Program Directors
Ted Sectish
Dr. Sectish has written extensively about residency education, including an article on making pediatric residency programs family friendly, an area of special interest to him (J Pediatr 149: 1-2, 2006). His interest in educational innovation and improvement spans the continuum from undergraduate medical education to graduate medical education and the professional development of practicing physicians. His recent focus is as one of the leaders of the I-PASS Study, a multi-site collaborative research project to standardize the handoff process to reduce medical errors and improve the workflow of residents (JAMA. 2013;310:2262-70, N Engl J Med 2014; 371: 1803-1812). He was the Executive Director of the Federation of Pediatric Organizations (FOPO) from 2007-2014. FOPO serves the pediatric community with its Task Forces on Women in Pediatrics and Diversity and Inclusion and its Strategic Initiatives. It hosted a Visioning Summit in 2013 on the Future of the Workforce in Pediatrics. As the Past-President of the Association of Pediatric Program Directors, Dr. Sectish has been involved in national issues related to graduate medical education, including the formation of the Council of Pediatric Subspecialties, which serves as a home for pediatric sub-specialists and fellowship directors. He is a member of the American Pediatric Society. He is a founder of the I-PASS Patient Safety Institute, which aims to improve patient safety and standardize communication in medicine. |
Christine Cheston
Dr. Christine (Chris) Cheston is Program Director for the Boston Combined Residency Program at Boston Medical Center. She attended college at the University of Virginia (wahoowa!) and obtained her medical degree from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. She was a pediatric resident in the Urban Health and Advocacy Track, now Leadership in Equity and Advocacy (LEAD) Track, of the BCRP from 2012-2015 and served as chief resident from 2015-2016 before joining the faculty at the Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine as a pediatric hospitalist. She served as an Associate Program Director from 2016-2023 where she led the Keystone Quarter rotation, a longitudinal experience in outpatient pediatrics and advocacy, quality improvement education, and resident assessment, and most recently co-led the advancement of antiracism in the BCRP. She also served as the Intern Selection Chair for LEAD from 2021-2023. Dr. Cheston is a graduate of the Clinician Educator Leadership Program at BU, was Clinical Sciences Educator of the Year at CAMed in 2024, and has received awards for her teaching from Harvard Medical School. Diversity, equity, inclusion, and antiracism are at the center of Dr. Cheston’s educational and academic work. She has led initiatives to streamline universal testing for approved bilingual providers and optimize the way interpreter services are accessed at BMC. Dr. Cheston is interested in understanding how systems of recruitment and selection for residency may be influenced by systemic racism and how programs may support trainees from diverse backgrounds in academic settings. She has led implementation of holistic review of applications during residency selection and enhanced educational offerings for residents and faculty. Dr. Cheston also co-led development of a novel residency process to support trainees who have experienced bias and micro-aggressions while ensuring accountability for systems-based change to prevent future events. Dr. Cheston is a member of the Association for Pediatric Program Directors, the American Academy of Pediatrics, Alpha Omega Alpha, and is a lifelong Michigan Wolverines fan. She met her husband, Tim, a macroeconomist, on the gym bleachers of their high school in Northern Virginia. They live in the South End, love New England weekend day trips, and have one daughter, Evie, who is also a diehard Michigan fan. |
Dr. Ted Sectish is Professor of Pediatrics, Vice‐Chair for Education and Program Director of the pediatric residency training program at Boston Children’s Hospital. He came to Children’s and the BCRP from Stanford University School of Medicine, where he directed the pediatric residency program for 14 years. Dr. Sectish, is a distinguished educator in pediatrics and the winner of many teaching awards. He obtained his MD degree from Johns Hopkins and was an intern and resident in pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital from 1977 to 1980. He spent 13 years as a general pediatrician in Salinas, California before becoming the program director at Stanford.
