Candidates
Vice Chair – (Term: 1 year), Chair – (Term: 1 year), Immediate Past Chair – (Term: 1 year)
(three-year term, 2023-2026)
Kelly Bear, DO
Program Director, Neonatology Fellowship Program
ECU Health
As an Associate Professor with East Carolina University, the Program Director of the Neonatology Fellowship, and a Neonatologist, I am invested in furthering education and training in our programs in the Southeast region. Prior to coming to ECU, I was a neonatologist in the Army and stationed in Hawaii at Tripler Army Medical Center. During my time there, I was introduced to leadership within graduate medical education as the assistant program director for the pediatric residency. Having had leadership in both the general pediatrics side as well as the subspecialty side of graduate medical education gives me a unique perspective. I separated from the Army and settled with my family in Eastern NC with no intentions on leaving which gives me a particular interest in ensuring the success of the Southeast section of APPD. Although I have had some leadership roles within graduate medical education, being that I have been PD for 3 years, I am still new and learning more and more each day. In this role, I would like to bring the members of the region closer together through improved communication and networking. There are already plans underway to discuss dues and I would like to be a part of those discussions and help determine useful ways to use the dues to further the success of our region. Thank you for the opportunity to be considered to represent our region.
Mahmoud Jaara, MD
Chief Resident
UF Health Pediatric Residency Program
My name is Mahmoud Jaara, I enjoyed attending APPD conference and LEGACY workshop and I would love to continue working with other chief residents in the region, I want to thank you for this nomination and it’s my pleasure to continue working with APPD members and start working with executive committees into promoting work of chief residents.
I was born and raised in Jordan, I developed deep appreciation for children since I was volunteering as peer educator, communication skills trainer and community initiatives leaders, I went to medical school at University of Health Sciences/Quaid Azam medical college I Pakistan, I decided to pursue residency training in pediatrics at the esteemed University of Florida in Gainesville. I have developed huge passion for education and simulation during residency training time, I also pursued my career to proudly be the incoming chief resident, I am looking forward to promoting and establish more innovative education and expand simulation into simulation integrated curriculum in pediatric education.
If I will be selected as Vice Chair my goal is to coordinate in planning of regional meeting at APPD Annual Meeting, promote chief residents’ wellbeing, coordinating empowering chief residents among the region how to advance lesions.
Rachel Kannady, EdS
Program Manager, Hem-Onc Fellowship
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
Hello, my name is Rachel Kannady. I am the Program Manager of the Hem-Onc Fellowship at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. I came to St. Jude from 14 years of education practice at both the K12 and University levels. As an educator by trade, much of my work focuses on curriculum development and management, as well as faculty development and evaluation for culture change. I am currently working on my dissertation focused on Faculty Evaluations in Graduate Medical Education for the purpose of strong development of physicians.
My primary goal in serving in this role will be to continue the work already begun in developing strong communication among the programs within the region. Next, I’d like to encourage stronger communication and development around the alignment between Milestones and EPAs and how these guidelines can best support the education of developing physicians. Further, I am interested in ways that we can work together within the region to better network and support developing physicians to build their own network and future.
I’d like to thank you all for being nominated and the opportunity to be considered to serve in this role. I firmly believe that conference meetings and sharing our best practice, ideas, and helping each other work through questions together is how we all create stronger education programs.
Jennifer King MD, PharmD
Program Director
The Monroe Carell Jr Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt
I am honored to be nominated for the position of APPD Southeast Regional Vice Chair and consider it a privilege to serve the members of our vibrant region. I am currently an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics (2017) and now serve as the program director for the Pediatric Critical Care Medicine Fellowship Program (2020).
I received my Pharm.D from Ohio Northern University and my medical degree from Wright State University. I completed my residency at The Ohio State University/Nationwide Children’s Hospital (2014) and pediatric critical care fellowship at Duke University (2017).
Since joining the faculty as a clinician educator at the Monroe Carell Jr Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, I have been involved in medical education at the undergraduate and graduate levels as a member of the Standing Assessment Team for the medical school, core faculty member for the Pediatric residency program, and co-lead of the Education Academic Community for the residency program.
I have a passion for curriculum development, medical simulation, competency based medical education and assessment, and interprofessional education. I am actively engaged in educational scholarship locally and through the Education in Pediatric Intensive Care group. Having recently completed the APPD LEAD program I have found the mentorship, support, collaboration, and community that APPD provides unparalleled. I look forward to the ways that we as a region will continue to support one another and our trainees to improve the health and care of children.
While I am so grateful for my experiences growing up in the Midwest, I truly consider the south our home. In the Southeast Region we face many challenges as pediatricians and medical education leaders due to the current political landscape. I believe there are opportunities for us as a region to engage in advocacy to ensure our trainees and our patients are given the best opportunities to thrive. I look forward to continuing to grow as an educator and collaborate alongside our community.
Mark Krom, DO
Associate Program Director
Prisma Health, Greenville, SC
Med School: Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine
Residency – Prisma Health – Upstate in Greenville, SC
I completed a junior faculty/chief resident year after graduation, then stayed on faculty in Greenville SC as a pediatric hospitalist and general pediatrician (some resident outpatient clinic and complex care) and have been an APD here in Greenville since 2017. My main focuses as an APD have been resident QI projects, mentoring, recruitment, and DEI. Goals in this position would be to continue to build upon the APPD 2025 vision by facilitating chief resident engagement in the region, encouraging further scholarship and support of residents interested in APPD opportunities, and learning more about how to support each program in our region.
Ashley Siems, MD, MEd
Program Director Pediatric Critical Care Fellowship
John’s Hopkins All Children’s
My personal career goal is to be an innovative educator and educational scholar in graduate medical education with a focus on training comprehensive physicians who are not only knowledgeable and competent providers but have developed their non-technical skills including communication, leadership, and professionalism. I have dedicated my academic endeavors in developing expertise in team dynamics having published on inter-disciplinary hand offs between surgeons and intensivists, created and studied training using crisis resource management strategies to improve team performance in rapid response teams, and studying quality metrics during resuscitation events during in hospital pediatric cardiac events. I completed my Master’s in Education at George Washington University to broaden my expertise and deepen my understanding of adult learning theory, completed training to be an expert in medical simulation, and written numerous curricula for medical trainees to develop both pathophysiologic understanding of critical care medicine (my specialty) and non-technical skills. I started my career at Children’s National Hospital where I served as PCCM fellowship associate program director, director of education for the simulation program, and director of education for the pediatric critical care division. In the latter role, I oversaw the education of nurses, residents, fellows, and faculty within critical care. In 2020, I moved to Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital, I have undertaken building a new fellowship program in order to develop each individual fellow’s strength and am a proud member of APPD. As I grow in my leadership skills, I am hoping to be more involved in APPD. My goals for the position on the Southeast board would be to increase the amount of network and curriculum sharing across programs in our region.