Major

Eric Mecusker, D.O., is passionate about relating to patients on a human level and encouraging future and present physicians to do the same. He has been awarded recognition for his clinical teaching, both as an Internal Medicine resident and as a core faculty member for the Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship at City of Hope. His compassionate and collaborative approach has also been recognized by the Department of Supportive Care Medicine through the 2023 HOPE Colleague Award, given to physicians who have exemplified City of Hope’s Values and Mission..

Dr. Mecusker received his osteopathic medical degree from Western University of Health Sciences, College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific, Pomona, California. He continued his training in internal medicine at College Medical Center, Long Beach, California, and was a member of the inaugural class for the Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship at City of Hope, under the guidance of Director Sorin Buga, M.D. Dr. Mecusker now serves as the Associate Program Director for this Fellowship.

Dr. Mecusker’s journey to a career in medicine began at age 12 with a poem, describing a dream of one day donning the white coat. Two years later, this dream was solidified as a mission after his mother was diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer. Her cancer journey ended with her passing; two days short of the one-year anniversary of her diagnosis. He feels this experience has given him an insider’s perspective as a palliative care physician, as he can deeply appreciate being “on the other side of the table.”

To Dr. Mecusker, palliative medicine isn’t just about pain and symptom control, but about fostering a relationship to discuss hopes and wishes for the future no matter what it holds or how long it will take to get there. For Dr. Mecusker, palliative care is a return to the physician of the past, black bag in hand, who cared not just for singular patients, but for whole families. Dr. Mecusker also takes pride in his osteopathic training and offers Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine to eligible patients. This unique practice of “hands-on” care can help control pain and symptoms alongside typical medication management.

Katherin Peperzak, MD

Dr. Peperzak is an Associate Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology & Pain Medicine at the University of Washington. As a board-certified physician in Anesthesiology, Pain Medicine, and Addiction Medicine, she manages both acute and chronic pain in the inpatient and outpatient environments. She also serves as the Medical Director for the Center for Pain Relief at UWMC-Roosevelt, known for its multidisciplinary and comprehensive chronic pain care.

Michael Guarnieri, PhD, MPH

Michael Guarnieri, PhD, MPH has worked at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine from 1968 to the present except for a 10-year hiatus from 1975-1985 to design diagnostic tests for toxicology laboratories.  He has held faculty appointments in Neurology, Pharmacology, and Neurosurgery.  Currently, he holds an Emeritus appointment to Neurosurgery and is a member of the University Academy.   He has authored 105 publications, 4 books, and 6 patents.

Vanathi Gopalakrishnan, PhD

Vanathi Gopalakrishnan is a tenured Associate Professor of Biomedical Informatics in the School of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh. She has joint appointments in Bioengineering as well as Clinical and Translational Science. She directs the PRoBE Laboratory for Pattern Recognition from Biomedical Evidence. She recently served as the elected Director of the Intelligent Systems Program, a premier multidisciplinary graduate degree program in applied Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the School of Computing and Information. Her laboratory develops hybrid AI approaches to mining multimodal biomedical data using prior knowledge to support clinical decision making.

Thomas Robert Wojda, MD, MBA

Dr. Thomas Robert Wojda is an Assistant Professor of Family Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), PA, USA. He practices full-spectrum Family Medicine including Medication-Assisted Treatment for patients with Opioid Use Disorder. In addition to his clinical practice, he is a Clinical Informatics Fellow at UPMC, where he focuses on the ethics and implications of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in medicine.

Serena Mani, MPH

Associate Researcher

Serena Mani is a current Associate Researcher at CHADIS & Center for Promotion of Child Development through Primary Care. As part of CHADIS, she conducts research on the detection and treatment of autism, depression, and substance use in children and adolescents. She has completed her Master of Public Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health with certificates in Public Mental Health Research and Adolescent Health. Her primary research surrounds Intimate Partner Violence in India & Pediatric and Adolescent Mental Health.

Leigh Kinczewski, CRNP

Leigh received her BSN and MSN from the University of Pennsylvania in 2007 and 2014, respectively. She worked both as a staff nurse on oncology floors then transitioned to being a nurse practitioner with the Supportive Oncology and Palliative Care Program at Fox Chase Cancer Center – a role she holds to the present time. She completed her DNP at Temple University in 2022 focusing on integration of palliative care for hospitalized medical oncology patients. Leigh holds advanced hospice and palliative nurse certification.  At Fox Chase she is part of the IRB and Ethical Feeding Task Force. Nationally she is on the NCCN Cancer Related Fatigue guideline panel. She has presented at conferences nationally and internationally. She enjoys educating NPs, nurses, and physicians in training.

Dylan Sherry, MD

Dr. Sherry received his MD from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland, OH in 2015.  He then completed an Internal Medicine Residency and Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (Harvard Medical School) in Boston, MA.  He is board-certified in internal medicine and hospice/palliative medicine.  He is an Associate Professor in the Supportive Oncology and Palliative Care Program at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, PA.  At Fox Chase, Dr. Sherry is the chair of the Medical Ethics Committee and the Program Director for the Temple University Hospital/Fox Chase Cancer Center Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship.  His research and clinical interests focus on treatment of neuropathic pain, the use of buprenorphine for pain management, and the use of medical cannabis.  Dr. Sherry is a member of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine and the American College of Physicians.

Shelley Stevens, PharmD, BCPS

Clinical Pharmacy Practitioner

Shelley Stevens, PharmD, BCPS, received her BS (chemistry) and PharmD from the University of Florida. She completed two years of residency with the North Florida/South Georgia Veterans Health System (NF/SG VHS), including a PGY2 in Pain Management/Palliative Care in 2013. Since then, Shelley has worked for NF/SG VHS as a Clinical Pharmacy Specialist and Practitioner. Her career has centered around opioid stewardship, but her current clinical focus is the identification and management of opioid use disorder (OUD). To help increase access to care, Shelley became the first Clinical Pharmacist Practitioner within her system’s VISN (Veterans Integrated Services Network) to obtain a DEA license. She now manages OUD and complex pain patients independently.

Michelle Park, MD

Dr. Michelle Park is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Palliative Medicine of the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine at Emory University School of Medicine. She graduated from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and completed Internal Medicine residency training at the University of California, Irvine. She completed Hospice and Palliative Medicine fellowship training at New York University Langone.