Tre Gissandaner, PhD | Amanda Porter, MS, CCLS | Robin Shook, PhD

Dr. Tre Gissandaner is a clinical psychologist. He recently joined the faculty of Children's Mercy after completing his fellowship at Columbia University. He is conducting research and providing clinical services through the Division of Developmental and Behavioral Health. 

Amanda Porter is a certified Child Life Specialist at Children’s Mercy Kansas City. She graduated from Texas State University in 2015 with a Master of Science in Child Development with a focus on Child Life. Amanda has spent her time at Children’s Mercy working with the Nephology department, expanding services and support with the dialysis and kidney transplant populations. She works closely with the Psychosocial team to provide exceptional care for patients and families. In 2023, Amanda began working with the Behavioral Health population at Children’s Mercy Kansas City. Currently Amanda works as a Facility Dog Handler at Children's Mercy, utilizing the facility dog to enhance coping and provide normalization for both the Nephrology and Behavioral Health population. 

Dr. Robin Shook is an Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at Children’s Mercy and the Director of The Kansas City Healthy Lifestyles Collaborative. His research interests include both public health and clinical approaches to understanding obesity. His clinical studies focus on energy balance, which is the interaction between an individual’s diet, their physical activity level, and their body weight. This is an important area of research as there can be many physiological changes when someone tries to lose weight through dieting or exercise that may result in less than expected weight loss. From these studies, his team tries to develop strategies to prevent or reduce obesity on a population level using public health approaches.