Scientific Committee

Tim Olson, MD, Co-Chair

Tim is a Pediatric Hematologist/Oncologist and Stem Cell Transplantation Physician at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and University of Pennsylvania (PENN). Tim’s clinical and research careers are dedicated to developing and providing cures for patients with severe non-malignant hematologic diseases, including sickle cell disease, other disorders of hemoglobin, and bone marrow failure syndromes. At CHOP/PENN, Tim oversees the care of patients with non-malignant hematologic conditions undergoing allogeneic stem cell transplantation therapy. Tim is the Principal Investigator of 3 investigator-initiated clinical trials dedicated to identifying methods to reduce toxicity while preserving efficacy of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for patients with these diseases. In addition, Tim is a collaborating PI for severe multi-center retrospective registry studies and prospective clinical trials testing novel therapeutic approaches, including gene therapy, for patients with these conditions. Tim’s laboratory investigates basic cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying donor stem cell engraftment in specialized areas of the bone marrow known as stem cell niches following stem cell transplantation. The hope is to harness knowledge of these pathways to develop therapeutic strategies that will improve engraftment efficiency and durability after SCT, thereby decreasing the need for intensive preparative regimens.

Monica L. Hulbert, MD, Co-Chair

Monica is the director of the Pediatric Sickle Cell Disease Program at St. Louis Children’s Hospital and an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Washington University School of Medicine. As program director, she developed and implemented a primary hematologist care model to improve continuity of care for children with sickle cell disease and oversaw the program’s expanded hydroxyurea use for primary prevention of sickle cell disease complications. Working with a collaborative group of neurologists and neuroimaging specialists at Washington University, her research interests are focused on understanding and treating neurological injury prevalent in children with sickle cell disease, specifically strokes and cerebral vasculopathy.

John Horan, MD, MPH, Past Chair

John completed a residency in pediatrics (University of Rochester Medical Center), a fellowship in pediatric hematology-oncology (Children’s National Medical Center and University of Rochester Medical Center) and a fellowship in blood and marrow transplantation (University of Rochester Medical Center). He is a member of the pediatric blood and marrow transplant program at Boston Children’s Hospital/Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. He is also Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard School of Medicine. John is also very active in the Children’s Oncology Group, where he helps lead studies in acute leukemia and in adolescent and young adult oncology. He splits his time between Great Barrington, MA (birthplace of W.E.B. DuBois, “the architect of the civil rights movement”) and Atlanta. While in Great Barrington he helps organize the W.E.B. DuBois Educational Series.

Greg Guilcher, MD, Vice Chair of Clinical Operations

Dr. Greg Guilcher is a pediatric hematologist/oncologist and transplant physician in Calgary, Canada. He is the Medical Lead for Pediatric HCT and the Program Director for the Childhood Cancer and Blood Disorders Research Program at the Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute/University of Calgary. He has held several leadership roles within STAR, and is the lead for Project Sickle Cure. Dr. Guilcher also has leadership roles at the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. He has an interest in late effects of HCT and in studying low toxicity transplant approaches in sickle cell disease. Globally, he collaborates with colleagues in Uganda for faculty, resident and nursing teaching, and hopes to facilitate HCT program development in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Allistair Abraham, MD

Allistair Abraham is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Science. He is also attending physician and researcher in the Division of Blood and Marrow Transplantation at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, DC, where he directs the sickle cell transplant program. He was a Physician Scientist trainee at the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and is currently an American Society of Hematology Harold Amos Medical Faculty Development award scholar. His current research focus involves reducing the toxicity of transplantation and increasing donor options so more patients with sickle cell disease can have access to curative treatments. In the laboratory, Allistair studies virus-specific immune recovery and mechanisms of rejection after transplant with the goal of making transplants safer and more effective. Allistair co-leads the STAR retrospective transplant data registry project as well as the chemotherapy-free transplant trial for matched sibling donor transplant for patients with sickle cell disease (the “SUN” trial).

Staci Arnold, MD

Dr. Arnold is an alumna of Spelman College and Duke University School of Medicine.  She completed her clinical training at Columbia University and specializes in pediatric hematology. She has particular expertise in the care of children undergoing stem cell transplantation for noncancerous disorders, such as sickle cell anemia and aplastic anemia.

This field enables her to combine her joy in caring for patients with her love of research. She appreciates the bonds that she is able to form with the families of children with these diseases. It is her honor to shepherd them through some of the most challenging times in their lives.

In addition to caring for patients, Dr. Arnold conducts grant funded research.  She has both a MBA and MPH that inform her outcome research to demonstrate the cost-effectiveness of the therapies she uses.  She hopes to show this by demonstrating that effective therapies are valuable because they enable children to grow up to become healthy, productive citizens in our society.

Kimberly Kasow, DO

Kimberly Kasow, DO, is the Director of the Pediatric Bone Marrow Transplant program at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill and a Clinical Professor in the Department of Pediatrics, Division of Hematology/Oncology. In addition, she is the Associate Director for Quality Initiatives for the UNC Bone Marrow Transplant and Cellular Therapy Program. She leads the pediatric program’s clinical research program and is the Co-PI with Dr. Emily Meier for the Early HLA-Matched Sibling Donor Bone Marrow Transplant study for children with Sickle Cell Disease, which is sponsored by STAR. Besides having a research interest in transplantation and gene therapy for sickle cell disease, Dr. Kasow also has an interest in understanding the late effects post-transplantation.

Emily Riehm Meier, MD

Dr. Meier is a board certified pediatric hematologist/oncologist who has devoted her career to caring for patients with sickle cell disease. She attended medical school at the Indiana University School of Medicine. Dr. Meier completed her Pediatric Residency, Chief Residency and Hematology/Oncology fellowship at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, DC. After completing her fellowship, she remained at Children’s National as an attending physician in the Division of Hematology for 6 years prior to joining the team at the Indiana Hemophilia and Thrombosis Center in September 2015. She was a research fellow at the National Institutes of Health for 8 years while in Washington, DC, and was the Director of the Sickle Cell Program at Children’s National from 2011-2013. As Director, she implemented group clinic visits for newly diagnosed infants with sickle cell disease and their families as well as educational conferences for families and patients living with sickle cell disease to learn more about bone marrow transplant as a curative option.

Alexander Ngwube, MD

Alex is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Arizona/Phoenix Children’s Hospital in Phoenix, Arizona, where he leads the sickle cell pediatric blood and marrow transplant program and works closely with the comprehensive hemoglobinopathy clinic in Phoenix, Arizona.

His research interests include acute and late toxicities of blood and marrow transplantation, supportive care and improving the safety of transplantation for pediatric non-malignant diseases, especially sickle cell anemia.

Alex obtained his medical degree from Nnamdi Azikiwe University in Nigeria and subsequently performed his pediatric residency training at Medical University of South Carolina. He completed his training in pediatric hematology and oncology at the Washington University in St. Louis/St. Louis Children’s Hospital and his training in blood and marrow transplantation fellowship at Baylor University/Texas Children’s Hospital.

Niketa Shah

Niketa is an assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Yale University and Director of Pediatric Stem Cell Transplant program at Yale School of Medicine and Yale New Haven Hospital. She played a pioneer role in developing the sickle cell transplant program at Yale University. Her additional research interest includes stem cell transplant for bone marrow failure disease and prevention & treatment of graft versus host disease post stem cell transplant.

Niketa obtained her medical degree from, and performed her pediatric residency at, NHL Municipal Medical College and Gujarat University, India. She received her initial pediatric hematology/oncology training from Gujarat Cancer and Research Institute, Ahmedabad, India.

With a focus on the field of transplant, she moved to North America and received her repeat pediatric residency from Newark Beth Israel Medical Center, New Jersey; completed pediatric hematology/oncology fellowship training at The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada; and completed her pediatric stem cell transplant fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York.

After spending more than six years at Phoenix Children’s Hospital, she is growing the Pediatric Stem Cell Program at the Yale School of Medicine.

Akshay Sharma

Akshay Sharma is a clinician-scientist in the Department of Bone Marrow Transplantation and Cellular Therapy at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital at Memphis TN. The goal of his research is to advance cellular therapeutics for children with hematological disorders. He is passionate about developing curative therapies for hemoglobinopathies such as sickle cell disease, as well as improving access to these novel therapies in an equitable and patient-centered manner. He leads several novel hematopoietic cell transplant and gene therapy clinical trials for patients with sickle cell disease. He is funded by the American Society of Hematology Scholar Award and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Sickle Cell Disease/Advancing Cures Research Award.