Welcome and Morning Session I

Alanna Higgins Joyce, MD, MPH, is an attending pediatrician in the Division of Hospital-Based Medicine at Lurie Children’s, caring for hospitalized children and newborns. She is also Clerkship Director in Pediatrics where she oversees medical student programming and assessment. In this role Alanna works with faculty, staff, and administration across several institutions for the training of medical students in patient care settings. Alanna is an Associate Professor at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine; she has published and spoken nationally in the areas of medical education, faculty feedback, and curriculum development.

Alanna holds an MD and an MPH from Tulane University and completed residency training in Pediatrics at the former Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago. She has a Master of Science in Teaching and experience teaching middle-school science. Alanna earned her bachelor’s degree in cognitive science from Northwestern University. She is a mother of three boys and a lifelong ballet dancer.

Dr. Higgins Joyce sees patients at Lurie Children’s – main hospital location and Northwestern Medicine Prentice Women’s Hospital.

Emilie K. Johnson, MD, MPH, FACS, FAAP is a Pediatric Urologist and Health Services and Outcomes Researcher at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago (Lurie Children’s) and an Associate Professor of Urology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

Dr. Johnson completed her Bachelor of Science degree at Emory University, and her MD and urologic residency at the University of Michigan. She then completed dual fellowships in Pediatric Urology and Health Services Research at Boston Children’s/Harvard and earned a Master of Public Health degree from the Harvard School of Public Health (now Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health).

Dr. Johnson’s clinical work focuses on general pediatric urology, including penile and testicular abnormalities, urinary tract infections, and ureteral anomalies including obstruction and reflux. She is the Co-director of Lurie Children’s multidisciplinary differences of sex development (DSD) clinic, Supportive Program for a Range Of Urogenital Traits (SPROUT).  Her current academic work is most focused on DSD, neonatal circumcision, and urinary tract infections.  Dr. Johnson has published extensively in these areas, as well as many other subtopics related to pediatric urology. She currently has >100 peer-reviewed publications. Dr. Johnson is currently the PI for an R18 grant funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

Dr. Johnson is an active member of multiple medical societies, including the American Urological Association, Societies for Pediatric Urology, American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American College of Surgeons. Dr. Johnson has served as the Population and Health Services Research Subspeciality Editor for the Journal of Pediatric Urology since 2020. She has also given >50 invited regional, national, or international talks on topics related to her research, and to urologic clinical practice. 

Dr. Johnson sees patients at Lurie Children’s main location and at Lurie Children’s Outpatient Center in Skokie.

Derek Matoka, MD, joined the Division of Urology at Lurie Children’s in November 2017. Dr. Matoka attended Trinity College in Hartford, CT where he majored in Chemistry. He pursued a graduate degree in Chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania where he earned a Master’s degree. An accident in the lab prompted a reassessment of his career path. He subsequently received his MD from the Stritch School of Medicine at Loyola University Chicago. Dr. Matoka completed a urology residency at the University of Pittsburgh and then returned to Chicago for a pediatric urology fellowship at Children’s Memorial Hospital of Chicago (now Lurie Children’s). Following completion of his fellowship in the summer of 2010, Dr. Matoka was on staff at Loyola University Medical Center until joining Lurie in November 2017.

Dr. Matoka’s interests include general pediatric urology, hypospadias and other congenital abnormalities of the penis, cryptorchidism and congenital hydrocele/hernias.

Dr. Matoka heads the recently formed Newborn Circumcision Program at Lurie Children’s and he is committed to increasing access to this service throughout Chicago. He sees patients at the main hospital location in Chicago and at Lurie Children’s Outpatient Center in Lincoln Park and New Lenox, also at Lurie Children’s at Northwestern Medicine Central DuPage Hospital Pediatric Outpatient Center in Winfield and Loyola University Medical Center at Oakbrook Terrace.

Raye-Ann deRegnier is a neonatologist and Director of the Early Childhood Clinic, NICU-Cardiac Neurodevelopmental Program.  She has worked at Lurie Children’s since 2001 and has served in this role since then.  She is the Co-Director of the Northwestern Perinatal Network and a member of IDPH’s Perinatal Advisory Committee.  She has also served in other diverse roles including Neonatal Fellowship Director, Interim Division Head, and Director of Neonatal Outreach but her true clinical and research passion has been supporting the post-discharge development of NICU graduates.

Currently, Dr. deRegnier is the Lurie Children’s Principal Investigator for Project CORB, a randomized trial of intensive physical therapy to improve motor development in infants at risk (funded by the Ryan Family Foundation).

Dr. deRegnier is also the Neurodevelopmental Principal Investigator for the NIH-Neonatal Research Network’s Lurie/Northwestern site, the Neurodevelopmental Principal Investigator for the NIH funded POST-VENT study.  The Early Childhood Clinic is a member of the Cerebral Palsy Foundation’s Early Detection and Intervention Network.

Dr. deRegnier has research interests in developmental assessment using behavioral observation, technology, and machine learning with international collaborations to support these efforts.

Dr. deRegnier sees patients at Lurie Children’s main hospital location and at Prentice Women’s Hospital at Northwestern Medicine.