Esophageal and Airway Treatment Team
Jason Smithers, M.D.
Pediatric Surgery / Surgical Critical Care
Dr. Smithers is an associate professor of surgery and director of the Esophageal and Airway Treatment (EAT) Program in the Department of Surgery at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital since 2019. He was honored for Innovations in Clinical Care at the Johns Hopkins Medicine Clinical Awards for 2020. As a leader in both innovation and expertise for pediatric thoracic surgery, he and his team see patients from all over the United States and internationally. The team also makes several invited trips per year around the country and world for lectures and conferences, in addition to helping patients and teaching other surgical teams regarding complex esophageal and airway surgical techniques in the operating room.
Dr. Smithers previously served as assistant professor of surgery at Boston Children’s Hospital from 2009-2019, as part of their groundbreaking EAT program. His clinical specialties are congenital and acquired conditions of the esophagus and airway, vascular rings, congenital diaphragmatic hernia, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), surgical critical care, and minimally invasive surgery.
Hester Shieh, M.D.
Pediatric Surgery
Dr. Shieh is a pediatric surgeon in the Department of Surgery at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital. She joined the medical staff in 2021 and sees patients on our main campus in St. Petersburg, Florida, and also at Tampa General Hospital and Brandon Regional Hospital. Her clinical focus includes esophageal and airway treatment (EAT). Dr. Shieh earned her medical degree from the University of Arizona College of Medicine — Phoenix. She completed her general surgery residency at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center, during which she did a pediatric surgery research fellowship at Boston Children’s Hospital. She then completed her pediatric surgery fellowship at Boston Children’s Hospital.
Russell Jennings, M.D.
Pediatric Surgery
Dr. Russell “Rusty” Jennings, a pioneer of pediatric surgical procedures for malformed esophageal and tracheal conditions, is a surgeon in the Esophageal and Airway Treatment (EAT) Program at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital, which he joined in 2022. A pediatric surgeon for more than 40 years, Dr. Jennings founded and directed the world’s first Esophageal and Airway Treatment (EAT) Center at Boston Children’s Hospital. There he led a multidisciplinary team that worked on solving unsolved problems, and developed innovative techniques for evaluation, diagnosis and successful treatment of numerous conditions.
Michael Wilsey, M.D.
Pediatric Gastroenterology
Dr. Wilsey specializes in pediatric gastroenterology, hepatology, and nutrition in the Department of Medicine. He is the vice chair of the Division of Gastroenterology and served as chief of the medical staff from 2020-2021. In 2022, he was named Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital Physician of the Year in the Johns Hopkins Medicine Clinical Awards. Dr. Wilsey is an advanced therapeutic endoscopist specializing in endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) for infants and children. He is one of a select group of gastroenterologists with this expertise internationally and across North America. At Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital, he has developed and implemented multiple clinical innovations related to therapeutic endoscopy.
Carlos Munoz, M.D.
Pediatric Anesthesiology
Dr. Munoz is the anesthesia director for the Esophageal and Airway Treatment Program at Johns Hopkins All Children’s, where he has helped to enhance the program’s multidisciplinary care and development of anesthesia intraoperative protocols. He joined the hospital staff in 2022. He was previously an anesthesiologist at Boston Children’s Hospital, where he was part of the esophageal and airway treatment team, and assistant professor of Anesthesia at Harvard Medical School. At Boston Children’s, he worked with general surgeons to develop the technique of continuous intraoperative bronchoscopy, and developed a negative pressure test that allows surgeons to evaluate how well a patient’s airway has been repaired.
Michelle L. Walker, APRN, MSN, CPNP AC/PC
Nurse Practitioner
Michelle L. Walker, APRN, MSN, CPNP AC/PC, is a surgical/trauma nurse practitioner who provides care for patients in the Esophageal and Airway Treatment program at Johns Hopkins All Children’s. She joined the hospital staff in 2015, where she has also worked in the Emergency Center and in Interventional and Diagnostic Radiology. Prior to joining the hospital, she was a registered nurse at Advent Health for Children. She earned her bachelor’s degree in nursing with a minor in health sciences from the University of Central Florida, her master’s degree in nursing – pediatric nurse practitioner, primary care from the University of South Florida. She also earned a certificate in acute care pediatrics from the University of Tennessee.
Jason Richardson, BSN, RN, RNC-NIC
Nurse Coordinator
Jason Richardson, BSN, RN, RNC-NIC, is a nurse coordinator with the Esophageal and Airway Treatment Program at Johns Hopkins All Children’s. He joined the hospital staff in 2018, and previously worked as a nurse in the Center for Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia. Prior to joining Johns Hopkins All Children’s, he was a nurse with UF Health Shands Hospital in Gainesville, Florida. He earned his Bachelor of Science in nursing from Aspen University.
Contact Us
For more information about how our program can help your child or to make an appointment, please call the number below to speak to the program’s nurse coordinator.
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You can also use our online contact form, and a member of our team will follow up with you to assist with your questions.
