Doctor Biographies for Kid Care Pediatrics

Doctor Biographies

Omar A. Gomez M.D.

Dr. Omar A. Gomez Dr. Gomez was born in Denton, Texas and was named by his father, who is a
U.S. Army veteran, after WWII General Omar Nelson Bradley, the United States’ last five star general. Dr. Gomez was raised in Fort Worth, where he attended school through graduation from Nolan Catholic High School. Dr. Gomez completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Texas at Arlington, and he received his medical degree from Texas A&M University College of Medicine in 1994. Dr. Gomez completed pediatric residency training at Texas A&M University Health Science Center - Scott & White Hospital (Temple, Texas) in 1997, where he served as Chief Resident and Clinical Instructor.

After one year in private practice in Kerrville, Texas, he returned to Fort Worth in 1998 to join the Cook Children’s Physician Network to start up its Fossil Creek office. He built a successful practice over the next three years and left the network at the end of September 2001 to start his own private pediatric practice, under the name of Kid Care Pediatrics, which opened October 1, 2001.

Dr. Gomez is board certified in Pediatrics by the American Board of Pediatrics and is a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics. He enjoys an excellent reputation within the medical community and the public at large. His practice philosophy is to provide professional, competent, and thorough care for infants, children, and adolescents in a warm and friendly manner.

In his free time, Dr. Gomez enjoys spending time with his family, reading, arts & culture, sporting events, and family cook-outs. He is married and has four young children. His parents and extended family live in the Fort Worth area, where he also happily resides. As such, Dr. Gomez is committed to staying in the local area on a long-term basis.

Alicia R. Leffel, M.D.

A native Texan, Dr. Alicia Leffel was born in Austin and grew up in La Grange – halfway between San Antonio and Houston. After graduating Valedictorian from La Grange High School, Dr. Leffel went on to Texas A & M University where she graduated Suma Cum Laude in just three years. Dr. Leffel chose to stay close to home and attended medical school at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, graduating with honors, and was inducted into the prestigious medical honor society, Alpha Omega Alpha in May 1996.

Dr. Leffel pursued her residency training at Texas A & M University Health Science Center - Scott and White Hospital in Temple, TX. Her internship included studies in both Internal Medicine and Pediatrics. She completed her medical training in June 1999 after serving as Chief Resident of Pediatrics in her final year.

Over the next 4 years, Dr. Leffel served both as a clinician, within the Scott and White System at its Fish Pond Clinic in Waco, TX, and as a faculty member with the Texas A&M University Health Science Center in Temple. She is board certified by the American Board of Pediatrics and is a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Dr. Leffel is married and has 2 young children. She enjoys spending time with her family and also a wide variety of outdoor activities.

Dr. Leffel joined Kid Care Pediatrics in December 2003 and is now proud to call Keller, TX home.

Lisa E. Lewis, M.D.

Dr. Lewis was born in Fort Worth, Texas. She grew up in Liberty, Texas, a small town outside of Houston. After completing her undergraduate studies at the University of Texas at Austin, Dr. Lewis attended medical school overseas at American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine. During her third and fourth year of medical studies, she performed her clinical rotations at London Hospital Medical College, where she received Clinical Honors.

After returning home to the United States, Dr. Lewis completed a Pediatric Internship at Hahnemann University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She then decided to return home to Texas, and completed her pediatrics residency at Texas A&M University Health Science Center/Scott and White Memorial Hospital in Temple, Texas. The last year of her residency was spent as Chief Resident.

She stayed on two years after her residency as Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the Texas A&M University Health Science Center. During her tenure at Scott and White, she served as Medical Director for Reach Out and Read, which is a program to promote early literacy in children. Dr. Lewis trained many other physicians and professionals on the important literacy quest for all children. Her program was the first of its kind in Texas.

Dr. Lewis’ heart as always been in “just taking care of children,” so she moved to Fort Worth in September 1998 to join Cook Children’s Physician Network, at its Cityview clinic. After ten years building a full time practice, and taking care of many wonderful families, Dr. Lewis decided to join Kid Care Pediatrics as a part-time physician in November 2008. Dr. Lewis would like to remain active in the field of pediatrics, while pursuing her career in writing. She has a strong interest in International Adoption, and has given many talks offering her expertise in this area to colleagues and parents.

Dr. Lewis is Board Certified in Pediatrics by the American Board of Pediatrics and is a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Dr. Lewis’ goal is to provide ongoing excellent medical care for the children of our community.

Dr. Lewis is married, with two children. Dr. Lewis enjoys spending time with her family, her daughter’s school activities, writing, and is the troop leader for the Girls Scouts, Brownie Troop 3090.

Kathryn K. Mandal, M.D.

Dr. Kathryn Mandal was born in New Jersey, and lived in several states across the US before graduating from high school in South Carolina at the age of 14. She completed her undergraduate studies at Smith College in Northampton, MA and then worked at Duke University doing research in molecular biology for 2 years. She moved to Texas to be closer to her parents, and went on to study medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio where she met her husband, a fellow medical student in her class. She received her medical degree in 1999.

She completed her pediatric residency at the University at Stony Brook in New York in 2002 before moving to Washington D.C. to be with her husband as he finished his medical training. Dr. Mandal worked in a private pediatric group practice for 4 years in suburban Washington D.C., before returning to Texas in 2006.

She then worked for Texas Newborn Services providing inpatient care for newborns at newborn nurseries at local hospitals in the Fort Worth and Arlington areas. Dr. Mandal joined Kid Care Pediatrics in January 2009 with the goal of providing quality care in a private practice setting.

She is board certified by the American Board of Pediatrics and is a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Dr. Mandal lives in Keller with her husband and her young son. In her spare time, she enjoys cooking, reading, and traveling with her family.

S. Ovais Mohiuddin, M.D.

Dr. Mohiuddin was born in Houston, Texas and grew up in the Dallas/ Fort Worth Metroplex. He graduated Summa Cum Laude with a degree in Biology and a minor in English from the University of Texas at Arlington in 2000. Dr. Mohiuddin received his medical degree from University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston in 2004, and then completed his residency training at UT Southwestern Medical Center-Children’s Medical Center of Dallas in 2007.

After completing residency training Dr. Mohiuddin worked in Plano, Texas, helping to establish a newly opened Pediatric After Hours Urgent Care clinic. Most recently, he has served as general
pediatrician for a private practice in DeSoto, Texas. He is board certified by the American Board of Pediatrics and is a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics and Texas Medical Association.

Dr. Mohiuddin is married with one son. In his free time, he enjoys spending time with his family, reading, playing basketball, and volunteering in the community. His goal is to provide quality,
empathetic medical care with an emphasis on evidence based medicine.

Dr. Mohiuddin joined the Kid Care Pediatrics team in August 2010.

Mark E. Holton, D.O.

Dr. Holton is the son of a retired Army helicopter pilot. He lived on numerous military bases before finally settling in Texas where he attended Baylor University and received a Bachelor of Science in Biology. From there, he moved to Fort Worth and attended the Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine which is now known as the University of North Texas Health Science Center. After graduation from medical school, he completed a Pediatric Internship and Residency at Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu, Hawaii.

• Following residency, he served as the Chief of Pediatrics at Noble Army Hospital at Ft. McClellan, Alabama where he received the Department of the Army Commendation Medal. After retiring from the military in 1982, he moved to Bedford, Texas to start a solo pediatric practice and served as the Chief of Pediatrics at Harris Methodist HEB, and as an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of North Texas Health Science Center. He was instrumental in creating the Pediatric Unit at Harris Methodist HEB, and was on the consulting staff at Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth, Texas.

Dr. Holton retired from his full time active pediatrics practice in 2000 and spent the next 8 years traveling the country in his RV and visited several countries around the world. When not traveling, he worked as an independent pediatric locum tenens provider in the DFW metroplex which is where he initially met Dr. Gomez at Cook Children’s and then later at Kid Care Pediatrics.

Dr. Holton has provided locum tenens coverage at Kid Care Pediatrics since 2001, and in March of 2010, he was asked to join Kid Care Pediatrics and began working there as a regular part-time pediatrician.

Dr. Holton is board certified as a Fellow in the American Academy of Pediatrics, and holds emeritus status in the American College of Osteopathic Pediatricians. He continues to enjoy traveling, riding horses, playing golf and most of all having the opportunity to provide medical care to pediatrics patients.

Anji Moore, M.D.

Dr. Anji Moore was born in Fort Worth and grew up in Bedford. She is the daughter of high school science and math teachers and she knew she would be a doctor from a very young age. After graduating valedictorian at Trinity High School in Euless, she attended Texas A&M University in College Station. She graduated Magna Cum Laude from Texas A&M with a degree in Zoology in 1998. After attending medical school at the University of Texas San Antonio, Dr. Moore moved to Atlanta, Georgia for residency training in pediatrics at Emory University. She served as Chief Resident in Pediatrics during her last year of residency training and then worked for a year as Assistant Residency Program Director for Pediatrics at Emory.

In 2006, Dr. Moore decided to move back home to Texas to be close to her family. She joined the Cook Children’s Physician Network where she worked for 4 years at the Cook Children’s Urgent Care Centers in Hurst and Fort Worth. She enjoyed taking care of acutely ill and injured kids in the urgent care setting, but missed being able to cultivate long-term relationships with her patients and their families. She decided to make a change to private practice setting and is thrilled to join Kid Care Pediatrics in November 2010.

Dr. Moore is board certified by the American Board of Pediatrics and a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

In addition to spending time with family and friends, Dr. Moore loves to travel, is an avid reader, and can often be found working in her garden.

Melissa Asgaonkar, M.D.

Dr. Melissa Asgaonkar was born and raised in the metro Detroit area. She completed her undergraduate studies at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan in 1996. She attended medical school at Wayne State University School of Medicine, where she also met her husband who is also a physician. After graduating from medical school in 2001, Dr. Asgaonkar completed a pediatric residency at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation in Cleveland, Ohio in 2004.

Following residency, Dr. Asgaonkar moved to Louisville, Kentucky where she practiced outpatient pediatrics in a private setting for the next three years while her husband completed further medical training. Once his training was complete, Dr. Asgaonkar and her husband decided to move to South Bend, Indiana to be closer to home. In South Bend, she worked as a pediatrics hospitalist for two plus years. During this time, she was Vice-Chief of the Department of Pediatrics and was very involved in medical resident education and training.

In 2010, Dr. Asgaonkar and her husband decided to relocate to the Fort Worth area. While working as a hospitalist was enjoyable, she missed the patient and family relationships that are developed in a outpatient pediatrics setting and decided to return to private practice. Dr. Asgaonkar joined Kid Care Pediatrics in April 2011.

Dr. Asgaonkar is board certified by the American Board of Pediatrics and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Dr. Asgaonkar is married with two children. She loves being involved in her children’s school activities and enjoys sewing, reading, and watching football in her free time.

Vonda L. Finke, P.A.-C

Ms. Finke was born and raised in the small town of Brenham, Texas (Home of Blue Bell Ice Cream) – one hour north of Houston and an hour southeast of Austin. She graduated from Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas in 2005 with a degree in Biomedical/Nutritional Science and a minor in Business Administration. Ms. Finke received her Master’s Degree in Physician Assistant Studies from the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas in 2010. After graduation, Ms. Finke worked at Children’s Center of Victoria pediatric clinic in Victoria, Texas. She is board certified by the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants (NCCPA) and is a member of Texas Academy of Physician Assistants (TAPA).

Ms. Finke has had multiple roles in helping children’s lives in her past and knew she wanted to work in the field of pediatrics at a very young age. Ms. Finke owned and was the primary instructor for her gymnastics studio called Vonda’s Gymnastics, in Brenham, Texas. In addition, she was a lead ballet, tap, and jazz instructor, cheerleading instructor, swim coach, and Sunday school teacher. Ms. Finke was also actively involved for four years in Project Sunshine which is a national organization that works with children with chronic disabilities or illnesses while at Texas A&M. She also volunteered at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, Texas for over two years as a Radio Lollipop Volunteer providing joy, laughter, and comfort to the hospitalized children at that facility.

Who are Pediatric Nurse Practitioners?

Pediatric Nurse Practitioners are very special health care providers who are dedicated to improving children's health. PNPs have advanced education in pediatric nursing and health care and they serve children and families in an extensive range of practice settings.

What do PNPs do?

Perform routine developmental screenings
Diagnose and treat common childhood illnesses
Provide anticipatory guidance regarding common health concerns
Provide childhood immunizations
Perform school physicals

Kami R. Wegner, R.N., C.P.N.P.

Kami Wegner was born in Las Cruces, NM. She lived there until she was 15 years old. At that time, she and her family moved to Worthington, Ohio (a suburb of Columbus). She received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing at the Ohio State University in 1991. Then, she worked at Johns Hopkins Hospital for one year. Following this she spent almost 4 years working in New York with mentally retarded and developmentally disabled individuals. Finally, she returned to the Ohio State University and graduated with a Masters of Science and completed specialized training as a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner in 1997.

Over the next eight years, Mrs. Wegner served as the clinical manager and then lead Pediatric Nurse Practitioner (PNP) for First Care (ER urgent care) at Children’s Medical Center of Dallas. She also served as a preceptor (training other student PNP’s) for 5 years for The University of Texas at Arlington and Texas Women’s University.

Mrs. Wegner is married and she is the very proud mother of three children. She spends much of her outside time at various activities for her children.

Mrs. Wegner joined Kid Care Pediatrics in July 2004. She is very happy and proud to be a part of the Kid Care Pediatrics family and looks forward to meeting each patient and their family.

Jennifer F. Flippo, RN, MSN, CPNP

Mrs. Flippo grew up in Houston and considers herself a native Texan although her extended family hails from Canada. Mrs. Flippo is a 1990 graduate of Texas A&M University. She completed nursing school at Texas Women’s University in Dallas. After working as a nurse for several years in the Pediatric ICU at Medical City Children’s in Dallas, Mrs. Flippo graduated from the University of Texas at Arlington with her Master’s Degree as a Nurse Practitioner in 2000.

After attaining pediatric nurse practitioner status, she had the pleasure of working at Children’s Medical Center First Care in Dallas with Dr. Fricker, Dr. Kosanke, and Kami Wegner, RN, CPNP prior to their arrival with Kid Care Pediatrics. Following her time with Children’s Medical Center First Care, Mrs. Flippo worked for five years at Medical City Children’s in Dallas as part of the pediatric inpatient hospitalist team. She was the first pediatric nurse practitioner to be employed as a hospitalist in the north Texas area.

Mrs. Flippo joined Kid Care Pediatrics part-time in August 2007. She is also on the faculty of Texas Christian University where she teaches nursing students also on a part-time basis. She lives in Saginaw on the family farm with her husband and two sons who are very active in sports and 4-H, along with tending to an assortment of animals. Mrs. Flippo is thrilled to be working close to home and to be part of the Kid Care Pediatrics family.