Meet our Executive Committee
Tracy Curran, PhD - Chair
Cardiac Exercise Program Development Manager
Tracy Curran is the co-developer and program development manager of the Heart Center's Cardiac Fitness Program at Boston Children's Hospital. She has over 20 years’ experience in clinical exercise testing in the congenital and acquired heart disease population. In addition, she has over 15 years’ experience educating allied health students, professionals, health care providers, patients, and families on the importance of exercise testing and training. Her research focus is on the positive impact that exercise training and mindfulness practices have on the health and wellness of children with and without disease.
Julie Ann O'Neill - Vice Chair
Allison Flanagan - Secretary
Exercise Lab Operations Specialist/Cardiac Fitness Program Administrator
Allison has been working in the Cardiology Department at Boston Children’s Hospital since 2016. Allison is currently an Exercise Lab Operations Specialist and is also the administrator for the Cardiac Fitness Program. She received her undergraduate degree in Exercise Science from the University at Buffalo, where she concurrently completed an internship in adult cardiac rehabilitation. Allison has also been a Certified Cardiographic Technician (CCT) since 2018.
Katherine Hansen, MD - Communications
Pediatric Cardiology Fellow, Stanford University
Katie is a pediatric cardiology fellow at Stanford and has particular interests in exercise physiology, cardiac fitness, palliative care, and quality improvement for children and adolescents with heart disease. As a pediatric cardiologist, she hopes to help grow the field of exercise cardiology and promote happy and healthy lives in children of all backgrounds and cardiac diagnoses.
Jessica Pavlok - Website Manager
Justine Shertzer - Social Media Manager
Naomi Gauthier, MD - Working Group Chair
Director, Cardiac Fitness Program
Naomi is a pediatric cardiologist at Boston Children's Hospital and serves as the Director of the Cardiac Fitness Program. Beyond her love for patient care, her interests are in strengthening collaborations, studying patient outcomes, exercise physiology, and physical activity promotion.
Barbara Cifra, MD - Outcomes Working Group Co-Lead
Director, Exercise Medicine Program
Barbara Cifra is a sport medicine physician who completed her training in Rome before moving to Toronto. As a trainee, she worked in the Medical and Surgical Paediatric Cardiology Unit at Bambino Gesu’ Children Hospital in Rome studying how the different types of physical activity impact heart function in children with acquired and congenital heart disease. While in Italy she also had the unique opportunity to work with the first league soccer team in Rome (AS Roma) and the Italian National Rowing team. Elite athletes represent an exceptional research model for understanding how the cardiovascular system remodels when exposed to intense exercise.
In Toronto she first worked as a research fellow in the Echocardiography Laboratory in the Labatt Family Heart Centre where she developed the Exercise Stress Echocardiography Program. She is now the Director of the Exercise Medicine Program that focus on healthy lifestyle plan and exercise prescription for children with heart disease.
Michael Fremed, MD - Outcomes Working Group Co-Lead
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics
Mike Fremed is a pediatric cardiologist at Columbia University, where he completed both his general pediatrics residency and pediatric cardiology fellowship training. In addition to general outpatient cardiology, he also specializes in acute care and exercise cardiology. His particular interests include the use of cardiopulmonary fitness programs to improve outcomes in children and young adults with acquired and congenital heart disease, cardiac implications of COVID-19, and medical education. Along with Dr. Aimee Layton, he is currently developing and studying the feasibility and impact of a telehealth based-cardiopulmonary fitness and rehabilitation program at Columbia.
Aimee Layton, PhD - Technology Working Group Co-Lead
Director, Pediatric Cardiopulmonary Exercise Lab
Aimee Layton is the Pediatric Cardiopulmonary Exercise Laboratory Director and Assistant Professor in Applied Physiology in Pediatrics, Pediatrics Cardiology at Columbia University. Prior to recently joining Pediatric Cardiology, she was faculty in adult Pulmonary Medicine and adjunct faculty of the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine at Columbia. Aimee’s research interests include: exercise ventilatory responses and mechanics, tele-medicine, pulmonary rehabilitation and predicting mortality using exercise outcomes. Beyond her work, Aimee is a Category 1 competitive cyclist and races road, mountain biking and cycle cross in the NY/NJ area. She is also on the health advisory committee for Peloton, a public company that specializes in home fitness.
David A. White, PhD, CEP - Technology Working Group Co-Lead
Exercise Physiologist, Assistant Professor
Dave is an exercise physiologist and researcher in the Pediatric Physical Activity and Cardiac Exercise Science Program in the Ward Family Heart Center at Children’s Mercy Kansas City and assistant professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine. His primary research focus is exercise physiology, exercise intervention, physical activity assessment and counseling, and frailty in children and adolescents with congenital and acquired heart disease. Other research and clinical focuses include preventive cardiology and metabolic/bariatric surgery in adolescents with severe obesity.
Dave is also the Technology Working Group Lead for GloCo. Please reach out to Dave if interested in participating in this working group.
Jolie Britt, MD - Member at Large
Clinical Postdoctoral Fellow - Pediatric Cardiology
Dr. Jolie Britt completed medical school at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. After medical school, Dr. Britt completed her residency in Pediatrics at Texas Children's Hospital/Baylor College of Medicine where she also served as Chief Resident. She completed her categorical Pediatric Cardiology fellowship and Advanced Imaging Fellowship at Texas Children's Hospital/Baylor College of Medicine where she also served as Chief Fellow. She has also used her advanced fellowship to attain additional expertise in exercise physiology. Dr. Britt has recently joined the Texas Children's Hospital Heart Center as an Assistant Professor in Advanced Imaging. She has joined the team tasked with initiating cardiac fitness program called the TCH LAUNCH Program. Her passions include using echocardiography, MRI, and exercise testing to risk stratify and assist patients with congenital heart disease in living a healthy and active lifestyle. She also enjoys medical education and will be participating in the Master Teachers Fellowship Program with Baylor College of Medicine starting in the Fall of 2021.
Yael Melamud, PhD - Member at Large
Exercise Physiologist
Yael is the manager of the Cardiac Rehabilitation Centre at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem, Israel. Yael has completed her BEd in Physical Education at Wingate College (Israel), her MSc in Exercise Physiology at SDSD (San Diego, California) and her PHD in Exercise Sciences from Bangor University (Wales, England). Yael has been working as an exercise physiologist in cardiac rehabilitation programs since 2005. Additionally, she has been teaching and qualifying exercise trainers, exercise physiologists, physical therapists, nurses, and physicians to educate cardiac patients through appropriate physical activity and a healthy life style. Today, as the manager of a new cardiac rehabilitation center, she wishes to develop and implement the first program in Israel for patients with congenital heart diseases.