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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Dr. Elliott specializes in pediatric anesthesiology, acute and chronic pain management, regional anesthesia and is a medical acupuncturist at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital. He joined the hospital staff in 2013. He also is associate program director of the Johns Hopkins All Children's Pediatric Anesthesia fellowship program. Dr. Elliott earned his medical degree at Northeast Ohio Medical University. He completed his residency in anesthesiology and fellowship in pediatric anesthesiology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He earned a post-master’s certificate in evidence-based teaching in the health professions from the Johns Hopkins University School of Education as well as a Master of Science in Jurisprudence in Health and Hospital Law from Seton Hall University School of Law. 

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Dr. Kuo is a pediatric anesthesiologist at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital and holds the rank of Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology & Critical Care Medicine at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He joined the hospital staff in 2021. Dr. Kuo earned his medical degree from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. He completed a residency in anesthesiology at Baylor College of Medicine with training at Texas Children's Hospital, followed by a fellowship in pediatric anesthesiology at Boston Children’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School in Boston.

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Dr. Samuel is a pediatric anesthesiologist and pain management specialist at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital. He joined the hospital in 2015 and previously practiced at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami for 5 years. His clinical focus is pediatric anesthesiology and a multimodal approach to pediatric acute and chronic pain. This includes, but is not limited to, alternative therapies for pain management, pain medication weaning and management, nerve blocks/regional anesthesia, and patient-controlled analgesia.

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Dr. Watkins specializes in pediatric anesthesiology for Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital, and serves as Pediatric Anesthesia Fellowship Program Director and Director of Education. He joined hospital staff in 2018. Dr. Watkins earned his medical degree from Medical College of Georgia in Augusta. He completed an internship, anesthesiology residency and pediatric anesthesiology fellowship at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee. Dr. Watkins also trained in medical simulation through the Center for Medical Simulation at Harvard University and in quality improvement through Cincinnati Children’s Intermediate Improvement Science Series.

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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.

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Dr. Rottgers practices in the pediatric plastic and craniofacial surgery programs and is chief of the division of plastic and reconstructive surgery at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital. His areas of special interest are vascular anomalies and in the treatment of cleft and craniofacial conditions including cleft lip and palate, craniosynostosis, hemifacial microsomia, microtia, and other abnormalities of the face and jaw.

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Dr. Halsey is a pediatric plastic surgeon at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital and an assistant professor in the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. She joined the hospital staff in 2021. Dr. Halsey earned her medical degree from the University of Tennessee Health Science Center College of Medicine in Memphis, Tennessee. She completed a residency in integrated plastic surgery from Rutgers-New Jersey Medical School in Newark, New Jersey, where she was administrative chief resident. She then completed a fellowship in pediatric craniofacial surgery from Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.

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Caitlin Henderson, MSN, APRN, PNP-AC/PC, is a pediatric critical care nurse practitioner who provides care for patients in the Esophageal and Airway Treatment Program at Johns Hopkins All Children’s. Henderson joined the hospital staff in 2012 and treated patients in the pediatric intensive care unit prior to joining the EAT team. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Florida State University, and Master of Science in Nursing, dual pediatric acute/primary care nurse practitioner track, from University of Alabama at Birmingham.

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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.

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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.