 Hello, my name is Dr. Valerie Nicotakis-Woojack. I am an attending pediatrician at Hackensack Meridian Health. I started residency in 1987 at Columbia Presbyterian and then was offered a position on the faculty practice, began my position at the faculty practice in 1990 and have been a practicing pediatrician ever since then. I really look forward to going to work because I love working with the babies and the children. Babies and children are really our future. They are little bundles of potential. They are fresh and enthusiastic and it's just so fun and exciting to go to work each day when you know that that's what you're going to be doing. It's also amazing to watch them grow and develop and to become part of their families and it's just incredible to watch a child that you've followed since a newborn through all of their toddler years and their school age years and then through adolescence and then off to college and it's just an incredible experience to be part of all of it with them. Children are our future. If we can just really maximize their health and their development, the whole world is in a better place.