INSPIRE Executive Board Candidates

Priti Jani, MD, MPH is a physician-scientist at the University of Chicago whose scholarship leverages simulation to improve pediatric resuscitation performance and patient outcomes through enhanced prediction, prevention, and system readiness for clinical deterioration and cardiac arrest. She is a pediatric critical care physician in the PICU and Pediatric Sedation Service at Comer Children’s Hospital, where she cares for critically ill infants and children. She completed medical school at Rush University College of Medicine and residency and fellowship training at the University of Chicago, Comer Children’s Hospital. Dr. Jani’s scholarship lies at the intersection of simulation-based medical education and resuscitation quality improvement. She designs and evaluates simulation curricula and system-level initiatives to strengthen individual, team, and organizational performance, with a focus on translating educational and quality strategies into measurable clinical impact. As Chair of the Pediatric CPR and Pediatric Resuscitation Quality Committees and Faculty Director of the UChicago Simulation Center, she leads the strategic integration of simulation to advance clinical readiness, patient safety, and high-reliability care across the enterprise. A seasoned simulation leader, she positions simulation as a core institutional strategy to optimize system performance and improve outcomes for critically ill children.  

I am a Speech Language Pathologist (SLP) and Simulation Educator with over twenty years of clinical experience advancing pediatric healthcare through clinical practice, education, and interprofessional collaboration. My professional foundation is firmly rooted in allied health practice, having worked as a Speech-Language Pathologist across complex pediatric settings including airway and voice, craniofacial care, cochlear implantation, neurorehabilitation, and neurotrauma inpatient services. This clinical background has shaped my approach to simulation as a tool not only for clinical competence, but for communication, team functioning, and patient and family centred care. My career has been rooted at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), where I currently serve as a Simulation Educator with SimKIDS Simulation program,  where I design and lead simulation based initiatives that support patient safety, quality improvement, faculty development, and research across disciplines. I also hold an academic appointment as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Speech Language Pathology at the University of Toronto.  In my role as a Simulation Educator, I am fortunate to contribute meaningfully to simulation initiatives that span medicine, nursing, allied health, and non clinical teams. My experience as a SLP has provided me with an interdisciplinary perspective on simulation. Throughout my career, I have worked within various multidisciplinary teams in roles that bridge professions, align shared goals, and support communication practices that impact patient outcomes. In simulation, this perspective influences my emphasis on psychological safety, role clarity, cognitive load, and human factors, as well as my commitment to designing learning experiences that value the contributions of all team members beyond traditional medical roles. INSPIRE’s mission aligns with my professional values. I view INSPIRE as a critical global community for advancing pediatric simulation through collaboration, innovation, and inclusivity. My vision for INSPIRE includes continued growth of interdisciplinary representation and support for fellowship and faculty development pathways that reflect the diversity of professional backgrounds contributing to pediatric simulation worldwide. I bring experience through my current role as a Committee Member on the International Pediatric Simulation Society Membership Committee, supporting community engagement for the society. In addition, I hold multiple service roles across both academic and healthcare, including chairing departmental committee at the University of Toronto and mentoring trainees in simulation-based education. I have also had the opportunity to further contribute to simulation education through participation in the inaugural offering of The Society for Simulation in Healthcare’s ASCEND Program in 2025. As a member of the INSPIRE Executive Board, I would bring a collaborative, interdisciplinary, and practice informed perspective grounded in allied health leadership and academic rigor. If elected, I aim to contribute an allied health–informed voice that strengthens INSPIRE’s global mission, elevates diverse professional perspectives, and supports sustainable, high-quality pediatric simulation education. I am motivated to ensure INSPIRE’s continued role as a global catalyst for meaningful, impactful and innovative pediatric simulation.  

Dr. Hanson received her MD from Rush University Medical College in 2008 and subsequently completed residency in Pediatrics (Loyola University Medical Center, 2011), and a fellowship in Pediatric Emergency Medicine (University of Utah, Primary Children’s Hospital, 2014). She worked for 11 years at the University of Louisville School of Medicine as an Associate Professor of Pediatric Emergency Medicine, where she also served as the Director for the SPARC Simulation Program for Norton Children’s Hospital. Dr. Hanson returned to her hometown of Chicago and is now working clinically at the University of Chicago at Comer Children’s Hospital. There, she is building upon the simulation curriculum by applying the educational strategies, curriculum design principals and debriefing techniques she has developed to enhance fellow training.  She will also begin serving as the Program Director for the Pediatric Emergency Medicine Fellowship, further integrating simulation-based education into the core of the training program. 
 

Dr. Anna McCormick is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics in the Section of Pediatric Critical Care at the University of Chicago Comer Children’s Hospital. She completed her pediatric and chief residency at University at Buffalo, Golisano Children’s Hospital of Buffalo. She completed her pediatric critical care fellowship training at Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis Children’s Hospital. Early in her training, she identified simulation as her primary method for improving health care delivery. She has received formal simulation training with the Center for Medical Simulation and Northwestern Simulation. As faculty, she has developed a strong partnership with the quality and safety teams, working closely with her simulation mentor and colleague, Dr. Priti Jani, to identify opportunities to use simulation to integrate interprofessional continuing education with institutional quality and safety priorities, ultimately promoting a positive safety culture. Building on her fellowship work, her specific interests focus on assessing and improving readiness for airway and respiratory emergencies. Outside of her research, she serves as simulation faculty, leading and facilitating both physician trainee and interprofessional simulation-based education and training. Through service on the Novice Group Steering Committee, the Scholarly Review Committee, and most recently as Co-Chair of the INSPIRE at IMSH meeting, she seeks to deepen her engagement within INSPIRE as a member of the Executive Board. 

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 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 interdisciplinary simulation-based training. I am currently a participant on the Scientific Review Committee and am helping mentor an IPSS INSPIRE Simulation Fellow. 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 pediatric critical care medicine division at Weill Cornell Medical College. In addition to my clinical role, I am the Director of Pediatric ECMO Education, where I leverage simulation-based training to enhance the knowledge, technical skills, and team performance of our multidisciplinary PICU providers. Through this work, I have seen firsthand how simulation can drive measurable improvements in clinical performance, team dynamics, and patient safety.  I completed my pediatric residency and chief residency at The Children’s Hospital at Montefiore and my pediatric critical care fellowship at Columbia University. During my fellowship, I 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. The INSPIRE network has played a large role in shaping the way in which I utilize simulation in the PICU and has given me a vast network of mentors.   

Dr. Naveed ur Rehman Siddiqui is an Assistant Professor, Section Head of Pediatric Critical Care, and Consultant Pediatric Intensivist at Aga Khan University. He completed MBBS (2006), a pediatrics residency (2012), and a PCCM fellowship (2014), followed by clinical experience at King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Centre before returning to Aga Khan University in 2018. He holds FCPS (Pediatrics), EPIC (ESPNIC), and FCCM, and he completed a PCCM Fellowship at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) (2020). He is an active member of the Society of Critical Care Medicine, ESPNIC, and AHA and serves on the Board of Directors of the International Pediatric Simulation Society. He is the founding president of the Pakistan Pediatric Critical Care Society.  His academic focus includes quality and patient safety, healthcare analytics and AI, bedside ultrasonography, and simulation scholarship. He is particularly interested in how data-driven insights and bedside innovations can improve decision-making and outcomes in critically ill children. His work emphasizes rigorous study design, meaningful measurement, and translating evidence into practice. He contributes to simulation research that advances team performance, communication, and systems learning. Overall, he strives to connect clinical excellence with innovation and measurable improvement in pediatric critical care.  

Dr. Lorel Huber is a pediatric critical care physician and Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and Children’s Hospital Colorado. She serves as the Director of Resuscitation and Simulation for the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, where she leads multidisciplinary initiatives focused on improving crisis resource management, team performance, and pediatric resuscitation outcomes. Dr. Huber designs and facilitates in-situ
and simulation center–based training programs and leads simulation curricula for pediatric residents and fellows, including directing a PICU/Cardiology fellowship simulation bootcamp and developing longitudinal simulation education within the critical care section. Her scholarly work focuses on simulation-based medical education and interprofessional team performance during pediatric resuscitation. She is the principal investigator on studies evaluating nontechnical skills in resuscitation teams and the impact of high-fidelity simulation on ECMO team
performance and serves as a site PI for the NIH/NICHD-funded OPTI-VENT trial. Dr. Huber is an active member of the INSPIRE network, contributing as a researcher, reviewer, and committee member on both the Novice Research and Scientific Research Committees.

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.