program leadership
Program Director
Suzanne McLaughlin, MD MSc FAAP FACP
Pronouns: she/her
Dr. McLaughlin is the Program Director for the Med-Peds residency program. She received her undergraduate degree in International Studies from Johns Hopkins University. Work in prenatal care at People’s Community Health Center and prenatal genetics at Johns Hopkins Hospital led her to a Masters in Maternal and Child Health from the Harvard School of Public Health and her MD from the University of Connecticut. She completed Med-Peds residency training here at Brown, and a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars fellowship at Johns Hopkins University. Her clinical research interests are in healthcare transitions and primary care, supported by the Picker Institute, Gold Foundation, and the American Academy of Pediatrics. She is part of the Cancer Survivorship Transition team and national consortiums on transition care. She’s a recipient of the 2014 Department of Medicine Beckwith Teaching Award and the 2020 ACGME Parker Palmer Courage to Teach Award.
She’s happiest working with patients and residents, and hiking, kayaking, or wandering with her 4 kids, dog Mack, and husband Martin.
Associate Program Director
Sybil Cineas, MD FAAP FACP
Pronouns: she/her
Dr. Cineas is one of the Associate Program Directors for the Med-Peds residency program. She is a graduate of Georgetown University and Harvard Medical School. She completed her Med-Peds residency at Harvard (BWH/BCH/MGH). She joined the Med-Peds faculty in 1999 and has been an advisor and mentor to many classes of Brown Med-Peds residents. She oversees the Med-Peds residency ambulatory experience including the curriculum, a focused Enhanced Primary Care Rotation (E-PCR) for PGY2s, and Med-Peds-focused block rotations. She also enjoys working with and mentoring medical students. Dr. Cineas serves as a Career in Medicine faculty advisor at the Alpert Medical School of Brown University and is currently an Assistant Director for the Longitudinal Integrated Clerkship (LIC) as part of the medical school’s Primary Care-Population Medicine track. She is active in the National Med-Peds Program Directors Association, where she has presented her piloted E-PCR curriculum. She is the recipient of multiple teaching awards including the 2011 Department of Medicine Beckwith Teaching Award. Since 1999, Dr. Cineas has been a regular volunteer at the Rhode Island Free Clinic, serving on the clinic’s Medical Advisory Committee. She also serves on the Office of Diversity and Minority Affairs Advisory Group and is an advisor to the Brown Minority House Staff Association (BMHA). She also has a strong interest in international health and has participated in clinical experiences in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Armenia.
ASSOCIATE Program DIRECTOR
Matthew Lorenz, MD FAAP FACP
Pronouns: he/him
Dr. Lorenz is one of the Associate Program Directors for the Med-Peds residency program. He attended medical school at the University of Tennessee and Med-Peds residency training at Brown (Class of 2019), where he completed the Clinician Educator Track and BRIGHT pathway. He splits his clinical time between the Med-Peds continuity clinic, where he took over leadership of the refugee clinic in 2021, and Rhode Island Hospital / Hasbro Children’s Hospital, working as a teaching hospitalist on both pediatrics and internal medicine. He is a recipient of the Department of Pediatrics’ Medical Student Teaching Award and the Dean’s Excellence in Teaching Award, and was inducted into Brown’s chapter of the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society. He is passionate about medical education, refugee health, and narrative medicine.
Dr. Lorenz loves the outdoors, traveling, houseplants, and getting the best of his office-mate, Justin Berk.
program coordinator
amina hetu
Pronouns: she/her
Amina was born in Barranquilla, Colombia, and immigrated to the US at the age of 9-months-old. She loves helping others and has been working in health care for over 25 years with experiences in residency coordination, public health research coordination, graduate medical education, and cardiology. Amina and her two daughters have served as standardized patients at Alpert Medical School of Brown University for over 10 years. She thoroughly enjoys summertime and loves spending time with family and close friends. She’s also committed to her 6am morning workouts with kettlebells. In her free time, you can find her baking cakes and cookies from scratch, relaxing on the many beaches of Rhode Island, and listening to Spanish music. Her husband is a chef by trade and, as a family, they love hosting dinner parties and cookouts.
Amina’s fun facts are that she shares a birthday with the Colombian pop singer, Shakira, and Punxsutawney Phil, the groundhog in Pennsylvania! She is excited to be working with Med-Peds faculty and looks forward to getting to know and assisting new residents in their graduate medical education and training.
Dennisse Reyes
Pediatrics Program Manager,
Liaison with Med-Peds
Pronouns: she/her
deborah pratas
Pediatrics Program Coordinator,
Liaison with Med-Peds
Pronouns: she/her
alex mayer, C-TAGME
Internal Medicine
Program Administrator,
Liaison with Med-Peds
Pronouns: he/him
