The Board strives to maintain a balanced composition consisting of Doctoral members and registered polysomnographic technologists.
Alejandra C. Lastra, MD
The University of Chicago
Program Director Sleep Medicine Fellowship
Assistant Professor of Medicine, Section of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine
Vice-American Academy of Sleep Medicine Education Committee
Alejandra C. Lastra, MD, is the director of the Sleep Medicine Fellowship, and assistant professor in the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine at The University of Chicago. She is a recognized member of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM), serving as Vice-Chair of the AASM Educational Committee.
As President of the Illinois Sleep Society, she is currently leading the development of a multidisciplinary/multi-center educational platform in the region for healthcare providers and patients. Dr. Lastra is passionate about technology’s role in medical education and is a graduate of the Online Teaching and Course Design class from Rush Center for Teaching Excellence and Innovation. She developed the continuous medical education program at the Rush Sleep Disorders Service & Research Center, and is collaborating for curricula development for sleep medicine education for trainees locally and internationally with organizations such as the World Sleep Society and the Venezuelan Sleep Society.
Her clinical and research interests involve home sleep testing, COPD-OSA overlap syndrome, non-invasive positive pressure ventilation in cardiopulmonary conditions and central sleep apnea disorders. She leads clinical programs involving inpatient sleep screening with portable monitors and hypoglossal nerve stimulation in collaboration with otolaryngology.
Henry B. Arantes, BA, RPSGT
University of Chicago Medicine
Clinical and Research Sleep Coordinator
Mr. Arantes has been interested in the field of sleep on a clinical, academic, and research level since his undergraduate work at Rutgers University. Mr. Arantes focused his post graduate training in neuroanatomy and electrophysiology at Penn State University Medical Center as well as four years of sleep research at Brown University’s E.P. Bradley Sleep Research laboratory. During his academic years, Mr. Arantes has also collaborated on abstracts and publications in sleep medicine. His greatest passion resides in academic education of sleep methodology and has extensive experience in sleep lab management.
Kevin Adley, RPSGT, CCSH
Midwest Dental Sleep Center
Kevin serves as the Director of Program Development at Midwest Dental Sleep Center in the Greater Chicago Area. With more than two decades of experience, he possesses extensive clinical and technical expertise, complemented by a diverse skill set in program development and healthcare technology sales.
Committed to sharing knowledge, He has played a key role in developing multiple educational lectures & workshops focused on Polysomnographic Technology, Behavioral Sleep Medicine, and Dental Sleep Medicine. He is committed to giving back to the field and enjoys being part of the innovation process of Sleep Medicine.
Ashima Sahni, MD
University of Illinois Health and Hospital System
Dr. Ashima Sahni practices in the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, Sleep, and Allergy at UI Health. Dr. Sahni specializes in sleep medicine, and she has a special interest in non-invasive ventilation, neuromuscular disease, and complex sleep-related breathing disorders. She also has a focus on the transition of inpatient/outpatient care for patients with sleep-related disorders.
Roneil Malkani, MD
Northwestern Medical Group
Dr. Malkani is an Associate Professor and sleep specialist at Northwestern University and Jesse Brown VA Medical Center. His overall goal is to develop clinical and research programs in sleep, aging, and neurodegeneration and educate others in this area. He champions a growing specialized clinical program is sleep and neurodegeneration at Northwestern University and Jesse Brown VA Medical Center to provide sleep care for patients with neurodegenerative diseases (e.g. Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease) and those at risk (including people with REM sleep behavior disorder). Dr. Malkani has also long been involved in education for trainees, including neurology residency program director and later sleep medicine fellowship director at Northwestern University. He has also given several patient talks for the patient community, including several for Parkinson Foundation. Dr. Malkani has educated the professional community in numerous local, regional, and national presentations and served on several committees, including the ACGME Sleep Medicine Milestones 2.0 Working Group, the AASM REM Sleep Behavior Disorder Clinical Practice Guidelines Task Force, the AASM Artificial Intelligence in Sleep Medicine Committee. Dr. Malkani’s research program has focused on understanding sleep and circadian disturbances in aging and neurodegenerative diseases and develop treatments to improve these symptoms, patient’s quality of life, and the disease course.
Kathy Sexton-Radek, PhD
Clinical Psychologist
Dr. Sexton-Radek has worked clinically in the field of Sleep Medicine for over thirty years. She had an office as an Indepedent Constractor in Suburban Pulmonary & Sleep Associates for the last twenty years and previous to that received referrals to her private practice office. Dr. Sexton-Radek treats cases of sleep disturbance, Insomnia with CBTi, conduct assessments. She has worked with OSA patients on issues of compliance and CPAP mask resistance, position sleeping and sleep hygiene. Dr. Sexton-Radek conducts supportive psychotherapy with patients with medical conditions that also include sleep disturbances. She has actively published in the Sleep Medicine field in peer-referred journals. Her colleague, Gina Graci and herself have just released their second book on sleep titled, “Sleep Disorders” with Pergamon press.
Lindsay McCullough, MD
RUSH University Medical Center
Lindsay McCullough is an Assistant Professor of Medicine and Sleep Medicine physician at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, Illinois. Dr. McCullough joined RUSH in 2018 as a Sleep Medicine fellow. After completing her fellowship in 2019, she was recruited to join as faculty in the Division of General Internal Medicine and Section of Sleep Medicine. Before moving to Chicago, she earned her medical degree and completed her residency training at the University of Florida. Go Gators!
Dr. McCullough is the Associate Program Director for the Sleep Medicine Fellowship and a Fellow of the American College of Physicians. As a clinician educator and a person living with narcolepsy type 2, she is passionate about promoting healthy sleep and lifestyle habits to fellows, residents, and students, as well as other medical professionals, her patients, and to the general public. She works closely with the Rush Sleep Surgery team as a part of an innovative collaborative care model to improve the quality of care for patients with hypoglossal nerve stimulation therapy. In her spare time, she enjoys fishing in Lake Michigan in the summertime, the abundance of live music, traveling, and spending time with her family and friends.
Ashesha Mechineni, MD
Dr. Mechineni embarked on her medical career with the intention of contributing to the community. After completing her Residency at New York Medical College, she worked as a hospital medicine practitioner for a few years, acquiring a substantial amount of clinical expertise. After completing a Sleep fellowship program at the University of Illinois Chicago, she has been working as a sleep medicine practitioner in Chicago for the past few years. She fervently promotes a holistic approach to health that embraces all facets of life, and she acknowledges the importance of sleep as a crucial component for both persons with chronic illnesses and those pursuing overall well-being. She regards her family as her highest source of joy and takes pride in being a devoted daughter, wife, and mother. She has a strong enthusiasm for literature and aims to become a published author soon.
Melissa Carlucci, DNP, APRN, FAANP
RUSH University Medical Center
Dr. Carlucci is a graduate of the Acute Care Nurse Practitioner Program at the University of Illinois Chicago College of Nursing and is an ANCC board-certified Acute Care Nurse Practitioner. She became a faculty member at the UIC College of Nursing in 2011. She teaches in the AGACNP specialty courses and the DNP project courses. Additionally, she maintains an active clinical practice as a nurse practitioner in the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, Sleep, and Allergy Medicine at the University of Illinois Hospital and Health Sciences System. Her clinical interests include sleep-disordered breathing and noninvasive ventilation.
Tomas Munoz, MD
Driven by a profound passion for advancing neonatal and infant sleep medicine, Dr. Munoz offers a unique perspective shaped by a career as a neonatologist and sleep medicine specialist. Dr. Munoz’s academic and clinical efforts are anchored in addressing the complex sleep challenges faced by infants, particularly those born prematurely. Research initiatives, including the PRISM (Premature Recovering Infant Sleep Metric) study, underscore Dr. Munoz’s commitment to enhancing the understanding of sleep development and informing interventions for healthier outcomes in NICU graduates and infants overall.