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

Jeanette Beauté
Chief Resident

Jeanette was raised in Providence, Rhode Island and moved to Boston for her undergraduate studies where she earned a degree in Neuroscience from Boston University. She spent a few years working as a clinical research coordinator at Boston Children’s Hospital where her passion for pediatric medicine blossomed. She attended UMass Medical School where she continued her work in clinical research and mentoring. Throughout residency she has been active in teaching; both formal teaching including leading the pediatric procedural team; working as a PALS instructor; as well as informal teaching on the wards. She also participates in diversity, equity, and inclusion education, specifically upstander training for residents and with plans to expand it to the multidisciplinary pediatric team. After her 2023-2024 chief year she intends to attend a Pediatric Emergency Medicine Fellowship. In her free time, she enjoys baking, camping, dancing, playing tennis and most importantly spending time with her husband, Ethan an EM resident, and her newborn son Hunter who enjoys cuddles, naps, and music.

Anna Klouda
Chief Resident

Anna was raised in Lancaster, Massachusetts. She graduated from UMass Amherst with a degree in Biology. She then went to UMass Medical School. Her interests include medical education and advocacy. Throughout residency, she has been active in medical education projects, planning Residents and Fellows Day at the State House and working with the MGH Center for Gun Violence Prevention. Anna is excited to be a chief resident this year and is currently applying to Palliative Care fellowship. In her free time, she enjoys running, baking, reading and taking advantage of all that living in Boston has to offer!

Pietro Miozzo
Chief Resident

Pietro is originally from Padua, Italy and came to the US as a small child, finally ending up in New York City. After middle school, he went to live in Cambridge, UK where he attended high school and studied violin at the Royal College of Music in London. He returned to the US for undergraduate studies at Yale University, majoring in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology. In college, he developed an interest in immunology research, working on autoimmune disease. He then spent a year at the National Institutes of Health as a research fellow, studying B cell metabolism. He returned to New England for medical school at the University of Massachusetts. After chief residency, he hopes to pursue hematology-oncology fellowship and focus on the intersections of medical education with serious illness conversations. Outside of work, Pietro enjoys cooking, going on bike rides with his fiancée Emma, and raising a mischievous cat named Olive.

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.