Education
The Pediatric Critical Care Medicine Fellowship Program is a three-year ACGME approved program with an overall goal to train pediatric intensive care physicians who will become leaders in their field with expertise in clinical care, scholarship, and teaching. The program aims to provide clinical and academic scholarly experiences as well as formal curricular activities and mentorship to ensure trainees develop such expertise.
About the Program
Clinical training for Pediatric Critical Care Medicine (PCCM) fellows takes place at the two UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital locations in San Francisco and Oakland. Across the two sites, fellows are exposed to a broad spectrum of pediatric critical care medicine, including pediatric trauma, solid organ transplantation, and congenital heart surgery.
Over 35 pediatric intensive care faculty members provide supervision and are committed to fostering an environment to best train fellows in clinical, technical, communication, and professional skills. The program encourages fellows to progress to independence and gradually increase their responsibilities in patient care, teaching, and supervision.
How to Apply
The fellowship accepts applications through ERAS and participates in the national residency matching program (NRMP) through the annual fall subspecialty match.
For more information about the fellowship program, contact our program manager, Kaitlin Zazueta or our fellowship director, Mindy Ju, MD.
Curriculum
The UCSF Pediatric Critical Care Medicine Fellowship Program is a 3-year, ACGME-accredited training program. Our mission is to train the future leaders in Pediatric Critical Care Medicine, emphasizing four pillars:
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Clinical excellence
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Research and scholarship
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Structured mentorship
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Dedication to education
Clinical Excellence
Clinical rotations take place at the two campuses of UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital: UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital San Francisco and UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland. At the San Francisco campus, fellows rotate through a 20-bed Pediatric Intensive Care Unit and an 18-bed Pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care Unit. At the Oakland campus, fellows rotate through a 23-bed mixed medical and surgical Pediatric Intensive Care Unit.
In all three units, PCCM fellows are part of the primary ICU care team and are actively involved in the management of all patients. Fellows see the complete spectrum of pediatric diseases requiring intensive care, including patients undergoing cardiothoracic surgery, neurosurgery, solid organ transplant, bone marrow transplant, and VA- and VV-ECMO. All subspecialty services are represented; areas of excellence include congenital heart surgery, pulmonary hypertension, neurocritical care, trauma, sickle cell disease, and acute lung injury/ARDS, particularly in immunocompromised children.
Research and Scholarship
Our fellowship program offers extensive opportunities to develop expertise in an area of scholarship. We define scholarship broadly: fellows have focused on basic science, translational, and clinical research; medical education research; systems science; informatics; global health; and other areas.
For those interested in a 4th year dedicated to scholarly work, funding opportunities exist through the divisional NIH T32 training grant. This mechanism also allows interested fellows to complete advanced degrees such as a master’s degree in clinical research, medical education, or public health. Our fellowship program has an outstanding track record of training successful academic physicians, as most of our graduates obtain academic positions and a high percentage secure NIH grant funding after training.
Structured Mentorship
Mentorship has a fundamental role in our training program. Each fellow is assigned a career advisor early in fellowship to help with choosing a project and mentor. All pediatric fellows at UCSF participate in Fellows’ College, a professional development program with seminars offered throughout the year.
Fellows may present to the national Research Training in Pediatric Critical Care Medicine (RTPCCM) Network and receive feedback and advice from leaders in our field at other institutions. This network was founded by our division at UCSF to support training of physician scientists in pediatric critical care medicine and organizes quarterly web-based meetings as well as an annual session at the Pediatric Academic Society meeting.
Dedication to Education
We have created a structured educational program that aims to expand knowledge and prepare fellows for life-long, self-directed learning. This includes dedicated weekly lectures focused on PCCM core topics, simulation-based learning, journal club, case-based discussions, and fellow-led M&M conferences.
Fellows have multiple opportunities to develop their own teaching skills, including teaching residents rotating through the ICU, acting as small group instructors in the residency simulation curriculum, and through teaching workshops offered by the UCSF Center for Faculty Educators.
Program Leadership
Program Director
Mindy Ju, MD, MEd
Fellowship Program Director
[email protected]
Associate Program Directors
Martina Steurer, MD, MAS
Associate Program Director of Research and Mentorship
[email protected]
Paul Kim, MD
Associate Program Director for UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital Oakland
[email protected]
Maggie Robinson, MD, MAEd
Associate Program Director of Evaluation and Assessment
[email protected]
Division Chief
Jeff Fineman, MD
Chief, Division of Critical Care
[email protected]
Program Coordinator
Kaitlin (Clancey) Zazueta, MHA
Pediatric Fellowship Manager
[email protected]
Current Fellows
First Years:
Sean Cooney, MD, MS
Training Dates: 2025-2028
Residency: University of Colorado
Medical School: Tulane University
Paola Cota Phelan, DO
Training Period: 2025-2027
Residency: Children's Hospital of Orange County
Medical School: Western University of Health Sciences
Indulaxmi Seeni, MD
Training Dates: 2025-2028
Residency: Children's Hospital Los Angeles
Medical School: University of California, Davis
Madelyn Wheeler, MD
Training Dates: 2025-2028
Residency: UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital Oakland
Medical School: University of California, Davis
Sarah Dittmer, MD
Training Dates: 2024-2027
Residency: Medical College of Wisconsin
Research Project: TBD
Research Mentors: TBD
Lisa Grossman-Liu, MD, PhD
Training Dates: 2024-2027
Residency: UCSF
Research Project: TBD
Research Mentors: TBD
Reed Hausser, MD
Training Dates: 2024-2027
Residency: UCSF
Research Project: TBD
Research Mentors: TBD
John Hwang, MD, MS
Training Dates: 2024-2027
Residency: UCLA
Research Project: TBD
Research Mentors: TBD
Gabriela Sauza, MD, MA
Training Dates: 2024-2027
Residency: Seattle Children's
Research Project: TBD
Research Mentors: TBD
Second Years:
Rezvaneh Ghasemzadeh, MD
Training Dates: 2023-2026
Residency: UCSF Oakland
Research Project: Looking at structural connectivity metrics (topology) in the postop scans compared to preop metrics in cardiac ICU patients.
Research Mentors: Dr. Jeff Fineman, Dr. Martina Steurer, Dr. Shabnam Peyvandi
Chelsey Johnson, DO, MPH
Training Dates: 2023-2026
Residency: Christiana Care/Nemours Children's Hospital
Research Project: Looking into the barriers surrounding medically complex patients transferring between pediatric ICU to adult ICU.
Research Mentors: Dr. Megumi Okumura, Dr. Lekshmi Santhosh, Dr. Duncan Henry
Abigail McCrea Sorenson, MD
Training Dates: 2023-2026
Residency: University of North Carolina
Research Project: Analyze how adherence to sepsis protocols impacts outcomes in pediatric patients in a low resource setting.
Research Mentors: Dr. Teresa Kortz, Dr. Theodore Ruel, Dr. Anneka Hooft
Eesha Natarajan, MBBS
Training Dates: 2023-2026
Residency: Yale New Haven Hospital
Research Project: Studying a flock of heterozygous BMPR2 sheep created by breeding a gene-edited male heterozygous for BMPR2 with wildtype females, to evaluate the cardiopulmonary phenotype in lambs following a “second hit” in a sensitized, BMPR2 heterozygous background.
Research Mentors: Dr. Sanjeev Datar, Dr. Jeff Fineman, Dr. Martina Steurer, Dr. Elena Amin
Third Years:
Lindsey Austin, MD
Training Dates: 2022-2025
Residency: Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center
Research Project: Determining the barriers to implementation of the ETAT tool for identifying children with critical illness upon ER arrival in LMIC hospitals
Research Mentors: Dr. Teresa Kortz, Dr. Deb Franzon, Dr. Nicolas Glomb, Rebecca Silvers
Erica Evans, MD
Training Dates: 2022-2025
Residency: UCSF
Research Project: Comparison of BAL and nasal swab microbiome in immunocompromised children
Research Mentors: Dr. Matt Zinter, Dr. Lena Winestone, Dr. Mary Prahls
Arianna Griffin, MD
Training Dates: 2022-2025
Residency: University of Nevada Las Vegas
Research Project: Factors that promote a positive educational alliance around feedback between trainees who identify as belonging to a marginalized group, and supervisors/teachers who do not
Research Mentors: Dr. Duncan Henry, Dr. April Edwell, Dr. Arianna Tehrani
Nicole Lopez Perez, MD
Training Dates: 2022-2025
Residency: Riley Hospital For Children
Research Project: <SDoH and end of life>
Research Mentors: Dr. Emily Morell, Dr. April Edwell, Dr. Anda Kuo
James Perucho, MD
Training Dates: 2022-2025
Residency: Cohen Children's Medical Center of New York
Research Project: Caregiver experience after ICU discharge in complex care patients
Research Mentor: Dr. Duncan Henry, Dr. Jeff Edwards, Dr. Megie Okumura
Fourth Years:
Jess Huang, MD
Training Years: 2021-2025
Residency: UC Davis
Research Project: Examining the Association Between Acute Kidney Injury During Diabetic Acidosis and Future Risk of Microalbuminuria and Identifying Outcome Disparities in Children with Type 2 Diabetes
Research Mentors: Shylaja Srinivasan, MD, Nicole Glaser, MD, Alison Nair, MD, Naomi Bardach, MD
Stephanie Tsoi, MD
Training Years: 2021-2025
Residency: UCSF
Research Project: Evaluating the typical course of PPHN
Research Mentors: Jeff Fineman MD, Roberta Keller, MD, Shan Ward, MD
Resources and Links