CONACH Members

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​CONACH Members

    Catherine Golski, MD, FAAP

    Catherine (Kate) Golski grew up in Charlevoix, Michigan before attending college at the University of Michigan. She completed medical school at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) while receiving her master of public health degree at CWRU. Dr. Golski then went on to pediatric residency at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, which she completed in 2012. After residency, she moved to Tuba City, AZ to practice general pediatrics on the Navajo Nation at the Tuba City Regional Health Care Corporation. She provides inpatient, outpatient, nursery, and school-based care for children and teens in the Tuba City area. She has particular interest in the use of public health approaches to help prevent abuse/neglect of children and in multidisciplinary efforts in child protection. She joined CONACH in 2019.

    Marah Gotcsik, MD, FAAP


    Dr. Gotcsik (“got-chik”) grew up in western New York State.  She graduated from Swarthmore College in 2002 and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in 2007.  She completed pediatric residency at the University of Washington/Seattle Children’s Hospital in 2010, followed by a chief resident year.  As a resident, Dr. Gotcsik spent a month at Maniilaq Health Center in Kotzebue, Alaska, which introduced her to the Alaska Native healthcare system and inspired her career path.  Since 2011, she has worked for Southcentral Foundation as a pediatric hospitalist at Alaska Native Medical Center in Anchorage and as the field clinic pediatrician for Manillaq Health Center.  She also provides intermittent locums coverage at Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta Regional Hospital in Bethel.  Her professional interests include healthcare system collaboration, quality of care, rural health, and telemedicine.  Outside of work, she enjoys exploring Alaska on foot, on skis, and by canoe. 

    Shaquita Bell, MD, FAAP, Chair

    ​

    Born and raised in Minnesota, Shaquita is Cherokee on her mother’s side and African-American on her father’s.  She completed medical school at the University of Minnesota in 2006.  Dr. Bell then went on to pediatric residency at the University of Washington, which she completed in 2009.  In 2010 she remained at Seattle Children’s completing a chief residency year becoming the first Native American Chief resident at Seattle Children’s.  Dr. Bell is currently a pediatrician at the community health center Odessa Brown.  She is the site coordinator for pediatrics residents.  Dr. Bell is a Clinical Associate Professor at Seattle Children’s and the University of Washington in the division of General Pediatrics.   She joined CONACH in 2013 as the Association of American Indian Physicians liaison and stepped into the Chair position in 2016.​

    Kristen Nadeau, MD, MS, FAAP

    ​I am a pediatric endocrinologist and diabetologist with a research focus on reducing long-term complications of childhood obesity and diabetes, including mechanisms of insulin resistance (IR), pancreatic and muscle dysfunction, cardiovascular disease, as well as ethnic and gender disparities. My studies include staged hyperinsulinemic and hyperglycemic clamps with multiple isotopes, to assess IR and pancreatic dysfunction, exercise stress echocardiography, carotid ultrasounds to assess atherosclerosis, measures of arterial stiffness and endothelial function, 31P MRS spectroscopy to assess muscle mitochondrial dysfunction and 1H spectroscopy to assess intramyocellular, hepatic and visceral fat in youth. I am also PI of a project assessing oral health in urban American Indian adolescents and the impacts of diabetes and obesity, and co-investigator of a project to prevent gestational diabetes in Native American girls. In addition, I am an investigator on the NIH multi-center TODAY study, a large trial of diabetes therapies in youth with type 2 diabetes (T2D), and PI on the NIH multi-center RISE trial of beta cell preservation in prediabetic youth and adults. I have consulted to the AAP Committee on Native American Child Health and am a member of UCD’s Center for Native Oral Health Research team at the Center for American Indian/Alaska Native Studies. I have also consulted to the Indian Health Service for the design of a curriculum for diabetes education in American Indian Youth, and taught at the Dine Community College in a pre-health professional’s program encouraging Navajo youth to go into careers in healthcare.

    Judith Thierry, DO, MPH, FAAP

    ​Dr. Thierry is a Captain, (retired) with the US Pubic Health Service having served in the Indian Health Service (IHS) and at the Health Services and Resources Administration (HRSA). She lives with her husband in University Place, Washington. She has one married daughter and two adult sons.  She is active in the peace and justice community, is completing an internship with the Washington State University Extension’s Master Gardening program, does regular yoga and Pilates and enjoys reading, writing and cooking.  She will make her third trip this July to northern India as an attending/team lead with a medical expedition, training medical students and providing care in remote monasteries and schools in the Himalayas.

    Dr. Thierry attended Michigan State University (MSU) College of Osteopathic Medicine completing her osteopathic pediatric residency at MSU.  She is a board certified fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics and of the American College of Osteopathic Pediatricians.  She enjoys teaching medical students and resident physicians and has precepted extensively while in New Mexico with the UM School of Medicine.  She has served as staff physician/pediatrician, Clinical Director and interim CEO.   She has had the privilege to serve with the Mescalero Apache, Canoncito Navajo, Laguna and Acoma Pueblos, Albuquerque Indian Hospital and its catchment Tribes and Pueblos.  She was the Maternal and Child Health Coordinator from 2002-2011 at IHS Headquarters.  She was the chief MCH policy analyst, grant administrator for child and youth programming and worked closely with CDC on public health interventions including Project Choices to reduce alcohol exposed pregnancies.  Other MCH highlights included advocating and implementing Centering Pregnancy in indigenous communities, advancing the Baby Friendly (breastfeeding) Initiative and collaborating with the IHS National Diabetes Program on Healthy Weight For Life messaging for clinicians and communities.  

    She completed her thirty-year career with HRSA’s Maternal Infant Early Childhood Home Visiting Program authorized under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA).  She was the Eastern Implementation Program Branch Chief covering 4 regions spanning Maine to Mississippi, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.  

    She served during the Vietnam Era in the US Army Nurse Corps in Fort Leonardwood receiving operating room specialty training at the Presidio in San Francisco.  

    She is second generation Dutch and was born and raised in Kalamazoo, Michigan.  She can trace her ancestry on her mother’s father’s side to her ninth great grandmother Fijtgen Poules of Middleharnis, Netherlands circa 1600.

    Ashley Weedn, MD, FAAP

    Dr. Weedn, a board-certified pediatrician, is an Assistant Professor in the Section of General and Community Pediatrics at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. She earned her medical degree from the University of Oklahoma (OU) College of Medicine and completed a pediatrics residency at Arkansas Children's Hospital. During residency, she trained at the University of California at San Francisco in pediatric weight management. She returned to Oklahoma and joined the Department of Pediatrics at OUHSC in 2010 as a General Academic Pediatrics Fellow. During her 3-year fellowship, she obtained a Masters in Public Health at the OU College of Public Health in 2012. 

    ​Her clinical and research interests are in childhood obesity.  She is the lead investigator for several pediatric obesity projects and recently received the Academic Pediatric Association Young Investigator Award for her research on disparities in childhood obesity among American Indian children in Oklahoma. Dr. Weedn also serves as the Medical Director of the OU pediatric multidisciplinary weight management clinic, Healthy Futures. She co-chairs the Obesity Special Interest Group of the Academic Pediatric Association and serves as a Childhood Obesity Advisor for the American Academy of Pediatrics. She also founded and co-chairs the Obesity Committee through the Oklahoma Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Through this committee, she works with pediatricians across the state to address childhood obesity, including development of toolkits and webinars for primary care providers on childhood obesity assessment and management.

    Allison Empey, MD, FAAP












    Allison Empey grew up in McMinnville, Oregon and is a citizen of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde.  She completed medical school at University of California, San Francisco and returned home to complete her pediatric residency at Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) in order to be closer to her to family and her tribe. After residency, she completed a chief year and went on to join the faculty at OHSU where she is currently an assistant professor in the department of pediatrics.  She works one day per week at her tribal clinic.  Additionally, she serves as the Deputy Director of the Northwest Native American Center of Excellence with the mission of increasing the number of American Indian/Alaska Natives in healthcare. 


CONACH Liaisons

    Radha Jetty, MD


    Dr. Jetty is the Chair of the CPS First Nations, Inuit, Metis health committee and the pediatrician advisor to the Indigenous Services of Canada’s Non-InsuredHealthBenefitDrugs and Therapeutic Advisory Committee. She was Nunavut’s first full-time pediatrician from 2008 to 2012 where she worked to establish the pediatric program. She returned to the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario in 2012 to lead the development of the Inuit child health program at this referral centre for the Qikiqtani region of Nunavut.  

    As a member of the Division of Pediatric Medicine at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario and assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Ottawa, she continues part-time work in Nunavut. She is involved with undergraduate and postgraduate Indigenous health medical education.  She has lobbied for Indigenous children’s rights alongside Indigenous advocacy organizations during advocacy campaigns with provincial governments, at federal government consultation meetings, and internationally at the Inter-American human rights commission. She strives to advocate for health equity among Canadian Indigenous children by developing strong partnerships between her academic and northern community institutions. She was recognized for her advocacy work with the 2018 Dr. Guillermo Gutierrez Award for Advocacy at Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario.

    Nelson Branco, MD, FAAP, Indian Health Special Interest Group Chair

    Dr. Branco is originally from Massachusetts and attended Boston University for both his undergraduate degree in Psychology as well as medical school. He moved to California in 1995 for his pediatric residency at Children’s Hospital Oakland. His interest in Native American child health and the Indian Health Service began in medical school during a rotation at the Isleta Pueblo Health Center, and continued in residency with a rotation at Fort Defiance Indian Hospital.  After finishing residency, he and his wife Nell moved to Shiprock, New Mexico to work for the Indian Health Service on the Navajo Nation. In 2001, they returned to the Marin County, in the San Francisco Bay Area.  Dr. Branco began working at the Marin Community Clinic and spent four years practicing there, caring for uninsured and underinsured residents of Marin County. He has also worked for the Pediatric After Hours Clinic and at Marin General Hospital as a Pediatric Hospitalist. In 2005, he joined Tamalpais Pediatrics, a practice of eight pediatricians, three mid-levels and two offices. He is the currently the managing partner of the practice.  

    Dr. Branco currently serves on the Meritage Medical Network Board, Executive Board and Finance Committee and the Clinical Quality Assurance Committee of the Marin Community Clinics. He is a member of the AAP Section on Administration and Practice Management (SOAPM) and Council on Clinical Information Technology (COCIT).  He is also very active with the local chapter (District IX, Chapter 1) of the American Academy of Pediatrics and was the Co-Chair of the Chapter CME Committee for many years.  Dr. Branco was selected as a member of CONACH in 2011 and is proud to work with his colleagues on CONACH and in the IHS to improve the health of Native children and communities.  He and his wife have three children and spending time with his family is his favorite extra-curricular activity.

    Rebecca Susan Daily, MD, DFAPA, DFAACAP, AACAP


    Rebecca Susan Daily, M.D. is the Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist for Family and Children’s Services in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She serves children from a wide range of tribes and other cultures in Tulsa and the Eastern half of the state. She is currently Adjunct Faculty for the Oklahoma State University College of Osteopathic Medicine. 
     
    Dr. Daily’s career has included serving as the Vice Chairman of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University Of Oklahoma College Of Medicine where she held the Rainbolt Chair in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Prior to joining the University of Oklahoma, Dr. Daily served as Chief of Pediatric Psychiatry for Variety Care serving Oklahoma City and the Western half of the state.  

    Dr. Daily has a wealth of experience in serving Children and Adolescents in a wide variety of positions including Director of Inpatient Child and Adolescent Services, Child and Adolescent Consultation Liaison, Research, Child and Adolescent Partial Day Hospital, School Consultant, Community Mental Health Centers, Group Homes, Residential Centers and Private Practice. She has also published and presented at major scientific meetings.  

    Dr. Daily has worked with the American Red Cross and other emergency response agencies on Disaster response and planning including Desert Shield, the Oklahoma City Bombing, the Catoosa Tornado, Hurricane Katrina, the Tulsa Wendy’s Restaurant Shooting, and a Tuscaloosa Tornado.  

    One of the first Glaxo Welcome/American Medical Association New Leadership Development Fellows, Dr. Daily has been named a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and a Distinguished Fellow of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. She has served on a variety of committees, work groups and projects working toward improved services for children and is currently Co-Chair of the Committee of the Native American Child and a member of the Diversity and Culture Committee. Her myriad of interests have allowed her to collect a plethora of experiences which she brings to her endeavors.

    Joseph T. Bell, MD

    Joseph T. Bell, MD, FAAP is a Lumbee Indian from Pembroke, North Carolina. He received his Pharmacy and Medical Degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and completed a general Pediatrics residency at Moses Cone Hospital in Greensboro, NC. Dr. Bell worked at Carl Albert Indian Hospital in Ada, OK and Choctaw Indian Hospital in Talihina, OK before moving back to North Carolina. Since 1998 he has served as Medical Director at Pembroke Pediatrics and Pediatrician at the Catawba Indian Health Service Unit in Rock Hill, SC. He presently serves on the North Carolina American Indian Health Board and he is the Association of American Indian Physicians’ liaison to CONACH. Dr. Bell is past president of the Association of American Indian Physicians, past committee member of the North Carolina Pediatric Society and past committee member of CONACH. He is married to Vicki and they have two children, Tori and Isaac.


    Joseph Burns, MD

    Joseph Burns, MD is a PGY1 at Cohen Children’s Medical Center in New Hyde Park, NY.  He served as a member of the Editorial Advisory Board for The New Physician, the official publication of the American Medical Student, for which he generated content for an issue dedicated to the topic of Native American health disparities.  His passion for research has extended into the realm of Native American health, including an article entitled “First Nations People: Addressing the Relationships Between Under-Enrollment in Medial Education, STEM Education and Health in the United States”, and “Building Understanding and Community Relationships Between an Academic Health Home Visitation Program and Native American Populations in South Florida” - a formal presentation of his work with the Miccosukee tribe of South Florida.  In recognition of these efforts, he has been acknowledged with several honors from the Association of Native American Medical Students, including as nominee for John T. Wolfe Medical Student of the Year Award in 2017, recipient of the 2016 Lisa Donn Community Outreach Scholarship, and the 2018 Research Scholarship.

    Kathleen Wilder, MD, MHS

    Kathleen J. Wilder, MD, MHS is an Obstetrician Gynecologist with the Mid-Columbia Medical Center in The Dalles, Oregon.  She received her medical degree and residency training in obstetrics and gynecology from OHSU and went on to work with the Indian Health Service on Navajo Area 2007-2011.  Family called her back to Portland, Oregon where she joined the Division of General Obstetrics and Gynecology at OHSU. She was Co-Medical Director for Planned Parenthood of the Columbia-Willamette and Co-Director of the Center for Women’s Health Fibroid Program at OHSU. Prior to her medical training, Dr. Wilder received her Master’s in Health Science from the Department of Population Dynamics at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and worked for a non-profit research firm in Washington DC where her research focus areas were adolescent pregnancy prevention and culturally competent reproductive health services provision. Family planning, native health, and underserved care have continued to be her professional interests, along with minimally invasive surgery, rural women’s health, and quality assessment/improvement.  She serves as Chair for the ACOG Committee for American Indian/Alaska Native Programs.

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