Our Services

Physicians and Staff

The director of the NDRD program, Dr. Maria Escolar, is an internationally known practicing clinician and researcher. Other staff members include a geneticist, a child development specialist, a speech therapist, a physical therapist, an audiologist, a research manager, epidemiologist and statistician, a program administrator, a research associate and a certified pediatric nurse practitioner.

Maria Escolar, MD, MS
Director
The NDRD was established in 2002 because of the need of help children and their families understand the overall impact of rare neurological diseases in child development. Dr. Escolar is a graduate of the Escuela Colombiana de Medicina. She has a master's of science in human nutrition from Columbia University and completed a residency in general pediatrics and fellowship in child development and behavior at Cornell University Medical Center in 1995.

Dr. Escolar is board-certified in neurodevelopmental disabilities. She has 15 years of experience as a practicing clinician and researcher. Dr. Escolar has authored multiple original manuscripts, including two New England Journal of Medicine articles. She is nationally and internationally known for her work in neurodevelopment of children with leukodystrophies and mucopolysaccharidosis. Her research focuses on behavioral and neuroimaging outcome measurements.

Diana Dalsimer, MEd
Child Development Specialist
Ms. Dalsimer is the medical therapeutic specialist of the NDRD. She has been with the program since 2006 and has more than 20 years of experience working on assessment, early intervention, training and research with children with developmental challenges and their families. Her clinical responsitbilities include administering psychometric testing on children with rare neurodegenerative disorders to determine functional skills and provide recommendations for developmental intervention. She also is a lead researcher in developing an international database of service providers, university programs, and private practices affiliated with rare genetic neurogenerative diseases. She has her master's of education from the Sensory Impaired Early Intervention master’s program at Utah State University in collaboration with the SKI-HI Institute in Logan, Utah.

Sarah Evans
Clinical Research Coordinator
Sarah Evans is the Clinical Research Coordinator for the NDRD. Having worked in the Behavioral Medicine Department of Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, Ms. Evans has more than 4 years of experience as a research program coordinator and has worked with many different patients and their families. She coordinates all aspects of the NDRD scheduling, including referrals, check-ups and consultations. Sarah works in collaboration with other CHP departments to facilitate assessments and other necessary testing procedures. Sarah strives to make the patients’ experience of visiting the NDRD in Pittsburgh as accommodating and efficient as possible.

Christine Johnson
Program Administrator

Michele Poe, PhD
Research Manager
A statistician at FPG Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina since 2001, Dr. Poe has been the primary statistician for the NFRD since 2003. Dr. Poe is the NDRD research manager. Dr. Poe's research interests include the analysis of longitudinal neurodevelopmental data, finite population statistics, and the analysis of neuroimaging data. Dr. Poe is also a member of the statistical core of the UNC Neurodevelopmental Research Center (NIH P30HD03110).

Tara West RN, MSN, CPNP
Certified Pediatric Nurse Practitioner
Ms. West, clinical coordinator, joined the NDRD team as a Certified Pediatric Nurse Practitioner in July 2009. She has more than 15 years of acute care nursing experience starting at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Children's Hospital and Clinics working in general pediatrics and pediatric hematology/oncology/bone marrow transplantation. She obtained her master's of science degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2000. Other experience includes teaching baccalaureate nursing students at the university level. She is also a member of the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners.

Last Update
May 3, 2013

top