Dr. Bret Mettler - Johns Hopkins Children’s Center

Bret Mettler, M.D., is a pediatric cardiac surgeon in Baltimore, Maryland, caring for infants and children with a variety of heart conditions and congenital heart defects. He also serves as director of pediatric cardiac surgery and co-director of the Blalock–Taussig–Thomas Pediatric and Congenital Heart Center at Johns Hopkins Children's Center.

Dr. Mettler came to Johns Hopkins from Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where he served as the director of pediatric cardiac transplantation and mechanical support since 2010. A native of South Dakota, where he was a magna cum laude undergraduate and medical student at the University of South Dakota, Dr. Mettler has had extensive and impressive surgical training at leading centers throughout the country. He completed his surgical residency training at the University of Texas at San Antonio and the University of Michigan. He completed a research fellowship in cardiac tissue engineering at Boston Children’s Hospital, followed by a cardiothoracic surgical residency at the University of Virginia and a congenital cardiac surgery fellowship at Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Mettler has distinguished himself as a gifted and accomplished pediatric and congenital heart surgeon. He has also held numerous academic and leadership appointments in national associations including the Joint Council on Thoracic Surgery Education, the Society of Thoracic Surgeons, the Thoracic Surgery Directors Association and the Thoracic Surgery Residents Association, of which he was president.

Dr. David Parra – Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt

Dr. David Parra is a pediatric cardiologist at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt. Dr. Parra is the director of Advanced Cardiac Imaging for the Division of Pediatric Cardiology and is an expert in all forms of echocardiography and cardiovascular MRI.

Dr. Parra was raised in Ecuador where he obtained his medical degree at the Universidad Central del Ecuador, he trained in pediatrics at Miami Children’s Hospital (Nicklaus Children’s Hospital) and completed his pediatric cardiology fellowship at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Additional training in cardiac MRI was obtained at Boston Children’s Hospital. He has been faculty at Vanderbilt since 2004 and is also the director of Quality Improvement for the division of cardiology. Dr. Parra is active in many national societies including the Society of Cardiovascular MRI and the American Society of Echocardiography. Currently he is the Co-Chair of the 2021 Scientific Sessions for the American Society of Echocardiography and will be the Chair in 2022.

Dr. Joshua Salvin – Boston Children’s Hospital

Joshua W. Salvin, MD MPH is a physician in the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit at Boston Children’s Hospital.  After completing his medical education and pediatrics training in Philadelphia, Dr. Salvin moved to Boston to train in cardiology and critical care medicine and has remained on the faculty since 2007.  His NIH funded research interests involve the use of novel technology to improve outcomes for infants and children undergoing surgery for congenital heart disease.  Dr. Salvin is actively involved in the education of cardiology, critical care, neonatology, and cardiac surgical trainees at Harvard Medical School.  He lives with his wife, children, dogs and chickens on an old horse farm in the suburbs of Boston.

Dr. Cyrus Samai – Sibley Heart Center Cardiology

Cyrus Samai has been employed as a pediatric cardiologist with Sibley Heart Center Cardiology since 2004, and is an Associate Professor at the Emory University School of Medicine.  Originally from Connecticut, he completed his undergraduate education at Colgate University and medical school at the University of Rochester. He moved to Atlanta from after completing his fellowship at the University of Michigan.  Dr. Samai has interests in non-invasive imaging, and outpatient cardiology.  He currently serves as the Chief Operating Officer for Sibley Heart Center Cardiology.  Additionally, Dr. Samai has advocated at the state level to improve Medicaid reimbursement and restore consultation codes while serving as the Chair of the Subspecialty Section for the Georgia Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics.  He also serves on the board of the Georgia Chapter of the American College of Cardiology.  He is active with Camp Twin Lakes and served for a decade as the medical director for Camp Braveheart.  He has been married for 12 years to his wife Emily and has two children ages 10 and 8.  In addition to spending time with his family, Dr. Samai enjoys exercising, landscaping, skiing, playing golf, travelling, reading and following his beloved New York Yankees.

Dr. Mark Scheurer - MUSC Heart Center

Originally from Tennessee, Dr. Mark Scheurer earned his medical degree at the University of Tennessee Memphis. Along the way, he also earned a Master’s of Science in Clinical Research after medical school. He completed his internships, residencies, and fellowships at Duke Medical University, Medical University of South Carolina, and Children’s Hospital Boston. Mark and his wife Danielle, also a physician, returned to MUSC in 2010 and soon thereafter lead the team that designed, built and opened the innovative MUSC Shawn Jenkins Children’s Hospital & Pearl Tourville Women’s Pavilion in February 2020. Life has given him many gifts, but working with a team of families and clinicians to imagine, mold and create this model of patient and family centered care stands as a special journey to him.

Dr. Scheurer currently serves as a pediatric cardiac intensivist in the MUSC heart center. In 2014, he was appointed to the role of Chief Medical Officer of the Children’s Hospital and in 2016 as the Chief of the Integrated Clinical Center of Excellence for Children’s and Women’s Health.

He is blessed to work along a hard-working team, dedicated to serving the mother’s and kids of South Carolina. Outside of work he enjoys ultrarunning. Mostly, because it’s not about running at all.

Dr. Amanda Shillingford – Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia

Dr. Amanda Shillingford is a pediatric and fetal cardiologist at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and Associate Professor of Clinical Pediatrics at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.  She specializes in pediatric imaging and prenatal diagnosis of congenital heart disease. 

Dr. Shillingford attended Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons prior to completing pediatric residency, pediatric cardiology fellowship, and an advanced imaging fellowship at CHOP.  She has held positions at the Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin and Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children prior to returning to CHOP in 2019.  Dr. Shillingford’s primary research interests include improving neurodevelopmental outcomes in children with CHD, and understanding the psychosocial impacts of living with CHD.  Dr. Shillingford currently serves on the leadership team for the Cardiac Kids Developmental Follow-up Program at CHOP, and is the Director of Fetal Outreach for the CHOP Fetal Heart Program

Dr. Joseph Turek - Duke Children’s Pediatric & Congenital Heart Center

Joseph W. Turek, MD, PhD, MBA is an academic pediatric cardiac surgeon at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. Since 2017, Dr. Turek has served as chief of pediatric cardiac surgery and executive co-director of Duke Children’s Pediatric & Congenital Heart Center. Prior to Duke, he served in a similar leadership role at the University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital from 2012-2017.

A native of Illinois, Dr. Turek graduated from Northwestern University with a degree in biochemistry and received his MD/PhD (pharmacology) from the University of Illinois in Chicago with Alpha Omega Alpha distinction. He completed his general surgery education at Duke University, where he also finished a cardiothoracic surgery residency. During this time, he served as a visiting congenital heart surgery fellow at Texas Children’s Hospital. He completed a congenital cardiac surgery fellowship at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in 2011. He received his MBA with a concentration in Health Sector Management from Duke’s Fuqua School of Business in 2020.

Board certified in general surgery, thoracic surgery and congenital cardiac surgery, Dr. Turek has been one of the foremost innovators of the last decade in congenital heart surgery, developing operations, modifying techniques and introducing new products and procedures to children and adults with congenital cardiac disease. His clinical passion and expertise lies in high complexity neonatal heart surgery.

Academically, Dr. Turek has published over 100 peer-reviewed manuscripts. He maintains an active and well-funded research laboratory with projects spanning from basic science to translational to clinical research, in areas such as heart transplantation tolerance, Marfan syndrome, and alternate perfusion strategies for aortic arch reconstruction. He is also active in national and international cardiothoracic societies.