Dr. Charmaine Wright is one of the program directors of the med-peds program. She grew up in Illinois, then went to Harvard for college and medical school. She completed her residency in internal medicine and pediatrics at Harvard's Combined Med-Peds program and was selected chief her final year. During residency, she nurtured her interest in maternal-child health and nutrition throughout the lifespan. She completed a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program and Masters in Health Policy Research at the University of Pennsylvania, and is currently an Assistant Professor at Penn. She works to understand the associations that exist between pregnancy behaviors, mother and child, and designs family weight loss interventions with and for vulnerable communities. She is a past Associate Program Director of Penn's Med-peds program and current mother of 2: Lydia 3yrs, and Luke 22 months. Current out-of-the-hospital activities include eating at Philadelphia's fabulous BYOB's with husband Sean at a ridiculously early time, acquiring baby sitter for said dinner, hiding her son's pacifier as she attempts to wean him from it, teaching her daughter about early 90's fashion and TV shows, and phone conversations with her large extended Jamaican family who always remind her that academic medicine is great, but that making an Olympic track team would be even better.
Dr. Stephen Ludwig is co-director of the Internal Medicine/Pediatrics Program. Dr. Ludwig is a
Professor of Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine at the University and the Designated Institutional
Official at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Dr. Ludwig’s career has been multi-faceted including
being one of the founders of the field of Pediatric Emergency Medicine and holder of certification #001.
He was also one of the early pioneers in the newest pediatric subspecialty has received numerous awards
and recognition for his work including election to the Institute of Medicine, the prestigious St. Geme
Award for leadership in the field of pediatrics, and several University based teaching awards. Steve has
been married for forty-two years and he and his wife, Zella, have three daughters and son-in-laws and one
grandson, Jack, who rocks their world. In his free time he enjoys photography, gardening, writing short
stories, eating in restaurants, and the Phillies. Having grown up in Philly and lived here for more than
thirty-five years, they love the city and think it’s the best place in the world to live., Child Abuse.
Holding many administrative titles Steve still spends 40% of his time providing clinical care in the
Emergency Department, on the pediatric inpatient units, and as a primary care practitioner. Patient care
and tending about patient care are his most valued activities
Oana Tomescu Many people wonder whether Oana (oh-ah-nah) hails from somewhere exotic like
Hawaii, Tahiti or Bali; but she does not. With a last name like Tomescu (Toe-mess-Q), she was, of
course, born in (un-exotic) Romania and came to the States at age 7, after her parents defected. She grew
up in New York suburbia and went to college in Boston suburbia. Moving to urban Philly for med school
was quite transformative and she’s lived in almost every section of the city. Professionally, Oana trained
in primary care Internal Medicine (here at Penn) and pursued a fellowship in Adolescent Medicine (here
at CHOP). Despite the fact that she is technically not Med/Peds, she is still allowed to hang out with the
group and is one of the Associate Program Directors. She sees patients at both HUP and CHOP, and
oversees the general curriculum and outpatient Internal Medicine clinic for the program. Personally, she
lives in NJ suburbia and has 1 husband, 2 teenage step-sons, 2 dogs and 1 cat. She loves sports of all
kinds: she played volleyball for her college and for some time afterwards, but a career-ending (ha!) ACL
tear lead her to study Baptiste Power and Ashtanga Vinvasa yoga. She is currently curious about mind
body healing and gardening.
Dr. Kim Overby received her medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania, followed by a pediatric residency at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation fellowship in Academic General Pediatrics at Stanford University. She has been a member of the faculty at the University of California, San Francisco and the University of Iowa and also served as the Medical Director for a non-profit human service organization working with children and adults with developmental and other disabilities. Dr. Overby received a Masters of Bioethics from the University of Pennsylvania Bioethics Center in 2010 with a focus on issues related to disability and chronic illness. She joined the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania in November 2010 where she is an Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine in the Departments of Medicine and Pediatrics.
Her primary responsibilities center on developing and implementing comprehensive services for individuals with childhood-acquired chronic conditions and disabilities as they transition from pediatric to adult-oriented systems of care and continue to receive care within the adult system. She also serves as the physician Co-Chair of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania Ethics Committee, is an active faculty participant in the University of Pennsylvania combined Medicine Pediatric residency training program, and is a lecturer and small group facilitator in several School of Medicine courses related to Bioethics and Professionalism.
Dr. Chadwick Johr is a pediatrician, general internist, rheumatologist, and all-around-enjoyer of medical education. I went to Penn state for medical school and Brown for residency. After residency I was a hospitalist at CHOP for a year and then moved to the University of Iowa for rheumatology fellowship. After fellowship I stayed on as a member of the faculty and attended on the medicine wards, peds wards, rheum consult service, rheum clinic and in the newborn nursery. After a four-year Midwestern hiatus, I decided to come home to Philadelphia. Now I spend my days seeing rheum patients, attending on the wards at Presbyterian Hospital, and supporting our med peds residents. My interests outside of a love of medicine and teaching: exercise (running, ultimate Frisbee, racquetball), music (guitar, indie rock), food (eating, not cooking), board-games (very nerdy, very proud), language (Spanish and maybe 5 others before I die), self-improvement (tireless in my pursuit to do everything better.)
Parker Hudson: Parker is a tall, but gentle giant. He was born in Charleston, SC and grew up in Atlanta,
GA. He attended University of Georgia in Athens where he miraculously survived the
glory days with grades that allowed him to attend medical school. During his
undergraduate years, he took a semester off of school to volunteer as a teacher in a rural
village in Ghana, West Africa. He also cooked in various restaurants (and considered
culinary school) and played ultimate frisbee for Jojah. After college he spent several
months out West backpacking and completing a wilderness-EMT course before moving
to Philadelphia to do research at CHOP. The following year he began medical school at
Penn Med. He stayed for the med/peds program, because he was impressed by the
strength of the residents, the quality of the education, and the appeal of the Global Health
track. He has been to Botswana twice and is looking forward to his next two trips there.
Professionally, Parker wants to combine his med/peds training to care for patients of all
ages with HIV both here and abroad. Personally, he recently married his med school
sweetheart. He enjoys cooking for his wife, who might starve without him, and stays
active running, cycling, practicing yoga, flyfishing, traveling, and reading the Economist. He is currently learning to sail and scuba dive to keep up with his
hydrophilic wife.