About Our Program: Meet our Team

 Children’s Heart Institute

Richard Jonas, MD

Dr. Jonas is chief of Cardiac Surgery and Co-Director of the Children's National Heart Institute, and performs over 350 cardiac surgeries each year. Dr. Jonas is one of the foremost pediatric cardiac surgeons in the world. The single author of one textbook, Dr. Jonas has written 30 book chapters, published 281 journals and collaborated on four textbooks.

Gerard Martin, MD

Dr. Martin is the executive director of the Center for the Heart, Lung and Kidney Disease and chief of the Division of Cardiology at Children's. Dr. Martin has more than 60 publications in the field of pediatric cardiology. He is an invited speaker nationally and internationally and is an acknowledged expert in the area of pediatric echocardiography and fetal cardiology. International patients see Dr. Martin for follow- up visits and evaluation at Children's Outpatient Centers.

Jeffrey Moak, MD

Children’s is one of the few programs in the region dedicated to and specializing in the treatment of fetuses, infants, children, adolescents, and young adults with all types of arrhythmias. In our electrophysiology laboratory, Dr. Moak leads a team that utilizes multiple diagnostic modalities to facilitate accurate arrhythmia ablation and increase ablation success rates.

Michael Slack, MD

Once used primarily for diagnoses only, cardiac catheterization has evolved into a major treatment based procedure. Currently almost two thirds of all cardiac catheterization procedures performed at Children’s involve a therapeutic intervention. Dr. Slack is an internationally recognized expert in the field of cardiac catheterization. Children’s offers all currently available catheterization treatment options available in the United States.

Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders

Max Coppes, MD, PhD, MBA

Max Coppes, MD, PhD, MBA, is the executive director of the Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders. For nine years, he served as the director of the Children’s Cancer Program at the Alberta Children’s Hospital in Calgary, Canada. In addition, Dr. Coppes was the Senior Medical Officer for Canadian Affairs of the Children’s Oncology Group (COG) and the Canadian Council for Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Directors. He also is an internationally recognized expert in Wilms tumors, the most common form of kidney cancer in children. Dr. Coppes is fluent in Dutch, French and Spanish and is proficient in German.

Jeffrey S. Dome, MD

Jeffrey S. Dome, MD, is Children’s division chief of Oncology and acting division chief of Hematology at Children’s. Dr. Dome joined Children’s from St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. He is internationally renowned for his work in Wilms tumors and telomere biology. Dr. Dome has recently been appointed to chair of COG’s Renal Tumor Committee.

Naynesh R. Kamani, MD

Naynesh R. Kamani, MD, is the chief of the division of Stem Cell Transplantation and Immunology at Children’s. He is nationally recognized for his contributions to the field of pediatric stem cell transplantation and serves as the chair of the non-malignant diseases strategy group of the Pediatric Blood and Marrow Transplant Consortium. He serves on the Board of Directors of the National Marrow Donor Program and the Executive Committee of the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research. Dr. Kamani is fluent in Amharic and Gujarati and proficient in Spanish.

Neurosurgery and Neuro-Oncology

Robert F. Keating, MD

Robert F. Keating, MD, is the division chief of Neurosurgery at Children’s and an associate professor of Neurological Surgery and Pediatrics at the George Washington University School of Medicine. A renowned neurosurgeon, his sub-specialties include brain tumors, craniofacial malformations, spina bifida, and spasticity. Dr. Keating is the lead editor of Tumors of the Pediatric Central Nervous System, a standard reference for this sub-specialty. As the lead surgeon in a conjoined twins’ separation, Dr. Keating led the separation of spinal cords and neurological function monitoring.

Tobey MacDonald, MD

Tobey MacDonald, MD, is the director of the Neuro-Oncology Program at Children’s and an associate professor of Pediatrics at the George Washington University. After receiving his undergraduate and graduate degrees from Cornell University, Dr. MacDonald moved to Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles for his internship and residency, as well as fellowship training in pediatric hematology-oncology and pediatric neuro-oncology. Dr. MacDonald leads the brain tumor scientific effort at Children’s, having authored a landmark study of the genetic causes of medulloblastoma metastasis. He is the co-chair of the Pediatric Brain Tumor Consortium Biology Committee and initiated the opening of the first national pediatric brain tumor proteomics lab at Children’s, spearheading the national effort to develop a new way to look at the biology of brain tumors that is not dependent upon invasive surgery.

Roger J. Packer, MD

Roger J. Packer, MD, is the executive director of the Center for Neuroscience and Behavioral Medicine at Children’s and professor of Neurology and Pediatrics at the George Washington University. Dr. Packer has long been a leader in the care of children with brain tumors. Dr. Packer led the Brain Tumor Strategy Group of the Children’s Cancer Group (COG). He serves as chairman of COG’s Medulloblastoma Committee and is a chair of the Neuroscience Committee. He is the group chair of the new Clinical Trials Consortium for Neurofibromatosis. Dr. Packer’s past work has led to the development of “standard” approaches for children in the United States and throughout the world for medulloblastoma and low-grade astrocytomas, the most common benign brain tumor in children. Through Children’s Brain Tumor Program, Dr. Packer evaluates one in every 10 children in the United States with a brain tumor.

Kurt Newman, MD

Kurt Newman, MD, is the executive director of the Joseph E. Robert, Jr., Center for Surgical Care at Children’s. He has been a surgeon at Children's since 1984. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of North Carolina and received his medical education at Duke University. He began his surgical training in the Harvard program at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston, rising to the level of chief resident. He did his pediatric surgical fellowship at Children's National Medical Center under the tutelage of Dr. Judson Randolph, and then joined the attending staff at Children's in Washington, DC. Dr. Newman is an expert in clinical resource management and has served as a consultant to several children's hospitals in conjunction with the Child Health Corporation of America. 

Orthopaedics

Laurel Blakemore, MD

Laurel Blakemore, MD, is the division chief of Orthopaedic Surgery at Children’s. She received her training at the University of Alabama School of Medicine and completed her residency at the University of Michigan. Additionally, she completed her fellowship at Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital. She was a faculty member in pediatric orthopaedics at Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital in Cleveland, as well as Mott Children’s Hospital in Ann Arbor before joining Children’s National. Dr. Blakemore specializes in treating children with scoliosis and spinal deformities, as well as adolescent sports medicine and pediatric trauma.

Laura Tosi, MD

Laura Tosi, MD, is the director of the Bone Health Program at Children’s. Her practice focuses on orthopaedic management of children with physical disabilities and birth defects. Dr. Tosi also works to increase physician awareness of bone health issues for women and children, with the goal of reducing debilitating bone injury as the population ages. She is a graduate of Harvard Medical School and completed her internship and residency at Columbia Presbyterian Medical School. Additionally, Dr. Tosi completed a fellowship in orthopaedic surgery at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.