Faculty

Symposium Faculty

2022 Symposium Faculty

Speaker Bio's

Dani Sebbens, DNP, CPNP-AC/PC began her career as an Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (APRN) at the UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh in Pediatric Gastroenterology in May of 2000. After many years working with pediatric GI, she transitioned into a hospitalist role with the Intestinal Care program.

In December 2009, she completed a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree at Robert Morris University and a Post-Graduate Certificate in Acute Care Pediatrics in May 2011. In October of 2011, she relocated to Phoenix, AZ to join the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) at Phoenix Children's Hospital (PCH) until March of 2015, when given the unique opportunity to travel to Alaska to provide care to children in the PICU at the Alaska Native Medical Center (ANMC) in Anchorage. Her travel to Anchorage ended in December 2021 after rejoining the PICU at PCH in April 2021.

Along with her clinical experience, she is a skilled educator and faculty for the Edson College of Nursing and Health Innovation at Arizona State University (ASU). She is currently an Associate Professor and Associate Director of the DNP Program. She is also the founder and Coordinator of the Acute Care Pediatric Nurse Practitioner Program (ACPNP) at Edson College. Dani has been actively involved in multiple professional organizations. She is on the Acute Care Updates Committee for the Pediatric Nursing Certification Board. She has held many local executive board positions for the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners (NAPNAP). She has a history of active committee members as the Secretary of the Acute Care Special Interest Group, Nominations Committee, and National Conference Planning Committee.

She has diverse speaking experience, including local, regional, national, and international presentations on various GI and acute topics to interprofessional audiences.

Matthew Mitchell, CPO, SMIA, CHSS has been leading the Security & Safety program at Phoenix Children’s for 13 years. He is the vice-chair of the Emergency Preparedness Steering Committee and member of the Environment of Care Committee, Workplace Violence Committee, and the Psychiatric Care Expert Panel. He has an education focused on patient safety and improving quality healthcare delivery. His professional passion is improving outcomes for our pediatric patient population with behavioral health comorbidities while striving to foster a culture of family-centered and trauma-informed care. Mitchell is a thankful Phoenix Children’s parent and brings a different perspective to mental health and wellbeing.

Lindsay Freud, MD, is a pediatric and fetal cardiologist at Columbia University Medical Center in New York City. Her research has centered on understanding the natural history of cardiac disease in utero and exploring novel applications for fetal cardiac therapy – both percutaneous and pharmacologic. In addition, she works closely with Maternal-Fetal Medicine and Genetics to understand perinatal outcomes of genetic syndromes, particularly 22q11.2 microdeletion syndrome, and to elucidate genotype-phenotype correlations in this era of rapid gene discovery with next generation sequencing.

Amanda Richardson, CPNP-AC professional history has given her many opportunities to serve the Pediatric population in the Phoenix area. She started as a Health Unit Coordinator at Honor Health Shea Campus on the Pediatric Floor in 1999, while attending Arizona State University. After graduating with her BSN she began her Nursing career in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at St. Joseph’s Medical Center. Over the next 6years, she progressed to Clinical supervisor and deciding to further her nursing career.

She graduated with her MSN from Vanderbilt University in August of 2011 and began her role as an Acute Care Pediatric Nurse Practitioner as a Critical Care NP at Phoenix Children’s in December of that same year. By April of 2012 she chose to focus on the Cardio-Vascular Intensive Care Unit where she remained for 6 years. She left bedside for a short year to pursue a role as the Critical Care Quality consultant at PCH. She missed her clinical role and returned to the bedside in January of 2019 and has spent the last 3 years as an Inpatient Cardiology NP. In the last three years she has assisted in the creation of Cardiology as primary service as well as to serve on the Inpatient Pulmonary hypertension team. Through that time along with clinical duties she has had many opportunities to promote education as a preceptor to NP students, provide nursing educational sessions, as well as provide an annual Cardiac lecture to ASU Acute Care PNP students.

Erin Kreml, MD was born and raised in Texas. She received her medical degree from the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine and went on to complete her residency in Pediatrics at the University of Oklahoma Health Science Center. She then moved to Arizona for fellowship in Pediatric Critical Care at Phoenix Children’s Hospital and was fortunate to be hired as a faculty member in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Phoenix Children’s after finishing her training. Her clinical interests include care of critically ill immunocompromised patients, specifically those who have received hematopoietic cell transplantation.

Jenni Davis, PhD (c) CCLS, CTRS is a dually certified child life specialist/recreational therapist with over 25 years of experience helping children and families cope with hospitalization. Jenni has worked at children's hospitals in Texas, North Carolina, and Arizona; and helped activate Sidra Medicine, a women's and children's hospital, in Qatar. Jenni is currently the Clinical Education Specialist for Patient and Family-Centered Care at Phoenix Children's Hospital. Jenni is a doctoral candidate in International Family and Community Studies at Clemson University. Jenni has a passion of ensuring that patients and families emotional safety needs are met in the hospital setting and beyond. Jenni has completed research on parenting in the Arab world and her current research is evaluating the impact of child life services on staff coping and staff perceptions of patient and family coping. She is also a Faculty Associate at Arizona State University in the School of Community Resources & Development.

Josh Koch, MD received his medical degree at the University of Kansas and completed his pediatric residency training at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (UTSW). He then served as a chief resident at UTSW and completed his critical care fellowship there in 2008. His research interests include optimizing neurologic outcomes for critically ill infants and children and in particular, preventing arrest and improving post arrest management in the intensive care unit. He serves as the Division Chief of the CVICU and the PICU at Phoenix Children’s Hospital.

Cathleen Murphy-Taylor, ACCNS-P, CCRN, CPN grew up in Yorkshire, England, and has practiced as a professional nurse in both the UK and United States. As a practicing clinical nurse for over 25 years, she is passionate about the art of nursing and evidence-based methods to improve practice outcomes. She is a pediatric clinical nurse specialist working as a Clinical Nurse Attending at Phoenix Children's PICU. She won the Phoenix Children's EBP award in 2021 for her work related to pressure injury reduction. She is currently the chapter one president of the Arizona Nurses Association.

LeeAnn L. Kuang, MA, LPC, NCC graduated from University of San Diego with a Master of Arts with an emphasis in clinical mental health counseling in 2013. Ms. LeeAnn has extensive clinical experience working with diverse population and age groups. She trained in EMDR with advanced knowledge in attachment and dissociation. She also incorporates other evidence based therapeutic approaches into her practices, As well as, meeting her clients where they are to help her clients achieve optimal well-being. On her free time, Ms. LeeAnn enjoys cooking and spending time with her family and friends.

Ellen Earl, MS, CCLS has worked as a Child Life Specialist for almost 6 years. She completed her clinical internship at Phoenix Children’s, then went on to work in Pre-Op/PACU in Orlando, Florida, soon after graduating. After completing a couple of years in pre-op, Ellen began working in the PICU/ED/Adult ICU in Mesa, Arizona, and later relocated to the CVICU at Phoenix Children’s, providing support to patients and families during some of their most difficult moments and cope with the challenges of hospitalization, including end of life. In her free time, you can find Ellen spending time with her husband and daughter and their three dogs, drinking coffee, or spending time with friends.

Brittany Brown, MS, CCLS has worked as a Certified Child Life Specialist for 4 years. She completed her clinical internship at Inova Children’s Hospital, to then work as full time float in a variety of units within the hospital before moving to Raleigh, NC. Brittany has spent the last two years in counting as a CCLS at Phoenix Children’s Hospital in the PICU, helping children and families cope with the challenges of hospitalization, illness, and disability while also providing support at end of life. In Brittany’s free time, you can find her hiking, spending time with family/friends, and traveling.

Aline Branca, MD is a board certified pediatric critical care medicine physician who works in the pediatric cardiovascular intensive care unit at Phoenix Children’s Hospital. She holds the title of Assistant Professor of Child Health at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix. Originally from New York, she completed her undergraduate degree at Le Moyne College in Syracuse, NY and went on to receive her medical degree from the State University of New York Upstate Medical University. She then completed her pediatrics residency training at Eastern Virginia Medical School, The Children’s Hospital of The King’s Daughters followed by a pediatric critical care fellowship at Phoenix Children’s Hospital. She then completed an additional fellowship in pediatric cardiac critical care medicine at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. Dr. Branca has a strong interest in graduate medical education and is actively involved in teaching and building educational programs and curriculum for medical students, residents and fellows in the CVICU. Her research interests include educational and quality improvement projects and she has been an active member in NEAR4KIDS a multi-center project to improve advanced airway management practice for critically ill children.

Phoenix Children's Faculty

Mary Baglieri, MBA, MSN

Symposium Host

Mary has been a pediatric critical care Nurse at Phoenix Children’s Hospital for 9 years. She is a native of northeastern Ohio and moved to Arizona in 2008, after graduating from John Carroll University with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology, to work for a nonprofit organization. She then pursued her passion for nursing at Grand Canyon University and graduated with her BSN in. Mary has always enjoyed teaching and helping improve the PICU, therefore decided to go back to Grand Canyon University and graduated in 2019 with both her MBA and MSN in Nursing Leadership. Recently, Mary took on a new role within Phoenix Children’s Hospital as a Clinical Nurse Attending in the CVICU. When Mary is not working, you will find her outdoors hiking, volunteering, spending time with friends, or cheering on any Ohio sports team, especially The Ohio State Buckeyes!

Jill Haydusko MBA, MSN, RN, NE-BC, Alumnus CCRN

PICU Clinical Manager

Jill Haydusko has served as Clinical Manager of the PICU at Phoenix Children’s Hospital since 2010. Serving the staff, patients, and families of the PICU is something that she finds extremely rewarding and holds herself highly accountable. As a former Pennsylvania native, she graduated from The University of Pittsburgh with her BSN and worked for 8 years in the PICU at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. In 2005, Jill relocated to Phoenix and began at Phoenix Children’s Hospital as a Clinical Supervisor in the PICU. Jill is a Grand Canyon University Alumnus earning both her MSN in 2010 and MBA in 2020.

Lori Wertz, MN, CPEN

Symposium Logistics Lead

Lori has 33 years of experience in pediatric critical care and emergency services and is the currently the Clinical Education Specialist for the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Phoenix Children’s Hospital. Lori has also served as Associate Director of the PICU at the Children’s Hospital Oakland, Clinical Manager and the Clinical Education Specialist of the Emergency Department at Phoenix Children’s Hospital. She obtained her Master’s in Nursing Leadership in 1996 and continues to serve those who work with pediatric patients.

Anthony Willyerd, MD

Symposium Medical Director

Dr. Willyerd is a Pediatric Intensivist in Phoenix Children’s PICU. He completed a fellowship at Pittsburgh Children’s Hospital before returning to Arizona and PCH in 2013. He is also a faculty member with the University of Arizona College of Medicine Phoenix, Mayo Medical School, and Creighton School of Medicine. Dr. Willyerd is the Critical Care Medicine Fellowship Program Director as well as a Clinician Scientist studying pediatric cardiac arrest, traumatic brain injury, epilepsy management, and sepsis. He enjoys teaching, ice cream, sugar, and his family.