Dr. John is an accomplished clinician scientist with extensive training in research, clinical medicine, and leadership.  After acceptance into a six year accelerated medical program, she received her MD and PhD from Drexel Medical School with a full scholarship.  She went on to complete residency training in both internal medicine and general pediatrics at Brown University, followed by a fellowships in pediatric cardiology at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and adult congenital cardiology at the Mayo Clinic.  She has been recognized as an academic leader in the field, furthering research and clinical care through building infrastructure support and fostering cross-collaboration with other organizations.   She is the current PI of two PCORI awards focused on reducing maternal morbidity and mortality in ACHD and examining the effect of gaps in care.

Dr. John has an established track record of leadership in multiple professional societies and research consortia.   She serves as the chair of the Young Hearts council of the American Heart Association in addition to leadership committees at the American College of Cardiology.  From 2012-2022, she has served on the executive committee of the Alliance of Adult Research in Congenital Cardiology, inc. (AARCC), a large multicenter research network focused on adults with CHD.   While president of AARCC (2016-2018), she initiated a re-organization of the group leading to renewed focus and commitment to the underlying mission while also initiating more patient engagement.  Following the re-organization, she tackled one of the major barriers to conducting research in adult congenital cardiology:  the lack of a longitudinal registry.  Under Dr. John’s leadership, a diverse working group including researchers, patients, registry platform design experts, and federal funding agencies (NHLBI, CDC) was formed to create the Congenital Heart Initiative (congenitalheartinitiative.com), the only patient powered registry for adults with CHD. 

Since 2010, Dr. John has worked at Children’s National Hospital (Washington, DC) where she serves as the medical director of the Washington Adult Congenital Heart Program.    The program is now recognized as a comprehensive care center for adults with CHD, a status shared by less than 40 programs across the country.   Her leadership philosophy is to promote innovation through fostering collaboration and inclusion.  She is a skilled program and team builder.  One of the most notable things about Dr. John's leadership has always been her ability to bring together diverse groups of stakeholders from widely varying backgrounds in pursuit of a common goal. She excels in hearing what is unsaid and in developing compromises in order to achieve the best possible result for patients and their families.