We love working together as a team and sharing in the triumphs and trials we face as a team. From our incredible director to every fellow, resident and provider on our team, we know that getting to know each other only enhances our ability to understand and work together.
Take a moment to meet our team!
Fellowship Director
Fellowship Program Director
Chief of Pediatric Hospital Medicine
Education - Pediatric Hospital Medicine Fellowship: University of Alabama at Birmingham
- Pediatric Residency: Tulane University School of Medicine
- Medical School: Tulane University School of Medicine - Undergraduate: University of Georgia
Graduate Degrees and Certificates:
- MPH in Tropical Medicine – Tulane School of Public Health & Tropical Medicine
- Healthcare Data Analytics Graduate Certificate Program – UAMS College of Public Health
- Medical Education Research Certificate – AAMC
Leadership Section Chief, UAMS Pediatric Hospital Medicine
National Vice-Chair, Faculty Development Subcommittee, AAP Section of Hospital Medicine Fellowship Directors Task Force
Awards 2025 – Academic Excellence Mid-Career, Arkansas Medical Society
2019 – Educator of the Year, UAMS Department of Pediatrics
Scholarly Interests: health services outcomes research, faculty development, breastfeeding medicine, quality improvement
Associate Program Director
- Hometown: Chelmsford, MA
- Undergrad: Tufts University
- Medical School: University of Massachusetts Medical School
- Residency: NYP/Columbia
- Work Interests: Fellowship Development & Complex Care
- Hobbies: Hiking, spending time with family, & trying new restaurants
- Little Rock favorites: Parks & libraries and how friendly everyone is!
Faculty
- Hometown: Little Rock, Ark.
- Undergrad: Ouachita Baptist University
- Medical School: UAMS
- Residency Program: UAMS
- Work Interests: Bronchiolitis, BRUE, vaccines
- Work Roles: Co-Medical Director of 3K. Pediatric Residency Associate Program Director
- Life: I love spending time with family and friends. I love live music and theater. I love puzzles, games, movies, hiking, singing, and flower arranging.
- Pets: 2 rescue dogs, Remy and Tucker
- Little Rock favorites: The restaurant scene is great. There are benefits of city life with the feel of a small town. You can get anywhere in 20 minutes which includes some amazing outdoor scenery and activities.
- Misc: - I renovated a +100-year-old home in the Central High Historic District so now I can walk to work!
- I can juggle.
- I have a really good sense of direction.
- Green is my favorite color.
Associate Professor of Pediatrics
Dr. Filipek is an Arkansas native who lives in Little Rock, Arkansas with his wonderfully supportive wife, Victoria, and their fun-loving son, Will. He is a medical school graduate of UAMS and completed his pediatric residency at UAMS/ACH. He is a general pediatrician in the section of hospital medicine at ACH. He is passionate about providing high-quality care to the children of Arkansas and helping with the education of medical students and residents. He enjoys QI with a focus on medical access as well as education with a focus on curriculum integration. He is humbled and honored to be a Red Sash recipient as well as Faculty Teacher of the Year for the Pediatric Clerkship. Dr. Filipek loves to spend time with his wonderful family and friends, the LR food scene (The Pantry Crest and Local Lime are particular favorites), hunting, fishing, the Arkansas Razorbacks (WPS!!!), and chasing Dr. Carla Brown on the Peloton leaderboard.
- Hometown: Greenville, Tenn.
- Undergrad: Baylor University
- Medical School: UAB
- Residency Program: UAMS
- Work Interests: Leadership Development, Trauma, Feedback, and Surgical-Medical co-management
- Work Roles: Trauma council, Feedback QI project leader, and PHM Outstanding Resident award program leader
- Life: Hobbies – art, yoga, traveling, and piano. Family – beloved husband and son.
- Little Rock favorites: I like Little Rock’s small-town feel with a bigger city’s medical and research power. I also like all of the river bridges here. The diversity in Little Rock is nice for a city of this size.
- Misc: I have been to around 20 countries. My first passport photo was when I was 2 years old. I am an officer in Toastmasters International, a leadership and public speaking club.
- Hometown: Rockport, IN
- Undergrad: University of Notre Dame
- Medical School: Indiana University School of Medicine
- Residency/Fellowship:
- Pediatric residency at University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL.
- Pediatric Hospital Medicine Fellowship at Children’s Mercy Hospital, Kansas City, MO.
- Work Interests: Dr. Jeffries' scholarly areas of interest involve reducing disparities in unintentional injuries in childhood. She is actively involved in advocacy efforts to improve child health and uses social media for effective messaging to the general public and other practitioners.
- Hobbies: hiking, traveling, reading, spending time with family and friends
- Little Rock favorites: All the outdoor activities! Hiking at Pinnacle Mountain, exploring the 52 state parks, running with the Little Rock Roadrunners Club.
- Fun Facts: I played in two intramural flag football championships in the Notre Dame football stadium...and won!
- Hometown: Little Rock, Ark.
- Undergrad: University of Arkansas
- Medical School: UAMS
- Residency Program: Penn/CHOP
- Additional Training: SGIM TEACH
- Work Interests: Resident as Teacher, Ultrasound
- Work Roles: APD for Medpeds program
- Life: Water sports
- Pets: Roscoe – greyhound/golden mix, allegedly
- Little Rock favorites: quick access to hiking, biking, fishing, and water of all sorts.
- Hometown: Pocahontas, Ark.
- Medical School: UAMS
- Residency: UAMS
- Work Interests: research, hospital flow, process improvement
- Work roles: Social media chair for our section.
- Life: I have three adorable children, including the newest member born in February.
- Pets: Three dogs
- Hometown: Memphis, Tenn.
- Undergrad: University of Tennessee, Biochem & Cell and Molecular Bio, psych minor
- Medical School: Nova Southeastern University School of Osteopathic Medicine
- Residency: University of Kansas, Kansas City
- Work Interests: Quality Improvement, Sepsis, Pathways, Resident and Student Education
- Work Roles: Medical Informatics Subspecialty Leader, Improving Pediatric Sepsis Outcomes Physician Champion, ABP MOC part 2 Reviewer, Admissions Workflow Quality Improvement Committee, Somatoform Disorders Pathway co-lead, Hospitalist Elective Co-lead
- Life: Spending time with my husband, 2 kids, and our dog. I love to hike, work out, eat good food, and travel.
- Pets: 1 dog, Macy!
- Little Rock favorites: There are so many outdoor activities and it’s a city with a small-town feel!
- Misc: I grew up dancing (tap, ballet, jazz) and still love to dance even though it embarrasses my kids! I love food and am also very into food as medicine and disease prevention. I love good coffee and order beans from all over the country.
- Hometown: Shreveport, La.
- Undergrad: Public Health
- Medical School: Emory
- Residency: UAMS
- Work Interests: Medical student & resident education
- Nonwork Interests: Traveling with my wife Mary, live music and theater, live trivia.
- Fave: Arkansas River Trail; dining at 42 Bar and Table in the Clinton Presidential Center.
- Misc: Spent a college summer break working as an extra on a few movie productions.
- Hometown: Midland, TX
- Undergrad: Texas Lutheran University
- Medical School: Ross University School of Medicine
- Residency: UAMS
- Work Interests: Evidence based medicine and throughput
- Hobbies: Traveling
- Little Rock favorites: Convenient airport to go on vacation and I got to give a shoutout for Willy D's
- Fun Facts: I love traveling, live music, and theatre.
- Hometown: North Little Rock, Ark.
- Undergrad: Univ of Arkansas, Chemical Engineering
- Medical School: UAMS
- Residency Program: UAMS
- Life: I have a husband and two kids. While driving my kids around is my biggest pastime, I love to cook, entertain, garden, and work out.
- Pets: I have a three-year-old Australian Shephard, Gus.
- Little Rock favorites: I love the Little Rock skyline, yummy restaurants, river views and lots of outdoor activities.
- Misc: I was invited on stage at a Jimmy Buffet concert when I was in high school.
Fellows
Education
Pediatric Residency: East Tennessee State University
Medical School: East Tennessee State University
Undergraduate: Rhodes College
Scholarly interests: Food insecurity, LGBTQ+ medicine, health disparities, medical education
Education
Pediatric Residency: Prisma Health/USC School of Medicine Columbia
Medical School: Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine
Undergraduate: West Virginia University
Scholarly interests: Quality improvement, advocacy, patient safety
Education
Pediatric Residency: University of Arkansas for Medical Science
Medical School: University of Arkansas for Medical Science
Undergraduate: University of Arkansas Fayetteville
Scholarly interests: Handoffs, transfer of care, care of the whole child
Our Hospitalist Teams
The Pediatric Hospital Medicine (PHM) section consists of four teams and has an in-house attending 24/7. Our services discharge about 5,000-6,000 patients annually, typically accounting for about 1/3 of all discharges at ACH.
We have three teaching teams comprised of a senior pediatrics or medicine-pediatrics resident, two to three interns, sometimes an acting intern, and medical students, and an attending hospitalist. In addition, our teams include pediatric pharmacists, social workers, dieticians, and case managers. We have one hospitalist-only direct care team covered by two to five hospitalists depending on the time of year and census; this team also provides consults upon request for other services such as PM&R, burn surgery, and other surgical specialties, and provides telephone consultation for and accepts direct admissions from providers throughout the region.
Our hospital endorses family-centered rounding and has active quality improvement projects focused on improving nursing presence on rounds, multidisciplinary team communication, and the use of tools like in-room dry-erase boards to improve team and family communication.
We see patients in our Intermediate Care Unit (IMU) and in medical-surgical units throughout the hospital. The IMU functions as a step-down/step-up unit with continuous cardiorespiratory monitoring and telemetry and smaller nurse-to-patient ratios; it’s also right next to our PICU.