Biography 

Dr. Evans received her medical education at Emory University in Atlanta. She completed a General Surgery Internship at Harvard University's Beth Israel - Deaconess Medical Center. She then completed her Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Residency at Harvard University's Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary. She completed her pediatric otolaryngology fellowship at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia with the University of Pennsylvania under the direction of Drs. Bill Potsic and Ralph Wetmore. She joined the faculty at Duke University as Assistant Professor, where she was the solo pediatric otolaryngologist and developed a training program in Medicine and Law for the Department of Surgery.

She then moved to Wake Forest University, joining a fledgling section in Pediatric Otolaryngology. She developed the Medicine and Law program for the entire Medical School and through Graduate Medical Education. She was one of the founding members of the Department of Otolaryngology's Surgical Mission Trips to Bonao, Dominican Republic. She ran some 11 surgical missions trips with the support of Hanes Brands, Inc Green for Good program. She developed a technique for hand-crafting a customized bifurcated endotracheal tube, and she has a patent pending for the tube and its commercialization. She was promoted to Associate Professor and has published on novel testing techniques for hearing screening in Down syndrome, computed-tomographic anatomical changes in the hearing bones of children with congenital hearing loss, single-sided hearing loss in children, dysphagia in infants and children, and foreign body ingestions.

After an experience with private practice, she joined our faculty in 2017. She was instrumental in Children's Hospital joining the Global Tracheostomy Collaboration in 2018. She developed the CHNOLA Safe Trach Program, the Children's Hospital pediatric tracheostomy and ventilator safety program. She is now Director of the Safe Trach Program and runs the Safe Trach Rounds and Trach Clinic at Children's Hospital. She has written the enduring material for training staff and families in English and Spanish for tracheostomy care.

Not only has she demonstrated skill in airway management and reconstruction, she is actively working with the maternal-fetal and neonatology programs to develop the EXIT program, and she is one of our pediatric hearing loss specialists and cochlear (and BAHA/Osia) implant surgeons. She placed the first pediatric Osia at Children's Hospital New Orleans. 

Her current research interests are in improving the care and outcomes for infants diagnosed with bronchopulmonary dysplasia and pulmonary hypertension; improving tracheostomy outcomes in overall safety, health and pediatric milestones; and immunomodulation that reduces the medical burdens of middle ear and sinus disease.

 

Dr. Evans sees patients at the following locations: