Our Team

Dr Artem “Archi” Pershai graduated from Belarusian State Medical University in 2015, and is dual trained as a Pediatric Cardiac Intensivist and Anesthesiologist. After qualifying in the Belarusian National Pediatric Heart Centre. Throughout his training and after qualifying Artem volunteered regularly with Novick Cardiac Alliance and in 2018 he decided to take a staff position with the organization. Artem wants to dedicate his professional career to educating and saving lives around the globe.

Dr. Vitaly Dedovich, MD, graduated from the Belarusian State Medical University in 2002 and completed his training in Pediatric General and Cardiac Surgery in Belarusian Pediatric Surgical Centre, followed by fellowship in Christian-Albrecht-University, Kiel, Germany. In 2011-2017 he was chief of the Department of the Congenital Heart Surgery at the Belarusian Cardiac Centre. Vitaly joined NCA staff in January, 2018 and now works full time sharing his knowledge and skill with colleagues in Low and Middle Income Countries.

Dr Novick is a graduate of University of Alabama School of Medicine and completed his General Surgical Residency at the Graduate Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania before entering the Cardiothoracic Residency at the University of Alabama in Birmingham.

Jean began working with Dr. Novick at the International Children’s Heart Foundation in 2010 as Medical Team Coordinator. She has worked as Special Events Coordinator for the National Kidney Foundation of West Tennessee and Marketing Manager with Memphis magazine and a newspaper publisher, Contemporary Media, Inc.Jean is a native Memphian and enjoys spending time with her husband, Richard, and two young children.She is an avid bibliophile and averages 52 books per year (though she is not necessarily proud of all of them).Jean has worked as Director of Logistics with The Novick Cardiac Alliance since its inception.

Lauren Gardiner is a Registered Nurse and Clinical Educator. She graduated with a Bachelor of Nursing Sciences from James Cook University, Australia in 2004. She then went on to complete a Graduate Certificate in Adult Critical Care Nursing in 2008, and a Graduate Diploma in Paediatric Intensive Care Nursing at the University of Melbourne in 2014.

Lazo made his first volunteer trip with Dr. Novick in 2000 to Peru. Lazo graduated with a Certificate of perfusion from Westminster Biomedical College for Biomedical Technology, London in 1997. He completed his training in Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children London UK. He attended High Medical school Belgrade in 2009 and is a member of EBCP. From 2010 until 2012 Lazo worked as international staff at Salm Centar for Cardiac Surgery Khartoum Sudan and was Chief Perfusionist at the Institute for Mother and Child Novi Belgrade from 1995 until 2012. Lazo has travelled exclusively with Novick Cardiac Alliance since 2014 sharing his knowledge and skills with teams in several countries.

Martina has over 24 years’ experience working as an operating room nurse, specializing in Pediatric Cardiac OR . She received a Nursing Diploma at the Mlinarska Nursing School, Zagreb, Croatia in 1996 and completed a Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing at University of Memphis, Loewenberg School of Nursing in 2015. She received her training in the operating room at hospital Rebro, KBC Zagreb between 1996-2000. Martina has dedicated her career to improving the care that children with heart disease receive in Low and Middle Income Countries.

Stacey is a Paediatric Nurse Practitioner specializing in PICU. Stacey initially qualified as a nurse in 1994 and has since completed a higher diploma in Children’s Nursing, a BSc in Paediatric Intensive Care (PICU) a MSc in Strategic Leadership and Clinical Expertise and a PG CERT in Clinical Education. In the last 20 years Stacey has worked in Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital, the Evelina London Children’s Hospital and has dedicated much of her time to working on projects in Low and Middle Income Countries.

Don Fitzgerald is the Inventory Specialist at NCA and has been with us since the beginning. Donald formerly was the Chief Inventory Specialist at the ICHF but joined NCA when it was chartered. Donald manages all incoming material donations and packs all outgoing supplies and pallet shipments that we make on our trips.

Dr. Ali Dodge-Khatami graduated from medical school (1991) and completed his cardiovascular surgery training in Switzerland (1998). His congenital heart surgical fellowships were in Chicago (1998-99) at Children’s Memorial Hospital, and in London, UK (1999-2000) at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children.

Dr. Dodge-Khatami has served on the cardiac surgical faculty positions in the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Germany where he was Head of Program in Hamburg, Germany (2008-2012). Dr. Dodge-Khatami moved to the United States in 2012, and has worked at the University of Mississippi, Houston, Herman Memorial Children’s in Houston, Texas, and Chief at Cohen Children’s Medical Center in New York. He speaks fluent English, French and German, and is proficient in Persian, Dutch and Spanish.

His involvement with The Novick Cardiac Alliance and dedication to promoting congenital heart surgery in Low- and Middle-Income Countries dates from 2008.

Iftikhar is currently Chief Operating Officer (COO) at Bahria International Hospital Lahore Pakistan and Head of Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Iftikhar was previously the Head of Department of Pediatric Cardiac Anesthesiology and Intensive Care at the Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology and National Institute of heart diseases, Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Awarded a Fellowship Certification from the University of Tennessee in Pediatric Cardiac Anesthesia and Intensive Care. He developed a specialised Cardiac Intensive Care Course for Nurses which is accredited in the National University of Medical Sciences. He has been involved in initiating the Liver transplant programme in the Armed Forces hospital in Rawalpindi and a civilian site in Lahore. He is involved in research and has co-authored a book for use in Pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care. Iftikhar is one of the co-founders of Cardiac Alliance and has volunteered his time to travel internationally with the team since 2010.

Jack completed his Associate of Science degree in Respiratory Care at Sandhills Community College in 1978. Jack has more than 30 years experience working in pediatric critical care and has specialized in cardiac care at Duke University Medical Center for the last 22 years.

Jack began volunteering with Dr. Novick and his team at the International Children’s Heart Foundation in 2008 and has volunteered in several countries over the years. Jack has been with the Novick Cardiac Alliance since its inception.

Jack is a member of the American Association for Respiratory Care, an Advanced Care Provider and is ECMO certified. He is also Co-Director of Camp Kaleidoscope, a summer camp for patients of Duke Childrens.

Alex has been a member of Novick Cardiac Alliance since 2018 and has provided pediatric cardiac surgery in Libya (Tobruk, Benghazi and Tripoli), Iraq (Basra), Democratic Republic of Congo (Lubumbashi). Alex is an accomplished statistician as well as pediatric cardiac surgeon and his special area of research is in pulmonary hypertension in congenital heart disease.