General Pediatrics Research Team | Research | Department of Pediatrics | UC Davis Health

Simeon Boyd's clinical interests focus on: dysmorphology; delineation of new syndromes; congenital anomalies - craniosynostosis, oral clefts, facial asymmetry syndromes, exstrophy-epispadias complex; and lysosomal storage disorders. His research interests focus on: clinical and molecular dysmorphology; genes causing congenital defects; genetic analysis of multifactorial diseases; genetic epidemiology; and disorders of intracellular trafficking.

Research Laboratory:

• Boyd Genetics Lab

Publications:

• PubMed

Eric Crossen is very active in the medical education of Pediatric residents and UC Davis medical students. For UC Davis School of Medicine he is co-Instructor of Record for the third-year Pediatrics Clerkship and Director of Tribal Health Programs. He regularly lectures for medical students on topics in General Pediatrics. He routinely hosts medical students in his primary care clinic where he teaches clinical skills at the bedside. He supervises Pediatric Residents in their continuity clinics and teaches in the resident didactic series focusing on communication skills and bedside manner.

Publications:

• PubMed

Erik Fernandez y Garcia's research is focused on building the evidence for improving intergenerational mental health through pediatric primary-care based interventions. He also investigates pediatric healthcare disparities arising from social determinants of health, in an effort to best determine how healthcare and medical education systems can address those disparities.

Publications:

• PubMed

Douglas Gross' research area was neuroendocrinology, however he is no longer active in research. He is heavily involved in global health activities and providing care to underserved populations through mobile health clinics.

Publications:

• PubMed

Susan Guralnick's research and academic work is focused on graduate medical education, competency-based medical education, and evaluation.

Publications:

• PubMed

Adrienne Hoyt-Austin’s research focuses on how to best support breastfeeding dyads following birth hospitalization. She has interests in studying improvement of breastfeeding education in medical training and supporting breastfeeding dyads through telehealth.

Publications:

• PubMed

Laura Kair conducts clinical research focused on improving maternal and child health through designing and implementing evidence-based interventions aimed at overcoming breastfeeding barriers and disparities.

Publications:

• PubMed

Chris Kim's academic interests include optimizing care delivery and quality at UC Davis-partnered Federally Qualified Health Centers, with recent focus on connecting patients to behavioral health services in a timely fashion, as well as implementing antibiotic stewardship principles in the outpatient FQHC setting. His research has focused on school health partnerships and management of chronic diseases such as asthma with school-based partners.

Publications:

• PubMed

Sean Munoz's research/academic interests are focused towards mentorship, recruitment and retention of UIM (Underrepresented in Medicine) students interested in pursuing a career in the Health Professions. He is also focused in curriculum and assessment development within Health Professions Education. In addition, he has a strong interest in community advocacy, particularly for underserved communities here in the Sacramento area and the Central Valley.

Jennifer Naidu is passionate about nutrition and how that can affect health outcomes, especially in childhood where health and nutrition habits are typically formed. She is also interested in collaborating with other colleagues at UC Davis to address food justice in the community.

Publications:

• PubMed

Lidia Park's research interests currently are in neonatology and newborn medicine, particularly in improving neurodevelopmental outcomes. She also has a passion for medical education and is actively producing the podcast Pediagogy for pediatric learners. https://health.ucdavis.edu/pediatrics/podcasts/

Publications:

• PubMed

Lisa Rasmussen’s research and academic interests include providing quality training for the next generation of pediatricians and connecting with community organizations to improve health outcomes for children and their families.

Publications:

• PubMed

Mitch Ratanasen enjoys spending time teaching pediatric residents in various settings, whether that be in the hospital in the newborn nursery or in our clinics at the Pediatric Glassrock Clinic or Sacramento County Health Center. He is also very passionate about promoting wellbeing and resiliency for all of his patients, families, students, residents, and co-workers.

Patrick Romano's research interests include comparative evaluation of health care outcomes, the use of outcomes data to improve the quality and effectiveness of health care, and the role of physicians, nurses, and other professionals in optimizing the quality and safety of health care.

Publications:

• PubMed

Ulfat Shaikh conducts research aimed at improving healthcare quality, specifically with respect to pediatric nutrition. Her research broadly deals with identifying factors that influence physician decision-making with respect to pediatric nutrition, and evaluating health system and telehealth applications (e.g., clinical telemedicine, distance education, internet communication) in improving the quality of clinical care in pediatric obesity.

Publications:

• PubMed

Daniel Tancredi's research interests include developing efficient statistical design and analysis plans for observational and experimental clinical research studies, especially studies that involve correlated data, as arise in cluster-randomized trials, longitudinal studies, and survey that use complex probability designs.

Publications:

• PubMed

Alice Tarantal's research program primarily centers on fetal diseases and corrective in utero therapies with a focus on stem cell biology and regenerative medicine. Translational activities using the nonhuman primate model includes; gene therapy; cell-based therapies/tissue engineering; fetal/infant models of human congenital and acquired diseases of the blood and kidney; fetal:maternal microchimerism; and in vivo imaging.

Publications:

• PubMed

Lena van der List's academic interests focus on teaching other physicians to use media for advocacy and patient education. She is the co-creator of the UC Davis children's health podcast, Kids Considered.

Publications:

• PubMed

Serena Yang's academic interests focus on training healthcare professionals, especially for regions with healthcare workforce shortages. Her educational mission targets learners all along the health professions pathway, from inspiring K-12 students as they explore health careers, to supporting students and residents in their identity formation as health professionals, to coaching faculty in advanced skill development. She also seeks to establish innovative and sustainable clinical-community partnerships that improve networks of care, community linkages, and systems that ultimately result in improved health outcomes for children and families.

Publications:

• PubMed

Jihey Yuk’s academic interests include role of adverse childhood events and trauma in child health and well-being, delivery of trauma-informed care, and child abuse prevention in general Pediatrics.