INSPIRE Executive Board Candidates

Rachel Elkin is a pediatric emergency physician at Columbia (New York Presbyterian-Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital), where she also serves as simulation division faculty within the Department of Emergency Medicine. After medical school - where she also obtained a master’s degree in clinical research - she completed her pediatric residency and pediatric emergency medicine fellowship at Columbia, followed by a simulation fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Her academic interests center around how novel technologies and instructional designs, particularly within simulation, impact educational, psychometric, and clinical outcomes. Outside of her research work, she serves as co-director of the department's new simulation and quality fellowship, and has developed and delivered simulation-based education activities both locally and nationally.

Robert Bishop, M.D. is the Medical Director of Simulation at Children’s Hospital Colorado and an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. Dual board-certified in Pediatric Cardiology and Pediatric Critical Care Medicine, Dr. Bishop has dedicated his career to advancing medical education, patient safety, and interdisciplinary training through simulation.    With extensive experience in developing high-fidelity simulation curricula, Dr. Bishop has led numerous initiatives integrating simulation into pediatric critical care, cardiac intensive care, and emergency medicine. He pioneered a multidisciplinary simulation program at CHCO, incorporating Crew Resource Management (CRM) principles in collaboration with United Airlines to enhance communication and teamwork in high-risk clinical environments.    An active contributor to the field, Dr. Bishop has presented at national and international conferences, served as faculty for prestigious simulation programs, and published on topics ranging from crisis resource management to pediatric resuscitation. Committed to mentorship, he has guided numerous trainees into leadership roles in simulation-based medical education. His vision for the future includes expanding access to high-quality simulation training, fostering collaboration among institutions, and driving research that improves pediatric patient outcomes worldwide.    

Kasey Davis is a physician, wife, mother, dog-owner, art aficionado, and Texan with no interesting hobbies or talents.  She joined the faculty of Texas Children’s Hospital in 2017 and was named the Associate Medical Director of Simulation for The Woodlands campus under Cara Doughty in 2018.  She has enjoyed the camaraderie and mentorship of many INSPIRE leaders over the years going back to her fellowship with Nancy Tofil at UAB and her early career with Chris Kennedy at Children’s Mercy in Kansas City. In addition to simulation, she is passionate about improving communication and team function using the adjacent discipline of applied improvisation and other gamification tools such as escape rooms.  She has a collection of strange props including a slinky, giant clown bow, plastic traffic cones, and a stuffed armadillo.

Dr. Hebbar is a Professor of Pediatrics and Critical Care Medicine whose research focus is integrating human factors, system engineering and simulation for usability testing of novel devices, updating existing processes and developing novel approaches to clinical care. He currently leads one of the larger pediatric simulation centers in the North America and serves as simulation fellowship director. He has a background in critical care medicine, medical director of Children’s Simulation Center and formal training in quality and patient safety. He is a member of the human factors and ergonomics society and the Society for Simulation in Healthcare resiliency (Safety III) group. He has published several manuscripts and tools regarding simulation’s use in pre-construction (design) and post-construction environments (process). Additionally, he has spoken nationally and internationally about simulation and hospital design and clinical process testing. Last year he was a simulation facilitator in India's first Critical care boot camp in Vellore led by Dr. Nadkarni. He has served on AHA committees as well. He has extensive experience in leadership, training, and research to be an asset to the INSPIRE board. His current project is comparing cardiac arrests with and without a CPR coach following a simulation based clinical systems testing and training intervention in the PICU.    

Anisha Kshetrapal is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and Medical Education in the Department of Pediatrics of the Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. She is a pediatric emergency physician and medical education researcher with research expertise in the use of qualitative methodologies to study entrustment and other phenomena. Dr. Kshetrapal is Associate Director of the kidSTAR Simulation and Resuscitation Training Center at Lurie Children's and directs the Teaching Selective at the Feinberg School of Medicine. Dr. Kshetrapal's research explores how trainees experience trust and autonomy on the road to unsupervised practice. 

Dr. Yiqun (Jeffrey) Lin is trained as a pediatrician, clinical epidemiologist, and medical educator specializing in simulation-based education and resuscitation research. He holds a PhD in Medical Education from the University of Calgary, where his research focused on optimizing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training through distributed practice to enhance educational efficiency and cost-effectiveness.    With extensive experience in pediatric emergency medicine and simulation-based training, Dr. Lin has played a key role in advancing resuscitation education globally. He has led numerous research projects on CPR quality, cognitive aids in resuscitation, and economic evaluations of simulation training. His contributions have been recognized through multiple research grants and awards, including the INSPIRE Innovative Researcher Award and funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and the Laerdal Foundation.    Dr. Lin is an active member of the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation (ILCOR) and has contributed to the development of the American Heart Association (AHA) Emergency Cardiovascular Care Guidelines. His work has influenced global resuscitation practices through systematic reviews, guideline development, and innovative simulation-based research.

Dr. Karen Mangold is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Medical Education at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. She serves as the Pediatric Emergency Medicine Fellowship Program Director and Director of the Master of Science in Health Professions Education. Dr. Mangold earned her MD from the University of Rochester and completed her Pediatrics Residency at Yale-New Haven Hospital, followed by a Pediatric Emergency Medicine Fellowship at Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago. She also holds a Master of Education from the University of Cincinnati. Her research focuses on medical simulation, competency-based education, and interprofessional teamwork. She has published extensively in Pediatric Emergency Care and Academic Pediatrics and has presented nationally on simulation-based assessment and medical training. Dr. Mangold is dedicated to advancing pediatric emergency medicine education, enhancing training methods, and improving patient care through innovative teaching and curriculum development.

Dr. Geethanjali Ramachandra, MRCP, CCT PICU (UK), Fellowship ECMO (UK) is a pediatric critical care specialist and simulation expert dedicated to improving patient care and healthcare worker well-being. She co-founded PediSTARS India, a not-for-profit organization that has trained thousands in pediatric simulation, earning the SSH Presidential Award (2018). A Simulation Consultant at KIMS Hospital Secunderabad, she has trained hospital teams, 108 ambulance staff, and the public for over 12 years. She leads Stop the Bleed India, which has trained over 7,000 first responders, saving numerous lives across India and Africa. She completed a Pediatric Residency and Critical Care Fellowship in London (2009) and a Simulation Fellowship at CHOP, USA. A published researcher, she remains committed to expanding life-saving training programs and advancing medical simulation education.

Dr. Normaliz Rodriguez, MD, FAAP, is a leader in medical simulation and pediatric emergency medicine, dedicated to advancing international fellowships and emergency medicine training at USF Health’s Center for Advanced Medical Learning and Simulation (CAMLS). As Assistant Director of International Fellowships and Emergency Medicine, she develops high-impact educational programs to enhance clinical training worldwide.    She serves as the Fellowship Director of Medical Simulation, mentoring fellows in integrating simulation-based methodologies into emergency medicine training, and as Director of Simulation for the Department of Emergency Medicine, overseeing the implementation of cutting-edge simulation technologies to improve patient safety and clinical performance.    Dr. Rodriguez is also an Assistant Professor at the Morsani College of Medicine, shaping the next generation of healthcare providers. Her expertise in pediatric emergency medicine, healthcare consulting, and medical simulation drives innovative educational strategies that bridge clinical practice and simulation-based learning.    Committed to global medical education, she collaborates on international fellowship programs that provide immersive training experiences. She is on the executive board of the International Network of Simulation-based Research and Education and serves as Associate Chair of the Simulation Fellowship for the International Pediatric Simulation Society.    In addition to her academic and leadership roles, Dr. Rodriguez is a practicing Pediatric Emergency Medicine Physician at Tampa General Hospital. Her prior experience at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital and fellowship training in medical simulation further strengthen her expertise in integrating technology-driven education into emergency medicine.    She earned her Doctor of Medicine from the Universidad Central del Caribe, completed a Pediatric Residency at the University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine, and a Pediatric Emergency Medicine Fellowship at Children’s Minnesota. Her passion for simulation, international education, and emergency medicine continues to shape medical training at USF Health CAMLS and beyond.

I have been immersed in simulation work for over a decade and completed graduate course work in simulation training and debriefing. I currently service as a Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at Boston University School of Medicine. I have been the Director of In Situ and Mobile Outreach Simulation at Boston Medical Center for the past 8 years where I am creating innovative, inter-professional in situ programs at community sites. I am adept at designing and implementing novel pilot studies that have led to participation in high level simulation research through the ImPACTS (Improving Pediatric Acute Care Through Simulation) collaborative. This has led to multiple published manuscripts and we continue to use simulation to study gaps in care, systems issues and use as an educational modality. I have created and launched a quality and patient safety initiative - Community Outreach Mobile Education Training (COMET), evaluating general emergency departments in their care of critically ill children using in-situ simulation training. This program, which was started in 2010, aims to bridge gaps in emergency preparedness, among any specialty (OB, Adult, ICU, etc) evaluates systems issues, and improves team work at each site. The aim is to improve care, reduce errors, and ultimately have better outcomes in critically ill patients. COMET aims to work with emergency departments, community health centers and EMS services. I have published this work in Advances In Simulation sharing how to build a program such as this. I have also authored a simulation study in EM Clinics of North American which discusses using simulation for risk management and patient safety in emergency departments. I have conducted an in-situ EMS simulation study to evaluate EMS performance in caring for simulated pediatric emergencies as well as to identify latent safety threats during these cases. I have been part of the Pediatric Research in Disaster Education (PRIDE) collaborative for greater than 5 years. This group provides education and training in pediatric disaster triage for prehospital providers. We have studied different triage modalities using simulation as well as created an online serious medical game to improve the disaster triage skills of prehospital providers. Finally, I am part of the INSPIRE network (International Network Simulation-based Pediatric Innovations, Research and Education) which is a collaborative of simulation research experts around the world and has an infrastructure in place with experts in all areas of medical research to lend support for any project. Through this group other collaborative projects have continued to emerge.  Currently, we have a multi-site study using simulation to look at graduating senior EM resident’s readiness to care for critically ill pediatric patients as they prepare to become attendings. The initial one-state study was published in Academic Emergency Medicine.  Furthermore, I have continued quality and patient safety work through simulation with a current in-hospital grant at BMC evaluating systems issues in inter-departmental patient resuscitations involving OB, EM, PEM and NICU. I am part of the Distance Sim Collaborative on the executive board of this group and now a part of Academy Archives for the Distance Simulation Learning module. I have decades of extensive experience and expertise in the simulation field.

I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics, Division of Pediatric Critical Care, at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Heersink School of Medicine. I dedicate my clinical time to caring for critically ill children in the pediatric intensive care unit at Children’s of Alabama, where I also serve as the Associate Co-Director of the Pediatric Simulation Center. Additionally, I serve as the Associate Program Director for the Pediatric Critical Care Fellowship and as Assistant Director of PICU ECMO. My research focuses on using simulation to enhance bedside care, reduce harm, and improve patient outcomes. My simulation interests center on teamwork and communication, for which I am a TeamSTEPPS Master trainer, having implemented a unit wide TeamSTEPPS simulation curriculum for physicians, advanced practitioners, respiratory therapists, and nurses. I also have a passion for extracorporeal technologies such as ECMO and CRRT, for which I facilitate simulation-based training in both for critical care fellows. I have strong mentorship under Dr. Nancy Tofil, and I hope to bring to INSPIRE a passion for simulation, education, and mentoring the next generation of simulationists.

I am currently an assistant professor of pediatrics and clinical attending in the division of pediatric critical care medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College. I completed my pediatric residency and chief residency at The Children’s Hospital at Montefiore and my pediatric critical care fellowship at Columbia University. As a chief resident I had the opportunity to lead simulations for the pediatric residents, and this is where I found my passion for simulation-based education which then evolved into an interest in translational simulation. I homed in on this further as a PICU fellow through my project entitled “Pauses In Chest Compressions During ECPR: Using Simulation To Determine The Cause.” As principal investigator I contributed to the simulation curriculum sustainability, research design, IRB submission, local implementation of the simulations and manuscript. This was all under the mentorship of Dr. Tarif Choudhury and Dr. David Kessler. During this time I also received formal education as a certified simulation facilitator from NYSIM fundamentals of simulation education (FUSE) course where I gained the skills needed to take a problem, craft learning objectives, develop a case scenario and actualize it into a simulation.  Now as junior faculty in the PICU at Weill Cornell, I will be assuming the role of Director of Pediatric ECMO Education, and I plan on advancing ECMO education through simulation-based learning. 

I am an assistant professor of pediatric emergency medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). I completed PEM fellowship at UAB in summer of 2024 and Simulation facilitation coursework (Sim1 and Sim 2) through UAB. I completed my pediatric residency at St. Christopher's Hospital for Children in Philadelphia, PA, in 2021. I am currently pursuing my master of science in healthcare simulation (MSHS) at UAB. I have completed TeamSTEPPS Master training through the Armstrong Institute at Johns Hopkins. I will complete Introduction to Systems-Based Simulation and Debriefing though Simulation Canada this spring. I have a specific interest in systems-based simulation and patient safety.