Biography

I am a neonatologist and investigator, beginning my research career at Harvard Medical School as a laboratory-based scientist investigating mechanisms of virulence in Group B Streptococcus. Currently my research focuses on the epidemiology of neonatal infection, with an emphasis on risk assessment and antibiotic stewardship. In collaboration with Dr. Gabriel Escobar, I developed the Neonatal Early-Onset Sepsis Calculator, a clinical decision tool for sepsis risk assessment among term infants. I am currently a Professor of Pediatrics on the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, a member of the Division of Neonatology at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and Chief of the Section on Newborn Medicine at Pennsylvania Hospital. On behalf of the American Academy of Pediatrics, I have developed practice guidance for neonatal sepsis, GBS prevention, perinatal COVID-19 and congenital cytomegalovirus infection.