Dr. Alessandra Angelino (she/her) is the Scientific Chair of the LCF Pediatric Long COVID Scientific Board. She is a double board-certified pediatrician and adolescent medicine specialist with a deep commitment to equity in healthcare. Her work spans clinical care, community engagement, policy, and research – all grounded in inclusive, culturally safe practice.

Dr. Angelino majored in International Health at Georgetown University and completed her medical degree at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, followed by an MPH in Global Health at the University of Washington. She completed her Pediatrics Residency at the University of North Carolina and her Adolescent Medicine Fellowship at Johns Hopkins University.

Dr. Angelino currently practices as a pediatrician and adolescent medicine specialist in Boston, MA. In addition to subspecialty adolescent medicine care, Dr. Angelino is passionate about caring for youth with chronic conditions such as Long COVID, Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and hypermobility spectrum disorders, orthostatic intolerance (including POTS), Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), and mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS).

She also holds affiliate faculty appointments at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and School of Public Health, and is a physician contractor with the Indian Health Service and the lead clinical consultant for adolescent and pediatric medicine at the Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board. In the research and advocacy spaces, Dr. Angelino’s work focuses on health equity, infection associated chronic illness (long COVID and ME/CFS in particular), and adolescent health.

Dr. Danilo Buonsenso is a pediatrician at Fondazione Policlinico Universitario Agostino Gemelli IRCCS and a researcher at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Roma, Italy, where he directs the pediatric infectious diseases unit. His clinical and research interests include infections in children, pediatric emergency care, and the use of ultrasound in pediatric practice.

He studied medicine and completed specialist training in pediatrics at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore. He holds a doctorate in public health and molecular sciences and postgraduate qualifications in pediatric infectious diseases from the University of Oxford.

His work includes Italian and international research on the effects of SARS-CoV-2 in children, including Long COVID. He also founded Surf4Children, which supports medical projects in Sierra Leone and inclusion activities for children with additional needs in Italy.

Institutional profile · Research background

Megan L. Fitzgerald, PhD, is a neuroscientist whose research has focused on the intersection of neurodevelopment, brain biology, and brain and behavioral disorders. She earned her PhD in Neuroscience and Neurology from Weill Cornell Medical College, where her thesis research examined adolescent neuroanatomy and cannabinoid receptors, with a particular emphasis on the developing brain.

She subsequently completed postdoctoral research at Mount Sinai and an NIH-funded fellowship at Columbia University, where her work continued to investigate the neurobiological mechanisms underlying brain and behavioral disorders, including research connecting neuroanatomy and suicide risk. Her research career has been driven by an interest in how developmental processes shape brain function and vulnerability across the lifespan.

Following a COVID-19 infection in March 2020 that resulted in Long COVID, Dr. Fitzgerald brought her scientific training to bear on understanding the disease and the substantial gaps in research and clinical care experienced by patients and families. She joined the Patient-Led Research Collaborative in 2020, where she contributed to patient-led research and helped advance the integration of patient perspectives into clinical and basic science studies of Long COVID.

As Scientific Director of the Brain Inflammation Collaborative, Dr. Fitzgerald has expanded her work at the intersection of neuroscience, inflammation, and Long COVID. She built BIC’s pediatric research platform to support investigation of brain and neurological manifestations of Long COVID in children and adolescents, with an emphasis on bringing together scientific rigor, developmental neuroscience, and the lived experiences of young patients and their families. Her work focuses on fostering collaborative, patient-centered research that can illuminate the biological mechanisms underlying Long COVID and ultimately advance better diagnostics, treatments, and care.

As a Scientific Board member for Long COVID Families, Dr. Fitzgerald brings expertise in neuroscience and neurodevelopment, experience in patient-led research, and a commitment to ensuring that the scientific agenda reflects the needs and experiences of people living with Long COVID and their families.

Dr. Rachel S. Gross is a general pediatrician and clinical investigator. She is Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Population Health and Director of Research, Division of General Pediatrics, at NYU Grossman School of Medicine. She is Principal Investigator and Director of Pediatric Research for the RECOVER Clinical Science Core.

Her research examines how social, economic, environmental, and behavioral conditions affect children’s health. She develops and evaluates family-centered approaches to preventing early childhood obesity, including the Starting Early Program, which begins during pregnancy and continues through early childhood.

Dr. Gross is also a leader in the NIH RECOVER initiative. She serves as a principal investigator for its pediatric cohort and directs pediatric research for the RECOVER Clinical Science Core at NYU Langone Health, studying the frequency, course, and effects of Long COVID in children.

She earned her medical degree at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, completed pediatric residency at Children’s Hospital at Montefiore, and undertook fellowship training in medicine and public health research at NYU.

Institutional profile · Research background

Dr. Leonard A. Jason is Director of the Center for Community Research and Professor of Psychology at DePaul University.

His research focuses on a prospective study of college students with Mono, comparing these groups with those with Long COVID, and studying recovery homes for those with substance use disorders. He conducted a series of adult and youth epidemiologic studies as well as prospective and treatment studies. His work includes a theory of helping patients pace or stay within their energy envelopes and the development of scales to measure ME/CFS.

Jason has served as the Vice President of the International American Association of ME/CFS. He also served as the Chairperson of the Research Subcommittee of the U.S. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Advisory Committee. He was given the Dutch ME-Foundation International ME-Award for outstanding work in the field of CFS. Dr. Jason was also awarded the Perpich Award for distinguished service to the IACFS/ME and the ME/CFS community. He recently received a Solve/ME award for outstanding contributions to the field.

Lawrence C. Kleinman, MD, MPH, is a pediatrician and health services researcher. He is Professor and Vice Chair for Academic Development, and Director, Division of Pediatric Population Health, Quality, and Implementation Sciences, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, in New Brunswick, NJ.

Dr. Laura Malone is the director of the Pediatric Post-COVID-19 Rehabilitation Clinic at Kennedy Krieger Institute. She is also a physician scientist in Kennedy Krieger’s Center for Movement Studies, and an associate professor of Neurology and Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Dr. Malone has contributed to national and international programs and guidance regarding pediatric Long COVID, including serving as lead author on the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation’s Post-Acute Sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 (PASC) Infection Collaborative guidance statement on the assessment and treatment of PASC in children and adolescents. She has also served on the expert panel for the World Health Organization’s Post COVID-19 Condition Case Definition for Children and Young People and on National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine committees for long-term implications and disability considerations for patients with long COVID. She currently serves as the external PI of Record for the NIH RECOVER-TLC BRAVE Clinical Trial investigating the effect of low-dose naltrexone on pediatric long COVID fatigue.

Dr. Malone is also the principal investigator of a U18 grant through the AHRQ Long COVID Care Network to expand and strengthen care for children and adolescents with long COVID. As part of this effort, her team has launched a Pediatric Long COVID ECHO telementoring program to support the primary care community in long COVID education and management. As the only pediatric partner in the AHRQ Long COVID Care Network, she works closely with other sites to provide education and resources to pediatric providers across the United States.

Dr. Malone has a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Johns Hopkins University and her medical degree from the University of North Carolina- Chapel Hill. She completed her pediatric neurology residency at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

Dr. Malone’s clinical practice focuses on the neurological care of children with long COVID, perinatal stroke, other brain injuries. Her research focuses on understanding complex pediatric disorders and on improving outcomes using mechanistic neurorehabilitation approaches. Regarding COVID-19, Dr. Malone investigates clinical phenotypes of children with persistent symptoms after COVID-19 infection and investigates factors and mechanisms that promote good recovery.

Dr. Christine Miller is a pediatrician at Atrius Health in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, caring for children with Long COVID and other infection-associated conditions. Her research examines persistent illness after infection, including the long-term effects of SARS-CoV-2 in children. She seeks biological markers that could support more accurate diagnosis and more targeted treatment.

She earned a biology degree at Bucknell University and her osteopathic medical degree at Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine. She completed pediatric residency at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School and infectious diseases fellowship training at Yale.

Her published work includes a review of pediatric post-COVID illness in the United States, research using clinical data to identify pediatric Long COVID, and contributions to guidance on preventing and managing COVID-19 in children and adolescents.

Dr. Sindhu Mohandas is an infectious diseases specialist at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and an associate professor of clinical pediatrics at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. She co-directs CHLA’s Immunocompromised Infectious Diseases Program.

After medical school and pediatric training in India, she trained in England and became a member of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. She subsequently completed pediatric residency at Brookdale University Hospital in New York and an infectious diseases fellowship at Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

Her research investigates the lasting effects of SARS-CoV-2, including how host genetics and other risk factors relate to multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children and Long COVID. She also studies the gut microbiome and its relationship to infections in children with weakened immune systems, particularly C. difficile. Her work includes participation as a co-principal investigator in the NIH RECOVER initiative.

Institutional profile

Melissa Stockwell, MD MPH is the Chief of the Division of Child and Adolescent Health, Vice Chair of Faculty Affairs and Development and the Felice K. Shea Professor of Pediatrics in the Department of Pediatrics at Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons and a Professor of Population and Family Health in the Department of Population and Family Health at the Mailman School of Public Health.

Additionally, she is a practicing pediatrician. Her areas of expertise and training include general pediatrics, preventive medicine, health services research, epidemiology, and public health.

Dr. Stockwell’s research program, which concentrates on underserved children and adolescents, focuses on interventions to improve vaccinations, with an emphasis on health technology and health literacy, as well as on respiratory infections and long COVID. Dr. Stockwell serves as the contact PI for the Columbia University hub site for the NIH RECOVER Long COVID study and is the chair of the RECOVER Pediatric Coordinating Committee.

Dr. Alexandra Brugler Yonts is a pediatric infectious diseases specialist and Director of the Post COVID Program Clinic at Children’s National. She is also an assistant professor of pediatrics at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences.

She earned her medical degree at the University of Nebraska College of Medicine, completed pediatric residency at the University of California, Davis, and trained in pediatric infectious diseases through the joint Children’s National–U.S. Food and Drug Administration fellowship track.

Her clinic brings multiple specialties together to evaluate and care for children and adolescents with Long COVID. Her research follows how pediatric Long COVID presents and changes over time and investigates potential treatments. She also studies vaccine policy and implementation and co-leads a pediatric Lyme disease natural-history study with the NIH.

Outside medicine, her interests include baking, hiking, sports, community handbell music, and family road trips.

Institutional profile