kidSTAR Faculty
Mark Adler, MD
Director and Founder, kidSTAR
Dr. Adler's interests pertain to the assessment of learners and simulation program development. Joined kidSTAR in 2002.
View Dr. Adler's faculty profile at Northwestern Medicine Feinberg School of Medicine.
Anisha Kshetrapal, MD
Associate Director, kidSTAR
View Dr. Kshetrapal's faculty profile at Northwestern Medicine Feinberg School of Medicine.
Danielle Bielanski, MSN, RN, CHSE, NPD-BC, CCRN
Nursing Professional Development Specialist
Resuscitation Education, Clinical and Organizational Development
Danielle Bielanski coordinates and administers resuscitation program courses for employees and community; influences professional role competence and growth of learners in resuscitation settings; and supports lifelong learners in inter-professional educational environments, facilitating development of clinical, communication, and teamwork skills. Her clinical background is in tertiary Pediatric Intensive Care and Neonatal & Pediatric Critical Care Transport. She is an American Heart Association instructor in all disciplines.
Robyn Bockrath, MD, MEd
Attending Physician, Hospital-Based Medicine
Dr. Bockrath is interested in simulation-based medical undergraduate medical education.
View Dr. Bockrath's faculty profile at Northwestern Medicine Feinberg School of Medicine.
Katie Clausen, MSN, RN, CPEN
Nursing Professional Development Specialist
kidSTAR simulation, Clinical and Organizational Development
Katie Clausen’s clinical background is in Pediatric Emergency Medicine with multiple teaching experiences that include serving as a Clinical Nurse Educator within a pediatric emergency department. Her interests include utilizing simulation to improve patient safety and the integration of simulation in quality and process improvement initiatives. She also supports the resuscitation education program as PALS, BLS and ENPC courses.
Annabelle Dacuycuy, MA
Training Project Manager
Resuscitation Education, Clinical and Organizational Development
Annabelle Dacuycuy supports many initiatives of the Resuscitation Team and RN Orientation/Residency Program. She completed her Masters in Counseling and Organizational Psychology at Adler University. Before joining Lurie Children's, she worked as an Education Specialist at the American Hospital Association (AHA) and Training and Development Specialist at the Executive Service Corps of Chicago (ESC).
Carmel Eiger, MSN, RN, RNC-NIC
Manager, kidSTAR Simulation and Resuscitation Program
Resuscitation Education/ kidSTAR Simulation, Clinical and Organizational Development
Carmel Eiger completed her Master of Science in Nursing at Rush and her clinical background is Neonatal Intensive Care. Her teaching experience includes roles as a Clinical Nurse Educator at Swedish Covenant Hospital, an Adjunct Professor at North Park University, a Neonatal Resuscitation Program Instructor, and a BLS instructor. Her publications include:
- Pediatric Simulation Handbook. Introduction Chapter: So you think you wanna sim? Pending publication-winter 2019. Co-author Dr. Karen Mangold.
- Sapyta, Y.Y., @ Eiger, C. (2017). Improving Pediatric Nurses’ Knowledge, Accuracy, and Confidence Through Code Documentation Simulation. Clinical Simulation In Nursing. 13(6), 278-283.
Uchenna Ewulonu, MD
Attending Physician, Hospital-Based Medicine
View Dr. Ewulonu's faculty profile at Northwestern Medicine Feinberg School of Medicine.
Michelle Flaherty
Simulation Technician Specialist
Michelle Flaherty has been a part of kidSTAR since 2022. Michelle is interested in providing simulation-based education and development to interdisciplinary teams at Lurie Children’s as well as our outreach hospitals. She supports the resuscitation education program as a BLS instructor.
Gabrielle (Gigi) Gebien DNP, APRN, PCNS-BC
Nursing Professional Development Specialist
Behavioral Health Programming/kidSTAR simulation, Clinical and Organizational Development
Gigi has been a pediatric nurse since 2014, and completed her Doctorate of Nursing Practice at Rush University in 2020 as a Pediatric Clinical Nurse Specialist. Gigi oversees Behavioral Health Programming at Lurie Children’s including the Welle Behavioral Health Safety Systems Training. The Welle Program prepares and equips clinical staff with both verbal de-escalation skills and physical safety techniques to promote and maintain a safe and trauma-informed care environment. Gigi is passionate about using high fidelity simulation to improve staff feelings of safety and preparedness when caring for patients with behavioral health diagnoses.
Arika Gupta, MD
Attending Physician, Neonatology
Dr. Gupta is interested in procedural training in regards to the care of newborns and infants. Joined kidSTAR in 2013.
View Dr. Gupta's faculty profile at Northwestern Medicine Feinberg School of Medicine.
Harriet S. Hawkins, RN, CCRN, CPN, CPEN, FAEN
Nursing Professional Development Specialist
Resuscitation Education, Clinical and Organizational Development
Harriet S. Hawkins has been a nurse at Lurie Children’s Hospital (formerly Children’s Memorial Hospital) after 13 years of working as an adult psychiatric, ICU, and ED nurse. She began working in the NICU and in 1985 she helped start our Critical Care Transport Team. In 1988 Harriet started the Pediatric Advanced Life support program with another nurse at what was then Children’s Memorial Hospital and developed the Resuscitation Education Program here Luries in 2001. As the coordinator of this program, she coordinated classes for ACLS, PALS, BLS, NRP, STABLE, ENPC, and TNCC and, prior to the start of our KidSTAR simulation program, ran Mock Codes throughout the hospital. In 2019, Harriet ‘retired’ and now serves in a contingency role as a consultant and teaches with the resuscitation program. Harriet has taught internationally and regularly participates in medical mission work in developing countries.
Priya Jain, MD
Attending Physician, Emergency Medicine
Dr. Jain is interested in feedback and Coaching in medical education, particularly at the graduate medical level. I am developing programs around and studying Coaching as a mechanism to improve the clinical performance of trainees, and to promote learner-driven goals for improvement.
View Dr. Jain's faculty profile at Northwestern Medicine Feinberg School of Medicine.
Lindsay Koressel, MD
Pediatric Hospitalist, Department of Pediatrics
Dr. Koressel is interested in teamwork and communication in multi-disciplinary in-situ simulations.
View Dr. Koressel's faculty profile at Northwestern Medicine Feinberg School of Medicine.
Karen Mangold, MD, MEd
Attending Physician, Emergency Medicine
Dr. Mangold's interests pertain to curriculum development and integration of simulation into larger curricula. Joined kidSTAR in 2011.
View Dr. Mangold's faculty profile at Northwestern Medicine Feinberg School of Medicine.
Candace Mannarino, MD, MS
Attending Physician, Cardiology; Critical Care Medicine
Dr. Mannarino's research interests are within implementation of resuscitation science and efforts to improve patient safety through multi-disciplinary simulation.
View Dr. Mannarino's faculty profile at Northwestern Medicine Feinberg School of Medicine.
Mary McBride, MD, MEd
Attending Physician, Cardiology
Dr. McBride is interested in the teamwork and communication in clinical crises. Joined kidSTAR in 2011.
View Dr. McBride's faculty profile at Northwestern Medicine Feinberg School of Medicine.
Ying Ying Sapyta, MSN, RN, CHSE, CCRN, CPN
Nursing Professional Development Specialist
Resuscitation Education/kidSTAR simulation, Clinical and Organizational Development
Ying Ying Sapyta provides resuscitation education for employees and within the community in various programs; supports learning and professional improvement of staff through the use of simulation; and encourage continuous learning in an inter-professional environment that facilitates self- progress for the healthcare team. Her clinical background is in Adult Cardiac and Telemetry, Pediatric Surgical and Cardiology, and Pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care. Her teaching background includes roles as a Pediatric Clinical Instructor for undergraduate nursing students; American Heart Association BLS, PALS, and ACLS instructor. Publications: Sapyta, Y.Y., @ Eiger, C. (2017). Improving Pediatric Nurses’ Knowledge, Accuracy, and Confidence Through Code Documentation Simulation. Clinical Simulation In Nursing. 13(6), 278-283.
Jennifer Trainor, MD
Attending Physician, Emergency Medicine
Dr. Trainor's interests involve medical student simulation and the use of bootcamps to prepare students for the transition to residency. Joined kidSTAR in 2002.
View Dr. Trainor's faculty profile at Northwestern Medicine Feinberg School of Medicine.
Kristen Van Genderen, MD
Attending Physician, Hospital-Based Medicine
Dr. Van Genderen is interested in simulation-based graduate and undergraduate medical education and interdisciplinary simulation.
View Dr. Van Genderen's faculty profile at Northwestern Medicine Feinberg School of Medicine.