Melissa Olen, ARNP

Melissa Olen is a nurse practitioner at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital. For the past 14 years she has provided care for patients with congenital heart disease (CHD), starting as a bedside nurse in the cardiac intensive care unit for 8 years, followed by her role as the nurse practitioner with the electrophysiology team since 2012.  She collaboratively manages all EP patients in the inpatient/outpatient setting and during interventional EP procedures.  She directs the device remote monitoring program, provides education for families, and contributes to staff development. Melissa regularly speaks at national venues, participates in clinical research, and has published in peer reviewed journals and coauthored book chapters.

John Kugler, MD

John D. Kugler received his medical degree from the University of Nebraska College of Medicine in 1974, and completed his pediatric residency at the University of Nebraska Medical School in 1976.  In 1979, he completed his fellowship in pediatric cardiology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. Dr. Kugler specializes in arrhythmias and electrophysiology. He has published articles in professional journals, has presented on a variety of pediatric cardiology topics and has served on many national committees, most recently involved with Quality Improvement initiatives. He is the former Chief of the University of Nebraska Medical Center/Creighton University Medical Center Joint Division of Pediatric Cardiology at Children's Hospital & Medical Center.  He has served as the Pediatric Cardiology Fellowship Director and as the Director of the Adult Congenital Heart Disease program for the Joint Division. Dr. Kugler is D.B and Paula Varner Professor of Pediatrics and Internal Medicine at the University of Nebraska College of Medicine and Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at the Creighton School of Medicine.

Wendy Gunther, MD

Dr. Wendy M. Gunther is a forensic pathologist and medical examiner, employed in the Tidewater District of the Commonwealth of Virginia since March, 2002.  She trained at SUNY-Downstate for two years in general surgery in the 1980s, followed by anatomic and clinical pathology, with enough experience in pediatric pathology to sit for the board examination in 2001 without formal fellowship training. Dr Gunther trained as a fellow in forensic pathology at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Manhattan, NYC, in 1993-4, and is now board certified in anatomic, clinical, forensic, and pediatric pathology. She has worked as a forensic pathologist in Memphis, Tennessee, Washington, DC, and Virginia; she is a member of the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, the British Association in Forensic Medicine, and the National Association of Medical Examiners. She has written over fifty abstracts, contributed to two books on pediatric pathology, and  won awards for teaching. She estimates she has performed between 4,000 and 5,000 autopsies; she has lost count of how many times she has testified in court.

Philip Chang, MD

Dr. Philip Chang is Director of the Pediatric and Congenital Heart Electrophysiology Program at the University of Florida Congenital Heart Center and Shands Children’s Hospital.  He completed pediatric residency and general cardiology fellowship training at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and pediatric electrophysiology training at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.  His current clinical and research interests include complex ablation of arrhythmias in adult patients with congenital heart disease, novel techniques and technologies in cardiac implantable devices, complex lead extraction, and strategies for risk stratification of sudden death in patients with congenital heart disease.  Dr. Chang is a Fellow of the Heart Rhythm Society and the American College of Cardiology and board certified in pediatric cardiology and adult congenital heart disease.

Kristine J. Guleserian, MD

Dr. Gulesarian is a pediatric cardiovascular surgeon and the director of The Heart Program’s Heart Failure and Transplant Program at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital.  She is board certified in general surgery, thoracic surgery and congenital heart surgery, and operates on neonates, infants and children, as well as adolescents and adults with congenital heart defects. Dr. Gulesarian has established a global presence as a founding member of the World Society of Pediatric and Congenital Heart Surgery, and for her work with the American Association for Thoracic Surgery, Society of Thoracic Surgeons, International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation, International Society for Nomenclature of Paediatric and Congenital Heart Disease, Southern Thoracic Surgical Association, and as an executive board member of Women in Thoracic Surgery.  She is the recipient of numerous awards for her dedication and academic achievements and is frequently sought out for commentary by the media as an innovator and thought leader in her field.

Jane Crosson, MD

Dr. Crosson is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Johns Hopkins Hospital. She is board certified in Pediatric Cardiology and Adult Congenital Heart Disease. She has served on two writing committees to define treatment for children with potentially life-threatening arrhythmias, the 2004 AHA guidelines for physical activity in patients with genetic cardiovascular diseases and the 2014 expert consensus statement on management of ventricular arrhythmias in the child with a structurally normal heart. She also has numerous publications on arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy.

Mike Papale

Mike Papale is the President and Founder of In A Heartbeat, a nonprofit foundation with the mission to prevent death from Sudden Cardiac Arrest and Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (HCM).  In A Heartbeat donates Automated External Defibrillators (AED's) to places they are needed and also raises money for Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy research.  Mike is a cardiac arrest survivor.  He suffered his sudden cardiac arrest at the age of 17.  Unfortunately, after being diagnosed with Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy and having an ICD surgically placed, Mike's basketball career ended.  Mike also is a motivational speaker and enjoys talking to high schools, universities, and businesses about his story and how it has allowed him to attack his dreams!

Brynn Decher-Crooks, ARNP

Richard Lamphier, RN

Richard Lamphier is the Program Manager of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta’s Project S.A.V.E. He sits on numerous committees that relate to CPR and the prevention of sudden cardiac death: The Citizen’s CPR Foundation World Committee on Mass CPR Training, Project ADAM National Advisory Council, Citizen’s CPR Death in the Young Committee, AHA Georgia/Carolina’s Committee, Georgia High School Association Sports Safety Committee.  He is the President-Elect of the Georgia Nurses Association.

Beth Stephenson, MD

Rachel Lampert, MD

Dr Lampert went to medical school at Vanderbilt, then did residency and chief residency at Bellevue/NYU.  She did cardiology and electrophysiology fellowship at Yale, where she then joined the faculty and is currently a Professor of Medicine (cardiology and electrophysiology).  Clinically, she takes care of patients with cardiac devices as well as other arrhythmic disorders.  She is involved with the Heart Rhythm Society, American College of Cardiology, and American Heart Associations, serving on committees for all of these organizations..  Her research interests include the impact of exercise on arrhythmias in patients with cardiovascular disease, and care of athletes.

Juan Carlos (JC) Muniz, MD

Prince Kannankeril, MD

Dr. Kannankeril is Associate Professor of Pediatrics in the Thomas P. Graham Jr. Division of Pediatric Cardiology, and faculty member in the Vanderbilt Center for Arrhythmia Research and Therapeutics (VanCART) at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville TN. His major clinical and research interests involve the care of young patients with genetic arrhythmia syndromes who are at risk for sudden cardiac arrest. Dr. Kannankeril is the recipient of multiple federal grants including an NIH R01 which funded a prospective randomized clinical trial in CPVT, and an NIH U01 entitled ‘Role of Genetic Variants in Sudden Death in the Young’. He co-chaired the neonatal section of the NIH Working Group: Screening for Sudden Cardiac Death in the Young and is a member of the Advanced Clinical Review team for the Tennessee State Department of Health’s Sudden Death in the Young (SDY) case registry. Dr. Kannankeril serves on the Editorial Board for the Heart Rhythm Journal and on the Scientific Advisory Board for the Sudden Arrhythmia Death Syndromes (SADS) Foundation.

Redmond Burke, MD

Vicki Freedenberg, PhD, RN

Vicki Freedenberg has been an Advanced Practice Nurse in EP for 25 years at Children’s National Health System in Washington, D.C. She is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at George Washington University. Vicki is currently the Allied Professional Representative on the Executive Board of the Pediatric and Adult Congenital Electrophysiology Society (PACES). Her research focus is on non-pharmacological interventions to decrease distress in children with cardiac devices, congenital heart disease, and/or  inherited arrhythmia disorders.

Sam Sears, PhD

Dr. Sears is a Professor in the Departments of Psychology and Cardiovascular Sciences at East Carolina University.  He also serves as the Director of Doctoral Studies in the Department of Psychology.   Dr. Sears is considered an international authority on the psychological care and quality of life outcomes of patients with an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD).  He has published well over 150 articles in the medicine and psychology research literatures and provides lectures all over the world on a regular basis.   Dr. Sears was awarded the O. Max Gardner Award in 2013 by the University of North Carolina system to the faculty member who “has made the greatest contribution to the welfare of the human race” in the past year.  Dr. Sears continues to practice and teach health psychology in cardiology clinics at the East Carolina Heart Institute at East Carolina University.   He received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. in clinical health psychology from the University of Florida

Salim Idriss, MD, PhD

Anjan (AJ) Batra, MD

Christopher Erickson, MD

Dr. Erickson received his medical degree from the University of Nebraska College of Medicine (UNMC) in 1984.  Dr. Erickson completed his fellowship in pediatric cardiology at Baylor College of Medicine/Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston and his fellowship in electrophysiology at Harvard Medical School/The Children’s Hospital in Boston.  He is Professor in the Departments of Pediatrics and Internal Medicine at UNMC.  He is director of electrophysiology and pacing at Children's Hospital & Medical Center in Omaha.  His area of specialty includes pediatric and adult congenital arrhythmias, implantable devices, and inherited arrhythmias.  He is co-chair of the PACES Task Force on Sudden Death in the Young.

Susan Etheridge, MD

My research/ career focus is arrhythmias in children with a recent focus on inherited arrhythmias and sudden death in the young. I have directed local and multicenter collaborative projects on LQTS, SVT and WPW.  I am part of a number of multicenter projects concerning pediatric arrhythmias and sudden death in the young including and involved in multicenter projects on exercise and LQTS and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, sudden death and ICD implantation in HCM and studies investigating fetal LQTS, CPVT and am lead investigator of a multicenter study WPW.  I am an invited speaker at local, national and international meetings and speak arrhythmias and sudden death in the young.  I am the fellowship director of the pediatric cardiology program at the University of Utah.  I am on the program committee for the Heart Rhythm Society, Sudden Arrhythmia Death Foundation annual meeting and ACC and am chair of the program committee for ambulatory and preventative section at the World Congress of Pediatric Cardiology 2017.  I was past treasurer and president of the Pediatric and Congenital Electrophysiology Society.  I am a fellow of Heart Rhythm Society, American College of Cardiology and American Academy of Pediatrics. I am a member of the Council of Cardiovascular Disease in the Young Section of the American Heart Association and the Vice President of the Sudden Arrhythmia Death Foundation.  I am on the suboard of the ABP, pediatric cardiology subsection.

Mike Silka, MD

Dr. Silka  is Professor and Chief, the Division of Cardiology at the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and University of Southern California. He is a former president of the Pediatric Electrophysiology Society and one of the initial meeting organizers for the conferences on Sudden Cardiac Death in the Young. He has served as the pediatric representative for multiple electrophysiology guidelines of the ACCF and AHA. He has published extensively and trained several fellows in electrophysiology. His current interests are the long-term outcome of patients following treatments for cardiac conditions and their return to productive and high-quality lives and the ability of  programmatic exercise to enhance cardiovascular performance during exertion.

Frank Zimmerman, MD

Dr. Zimmerman is a clinical associate at University of Chicago and co-director of the Pediatric Electrophysiology Service at Advocate Children’s Hospital, Oak Lawn IL.  He is a co-author of the 2016 PACES/HRS  Expert Consensus Statement on the use of Catheter Ablation in Children and Patients with Congenital Heart Disease and 2014 PACES/HRS Expert Consensus Statement on the Evaluation and Management of Ventricular Arrhythmias in the Child With a Structurally Normal Heart.  Dr. Zimmerman currently serves as physician consultant for the Young Hearts For Life ECG screening program in Illinois, which is the largest ECG screening program in the United States (over 200,000 screening ECGs since 2006).

Maully Shah, MD

Dr. Maully Shah is a pediatric cardiologist at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and Professor of Pediatrics at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.  She is currently the Medical Director of the Cardiac Electrophysiology Section and Director of the Electrophysiology Fellowship Program.  Dr. Shah is also the Vice-President (for Research) of the Pediatric and Congenital Electrophysiology Society, a member of the test writing faculty for the International Board of Heart Rhythm Examiners, and is on the writing committee for arrhythmia-related projects within the Pediatric Heart Network.

Charles Berul, MD

Anthony Rossi, MD

Robert Campbell, MD

Dr. Robert Campbell is a pediatric cardiologist at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Sibley Heart Center and a Professor of Pediatrics, Emory University School of Medicine, Division of Cardiology.  From 1997 – May 2015, he served as the Director of the Sibley Heart Center Cardiology practice, Chief of the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Sibley Heart Center cardiac service line, and Division Director for cardiology in the Department of Pediatrics at Emory University School of Medicine.  He is a Fellow of the Heart Rhythm Society, the American College of Cardiology, the American Heart Association, and the American Academy of Pediatrics.  Dr. Campbell currently serves on the Georgia Chapter of the ACC Board, is active within the Georgia Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, has been a member of the Pediatric and Congenital Electrophysiology Society (PACES) since 1998, and has been a Board member of the Sudden Arrhythmia Death Syndrome (SADS) Foundation since 2006.  In 2004, he became the Medical Director for Project S.A.V.E (Sudden Cardiac Arrest, Awareness, Vision, and Education) at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.

Sherrie Joy Baysa, MD

Heather Henderson, MD

Dr. Henderson is an associate professor in the Department of Pediatrics, Division of Cardiology at the Medical University of South Carolina.  Her clinical and research interests lie in the care of children with heart failure from congenital and acquired heart disease and cardiomyopathy and in those who have undergone heart transplantation.  She is an active member of the American Heart Association and International Society for Heart & Lung Transplantation.

Ed Walsh, MD

Seshadri Balaji, MD

Dr. Balaji is  Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Pediatric Cardiology at the Oregon Health & Science University and Director of Pediatric Electrophysiology.  Dr. Balaji is Vice President for Administration of the Pediatric and Congenital Electrophysiology Society (PACES) and is in the leadership track to become President of PACES in 2020.  He is the co-primary investigator for ongoing research on age-specific risk stratification among children having hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

Anne Foster, ARNP

I am currently employed as the Pediatric and Adult Congenital Electrophysiology APN for Advocate Children’s Heart Institute in Chicago, IL. I am involved in patient care in both the outpatient and inpatient setting. I received my BSN at the University of Iowa, and my MSN in Family Practice at Georgetown University. I have been working in Pediatric Electrophysiology for over 15 years, and have been IBHRE certified in cardiac devices since 2003. The areas of electrophysiology that interest me the most include ICD programming in the pediatric and young adult patient, and ablation in the adult congenital patient with complex anatomy.

Mitchell Cohen, MD

Dr. Cohen is the current Co-Director of the Heart Center and Chief of Pediatric Cardiology at Inova Children’s Hospital. Dr. Cohen graduated from Temple University School of Medicine and then completed a pediatric internship, residency, cardiology fellowship, and subspecialty training in pediatric electrophysiology at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Dr. Cohen remained on faculty at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia for 6 years before relocating to Phoenix where he became Professor of Child Health at The University of Arizona School of Medicine-Phoenix. Dr. Cohen’s clinical and research interests address long-term outcomes of children with cardiovascular implantable electronic devices, genotype specific therapies for patients with channelopathies, Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, and late arrhythmic outcomes in adults with congenital heart disease.  He is the current President of the Pediatric and Congenital Electrophysiology Society (PACES) and is a scientific advisor to the Sudden Arrhythmia Death Syndromes Foundation (SADS).

Heather MacLeod, MS

Heather MacLeod graduated from the Northwestern Genetic Counseling Program in 2001.  She started her career in cardiovascular genetics at the University of Chicago and has experience developing and implementing additional cardiovascular genetics clinics at Sibley Heart Center in Atlanta as well as for a telephone based genetic counseling company. She is currently the Senior Project Manager for the Sudden Death in the Young (SDY) Registry where she is helping to develop and implement the registry.  The goals of the SDY Registry are to understand, count and  develop better strategies for prevention of young sudden death. Heather is actively involved with projects through the American Board of Genetic Counseling (ABGC), the National Society of Genetic Counselors (NSGC) and its Cardiac Special Interest Group, including working with the medical examiner committee to implement the 2013 postion paper for postmortem genetic testing and/or DNA banking for sudden cardiac death in the young.  She serves as a scientific advisor to the SADS (Sudden Arrhythmia Death Syndromes) Foundation.