Medical College of Wisconsin Pediatric Surgery Fellowship Team

View Christina Bence, MD Profile

I grew up in the harsh winters of Minnesota but was never a cold weather fan (go figure). I initially escaped to the picturesque Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia where I trained horses at a competitive equestrian facility, then stayed out east for undergrad and medical school. I eventually found my way back to the lesser known but well-loved third coast of Milwaukee for residency. Having met my husband (an orthopedic surgeon) here and being close to both our families, we were overjoyed to both secure jobs at MCW following my fellowship in Atlanta and to put down roots in the Milwaukee area. We were also blessed with twins, Elena and Owen, shortly after starting our new jobs and are loving the (somewhat) controlled chaos of navigating academic surgical careers and new parenthood. Add to that our loving and enthusiastic golden retriever, Link, and two cats, makes for a home environment that is never dull!

View Casey M. Calkins, MD Profile

I was born and grew up in southern California. I matriculated in medical school here in Milwaukee in 1992 where I met my wife, Barbara, who was a medical student in my class. We went through the couple’s match and landed in Denver, Colorado – I, a general surgery resident, and she, a resident in Pediatrics. We had two boys while completing our residencies – Chris and Corey, who have now since moved away from home. Chris graduated from the University of Washington and lives and works in Seattle, whereas Corey has completed his undergraduate education at The University of Colorado and now resides in Denver, Colorado. We have lived in Brookfield (a western suburb of Milwaukee) since finishing my fellowship, and I have served on the faculty at Children’s Wisconsin since that time, and Barb is a pediatrician in the community. We enjoy everything outdoors – hiking, skiing, boating, and travel in our campervan. I especially enjoy fly fishing and visiting Montana, where our family frequently vacations. I also have a longstanding interest in music (vinyl collecting), thoroughbred horse racing, and am a former competitive racquetball and soccer player.

View Brian T. Craig, MD Profile

Born and raised in western New York, I grew up skiing and ice skating in the winter and playing golf and baseball in the summer. My wife Liz and I met while we were in medical school together in Pittsburgh. As avid music fans, living in Nashville, Tennessee for residency offered us so many incredible music experiences. Here in Wisconsin, we are re-discovering our love of snow, and I am embracing the amazing golf in the area. We have two young daughters, Meredith and Audrey who are fun, curious and light up our lives.

View John C. Densmore, MD Profile

I was born to an Army lawyer and a concert flutist in Alabama. Per routine, we navigated many moves including to Tehran, Iran just prior to the Iranian revolution. Eventually we found our way to Pensacola, FL where I completed middle and high school years. Traveling the world and making new friends with each move taught me the importance of family, gave me a great appreciation for our freedoms, and gave me a much bigger view of the world. I wound up in a small liberal arts college in MN, which is a story unto itself, majored in chemistry, and spent a postgrad year at Mayo Clinic studying laser induced fluorescence of Barrett’s esophagus. I survived on a bike that year – cycling the Douglas trail 30 miles most days after work. I started a PhD in bioinorganic chemistry using ultrasound to crosslink hemoglobin into extremely cooperative microspheres. I became uncertain about the feasibility of a nine-year path and finished my medical degree in Peoria where I met my pediatrician wife, Emily. We couples matched to MCW. I have had the privilege of training and practicing in Milwaukee while raising two boys, Will and Henry, and I spend a lot of dad time attending rowing regattas and cross country events. As a family, we like to hike 14ers in Colorado, ski, snowboard, water ski, and camp in the beautiful north woods. Lately I have been into endurance cycling – time in the saddle helps me focus and recenter.

View Katy Flynn-O'Brien, MD, MPH Profile

I was born and raised in NM, which comes with a love of red and green chile (i.e., “Christmas”), all you can eat chips and salsa, and sopapillas with honey. I was also spoiled with the best sunsets in the entire world. I went to college “back east”, and then took a hiatus from school and focused on marathon training/racing for a year, and then moved to and lived in rural Ecuador for a year. In Ecuador, I acquired a taste for high-altitude mountaineering. Logically, I then did my general surgery training in Seattle where I could summit Mt. Rainer and Mt. Backer on the weekends. I met my husband over brunch at a diner in Seattle. We married two years later during my senior fellow year in Milwaukee. We love Milwaukee, and are especially fond of the hipster coffee, food, and cocktail scene. We have two amazing daughters, Olive and Sadie, and a wild golden retriever named Riley. They are the coolest.

View David Gourlay, MD Profile

I was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area and attended college at UC Santa Barbara. I came to Milwaukee for medical school at the Medical College of Wisconsin, then completed my general surgery residency at the University of Washington. During that time, I met my wife, Christine, in Seattle. We returned to Milwaukee for my fellowship at Children’s Wisconsin and have made it our home ever since.

Christine and I have three children – Conner, Miles, and Olivia – and we live in Mequon, a suburb just north of downtown Milwaukee. Both Christine and I grew up playing tennis and our kids now play year-round as well; it makes me happy that everyone in my family are better players than I am! We enjoy alpine skiing in the winter, and I try to stay active through running, biking, and strength training. Christine is from New England, so we spend time in Vermont whenever we can. My parents and my sister’s family still live in the Bay Area, and we enjoy visiting them regularly. Conner is in college at Boston College, Miles is at UC Santa Barbara, and our youngest Olivia is in high school.

From 1997 to 2023, I served in the U.S. Army Reserves, with deployments to Afghanistan, Iraq, and Kosovo – an experience that has deeply shaped my perspective both personally and professionally.

View Christopher Laird, MD Profile

Raised amidst the picturesque landscapes of New England, I am now very happy to be able to enjoy and raise my family amidst Wisconsin’s lush forests, serene lakes, and meandering rivers. An avid enthusiast of gardening, I take great joy in cultivating a variety of fruits and vegetables, and cherish moments with my wife Emily (a pediatric endocrinologist here at Children’s) and our two Frozen-loving daughters.

View Dave Lal, MD, MPH Profile

I was born in Chicago to immigrant parents. My mother, a nurse, escaped from Czechoslovakia and my father came from India and completed his general surgery and cardiothoracic surgery (CT) training in Chicago. I was constantly exposed to medicine as a child and developed an early interest in following my father’s footsteps. I went to residency with the intention of becoming a CT surgeon, but in my 3rd year of residency rotated on pediatric surgery. I was enthralled with the breadth of surgery and enjoyed caring for kids. I realized quickly that pediatric surgery was my calling.

I subsequently completed fellowships in pediatric surgical oncology (Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center) and advanced adult minimally invasive surgery (University of Washington). It was at the University of Washington, that I met my wife Alysandra, who was a general surgery resident. We moved to Wisconsin, and I completed my pediatric surgery fellowship at MCW.

After fellowship, I joined the faculty at MCW and have remained here since. Alysandra is a private practice general surgeon, and we have two boys, Aidan and Layton. We enjoy all types of activities including in the summer-paddle boarding, wake surfing, hiking, and biking. In the winter we enjoy downhill skiing, cross country skiing and snow shoeing. We are avid travelers, so when we have free time, we usually explore different parts of the world. Lastly, we have a 100 lbs. Bernedoodle, Athena, that loves the Wisconsin climate. She is just as comfortable swimming from our boat in the hot summer to rolling in the winter snow.

View Caroline Maloney, DM, PhD Profile

I grew up in the Catskills region of New York and went to Emma Willard School which was was the first primary school to teach math and science to women! It was there I discovered a love for physiology and studied biology in undergrad at Goucher College in Maryland. I then went to medical school at Stony Brook University on Long Island and general surgery residency at Northwell Health. I completed a PhD studying the biology of metastasis in pediatric solid tumors during my general surgery training. When I matched into pediatric surgery fellowship in Wisconsin in 2021, I was not sure what to expect. However, it turns out I love the Midwest! Here in Milwaukee, I have a basic science lab and am studying the impact of surgery to remove a primary tumor on the growth and progression of latent metastatic disease. I live with my partner Carter (also a New Yorker) and we have been enjoying all that Milwaukee has to offer. We live downtown and love to sail on lake Michigan, explore local restaurants, and are members at the Milwaukee art museum which is just a block from our apartment downtown! A former dancer, I practice yoga and have recently started to take dance classes at Milwaukee ballet. I am so grateful to have joined such a wonderful surgical team and continue to love the ease and accessibility of living in Milwaukee.

View Jose Salazar Osuna, MD, PhD Profile

I was born and raised in Mexico and moved to the United States after couples matching with my wife, a pediatric ICU neurologist. Our training journey took us from Maryland to Wisconsin, where we now live with our five children and our attention-loving dog. Outside of work, I enjoy watching my kids’ sports and catching action movies, usually on my own since my wife prefers to skip the theater. My favorite vacations are skiing trips and cruises, which we try to take once a year.

View Jack Schneider, MD Profile

I was born and raised in Waukesha, WI. I chose to attend University of Notre Dame, where I majored in Biological Sciences. Go Irish! Subsequently, I returned to Milwaukee for medical school here at Medical College of Wisconsin. I met my wife during my last year and matched at the University of Vermont for general surgery residency. We were married during my chief year. We then spent time in Cincinnati, Milwaukee, Oklahoma City and Grand Rapids, Michigan as I completed my specialty training and began my career before coming back to be on the faculty here at MCW.

My wife, Emily, is a University of Wisconsin-Madison alum who has worked in Human Resources for a variety of companies, including Burton Snowboards. She loves spinning and rarely misses a day at the gym. We have two children, Virginia and Peter. Gigi loves Girl Scouts, and Peter’s personality fills the room no matter where he goes. We live close to Children’s in Elm Grove. We love taking walks in our neighborhood. On weekends, you can find us enjoying the local parks and lakes, hiking, or skiing – both Nordic and Alpine.

I am an avid golfer, and enjoy getting out to enjoy the game and nature simultaneously. I am sports fan – Notre Dame Fighting Irish, Brewers, Packers, Bucks and PGA. I am former hockey player (goalie), and enjoy following college and NHL as well. I enjoy music – rock, alternative, country, 90s rap – just no Adele! I love going to outdoor concerts in the summer.

View Amy Wagner, MD Profile

I am a Wisconsin native, and completed my undergraduate degree at University of Wisconsin-Madison, and medical school here at MCW where I fell in love with pediatric surgery because of my mentors, Dr. Tom Sato and Dr. Keith Oldham (both whom have since retired but I was honored to complete my fellowship with them here and be their partners for ten years). My general surgery residency was in Seattle (Virginia Mason Medical Center) and research in fetal surgery at UCSF.

My true passions are my girls, Stella and Camille, who are wonderful and still occasionally snuggly (and thankfully don’t yet hate me)! They are delightful, fun, and are constantly teaching me things and help me see the world in a different way. We enjoy traveling together (from Marshfield, Costa Rica, Europe, and SE Asia), watching Schitt’s Creek or Gilmore Girls, and vintage shopping. My significant other, Sean, and I also enjoy the Milwaukee food and craft cocktail scene, which is better than you’d think in Milwaukee!

My other true passion is Bikram yoga. I’m so passionate about it, I bought the Bikram Yoga studio in Milwaukee that was on the verge of closing down (Yoga Heights). Perhaps by the time you’re reading this, we will be in the black and I’ll no longer be subsidizing Bikram yoga for the greater Milwaukee area, Namaste.

I was born in Wauwatosa, WI and moved to Appleton, WI when I was a year old, which is where I grew up. After college, I moved out to Delaware for PA school for 2 years before returning to Wisconsin. I started out my PA career in Beloit, WI before moving to the Milwaukee area in 2018 and started working at Children’s Wisconsin. Both of my siblings and my parents now live in the Milwaukee area and I am blessed to spend a lot of my free time with my adorable nieces and nephew. I enjoy camping with my family during the summer. I love to travel and hope to continue visiting places on my bucket list. I am currently embracing all the joys of homeownership in Franklin, WI.

I grew up in Brookfield, Wisconsin. I attended UW-Madison for both my undergraduate and Physician Assistant degrees. One of my clinical rotations in PA school was with the General Surgery team at Children’s Wisconsin. I loved it and knew that this is where I wanted to be! I started my career as a PA in the Emergency department at Children’s. While working in the ED, I ran into my now husband (Ryan) who was a firefighter/paramedic for the city of Wauwatosa. Ryan and I grew up in the same city but did not know each other well. We now have two sons, Frank and Harry. I enjoy hiking, road biking, downhill and cross country skiing, live music, traveling and spending time at our families’ lake homes. We are fortunate to have both of our families very close by.

I was born and raised in Milwaukee Wisconsin. I have received my undergraduate and Master’s in nursing from the University Wisconsin Milwaukee. I’m married to an amazing nurse, Patrick and have two kids who are in middle school (Abbi and Luke). The family is big into sports and I currently coach my kids’ basketball teams. Outside of organized sports we enjoy boating, surfing, wakeboarding and water skiing. We also, have an amazing loyal companion German Shedder... I mean German Shepherd named Kaiser.

I grew up in central Minnesota playing volleyball and being cold. With a microbiology professor for a father, I enjoyed a childhood of petri dishes and lab experiments. I went to Madison to study parasites, then moved to Milwaukee with my partner who was an IM resident at the time. We had two boys in a whirlwind few years of establishing a practice, moving for fellowship, and returning to Milwaukee where multiple family members had settled. I went back to school for nursing after being a stay-at-home-mom for 13 years, then worked as a nurse while returning to graduate school. My doctoral work focused on translational research, which I found fascinating and useful.

Upon graduation I sought a role where I could combine clinical practice and research. This led me to Trauma Surgery at Froedtert, where I worked as an NP for 8 years. I served as the Injury Prevention Fellow in the Comprehensive Injury Center and went on to develop a research program focused on sex-related disparities in vehicle crash injury. I transitioned to Children's Wisconsin ED for a year, then recently landed in pediatric surgery, which is exactly where I want to be.

Outside of work I enjoy spending time with my family, especially my sons who are grown and flown (one in medical school, one recently graduated from UW-Madison and applying to medical school). I have unusual hobbies, I’m told, but I think Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and a slight obsession with making jam are just right. I also enjoy travel, playing volleyball, books, and building furniture when the mood strikes.

I have been a practicing general surgery physician assistant for over 29 years for Children’s Wisconsin and the Medical College of Wisconsin. I enjoy teaching, mentoring and precepting PA students from Concordia, Marquette and US-Madison PA Programs. One of my favorite sessions is teaching MCW junior medical students a monthly suturing workshop, which began in 1999 and still coordinated by me today. My surgical interests include burn care, chest deformities (Nuss), Hirschsprung disease, inflammatory bowel disease and complex laparoscopic laparoscopic surgical cases.

Throughout my career, I have been fortunate enough to travel to many parts of the world for mission work and continuing medical education. Learning new and advanced surgical techniques in beautiful places such as Australia, Hawaii, and throughout the United States, just to name a few. Probably the most rewarding piece for me is traveling to Peru with my Division of Pediatric Surgery colleagues performing significant surgeries on the underserved children of Peru. Experiencing new ideas and innovations from others have certainly helped change my practice immensely, not to mention gaining lifelong valued friendships.

My wife, Kim is an experienced neonatal ICU nurse. Our children, Hillary and Ben, work for Thrivent Financial and Milwaukee Tool. We have two adorable grandchildren – Annie and Watson!

I was born and raised in Milwaukee, WI. I attended Marquette University for my undergraduate degree and University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee for my graduate degree. I have worked at Children’s Wisconsin my entire nursing career. I worked as a bedside nurse for five years. The opportunity was then presented to me to work as a nurse with Pediatric General Surgery. I have been the Clinical Nurse Specialist with the team for 30+ years. I enjoy hiking, volunteering, quilting, and walking along Lake Michigan. I travel a lot to spend time with my three siblings and their families.

I grew up in the Chicagoland area and moved up to Milwaukee for grad school. I expected to be here for 2 years, but I fell in love with Milwaukee and now have been here for over 15 years! I originally studied engineering and decided to make a career change after grad school. I came to work in research with the Division of Pediatric Surgery at Children’s Wisconsin. Once heading off to PA school, I had a strong feeling I would be making my way back to our wonderful Peds Surgery group as soon as I could. My husband and I are both into endurance sports and love to spend time outdoors chasing our fun, active toddler.

I grew up in Appleton, WI, and from a young age I knew that nursing was my calling. I graduated in 2018 with my BSN from UW Oshkosh and spent my first year as an RN working on the Abdominal Organ Transplant Unit at UW Health University Hospital in Madison. My true passion was pediatrics though, and in 2019 I moved to Milwaukee for a job in the Cardiac ICU at Children’s where I worked as a nurse for five years. During that time, I went back to NP school as a virtual/long-distance student through Creighton University (Omaha, NE). I graduated with my Dual Pediatric DNP degree in May 2024, and I am board certified in both Pediatric Acute/Critical Care and Primary Care. For my first year as an NP, I completed the CSG Centralized Pediatric APP Fellowship, where I spent the year working alongside experienced mentors in areas like Primary/Urgent Care, Hospital Medicine, the ED, Special Needs, ENT, Genetics, and General Surgery. I realized I truly love connecting with multiple teams, and I am now in a novel “hybrid” APP role where I split my time between Hospital Medicine in Fall and Winter for the viral season surge, and General Surgery in the Spring and Summer for trauma season/high surgical census.

Outside of clinical work, I have a passion for quality improvement, teaching and mentoring others, and reflective writing about my nursing career. I have completed several QI projects on improving patient and caregiver education that have been published or presented at local, regional, and national conferences, and some of my reflective writing has even been featured in an exhibit of art and writing by nurses in the International Museum of Surgical Science in Chicago! My partner Tony (a Physical Therapist and Orthopedic Clinical Specialist) and I have a house in Wauwatosa that we renovated on our own, and we continue to work on various other house projects. We are huge foodies, and love exploring our neighborhood and downtown Milwaukee for new restaurants, cafes, cocktail bars, and breweries (bonus if we can bike there in the summer!). I love to travel and plan trips, but also love enjoying all things Milwaukee, and truly couldn’t imagine living anywhere else!

I was born and raised in the Milwaukee area. I received my undergrad from Columbia-Mount Mary college in 2006 and have worked at Children's ever since. I am married to a teacher and we have three boys: Hunter, Ashton, and Connor who all keep us on our toes with their endless energy! The boys are all into music and enjoy the outdoors. In the summer we love boating and swimming in our pool. In the winter we love skiing and snowboarding. We have two kittens Pickles and Ramsey and they are just the sweetest snuggle bugs that make working from home days wonderfully difficult. I love traveling and am always planning the next family adventure!

I was born and raised in the Milwaukee area. Milwaukee is my true home and I cannot envision myself living or raising a family elsewhere. I attended Marquette University for both my undergraduate and graduate degrees. My husband and I met during PA school and currently live in Mequon, Wisconsin. We have two small children, Emilia and Graham. Our third “child” is a golden doodle named Willow. They keep life exciting and busy. I am a devoted fan of almost all Wisconsin sports including the Green Bay Packers, Milwaukee Bucks, Marquette University athletics and the Milwaukee Brewers. I enjoy running, outdoor activities throughout all four seasons, traveling, reading, napping, and spending time at our family lake home.

I live in Shorewood, am married and have a teenage son. We have two cats but I like to be clear that I am a dog person! I love to cook, travel, eat good food and read.

I was born in Milwaukee, WI, and raised in a surrounding suburb. I chose Marquette University for undergraduate and PA studies. During my final semester of PA school, I met my husband and we married after I began my career at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin. We have two daughters, Emily and Nora. We spend much of our time attending our daughters’ extra-curricular activities, basketball and soccer. I greatly enjoy cycling and am on my road bike daily if the weather is tolerable.