Meet the Center for Pediatric Innovation Team

Krista Nelson

Director of Innovation Development

Krista Nelson joined Children’s Mercy Hospital in 2015 as Director of Innovation Development. In this role she leads the development and execution of the Children's Mercy Innovation Strategy and serves as the leader for innovation throughout the organization. Krista partners with champions of innovative ideas and key hospital strategies and leads them through an innovation/strategic framework to bring their ideas to life.

Most recently, Krista led the creation of PedsMarket, LLC, a new subsidiary of Children’s Mercy, and is the current Executive Director. PedsMrkt is a collaborative marketplace platform to engage buyers, sellers, and partners in scaling and disseminating pediatric innovations.

Krista spent nearly four years at Hallmark Cards, Inc. in Kansas City as an Innovation Leader. Prior to this, Krista spent 20 years developing new products, services and software solutions in the financial industry. Overall, her career has focused on delivering solutions that bring value and meet consumer needs. 

Krista is a graduate of the University of Kansas with a BS in Business Administration.

Laura Sarff, MBA 

Innovation Solutions Program Manager 

Laura Sarff joined Children’s Mercy Hospital in 2023 as an Innovation Solutions Program Manager. In this role, she leads startup operations for PedsMrkt, the new online B2B marketplace and healthcare community in addition to moving ideas through the innovation life cycle. 

Laura most recently worked with Cox Automotive, Inc. in Kansas City as a market and customer research manager and senior manager of marketing. Prior to this, Laura spent nearly twelve years at Hallmark Cards, Inc. in Kansas City. During her time there, she held roles in project management, lean strategy, innovation, and commercialization. Laura is passionate about creating opportunities for business growth through team building, creating strategic alignment, and deeply understanding customer needs. 

Laura holds bachelor's degrees in business administration and marketing from the University of Missouri. Her MBA in Marketing Research is also from the University of Missouri Trulaske College of Business.

Meagan Dorton-Allison, MSN, MBA, RN-CPN, PMP 

Innovation Solutions Program Manager

Meagan Dorton-Allison is a seasoned registered nurse, project management professional, and leader with extensive experience across the care continuum. Her diverse background spans inpatient nursing, ambulatory leadership, community care management, and software development focused on population health.

Meagan is deeply passionate about engaging and empowering patients to optimize their clinical outcomes. She believes that effective care team coordination is crucial and has dedicated herself to integrating solutions into clinical workflows to create a patient-centered ecosystem.

In 2023, Meagan joined the Children’s Mercy Innovation team as the Program Manager of Innovation Solutions. She holds an MSN and an MBA with a focus on healthcare administration.

Additionally, she is a Certified Pediatric Nurse, a Certified Project Management Professional, and an ICAgile Certified Professional. 

Alexandra Troike, RDN 

Innovation Insights Coordinator

Alexandra Troike joined the Center for Pediatric Innovation in 2022 as an intern. She began her full-time role as Innovation Insights Coordinator in 2023. In this role, she helps with the Center’s engagement with hospital employees via events like the annual SPARK Bash and increases awareness of innovation opportunities at Children’s Mercy.

Prior to her roles with the Innovation Center, Alex worked in the Children’s Mercy Milk and Formula Room as a technician, starting in 2020. Alex is passionate about advocating for exceptional children’s healthcare across the globe through its intersection with innovation, nutrition, and self-empowerment.

Alexandra holds bachelor's degrees in Human Nutrition - Nutritional Sciences and Dietetics from Kansas State University. She is also a registered dietitian nutritionist.

Sallie Guezuraga, MBA
Manager of Innovation Solutions

Sallie Guezuraga is collaborative leader with over 20 years of experience combining business intelligence with human understanding to drive meaningful consumer engagement and revenue growth. Sallie started her career at Hallmark Cards, Inc. working on marketing strategy, customer relationship management, data analytics, algorithm development, strategic alliances, product management and business development.

Sallie has been an innovation leader for over 10 years, with a focus on leveraging digital technology to enhance human experiences. She joined the Pediatric Innovation Center at Children’s Mercy in 2018. She is passionate about discovering and applying emotion- and relationship-based insights to build new solutions that influence behavior, with the goals of increasing adherence, fostering wellbeing and driving better outcomes.

Sallie holds an MBA from the University Notre Dame, a BA in Sociology and a BS in Preprofessional Science also from the University of Notre Dame.

Jenny Marshall, MPH, RN, RRT, CCRC 

Director of Feasibility and Strategic Outcomes 

Jenny is responsible for formulating the research vision for the department's strategic and innovation initiatives and leading the facilitation of R&D activities across the organization and with outside institutions for strategy, innovation, remote health, and community health initiatives. She collaborates with professional staff and hospital administration to plan, supervise, evaluate, and report departmental research initiatives and projects.

In her work with the Center for Pediatric Innovation, she acts as a research liaison with outside institutions and mentors internal staff regarding projects and research activities.

Jenny is skilled in Software Documentation, Healthcare Management, Healthcare, Clinical Research, and Patient Advocacy. She holds a Bachelor’s in Respiratory Care from the University of Kansas, a Master’s in Public Health from Walden University and is a Registered Nurse, Registered Respiratory Therapist, and Certified Clinical Research Coordinator.

Prior to her current title, she was the Director of Research and Quality within CM’s Ward Family Heart Center.