Maryland Chapter, American Academy of Pediatrics

She completed a Master’s in Public Health concentrating on Health Policy and Management in injury and violence prevention at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She completed her residency training in Pediatrics at the University of Alabama Birmingham before returning to Johns Hopkins to complete her fellowship in Pediatric Critical Care Medicine. She is currently a Juris Doctor candidate at the Georgetown University Law Center (2024). Dr. Hoops’ research is focused on an equity-focused, public health approach to the prevention of firearm injury and violence. She is a core faculty member in the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions and serves as the Director of Clinical Programs and Practice. She conducts research on creating and evaluating effective policy measures, implementing a trauma-informed approach to care, effectively communicating with patients and families about firearm safety, and improving physicians’ education on and counseling related to firearm safety. She serves as an official spokesperson for the AAP and works with local and national media to provide education on issues related to child health.

She and her husband, a cardiac anesthesiologist and intensivist, have two wonderful, book-loving children. In her free time, she enjoys running, cycling, gardening, cooking, and reading.

Dr. Lane received her medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania, and then completed her Pediatric residency and Masters in Public Health at the University of North Carolina. She completed a Preventive Medicine residency at the University of Maryland, and then a fellowship in Child Abuse and Neglect at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

Dr. Lane is currently a Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health and the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Maryland, where she serves as Director of the Preventive Medicine Residency Program and as the Principal Investigator for B’more for Healthy Babies Upton/Druid Heights, a community-based and community-engaged intervention to improve birth outcomes. She serves as Medical Director at the Center for Hope, and Directs the Maryland CHAMP program, which provides training, peer review and support to Maryland physicians and nurses who evaluate children with suspected maltreatment. Until the end of 2023, Dr. Lane served as chair of the Maryland State Council on Child Abuse and Neglect where she helped pass Maryland legislation to create a Medical Director for Child Welfare and to reduce sexual abuse and misconduct in schools. She has also served for many years as Co-Chair of the Maryland AAP Committee on Child Maltreatment and Foster Care.

Dr. Lane performs medical evaluations for suspected maltreatment at the Center for Hope, the University of Maryland Medical Center, and the Howard County Child Advocacy Center.

After completing high school, she went to Kharkiv State Medical University in Ukraine to study medicine in Russian for 7 years. After completing medical school, she returned to India where she worked as a medical officer at Safdarjung Hospital, DDU Hospital and Tihar Jail in New Delhi.

Dr. Sajankila moved to the United States in 2002 where she completed her pediatric residency at Sparrow Hospital, Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan. She is board-certified through the American Board of Pediatrics and is a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics. She joined The Children’s Doctor as a general pediatrician in 2007.

Dr. Sajankila is multilingual and is fluent in Kannada, Malayalam, Hindi, Urdu, Marathi, Tamil, Russian and Spanish. These language skills have helped her to treat and care for a wide range of patients from many backgrounds.

Dr. Sajankila has been actively involved in her community. She is the physician-in-charge of the clinic of Shriners Hospital for Children in Hagerstown, Maryland since 2012, a clinic which specializes in diagnosing and treating children with various developmental disabilities. Dr. Sajankila also founded and
acts as the chairperson of the Leela Education Foundation, a foundation named in memory of her mother, Leela Sajankila. The foundation grants scholarships to local high school seniors in Pennsylvania for their academic excellence. Through the Leela Education Foundation, Dr. Sajankila travels to India annually to conduct medical camps in underprivileged areas of rural southern India.

Dr. Vandana Sajankila lives with her husband and two children. In her free time, she enjoys gardening, reading, traveling, and long distance running. Her favorite place to run is the C&O canal along the Potomac River. She also enjoys watching football and supports the Pittsburgh Steelers.

She has served on numerous state and national workgroups aimed at the health needs of children in foster care. She also advocates for pediatrics through her appointment on the Maryland Medicaid Advisory Committee. In addition, she teaches medical students and pediatric residents as a community preceptor. She holds a part-time appointment as an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Dr. Dodge received her medical degree from the University of Maryland, School of Medicine in 2002 and completed the pediatric residency program at Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital/University Hospitals of Cleveland in 2005. She completed the General Pediatric Academic Development Fellowship at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and earned a Master’s of Public Health degree from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in 2008.

She attended medical school at George Washington University School of Medicine and completed her pediatric and chief residency at Columbia University. Upon finishing residency, she moved to the DC/Maryland area and worked at a Federally Qualified Health Center providing medical care to an underserved immigrant population. In 2016, she joined the faculty at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. She focuses on providing general pediatric care to children from birth through age 21. She also cares for newborns in the newborn nursery and teaches medical students and pediatric residents. She enjoys caring for patients and teaching the next generation of physicians. Tolu is dedicated to advocating for pediatric patients in Baltimore and beyond and is committed to creating a network of physicians to help ensure the needs of our community is met. She lives with her husband and two young children in Howard County. In her free time, she enjoys traveling, cooking, and attending her kids’ soccer games.

Jose Eduardo Alvarado, MD, is a third-generation pediatrician and the owner of Jose F. Alvarado and Associates, P.A., a private pediatric practice serving children and families on Maryland’s rural Eastern Shore.

Dr. Alvarado graduated from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in 2009 and completed his residency in general pediatrics at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital in Nashville, Tennessee, in 2012. He subsequently returned to Salisbury, Maryland, to continue the practice founded by his father, Jose F. Alvarado, MD, in 2001.

Dr. Alvarado’s father tragically died in a car accident at age 49 during Dr. Alvarado’s intern year. Although they never had the opportunity to practice together, Dr. Alvarado has remained committed to carrying forward his father’s legacy of compassionate, community-based pediatric care. At the time of his father’s death, the practice consisted of one physician and one nurse practitioner. It has since grown to include two physicians and two nurse practitioners.

The practice remains deeply rooted in family. Dr. Alvarado is fortunate to work alongside his mother, Margarita Alvarado, who serves as the practice’s office manager, and his brother, Ricky Alvarado, who is one of the practice’s nurses.

Originally from Puerto Rico, the Alvarado family moved to Maryland in the late 1980s. Dr. Alvarado’s maternal grandfather, now 99 years old, was one of Puerto Rico’s earliest pediatricians, making Dr. Alvarado a proud third-generation pediatrician.

Outside of medicine, Dr. Alvarado enjoys spending time outdoors and traveling with his family. His favorite hobbies include golfing, scuba diving, and snorkeling, and he enjoys exploring coral reefs and marine life whenever he has the opportunity.

Dr. Alvarado is honored to serve as the next Jill Stoller Fellow and looks forward to learning from the exceptional leaders and members of the SOAPM community while continuing to advocate for independent pediatric practices and high-quality pediatric care in rural communities.

Dr. Ashley Moss is a community pediatrician and owner of Woodside Pediatrics in Chevy Chase, Maryland.  She is a solo practitioner and an ardent supporter of pediatricians building independent pediatric practices that reflect the needs of their communities.  

Dr. Moss graduated from Princeton University magna cum laude with a BA in Politics. She received her medical degree from the Medical College of Virginia-Virginia Commonwealth University and completed her pediatric residency at Cornell Medical Center-New York Presbyterian Hospital. She served as the past president of the Montgomery County Pediatric Society and was a resident lecturer for Children’s National Hospital’s Child Health Advocacy Institute.  

Her career has been shaped by a commitment to innovative, evidence-based pediatric care.  She founded and runs her solo house-calls based practice.  Over the course of her career, Dr. Moss has practiced pediatrics in numerous medical settings all over the world: she has practiced primary care in the Washington, DC area for 20 years; she worked in a pediatric emergency unit in Baltimore; she served as the doctor at summer camps in upstate New York; she worked in rural clinics in Vietnam, cared for TB and leprosy patients at a hospital in Uganda, and volunteered in an orphanage for HIV positive children in Honduras.

Throughout her career, Dr. Moss has witnessed how fragmented systems and access barriers affect children’s health as well as how financial challenges impact the practice of pediatrics and threaten a pediatrician’s ability to care for children. As the regional representative for Montgomery and Prince George’s county, she is committed to advocating on behalf of our local pediatric practices so that they can continue to nurture the important relationship with families that is integral to building a healthy future for our children and our communities.

After several years in the hematology/oncology world, she returned to her first love, general pediatrics.

She is a pediatrician and owner of Waldorf Pediatrics. Her special interests include mental health including care for children with anxiety, depression, ADHD, ODD and ASD. She also serves in the AAP Mental Health and SODBP primary care committees. Her passion is to include mental health care in the medical home.

She lives with her husband and two children in Charles county. She is fortunate to be studying classical ballet and enjoys dancing with her kids. She loves taking classes in Sumi-E brush painting.

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Dr. Celestino “Chel” Menchavez, is a native of Cumberland, Maryland and a former Western Maryland Regional Representative having served two previous terms.   His father, the late Dr. Elmaslias Menchavez, was also a pediatrician and a respected figure in the local medical community as well as a source of inspiration for Chel’s career path.

Having completed his medical education at George Washington University and residency training at Inova Fairfax Hospital, Dr. Chel extended his tenure to become Chief Resident. In 2002, he returned to his hometown to join his father in their medical practice.

Dr. Chel recognizes the challenges that come with managing a medical practice. He is also passionate about supporting children and adolescents in their mental well-being. Currently, he is leading his office team in an AAP-supported quality improvement project focused on childhood obesity.

When not engaged in patient care activities, he is honing his skills on the pickleball court.  In addition, he enjoys traveling with his wife, a school-based physical therapist, and his two adult daughters.