Pediatric Advanced Cardiac Therapies Program (PACT) Care Team

Dr. Rosenthal is the director of the PACT program, the director of the Thoracic Organ Transplantation program and a member of the Stanford faculty since 1995. He is involved in clinical care of both heart failure and transplantation, and performs clinical research in the areas of heart failure and ventricular assist devices.

Dr. Almond completed fellowship training in pediatric cardiology at Boston’s Children’s Hospital in 2005 and joined the faculty at Stanford in 2014. He is the director of Clinical Research in the PACT program with a strong focus on clinical research in heart failure.

Dr. Bernstein is the former director of the Children’s Heart Center at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital and is the Alfred Woodley Salter and Mabel Salter Endowed Professor of Pediatrics at Stanford University and Stanford faculty since 1986. He is primarily engaged in translational heart failure research.

Dr. Yu Chen completed her residency in pediatrics at Seattle Children’s Hospital and her fellowships in pediatric cardiology and pediatric heart failure and transplantation at Stanford in 2015 and 2017, respectively. She is passionate about improving care for children with heart failure by integrating patient outcomes data and innovative approaches to mechanical circulatory support and heart transplantation.

Dr. Dykes completed his fellowship training at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Florida and Stanford and joined our PACT faculty in 2017. His research interests include non-invasive monitoring of heart failure patients, advanced heart failure, and novel strategies for mechanical circulatory support in complex congenital disease.

Dr. Hollander completed his fellowship at Stanford and joined as PACT faculty in 2012. He is the medical director of Heart Transplantation and performs both clinical care and clinical research in pediatric heart transplantation.

Dr. Kaufman is the director of the Cardiomyopathy Program since joining Stanford faculty in 2013 and a former chair of the Pediatric Council of the International Society of Heart and Lung Transplantation. She participates actively in clinical care of children with heart failure and transplantation and in related clinical research.

Dr. Ma is the division chief of Pediatric Cardiac Surgery and he is the surgical director of the Pediatric Advanced Cardiac Therapies Program. His clinical care encompasses all aspects of congenital heart disease, with an emphasis on complex reconstructive procedures for heart failure, ventricular assist device implantation, heart transplantation, and lung transplantation.

Dr. Ma’s research team uses biomechanical engineering principles to optimize existing treatments and develop new procedures and therapies to improve outcomes for children with complex heart conditions.

Dr. Martin is the surgical director of the Pediatric Lung and Heart-Lung Transplant Program and a clinical assistant professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery, specializing in pediatric and adult congenital heart surgery. She completed her professional education at McGill University Faculty of Medicine in Montreal, Canada, and her cardiac surgery residency at Laval University in Quebec, Canada.

Dr. Nasirov is a clinical assistant professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery and specializes in pediatric and adult congenital cardiothoracic surgery. He completed his general surgery residency at Loma Linda University and pediatric cardiothoracic surgery fellowship at Stanford.

Dr. Profita completed her fellowship training at Boston Children’s Hospital and joined the PACT faculty in 2018. Her research interests are focused on improving heart transplant outcomes.

Lynsey Michelle Barkoff, CPNP is a pediatric nurse practitioner who cares for children who have received a heart transplant and has been with Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford since 2014. Lynsey earned both her bachelor’s and master’s degree in nursing from Columbia University.

Cora dela Cruz, RN is a registered nurse on the Pediatric Advanced Cardiac Therapies program.

Kyla Dunn is a genetic counselor specializing in inherited cardiomyopathies and arrhythmia syndromes. 

Donna Lee, CPNP graduated from University of California San Francisco with a master’s degree in advanced practice pediatric nursing – primary care in 2010. She joined the PACT team in 2011. She was previously a staff registered nurse on the Cardiovascular Surgery/Solid Organ Transplant Unit (formerly 3W), and enjoys caring for this special patient population. She has particularly enjoyed serving as a nurse practitioner for patients that she once cared for as a bedside nurse.

Joanne Lee, Pharmacist has been a nurse practitioner in pediatric cardiology at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford since 2014. Prior to this, she worked at Boston Children’s Medical Center. She earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing at Northeastern University in Boston and her master’s degree at the University of Pennsylvania. Her interests and area of expertise surround anti-thrombosis and mechanical circulatory support for children and adults in advanced heart failure.

Jenna Murray, CPNP-AC has been a nurse practitioner in pediatric cardiology at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford since 2014. Prior to this, she worked at Boston Children’s Medical Center. She earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing at Northeastern University in Boston and her master’s degree at the University of Pennsylvania. Her interests and area of expertise surround anti-thrombosis and mechanical circulatory support for children and adults in advanced heart failure.

Margaret Rosenberg, RN, a Bay Area native, joined the PACT team in 2018 as the heart failure and transplant nurse coordinator. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in psychology and neuroscience from The University of Colorado at Boulder and a Bachelor of Science in nursing from New York University. Margaret has prior experience as a pediatric heart failure and heart transplant coordinator from Columbia University, Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital of New York.

Julie Schmidt, CPNP joined the PACT team in 2018 specializing in advanced heart failure. Prior to joining the team at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford she specialized in heart transplant, ventricular assist device (VAD), and heart failure at the Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin.

Colleen Surmay, CPNP joined the PACT team as a pediatric nurse practitioner in 2020, specializing in advanced heart failure. She earned her bachelor’s degree in nursing at the University of Pittsburgh and her master’s degree at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She has worked in pediatric and neonatal critical care as a bedside nurse and as a nurse practitioner in pediatric anesthesia and adolescent medicine. Her research and quality focus is on patient and family empowerment in chronic illness and heart failure.

Kari Wujcik, CPNP-AC is from Nashville, TN and graduated with her Bachelor’s of Science in nursing from Belmont University in 2008. She graduated from Vanderbilte  University's School of Nursing with a Master’s of Science in nursing, specializing in pediatric acutcare in 2015. She previously worked as the pediatric heart transplant nurse practitioner at Vanderbilt from 2015 to 2018. She moved to California to join the PACT team specializing in heart failure and heart transplant.

Patricia Yen, PNP is a pediatric nurse practitioner on the Pediatric Advanced Cardiac Therapies program.