Meet the Faculty

Name	Background
Beverley Robin, MD, MHPE, CHSE, FAAP Associate Professor, Pediatrics	Beverley Robin, MD, MHPE, CHSE, is the Director of the Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine Fellowship Program at RUSH University Children’s Hospital. She completed her fellowship at the University of Chicago in 2003 and joined the RUSH faculty in 2011. Robin completed her Master of Health Professions Education Degree at the University of Illinois, Chicago in 2021. Her research interests include graduate medical education and the use of simulation in health professions education and training. She is the co-editor of a simulation textbook – Neonatal Simulation: A Practical Guide – published by the American Academy of Pediatrics. Her focus also includes the use of simulation to test new healthcare environments, and she is a past recipient of an award from the Agency of Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) for this work.
Jean Silvestri, MD Professor of Pediatrics	Jean Silvestri, MD, is the Chair of the Department of Pediatrics. She previously served as the Medical Director of the NICU and was Vice Chair for Quality and Patient Safety. She completed her fellowship training in neonatology at Children’s Hospital Medical Center in Cincinnati and has been at RUSH, in various roles, since 1985. Silvestri has a longstanding clinical and research interest in disorders of respiratory control, including SUDI, as well as patient safety and quality improvement.
Kousiki Patra, MD Associate Professor, Pediatrics	Kousiki Patra, MD, is the NICU Medical Director, and the Director of the Neonatal High-Risk Follow-Up Clinic at RUSH. She completed her fellowship at Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital/Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland, Ohio in 2004 and joined the RUSH faculty in 2006. Patra’s research interests include investigation of NICU-based practices and maternal sociodemographic characteristics that impact longitudinal neurodevelopmental and health outcomes in VLBW infants. Her clinical interests include quality improvement in discharge education and post-NICU discharge follow-up.
Aloka L. Patel, MD Professor, Pediatrics	Aloka Patel, MD, is the Chief of the Division of Neonatology and the Research Director for the Division. She completed her fellowship at St. Louis Children’s Hospital/Washington University School of Medicine in 2002 and joined RUSH in 2003. Her research interests focus on the impact of lactation and nutrition on outcomes in hospitalized infants. Patel is multi-PI of a R01-funded randomized controlled trial of an economic intervention designed to reduce racial disparity in provision of mother’s own milk. Her other areas of investigation have included health and economic outcomes associated with mother’s own milk and donor milk feedings, physiology and biomarkers of lactation, nutrition intervention studies, necrotizing enterocolitis, and the intestinal microbiome. She has collaborated with investigators nationally and internationally on randomized trials and observational studies. She has served as principal investigator, co-investigator or mentor for 22 funded studies, including three NIH-funded grants, and she has 64 publications.
Rakhee Bowker, MD Assistant Professor, Pediatrics	Rakhee Bowker, MD, is the Medical Director of the RUSH Fetal and Neonatal Medicine Center. She joined Rush in 2016 at the completion of her fellowship at Northwestern University. Her clinical and research interests include fetal-neonatal medicine, antenatal and postnatal management of infants with congenital anomalies, palliative care, necrotizing enterocolitis and the intestinal microvasculature, and neonatal nutrition.
Andrew Berenz, MD Assistant Professor, Pediatrics	Andrew Berenz, MD, completed his fellowship training at the University of Virginia in 2017 and joined RUSH thereafter. He is the NICU Associate Medical Director. His research interests include neonatal nutrition, the intestinal microbiome in preterm infants, neonatal infection and antibiotic stewardship in the NICU. His current research includes maternal to infant transmission of commensal intestinal bacteria, effects of supplemental lactoferrin on intestinal microbiome and outcomes of infants with early onset sepsis.
Laura Seske, MD, MS Assistant Professor, Pediatrics	Laura Seske, MD, completed her residency training at Washington University St. Louis Children’s Hospital in 2013. She completed her fellowship training at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center in 2016 and joined the RUSH faculty in 2020. Seske is the Director of Neonatal Quality Improvement at RUSH University Children’s Hospital. She is Lean Six Sigma Green Belt certified. Her quality improvement and research interests include improving outcomes for ELBW infants, length of stay reduction, and hospital acquired condition reduction. She facilitates quality improvement methodology and measurement for multi-disciplinary teams in the NICU.
Esther Lee, MD, MPH Assistant Professor, Pediatrics	Esther Lee, MD, MPH, completed her fellowship training at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center in 2020. During fellowship she completed her MPH from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health under the NIH T32 grant. She moved to Chicago thereafter to join the faculty at RUSH. Her research interests are global health medicine and effective implementation and quality gap reduction in neonatal units in low- and middle-income countries.
Suhagi Kadakia, MD Assistant Professor, Pediatrics	Suhagi Kadakia, MD, completed her residency training at Jersey Shore University Medical Center in 2017. She went on to complete her neonatology fellowship training at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore. She then returned to Chicago, her hometown, in 2020, to join the faculty at RUSH. Kadakia’s clinical and research interests include high risk deliveries and maternal-fetal medicine. Her other passions include resident education, global health, safe sleep and parent education.
Debra Selip, MD Assistant Professor, Pediatrics	Debra Selip, MD, joined RUSH at the completion of her fellowship training at Harvard Medical School. During her tenure at RUSH, she has held several leadership positions including Director of the Fetal and Neonatal Medicine Center and Vice Chair of Pediatric Promotions. She is currently the Co-Director of a joint perinatal network for the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH). In this role, she evaluates and aids the quality of care provided to pregnant women and infants in fourteen Illinois regional mother-baby-care hospitals in accordance with IDPH regulations. Selip received her MBA from Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in 2018 and is an expert in healthcare operational and executive leadership. Her clinical and research interests include the care of extremely low birth weight infants, perinatal palliative care, and the pre- and post-natal diagnosis and management of infants with complex congenital anomalies.
Katherine Bean, MD, MHMS Assistant Professor, Pediatrics	Katherine Bean, MD, MHMS, completed medical school at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth and then went on to complete her pediatrics and adolescent medicine residency at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. She completed her fellowship training through Northwestern University at the Ann and Robert Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago before joining the faculty at RUSH University Medical Center in 2023. Her research interests include health equity, family centered care, and the intersections of public policy, community outreach, and clinical outcomes.
Leslie Harris, MD, MHS Assistant Professor, Pediatrics	Leslie Harris, MD, MHS, completed medical school at Boston University School of Medicine in 2016. She then completed residency, chief residency, and neonatology fellowship training at Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital. During fellowship, she also completed a Master of Health Science program. She joined the faculty at RUSH University Medical Center in 2023. Harris’s clinical and research interests include parent-provider communication and family-centered care. She enjoys working with trainees and using simulation for medical education.
Image Madhavi Singhal, MD Assistant Professor, Pediatrics	Madhavi Singhal, MD, attended the Indiana School of Medicine and then went on to complete her pediatrics residency at Washington University in St. Louis. She completed her neonatology fellowship at the University of Chicago in 2021 and joined the faculty at Rush University Medical Center in 2024. Singhal’s academic interests include the application of point-of-care lung ultrasound in neonatal care, and simulation-based medical education.