Our Current Pediatric Infectious Diseases Fellows

Third Year Fellows

Shreya Manish Doshi, MD, MPH

Infectious Diseases Specialist

Full Profile

Shreya Manish Doshi, MD, MPH

Locations

Main Hospital

Departments

Infectious Diseases

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Alaina Halbach

Fellow, Infectious Diseases

Alaina Halbach

Languages

English

Departments

Infectious Diseases

Biography

I was born in North Carolina but was whisked away to New England at 4 years of age when I started to develop a southern accent. I grew up in a small town in rural New Hampshire but got a taste of metropolitan life during my 6th grade year when I lived in Paris with my parents. I went to college on the Maine coast at Bowdoin where I majored in French but managed to complete my pre-med requirements. I studied abroad in Senegal during my junior year where I was introduced to the concept of public health and where I was also introduced to my husband, a fellow study-abroad student from Idaho. We maintained a long-distance relationship for the remainder of our undergrad and graduate school years.

I graduated from Johns Hopkins with my master’s degree in Global Disease Epidemiology and took a job as an epidemiologist for the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Branch for four years before going back to school. I completed medical school and my pediatric residency at University of Maryland and am now very excited to dive back into the realm of infectious diseases and public health as a CBER ID fellow here at Children’s National! I spend my free time wrangling my two young kids and enjoy day trips around the Baltimore/DMV area whenever we can get organized enough to leave the house. My favorite pathogen is poliovirus because our global effort to eradicate it represents an amazing public health success and because it is still a major area of focus requiring new strategies to ultimately achieve our goal.

Antigone Kraft

Fellow, Infectious Diseases

Antigone Kraft

Languages

English

Departments

Infectious Diseases

Biography

I am originally from Salt Lake City, which remains my favorite place in the world. I have moved progressively east across the country – Chicago for residency, and now D.C. for fellowship as a CDER fellow. I was drawn to this program because of the dynamic clinical experience it offers and the warmth I experienced from the people in the division. My interests in infectious diseases are still broad and I am excited about the opportunities it offers. When I'm not at the hospital, you can find me exploring restaurants and wandering outside with my husband and baby girl. My favorite microbe is the variola virus (the virus that causes smallpox) because you probably haven't heard of it! I see this as evidence of how important the infectious diseases field is because this illness has been eradicated!

Second Year Fellows

Sarah Benke

Fellow, Infectious Diseases

Sarah Benke

Languages

English

Departments

Infectious Diseases

Biography

I grew up in Colorado but moved to the Bay Area in Northern California, which I consider to be my hometown. I did most of my schooling and training in California and was ecstatic to move to the East Coast for fellowship and finally experience four seasons again! I have a background in the biopharmaceutical industry and this program felt like a perfect fit with its opportunity to work for the FDA and experience strong clinical training at a large children's hospital. I have really enjoyed the brief time that I have spent in the D.C. area so far and getting to work with such a wonderful and welcoming team of co-fellows and faculty. I enjoy playing the electric guitar, hiking, and doing art projects and hope to join a local community sports league - pickleball anyone? If I had to pick a favorite organism, it would be Pseudomonas aeruginosa because when it grows on the plate, it has a shiny metallic sheen and who doesn’t need a little sparkle in their life.

Roya Gordji

Fellow, Infectious Diseases

Roya Gordji

Languages

English

Departments

Infectious Diseases

Biography

I was born and raised in Mississippi and attended medical school in Jackson. I moved to Texas for pediatric residency and loved the experience of diversifying my training, which is why I knew I wanted to live somewhere new for fellowship. DC is the perfect place as Children’s offers a fantastic training experience with the unique opportunity to gain a new skillset by working at the FDA, in a city with so much history, art, and culture (and food!). My interests within ID are broad, so I’m looking forward to finding my niche over the next few years. My favorite pathogen is Clostridium botulinum because it’s great that modern science has used a neurotoxin that can be so deadly to treat medical conditions.

First Year Fellows

Ugur Balkanci

Fellow, Infectious Diseases

Ugur Balkanci

Languages

English

Departments

Infectious Diseases

Lillian Flannigan

Fellow, Infectious Diseases

Lillian Flannigan

Languages

English

Departments

Infectious Diseases

Einar Helgason

Fellow, Infectious Diseases

Einar Helgason

Languages

English

Departments

Infectious Diseases

NIH/Children's National Med-Peds Fellows

Ian Drobish

Fellow, Infectious Diseases

Ian Drobish

Languages

English

Departments

Infectious Diseases

Biography

2nd year

I was born and raised in western Michigan, spending most of my childhood running around outside and reading every book I could find. I went to a small liberal arts college in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and eventually decided to go to medical school at Michigan State University (Go Green!). At that point, my wife and I felt that finding a warm and sunny location for residency would be a nice change of pace, and we headed to the University of California, San Diego for my residency in Med Peds. In residency, I got more and more interested in global health, ID, and critical care, and was fortunate enough to find a place that would allow me to have my cake and eat it too, and so I am incredibly thankful to the NIH and Children's National for allowing me to do Adult Critical Care and Med Peds ID. I absolutely love DC and the surrounding area, especially the restaurants, parks, and museums. With most of my free time you'll find me playing pickleball with my wife or holding on to our baby boy! For my favorite bug - I am particularly partial to Pseudomonas aeruginosa and all the many ways it develops antibiotic resistance.

Rachel Strength

Fellow, Infectious Diseases

Rachel Strength

Languages

English

Departments

Infectious Diseases

Biography

3rd year

I was born and raised in New Orleans, LA, the home of king cakes and crawfish. I then moved to St. Louis where I went to Washington University for college and majored in biomedical engineering. I moved back to New Orleans for a couple of years and then decided to switch things up by going to LSU in Shreveport, LA for medical school. After that, I did Med-Peds residency at University of Tennessee with some of the best human beings ever. I’m a Med-Peds ID fellow here, and this community could not be more welcoming. On my interview day with the NIH and Children’s National, I loved everyone’s enthusiasm for learning, and every single person I met seemed like someone I would genuinely enjoy hanging out with. I moved here with my husband and 2 (very spoiled) cats, and we are loving DC so far. My hobbies include anything arts and crafts related (currently mostly quilting and sewing), traveling, and playing board games. Oh yes, and my favorite organism is none other than THE Great Imitator, Treponema pallidum! It’s been around forever, it’s constantly driving doctors crazy, and there is still so much to learn about it!

Bennett Waxse

Fellow, Infectious Diseases

Bennett Waxse

Languages

English

Departments

Infectious Diseases

Biography

4th year

I spent the first 18 years of my life in Omaha, NE, which we were told used to be the Telecommunications Capital of the World due to the neutral accent. Over the ensuing years, I picked up “y’all” from undergrad and medical school in Texas, “cheers” from graduate school in England, “What do you do?” from graduate school in DC, and “dibs” from residency in Chicago. Now, I’m delighted to return to the District to learn infectious diseases in this richly diverse and international city as an NIH-CNH Med-Peds ID Fellow (and to see if the Silver Line will ever reach Dulles Airport). My clinical interests center on clinical decision-making and in the lab, I’d like to use systems biology to aid in diagnosis of infectious diseases. My favorite bug is the ancient obligate human pathogen and master of immune subversion, Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Out of work, I love exploring DC’s food, cocktail, music, hiking, and yoga scenes with my wife and our Min Pin, Kiwi.

Alumni Updates

What Are Our Recent Graduates Up To?

Since 2010, 34 physicians have completed our pediatric infectious diseases fellowship training program and gone on to a variety of activities. Currently, 22 are in traditional academic practice (clinical, education, research). The remaining 12 have landed in perhaps less common but very challenging infectious diseases venues: nine are based with the FDA, one works for industry, one is with the CDC, and one is doing bench research with no clinical duties.

Quotes From Our Alumni

“D.C. is a cool city. It has a bit of everything; history, architecture, food, art, culture, politics, you name it. It also makes an interesting place to work. We have a fun group with lots of fellows and engaging faculty and staff. There is always the potential of a rural, urban and/or exotic differential being on your list of patients to see daily. We see and do a lot, but never feel overwhelmed!” – Dr. Amol Purandare, Alumnus 2018

“My experiences at Children’s National and the FDA have prepared me well for my new position. Children’s National provided me with a strong clinical background and the FDA a strong understanding of clinical trials and regulatory science.” – Dr. George Dubrocq, Alumnus 2017

“Looking back on my training, Children's National and the FDA was the perfect combination for me. I saw a tremendous volume of patients presenting with both common and uncommon infectious diseases and learned from amazing attendings on the wards and in the microbiology lab. Through my time in the FDA CDER track, I developed an understanding of drug development, clinical trials and labeling that has proven invaluable in my interactions with patients and in my pursuit of scholarly activity.” – Dr. Kimberly Martin, Alumna 2015

“During residency I became interested in pediatric HIV and international health. Out of residency, I worked for the Baylor International Pediatric AIDS Initiative in Malawi, and thereafter decided to pursue a Peds ID fellowship at Children's National because I knew it would offer me the opportunity to continue to pursue my interests in HIV, tropical medicine and international health but more importantly would give me the tools to become an effective clinician and independent physician scientist.

My primary scholarly research was completed at the FDA with a focus on evaluating safety and effectiveness of new vaccines. In addition, the fellowship offered me the opportunity to conduct investigator-initiated clinical research projects and I took courses in epidemiology and biostatistics in the school of public health at GWU. The support and academic experience at Children's National were optimal to pursue a career as a physician scientist.

After fellowship, I accepted a faculty position at Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital/CWRU School of Medicine. In September 2016, I was awarded a K23 Mentored Career Development Award from the NIH to study the relationship of cardiovascular health and inflammation in children infected with HIV in Uganda.

The Peds ID fellowship at Children's National offered me the mentorship and environment to enable me to purse my research career and work towards achieving my long-term career objective and become a pediatric clinical research with international expertise in metabolic and cardiovascular complications of HIV.” – Dr. Sahera Fargo, Alumna 2013