Pediatric Residency Program: Meet Our Leadership Team

Joanne Wolfe, MD, MPH, is the Chair of Pediatrics at Mass General for Children and the Chair of Pediatrics at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She previously served as the Division of Pediatric Palliative Care in the Department of Psychosocial Oncology and Palliative Care at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Director of Palliative Care at Boston Children’s Hospital (BCH) for nearly 30 years. She also served as the Vice President for Faculty Development at the Dana-Farber. She is Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. She holds an MD degree (1990) from Harvard Medical School and an MPH (1998) from the Harvard School of Public Health.

Dr. Wolfe’s research is focused on easing suffering and promoting wellbeing in children with serious illness and their families. She also co-directs the Multinational Pediatric Palliative Care Research Network.

Shaun Fitzgerald, MD, MPH
Director, Pediatric Residency Program
sffitzgerald@mgh.harvard.edu

Dr. Shaun Fitzgerald is a pediatric hospitalist at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Program Director for the Pediatrics Resident Program at Mass General for Children.

He was born and raised in the Greater Boston Area and attended College of the Holy Cross as an undergraduate, before moving to Chicago to complete his service in AmeriCorps working for the National AIDS Fund. He returned to Massachusetts to complete medical school at UMass Medical School followed by his pediatric residency at MGfC. He also completed a pediatric hospital medicine fellowship at Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, CA, simultaneously earning an MPH from UC-Berkeley. Dr. Fitzgerald finds that caring for hospitalized children imparts a deep sense of meaning to his practice which he enjoys sharing with trainees. In addition, he finds that the inpatient care space provides a rich learning environment for trainees to develop not only knowledge in the management of acute and chronic illness, but also the skills necessary to provide effective patient and family-centered care.

Outside of clinical practice, Dr. Fitzgerald actively participates in process improvement projects with residents, leveraging their experience in front line care and desire to innovate care delivery to bring about better and more equitable care for children at MGH and beyond. Dr. Fitzgerald’s academic interests also lie in antibiotic stewardship among hospitalized pediatric patients. In all capacities, the times spent working with, teaching, and learning from residents have been among Dr. Fitzgerald’s favorite and most rewarding experiences. He is very excited to help lead the new generation of MGfC trained pediatricians.

Daniel Hall, MD
Associate Program Director
daniel.hall@mgh.harvard.edu

Dr. Daniel Hall is originally from Derry, NH, about an hour north of Boston. He studied Biology and Physics at Bowdoin College in Maine. The year after graduation, he worked closely with the college and the Brunswick community as an AmeriCorps volunteer coordinating local mentoring programs for elementary and middle school aged children. He returned to Boston to attend BU School of Medicine and completed his pediatrics residency at MGH, staying on for an additional year as a chief resident. He currently works in primary care at the MGH Revere Healthcare Center. He continues to teach residents on the wards as well as the resident as educator program. Dan lives in Boston with his wife who works in education, his two kids, and their German Shepherd mutt. Outside of work, he is an avid runner and enjoys the challenge of maneuvering around the city streets behind the wheels of a baby jogger.

Ariel Frey-Vogel, MD
Associate Program Director
afrey@mgh.harvard.edu

Dr. Ariel Frey-Vogel grew up in Acton, MA, and went to Harvard University for her undergraduate degree. She then spent two years teaching third grade in Baltimore City with Teach for America while obtaining her Masters in the Art of Teaching at Johns Hopkins University. She returned north for medical school at Yale and did her residency in combined internal medicine and pediatrics at MGH, acting as chief resident for the program in her fourth year. She was thrilled to be asked to stay on after residency and spends a quarter of her time as an Associate Program Director for the MGfC Pediatric Residency Program and half practicing primary care med-peds at an MGH community site in Everett. She recently took on the role of Director of Curriculum Development and Evaluation for the MGfC Department of Pediatrics and is heading the new Pediatric Education, Innovation, and Research Center at MGfC in that role. She enjoys spending time with her third year med student husband and two young children.

Katherine Sparger, MD
Associate Program Director
ksparger@mgh.harvard.edu

Dr. Kate Sparger is originally from the Midwest and grew up in Wisconsin and Ohio. She attended Miami University as an undergraduate, followed by the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine. She was a pediatric resident and chief resident in the Boston Combined Residency Program. Kate subsequently pursued neonatology training in the Harvard Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine Fellowship Program where she served a year as chief fellow. Post-fellowship, Kate was invited to stay on as faculty in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at MGH where she enjoys caring for complex and critically ill neonates, attending deliveries, and teaching trainees. Kate joined the MGfC Pediatric Residency Program as an Associate Program Director in 2014. She also serves as Site Director at MGH for the Harvard Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine Fellowship Program. When she is not in the NICU, Kate’s medical education efforts are focused on teaching and developing multidisciplinary newborn simulation opportunities including in situ NICU and Level 2 nursery simulation, ECMO simulation, Labor & Delivery Crisis Resource Management team training, procedural training, as well as collaborative simulation training with community hospital partners in Massachusetts, Maine, and New Hampshire. Outside of work, Kate enjoys spending time with her husband, 3 and 8 year old daughters, and Labrador puppy Moose.

Chief Residents 2024-2025

Emily Anderson, MD, MPH
Chief Resident

Emily grew up in Grafton, Massachusetts. She went to Colby College for undergrad and Tulane University for a Masters of Science in Public Health. She returned to Massachusetts for medical school at Tufts. She was a surgical resident before transitioning into the world of pediatrics at Mass General for Children (MGfC) in 2021. During her residency Emily worked as a research assistant in Mariella Filbin's lab at Dana-Farber and did research with Dr. Yock in the MGH Proton Beam Center. She is now a chief resident at MGfC and applying into a hematology/oncology fellowship. In her free time, she enjoys reading, Pilates, exploring Boston's culinary scene with her partner Dave, and going for walks with her black lab Lucy.

Andrew Cohen, MD
Chief Resident

Andrew was born and raised in Portland, Maine. He graduated from Connecticut College with a degree in Biochemistry and has been in Boston ever since. He attended Tufts University School of Medicine prior to residency here at MGfC. He is a rising pediatric chief resident and plans to apply to the Pediatric Emergency Medicine fellowship in the future. His interests include medical education, simulation, and ultrasound. He spends his free time running, hiking, traveling, usually on the hunt for new restaurants and breweries.

Rebecca Weinstein, MD
Chief Resident

Becca grew up in Newton, Massachusetts. She did undergrad and medical school both at the University of Maryland. She was excited to return closer to home for residency. She loves having easy access to the coast in the summer and the mountains in the winter – there’s no shortage of activities in New England. When she’s not at work, she spends her time exploring the Boston food scene, taking hot yoga classes, and traveling to new places. She’s serving as a chief resident this academic year and is applying into pediatric emergency medicine.

Residency Education Program Coordinator Team

Leslie Bretón – Pediatric and Med-Peds Residency Education

Leslie is originally from Cali, Colombia and has split her time between living in her home country and Northern California. A graduate of California State University, Monterey Bay, Leslie has been applying her film, stage, and event management skills to Medical Education – a career she fell into in 2010 when she began working for Stanford University’s School of Medicine, in their Center for Immersive & Simulated Learning (CISL) as the Standardized Patient Program Coordinator. Her pursuit of all things medical education drove her to move to New England in 2014 and she has been with MGfC since the fall of 2019. The Pediatrics and Med-Peds residencies are incredibly special to her, and she is continuously in awe of the talent of every trainee that passes through; their innate talent; and the beautiful humans they are. Among her many responsibilities, Leslie works in process-improvement; credentialing & onboarding; and managing the interview season for both of her programs. Outside of work, Leslie is the Lead Snack Provider for her 7-year-old overlord; paints; writes about the human experience; runs drives for one of the economically disadvantaged schools in Peabody, MA; and loves helping wherever there is a need. She is extremely grateful to her colleagues who are exceptional humans that make every day an incredible adventure.

Matthew Brown
Medical Education Coordinator

Matthew was born and raised in the Boston area. He graduated from Lasell University in Newton, Massachusetts, where he studied Business Management. Before joining the MGfC Residency Coordinator Team in 2021, Matthew served as a Program Coordinator for a youth job/career readiness program, and also a physical education teacher. As a former athlete, Matthew values being part of a team and contributing positive efforts with others, so accepting this role here at MGfC was easy for him. At MGfC, Matthew leads orientation scheduling, evaluation management, ambulatory rotation scheduling, and many other tasks. When he’s not at work, Matthew enjoys spending time with family and friends and, as a huge Boston Celtics fan, he loves watching them play, especially live at the TD Garden, not far from the hospital.

Amal Ezzat

Healthcare has always been a great passion of mine, from grade school all the way through my college education at Suffolk. I have over 6 years of experience in the field, most of which has been within MGB. Throughout my career, I have worked in various roles at MGB, from direct patient care to administrative positions. My passion for helping others has led me to this field, and I am excited to continue making a difference in the lives of patients and their families. In my free time, I enjoy traveling, reading, and spending time with my family and friends.