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IMPACT Advisors

The Intestinal Malrotation Research Alliance is guided by an advisory board made up of patients, caregivers, researchers, and clinicians across multiple specialty areas including surgery, gastroenterology, nursing, clinical psychology, nutrition, epidemiology, and sociology.

Sydney Martinez, PhD, is an Associate Professor in Epidemiology at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. Her primary areas of research address tobacco- and cancer-related health disparities. When her daughter was diagnosed with intestinal malrotation in 2018, she expanded her areas of research to include studying the natural history of intestinal malrotation to identify ways of improving patient care for this condition. She developed IMPOWER, a national patient-generated research registry to characterize the natural history of malrotation and gain insight into symptoms, diagnosis, and outcomes of patients with malrotation. She now leads a series of ongoing patient-centered research studies bringing together patients, caregivers, researchers, and clinicians to improve healthcare of individuals with intestinal malrotation.

Katie E. Corcoran, PhD is a Professor of Sociology at West Virginia University who conducts research in the social determinants of health. She studies rare diseases, vaccination decisions, and maternal health. After her son was diagnosed with intestinal malrotation in 2018, she began studying predictors of delays in diagnosis of intestinal malrotation and long-term outcomes. She now engages in patient-centered research in collaboration with Dr. Sydney Martinez and an interdisciplinary scientific and patient/caregiver advisory board.

Darren Bodkin is a neonatologist at Oklahoma Children’s Hospital at OU Health. Oklahoma Children’s is an academic center with a level IV neonatal intensive care unit serving newborns as early as 22 weeks gestation. Dr. Bodkin’s research experience includes basic science with an animal model studying the effects of intermittent hypoxia and polyunsaturated fatty acids on gut microbiome. In fellowship he studied the antibacterial reactivity of breastmilk derived IgA among a cohort of donors. His current research effort involves sub investigator roles on numerous clinical trials such as the Noveome ST 266 study for necrotizing enterocolitis and a recently launched Omegaven phase 4 safety study. Dr. Bodkin’s research effort also includes optimizing parenteral nutrition for infants with intestinal failure. In his service with the malrotation research alliance he is working on building strong community partnerships with tertiary academic centers to improve the diagnosis, and care for the chronic symptomology of intestinal malrotation patients after Ladd’s.

Jordan Lee Slowik, PhD, RN, CPN is a nursing educator and researcher out of Bradenton, Florida. Jordan Lee is a certified pediatric nurse and earned her PhD in nursing education in May of 2024. She is passionate about neonatal and pediatric pain management, intestinal malrotation, pediatric nursing education, and faith-based higher education. Her oldest son was diagnosed with Intestinal Malrotation and had the LADDs procedure at 10 days old.

Mary Brown is a mother, wife and advocate for Intestinal Malrotation. Her journey began when her daughter Mya Brown passed away. Mya was born, January 15th, 2018, and passed away on February 15th, 2018. After her passing, she wanted to honor her in a way that would ensure no one would forget who she was. She put together the first ever awareness day on January 15, 2019. Since then, she has been involved in many ways so that she could help educate others on the signs and symptoms to look for so that no one will ever have to go through the pain her family has. Now every year on her birthday we as a community can rally together in spirit and remember all of those who still suffer and those that lost the battle. All of her work is in her name and her honor.

Christine Croyle, Ed.D., CCC-SLP provides leadership for the Outreach Center for Deafness and Blindness at OCALI as they work to build the capacity of professionals who serve learners who are Deaf/Hard of hearing or Blind/Visually impaired and support for their families. Christine has served as a school administrator, speech language pathologist, statewide evaluation team member for both The Ohio School for the Deaf and The Ohio State School for the Blind, and as an educational interpreter. She has presented at state, national, and international conferences on topics including leading inclusive models of education, instructional strategies, and designing spaces with accessibility in mind. Access is her passion. Access is also important to Dr. Croyle as a patient diagnosed with malrotation as an adult. This includes access to test results, medical information, professionals who understand malrotation, and others experiencing malrotation as patients and family members. She seeks to ensure that patients, families, and their providers have access to vital, current information about malrotation in order to receive the appropriate, timely care and support.

Dr. Catherine Peterson is a pediatric psychologist by training, helping to support children and families facing hospitalization and managing medical conditions. She is also a “Malro Mom;” her son Charlie was diagnosed with malrotation when he was 12 weeks old. Now, her professional and family worlds collide whenever she talks about IM, as she hopes to use her knowledge to better understand psychosocial and neurodevelopmental outcomes of gastrointestinal anomalies while also working to increase awareness of IM throughout the pediatrics community. And she still advocates for her son and cheers him on, even from afar now that he is a college student!

Kathy Blau, PhD, is a licensed Clinical Psychologist with a small private practice in Erie, CO. She has over a decade of experience in therapy and program development in a variety of settings, including community-based, behavioral health, managed care, and university counseling. Kathy received her PhD from Palo Alto University and spent her formative years training in rehabilitation psychology and trauma at the Palo Alto Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Kathy was diagnosed with intestinal malrotation after experiencing a volvulus in 2013 and is excited to connect her personal and professional experiences to help guide research on malrotation from both patient- and professional-informed perspectives.

Dr. Nagykaldi is a Professor and Director of Research in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. He is also the Research Director of the Oklahoma Physicians Resource / Research Network and the Associate Director of Community-Engaged Research within the Oklahoma Shared Clinical and Translational Resource and the Oklahoma Primary Healthcare Improvement Collaborative. Since 2001, Dr. Nagykaldi has been working closely with healthcare professionals throughout the United States and internationally to improve the quality, safety, cost, and experience of healthcare through translational practice- and community-engaged health services research and implementation-dissemination science. He participated in or led a number of research and quality improvement projects that focused on preventive services delivery, management of chronic conditions, patient and community-centered healthcare, clinical decision support, shared decision making, and the development or implementation of health information technology in primary care settings.

As a young child, Annette Wilcox, made her first of many trips to the Emergency Department for abdominal pain. This pattern repeated throughout the decades, where she was told everything from: “Eat more fiber.” “Eat less fiber.” “It’s just PMS.” to “Relax, you are having anxiety.” In her mid-50’s she was finally diagnosed with Intestinal Malrotation (and all the fun things that go with that diagnosis) that lead to a LADD procedure with an appendectomy. Ms. Wilcox enjoyed a 30+ year career in education serving as a special education classroom teacher (K-12), then a supervisor, and finally as an Early Education preschool director. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of her local school district as well as the local intermediate unit. Ms. Wilcox is excited to join the Intestinal Malrotation Research Alliance as an IMPACT advisor.

Michelle Gerlowski works in development for Breakthrough T1D, the leading global organization funding type 1 diabetes (T1D) research. As the mother of a child who showed signs of malrotation with volvulus at just a day old, her life was forever changed when she learned of this condition. Fortunately for Michelle, her son’s surgery was successful. However after her son had a second unexpected surgery and several other digestive issues, she made it her mission to be his fiercest advocate. Michelle hopes to use her nonprofit and marketing background to help make intestinal malrotation a more widely recognized condition.

Dr. Tsikis’s hometown is Rhodes, Greece. He received his MD from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, pursued a number of clinical research projects, and was elected to the Gold Humanism Honor Society. Dr. Tsikis went on to complete his Pediatric Surgery Postdoctoral Research Fellowship training under the mentorship of Dr. Mark Puder. He is currently a chief resident at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. His research interests include intestinal failure and parenteral nutrition.

Dr. Menchini is a pediatric gastroenterologist at WVU Medicine Children’s in Morgantown, WV. She obtained her medical doctorate from West Virginia University. She completed pediatric residency at University of Virginia and pediatric gastroenterology fellowship at Emory University. She is currently an Associate Professor and Associate Residency Program Director at WVU School of Medicine. She is also the Medical Director of Endoscopy at WVU Medicine Children’s. She spends most of her time in clinical care, seeing patients through referral in the pediatric gastroenterology clinic and performing endoscopy.