Cummings Lab Meet Our Team

Christy Cummings, MD, HEC-C

Principal Investigator, Neonatologist & Ethicist, Boston Children's Hospital

A graduate of Colby College, Dr. Cummings received her medical degree from the University of Rochester, and training in Pediatrics, Neonatology and Ethics at Yale.  She participated in Yale’s Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics Program in Bioethics and completed the Fellowship Program in Medical Ethics through the Division of Medical Ethics at Harvard Medical School. She also is a certified healthcare ethics consultant (HEC-C) through the American Society for Bioethics & Humanities.

Dr. Cummings is an NICHD-funded physician-scientist-ethicist, an attending neonatologist in the Division of Newborn Medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital, and Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School.  As an Ethics Associate, she is a longstanding member of the Ethics Advisory Committee at Boston Children’s Hospital and is also Director of Medical Ethics & Humanities for the Division of Newborn Medicine. She previously served on the BCH IRB for over 6 years and is now Chair of the Fetal Therapy Board for the Fetal Care & Surgery Center. 

Her research and scholarly activities focus broadly on studying important issues in medical ethics and humanism in pediatrics and neonatology and their intersection with medical education, including counseling, communication, and decision-making. She is passionate about research that cultivates the moral, human aspect of medicine. Dr. Cummings is the mother of 4 children, and enjoys time with her family, running, swimming, triathlons, reading, and playing the ‘cello.

Annie Sullivan, MD

Neonatologist, Boston Children's Hospital

Dr. Annie Sullivan is an Attending Physician in Medicine in the Division of Newborn Medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital. She is also an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Sullivan is a graduate of Middlebury College and received her medical degree from the University of Connecticut School of Medicine. She completed her training in pediatrics at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and her neonatology training in the Harvard Neonatal-Perinatal Fellowship program where she also served as Chief Fellow. She also completed the Fellowship Program in Medical Ethics through the Division of Medical Ethics at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Sullivan serves as the Director of Medical Education for the Division of Newborn Medicine. Dr. Sullivan's scholarly activities focus broadly on counseling, communication, and their intersection with medical education.

David N Williams, PhD, MA

Senior biostatistician, Biostatistics and Research Design Center

David received a MA in Sociology from Washington State University. Following five years in quality improvement at Hewlett-Packard, he worked and consulted in change management and statistical process control in service industry, government and healthcare sectors. Clints ranged from Caterpillar Tractor, the White House, Immigration and Naturalization, FEMA, an array of hospitals, to California Departments of Child Support Enforcement. His consulting work consistently combined training at all organizational levels in the hands-on application of strategic as well as tactical tools necessary for successful change. During this time two of the three books he authored were published. He left consulting to complete his PhD and went to work with Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. In this role he has supported a large number of quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods clinical studies.      

In this latter part of his career, he has committed himself to establishing support for qualitative and mixed methods research at Boston Children’s Hospital. This has involved design and delivery of training webinars, a resource library, a researcher support forum as well as on-going support for researchers utilizing these methods. Although edging into retirement, he currently teaches qualitative and mixed methods research and mentors students in the Harvard Medical School Master’s of Science in Medical Education program as well as supporting on-going projects. 

Stephen D. Brown, MD, FACR, HEC-C 

Radiologist & Clinical Ethicist, Boston Children's Hospital

Dr. Stephen Brown is a pediatric radiologist and clinical ethicist at Boston Chidlren's Hospital, and Associate Professor, Part-time, at HMS. He received his MD from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He completed his residency in Diagnostic Radiology at Massachusetts General Hospital, fellowships in Pediatric Radiology and Pediatric Interventional Radiology at Boston Children's Hospital, and the fellowship in Medical Ethics at HMS. His scholarship explores the intersection of technology, ethics and communication. His career has focused on exploring this intersection empirically, coupled with extensive related teaching, educational programming and curriculum development, simulation-based training, and policy development. 

His awards have included a Boston Children's Hospital Faculty Career Development Award / HMS Eleanor and Miles Shore 50th Anniversary Faculty Scholarship in Medicine, the inaugural American Roentgen Ray Society Leonard Berlin Scholarship in Medical Professionalism, the Radiological Society of North America Education Scholar Award, the Boston Children’s Hospital Academy Medical Educator Award for Innovative Scholarship in Medical Education, and grants from the Kornfeld Program in Bioethics and Patient Care, the Greenwall Foundation, and the Harvard University Milton Fund.

Donna Luff, PhD

Director, Center for Education Excellence & Innovation, Boston Children's Hospital

Donna Luff is Director of Educational Innovation and Scholarship for Professional Development in Education (PDE) within the Center for Educational Excellence and Innovation at Boston Children’s Hospital, and an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School. She received her PhD in Sociological Studies from the University of Sheffield, UK.

In her current role, Donna develops educational strategies, promotes educational research and academic collaboration, and ensures continuous improvement in PDE. In June 2024, she graduated from the inaugural cohort of a new Boston Children’s Hospital Pediatric Health Equity and Inclusion Leadership Development Program. Previously, Donna was a leader in simulation-based education at Boston Children’s Hospital, most recently as Director of Training and Performance at Immersive Design Systems (Simulator Program) and earlier as Associate Director of the Institute for Professionalism and Ethical Practice, developing simulation to enhance communication skills. From 2007-2014, she served as Associate Program Director for the Harvard-wide Pediatric Health Services Research Fellowship Program, teaching and mentoring on qualitative methods. Her career research focuses on clinician and patient experience of service delivery, with an increasing focus on equity and inclusion, and on the application of qualitative methodologies. 

Donna has taught widely on qualitative research. Since 2017 she has served as qualitative faculty for the American Society of Hematology Medical Education Institute, and she currently leads a course on qualitative research within the Master of Medical Sciences in Medical Education at Harvard Medical School.

Erin Ward, MEd, CAS

Patient Engagement Consultant

Erin served as Associate Faculty for the Institute for Professionalism and Ethical Practice at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School for 15 years and continues to facilitate medical education programs to enhance patient-provider communication and shared decision making.  Erin helped co-design the Program to Enhance Relational and Communication Skills: Difficult Conversations in the NICU course, aimed at improving shared decision-making among NICU multidisciplinary teams and families.  Erin also participated in the research and development of the Ethics and Professionalism Curriculum in Neonatology on OPENPediatrics. Erin combines her professional skills with her personal experiences, as a mother to a son who spent time in the NICU and lived with rare disease, to work towards improving care and patient-professional partnerships across both clinical and therapeutic drug development systems.  With the evolving landscape of gene and cell therapy, Erin is interested in the field’s impact on family experiences and decision-making in neonatal care settings and is committed to thinking about how best to support families and medical care teams navigating these new care innovations and decisions. Erin is also a Patient Engagement Consultant for Boston Children’s Hospital’s complex spine, multidisciplinary trach, and complex care teams. As an academic researcher, author, and presenter, her primary focus is on the topics of patient engagement, complex care, and rare disease advocacy.

Vanessa Young MS, BA, RN, CRN-BC

Clinical Coordinator/Research Program Manager, Division of Newborn Medicine – Research Program, Boston Children's Hospital

Vanessa Young is currently the Clinical Research Program Manager for the Division of Newborn Medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital. Her current responsibilities include ongoing development of the infrastructure and growth of the Clinical Research Program. She has a special interest in regulatory affairs, ethics, and management and oversight of national and international multi-site clinical trials. She trained as a nurse in the UK, where she also obtained her BA in nursing, and specialized in the NICU at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle Upon Tyne. 

On moving to the US, she worked as a Clinical Leader on the NICU at University Medical Center, Tucson, AZ and following her move to Boston 16 years ago, she transitioned into a clinical research role. Vanessa also obtained her MS in Clinical Research at Drexel University. 

Rylee Kerper, MPH

Clinical Research Specialist, Boston Children's Hospital

Rylee Kerper is a member of the Clinical Research Team in Newborn Medicine. She completed her Bachelor of Science in Medical Anthropology as well as her Master of Public in Epidemiology at The University of Iowa. Throughout her coursework, she worked in maternal and child health initiatives, as well as clinical research design and management. She joined Newborn Medicine at Boston Children's Hospital in 2019 and has worked on the development, implementation, and maintenance of clinical research protocols in division. Much of Rylee’s work focuses on the regulatory management of clinical research in the Division of Newborn Medicine, as well as participant recruitment and engagement with research studies.

Stephanie Kinlay, MPH, BSN, RN, CCRN

Clinical Research Nurse, Boston Children's Hospital

Stephanie is a Clinical Research Nurse (CRN) and Lead Children’s Hospital Neonatal Consortium Database (CHND) Data Manager in the Division of Newborn Medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital. She obtained her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Simmons College and later completed her Master of Public Health at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Previously she worked as a pediatric nurse in the Medical ICU and Cardiac Unit at Boston Children’s Hospital, and as a pediatric nurse at Westmead Children’s Hospital in Australia and at Yale New Haven Hospital, Connecticut. Stephanie’s work includes participant recruitment and study management, along with managing the Division’s CHND team. Her professional interests include streamlining processes to track and manage multi-study enrollments along with fostering relationships between study and clinical teams to promote effective communication and collaboration on clinical studies. 

Gia Yannekis, MD 

NICU Fellow, Harvard Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine Fellowship Training Program 

Dr. Gia Yannekis is a chief fellow in the Harvard Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine Fellowship Training Program and a research fellow in the Harvard-Wide Pediatric Health Services Research Fellowship. She obtained a bachelor's degree in Sociology from Barnard College and a medical degree from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. She then completed her pediatric residency at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia as chief resident. She is currently completing a Master of Public Health degree at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health with coursework focused on healthcare management and quality improvement. Her academic interests include medical education, palliative care and patient and team communication, and addressing structural barriers to delivery of high-quality neonatal care. She is currently working with Dr. Cumming's on a quality improvement project focused on enhancing structured antenatal counseling education for neonatal-perinatal medicine fellows, as well as on the VirtueUS study exploring behaviors and virtues that parents value in their neonatologists.

Derek Soled, Md, MBA, MSc

MGB/BCH Internal Medicine & Pediatrics Resident

Dr. Soled is a resident physician and rising chief resident in the Harvard Combined Internal Medicine-Pediatrics Program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston Children’s Hospital, and Boston Medical Center. His research is at the intersection of clinical medicine, health policy and business, and the medical humanities. Derek received his medical degree magna cum laude from Harvard Medical School, his master of business administration degree with High Distinction from Harvard Business School as a Baker Scholar, his master of science degree from the University of Oxford as a Walter Byers Scholar, and his bachelor of arts degree summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Yale University.

Habeebah Muhammad-Kamal, MBE

HMS MBE Graduate Student '25, MD anticipated UK ‘26

Habeebah Muhammad Kamal is a Master of Science in Bioethics student at Harvard Medical School (anticipated ’25) and a final-year medical student (MBBS) at Hull York Medical School, United Kingdom (anticipated ’26).

Habeebah’s research interests explore the ethical considerations of artificial intelligence (AI) in qualitative research, clinical decision-making, and counselling, focusing on informed consent, data protection, transparency, and equity in the clinical application of machine-learning algorithms. Habeebah is also a clinical associate at QDR Health, an AI healthcare company implementing predictive technology in heart failure management. For seven years, she has served as a lay partner for Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, London, where she advocates for patient-centered initiatives and is committed to improving healthcare for underserved communities.

Her bioethical interests include paediatric/neonatal ethics, reproductive ethics, and the integration of virtue ethics into medical education After graduation, Habibat plans to pursue a career in medical education, healthcare innovation, and policy.