Our Team

Atiya Dagci, M.D.

Atiye Bilgic Dagci, M.D., MSCE

Assistant Professor

Dr. Bilgic Dagci is Board Certified in General Pediatrics and Pediatric Rheumatology. She received her MD degree from Istanbul University, Cerrahpasa Medical School in Turkey in 2006. Following her graduation from medical school, she completed her pediatric residency in Istanbul, Turkey. She then moved to the United States and completed an additional residency in pediatrics at Flushing Hospital in New York in 2019, where she also worked as a chief resident.  Dr. Bilgic Dagci completed her fellowship in Pediatric Rheumatology in 2022 at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. She received Master of Science in Clinical Epidemiology degree from University of Pennsylvania in 2023.  Dr. Bilgic Dagci has an interest in investigating safety and efficacy of medications used in children with inflammatory arthritis. She has clinic at Mott three times a week, and in the Pediatric Interdisciplinary Systemic Inflammation Clinic (ISIC) at Mott once a month.

Dr. Janssen

Erin Janssen, M.D., Ph.D.

Division Director, Pediatric Rheumatology
Associate Professor

Erin Janssen, MD, PhD is the Director of the Division of Pediatric Rheumatology at the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital. Dr. Janssen earned her doctorate in Immunology and degree in medicine at Duke University Medical School. She completed her pediatric residency and fellowship in pediatric rheumatology at Boston Children’s Hospital. Dr. Janssen remained on staff at Boston Children’s Hospital as co-director of the Multiple Autoimmunity and Immunodeficiency (MAID) clinic until her move in 2022 to C.S Mott.

Dr. Janssen’s clinical interests and expertise focus on the care of children with polyautoimmunity, the combination of autoimmunity and immunodeficiency, and autoinflammatory conditions. She has expertise in advanced immunologic and genetic testing for the diagnosis of disorders of immune dysregulation. Dr. Janssen also has experience in caring for children with arthritis in combination with inflammatory bowel disease and primary immunodeficiencies.

Dr. Janssen runs a laboratory that focuses on determining the underlying genetic and molecular causes of immune dysregulation. Her laboratory has generated numerous mouse models recapitulating human allergic, autoimmune, and inflammatory diseases. Through the study of patient samples and mouse models, her research has provided insights into the underlying causes of a variety of immune-mediated diseases.

In combination with her clinical care and research, Dr. Janssen finds mentoring students, residents and fellows, and junior faculty one of the most rewarding parts of her job. She has worked with students, post-doctoral fellows, and faculty at all levels to support finding and developing their clinical and research passions.

Outside of work, Dr. Janssen enjoys spending time with her young daughter and husband.  She also enjoys cooking and baking and exploring the surrounding areas after being away from Michigan for many years. 

Jaqueline-Madison

Jacqueline Madison, M.D.

Assistant Professor

Jacqueline Madison, M.D.  C.S. Mott Children's Hospital Profile

Michigan Experts Profile

Dr. Madison is Board Certified in General Pediatrics and Internal Medicine. She received her M.D. degree from the University of Michigan Medical School. She remained in Michigan for her Internal Medicine-Pediatrics residency and combined adult and Pediatric Rheumatology fellowship at the University of Michigan. She sees pediatric rheumatology patients at Mott and adult rheumatology patients at the Taubman Clinic. She does the majority of her research on antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) and lupus, though she also collaborates on work related to COVID-19 and juvenile myositis. Outside of work, Dr. Madison enjoys spending time with her child, partner, and dog. She likes to run, read fiction, get outdoors, and travel to new countries and national parks.

Recent publications:

  • Madison JA, Duarte-García A, Zuo Y, Knight JS. Treatment of thrombotic antiphospholipid syndrome in adults and children. Curr Opin Rheumatol. 2020 May;32(3):215-227.
  • Zuo Y, Zuo M, Yalavarthi S, Gockman K, Madison JA, Shi H, Woodard W, Lezak SP, Lugogo NL, Knight JS, Kanthi Y. Neutrophil extracellular traps and thrombosis in COVID-19. J Thromb Thrombolysis. 2021 Feb;51(2):446-453.
Smriti Mohan

Smriti Mohan, M.D.

Assistant Professor, Service Chief, CARRA site PI

Michigan Experts Profile

Dr. Mohan is Board Certified in General Pediatrics and in Pediatric Rheumatology.
She received her M.D. degree from Saint Louis University School of Medicine in 2007. She completed her residency in General Pediatrics at the University of Michigan, Mott Children's Hospital in 2010, and stayed at UM to complete her clinical and postdoctoral fellowships in Pediatric Rheumatology. She has been on faculty since 2015. She currently has clinics at Mott and West Ann Arbor. She is the site PI for the Children's Arthritis and Rheumatology Research Alliance (CARRA), and is collaborating with colleagues in TMJ arthritis research.

Dr. Mohan keeps herself busy outside of work with her 3 children, husband, and multitude of hobbies which include gardening, running, sewing, and reading young adult sci-fi/fantasy.

Nadine Saad

Nadine Saad, M.D.

Assistant Professor

Michigan Experts Profile

Dr. Saad is Board Certified in General Pediatrics and Pediatric Rheumatology. She received her MD degree from Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar in 2014. She completed her residency in Pediatrics at Wright State University in 2017. Dr. Saad completed her fellowship in Pediatric Rheumatology in 2020 at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York. Dr. Saad has an interest in auto-inflammatory disorders, particularly in periodic fever syndromes. She is involved in the auto-inflammatory group through the Childhood Arthritis and Rheumatology Research Alliance (CARRA), as well as in the North American Immuno-Hematology Clinical Education and Research (NICER) Consortium. Dr. Saad is currently working on a multi-center, international study to validate a disease activity measure in PFAPA. She has clinic at Mott twice a week, and in the Immuno-Hematology Comprehensive Program at Mott twice a month.

Recent publications:

  • Michniacki TF, Walkovich K, DeMeyer L, Saad N, Hannibal M, Basiaga ML, Horst KK, Mohan S, Chen L, Brodeur K, Du Y, Frame D, Ngo S, Simoneau J, Brown N, Lee PY. SOCS1 Haploinsufficiency Presenting as Severe Enthesitis, Bone Marrow Hypocellularity, and Refractory Thrombocytopenia in a Pediatric Patient with Subsequent Response to JAK Inhibition. J Clin Immunol. 2022 Nov;42(8):1766-1777. doi: 10.1007/s10875-022-01346-x. Epub 2022 Aug 17. PMID: 35976468; PMCID: PMC9381392.
  • Semo-Oz R, Wagner-Weiner L, Edens C, Zic C, One K, Saad N, Tesher M. Adherence to medication by adolescents and young adults with childhood-onset systemic lupus erythematosus. Lupus. 2022 Oct;31(12):1508-1515. doi: 10.1177/09612033221115974. Epub 2022 Aug 7. PMID: 35938626.

Current Grants:

  • Validation of the Auto-Inflammatory Disease Activity Index (AIDAI) in PFAPA (sponsored by CARRA-Arthritis Foundation)

Meredith P. Riebschleger, M.D., M.S.

Assistant Professor, Fellowship Program Director

Michigan Experts Profile

Dr. Riebschleger is Board Certified in General Pediatrics and Pediatric Rheumatology. She received her M.D. degree from Drexel University College of Medicine in 2005. She moved to Michigan for her residency, and chose to stay at the University of Michigan for all of her post-graduate training (Pediatrics residency, Chief year, and Pediatric Rheumatology & Health Services Research fellowship). Dr. Riebschleger has been on faculty since 2012. She currently has one in-person clinic at Mott, two at the Northville Health Center, and one virtual clinic. She also travels to Traverse City for an outreach clinic 2-4 times per year.

Dr. Riebschleger has 3 children, 1 husband, and 2 dogs.  She enjoys watching her kids play sports and she’s obsessed with Star Wars and super heroes. 

Recent publications: 

  • Srinivasalu H, Riebschleger M. Medical education in pediatric rheumatology-unique challenges and opportunities. Clin Rheumatol. 2020;39(3):643-650. doi:10.1007/s10067-019-04746-4
  • Shenoi S, Hayward K, Curran ML, Kessler E, Mehta JJ, Riebschleger M, Foster HE. Telemedicine in Pediatric Rheumatology: this is the time for the community to embrace a new way of clinical practice. Accepted for publica- tion in Pediatric Rheumatology 7/20/2020.
Jessica Turnier M.D.

Jessica L. Turnier, M.D., M.S.

Assistant Professor

Michigan Experts Profile

Dr. Turnier is Board Certified in General Pediatrics. She received her MD degree from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine in 2011. She completed her residency in Pediatrics at the University of Colorado, Children’s Hospital Colorado in 2014. She returned to the University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and completed her Pediatric Rheumatology fellowship and training in clinical and translational research in 2017. Dr. Turnier spends the majority of her time on research related to the skin manifestations of juvenile myositis. She has received funding from the Cure JM Foundation and the American College of Rheumatology. She has clinic at Mott.

Recent Publications:

  • Turnier JL, Brunner HI, Bennett M, Aleed A, Gulati G, Haffey WD, Thornton S, Wagner M, Devarajan P, Witte D, Greis KD, Aronow B. Discovery of SERPINA3 as a candidate urinary biomarker of lupus nephritis activity. Rheumatology (Oxford). 2019 Feb 1;58(2):321-330. doi: 10.1093/rheumatology/key301. PMID: 30285245; PMCID: PMC6343468.
  • Brunner HI, Gulati G, Klein-Gitelman MS, Rouster-Stevens KA, Tucker L, Ardoin SP, Onel KB, Mainville R, Turnier J, Ay- din POA, Witte D, Huang B, Bennett MR, Devarajan P. Urine biomarkers of chronic kidney damage and renal functional decline in childhood-onset systemic lupus erythematosus. Pediatr Nephrol. 2019 Jan;34(1):117-128. doi: 10.1007/s00467-018-4049-5. Epub 2018 Aug 29. PMID: 30159624; PMCID: PMC6294330.

Current Grants:

  • Defining mechanism to improve treatment: mapping molecular signatures of skin disease in juvenile dermatomyositis (Cure JM Foundation)
  • Defining cutaneous gene expression signatures in juvenile dermatomyositis to guide treatment (Rheumatology Re- search Foundation)
Christine Wang, MD

Christine Wang, M.D.

Assistant Professor

Dr. Wang is board certified in General Pediatrics and Pediatric Rheumatology. She received her MD degree from the University of Illinois College of Medicine in Chicago. She completed her general pediatrics residency at the University of Michigan. She subsequently completed her pediatric rheumatology fellowship at the Children’s Hospital of Colorado and obtained a master’s degree in clinical science from the University of Colorado Denver. After completion of fellowship training she returned to Michigan to join the faculty in 2022.  She sees pediatric rheumatology patients at Mott two days a week and patients at the Brighton Center for Specialty Care one day a week. She also sees patients in the Interdisciplinary Systemic Inflammation Clinic once a month. Her research is focused on collaborations to understand and improve the outcomes of patients with childhood-onset Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) with particular interest in lupus nephritis. 

Outside of work Dr. Wang enjoys spending time with her husband and extended family, and exploring the world through travel and food. She is also an avid football fan – Bear Down!

Sheri Romo, MA

Prior Authorization Coordinator

Sheri works closely with our providers, nurses, and administrative staff to coordinate prior authorizations for procedures, testing, and off-site infusions.

 

Dawn Reid, MA

Prior Authorization Coordinator

Dawn works closely with our providers, nurses, and administrative staff to coordinate prior authorizations for mediations.

Nursing Staff

The Pediatric Rheumatology Nurses while in clinic, provide patient and family education for rheumatologic diseases, medication administration, uses and side effects.

If you need to learn how to swallow a pill or give an injection, they can teach you that. When in the office the nurses answer patient phone calls, run the lab monitoring program and assisting in some insurance issues.
If you need lab results, cannot get your medication or have any other questions or concerns the nurses are here to help. The nurse line is open form 8 am-5pm Monday through Friday.

Anne Jackson, B.S., RN

Clinic Nurse

Anne received her Bachelor of Science from Boston University. She practiced as a nurse in the UM Pediatric Infectious disease unit for 4 years, UM pediatric emergency department for 10 years and has been with Pediatric Rheumatology since 1998.

 

Cynthia Black, BSN, Med

Clinic Nurse

Cindy has been with the University of Michigan for 10 years and worked mostly with children and adults with cancer. She joined the Pediatric Rheumatology team in October 2015 with 34 years of nursing experience.

 

Jeff A. Rafko, BSN, RN

Clinic Nurse

Jeff received his bachelors in nursing from Chamberlain College. He practiced as a Pediatric Oncology Nurse for 8 years at ST Vincent Mercy Children’s Hospital and as a Pediatric Emergency room nurse at ST Joseph for 3 years before joining the Pediatric Rheumatology team in January of 2017.