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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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
Preetha Basaviah, MD
Dr Basaviah received her BA ’91 MD ’95 from Brown and completed her training in internal medicine, chief residency, and an education fellowship at Harvard. Previously on faculty at Harvard Medical School and UCSF, she joined Stanford in 2006 where she has served roles as Practice of Medicine Course Director (decade), inaugural Assistant Dean for Preclerkship Education (decade), inaugural and current Educator for CARE (15 years). Currently, she serves as the inaugural Advising Dean for Inclusive Learning and Co-Director for Educators for CARE at Stanford Medical School. She is honored to have received several teaching and mentoring award as well as to have served leadership roles in regional and national general medicine and education. Her board experience includes 10 years on the Brown Medical Board, including presidency, as a trustee of the Brown Corporation, and as current member of the Stanford Parent and Family Advisory Board. She and her VC husband plus three young adult daughters enjoy traveling, dancing, playing pickle ball, and spending time with friends.
Michelle Bizeau
Ms Bizeau is a dedicated advocate for disability rights, with a wealth of experience in various roles spanning mental health, education, and compliance. Joining the SMADIE Board of Directors in 2021, she is passionate about its mission of advancing disability equity, accessibility, and inclusion across Stanford's diverse healthcare settings. In addition to founding the Remedy Coalition, Michelle works at Kaiser Permanente Psychiatry in San Francisco, providing mental health services with a specialized focus on adults with autism.
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 Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital, 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, PCORI, AMIA, HIMSS, OHDSI, and SCCM. 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.
Carleigh Kude, MPA
Ms Kude is the inaugural Director of Disability Resources at the Stanford School of Medicine. She has been working in the field of disability access in postsecondary education for 15 years, specializing in medical education since 2018. Carleigh has served as a board member on the Stanford Disability Initiative, a staff/faculty mentor to student advocacy organization Stanford Disability Alliance (formerly Power2Act), and is a member of Access in Medicine’s Disability Resource Professional community. Carleigh graduated with Dean’s Honors from California State University Long Beach School of Public Policy and Administration. She believes deeply in community and collaborative solutioning. Carleigh loves reading, paddleboarding, travel, and pop culture.
Zoey Martin-Lockhart
Ms Martin-Lockhard is a PhD Candidate in cultural anthropology and an MS Epidemiology student at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her dissertation explores the advocacy, educational, and community-building work of disabled medical students and doctors who are pushing for greater disability inclusivity in biomedicine. This ethnographic research is multi-sited across social and digital media (e.g. Twitter and #MedTwitter, podcasts, and video or voice conferencing) and the physical world, and thus inquires into the nexus of online and offline medical culture and knowledge production. She is the curator and co-host of the Research and Resource Rounds Podcast from the Docs With Disabilities Initiative.
Previously, Zoey lived and did research in India, looking at mental health among queer communities there—in part thanks to a Fulbright-Nehru Student Research grant.
Zoey is on Twitter/Mastodon (@Zoey_beta) and on IG (@Zoey__beta); she sees herself as always a “beta” version, a work in progress.
Suchita Rastogi, MD/PhD Student
Ms 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 '06, PhD '14
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
Mr Tan is a first generation, premed student who grew up in the Bay Area. As a child, he was diagnosed with inflammatory bowel disease, which has guided his path toward a career in medicine. He received his BA in Integrative Biology, with a Minor in Education from UC Berkeley. Louis’ years of experience working with elderly rehab patients and youth with disabilities, and ongoing involvement with SMADIE, has shaped his passion for disability advocacy. He is also interested in educating underserved populations, and learning about how new technologies have the potential to revolutionize science and medicine. Louis is currently involved with SMADIE’s social media, conference planning, and research initiatives. During his free time, he likes to engage with different forms of art and music, and take scenic hikes and meditate in nature.
Administration Team
Jean Sullivan
Team Lead
Jean recently started supporting Dr. Peter Poullus & SMADIE as a Senior Administrative Associate in May of 2024. Jean joined Stanford almost 10 years ago, first in Radiology Housestaff, then joining the Stanford Radiology 3DQ Imaging Lab in January of 2015. In 2019 Jean moved to Cardiovascular Imaging as Division Lead Administrative Associate & Fellowship Coordinator in Radiology. In 2019, Jean worked with the Department of Radiology to transition into the new hospital. Jean was instrumental on March 13th, 2020, in helping many radiology staff prepare to work remotely with the pandemic. In 2021, Jean again worked closely with School of Medicine and Radiology facilities, as the radiology Grant offices were moved and settled in at the new Center for Academic Medicine (CAM). Jean enjoys the variety of tasks and solving problems which has been a constant theme in all of her positions at Stanford, she also enjoys learning and mentoring others and loves being on campus every day. In her time away from work Jean loves reading, writing poetry and jigsaw puzzles.