Pediatric Cardiology Fellowship

We pride ourselves on training the most outstanding academic Pediatric Cardiologists who are leaders in our field, something we have been doing for over 40 years! 

How do we provide such consistently excellent training in Pediatric Cardiology? Through our unique structure of fellowship training, housed within our world-renowned congenital heart center which provides a patient population ideal for learning, all within an uncommonly supportive and collegial environment, committed to the equity and well-being of all who work and are cared for at our heart center.

The Michigan Congenital Heart Center is a center of excellence for the care of children and adults with all forms complex congenital heart conditions. Our heart center provides a high volume, high acuity, exposure to every aspect of pediatric cardiology, from common cardiac disorders to groundbreaking therapies, from fetal life through adulthood and all ages in between. Because we are a large referral heart center in a medium-sized college town, we see a higher proportion of abnormal pathology every single day compared to other large centers. This creates the ideal learning environment where our fellows are exposed to tremendous breadth and complexity in all subspecialties.

Our heart center is also home to the Michigan Congenital Heart Outcomes Research and Discovery (MCHORD) Program, which is our nationally recognized research unit that provides dedicated mentorship, guidance, and education to our fellows through all aspects of scholarly activities. Our center and faculty are leaders in many national clinical research initiatives, including PC4, PAC3, CNOC, NPC-QIC and the Pediatric Heart Network, providing numerous additional fellow opportunities for collaborative projects.

One of the most unique aspects of our fellowship that really solidifies the exceptional clinical experience is our graduated autonomy approach to training. Each fellowship year has different service and on call responsibilities, which build on the fellow’s education and experience. Through this graduated approach, fellows gain responsibilities as they learn, not over a crash course of days but over months, developing the necessary foundation first. This approach fosters the skill to perform procedures and care for patients at the highest level of precision and independence. We consider all their rotations in fellowship as a progressive, more humane approach to “boot camp”!

Finally, what I believe truly sets our program apart are all our amazing faculty and staff within the Michigan Congenital Heart Center, who create the culture of support and teamwork that is a hallmark of the Michigan Fellowship and fosters the ideal learning environment. Our faculty, who are all gifted clinicians and scholars, have an unwavering commitment to training our fellows, and prioritize teaching during every aspect of patient care. Many were fellows at Michigan themselves, and are committed to paying forward the unparalleled education they received, to the next generation of Michigan-trained pediatric cardiologists.

As I hope you can see, it is our top priority at the University of Michigan to foster the development of exceptional, well-rounded pediatric cardiologists who are outstanding clinicians and colleagues first and foremost, who have a passion for research and education, and who value equity and collaboration.

We truly believe that those who come to Michigan, will be the Leaders and Best in our field! Go Blue!

 - Carlen Fifer, Pediatric Cardiology Program Director

• Evan Goldart, MD, MPH: Pediatric Critical Care Fellowship (Children's National Hospital, Washington, D.C.)
• Hillary Liken, MD: Echocardiography (Duke University, Durham, NC)
• Bryan Mosher, MD: Adult Congenital Heart Disease Fellowship (Stanford University, Stanford, CA)
• Alyson Pierick, MD: Pediatric Critical Care (Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, Atlanta, GA)
• Hannah Van Galder, MD: Interventional Cardiac Catheterization (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI)

• Preston Boyer, MD: Interventional Catheterization Fellowship (Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital, St. Petersburg, FL)
• Olivia Frosch, MD: General Cardiology/Hospitalist (Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA)
• Andrew Ligsay, MD: Sleep Medicine Fellowship (McGaw/Northwestern University, Chicago, IL)
• Robert Slater, MD: General Cardiology (Children’s Hospital & Medical Center, Omaha, NE)
• Charlotte Schaffer, MD: Pediatric Critical Care Fellowship (Seattle Children’s Hospital, Seattle, WA)
• Caroline West, MD: Heart Failure/Transplantation (Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN)

• Sarah Blonsky, MD: General Cardiology (Children’s Heart Clinic, Minneapolis, MN)
• Eric McClellan, MD: Pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care (Doernbecher Children’s Hospital, Portland, OR)
• Angela Quain, MD: Adult Congenital Heart Disease Fellowship (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI)
• Erin Shea, MD: Heart Failure/Transplantation (Duke University, Durham, NC)
• Courtney Thomas, MD: Interventional Cardiac Catheterization (Children’s Mercy Hospital, Kansas City, MO)
• Domonic Zanaboni, MD: Interventional Cardiac Catheterization (St. Louis Children’s Hospital, St. Louis, MO)

• Tyler Bradley-Hewitt, MD: Pediatric Cardiac Critical Care (Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA)
• Katherine DeWeert, MD: Electrophysiology/Imaging (C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital, Congenital Heart Center, Ann Arbor, MI)
• Rebecca Hartog, MD: Adult Congenital Heart Disease (St. Louis Children’s Hospital, St. Louis, MO)
• Darren Marshall, MD: General Cardiology - Pediatric Cardiology (San Antonio, TX)
• Joshua Meisner, MD, MPH: Research (C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital, Congenital Heart Center, Ann Arbor, MI)
• Justin Smith, MD: Pediatric Cardiac Critical Care (University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY) 

• Benjamin Hale, MD: Electrophysiology (Stead Family Children's Hospital, Iowa Health Care, Iowa City, IA)
• Peter LaRossa, MD: Noninvasive Imaging (St. Louis Children’s Hospital, St. Louis, MO)
• Tiffany Lim, MD: General Pediatric Cardiology (Children’s Heart Center of Central Oregon, Bend, Oregon)
• Andrew Porter, MD: Noninvasive Imaging (Sibley Heart Center, Atlanta, GA)
• Megan Wilde, MD: Heart Failure/ Transplantation (Riley Children’s Hospital, Indianapolis, IN)
• Hunter Wilson, MD: Noninvasive Imaging, Cardiac MRI (Sibley Heart Center, Atlanta, GA)