The Hemophilia Learning Center

Faculty

Course Director

Guy Young, MD

Director, Hemostasis and Thrombosis Program
Professor of Pediatrics
Keck School of Medicine of USC
Children’s Hospital Los Angeles
Los Angeles, CA

Guy Young, MD, is the Director of the Hemostasis and Thrombosis Center and the Clinical CoagulationLaboratory at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and a professor of pediatrics at the University of SouthernCalifornia’s Keck School of Medicine. Dr. Young has published many journal articles, abstracts, andtextbook chapters and has delivered lectures, workshops, and presentations at national andinternational meetings. He is the former chair of the Scientific and Standardization Committee on FactorVIII, Factor IX, and Rare Bleeding Disorders of the International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasisand was awarded the National Hemophilia Foundation Physician of the Year Award in 2013.

Course Faculty

Glaivy Batsuli, MD

Assistant Professor of Pediatrics
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 

Glaivy Batsuli, MD, is Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Stanford University and a Pediatric Hematologist with the Bass Center for Childhood Cancer and Blood Diseases at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital in Palo Alto, California. She studied nutrition as an undergrad and received her bachelor of science in public health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She went on to receive her medical degree from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in Pennsylvania. Dr. Batsuli then completed her pediatrics residency and pediatric hematology and oncology fellowship at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. Prior to her transition to Stanford University in 2023, she was a faculty member at Emory University in the Department of Pediatrics. Today, she continues to treat children with non-malignant hematologic disorders, with a focus on bleeding and clotting disorders, in addition to building a laboratory program that studies mechanisms of the immune response to factor proteins in hemophilia.

Michiel Coppens, MD, PhD

Internist, Vascular Medicine and Haemophilia
Amsterdam UMC
Acting Head, Haemophilia Treatment Center
Department of Vascular Medicine, Amsterdam Cardiovascular Sciences
Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Michiel Coppens, MD, PhD, has worked as an internist in vascular medicine and hemophilia at Amsterdam UMC since 2013. He is Head of the adult part of the European Haemophilia Network-certified European Haemophilia Comprehensive Care Centre, which is a member of the European Reference Network, EuroBloodNet. His main focus in research is on gene therapy for hemophilia A and B. In 2015, he was the first to treat a person with hemophilia with gene therapy in The Netherlands and since then has dosed 9 patients across multiple trials. He is a member of the working group on Gene Therapy of the European Association for Haemophilia and Allied Disorders.  

Roberta Gualtierotti, PhD

Associate Professor of Internal Medicine
Università degli Studi di Milano 
Medical Director, Internal Medicine—Hemostasis and Thrombosis
Angelo Bianchi Bonomi Hemophilia and Thrombosis Center
Fondazione IRCCS Ca’ Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico
Milano, Italy

Roberta Gualtierotti, PhD, is an associate professor of internal medicine at the University of Milan and an internal medicine consultant at the Angelo Bianchi Bonomi Haemophilia and Thrombosis Center, directed by Prof. Flora Peyvandi. She specialized in rheumatology and earned her PhD in experimental pathology and neuropathology from the University of Milan.

Prof. Gualtierotti’s research focuses on various aspects of inflammation and hemostasis, the underlying mechanisms leading to the development and progression of hemophilic arthropathy, and the process of digitalization in medicine for the early detection of joint involvement in hemophilia.

She serves as a panel member for the International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis hemophilia guidelines. Additionally, she is a member of the musculoskeletal study group of Associazione Italiana Centri Emofilia. Prof. Gualtierotti is actively involved in promoting inclusivity and equal opportunities as a representative within the gender equality network at both the university and the hospital with which she is affiliated.

Cindy Leissinger, MD

Professor of Medicine, Pediatrics & Pathology
Section of Hematology & Medical Oncology
Tulane University School of Medicine
New Orleans, LA

Cindy A. Leissinger, MD, received her medical degree from Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans, Louisiana. She completed a residency in internal medicine at Tulane, a research fellowship in hematology at The National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, and a clinical fellowship in hematology and medical oncology at Tulane. 

Dr. Leissinger is currently Professor of Medicine and Clinical Professor of Pediatrics and Pathology at Tulane University. She is a fellow of the American College of Physicians and a member of the American Society of Hematology. Dr. Leissinger has been a member of the Hemostasis and Thrombosis Research Society since its inception and has served the society in numerous leadership positions, recently concluding a term as the society’s president. 

In addition to caring for patients with coagulation disorders, Dr. Leissinger oversees an active research program that receives funding from the National Institutes of Health as well as numerous other federal and industry sources. She participates in several clinical research groups and has been an active investigator for many research studies related to bleeding disorders, with a particular interest in factor VIII inhibitor development and management.

Flora Peyvandi, MD, PhD

Fondazione IRCCS Ca’ Granda
Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico
Angelo Bianchi Bonomi Hemophilia and Thrombosis Center
Università degli Studi di Milano
Department of Pathophysiology and Transplantation
Milan, Italy

Flora Peyvandi, MD, PhD, is Professor of Internal Medicine at the University of Milan, Italy, and Director of the Angelo Bianchi Bonomi Hemophilia and Thrombosis Center of the Milan Policlinic Hospital, Italy.

Her research started with molecular and biochemical characterization of coagulation disorders aiming at the development of novel treatment for patients with these disorders. Her research continued with the understanding of microvascular dysfunctions in order to implement/develop and standardize innovative diagnostic and therapeutic strategies.

For many years, Dr. Peyvandi has participated in clinical, educational, and research activities with different European and international scientific societies and patient organizations. She is currently the President of the International Society of Thrombosis and Haemostasis and Past-President of the Executive Committee of the European Association for Haemophilia and Allied Disorders. She also serves as advisor on the European Medicines Agency and on the Technical Health Committee of the Italian Ministry of Health. Her clinical, teaching, and research experience combined with her life in different countries, led her to become familiar with patient management, scientific projects, and educational systems in different parts of the world.

Robert F. Sidonio, MD, MSc

Pediatric Hematologist/Oncologist,
Medical Director of Hemophilia,
Aflac Cancer & Blood Disorders Center
Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta
Associate Professor of Pediatrics,
Emory University School of Medicine
Atlanta, GA

Robert F. Sidonio, Jr, MD, MSc, graduated from The University of Alabama Birmingham medical school and completed his pediatric residency at the University of Louisville and his fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh, where he also obtained his master’s degree in clinical investigation. Dr. Sidonio has been the Associate Director of Hemostasis and Thrombosis at Emory University since 2014. His clinical and research interest is in investigating the bleeding phenotype and genotype of women with hemophilia carriage and low von Willebrand factor (VWF). He is also the co-creator of the Atlanta Protocol, which combines emicizumab and factor VIII for immune tolerance induction (ITI). Dr. Sidonio is the co-PI of the HOG VWD project, which is focused on characterization of children with low VWF in Georgia. He is also the PI for the Emicizumab PUPs and Nuwiq ITI trial, the MOTIVATE study, and the ATHN 9 study (severe VWD).

Angela C. Weyand, MD

Clinical Associate Professor
Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, Pediatrics
Ann Arbor, MI /p>

Angela C. Weyand, MD, is an associate professor of pediatric hematology oncology at the University of Michigan Medical School. Clinically, she is particularly interested in young women and girls with bleeding or clotting disorders and is the Co-Director of a combined hematology/gynecology program serving this population. Her research interests are in reference ranges and how they contribute to health inequity, iron deficiency, women and girls with bleeding disorders, hormone-provoked thrombosis, and von Willebrand disease (VWD). She was a member of the American Society of Hematology (ASH), the International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis (ISTH), the National Hemophilia Foundation (NHF), and the World Federation of Hemophilia VWD management guideline panel and co-chair of the NHF State of the Science Research Priorities Working Group on People with the Potential to Menstruate. She is a member of the ASH Health Equity Task Force, the ISTH SSC on Women’s Health, and the Women’s Health Topic Theme Lead for the ISTH 2025 Congress.  

Allison Paroskie Wheeler, MD, MSCI

Associate Professor of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology
Associate Professor in Pediatrics
Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Nashville, TN

Allison Paroskie Wheeler, MD, MSCI, originally from Boston, Massachusetts, Dr. Wheeler received her medical training at the University of Massachusetts. She subsequently completed her pediatric hematology/oncology and blood banking/transfusion medicine fellow training at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee. She has worked as faculty in pediatrics and pathology at Vanderbilt since the completion of her training in 2014. Allison splits her clinical time between pediatric patients with hemostatic and thrombotic disorders and is the Co-Medical Director of the coagulation laboratory. She is also the Director of research for benign hematology with a robust collaborative research portfolio and a personal research interest in women with heavy menstrual bleeding. Her academic work has expanded to also include investigation into the use of COVID convalescent plasma as a treatment option for COVID-19, vaccine safety, and investigation of diversity, equity, and inclusion in medicine. Allison spends as much time outside as she can when she is not at work; she loves running and hiking, and her family—husband Scott and 3 kids (Finn [20], Darby [17] and Nat [5]).