Bona Lab

Picture

Kira Bona, MD, MPH
Principal Investigator
Attending Physician, Pediatric Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/Boston Children's
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School
 
​

​Dr. Bona is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, and an attending Pediatric Oncologist at Dana-Farber/Boston Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders Center. Dr. Bona received her MD from the Yale University School of Medicine, and her MPH from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health with a focus on clinical effectiveness. She completed her pediatrics residency at Boston Children’s Hospital and Boston Medical Center and her pediatric hematology/oncology subspecialty fellowship training at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/Boston Children’s Hospital. She was a research fellow under the mentorship of Dr. Joanne Wolfe at Dana-Farber/Boston Children’s and Dr. Smita Bhatia at University Alabama Birmingham.

​Dr. Bona joined the faculty at Dana-Farber/Boston Children’s as a pediatric oncologist in July 2012. In addition to her clinical role treating children with leukemia and lymphoma, Dr. Bona is an NIH and foundation-funded physician-scientist with research focused on identifying poverty-associated disparities in relapse and survival for children with cancer treated on clinical trials in the US, and developing interventions to ameliorate these disparities. Her research program aims to improve survival and patient-reported outcomes in pediatric cancer by systematically considering social determinants of health as independent risk factors for outcome and integrating them into the existing robust clinical trial and basic science models of discovery and care in pediatric cancer. 

Her current research includes (1) the first prospective trial-embedded investigations of poverty and outcome in pediatric oncology in both the Dana-Farber ALL Consortium and the Children’s Oncology Group; (2) development of novel health equity interventions targeting poverty-exposures designed to scale across multi-center clinical trials; and (3) collaborative translational investigation of poverty-associated treatment resistance.

​Dr. Bona has been the recipient of several past awards and honors including a Young Investigator Award from the American Society of Clinical Oncology, a St. Baldrick’s Fellow grant from St. Baldrick’s Foundation, a Junior Faculty Career Development Award from the National Palliative Care Research Center, and annual teaching awards from the Boston Combined Residency Program since 2018.


​Puja Umaretiya, MD, MS
Assistant Professor, Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology
​University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
 
Research Focus: Racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic disparities in oncology and palliative care outcomes among children with advanced cancer and their families; barriers and facilitators to clinical trial enrollment for historically marginalized families; development of social needs targeted interventions for pediatric cancer care

​Daniel Zheng, MD, MHS
Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Fellow
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
​
Research Focus: Social determinants of health on outcomes across the cancer care continuum, with a particular focus on financial toxicity and financial burden in childhood cancer survivors

Lenka Ilcisin, MD, MPH
Post-doctoral Fellow
General Surgery Resident
Brigham and Women's Hospital
​
Research Focus: Poverty, race and ethnicity-based disparities in pediatric oncology and surgery with a focus on solid tumors 

​Rahela Aziz-Bose, MD
Instructor in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology
Dana-Farber/Boston Children's Cancer and Blood Disorders Center

Research Focus: Cardiometabolic health and health disparities in pediatric cancer survivorship

​Kristine Karvonen, MD, MS
Attending Physician, Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, Seattle Children’s
Instructor, University of Washington

Research Focus: Racial and ethnic disparities in social determinants of health and outcomes in pediatric oncology 

Haley Newman, MD
Post-doctoral Fellow
Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Fellow
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

Research Focus: ​Studying how social determinants of health and genomics influence disease outcomes for children with leukemia 

Colleen Kelly, MD
Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Fellow
Dana-Farber/Boston Children's Cancer and Blood Disorders Center

Leanne Duhaney, MD, MPH
Pediatric Cardiology Fellow
Boston Children’s Hospital





​Morgan Paul, MB
Statistician I
Data Science, Dana Farber Cancer Institute

Rossi Ferrari Fish, MBA
Senior Clinical Research Manager
Pediatric Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
CTIP Outcomes Research Group
​

Olivia Economides, MPH
​Project Manager
​Pediatric Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
CTIP Outcomes Research Group


​
​
McKenzie Griffin
Clinical Research Coordinator II
​Pediatric Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
CTIP Outcomes Research Group

​Jaimie Pheneger, MPH
Clinical Research Coordinator II  
Dana-Farber/Boston Children's Cancer and Blood Disorders Center
CTIP Hematologic Malignancy

​Lily Crossman-Sexton, MSW
Clinical Research Coordinator
Dana-Farber/Boston Children's Cancer and Blood Disorders Center

Sunyu Kang, B.S., B.A.
​Clinical Research Coordinator
​Pediatric Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
CTIP Outcomes Research Group

​Lucille Lokko
Clinical Research Coordinator
Pediatric Oncology, Dana Farber Cancer Institute
CTIP Outcomes Research Group



​
​Preston Croteau, MPA
Program Manager II
​Pediatric Outcomes Research Group

​Jennifer Kellett, MSW
Benefits Intervention Coordinator and Counselor






​Jenn Wall
Parent Peer Research Navigator




​
Shauna McLaughlin
Parent Peer Research Navigator
​
Lab Alumni

Stephanie Taylor
​Project Manager
​Pediatric Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
CTIP Outcomes Research Group

​Emily Jones
Project Manager: PediCARE Studies, CHEF Study, PACE-SSS Study, RENEW-CCS Study, COG AALL1731 and COG ANBL1531
Pediatric Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
CTIP Outcomes Research Group

Ariana Valenzuela
Senior Clinical Research Coordinator
Lead-CRC, DFCI 21-091, DFCI 16-001 Embedded HMH Study, DFCI Pediatric RISE, DFCI 22-677
Pediatric Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
CTIP Outcomes Research Group

​Jamie Shoag, MD MPH
Post-Doc Fellow
Cleveland Clinic Children's, Pediatric Hematology, Oncology and Bone Marrow Transplant

​Maya Ball-Burack, MD
Resident Physician
Seattle Children's Hospital ​

Alexandria Hawkins
Clinical Research Coordinator II
Lead-CRC, ECHO Protocol, DFCI 20-302 Embedded HMH Study
Pediatric Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
CTIP Outcomes Research Group

Safa Salem 
Summer Intern (Ohio State University)
Pediatric Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Leonardo Nguyen 
Summer Intern (Boston College)
Pediatric Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Amy Lin
Summer Intern (Wellesley University)
Pediatric Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

​Julia Kavanagh
Clinical Research Coordinator
Lead-CRC, ECHO Sociodemographic Banking Study
Pediatric Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
CTIP Hematologic Malignancies Research Group

​Victoria Koch
Project Manager, DFCI 16001
Lead CRC DFCI 16001 Embedded HMH study
Pediatric Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
CTIP Hematologic Malignancies Research Group

Anna Seo
Clinical Research Coordinator
Lead-CRC PediCARE Pilot Feasibility Study
Pediatric Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
CTIP Hematologic Malignancies Research Group

Emily Risa Schwartz, BA, MS
Harvard Masters in Bioethics Student

Rebecca Silverman
Summer Intern (Wash U)
Pediatric Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute