Affiliated Faculty

The Stanford Center for Excellence in Pulmonary Biology

Cristina M. Alvira, MD

Associate Professor of Pediatrics - Critical Care

calvira@stanford.edu

BIO

Dr. Alvira completed her medical degree at Tufts University, and then came to Stanford University School of Medicine to complete both her pediatric residency and her clinical fellowship in pediatric critical care medicine. After fellowship, Dr. Alvira pursued postdoctoral fellowship training with Dr. Marlene Rabinovitch, a preeminent vascular biologist. Dr. Alvira was recruited to Stanford School of Medicine in the University Tenure Line in 2010, and currently runs an NIH-funded basic research program aimed at identifying novel mechanisms that direct lung growth and repair in infants and children. Dr. Alvira is currently a Stanford Child Health Research Institute John and Tashia Morgridge Faculty Scholar in Pediatric Translational Medicine.


Sumit Bhargava, MD

Clinical Professor, Pediatrics - Pulmonary Medicine

sumitb@stanford.edu

BIO

I am a pediatric pulmonary and sleep medicine doctor. The majority of my work is clinical, but I spend part of my time as an educator for care at the School of Medicine. I help to teach the Practice of Medicine course and help mentor and guide medical students through their journey at our school.

Initially, I came to this country to pursue pediatric training. At first, I thought I would complete my training, go back to Delhi, and do pediatrics. When I was going through my pediatric training, however, I was exposed to specialty rotations, and I realized that I was very attracted to being a pediatric specialist. I went to the children’s hospital in St. Louis and did a pulmonary elective there. That’s how I stumbled on pediatric pulmonology.

Later, I went back to Delhi for two-and-a-half years and I was doing totally different work. I spent a year as a research officer on a World Health Organization research project looking at the efficacy of zinc in treating acute diarrhea. Next, I worked in pulmonary medicine at a large hospital that served the poor.

When I returned to the states, I held a faculty position at a comparable institution on the East Coast for eight years, working on a pediatric sleep program. Now, it’s been four years at Stanford following my bliss. Here, there exists an atmosphere that everything is possible. You see people do a lot with very little just because they have the brains and the will and the access to resources.

At Stanford, I like the diverse atmosphere: I have found many opportunities to pursue interests I didn’t even know I had. In that sense, it’s been a very empowering and liberating experience for me. I also appreciate that there are so many different people from all over the world—it was a shock and a pleasant surprise. Here, there are people like me, and that’s a great feeling. I left home when I was eighteen, and people ask me, “Where are you from?” Since I have gone to many different places, I never knew how to answer that. Now, I am from Palo Alto—that’s a big deal.


Elizabeth Burgener, MD

Instructor, Pediatrics - Pulmonary Medicine

eburgener@stanford.edu

BIO

Dr. Burgener completed her undergraduate at Stanford in 2005 followed by graduation from medical school at University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio in 2011. She then returned to Stanford University for internship and residency in pediatrics, chief resident year in pediatrics and clinical fellowship in pediatric pulmonary medicine, which she completed in 2018.  Additionally, Dr. Burgener has obtained further post-doctoral training in the laboratories of Dr. Paul Bollyky and Dr. Carlos Milla.  As a physician-scientist her clinical work consists of taking care of patients with pediatric pulmonary disease such as cystic fibrosis, asthma, bronchopulmonary dysplasia and other systemic illnesses that affect pulmonary health.  In her research she has identified that Pf bacteriophage, a virus which infects Pseudomonas, has effect on clinical outcomes in patients with cystic fibrosis. Patients who have this virus, which makes biofilms more adherent and viscous, in their sputum are more likely to have chronic Pseudomonas infection and have higher levels of antibiotic resistance.  Dr. Burgener is currently growing her research program with a focus on infection and inflammation with the goal of bringing new therapies and improving the lives of patients with cystic fibrosis.


Mymy Buu, MD, FAAP

Clinical Associate Professor, Pediatrics - Pulmonary Medicine

mymybuu@stanford.edu

BIO

Dr. MyMy Buu is a board certified pediatric pulmonologist and specializes in the treatment of pediatric lung diseases including: chronic lung disease of prematurity, asthma, cystic fibrosis, chronic cough, respiratory failure. She has practiced pediatrics and pediatric pulmonary for more than 10 years. Dr. Buu is dedicated to caring for children with chronic disease and special health care needs. She is one of the pulmonologists for a number of multidisciplinary care teams including the Pediatric Cystic Fibrosis Center, Aerodigestive Program, and Neuromuscular Disorders Program. Her scholarly work has been focused on pediatric health in vulnerable communities. Her current research is in clinical epidemiology in patients with cystic fibrosis. The aims are to identify disparities in health outcomes and to describe opportunities for improvement so that all patients can have healthier longer lives. Dr. Buu is married and has one daughter. In her free time, she likes to cook, garden, and travel.


Diana Chen, MD

Clinical Assistant Professor, Pediatrics - Pulmonary Medicine

dichen@stanford.edu

BIO

Dr. Chen is a Clinical Assistant Professor with the Division of Pediatric Pulmonary and Sleep Medicine. She grew up in the Bay Area and attended undergraduate school at UC Berkeley (Go Bears!). She ventured across the country received her graduate and medical degrees at Boston University School of Medicine. After experiencing cold and snowy winters of the east coast, she returned to the Bay Area where she completed her pediatric residency and pulmonology fellowship at UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital Oakland. She joined Bay Area Pediatric Pulmonary Medical Group and subsequently the Division of Pediatric Pulmonary Medicine at Stanford University in 2015. She then followed her husband and moved to Los Angeles in 2016 where she joined the Division of Pediatric Pulmonology at UCLA as Associate Director of the Cystic Fibrosis Center. A few years later, she decided to return to her roots in the Bay Area. She made her way back to Stanford University and rejoined the pediatric pulmonology group in November 2019. She enjoys caring for children, from infancy and beyond, with pulmonary diseases and developing relationships with their families. Her particular interests include bronchopulmonary dysplasia, asthma, neuromuscular disease, cystic fibrosis, and evaluation of complex airways with bronchoscopy. She also has interest in quality improvement and policy and procedure development.   


Carol Conrad, MD

Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Lucile Salter Packard Children's Hospital - Pulmonary Medicine

cconrad@stanford.edu

BIO

I have worked at LPCH/Stanford for over 20 years. The Pediatric Pulmonary Division has grown substantially since I began. I am the medical director of the pediatric lung and heart-lung transplantation program here at Packard Children's Stanford. The program began in 2004, and by learning from the surgeons Dr. Norm Shumway and Dr. Bruce Reitz who pioneered this life-saving procedure in the 70's and 80's, I have directed the pediatric lung transplant program independent from the adult program since 2009. My research interests focus on lung inflammation and transplantation and have evolved to study bronchiolitis obliterans/CLAD in lung transplant recipients. My program participates in ongoing NIH- sponsored clinical interventional trials in pediatric lung transplantation.


David N. Cornfield, MD

Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor in Pediatric Pulmonary Medicine and Professor, by courtesy, of Surgery

dcornfield@stanford.edu

BIO

A physician scientist, Dr. Cornfield is actively engaged in clinical medicine, teaching and research. In clinical arena, Dr. Cornfield is a Pediatrician with an active practice in both Pediatric Pulmonary Medicine and Pediatric Critical Care Medicine. In the research arena, Dr. Cornfield's lab addresses several large thematic issues. The areas of concentration include: (i) regulation of pulmonary vascular tone; (ii) oxygen sensing in the lung; (iii) biological determinants of preterm labor focusing on myometrial smooth muscle cells; (iv) developmental regulation of barrier function in the lung; and (v) the role of hypoxia-inducible factor-1 in lung development. In addition, there is an active translational research component.


Karen Ann Hardy, MD

Clinical Professor, Pediatrics - Pulmonary Medicine

khardy2@stanford.edu

BIO

Dr. Hardy graduated from the University of Toledo College of Medicine in 1979. Dr. Hardy works in Emeryville, CA and specializes in Pediatric Pulmonology and Pulmonary Disease. Hardy is affiliated with California Pacific Medical Center, Licking Memorial Hospital, Salem Health West Valley, UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital Oakland and Stanford University. Her focus is in asthma care, bronchopulmonary dysplasia, bronchoscopy, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), chronic respiratory failure, cystic fibrosis, pulmonary fibrosis, pulmonary function testing, pulmonary hypertension treatment, sleep disordered breathing, and vocal cord dysfunction.


Maya Kumar, PhD

Assistant Professor - Research, Pediatrics - Pulmonary Medicine

mayak@stanford.edu

BIO

Dr. Kumar completed her undergraduate education at Williams College and was a Fulbright Scholar in Switzerland before beginning her PhD training at Harvard University in the lab of Dr. Doug Melton, a pioneer in the field of human embryonic stem cells.  After graduate school, Dr. Kumar was a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Dr. Mark Krasnow at Stanford University where she developed new methods to probe the behavior of individual cells in the developing lung and used them to understand how healthy airway and blood vessel walls are built and maintained.  In her own lab she uses molecular and genetic tools to understand how blood vessels become thickened and blocked in pulmonary hypertension, a serious disease affecting children with BPD and congenital heart disease.


Christin S. Kuo, MD

Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the Stanford University Medical Center - Pulmonary Medicine

ckuo@stanford.edu

BIO

Dr. Kuo is a physician-scientist at the Stanford University School of Medicine and joined the faculty in 2016. Her research focuses on pulmonary neuroendocrine (NE) cell development and disease. While sparsely distributed under normal conditions, NE cells can form large, abnormal clusters in pediatric lung disorders or proliferate and rapidly metastasize in small cell lung cancer. Her lab uses single cell approaches to study this developmental program in vivo. She is also identifying secreted NE cell signals and their targets. These studies will reveal how abnormal NE cells contribute to physiologic dysfunction in a diverse group of pediatric and adult respiratory diseases, potentially offering new avenues for diagnosis and treatment. Dr. Kuo’s contributions have been recognized internationally and across disciplines from cancer biology to basic epithelial biology. She is also the recipient of the Klosterfrau Award for Outstanding Pediatric Pulmonary Research (presented at the Society for Pediatric Pneumonology Conference, Dresden, Germany).


John D. Mark, MD

Clinical Professor, Pediatrics - Pulmonary Medicine

jmark@stanford.edu

BIO

Dr. Mark received his medical degree from the University of Kansas and completed his residency in pediatrics at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri. He then completed a fellowship in pediatric pulmonary medicine at the University of Rochester, Rochester, New York. In 1999, Dr. Mark completed the first fellowship in Pediatric Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona. He practices at Packard Children’s Hospital where he utilizes non-conventional approaches with patients who have chronic illnesses such asthma and cystic fibrosis. He is interested in nutrition and the mind/body approach to healing in an effort to decrease dependence on medication. Dr. Mark is the Program Director for the Pediatric Pulmonary fellowship program, Associate Director for the Pediatric residency program and the Medical Director for the Coordinating and Optimizing Resources Effectively (CORE) Program at Packard Children’s Hospital, Stanford University. This innovative program assists with care coordination and communication with all health care providers for children with complex medical needs.


Carlos Milla, MD

Professor of Pediatrics at the Lucile Salter Packard Children's Hospital - Pulmonary Medicine

cmilla@stanford.edu

BIO

My research interests have centered on the inflammatory responses that lead to airway disease in Cystic Fibrosis (CF) and the metabolic factors that contribute to CF lung disease progression. Current efforts are focused on the understanding of the early events that drive the development of lung disease through the study of infants with CF identified by newborn screening. This includes the development of new diagnostic tools that permit the early detection of lung disease manifestations.


Esmeralda Morales, MD

Clinical Assistant Professor, Pediatrics - Pulmonary Medicine

esmerald@stanford.edu

BIO

Esmeralda Morales, MD is a Board-Certified Pediatric Pulmonologist who earned her medical degree from Baylor College of Medicine.  She completed her subspecialty training in Pediatric Pulmonology at the University of Arizona/Arizona Respiratory Center known for its excellence in asthma care and research.  She practiced in the southwestern United States for 7 years including a year as Interim Chief of the Pediatric Pulmonary Division at the University of New Mexico and was a former New Mexico Cystic Fibrosis Center Director, prior to joining the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital (LPCH) Stanford group.  She has experience evaluating and treating a wide variety of pediatric lung disease including:  chronic/recurrent cough or wheezing, asthma, pneumonia, apnea, neuromuscular disease, chronic lung disease, chronic respiratory failure and interstitial lung disease.  Her main area of interest is in aerodigestive disorders in children, and she is a member of the pediatric aerodigestive care team at LPCH Stanford.


Richard B. Moss, MD

Professor of Pediatrics at the Lucile Salter Packard Children's Hospital, Emeritus

rmoss@stanford.edu

BIO

Richard B. Moss, MD, is former chief of the Pediatric Pulmonary and Allergy Divisions, and allergy-immunology and pulmonary fellowship training programs director, at Stanford University. He was educated at Columbia (BA), SUNY Downstate (MD), Northwestern/Children’s Memorial Hospital (pediatrics residency) and Stanford (allergy-immunology, pulmonology fellowships). He was Director of the Cystic Fibrosis Center at Stanford (1991-2009) and site principal investigator for the Cystic Fibrosis Therapeutics Development Network (1999-2009), where he was also inaugural Chair of the Protocol Review Committee. He currently is a member of Stanford’s Child Health Research Institute, serves on the Pediatric Mentoring Program at Stanford, the Executive Committee of Stanford’s NIH clinical research program (Spectrum Child Health) and the Stanford IRB. Dr. Moss has reviewed and consulted for the NIH, CFF, national and international foundations, peer-review journals and biopharmaceutical companies. His research interests include immunopathogenesis, outcome measures, and treatment of chronic airway diseases of childhood. Recent work has focused on allergic fungal lung disease.


Manisha Newaskar, MD

Clinical Assistant Professor, Pediatrics - Pulmonary Medicine


Caroline Okorie, MD, MPH

Clinical Associate Professor, Pediatrics - Pulmonary Medicine

cokorie@stanford.edu

BIO

Dr. Okorie is board certified in pediatric pulmonology, sleep medicine and general pediatrics and joined the Division of Pediatric Pulmonary, Asthma and Sleep Medicine in 2018.  She obtained her medical degree and Master’s in Public Health at the University of Arizona before going on to a residency and chief residency in pediatrics at Oregon Health & Science University.  She completed her fellowship training in both pediatric pulmonary medicine and sleep medicine at Stanford University.  She has a passion for medical education and serves as an Associate Program Director for the Pediatric Residency Program at Stanford. 

She treats children with a variety of lung diseases, including: asthma, chronic cough, cystic fibrosis, chronic respiratory failure, and chronic lung disease of prematurity.  Her additional training in sleep medicine allows her expertise to treat sleep disorders, including: sleep disordered breathing, parasomnias, narcolepsy, restless legs syndrome, and insomnia. 


Deepti Sinha, MD

Clinical Assistant Professor, Pediatrics - Pulmonary Medicine

dsinha@stanford.edu

BIO

Dr. Sinha is board certified in Pediatrics and Sleep Medicine. She completed medical school in Australia and general pediatric training in Australia and USA at Royal Children’s Hospital and University of Chicago at Illinois. Her sleep medicine fellowship was completed at Stanford Hospital. She enjoys working with children of all ages. She manages both behavioral and physiological sleep concerns.


Lea Steffes, MD

Instructor, Pediatrics - Pulmonary Medicine

lsteffes@stanford.edu

BIO

Dr. Steffes, a Wisconsin native, completed medical school and pediatric residency at the Medical College of Wisconsin.  She then moved to the Bay Area and completed her clinical fellowship in pediatric pulmonary medicine at Stanford University in 2020.  Additionally, Dr. Steffes received further post-doctoral training in the laboratories of Dr. Maya Kumar and Dr. David Cornfield, studying the cellular and molecular mechanism driving pulmonary vascular disease.  In addition to her role as an Instructor in Pediatrics in the division of Pulmonary Medicine, Dr. Steffes is also completing an advanced clinical fellowship in Pulmonary Hypertension at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford. Her clinical work consists of caring for patients with pediatric pulmonary and pulmonary vascular diseases such as pulmonary hypertension, bronchopulmonary dysplasia, interstitial lung disease, respiratory failure, chronic cough and asthma. Her research is focused on the vascular changes seen in pulmonary hypertension, more specifically understanding the cellular characteristics of occlusive neointimal lesions, the abnormal cells that block pulmonary blood flow in pulmonary hypertension. In her most recent work, Dr. Steffes identified a subset of healthy vascular smooth muscle cells that are the cell of origin for the pathologic neointimal cells and a specific signaling pathway, that when blocked, inhibits the formation of neointimal lesions.  

Dr. Steffes is currently employing advanced single cell sequencing technologies to further understand neointimal cells with the ultimate goal identifying new therapies for pulmonary hypertension, a fatal disease with no known cure. 


Shannon Sullivan, MD

Clinical Professor, Pediatrics - Pulmonary Medicine Clinical Professor (By courtesy), Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences - Sleep Medicine

shannon.s.sullivan@stanford.edu

BIO

Dr. Sullivan is Board Certified in Sleep Medicine, Pediatric Pulmonology, and Pediatrics.   First hired at Stanford by William C. Dement and mentored by Christian Guilleminault, she specializes in sleep medicine and evaluates and treats sleep disorders in patients of all ages.  Her clinical interests include understanding the clinical progression of sleep disordered breathing from early life through adulthood, and in particular deploying earlier and multimodal interventions for sleep related breathing disorders.  Dr. Sullivan is a Fellow of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, where she is active in promoting the importance of sleep for public health and safety.   Recent research interests include general population epidemiology of sleep symptoms and disorders, sleep medicine education in U.S. training programs, and leveraging technology in large populations for the advancement of sleep health.


Mary Anne Tablizo, MD

Clinical Associate Professor, Pediatrics - Pulmonary Medicine

mtablizo@stanford.edu

BIO

Board certified in pediatric pulmonology, sleep medicine and general pediatrics by the American Board of Pediatrics, Dr. Mary Anne Tablizo joined Valley Children’s as a pediatric pulmonologist and sleep medicine specialist in March 2006. She is a clinical associate professor at the Department of Pediatrics, Division of Pediatric Pulmonary and Sleep Medicine, Stanford University.  She is also a volunteer faculty at University of California, San Francisco – Fresno, Pediatric Residency Program and Sleep Medicine Fellowship program.

Dr. Tablizo’s areas of special interest include pediatric sleep disorders, noninvasive ventilation, home mechanical ventilation, pulmonary cocci and cystic fibrosis.

Dr. Tablizo has presented on numerous topics in her field. She has published her work in peer-reviewed journals, including “Pediatric Pulmonology,” “Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine,” and “Expert Review of Medical Devices.” She also co-authored a book chapter in “Pediatric Pulmonary Function Testing: Progress in Respiratory Research on Lung Transplantation in Pediatric Patients.”

Dr. Tablizo is a member of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, American Thoracic Society, American Lung Association and California Thoracic Society.

Dr. Tablizo completed her medical degree at the University of the East Ramon Magsaysay Memorial Medical Center. She did her pediatric residency at Overlook Hospital/Columbia University teaching affiliate in Summit, New Jersey, and her pediatric pulmonary fellowship at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.


Michael Tracy, MD

Clinical Assistant Professor, Pediatrics - Pulmonary Medicine

mtracy@stanford.edu

BIO

Dr. Tracy is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Division of Pediatric Pulmonary. His clinical interests include care for children with bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), cystic fibrosis, asthma, neuromuscular disease, and chronic respiratory failure. He serves as the director of the BPD Clinic, and co-director of the CRIB (Cardiac and Respiratory Care for Infants with BPD) Program. He is the physician lead for the inpatient pulmonary consult service at LPCH. Dr. Tracy is currently involved clinical and translational research projects in the area of BPD and cystic fibrosis. With regard to medical education, he  was formerly a chief resident in pediatrics at LPCH, and currently serves as a faculty coach in the pediatric residency program.


Eric Zee, MD

Clinical Associate Professor, Pediatrics - Pulmonary Medicine

ezee@stanford.edu

BIO

Dr. Zee is a Clinical Assistant Professor with the Division of Pediatric Pulmonary Medicine.  He was raised in the Bay Area and went to Chicago Medical School.  He completed pediatric residency at Children’s Medical Center Dallas/University of Texas Southwestern School of Medicine.  He then completed pediatric pulmonary fellowship training at Children’s Hospital Denver/University of Colorado.  Dr. Zee then returned to the Bay Area and joined Bay Area Pediatric Pulmonary with practice at Children’s Hospital Oakland and California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco for over 10 years.  Dr. Zee joined the faculty at Stanford in 2015.  A clinician, he cares for children with a wide range of pediatric lung disease with particular interests in acute lung injury, intensive care pulmonology and airways anomalies.