Alia Irshad, MD

Dr. Badaki-Makun's overarching clinical and research focus is on the care of the acutely ill or injured child. Her early research career centered on improving resuscitation outcomes in pediatric patients in cardiopulmonary arrest. For this early work, she was awarded both the American Academy of Pediatrics Ken Graff Young Investigator and the American Heart Association Resuscitation Science Symposium Young Investigator Awards. She continues her work in resuscitation in the clinical and educational arenas.Her recent research centers on enhancing the diagnosis and management of acute complications in patients with sickle cell disease. She is the recipient of a K12 Career Development Award in Hematology for her research dedicated to enhancing the early diagnosis and management of acute chest syndrome in sickle cell patients using novel radiographic and serum biomarkers. As part of this K12 Award, she is completing her PhD in Clinical Investigation at the Graduate Training Program in Clinical Investigation at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Dr. Joel Blankson is an associate professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He also holds an appointment in molecular and comparative pathobiology. His areas of clinical expertise include HIV pathogenesis and infectious disease. Dr. Blankson earned his M.D. from Cornell University Medical College and his Ph.D. from Rockefeller University. He completed his residency and a fellowship in infectious disease at Johns Hopkins.His research interests include the natural control of HIV-1 infection.

Dr. Rahul Koka is an assistant professor of anesthesiology and critical care medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. His area of clinical expertise is anesthesiology.Dr. Koka received his undergraduate degree in chemistry from Bowdoin College. He earned his M.D. from the University of Vermont College of Medicine and a M.P.H. from Harvard School of Public Health. He completed his residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and performed a fellowship in pediatric anesthesiology at Children’s Hospital in Boston. Dr. Koka joined the Johns Hopkins faculty in 2012.His research interests include health disparities, patient safety and pediatric airway.