Board of Directors
Board of Directors Officers
Peter D. Poullos, MD
Founder and Co-Chair
Dr. Poullos is a native of Stockton, California. He attended Santa Clara University, then received his M.D. degree at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston. He did an Internal Medicine residency at the University of California-San Francisco (UCSF), finishing in 2002. He stayed at UCSF as a Gastroenterology fellow but, after a spinal cord injury, he decided to retrain in Radiology. He did his Radiology residency at Stanford University, where he also completed a fellowship In Body Imaging in 2009. Dr. Poullos is now faculty in both the departments of Radiology, Gastroenterology and Hepatology.
Dr. Poullos served as Associate Residency Program Director for the Stanford University Radiology Residency from 2009 through 2016. He is the Founder and Executive Director of the Stanford Medicine Alliance for Disability Inclusion and Equity (SMADIE), which he founded in 2018. He currently serves on the Stanford School of Medicine Faculty Senate and the School of Medicine Diversity Cabinet. He also has a strong interest in medical education and enjoys the opportunity to teach medical students, residents, and fellows.
Ken Sutha, MD, PhD
Co-Chair
Dr Sutha serves as co-chair of SMADIE and is passionate about mentorship and disability advocacy. He is a board certified pediatric nephrologist at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford (LPCH) and Stanford University School of Medicine in Palo Alto, CA. He completed his undergraduate degree at Yale University and MD/PhD training in Biomedical Engineering at Emory University and Georgia Institute of Technology before pursing residency in pediatrics at the University of Washington and Seattle Children’s Hospital. He then moved to Stanford for his pediatric nephrology fellowship, where he has remained as faculty and now devotes his time to a combination of patient care, advocacy, and research. In addition to his clinical duties at LPCH, which has performed the largest volume of pediatric kidney transplants in the US over the past 5 years, he serves on the LPCH Ethics Committee, the National Kidney Foundation Transplant Advisory Committee, and the American Society of Nephrology Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee, as well as on the board of the American Living Organ Donor Fund. Additionally, he has been recognized nationally for his advocacy as the 2019 American Kidney Fund Hero of Hope and for his research as an American Society of Nephrology Jared J. Grantham Research Scholar.
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Doug Neu
Vice Chair
Doug Neu is a Senior Informatics Educator for Stanford Healthcare, focused on Epic training and support for Inpatient/Labor & Delivery nurses and staff. He has been hard-of-hearing (deaf in right ear) since birth but have not always identified as disabled. In his free time Doug enjoys reading and hiking.
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Jody Greenhalgh, OTR/L, MCP
At large officer
Ms Jody Greenhalgh is an Occupational Therapist at Stanford Healthcare. She attended San Jose State University for her Occupational Therapy degree, Notre Dame De Namur University for her Psychology masters degree and on sabbatical from her doctoral studies at Saybrook University. Jody is thrilled to be part of SMADIE. SMADIE matches her passion in fostering equal treatment and well-being for all - regardless of differences, advocating for disability accommodations, providing service resources and combating health injustices. This aligns with Jody’s Motto of "Living life fully, independently, inclusively and limitless”.
Board of Directors Members
Laurie Leventhal-Belfer, PhD
Dr Leventhal-Belfer is a licensed clinical psychologist who specializes in taking a developmental perspective in understanding children, adolescents, adults, and their families as they grapple with daily stresses, medical and mental health issues, challenges adapting to school, interacting with colleagues at work, and making friends.
Dr. Leventhal-Belfer, known as Dr. Laurie to many children and their parents, has a private practice in Palo Alto. She is an Adjunct Lecturer in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine. In addition, she is the Founder and Director of the The Friends Program a therapeutic group program for children and middle schoolers on the Autism Spectrum and their parents.(1992-2024). She is a participant in the American Psychological Association (APA) Disability Mentoring Program since 2022. Dr. Leventhal-Belfer has developed and taught many professional training courses and has written several books and articles in her areas of expertise.
Zhen Lin, PhD'05 RN
Dr Lin is a passionate champion of health equity and advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in research, clinical practice, and the healthcare workforce. Dr. Lin serves as the Nurse Scientist for the Memorial Hermann Health System's Texas Medical Center campus, actively engaging and guiding diverse, multidisciplinary teams of clinicians in clinical and informatics research. Dr. Lin frequently participates in national research and educational initiatives, serving on committees and workgroups at respected organizations like NIH, NSF, AMIA, HIMSS, and OHDSI. In her free time, she extends her commitment to advancing DEI by serving on the leadership teams of Stanford Women on Board, the SAA Stanford Club of Houston, and various local youth programs within the Houston community. Dr. Lin's academic journey includes earning her Doctorate in Biomedical Informatics from Stanford, a Master of Science degree from the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), and a Bachelor's degree in Medicine from Peking Union Medical College (PUMC).
Shaila R. Kotadia, PhD
Dr Kotadia is the Director of Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI) for the School of Medicine Human Resources Group, whose role is focused specifically on providing support to all SoM staff. She focuses on the School’s capacity to do JEDI work, seeks to dismantle bias in our systems, processes, and procedures, and aims to provide strategic support to departments and teams and individual support to staff. Dr. Kotadia is excited to be a member of SMADIE to be an advocate for disability justice and to bring about transformational change to Stanford Medicine - she is also extremely grateful for SMADIE inviting her into their community.
Joseph Garner, D.Phil.
Dr. Garner is passionate about developing new approaches to animal research which improve the translation and benefits of animal work through improvements in animal wellbeing. He is an internationally recognized expert in the behavior and wellbeing of laboratory mice, and abnormal behavior in animals in general, including awards from the National Center for the 3Rs (UK), the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science, the Swiss Laboratory Animal Science Association, and the Universities Federation for Animal Welfare. His human health research is focused on animal and human studies in autism, trichotillomania, and compulsive skin-picking, with the goal of identifying biomarkers leading to screening, prevention, and personalized treatment options. The overarching theme of Dr. Garner’s research is understanding why most drugs (and other basic science findings) fail to translate into human outcomes, and understanding the role that animal models, animal methodology, and animal well-being play in these failures.
Suchita Rastogi, PhD
Suchita Rastogi is a clinical phase MD/PhD student at Stanford University. A basic scientist by training, she spent her dissertation years using single cell RNA sequencing to examine how the microscopic brain parasite Toxoplasma gondii hijacks host cells without infecting them. A teacher at heart, she also has 10 years of experience in science and medical education. Her lived experience navigating college, graduate school, and medical school with multiple chronic illnesses inspired her to advocate for her medical school classmates with disabilities, pivot into disability scholarship, and join the SMADIE Board of Directors. In 2021, she cofounded the Disability in Medicine Mutual Mentorship Program (DM3P), an innovative and much-needed platform to provide disabled clinicians and trainees professional and emotional support. Running DM3P has and continues to be her most meaningful accomplishment. Outside of her academic work and advocacy, she enjoys meditation, embroidery, watercoloring, singing, and finding ways to make her family and caregivers laugh.
Arghavan Salles, MD, PhD
Dr. Salles trained as a minimally invasive and bariatric surgeon. She completed medical school and residency in general surgery at Stanford prior to completing her fellowship in minimally invasive surgery at Washington University in St. Louis. She stayed on faculty at Washington University for three years prior to moving back to Stanford in 2019.During the pandemic, Dr. Salles has served as a disaster relief physician, caring for patients with COVID in the ICU. Dr. Salles obtained a PhD in education from Stanford University during her residency training, and her research focuses on gender equity, implicit bias, diversity, inclusion, and physician well-being. She is on the board of the Stanford Medicine Alliance for Disability Inclusion and Equity. Her R01 grant from the NIH focuses on sexual harassment. She is a sought-after speaker and has given over 100 national and international invited talks related to gender equity, physician well-being, and weight bias. She currently serves as the Special Advisor for DEI Programs at the Stanford University Department of Medicine where she is a Clinical Associate Professor.
Miranda Stratton, PhD'19
Dr Stratton is the Assistant Director of Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) - Community & Partnerships for the School of Medicine Human Resources Group. A cell biologist turned JEDI practitioner, she is passionate about transforming cultures and creating communities where people can be their whole selves in the workplace. She supports all SoM staff in her current role and operationalizes JEDI through critical changes that center on minoritized individuals and their experiences. A strategic and creative thought partner, Dr. Stratton is thankful to be a trusted partner as she advocates for disability justice and accessibility through her involvement with the Disability Staff Forum (DSF) and SMADIE.
Louis Tan, BS
Mr Tan is a first generation, premed student who grew up in the Bay Area. He was diagnosed with inflammatory bowel disease as a child, which has helped shape his desire to pursue medicine as a career. He is passionate about educating underserved populations, and learning about how new technologies have the potential to revolutionize science and medicine. As a hobby, he likes to tinker with different aspects of art and design.
Louis attended the February 2020 SUMMA Conference at Stanford University, where he met Dr. Poullos. Inspired by Dr. Poullos’ story, he reached out to see how he could contribute to SMADIE. Currently, Louis manages and provides creative input for SMADIE’s social media channels.