Faculty

Dr. Auger is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and a member of the Division of Pediatric Hospital Medicine at Cincinnati Children's. Dr. Auger’s research focuses on understanding how policy change impacts children. Her research has been funded through grants from multiple agencies including AHRQ, PCORI, NIH, and the FDA. She completed fellowship training in pediatric hospital medicine at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. She also completed the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program, which included completing a Master of Science degree in Health and Healthcare Research.

Dr. Balmer is Professor and Distinguished Endowed Chair in the Department of Pediatrics at Perelman School of Medicine University of Pennsylvania, and Co-director of Research on Pediatric Education at CHOP. Dorene’s first career was in neonatal nutrition at CHOP. Mesmerized by the clinical learning environment, she did her doctoral work at Temple University, her post-doc at UPenn and then launched her faculty at Columbia University’s College of Physician and Surgeons. She returned to UPenn in 2015, and in her current role, supports faculty and trainees in their pursuit of educational scholarship. She provides direct consultation and mentorship for qualitative research methodology for projects ranging from Macy-funded research to single-site, department-funded studies. Dorene’s independent research focuses on identity work and career construction. She has pioneered a qualitative longitudinal approach to research in medical education, in which she follows individuals (e.g., trainees, clinical educators) for more than a decade.

Dr. Brady is a Professor at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, the Research Director and Interim Co-Division Director for the Division of Hospital Medicine, and an attending physician at Cincinnati Children's. He is a hospital-based pediatrician, improvement scientist, and health services researcher with a focus on improving the safety and value of hospital care. His research seeks to co-produce complex interventions with patients and families and then compare teir effectiveness on difficult or high stakes health systems problems. In his largest portfolio of work, he and his team have developed and implemented interventions to heighten situation awareness to impreve prediction, recognition, and treatment of deteriorating hospitalized patients. His current research is funded by AHRQ, NIH, and PCORI. He is also the Editor-in-Chief of Hospital Pediatrics and the Science Officer for the Pediatric Research in Inpatient Settings (PRIS) Network of >100 children's hospitals.

Dr. Hall is the Principal Biostatistician at Children’s Hospital Association (CHA) and has expertise not only regarding statistical analysis, but also the conduct of studies using large datasets containing detailed hospitalization data. He provides statistical support to all divisions of CHA with a particular focus on Performance Improvement. Dr. Hall's responsibilities include analysis of CHA’s Pediatric Health Information System (PHIS) to provide owner hospitals with prescriptive analytics and to determine ways in which data can be used to benefit our hospitals. In this capacity, he leads multiple collaborative research groups of physician-investigators from hospitals to perform a variety of pediatric hospital clinical epidemiologic and health services research. Additionally, Dr. Hall leads CHA’s Health Services Research Academy (HSR-A).

Dr. Herrmann is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics and the Director of Education and Career Development for the Division of Hospital Medicine at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center/University of Cincinnati. She received her undergraduate and medical degrees from the University of Virginia and completed her pediatric residency training at Cincinnati Children's. She completed a Pediatric Hospital Medicine fellowship at Children's National in conjunction with obtaining her Master of Medical Education from the George Washington University in 2017. She is a graduate of the APA's Educational Scholars Program and Cincinnati Children's Educational Research Scholars Program. Currently, Dr. Herrmann co-facilitates the Educational Research Methods course for the University of Cincinnati Master of Medical Education. Her academic work has focused on team collaboration and communication, with an emphasis on scholarly approaches to curriculum development, assessment, and program evaluation.

Dr. Kinnear is an Associate Professor of Internal Medicine and Pediatrics in the Division of Hospital Medicine at University of Cincinnati Medical Center and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, and is Associate Program Director for the Med-Peds and Internal Medicine residency programs. He obtained his Master of Medical Education from University of Cincinnati in 2018 and is currently a PhD student at Maastricht University where he is studying validity argumentation and argumentation theory. His scholarly interests include competency-based medical education, learner assessment, validity and validation, and point-of-care ultrasound. 

Dr. McCrea is an Associate Professor of Family, Community, and Preventative Medicine and the Senior Associate Dean of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Drexel University College of Medicine. His clinical interests include women’s health, adolescent medicine, contraception, men’s health and office-based procedures. Dr. McCrea's academic interests include curriculum development, leadership, mentorship, and competency-based evaluation. He currently serves on the Diversity and Health Equity Task Force of the Association of Family Medicine Residency Directors and is the President of the Family Medicine Educational Consortium.

Dr. Shah is a Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Hospital Medicine at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center/University of Cincinnati. His research focuses on improving the efficiency and effectiveness of care for hospitalized children with emphasis on common serious infections such as pneumonia and meningitis. He has authored more than 375 peer-reviewed research publications and serves as editor or co-editor of 12 books. He has been recognized for his exceptional mentorship and ground-breaking research by many national societies, including the Society of Hospital Medicine, the Academic Pediatric Association, the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society, and the American Academy of Pediatrics. In 2019, he received a lifetime achievement award from the Society of Hospital Medicine.

Dr. Statile is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Hospital Medicine at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital/University of Cincinnati in Cincinnati, Ohio, where she serves as Associate Division Director for Quality and Associate Chief of Staff for Inpatient Acute Care services. Her primary area of expertise is within quality improvement methodology and dissemination. She has led a variety of process improvement efforts, most notably in the areas of hospital discharge efficiency and behavioral patient safety.

Dr. Tchou is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics in the Section of Pediatric Hospital Medicine at Children’s Hospital Colorado and the University of Colorado-Anschutz Medical Campus.  He completed a Pediatric Hospital Medicine fellowship at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and a Master of Science in Clinical and Translational Research degree at the University of Cincinnati.  He has also completed training in improvement science as a Quality Scholar through the James M. Anderson Center for Health Systems Excellence and a research fellowship at the Adult and Child Consortium for Health Outcomes and Research and Delivery Science at the University of Colorado-Denver and is a current PEDSnet Learning Health Systems Scholar. Dr. Tchou's current research is focused on understanding the overuse of medical resources related to diagnostic testing and identifying best practices and conceptual frameworks for value improvement projects. 

Dr. Unaka is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Cincinnati and an attending physician within the Division of Hospital Medicine at Cincinnati Children's. As a pediatric hospitalist, she strives to use her clinical, medical education, and quality improvement expertise to improve care delivery and enhance family experience especially for historically marginalized patients and families. She is involved in various population health and health equity oriented initiatives as a part of her role with the hospital’s accountable care organization, HealthVine.  Dr. Unaka also co-leads the Health Equity Network (HEN), an initiative borne out of the institution’s pursuit of excellent and equitable health outcomes for youth in Greater Cincinnati. The HEN currently supports 10 clinical teams seeking to eliminate disparities in child health outcomes by race, ethnicity, and/or socioeconomic status via targeted interventions and best practices by addressing both medical and social factors known to confer poor health outcomes.