Obstetric Medicine
Karen Rosene Montella, MD, is senior vice president of women’s services and clinical integration at Lifespan as well as professor and vice chair of medicine and director of obstetric medicine at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. Rosene Montella is a summa cum laude graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and earned her medical degree from Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois.
She completed a residency in internal medicine and a fellowship in maternal-fetal medicine at the University of Washington. She established the first fellowship in the country to train internists in medical problems in pregnancy. Rosene Montella is a fellow of the American College of Physicians. She is past president of the International Society of Obstetric Medicine, director of the American College of Physicians Workshops “Medical Problems in Pregnancy,” and chair of the Women’s Health Council of Rhode Island.
Rosene Montella is board certified in internal medicine. Her clinical and research interests include medical problems in pregnancy and pregnancy and postpartum follow-up of women with chronic medical illness, specifically thrombosis, preeclampsia and thyroid disorders in pregnancy. Rosene Montella is fluent in English and Spanish.
Peg Miller, MD, FACP, is director of the Women’s Medicine Collaborative. She is an associate professor of medicine and director of the internal medicine resident rotation in obstetric medicine at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University.
Miller received a medical degree from Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia and completed her residency in internal medicine at Rhode Island Hospital. She is a fellow of the American College of Physicians, a member of the Women’s Health Council of Rhode Island, and serves as vice president for the North American Society of Obstetric Medicine. Miller is board certified in internal medicine.
Her clinical and research interests include lifestyle medicine, lifestyle factors and pregnancy outcomes, the link between pregnancy complications and long term health, and models of care delivery.
Lucia Larson, MD, FACP, is director of obstetric medicine at the Women’s Medicine Collaborative. An associate professor of medicine at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Larson was director of the fellowship in obstetric and consultative medicine at Alpert Medical School. She received a medical degree from New York Medical College in Valhalla, New York, graduating with Alpha Omega Alpha honors, and completed her residency in internal medicine at University of Chicago Hospitals.
Larson completed a fellowship in obstetric and consultative medicine at Women & Infants Hospital. Larson is immediate past president of the North American Society of Obstetric Medicine. She is board certified in internal medicine, and is a fellow of the American College of Physicians. Her clinical and research interests include medical problems in pregnancy, including thromboembolic disease, preeclampsia and cardiac disorders, as well as lifestyle modification, obesity, and diabetes in pregnancy.
Courtney Bilodeau, MD, FACP, is an attending physician in obstetric medicine and women’s primary are at the Women’s Medicine Collaborative. An assistant clinical professor of medicine at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, she received a medical degree from Chicago Medical School, completed her residency in internal medicine at Rhode Island Hospital, and completed a fellowship in obstetric and consultative medicine at Women & Infants Hospital.
Bilodeau is a fellow of the American College of Physicians, a member of the Rhode Island Medical Society, the North American Society of Obstetric Medicine and the International Society of Obstetric Medicine. Bilodeau is board certified in internal medicine. Her clinical and research interests include breastfeeding, evidence-based complementary medicine, and peripartum management of chronic medical conditions from preconception through postpartum.
Endocrinology
Geetha Gopalakrishnan, MD, CCD, is medical director of the Bone Health Program and an endocrinology specialist in the Multidisciplinary Obstetric Medicine Service (MOMS) at the Women’s Medicine Collaborative. Gopalakrishnan is an associate professor of medicine at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University.
She completed her residency in internal medicine at Brown University and her fellowship in diabetes, endocrinology and metabolism at Stanford University. She is interim director of the Division of Endocrinology at Alpert Medical School. Gopalakrishnan is board certified in endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism; and is also certified in clinical densitometry, nuclear medicine and radiation safety.
Gopalakrishnan has a special interest in women’s health issues, including calcium disorders, vitamin D deficiency, osteoporosis, as well as endocrine disorders in pregnancy. Her research interests focus on therapeutic options for various endocrine disorders including osteoporosis and diabetes.
Rheumatology
Kerri Batra, MD, is a rheumatologist at the Women’s Medicine Collaborative and an assistant professor of medicine at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. Batra graduated with honors from the University of Massachusetts Medical School, and completed her residency in internal medicine at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
She did a fellowship in rheumatology at Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston, where she was awarded the Distinguished Excellence in Teaching Award from the Department of Medicine. She completed the program in clinical effectiveness at the Harvard School of Public Health. Batra is board certified in internal medicine and rheumatology. She has a clinical interest in preconception counseling and the management and treatment of women of childbearing age with rheumatologic disease and inflammatory arthritis. She has also published and presented on the role of biomarkers in rheumatoid arthritis (RA), pulmonary disease in RA, gout, and the manifestations and treatment of pregnant women with spondyloarthritis.
Gastrointestinal Medicine
Silvia Degli Esposti, MD, is director of the Center for Women’s Gastrointestinal Medicine at the Women’s Medicine Collaborative. She is an associate professor of medicine (clinical) at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and director of the fellowship pathway in women’s gastrointestinal diseases at Alpert Medical School. Degli Esposti graduated summa cum laude from the University of Bologna Medical School in Bologna, Italy. She completed her residency and fellowship at Brown University. She is a national expert in gastrointestinal and liver disease in pregnancy. She is the author of many chapters and original articles and has won several awards.
Degli Esposti is a pioneer in the field of women’s health in gastroenterology and works at a national level to develop programs addressing the needs of women. She also has been active in the Rhode Island community as an advocate for women’s health. She leads the Rhode Island Department of Health Perinatal Hepatitis Prevention Program, an award-winning program caring for pregnant women with viral hepatitis and their children. She was director of the Division of Gastroenterology and the Gastrointestinal Disorders in Pregnancy Clinic at Women & Infants Hospital before moving to the Women’s Medicine Collaborative.
Degli Esposti is board certified in internal medicine and gastroenterology. Her clinical and research interests include liver disease and gastrointestinal diseases in women. She is currently leading several studies in inflammatory bowel disease and hepatitis in pregnancy. Degli Esposti is fluent in English and Italian.
Colleen R. Kelly, MD, FACG, is a gastroenterologist in the Center for Women’s Gastrointestinal Medicine at the Women’s Medicine Collaborative. She is an assistant professor of medicine at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and a faculty member in the fellowship pathway in women’s gastrointestinal diseases at Alpert Medical School.
She received a medical degree from Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, completed a residency in internal medicine at Boston Medical Center, and completed a fellowship in gastroenterology at Alpert Medical School. She is a fellow of the American College of Gastroenterology. Kelly has been an active participant in the Rhode Island Pelvic Floor Network and led the irritable bowel syndrome and motility effort at Women & Infants Hospital before moving to the Women’s Medicine Collaborative.
She is nationally recognized in the field of gut flora and its implication in recurrent C. difficile infection. The focus of her research and clinical practice is fecal microbiota transplant (FMT) and she has assisted many physicians and institutions in developing FMT protocols. Kelly has authored a number of papers and abstracts on the subject and was a member of a working group that drafted a best-practices article for treating C. difficile infection with FMT, published in 2011.
She is a principal investigator for the first US clinical trial of FMT to treat relapsing C. difficile infection, funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIDDK). She is on the board of advisors of The Fecal Transplant Foundation. Kelly is board certified in gastroenterology. Her clinical interests include fecal transplantation, C. difficile, chronic diarrhea and other gastrointestinal motility disorders common in women, such as constipation and irritable bowel syndrome.
Amanda Pressman, MD, is a gastroenterologist in the Center for Women’s Gastrointestinal Medicine at the Women’s Medicine Collaborative and at the Gastroesophageal and Rectal Motility laboratory at Lifespan. In addition, she is director of the Program for Pelvic Floor Disorders at the Women’s Medicine Collaborative.
She is an assistant professor of medicine at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and a faculty member in the fellowship pathway in women’s gastrointestinal diseases at Alpert Medical School. She received a medical degree from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland, Ohio, and completed a residency at Harvard Medical School.
She is a graduate of the gastroenterology fellowship at Alpert Medical School. During her fellowship she received the prestigious Virology Fellowship Award from Bristol Myers Squibb and the Joe DiMase Award for her research on colorectal cancer screening. Pressman is one of the initial founders of Screening Colonoscopies for Underserved Persons (SCUP), a program offering colorectal cancer screening to the indigent population in Rhode Island.
She has published original research articles and chapters in the field of women’s health. Pressman is board certified in internal medicine and gastroenterology. She is the 2013 recipient of the Teacher of the Year Award in the Brown University Affiliated Hospital GI Training Program. Her clinical and research interests are gastroesophageal motility disorders, including pelvic floor disorders, gastroparesis and excessive nausea and vomiting in pregnancy, and colorectal cancer screening in women.
Sara Wriston, MSN, FNP-BC, is a nurse practitioner in the Center for Women’s Gastrointestinal Medicine at the Women’s Medicine Collaborative. She received an undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan and a graduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
As well as gastroenterology, she has extensive experience in internal medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, and oncology. Wriston has been an important collaborator in the Perinatal Hepatitis Prevention Program and was responsible, along with Silvia Degli Esposti, MD, for the evaluation and treatment of patients with viral hepatitis at Women & Infants Hospital before moving to the Women’s Medicine Collaborative. Wriston is a board certified family nurse practitioner. Her clinical and research interests include liver disease, particularly hepatitis, and gastrointestinal problems in pregnancy.
Pulmonary Medicine
Ghada Bourjeily, MD, FCCP, is an attending physician in pulmonary services and obstetric medicine and director of research at the Women’s Medicine Collaborative. An associate professor of medicine at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Bourjeily received a medical degree from the Universite Libanaise, Faculte des Sciences Medicales in Lebanon. She completed a residency in internal medicine at Staten Island University Hospital in New York and a fellowship in pulmonary and critical care at Case Western Reserve University and Yale University.
Bourjeily is a fellow of the American College of Chest Physicians, vice chair of the Women’s Health Network steering committee of the American College of Chest Physicians, a member of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, and serves as vice president for the North American Society of Obstetric Medicine. Bourjeily is board certified in internal medicine, pulmonary medicine and critical care medicine. Her clinical and research interests focus on understanding sleep disordered breathing in pregnant women and the diagnosis of pulmonary vascular disease in pregnancy. Bourjeily is fluent in English, French and Arabic.
Behavioral Medicine
Teri Pearlstein, MD, is director of women’s behavioral medicine at the Women’s Medicine Collaborative. An associate professor of psychiatry and human behavior at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Pearlstein received a medical degree from New York University School of Medicine and completed her residency at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, New York.
Pearlstein is board certified in psychiatry. Her clinical interests include depression and anxiety disorders in women, particularly in relation to the menstrual cycle, pregnancy, postpartum period and menopause.
Joanna V. MacLean, MD, is a psychiatrist in women’s
behavioral medicine at the Women’s Medicine Collaborative. She received her
medical degree from The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and
completed her residency in adult psychiatry at Cambridge Hospital, affiliated
with Harvard Medical School. She served as chief resident of women’s
mental health at Cambridge Hospital with a longitudinal elective at
Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Women's Mental Health in Boston,
Massachusetts.
She is a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical
Society and recipient of the Isaac Ray Award in Psychiatry. Her clinical
interests include psychiatric issues unique to women, including mood
and anxiety disorders particularly related to the menstrual cycle, pregnancy,
postpartum period and menopause.
Carmen Monzon, MD, is a psychiatrist in women’s behavioral medicine at the Women’s Medicine Collaborative. A clinical assistant professor of psychiatry and human behavior at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Monzon received a medical degree from National University Pedro Henriquez Urena in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and completed a residency at Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut. Monzon is board certified in psychiatry and psychosomatic medicine. She is the 2013 recipient of the Dean’s Excellence in Teaching Award at Alpert Medical School. Her clinical interests include perinatal psychiatry, oncology, and consultation-liaison psychiatry. She is fluent in English and Spanish.
Ellen Flynn, MD, is a psychiatrist in women’s behavioral medicine at the Women’s Medicine Collaborative. A clinical assistant professor of psychiatry and human behavior at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, she received a medical degree from the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester, Massachusetts.
Flynn completed a residency at University of Massachusetts Medical School, and completed a consultation-liaison psychiatry fellowship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, and a master of theological studies degree from Harvard Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Flynn is board certified in psychiatry and psychosomatic medicine. Her clinical interests include perinatal psychiatry, consultation-liaison psychiatry, and mindfulness-based interventions in health care.
Cardiovascular Medicine
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Athena Poppas, MD, FACC, FASE, is a cardiologist
with the Cardiovascular Institute at Rhode Island Hospital, The Miriam Hospital
and Newport Hospital as well as an affiliated physician at the Women’s Medicine
Collaborative. She serves as director of the echocardiography laboratory at
Rhode Island Hospital, and specializes in valvular heart disease, heart disease
in women, and echocardiography and heart disease in pregnancy.
She received a bachelor of science from Brown
University and a doctor of medicine from the University of Wisconsin Medical
School. Poppas completed her residencies in internal medicine at University of
Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics and in cardiovascular medicine at University of
Chicago Hospitals. Poppas is an associate professor of medicine at The Warren
Alpert Medical School of Brown University and a board member of the Women’s
Health Council of Rhode Island. Poppas is a fellow and board trustee of the American
College of Cardiology (ACC).
She has national leadership roles, volunteering on a
number of committees including the ACC Clinical Quality Steering Committee, ACC
Cardiometabolic Strategic Work Group and chairs the American Society of
Echocardiography Ethics Committee. Poppas focuses her research on
echocardiography and also the various facets of heart disease in women. She has
a special interest in peripartum cardiomyopathy.
Poppas has presented and published internationally
on topics such as cardiovascular properties in normal pregnancy, 3D and stress
echocardiography, and the role of echocardiography in new technologies. She is
fluent in English and Greek.
Maternal-Fetal Medicine
Marshall Carpenter, MD, is medical director of the Maternal-Fetal Medicine Program at the Women’s Medicine Collaborative. Carpenter is board certified in maternal-fetal medicine and is a fellow of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. He received his training at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and completed his residency and fellowship at Yale University. He served as director of maternal-fetal medicine at Brown University and Women & Infants Hospital for 18 years, before opening the Providence-based practice, New Beginnings Perinatal Consultants.
To learn more, or to schedule an appointment, call 401-793-5700.