Executive Committee

Douglas Barnhart is a Professor of Surgery in the Division of Pediatric Surgery at the University of Utah and is the Medical Director for Surgical Quality and Safety at Primary Children’s Hospital. He served as Chair of the Steering and Measurement and Evaluation Committees for American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program-Pediatric (NSQIP-Pediatric). He participated in the Task Forces for Children’s Surgery that preceded the ACS Children’s Surgery Verification Program (CSVP). He is currently the Co-Chair for the Children’s Surgery Verification Program. Doug is a Councilor of the American Board of Surgery and is Vice-Chair of the Pediatric Surgery Board.

Dr. Cynthia Downard is a general pediatric surgeon in Louisville, KY. She is the Program Director of the Pediatric Surgery Fellowship Training Program, a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics and fellow of the American College of Surgeons. In her free time, Dr. Downard enjoys spending time with her husband and two daughters. She also likes to play tennis, travel, and is an amateur food critic.

Dr. Fallat is the current Vice Chair of the Children’s Surgery Verification Committee for the ACS Optimal Resources for Children’s Surgical Care Program.  Besides surgical quality, her interest areas include access to care, trauma, and emergency medical services (EMS).  Dr. Fallat is funded by HRSA as program director for the KY EMS for Children program. She participated in the Institute of Medicine project “The Future of Emergency Care in the U.S. Health System” as a member of the Subcommittee on Pediatric Emergency Care. She is a current member of the National EMS Advisory Council representing the trauma sector, a consultant to the ACS Committee on Trauma, and Vice President of the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma. scitation strategies for terminally ill children who need surgery and anesthesia.

Dr. Gaines has a long-standing interest in pediatric injury and injury prevention. She was a founding member and past-president of the Pediatric Trauma Society (PTS) and a past board president of the Injury Free Coalition for Kids. Currently, she serves as the pediatric specialty chair of the ACS-COT and the publication committee chair of PTS. Her research interests include the study of trauma induced coagulopathy, whole blood resuscitation, and primary injury prevention in children. She is actively involved in trauma system development and assessment, primarily through the COT.

Brian D. Kenney, MD, MPH
Professor of Clinical Surgery
Ohio State University College of Medicine
Surgical Director of Quality Improvement
Director of the Pediatric Surgical Critical Care Fellowship Program
Nationwide Children’s Hospital
Columbus, OH

Dr. Kenney’s clinical interests are in the care of critically ill pediatric surgical patients and in minimally invasive surgery of pediatric chest and abdominal conditions. His research interests are in clinical epidemiology, health services research, trauma and surgical critical care.

Kevin Lally, MD, MS, FACS
Executive Director

Monica E. Lopez, MD, MS, FACS, FAAP
Vice Chair for Surgical Quality and Evidence-Based Systems
Vanderbilt Department of Pediatric Surgery
Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital
Nashville, TN

Dr. Lopez’s research is focused on the development and implementation of evidence-based clinical standards to optimize children’s surgery. She has experience building an institutional population health analytics platform to track appendectomy outcomes, which led to multiple quality improvement initiatives that have generated value to pediatric appendicitis care. She is committed to studying the adoption of value-based surgical care strategies that reward high quality care.

As Surgeon-in-Chief and Chair of Surgery at Phoenix Children’s Hospital, Dr. Ostlie is accountable for the Hospital’s surgical services and leadership within all surgical divisions. Dr. Ostlie also provides administrative and clinical leadership to four clinical program centers that encompass the surgical divisions, the critical care program, the neurosciences institute, and the heart center. He remains committed to education and research, and has administrative oversight for both the research and educational endeavors at Phoenix Children’s Hospital.

Dr. Rangel is a Pediatric General Surgeon and the Weitzman Endowed Chair for Quality & Safety at Boston Children’s Hospital. Dr. Rangel has served as chair of APSA’s Patient Safety & Quality Committee, AAP’s Committee for the Delivery of Surgical Care, and inaugural chair of the ACS Children’s Surgery Data Steering Committee.

Mehul V. Raval, MD, MS is a pediatric general and thoracic surgeon and health services researcher with a focus on quality improvement, outcomes, and developing value-based children’s surgical care models.