Staff Profile: Gordon Simonett

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Gordon Simonett, Database Manager

Gordon Simonett credits his West Indian heritage as the source of his sunny disposition and eternal optimism. Gordon moved to the United States from Trinidad and Tobago when he was just eight years old and became a U.S. citizen in 2001.

Gordon brings his can-do attitude to his role as Database Manager for MedStar Health GME. When he started in this role eight years ago, each hospital within the system largely managed its own resident data. To ensure that data was being recorded consistently across the system and with a single set of best practices in mind, Gordon’s job was, in his words, to become the “control tower” for all things New Innovations for MedStar Health GME.

New Innovations is the software that MedStar Health GME uses to manage onboarding, program evaluations, procedure logging, and other aspects of our residents’ and fellows’ GME experience. New Innovations, Gordon explains, touches each MedStar Health GME resident, fellow, program director, support staff, and others. A nurse might even interact with the software when verifying someone’s qualifications to place a central line, for example.

Behind the scenes, Gordon thinks about how each group interacts with New Innovations and how MedStar Health GME can better leverage the software to give residents and fellows an improved educational experience.

Given his own educational background, Gordon couldn’t have predicted that he would end up in his current career. After graduating from American University as a government major, Gordon had his sights set on working on Capitol Hill. However, Gordon ultimately found a job as a program coordinator for Internal Medicine at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital.

Nearly 20 years later, Gordon recalls really loving his new, unexpected career path at the time. “What I enjoyed was helping residents and fellows through this very high-pressure period of time in their life…being able to advocate for resources for them. I also really enjoyed being in an academic environment. There’s learning going on all the time.”

Now, as part of the MedStar Health GME team, Gordon enjoys being able to advocate for residents and fellows on a system-level and being part of a team that is always looking to further innovate and improve.

“We have a sincere desire to provide the best clinical learning environment possible for our residents and fellows,” Gordon said. “Whether it’s a technology piece or a well-being piece, there’s constant assessment of what we offer and how we can be the best at it. We always want to be better, and we want to improve the experience for everybody.”

If you find yourself in the MedStar Health GME office, Gordon says he’ll be the one sporting a tie with the University of Michigan colors of blue and maize (not yellow as he’s quick to point out) – to celebrate their recent national championship title in football. Or you might even receive an email from “Go Blue,” which he says he’s currently considering as his new signature.

Staff Profile: Shari Goldston, MBA

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Shari Goldston, MBA

Shari Goldston, MBA, says the best part of her job is getting to see the growth in GME learners – from the time they arrive until they move on or even become attendings at MedStar Health.

“Watching them come in as interns and they’re nervous. Everybody’s had that experience, right? When you start your first new job, and you want to do such a good job that you make yourself nervous. Then, to see them six months later, and they’re confident and they know what they have to do…Watching them go through that process is amazing.”

Shari has been in healthcare administration for 24 years and, except for a brief stint at another local hospital, has worked for MedStar Health in various roles since 2006.

The fact that Shari left MedStar Health only to come back a few years later, she says, is a testament to just how much she loves it here. “I love everything about MedStar. I left and came back, so that definitely tells you something.”

In her current role as Associate Director for MedStar Health GME, Shari manages the Finance Hub for the MedStar Health GME Consortium, which means she’s responsible for all things related to the consortium’s finances – for instance, billing, legal documentation and affiliation agreements, management of Medicare dollars, and the scheduling of rotators to work at each facility.

Integral to her success at MedStar Health has been her ability to network with different teams and other departments and realizing that people are there to help one another. “You don’t have to know it all. Asking for help from someone else helps you build relationships, and it helps you to connect and navigate the system better,” she explained.

Shari is excited to see how MedStar Health innovates and changes medicine for the better in the coming years. “I predict that we will continue to be innovative in research. I think technology is going to help us in more ways than we know. To work with the physicians that are learning those new innovative things right now, it’s exciting, and I can’t wait to see where we go.”

Shari’s enthusiasm for the unknown might explain her love of Halloween and mystery and thriller novels, too. Shari is such a fan of her favorite author, Stephen King, in fact, that some of her collection is even autographed and displayed in special cases. “It’s so much fun. Sitting on the edge of the couch…I’m like, oh my God, what’s going to happen next?”

Leader Profile: Dr. Carrie Chen

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H. Carrie Chen, MD, PhD

H. Carrie Chen, MD, PhD

Carrie Chen, MD, PhD, chose to pursue pediatrics because it allowed her to think about health in a very broad way. The role you assume as a pediatrician, she explains, is so much more than curing or preventing disease. She says it’s about setting a foundation for a child to be healthy and successful over the course of their lifetime.

Although Dr. Chen is no longer practicing clinically, her background in helping others thrive has been a strength in her role as the Senior Associate Dean of Assessment and Educational Scholarship at Georgetown University School of Medicine. Dr. Chen oversees the development of curricula and assessment programs and provides leadership for medical student, resident, and fellow education. Dr. Chen is also a Professor of Pediatrics at Georgetown University School of Medicine and an Adjunct Professor of Medicine at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences.

“When you think about children, there’s joy when they learn. People come to medicine because they have a passion for medicine. And in training, we sometimes suck the joy out of it, and it doesn’t have to be that way,” she said.

As an educator, Dr. Chen is always looking for better ways to do things and bring the joy back to learning medicine, asking questions like: Are there better ways to educate someone to help them reach their full potential? How can we make the educational experience a joyful one?

While much of Dr. Chen’s work directly impacts Georgetown University School of Medicine students, Dr. Chen notes that the close partnership with MedStar Health – where so many students go on to become residents – means that, “whatever we’re doing to make things better for our students will also make things better for all of our residents.” To further that work, Dr. Chen serves on the MedStar Health GME Consortium Graduate Medical Education Committee (GMEC).

Dr. Chen and others from Georgetown University also recently partnered with the Working Group for Racial Justice on a series of virtual workshops to educate faculty, fellows, residents, and staff on the basics and core values around creating equitable and inclusive learning environments. These workshops are meant to bring about systematic changes to address potential grading inequities based on student gender, race, or other demographics and combat deeply ingrained perceptions.

Dr. Chen says her talents for helping her students thrive, unfortunately, do not extend to caring for plants.

“I love plants. But I can’t keep any of my plants alive. I’m going to eventually kill off any plant that I bring home, and I keep trying,” she laughed. “Maybe if I actually studied and tried to understand the different plants and their individual needs, I’d have more success.”

People Profiles: Dr. Kathryn Kellogg

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Dr. Kate Kellogg (Emergency Medicine)

Dr. Kate Kellogg (Emergency Medicine)

Dr. Kate Kellogg (Emergency Medicine) loves to create useful and functional things for other people – things that they might need and that make them feel cared about. That’s one of the reasons she really enjoys glassblowing, a hobby she picked up last year.

Though she admits, with such a fickle medium, things don’t always work out as planned: “It is humbling, and it is really good for a recovering perfectionist because it is very normal that half the things go on the floor.”

Prioritizing the needs of others – particularly their safety – is the focus of Dr. Kellogg’s work as well. As Vice President of Patient Safety and Infection Prevention, Dr. Kellogg is responsible for creating system-wide processes and standards that keep MedStar Health’s patients and employees safe. Over the last four years, much of that work related to COVID-19 as she led the clinical side of the system’s COVID-19 response.

In a teaching hospital where the learners are responsible for so much of the patient care, Dr. Kellogg emphasizes how important prioritizing the needs of MedStar GME’s residents and fellows is to her work. “They’re such a critical group to have invested in safety and also to feel supported by all of our programs,” she explains.

Last year, her team launched one such program called HRO 2.0. In Dr. Kellogg’s words, it aims to “bring everyone into the safety journey with their everyday work.” Residents and fellows can find HRO information and patient safety resources on the HRO Hub on StarPort, including the Safety Moment Library, information on SafetyNet, psychological safety, just culture, and more. The resources on the HRO Hub, including brief videos, one-pagers, and presentations, are meant to support our work and journey towards HRO 2.0.

Also allowing her to stay connected to MedStar Health GME and better understand the needs and challenges of residents is her role on the Graduate Medical Education Committee (GMEC), which she has served in for several years.

In all her interactions with MedStar Health GME, one thing she’s been struck by is how deeply GME leadership cares about its learners, something that is very important to her. “I feel very strongly about the people that we work with feeling included and honored and seen as people. I think that GME leadership really does everything they can to help every one of those 1100 learners feel like they are seen as people,” she says.

Another aspect of Dr. Kellogg’s work with residents and fellows that she is excited about is helping this rising generation of physicians adopt a new perspective when it comes to patient safety – to create a shift from the physician-centric mentality to a team and system approach. “I think that there’s so much opportunity there. And the way that we approach our work is going to be able to be really different going forward than I think it has been over the last 10 years.”

People Profiles: Dr. Munish Goyal

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Munish Goyal, MD, (Emergency Medicine)

Munish Goyal, MD, (Emergency Medicine) almost decided not to go into medicine. He even briefly changed his undergraduate major from biology to business. That is, until an experience shadowing a retinal surgeon during the AIDS epidemic in Washington, D.C., made a lasting impression on him.

It was 1994 and he wasn’t enjoying his science classes, particularly organic chemistry (a sentiment many pre-med students likely can appreciate). Dr. Goyal’s father reminded him that organic chemistry was not medicine and suggested he spend some time with a physician before making a final decision.

Dr. Goyal began to shadow a retinal surgeon who was seeing patients with AIDS retinopathy at the Whitman-Walter Clinic. “Watching him balance his scientific knowledge with the humanistic component made me realize this is what I want to do. I want to be able to understand the content well enough that I can explain to someone without any medical background what was happening with their body.”

As an attending physician in the Emergency Department at MedStar Washington Hospital Center and a Professor at the Georgetown University School of Medicine, helping his residents and medical students make these same connections is what he enjoys most in his day to day.

“Highlighting to people why all of the time and energy that they spent in medical school matters – drawing connections real time between that first or second year of medical school pharmacology and physiology and what they’re seeing in front of them – it makes it so much more interesting and more relevant,” he explains.

MedStar Health GME provides a highly unique and interesting place to learn and make those connections, according to Dr. Goyal. Because MedStar Washington Hospital Center sees patients from a large portion of the Washington, D.C., metro area, residents can see and do so much more than they might in another hospital and often have the opportunity to treat conditions that are less common.

Dr. Goyal holds a number of leadership positions at MedStar Health, including Director of the MedStar Medical Student Scholars Program for rising 2nd year Georgetown medical students. He’s also Chair of the MedStar Health Research Institute (MHRI) Institutional Review Board, co-Chair of the MedStar Health P+T Committee, and Director of Faculty Education, Research, and the Section of Critical Care for the emergency medicine service line.

He credits his inspiring mentors, incredible  peers, and supportive wife as the things that have most helped him succeed at MedStar Health. And, at the end of the day, Dr. Goyal just really enjoys medical education.

“I like teaching. I get to be around residents and medical students, and they keep things fresh and interesting.”

Dr. Heather Hartman Hall

People Profiles: Dr. Heather Hartman-Hall

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Dr. Heather Hartman Hall

Heather Hartman-Hall, PhD (Clinical Psychology)

Heather Hartman-Hall, PhD (Clinical Psychology) is a Baltimore Orioles fanatic. She almost never misses a game. As a lifelong Marylander, she’s always rooted for the team but really got into the sport when her son started playing and her daughter picked up softball. Dr. Hartman-Hall brings this same level of commitment and dedication to supporting those she cares about to her work as the Clinical Director of Behavioral Health Initiatives at MedStar Health’s Center for Wellbeing and as an Associate Program Director (APD) for the Internal Medicine residency in Baltimore.

“Our residents and fellows are amazing. I’m inspired by them every day. They’re an incredibly bright, dedicated, energetic group of people who have chosen to take care of people for a living. I feel so lucky to get to work with them,” she said.

As the Clinical Director at the Center for Wellbeing, Dr. Hartman-Hall supports the mental health needs of all MedStar Health associates, but she also serves as a liaison to the graduate medical education (GME) community.

“I work closely with GME leadership to make sure we’re being thoughtful about the particular needs of residents and fellows in our system, both from a mental health perspective, but also by helping them thrive,” Dr. Hartman-Hall said.

MedStar Health has long placed a high priority on supporting and encouraging wellbeing, but the COVID-19 pandemic really brought this work into focus. Thus, the Center for Wellbeing was born. This innovative program provides system-wide wellbeing resources, including a wide variety of offerings outside of strictly mental health support, such as financial wellbeing resources, backup childcare resources, coaching, and more.

“We think of [wellbeing] more holistically,” Dr. Hartman-Hall explained. “How do we create a well workplace? How do we make sure that our interactions with each other support wellness? We want to make sure that MedStar is a healthy place to work, as well as helping you be a healthy person at work.”

This is a mission that MedStar Health takes seriously. Especially for residents and fellows.

“One of the reasons we talk so much about wellbeing in healthcare and especially for physicians, especially for those in medical training, is that healthcare systems have not always done it well. Now we’re the culture of medicine, so MedStar recognizes that we must be an organization that promotes wellness and invests in our shared responsibility for wellbeing and professional fulfillment.”

On a local level, Dr. Hartman-Hall gets to put this work into action during her work as an APD. “It’s rewarding to be there in a moment when our residents need something to feel their best or to encourage them and get to watch them shine as they take care of patients.”

Importantly, Dr. Hartman-Hall knows that her colleagues share this dedication to supporting and caring for the wellbeing of residents and fellows – and each other.

“I’ve never felt like I’m doing this work alone.”

People Profiles: Dr. Cassie Libbing

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Cassie Libbing, DO (PGY-3, Internal Medicine)

Cassie Libbing, DO (PGY-3, Internal Medicine) is an advocate at heart. She was drawn to medicine because she wanted to be a good advocate for her patients and now at MedStar Health, she has stepped forward to be an advocate for her peers through her work as a Wellness Champion.

During medical school in her home state of Indiana, Dr. Libbing fell in love with the intellectual challenge of solving the varied diagnostic dilemmas that come with practicing Internal Medicine. She is also passionate about giving her patients tools to care for their health.

“We have medically complex patients, that’s our specialty, and it’s very important to me that my patients understand their diseases, ultimately empowering them with information so that they can make the best decisions for their health and take care of themselves,” she said.

This is especially important, Dr. Libbing said, because many of their patients do not have extensive experience with the healthcare system. The first physician a patient interacts with can have an immense impact on that patient’s trust in the healthcare system. “It’s easy to forget with the day-to-day work, but it’s an important role we carry,” Dr. Libbing said.

Dr. Libbing is also involved in fostering wellness among her colleagues. During her second year of residency at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital (MGUH), Dr. Libbing applied for, and received, a Wellness Champion Grant from the Center for Wellbeing to establish a dedicated Wellness Committee for the almost 90 Internal Medicine residents at MGUH.

“During that year, I was able to delve more into wellness research and learn more about what has been evolving with physician and resident wellness research in the past five years. A lot of it is moving past this idea of personal resilience and more towards seeking institutional interventions that can drive professional fulfillment and a sense of community,” she explained.

Now, with a second Wellness Champion grant, Dr. Libbing is building on her wellness work by utilizing a tool developed at Yale – the Residency Community Well-Being instrument – to track and evaluate resident wellness throughout the year. Anonymous surveys will help Dr. Libbing determine if wellness or professional fulfillment rises and lowers depending on the season, post-graduate year, specialty track, gender, or a number of other factors.

The tools that MedStar Health GME offers due to its status as a nationally-leading consortium – such as access to grants or statistical support from the MedStar Health Research Institute – is one contributing factor to Dr. Libbing’s success. That, plus the incredible community she has found at MedStar Health.

“There are so many great people who surround me and keep me going. Community is so important for wellness,” Dr. Libbing said. She advised her colleagues to find a mentor and never hesitate to ask for support.

Dr. Libbing also turns to her fiancé, an anesthesiology resident at MedStar Health, to stay grounded. But sometimes ice cream from Jeni’s Splendid or Van Leeuwen is just what the doctor ordered.

“I am an ice cream connoisseur,” she said. “I love ice cream. It’s the easiest way to make me smile.”

Dr. Maggie Arnold

People Profiles: Dr. Maggie Arnold

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Dr. Maggie Arnold

Maggie Arnold, MD (Vascular Surgery)

Maggie Arnold, MD (Vascular Surgery) has always been fascinated by anatomy. That’s what first interested her in medicine.

“I was drawn to the scientific inquiry part of medicine. Humans are amazing creatures, and I wanted to understand more about how our bodies worked,” she said.

Dr. Arnold is double board-certified in General Surgery and Vascular Surgery, but she did not always want to be a surgeon. Once she stepped into the operating room, however, she knew she loved surgery. “I loved the immediacy of it. I loved being able to fix things. Just being in the operating room was amazing,” Dr. Arnold said.

She was drawn to Vascular Surgery due to the fantastic surgeons she trained under, the interesting caseload, and the great patient population she treated.

As the Program Director for the General Surgery residency program in Baltimore, Dr. Arnold is now filling that mentor and educator role for MedStar Health residents.

“I have such a great job because I get to watch my residents start as interns and then go through an amazing transformation over the next five years as they become surgeons,” she said. “I love being able to work with people, troubleshoot problems, and help them grow as physicians.”

The current generation of physicians-in-training are mission-driven to help people, giving Dr. Arnold incredible hope for the future of medicine. “I see a profound sense of altruism in up-and-coming physicians,” she explained.

In addition to serving as a Program Director, Dr. Arnold is one of three inaugural GME Leadership Fellows. She is working with the GME Executive Team to further improve the training and educational experience at MedStar Health. But her voice is just one of many – and the collaborative nature of MedStar Health GME allows our program to leverage the diverse expertise of our faculty to better serve our residents and fellows.

“You have this great network at MedStar Health and wealth of knowledge with people coming together to solve problems that affect all GME. You also get the benefit of different perspectives. I may have a very surgery-centered perspective, but that may not always be the best solution to the problem,” Dr. Arnold explained. “It allows you to hear other opinions, voices, and perspectives and helps us be stronger, together.”

When Dr. Arnold is not in the operating room or working with her residents, she’s training for her next marathon or spending time with her husband, two kids, and pet Lab, Sunny.

People Profiles: Dr. Daniel Jamieson

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Dan Jamieson, MD (Pulmonary and Critical Care; Internal Medicine)

Dan Jamieson, MD (Pulmonary and Critical Care; Internal Medicine) has always called Maryland and the Washington, DC, area home – in fact he was born at Medstar Georgetown University Hospital! It’s no surprise then that after his fellowship, he ended up at MedStar Health, the largest healthcare provider in the region. Dr. Jamieson is the Program Director (PD) for the Pulmonary and Critical Care Fellowship at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital (MGUH) and one of the Associate Program Directors (APD) for Internal Medicine at MGUH.

Dr. Jamieson was inspired to pursue medicine while in high school when he developed a deep fascination with science and biology. His roles as a PD and APD at MedStar Health perfectly pair Dr. Jamieson’s medical skills as a clinician with his passion for mentoring and teaching the next generation of physicians.

“Number one will always be the students, residents and fellows,” Dr. Jamieson responded when asked what he enjoys most about working in graduate medical education. “There is an intentional focus on education in everything we do at Medstar Health. From our focus on the learning environment to the way we run daily rounds. I also love working with a dedicated team of educators to address current challenges in graduate medical education.”

There are always new challenges in healthcare, and MedStar Health is continually striving to find ways to build on current practices and better care for our patients and our communities. The knowledge that leaders like Dr. Jamieson are imparting on our residents and fellows are critical to that mission.

“The pace of change in medicine in the U.S. is impressive,” Dr. Jamieson said. “I know we will continue to support innovation and education of the next generation of learners.”

Dr. Jamieson doesn’t just envision a better future for healthcare – he is putting in the hard work to create that future. As one of three inaugural GME Leadership Fellows, Dr. Jamieson is gaining new insight into what it takes to run and improve our consortium and contributing his expertise to make it happen.

Dr. Jamieson and his wife have three children and they recently added two cats into the mix. “After intense negotiations with my daughter and wife, we have settled on Lola and Findus for their names,” Dr. Jamieson joked.

People Profiles: Dr. Christian Woods

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Christian Woods, MD (Pulmonary and Critical Care; Infectious Diseases)

When Christian Woods, MD (Pulmonary and Critical Care; Infectious Diseases) walked into Washington Hospital Center for his internship more than 20 years ago, he only intended to stay for a few years.

“My residency turned into a Chief Residency, which turned into fellowship one to fellowship two, and now I’ve been an attending physician since 2010,” Dr. Woods recalled.

In addition to being a double board-certified physician, Dr. Woods is the Program Director for the pulmonary and critical care medicine fellowship at MedStar Washington Hospital Center as well as an Associate Program Director for the internal medicine program. Dr. Woods deeply enjoys teaching and watching each resident or fellow’s individual journey.

“I learn just as much from my trainees, I think, as they learn from me,” he said. “I have a lot of pride watching them accomplish great things and become great physicians.”

Part of what makes a Program Director great, Dr. Woods believes, is having a personal investment in the success of your trainees and being willing to serve as a mentor. He experienced this first-hand as an intern when the esteemed Chair of Medicine at Washington Hospital Center at the time treated a young Dr. Woods as a respected physician, and not “just another resident.”

“I can give you the smartest doctor in the world to be your attending. But if the environment is not right, and you don’t feel comfortable and you don’t feel like you can inquire and ask questions, it’s a wasted opportunity,” Dr. Woods explained.

A lot of things have changed in the more than 20 years Dr. Woods has worked at MedStar Health, but GME and medical education has always remained a focus. “What’s unique about MedStar Health is that medical education and GME are so well regarded within our institution, and that makes it a great place to work.”

That’s why Dr. Woods is excited about the opportunity to further contribute to the success of MedStar Health GME as one of three inaugural GME Leadership Fellows. This unique fellowship is helping Dr. Woods expand his leadership capabilities while giving him new insight into what it takes to run a world-class medical education consortium.

As a student who became interested in the field of infectious disease after seeing how potent HIV medicines brought new hope to a devastating disease, and a physician who has experienced first-hand the challenges of providing evidence-based critical care in the face of a novel virus during the height of a COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Woods knows that medicine is always changing. What he sees on the horizon for medicine is an expansion of global collaboration and education to better care for patients. For example, using synchronous training to teach to residents and fellows at MedStar Health – and around the country. Or using a telehealth platform to help a physician across the globe manage a ventilator console.

When Dr. Woods is not practicing medicine or teaching residents and fellows, he enjoys spending time with family. He also turned to building complicated Lego sets during the COVID-19 pandemic to relieve stress – a hobby that he has continued alongside his two sons. Next up on his Lego list? A 9,000-piece replica of the Titanic.