Child and Adolescent Health

The Division of Child and Adolescent Health is dedicated to improving the health of children and adolescents in New York City and to defining model programs for the care of high-risk children everywhere. We provide comprehensive clinical services and community health programs in partnership with the Ambulatory Care Network (ACN) of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and conduct research and develop innovative programs. Child and Adolescent Health (CAH) includes general and community pediatrics, adolescent medicine, the child advocacy center, the complex care program, developmental behavioral pediatrics, a well-baby nursery, and a newborn clinic.

Members of the division are both pediatric generalists and subspecialists. Our division is responsible for the well-baby nursery and the adolescent consult service at NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital. The division includes 47 full-time faculty, three part-time faculty, sessional faculty, and 107 part-time/affiliates. Division members serve as both the gateway (e.g., generalists, adolescent medicine) to the subspecialties and support for other subspecialists (e.g., adolescent medicine, complex care, child maltreatment, developmental-behavioral pediatrics). Faculty members in the division practice in a variety of settings, including community and school-based health centers, the well-baby nursery, and ColumbiaDoctors. The division has both a clinical and basic science research footprint and is home to the Center for Children’s Digital Health Research.

New Programs

• Breastfeeding Support Program (Melissa Glassman, MD, MPH)
• Pediatric Telemedicine at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital (Edith Bracho-Sanchez, MD)
• COVID Nursery Clinic (Minna Saslaw MD; Newborn Clinic)
• Center for Children’s Digital Health Research (Melissa Stockwell, MD, MPH)

New Appointments

• Melissa Stockwell, MD, MPH, Division Chief, 2020
• Morgan Finkel, MD, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Primary Care Pediatrician, 2020
• Sally Sultan, MD, MS, Lecturer in Pediatrics, Well Baby Nursery Hospitalist, 2020
• Mary Ann LoFrumento, MD, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Well Baby Nursery Hospitalist, 2020
• Erika Grun Landau, MD, MSc, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Primary Care Pediatrician, 2020
• Anna Duszka, MD, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Primary Care Pediatrician, 2020
• Erik Østensjø, DO, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Primary Care Pediatrician, 2020
• Marguerite Costich, MD, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Primary Care Pediatrician, 2019
• Deborah Shamsian, MD, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Primary Care Pediatrician, 2019
• Edith Bracho-Sanchez, MD, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Primary Care Pediatrician, 2019
• Wanda Abreu, MD, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Well Baby Nursery Hospitalist, 2018
• Ashley Stephens, MD, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Primary Care Pediatrician, 2018
• Lauren Walzer, DO, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Well Baby Nursery Hospitalist, 2018
• Dani Dumitriu, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Well Baby Nursery Hospitalist, 2018
• Hetty Cunningham, MD, Associate Vice Chair, Education & Learning Environment

Promotions

David Bell, MD, MPH, Professor of Pediatrics at CUIMC, 2020

Adriana Matiz, MD, Professor of Pediatrics at CUIMC, 2020

John Rausch, MD, MPH, Associate Professor of Pediatrics at CUIMC, 2020

Kalpana Pethe, MD, Associate Professor of Pediatrics at CUIMC, 2020

Hetty Cunningham, MD, Associate Professor of Pediatrics at CUIMC, 2019

Marina Catallozzi, MD, MSCE, Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Population and Family Health at CUIMC, 2019

Anne Armstrong-Coben, MD, Associate Professor of Pediatrics at CUIMC, 2018

Dodi Meyer, MD, Professor of Pediatrics at CUIMC, 2018

Honors and Awards

Marina Catallozzi, MD, MSCE

• Appointed Vice Chair of Education

Melissa Stockwell, MD, MPH

• Elected to the American Pediatric Society (APS)
• Inducted into inaugural class, Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons Academy of Community and Public Service, 2020

Anne Armstrong-Coben, MD

• Appointed Interim Dean of Admissions at the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons
• Appointed Senior Associate Dean of Admissions at the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons

Dodi Meyer, MD

• Inducted into inaugural class, Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons Academy of Community and Public Service, 2020

Laura Robbins-Milne, MD

• Has taken a Columbia EPIC leadership role for Outpatient Physicians

Mara Minguez, MD, MSc

• Appointed Assistant Chief Medical Officer for Community Affairs in the NYP Ambulatory Care Network

Adriana Matiz, MD

• Appointed Medical Director for NYP's Center for Community Health Navigation, including expansion of adult and pediatric programs to NYP Methodist and NYP Queens
• Named Co-Chair for the Advisory Committee of the National Resource Center for Patient/Family Centered Medical Home at the American Academy of Pediatrics

Connie Kostacos, MD

• Accepted into the 2019 class of Academy of Clinical Excellence (ACE) at CUIMC

Kathleen Keown, MD

• Elected to serve as the AAP Chapter 3 Chair for the Committee on Underserved Children

Mandy O'Hara, MD, MPH, FAAP

• Named Chair of the new Wellness Committee by the NYS AAP Chapter 3 Council/Strategic Council

David Bell, MD, MPH

• President-Elect to the Society of Adolescent Health and Medicine (SAHM)
• Received the 2019 Society of Adolescent Health and Medicine’s Lawrence S. Neinstein Award in Young Adult Health

Cristina Fernández, MD, MPH

• Elected to the Executive Council of AAP New York Chapter 3 as the Member-at-Large

Dani Dumitriu, MD, PhD

• Recipient of the Society for Pediatric Research (SPR) New Member Outstanding Science Award
• Elected a Zuckerman Institute Affiliate Member

Highlights

Columbia Opens COVID Nursery Clinic for New Moms and Babies

New mothers, particularly from underserved backgrounds, are facing unique economic and health-related obstacles to receiving quality, safe care for their newborn children in the age of the novel coronavirus. For new mothers who test positive for the virus, options for newborn care and for a typical follow-up visit within the first week after birth, are increasingly narrow as local clinics and facilities shut down due to limited personal protective equipment (PPE) and other resources critical for maintaining a safe environment for families. 

Department Newsroom

A Q&A with Dr. Edith Bracho-Sanchez

Edith Bracho-Sanchez, MD is a pediatrician at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital’s Broadway Practice, director of pediatric telemedicine for NYP’s Ambulatory Care Network, and an assistant professor of pediatrics at Columbia. Dr. Bracho-Sanchez has appeared on NBC, PBS, NPR, and a number of other news outlets to provide expert commentary since the outbreak of COVID-19. 

Department Newsroom

Exploring the Origins of Resilience

The word resilience has many definitions: hardiness, elasticity, adaptability, flexibility. Dani Dumitriu, MD, PhD defines it as “an active coping mechanism.” A pediatrician and neuroscientist, Dr. Dumitriu has thought about resilience a lot—what it means to have it, and the consequences of lacking it. She recently joined the Department of Pediatrics to conduct research through her newly established DOOR laboratory, devoted to understanding the Developmental Origins Of Resilience. Her ultimate goal is to design interventions that prevent disease by increasing resilience.

Department Newsroom