About Us
Tanis Fenton
Dr. Tanis Fenton, is a Registered Dietitian, Epidemiologist and Professor. She developed the Fenton Preterm Growth Charts based on a need she saw for better growth charts for preterm infants when working clinically as a neonatal dietitian. These growth charts have been built into several electronic medical records, apps, as well as included in over 40 textbooks. Dr. Fenton was the invited Chair for the Pre-B Project Preterm Infant Expert Workgroup for the American Dietary Guidelines. Her research interests include nutrition, premature infant growth, and knowledge translation.
Belal Alshaikh
Dr. Belal Alshaikh, MD MSc MSCE is a Neonatologist, Epidemiologist, Clinical Associate Professor of Pediatrics at University of Calgary, and Co-Chair of the Canadian Neonatal Gut Health Group of Evidence-based Practice for Improving Quality (EPIQ). His research focuses on the impact of optimizing nutrition on growth and neurodevelopmental outcomes, and the influence of different nutrients on inflammatory response syndrome in preterm infants.
Amy Hair
Dr. Amy Hair is currently an Assistant Professor in the Section of Neonatology at Baylor College of Medicine. She is also the Program Director of the Neonatal Nutrition Program and Co-director of the NICU Intestinal Rehabilitation Program at Texas Children’s Hospital. Dr. Hair is the Director of the Maternal and Child Health Nutrition Training Program for neonatal dietitians. Dr. Hair’s research focuses on neonatal nutrition, specifically growth and the use of human milk in very low birth weight infants. Dr. Hair specializes in clinical nutrition research and clinical trials. Dr. Hair is a member of many professional societies and has received numerous awards and honors for her research.
Angela Hoyos
I am a neonatologist, Head of the newborn service at the Clínica del Country in Bogotá, Colombia, and a member of the board of directors of EpicLatino, a neonatal network of Latin American units with a quality improvement program based on the EPIQ program from Canada. I have been interested for many years in neonatal nutrition with an emphasis on premature babies. I have been the author or co-author of some works on the subject. It is a pleasure and an honor to be part of this excellent group.
Camilia R. Martin
Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School
Director for Cross-Disciplinary Research Partnerships in the Division of Translational Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA
Dr. Martin received her M.D. from Weill Cornell School of Medicine, completed her residency at Children’s Memorial Hospital/Northwestern School of Medicine where she also served as Chief Pediatric Resident, and completed her fellowship in Perinatal-Neonatal Medicine at the Harvard Combined Program in Neonatology. During fellowship training, she obtained a Masters in Epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health.
Dr. Martin’s current basic and translational research is focused on lipid and fatty acid metabolism, postnatal intestinal adaptation, and the nutritional impact on organogenesis, immune ontogeny, and inflammation.
Donna Dressler-Mund
Donna is an Occupational Therapist specializing in fragile feeding. She works in the Calgary Regional NICUs and the Alberta Children’s Hospital Oxygen and Complex Airway Clinics. Donna collaborated on the Calgary Regional NICU feeding guideline, the production of a Parent Education DVD on fragile feeding and contributed to the provincial Pediatric Eating and Swallowing (PEAS) evidence-based practice guide and resource hub. She has worked on the implementation of the Regional Oral Feeding Guideline and GER in ELBW infants. She has done mentoring, presentations, webinars, and workshops locally, nationally, and internationally. Donna is passionate about safe, positive oral feeding experiences.
Kathleen Gura
Kathleen Gura is the manager for Pharmacy Research Programs and a member of the Clinical Nutrition Service in the Division of GI/Nutrition at Boston Children's Hospital. She is also an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. Certified as a Nutritional Support Pharmacist, Dr. Gura was named the 2020 ASPEN Nutrition Champion. Dr. Gura is the author of numerous book chapters on pediatric nutrition and has written more than 130 peer reviewed on topics such as the intestinal failure associated liver disease and the use of parenteral nutrition in the neonate.
Mandy Brown Belfort
Mandy Brown Belfort, MD MPH is a neonatologist at Brigham & Women’s Hospital and Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. Her research focuses on the influence of early-life nutritional exposures on health and developmental outcomes later in life. A central theme is the NICU hospitalization as a critical window of opportunity for effective nutritional interventions with long-lasting impact. She uses observational and interventional approaches to study human milk, breastfeeding, growth patterns, and nutrient intake in relation to neurodevelopmental and cardiometabolic outcomes. Dr. Belfort’s research is funded by the NIH and other organizations. Her findings inform public health recommendations for breastfeeding and clinical nutritional approaches within neonatal intensive care.
Sabita Uthaya
Sabita Uthaya's, MBBS, MRCP, FRCPCH, MD, research interests include neonatal nutrition, long term metabolic outcomes of preterm infants and body composition using magnetic resonance imaging. She was the Chief Investigator of the NEON Clinical Trial of preterm parenteral nutrition and member of the UK NICE Guideline Development Group on Neonatal Parenteral Nutrition. She played a major role in the standardisation of parenteral nutrition across all units in the London Neonatal Operational Delivery Networks.
Sharon Groh-Wargo
Sharon Groh-Wargo PhD, RDN is Senior Neonatal Nutritionist in the Department of Pediatrics at MetroHealth Medical Center and Professor, Nutrition and Pediatrics, at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland, Ohio.
Dr. Groh-Wargo has over 40 years of experience, is a nationally known speaker and researcher, and has authored numerous publications on neonatal nutrition. She is an editor of both editions of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics' Pocket Guide to Neonatal Nutrition and authored a chapter on “Lactoengineering” for the 3rd edition of “Infant and Pediatric Feedings: Guidelines for Preparation of Human Milk and Formula in Health Care Facilities”.
William Hay
Dr. William Hay is retired Professor of Pediatrics (Neonatology) at the University of Colorado. Prior to his retirement he was Director of the Child Maternal Health Program, the Early Life Exposures Program, and the Neonatal-Perinatal Clinical Translational Research Center of the Colorado Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute. He also served as Scientific Director of the Perinatal Research Center. Dr. Hay’s research has focused on maternal nutrition, placental nutrient transport, fetal physiology, and fetal and neonatal nutrition and metabolism. A major emphasis of his research has been on intrauterine growth restriction and how this condition programs fetal and neonatal growth and development. He also has studied how to provide nutrition to the preterm infant that is similar to the nutrition of the normally growing human fetus of the same gestational age. This clinical research has focused on how to prevent nutrient limitation of postnatal growth, particularly by advancing intravenous nutrition. Dr. Hay is recognized nationally and internationally for his expertise in disorders of glucose metabolism in neonates as well as nutrition of the preterm infant.