The Department of Pediatrics Instructor Recognition Program aims to recognize instructor/senior instructor faculty who are making substantive contributions to the university above and beyond their primarily clinical roles. Currently in a pilot phase, the program has three specific aims:
- To recognize the depth of expertise and accomplishment across three different domains (Clinical Practice Development, Education and Research) and two levels of recognition (Expert and Senior Expert).
- To provide opportunities for professional growth and recognition throughout a faculty member’s career.
- To provide structure that facilitates mentorship pairing.
The department’s Instructor Recognition Committee has completed its review of applicants for recognition in 2025 and is pleased to announce its selection:
Senior Expert in Clinical Practice Development
Jessica Cooper, DNP, CPNP-AC
Since joining Children's Hospital Colorado (CHCO) in December 2021, Jessica Cooper has demonstrated extraordinary clinical leadership, innovation and operational insight deserving of this award. She chaired the multidisciplinary team that updated CHCO’s antiemetic protocol for BMT patients – now published as an official pathway – and developed an adrenal insufficiency guideline that is advancing toward formal pathway status. Cooper has co-led key quality-improvement initiatives, including optimizing Vitamin D monitoring in pediatric BMT patients, launching nurse-led family-centered rounds with a focus on CLABSI prevention, and directing process improvements and EPIC order updates to eliminate BMT cell-dose errors, and has also served as lead or member on four additional QI projects. Over the past year, she has provided both clinical and administrative leadership as the BMT advanced practice provider lead. Cooper’s sustained contributions and measurable outcomes make her an exemplary candidate for this recognition.
Kaylee Dollerschell, MS, CGC
Since joining CHCO, Kaylee Dollerschell has established and now directs a full-time genetic counseling program for families affected by inherited blood disorders, integrating hematology services in both CCBD and the Hemophilia & Thrombosis Center. She led the creation of standardized referral guidelines, patient-education materials, surveillance tracking tools, and a seamless transition process between pediatric and adult care. By migrating from off-site commercial panels to customized in-house genetic testing, she ensured comprehensive coverage while optimizing turnaround time and cost. Her program has accelerated time to diagnosis, improved molecular accuracy, and driven critical genotype-phenotype correlations, leading to earlier, targeted therapies and improved survival in congenital and acquired bone marrow failure. A recognized leader – chairing national special interest groups and active in multi-disciplinary consortia – she also excels in clinical teaching, research and advocacy. In recognition of her contributions, Dollerschell received the National Bleeding Disorders Foundation Genetic Counselor of the Year Award in 2023. While she applied for recognition as an expert in clinical practice development, the committee felt her work worthy of recognition as a senior expert.
Ann Hefel, DNP, MS, FNP-BC
Since 2019, Ann Hefel has excelled as both a clinician and leader in the Section of Allergy and Immunology, overseeing one of the nation’s largest allergy challenge units and caring for complex allergy patients in continuity clinic. As administrative lead APP, she ensures seamless scheduling, education and onboarding. Beyond her core duties, Hefel co-founded the Allergy Quality and Safety Committee, led a published QI project that safely reduced reported penicillin allergies in surgical patients, and collaborated on an Epic-integrated atopic dermatitis scoring system – an initiative funded by IHQSE. Her sustained contributions to operational excellence, patient safety and quality improvement make her an ideal candidate for this recognition.
Jessica Stoughton, MS, CPNP-PC 
Jessica Stoughton created a tailored diabetes education program for families with low literacy and numeracy after being inspired by a newly diagnosed 10-year-old patient, and she leads the Barbara Davis Center’s flu vaccine initiative, delivering 500 annual shots to children with Type 1 diabetes. As a member of the Barbara Davis Center (BDC) Clinical Care Task Force and APP representative on the BDC Executive Committee, she influences center-wide care standards. Stoughton presented at the “Achieving Targets in Diabetes Care” conference and volunteers at diabetes camps, exemplifying her dedication to patient education, preventive care and community engagement.
Sarah Tillema, MHS, PA-C
Since 2020, SarahTillema has driven clinical innovation and education through her roles as clinical informaticist and Epic physician builder for the Young Mothers and Families Clinic, earning Epic power-user and advanced-builder certifications. She streamlined workflows with iPad screeners, custom note templates, and Epic Boost enhancements – enabling data tracking for interconception care during COVID-19 and presenting her work at Pediatric Academic Society (PAS). Tillema’s leadership extends across the Engagement and Alignment Committee, APP Appreciation Week and the Better Together program (2023–24), and she secured a faculty wellness grant to improve Epic efficiency. With a public health certificate in maternal and child health and co-founding of the Young Mothers and Families Clinic, her sustained impact on care standardization, provider education and wellness makes her an exemplary candidate for this recognition.
Lyle Wagner, MSN, RN, CPNP-AC/PC
Lyle Wagner’s comprehensive dossier unequivocally meets the senior expert criteria. Her supporting documents detail her exceptional leadership in caring for opioid-exposed infants – including securing the AAP Maternal Infant Health and Opioid Use QI grant, co-authoring and executing the IHQSE CEPS grant protocol, and co-chairing the UCH Substance-Affected Group while co-leading the Pediatric Prenatal Consultation Service for pregnant patients in treatment for opioid use disorder. She has further contributed to the Umbilical Cord Toxicology Testing QI project and serves on the steering committee of the Colorado Hospital Substance-Exposed Newborn QI Collaborative. Despite a reduction in protected scholarly time in 2024, she has sustained outstanding productivity and obtained additional grant funding. Her reflective statement confirms that advancing care for opioid-exposed infants is the cornerstone of her career.
Shelby Winzent-Oonk, PA-C
Over her six years as an APP in neuro-oncology (and two years as a nocturnist), Shelby Winzent-Oonk has substantially advanced clinical care and quality initiatives within the Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders (CCBD). She spearheaded improved screening and management of transfusion-related iron overload, co-developed the STARs clinic to streamline transition to adult survivorship care, and co-led the hospital-wide ImPACT initiative optimizing pediatric-to-adult care transitions. As neuro-oncology’s representative on Beacon validations and the Outpatient Protocol Optimization Project, she has enhanced chemotherapy safety, and through multidisciplinary plan validations, she ensures comprehensive, accurate chemotherapy orders. A committed QI leader in the Clinical Effectiveness Collaborative (2019–2023), Winzent-Oonk mentors new project teams and communicates outcomes to hospital leadership. Her scholarly contributions include a forthcoming Pediatric Blood & Cancer manuscript on TRIO risk, twelve abstracts, ten clinical trials and EPIC documentation enhancements that raised screening rates from 15% to 75%. Winzent-Oonk’s sustained leadership, innovation and measurable impact make her an outstanding candidate for this recognition.
Expert in Clinical Practice Development
Jonna Finocchio, LCSW
Since assuming the role of behavioral health services program manager at the TRUE Center for Gender Diversity – and attaining senior instructor status in August 2024 – Finocchio has dramatically reduced clinic wait times, often achieving 150% of expected RVUs. They have designed and operationalized novel program elements, including aligning behavioral health philosophies with medical leadership, facilitating multidisciplinary case reviews, and developing SOPs, documentation templates and workflows that integrate behavioral health seamlessly with medical care. Finocchio also created a comprehensive onboarding packet, participates actively on the LGBTQ+ Hub’s Research Subcommittee and Education & Advocacy Committee, and serves as faculty advisor to a graduate student LGBTQ+ group. As co-creator of the PRIDE Clinic with developmental pediatrics, they’ve established direct pathways to autism evaluations. Their supporting documents commend Finocchio’s collaborative leadership and strategic oversight, reflecting significant impact on their section’s clinical programs.
Ronda Franke, DNP, MSN, CPNP-PC, PMHNP-BC
Ronda Franke has been a member of the developmental pediatrics team at CHCO since 2018. Franke’s primary clinical work involves participation in an interdisciplinary toileting program that serves neurodivergent and developmentally disabled children. Her contributions to this program have been significant and impactful. She has developed Epic-based tools such as smart phrases, which are now used across the section, as well as patient education materials. These efforts have enhanced the clinic’s efficiency and patient care. Her role in this clinic has also led to national recognition. She has presented at major conferences, and due to the overwhelmingly positive reception, she and her team have been invited to present again this winter. Importantly, this preparation is done outside of funded time, reflecting her dedication and leadership. In addition, Franke is engaged in the early planning of an Advanced Practice Provider (APP) Fellowship Program within the Section of Developmental Pediatrics. While this initiative is still in the conceptual phase and not yet a basis for formal recognition, it demonstrates her initiative and commitment to program development. Franke’s clinical excellence, dual certification, national dissemination of expertise and key contributions to a successful, high-demand clinic underscore her qualifications for recognition.
Expert in Education
Lauren Griffin, PA-C
Over the years, Lauren Griffin has progressively advanced through multiple educational roles – from preceptor to mentor to classroom educator – demonstrating a deep and sustained commitment to teaching. Her most impactful contribution has been the creation and implementation of a comprehensive point of care ultrasound (POCUS) curriculum for PICU APP fellows. This innovative, mixed-model curriculum addressed a critical knowledge gap and has since expanded to include credentialing for faculty APPs, establishing a standardized educational pathway that enhances clinical practice across the unit. Griffin’s leadership in developing and institutionalizing this program reflects a high level of initiative and educational impact. She has made substantial and meaningful contributions to APP education and clearly meets, and in some areas exceeds, the criteria for this recognition.
Brenna McGinn, MSN, CPNP-AC
Although early in her career as an APP in the Bone Marrow Transplant (BMT) service within the CCBD, Brenna McGinn has made impactful and lasting contributions to education within the department. She developed and implemented a structured onboarding curriculum for BMT APPs, which has successfully supported six APPs and is now extended to four APP fellows annually. Her curriculum emphasizes clinical competencies and the progression to independent practice, helping to define APP roles more clearly within BMT. In addition, McGinn plays a key role in simulation-based lumbar puncture training for up to 24 residents each year, delivering both didactic and hands-on instruction. She has also initiated an innovative "BMT Passport Series" in collaboration with nursing educators, a 12-module orientation for new graduate nurses that fosters clinical competence and provider-nurse mentorship. McGinn’s dedication to multidisciplinary education and culture-building within BMT is both thoughtful and forward-thinking. Her efforts clearly meet the criteria for this recognition.
Senior Expert in Research
Hui Zhang, MD, PhD
Hui Zhang, PhD, an instructor in the Department of Pediatrics and a member of the Cardiovascular Pulmonary Research Laboratory, has demonstrated a sustained and impactful research career over the past 12 years, with a clear focus on pulmonary hypertension. Her scholarly productivity and leadership are exemplary. She has co-authored 29 peer-reviewed publications, including nine as first author, and has contributed to key research initiatives as a co-investigator on NIH- and DOD-funded studies. Zhang also contributed to the field through authorship of book chapters, including the pulmonary circulation chapter in the 6th edition of Fuhrman’s Pediatric Critical Care. Of particular note is her recognition as a recipient of the Children’s Hospital Colorado Research Scholar Award for her principal investigator role on a project exploring the molecular mechanisms of activated vascular fibroblasts in pulmonary hypertension. Zhang’s growing leadership and consistent contributions to high-impact research firmly support her receiving this recognition.
