Success stories from neonatal-perinatal medicine fellowship graduates
Graduates of our fellowship have built impactful careers as leaders in clinical care, research, education and healthcare innovation. Our alumni hold influential roles at top medical centers, academic institutions and research organizations worldwide. Explore how our program’s comprehensive training and mentorship empower fellows to achieve their professional goals and advance the field of neonatal-perinatal medicine.
Class of 2025
Volha Belavusava, MD
She spends her time away from work wither husband and 4-year-old son. She also loves exploring Boston and the small towns in Massachusetts.
Rebecca Satty, MD
When not at work she enjoys spending time with her husband, solving crossword puzzles, and searching for the best hot chocolate in Boston.
Maggie Vogel, DO
She fell in love with having 4 seasons in college and loves living and working in Boston. She enjoys spending time outdoors, listening to podcasts, baking and spending time with her pup.
Class of 2024
Samira Abudinen Vasquez, MD
Dr. Abudinen-Vasquez joined Tufts after her pediatric residency and chief year at Icahn School of Medicine at Sinai at Elmhurst. Her love for Neonatology grew as she bonded with newborns and their families. Her interests include Simulation and Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome. In her free time, she likes to go to the park with her husband and 10-month-old son. She also enjoys traveling and can’t wait to go back to Italy.
Neha Chaudhary, MD
Dr. Chaudhary was born in India and traveled to different countries in South East Asia during her childhood. She graduated from Maulana Azad Medical College, India for medical school and residency and did residency again from New York. Dr. Chaudhary has been a hospitalist in NICU at BIDMC also, did prior research work in patent ductus in preterm infants, covid 19 infection in newborns and am interested in pulmonary outcomes in newborns. She enjoys traveling, painting and bricklaying.
Eva Takhalova, DO
Dr. Takhalova grew up in Queens, New York. She completed a combined 7-year BS/DO program at New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine, followed by pediatric residency at NYU Langone Hospital – Long Island. She is interested in quality improvement, antibiotic stewardship, and bioethics in the NICU. Outside of work, she enjoys reading, walking through the scenic Boston Public Garden, and spending time with friends and family.
Class of 2023
Timothy Marinelli, DO
Dr. Marinelli grew up in Longmeadow, MA and completed medical school at University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine. He completed pediatrics residency at the University of Minnesota where he also studied the efficacy of delivering surfactant to premature infants by laryngeal mask airway. His area of interest for research is neurodevelopment in premature infants.
Hayley Wilcox, DO
Dr. Wilcox calls Massachusetts her home state. She graduated from University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine in Maine. Hayley attended Albany Medical Center for residency, and spent the last two years working as a NICU hospitalist in Boston. She is interested in quality improvement, transport medicine within NICU networks, and infectious disease. She spends her time away from work with her husband, two daughters, and cat, Moose. She enjoys hiking in the White Mountains, cross country skiing, and spending time outdoors.
Class of 2022
Sudesna Lakshman, MD
Dr. Lakshman grew up in Maine and graduated from Washington University in St. Louis prior to medical school at the University of Virginia. She joined Tufts Medical Center as a pediatric/neonatal hospitalist after completing pediatric residency at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children, Philadelphia. Dr. Lakshman decided to stay in Boston to pursue Neonatal-perinatal medicine fellowship at Tufts. Her research interests include pulmonary hypertension and health disparities. Outside of work, she enjoys traveling, culinary experiments and spending time with her husband & friends.
Shubham Bakshi, MD
Dr. Bakshi was born in Ahmedabad, India and grew up partly in India and then moved to Ohio at age 17. He graduated from Northeast Ohio Medical University and U Mass- Baystate Medical Center, Springfield, MA. His prior research experiences include effect of dysphagia on swallowing mechanism during medical school and during residency looked at effects of early fluid resuscitation in outcomes for VLBW infants. He is a Helping Babies Breathe (HBB) master trainer and taught the local birth attendants the basics of HBB during a rotation in India. His research interests include nutrition, fluids and electrolytes in premature infants. Outside of work, he enjoys sports, hiking and singing. He looks forward to exploring the city of Boston with his wife.
Class of 2021
Shawana Bibi, MD
Dr. Bibi grew up in Pakistan and graduated from Ayub Medical College in Pakistan. She joined Boston Children’s Hospital for residency after having done a pediatrics residency in Pakistan. Dr. Bibi decided to stay in Boston to pursue Neonatal-perinatal medicine fellowship at Tufts. She is exploring her research interest on Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome under the mentorship of Dr. Jonathan Davis looking into the use of novel biomarkers to predict severity of NAS especially in mothers with psychiatric illnesses. She is also pursuing Masters in Clinical and Translational Research which is partially funded through the NIH TL1 program. Outside of work, she enjoys cooking, travelling, spending time with family which includes her husband and two beautiful children. Dr. Bibi currently works in Cleveland Clinic as a Neonatologist.
Dara Azuma, MD
Dr. Azuma graduated from University of Hawaii for medical school and joined Tufts Medical Center at Tufts Medical Center for residency and decided to stay as a neonatal-perinatal medicine fellow. She is pursuing research under the mentorship of Drs. Maron and O'Tierney-Ginn at the Mother and Infant Research Institute at Tufts looking into salivary gene expression and metabolic profiles of Infant of Diabetic Mothers as predictors of feeding outcomes. Ethics and palliative care is another area which definitely sparks an interest. When not at work, Dr. Azuma likes to play tennis, softball and is a good baker. Now, Dr. Azuma is continuing to work at Tufts MC.
Tina Jumani, MD
Dr. Jumani came back to her home town after finishing medical school in Maine and residency at Albany Medical Center, NY. Dr. Jumani has been involved with Donor Breast Milk research at Tufts in the past testing the effects of Donor Breastmilk Feeding on Growth and Early Neurodevelopmental Outcomes in Preterm Infants. She is interested in outcomes associated with neonatal encephalopathy requiring total body cooling and is pursuing a multicenter project on effects of morphine during total body cooling. In her spare time, she loves trying out new restaurants in the Boston area. She loves to dance (Bollywood and Zumba), and run, in addition to spending time with her husband and family. Dr. Jumani currently works in St. Elizabeth's Medical Center as a Neonatologist.
Class of 2020
Raghava Kavalla, MBBS, MPH
Dr. Kavalla was born and raised in a beautiful city of Hyderabad in India. After finishing medical school, she moved to US to pursue Masters in Public Health at Brown University; later, she did two years of research at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She did her residency at Albert Einstein medical center in the city of brotherly love, where she found her love for neonatology. During residency, she became a master trainer in Helping Babies Breathe (HBB) Program through which she spent a month in Telangana, India teaching neonatal resuscitation to a group of midwives and nurses. She is pursuing global health research under the mentorship of Dr. Patricia Hibbard at BU. When not at work, she spends time with her husband and two adorable children Meera and Kiran.
Cathy (Xin) Yu, MD
Dr. Yu was born in Beijing, China and grew up in Springfield, IL. She went to medical school and residency at Southern Illinois University. She cherished being near family, and also met her husband in Springfield during medical school. After 6 years of training in the Mid-west, she finally decided to leave home and start her journey in the East Coast. Her scholarly interests are in quality improvement, looking at optimizing noise levels in the NICU and monitoring certain associated clinical outcomes. Outside of work, she enjoys eating, traveling and working out. Now, Dr. Yu works as a Neonatologist at Adventist Health White Memorial, LA.
Jane Chung, MD
There is not one place that Dr. Chung calls home because she has lived everywhere! She has journeyed through Los Angeles, Seoul, Korea, New Jersey, San Francisco, and San Diego. After finishing medical school at St. George’s University, she finished pediatric residency at Cooper University Hospital. Under the mentorship of Drs. Volpe and Iyengar, she is studying risk factors for developing BPD and respiratory outcomes with changing trends in respiratory care. She has already presented her preliminary findings at multiple national and regional meetings (PAS 2019, ESPR 2019, NEPS 2019, Children’s Hospital Consortium Meeting 2019 and several other regional conferences). She is working with Drs. Afzal and Tarui to identify risk factors for developing IVH and a targeted approach to reduce the incidence of IVH in our unit through a multidisciplinary quality improvement project which she will be presenting at VON, Chicago, 2019. Now, Dr. Chung is a Neonatologist at UCLA.
Class of 2019
Rina Mosley, DO
Dr. Mosley completed medical school and residency in Georgia at PCOM-GA and Medical College of Georgia respectively. She worked as a Pediatric and then NICU hospitalist prior to starting NICU fellowship. She completed a medical education based project under the mentorship of Dr. McGuirl on developing a NICU orientation curriculum for the interns and assessing their confidence, satisfaction and knowledge retention as well as working on a quality improvement initiative to optimize calcium phosphorous balance in the preterm TPN dependent population. She joined Tufts Tufts Medical Center as attending neonatologist.
Ramya Natarajan, MD
Dr. Natarajan completed the 7 year medical program at The College of New Jersey and UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School and residency at Albert Einstein-Jacobi Medical Center. During her fellowship at Tufts Medical Center, she pursued her research interests of medical education and simulation, completing her project “Impact of a HighFidelity Simulation Curriculum on Multidisciplinary Teamwork During Resuscitation and Transport of ELBW Infants’, which was heavily accepted for multiple presentations at national and regional meetings. She joined Tufts Tufts Medical Center as attending neonatologist and plans to pursue her simulation based interests.