Anesthesiology, pediatrics ranks swell with new faculty additions

The Medical Center is proud to announce the following additions to its faculty and leadership staff:

Cassandra Mabel Armstead-Williams, M.D.

Armstead-Williams

Dr. Cassandra M. Armstead-Williams, a recent pediatric anesthesiology fellow at the Mayo Clinic, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an assistant professor of anesthesiology.

After receiving her BS in physics from Stanford University in 2005, Armstead-Williams earned her MD at Washington University in Saint Louis, Missouri, in 2010. She then completed pediatrics preliminary-year residency training at SUNY: Downstate Medical Center; anesthesiology residency training at New York University, Langone Medical Center; and a pediatric anesthesiology fellowship at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota.

Her fellowship research project, “Safety and Efficacy of Supraorbital and Supratrochlear Nerve Block for Treatment of Pediatric Headache,” was presented at the 2015 Society for Pediatric Anesthesiology annual meeting.

Dessislava Iliev, M.D.

Iliev

Dr. Dessislava Iliev, a recent pediatric cardiac anesthesiology fellow at Boston Children's Hospital, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an assistant professor of anesthesiology.

After receiving her MD from the Medical University of Sofia, Bulgaria, in 1996, Iliev did an internship in medicine from 1998-99 at Montefiore North Medical Center, Bronx, New York; a residency in anesthesiology from 1999-2002 at SUNY at Stony Brook, New York; and a fellowship in pediatric anesthesiology from 2002-03 at Children's National Medical Center, Washington, D.C.

Iliev served as a clinical assistant in anesthesiology at Hackensack University Medical Center, New Jersey; an assistant professor of pediatric anesthesiology at Maria Fareri Children's Hospital, Valhalla, New York; and as an anesthesiologist at Phelps Memorial Hospital Medical Center, Sleepy Hollow, New York, before completing her fellowship in pediatric cardiac anesthesiology from 2014-15 at Boston Children's Hospital.

A member of several professional societies, including the American Society of Anesthesiologists, the Congenital Cardiac Anesthesia Society and the Society for Pediatric Anesthesia, Iliev's clinical interests include pediatric cardiac anesthesiology, neonatal anesthesiology and regional anesthesiology.

Iliev is board-certified in anesthesiology and in pediatric anesthesiology.

Frank Abrokwah Osei, M.D.

Osei

Dr. Frank Abrokwah Osei, a recent advanced pediatric non-invasive cardiac imaging fellow at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an assistant professor of pediatrics.

Osei earned his BSc in human biology in 2000 and his MBChB in 2003 at the School of Medical Sciences, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana. He was a house officer in the Department of Child Health in 2003 and a house officer in the Department of Surgery at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi from 2003-04. Afterwards, with his interest in pediatrics, Osei continued to take care of children and was a medical officer in the Department of Child Health from 2004-08 at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi. He was also involved in clinical research during this period.

Osei had his pediatric residency from 2008-11 at the Medical University of South Carolina Children's Hospital in Charleston; his pediatric cardiology fellowship from 2011-14 at the Children's Hospital at Montefiore, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York; and a fellowship in advanced pediatric non-invasive cardiac imaging from 2014-15 at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston.

Osei is board-certified in general pediatrics and pediatric cardiology. He is a fellow of the American College of Cardiology and an active member of several professional organizations, including the American Heart Association, the American Society of Echocardiography, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Academic Pediatric Association. He is the author or coauthor of a number of peer-reviewed abstracts and articles in professional journals and has presented some of these at professional conferences.

Charlotte Victoria Hobbs, M.D.

Hobbs

Dr. Charlotte Victoria Hobbs, an assistant clinical investigator from NIH/NIAID's Laboratory of Immunology and Vaccinology and adjunct assistant professor of pediatric infectious disease and immunology at the NYU School of Medicine, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an associate professor of pediatric infectious disease with an appointment also in the Department of Microbiology.

After receiving her BS in biology from the University of Miami in 1997, Hobbs earned her MD at the University of Miami School of Medicine in 2001. She started her pediatrics internship from 2001-02 at the Louisiana State University Children's Hospital and Charity Hospital, completed her pediatrics residency from 2002-04 at the University of Florida Shands Hospital, and then a pediatric infectious disease and immunology fellowship from 2004-07 at New York University, Bellevue Medical Center and NYU Langone Medical Center. While a fellow, Hobbs worked at both Cornell Medical Center's Department of Microbiology on a malaria vaccine candidate before transitioning to NYU's Department of Medical Parasitology, where she began work characterizing the effects of HIV treatments on malaria.

She joined the NYU faculty in 2007 as an instructor in pediatrics and assistant program director of the Pediatric Infectious Disease Fellowship Program. In 2008, she became an assistant professor of pediatrics at NYU. In 2010, she applied for and was awarded a position in the prestigious "Transition Program in Clinical Research" at NIH/NIAID with independent funding at the Laboratory of Malaria Immunology and Vaccinology, where she continued her program of research evaluating the impact of HIV treatments on malaria infection, immunity and transmission.

An ad hoc reviewer for five professional journals, she is the author or coauthor of 10 articles in peer-reviewed publications and guidelines. She is an active member of several professional societies, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Infectious Disease Society of America and the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.

Here at UMMC, Hobbs will be attending on service for Pediatric Infectious Disease as well as bringing her research program and expertise to the university.