing to an organization whose work directly impacted patients and families.

After a couple of years, an Administrative Specialist position became available in the pediatric residency program within Graduate Medical Education at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. I applied and was hired on the spot. At the time, I had no idea that the position was temporary.

The Lead Program Manager at the time, Karen, was working toward a new position that would focus on the New Innovations software system. She was so impressed with my work and the way I approached my responsibilities that she strongly encouraged—perhaps “bugged” is the better word—Aaron, the Assistant Dean of GME, to post the Program Analyst position so that I could apply.

That opportunity changed the course of my career.

Twelve years later, I am still here, now serving as the Lead Program Manager for the Pediatric Residency Program at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. Every day, I have the privilege of doing work that I genuinely love. It is fulfilling not only because I found a career that fits my strengths, but because I get to play a small part in educating and supporting the next generation of pediatricians who will serve the community where I grew up.

There is something especially meaningful about helping train physicians who may one day provide the same kind of care to children in Memphis that I received as a child.

If honored to serve in this leadership role, one of the greatest contributions I hope to make is helping demonstrate just how great the Southeast Region truly is. The Southeast faces significant challenges in recruiting and retaining primary care pediatricians, and the need for strong pediatric providers in our communities will only continue to grow.

I would love the opportunity to work collaboratively with colleagues across the region to highlight the many strengths and opportunities we have to offer. My goal would be to help tell our story—to prospective residents and other healthcare professionals—and show them that the Southeast is not simply a place to train or work, but a place where they can build meaningful careers, serve diverse and growing communities, and make a lasting difference.

My professional journey has taught me that sometimes the path we initially envision for ourselves is not the path we are meant to take. I never planned to work in graduate medical education, and I certainly never imagined that a temporary position would lead to a career I would love for more than a decade. I am grateful for every step of that journey.

I would be honored to bring that perspective, my experience, and my passion to this position. Most importantly, I would welcome the opportunity to work alongside others to strengthen our region, recruit the next generation of pediatricians, and help ensure that children across the Southeast continue to have access to the exceptional care they deserve.

Maia Ghosh, MHA
Fellowship Program Coordinator
University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences

Maia Ghosh currently works as a Fellowship Program Coordinator and Office Manager for the Pediatric Hospital Medicine Section at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences/Arkansas Children’s Hospital. She has been in this role since 2022 and helped start the fellowship along with Program Director, Dr. Rebecca Cantu. Maia is also involved with the APPD as a recent LEAPES graduate and currently serves as the Building Bridges Co-Lead for the Coordinator Executive Council. She is so grateful for the support and community from APPD and hopes to extend that on a more regular basis to the SE region coordinators and administrators in this role. She hopes to do this by creating quarterly meetings to strengthen relationships and provide professional development opportunities for our region.