School of Public Health
FULL TIME FACULTY
FACULTY PROFILES AND RESEARCH INTERESTS
Departmental faculty have been extensively involved in a broad range of scholarly and research activities. These include clinical outcomes and health care quality improvement, risk management in health care institutions, home health care, hospice care, cost containment and prospective payment, Medicaid, community mental health, strategic health planning, HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, cancer epidemiology, prostate cancer, and comparative mortalities in surgical procedures. Current plans for future research directions include disparities in health and health care among minority populations, urban health issues, cancer epidemiology, health care evaluation, women’s health, prevention issues for urban minority populations, and HIV prevention and treatment.
Philippe Amstislavski, MArch, MEM, RN
Philippe Amstislavski is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences. His research focuses on developing spatial analysis approaches that fully include the role of behavioral, socio-economic and environmental variables in the study of health outcomes.
Professor Amstislavski’s interests center on innovative applications of geo-statistical modeling and analysis in environmental and occupational health research. He holds Master’s degree in Environmental Management from Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and professional Master's of Architecture degree and Bachelor’s of Science in Nursing degree. Prior to developing his interest in informatics and Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Prof. Amstislavski practiced nursing and worked with international medical relief organizations Registered Nurse and field director. This unique background prompted him to start using GIS to better understand the underlying environmental causes of diseases and to improve health outcomes. He has extensive expertise in the field of medical geography, GIS and spatial modeling. Prior to joining the SUNY faculty Prof. Amstislavski worked as urban designer and research associate at the studio the architect Daniel Libeskind, Environmental Simulation Center and headed a medical informatics team at the World Trade Center Medical Monitoring and Treatment Program at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. His informatics team designed a unique clinical data management system to monitor health of responders to World Trade Center attacks in New York City. Prof. Amstislavski conducts his doctoral dissertation work on health disparities at the Earth and Environmental Sciences Department of the City University of New York. Prof. Amstislavski is certified GIS professional, member of American Association of Geographers.
Abraham Aragones, MD, MSCI
Dr. Aragones is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences. He earned his medical degree in his native country of Peru, at the University Of San Martin De Porres in Lima. He served as an Intern at the Hospital Nacional Arzobispo Loayza and completed a fellowship at New York University School of Medicine in a Center for Disease Control sponsored program in Medicine and Public Health Research. Dr. Aragones obtained his masters degree at New York University School of Medicine.
His research interest involves immigrant populations and cancer health disparities as well as chronic care in these populations. He is working on projects related to colorectal cancer screening among Latinos, cancer screening referrals among immigrants and the impact of the Chronic Care Model in the Latino immigrant population. Previously, Dr. Aragones conducted research to evaluate the impact of trained interpreters on the immigrant population's utilization of colonoscopy for cancer screening, and the factors that determine physicians' referrals of first generation immigrant patients to cancer screening and clinical trials.
Karen Benker, MD, MPH
Dr. Benker, Associate Dean for Community Health Initiatives in the School of Public Health. She received her medical degree from the University of Southern California at Los Angeles, and completed her residency training at Lincoln Hospital in New York Cit y and at the New York City Department of Health. Her Master of Public Health degree is from Columbia University School of Public Health. She has earned board certification in Family Practice and in Preventive Medicine. Among her current professional interests are reducing infant mortality I Brooklyn and promoting smoking cessation. She is founder and director of the Downstate Freedom from Tobacco Project.
Howard S. Berliner, ScD
Howard S. Berliner is Professor of Health Policy and Management. He holds a Bachelors degree from the University of Vermont, an MBA from the Johnson School of Management, Cornell University (Sloan Program in Health Administration), and a Doctor of Science degree from Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. Prior to coming to Downstate he was Professor of Health Policy and Director of the PhD Program in Public and Urban Policy at Milano Graduate School of the New School University. He also served for two years as the Assistant State Health Commissioner for research, policy and planning for New Jersey.
He is the author of seven books, most recently The Health Marketplace: New York City 1990 and -2010 (with Eli Ginzberg et al.), Transaction Press, N.J. 2001. In addition he is the author of numerous articles and reviews on health policy issues in academic and professional Journals. He has done consulting work for a number of organizations including hospitals, managed care organizations, labor unions, universities, government agencies, and voluntary health agencies.
His current research focuses on the needs of vulnerable populations and access to health services for the uninsured and the future of the hospital in the health care delivery system.
Denise Bruno, MD, MPH
Dr. Bruno is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences and Co-Director of the fourth year medical student elective, “Health Care in Developing Countries.” She received her MD degree from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey and her Master of Public Health degree in International Health from Harvard University School of Public Health. She is board certified in Pediatrics and completed her residency training at Children's National Medical Center in Washington, D.C.
During her career, Dr. Bruno has served in a number of public health practice positions, including Director of Child Health Services at the Westchester County Department of Health and as Regional Medical Director for Brooklyn for the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation's Child Health Clinics. During her six-year tenure at the Westchester County Department of Health, Dr. Bruno oversaw the Immunization Action Program, the Asthma Initiative, the Perinatal Hepatitis B Program, the Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program, the Newborn Screening Program, and others. She also launched a number of health education programs and administered multiple grant programs. Dr. Bruno also served two years at the Incarnation Children's Center, an off-site pediatric HIV center affiliated with Columbia University.
Laura Geer, PhD
Laura A. Geer is Assistant Professor in the Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences. She received her Masters and Doctoral degrees from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Environmental Health Engineering. After completing a post-doctoral position with the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), she provided consultation for the US Environmental Protection Agency Exposure Measurements and Analysis Branch (EMAB) at the National Exposure Research Laboratory (NERL).
She has been responsible for the design, conduct, and management of studies concerning worker dermal exposure to chemicals. Her work complements the current line of research in the consideration of behavioral influences on exposure. She has also participated in community air pollution exposure assessment studies, and has considered the ethical issues associated with child participation in such studies. Dr. Geer’s research interests include environmental exposures and infant morbidity and mortality outcomes. In her current research she is assessing mercury levels in mother/neonate pairs in Brooklyn.
Mira M. Grice, PhD, MS
Dr. Grice is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences. She received both her MS and PhD from the University of Minnesota in Environmental Health Sciences with the doctorate specializing in Occupational Health Services Research and Policy.
Dr. Grice has worked on a wide range of environmental health projects, including research involving metalworking fluid mist sampling and an investigation of the risk factors associated with physical and nonphysical violence against nurses in the workplace. Additionally, she worked for two years at the Minnesota Department of Health in the Foodborne, Vectorborne and Zoonotic Disease Unit. More recently she was part of a research team that examined multiple health outcomes, including colon cancer, melanoma, liver disease and pregnancy outcomes, and their association with occupational exposure to perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS). Her research currently involves examining how work/family conflict impacts the mental and physical health of women following childbirth. Her interests include environmental and occupational health policy, women's health, injury epidemiology, global health and survey design. She was the recipient of a four-year traineeship award from the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). She was also awarded the Richard G. Bond Memorial Scholarship and the Harold R. Shipman Award for excellence in environmental health by the Division of Environmental Health Sciences at the University of Minnesota.
Michael K. Gusmano, PhD
Michael K. Gusmano, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Health Policy and Management at the State University of New York’s Downstate Medical Center and Co-Director of the World Cities Project at the International Longevity Center-USA. His most recent book (with Colleen Grogan) is Healthy Voices/Unhealthy Silence: Advocating for Poor People’s Health (Georgetown University Press, 2007). Dr. Gusmano is the co-editor and author of Growing Older in Four World Cities: New York, London, Paris and Tokyo (Vanderbilt University Press, 2006). Dr. Gusmano was an Assistant Professor of Health Policy and Management at Columbia University from 2004-2008 and was also post-doctoral fellow in the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Scholars in Health Policy program at Yale University (1995-1997). He holds a PhD in political science from the University of Maryland at College Park and a Masters in public policy from the State University of New York at Albany. Dr. Gusmano has published widely in the areas of health policy, aging and comparative welfare state analysis.
Pascal James Imperato, MD, MPH & TM
Dr. Pascal James Imperato is Distinguished Service Professor and Dean of the School of Public Health. He is also currently serving as the Interim Chair for the Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology. Prior to becoming Dean, he was Chair of the Department of Preventive Medicine and Community Health. He received his MD degree from the State University of New York, Downstate Medical Center, College of Medicine, and then completed a residency in internal medicine at Long Island College Hospital. He was awarded the Glorney-Raisbeck Fellowship of the New York Academy of Medicine, and served his fellowship at the International Center for Medical Research and Training (ICMRT) located at the Universidad del Valle in Cali, Colombia, and at Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, from where he received his MPH&TM degree. He then served for six years as a medical epidemiologist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in West Africa, where he directed mass immunization campaigns against smallpox, measles, yellow fever, cholera, and meningococcal meningitis. For his work in Africa, the U.S. Department of State awarded him its Meritorious Honor Award and Medal.
During his six-year tenure at the New York City Department of Health, Dr. Imperato successively served as Director of the Bureau of Infectious Disease Control and Principal Epidemiologist, First Deputy Commissioner of Health and Director of the department’s Residency Training Program in Public Health, and as Commissioner of Health and Chair of the Board of Directors of the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation. He was a member of the New York State Council on Graduate Medical Education, the Board for Professional Medical Conduct, the Board of Directors of the Primary Care Development Corporation, and the Board of Regents of Long Island College Hospital. He was also Chair of the New York State Board for Medicine, and for several years was a member of the Fulbright Screening Committee for Africa. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the Physicians for Social Responsibility of New York City.
Dr. Imperato served for seven years as editor of the New York State Journal of Medicine, now edits the Journal of Community Health, and is on the editorial boards of the Journal of Public Health Management and Practice, The Pharos, and The Medical Herald.
Dr. Imperato has served on many medical school committees and task forces. He served two 4-year terms as Chair of the Committee on Educational Policy and Curriculum (Curriculum Committee), chaired the Second Year Promotions Committee for twelve years, and was Chair of the Special Working Group on the Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education Relationship. He also served as course director for the required Second Year Course in Preventive Medicine and Community Health from 1978 to 1998. Since 1980, he has served as course director for the program’s international health elective, “Health Care in Developing Countries.” His research in recent years has focused on clinical outcomes and health care quality improvement.
In 1999, Dr. Imperato received the New York City Department of Health’s Public Health Achievement Award, and was made a Master of the American College of Physicians. In 2003, he was awarded the James D. Bruce Memorial Award for Distinguished Contributions in Preventive Medicine by the American College of Physicians, and in 2008, the Haven Emerson Award of the Public Health Association of New York City for distinguished contributions to public health in New York City.
Michael A. Joseph, PhD, MPH
Dr. Joseph is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Epidemiology. He is also currently serving as the Interim Vice Chair for the Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology. He completed his MPH in Chronic Disease Epidemiology at Yale University and his PhD in Epidemiologic Science at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. His previous research has focused on the epidemiology of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) morbidity in Black men, a population in which the phenomenology of BPH and LUTS was poorly understood. Specifically, he investigated associations of serum hormone levels with prostate volume, estimated the validity and reliability of a urinary symptom index, and elucidated risk factors for the prevalence and severity of LUTS.
In his immediate past role as postdoctoral fellow at the Ruttenberg Cancer Center of Mount Sinai School of Medicine, Dr. Joseph continued prostate research vis à vis the molecular epidemiology of prostate cancer, specifically the role of putative genetic biomarkers of susceptibility in modifying relationships between prostate cancer, dietary exposures and lifestyle factors. Broadly stated, Dr. Joseph's research interests are in social epidemiology, particularly issues of behavioral and cultural determinants of cancer screening practices among communities of color, and he is currently extending his research endeavors internationally through collaborations with the University of Zimbabwe School of Medicine in Harare, Zimbabwe.
Dr. Joseph has previously served as Course Director for Fundamentals of Epidemiology and Biostatistics in the Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education at the City College of New York. He is also a founding member of the Black Young Professionals' Public Health Network, Inc., and organization that aims to foster educational and employment opportunities for students of color in the field of public health.
Paul Landsbergis, PhD, MPH, EdD
Dr. Landsbergis is an Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences. He holds a PhD in Epidemiology from Columbia University and an EdD in Labor Studies from Rutgers University. His research focuses on socioeconomic position, work organization, work stress, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, psychological disorders and musculoskeletal disorders. Dr. Landsbergis is a co-editor of “The Workplace and Cardiovascular Disease” (Hanley & Belfus, 2000), the first textbook on this subject, and "Unhealthy Work", to be published in 2008 by Baywood. He is also a co-author of comprehensive reviews of studies on job strain and cardiovascular disease, on new systems of work organization and worker health, and on interventions to reduce job stress and improve health. Dr. Landsbergis was a member of the National Research Council’s Committee on the Health and Safety Needs of Older Workers, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health's Intervention Effectiveness Research Team, and co-chair of the 4th International Conference on Work Environment and Cardiovascular Disease (in 2005). He is a contributing editor of the American Journal of Industrial Medicine.
Judith H. LaRosa, PhD, RN
Dr. LaRosa is a Vice Dean of the SUNY Downstate Medical Center School of Public Health. Dr. LaRosa earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in nursing at the University of Pittsburgh, and her PhD in Health Education at the University of Maryland. Her immediate past positions have been as Professor and Chair, Department of Community Health Sciences, Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in New Orleans, Louisiana, and Director, Tulane Xavier National Center of Excellence in Women’s Health. In addition, Dr. LaRosa served as Associate Project Director of the National Science Foundation’s Louisiana Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research. From 1991-1994, she was the first Deputy Director of the Office of Research on Women’s Health, National Institutes of Health (NIH). She is a co-author of the legislatively mandated 1994 NIH Guidelines on the Inclusion of Women and Minorities as Subjects in Clinical Research.
Dr. LaRosa’s research interests encompass women’s health, public health, and cardiovascular disease. She has published in professional and lay journals in the areas of heart disease, women's health, and workplace health promotion and disease prevention. She has also co-authored a textbook, New Dimensions of Women's Health that is now in it’s 5th edition.
Dr. LaRosa has served on the Armed Forces Epidemiological Board, the Institute of Medicine’s Health Science Policy Board, and the National Institute for Nursing Research’s Advisory Council, the Institute of Medicine’s Committees on Understanding the Biology of Sex and Gender as well as the Committee on Assessing the Medical Risks of Human Oocyte Donation for Stem Cell Research, the National Institute for Nursing Research’s Advisory Council, the Armed Forces Epidemiological Board, National Science Foundation/Institute of Medicine Committee on Defense Women's Health Research, and was a member of the US Army Research and Materiel Command/United Information Systems, Inc. Core Directorate to design and implement the Department of Defense (DoD) breast cancer and defense women's health grant review process. Dr. LaRosa has served as a scientific reviewer for the NIH, CDC, and DoD. She is on the editorial board of The Journal of Community Health.
Dr. LaRosa is a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing and the American Heart Association Council on Cardiovascular Nursing, a member of Sigma Theta Tau International (honorary nursing society), Delta Omega (public health honorary society), and Sigma Chi Scientific Research Society.
Camille Ragin, MPH, PhD
Dr. Ragin is an Associate Professor in the Department of Epidemiology. Cancer mortality rates in developing countries and among populations of African descent remains to be an important public health issue for Dr. Ragin. She completed her undergraduate studies in Medical Laboratory Sciences, from Hunter College of the City University of New York. She is an alumnus of the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of Public Health where she completed her Ph.D. in infectious diseases and microbiology and MPH in epidemiology. This very rare but exciting combination of skills has enabled Dr. Ragin to apply molecular markers in epidemiological studies. Dr. Ragin is committed to the improvement of cancer prevention and treatment strategies in order to reduce the disparities among minority populations. Her research focuses on viral-gene interactions and cancer health disparities. She is involved in numerous studies related to Human Papillomavirus in cervical, lung and oropharyngeal cancers as well as Human Herpesvirus 8 in prostate cancer. Dr. Ragin is a native of the Caribbean, Jamaica, and has had first hand experience and can relate to the limited resources that often times lead to a lack in quality of preventative healthcare and education. She is the principal investigator of the African-Caribbean Cancer Consortium (AC3) project (www.ac-ca-consortium.org) that involves the conduct of a number of epidemiological studies in the US, Jamaica, The Bahamas, Trinidad & Tobago, St. Vincent, The US Virgin Islands and Nigeria. The AC3 focuses on studies of viral and genetic risk factors related to cancer in populations of African descent.
Rebecca Schwartz, PhD
Dr. Rebecca Schwartz is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences. She received her B.A. in psychology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1996. She received her PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2004. While in graduate school, Dr. Schwartz was a recipient of a NIMH predoctoral research training fellowship in urban children’s mental health and AIDS prevention. Dr. Schwartz has clinical expertise in psychotherapy with youth and has particular experience in therapeutic interventions for youth who are HIV positive. She completed her clinical internship in June 2004 in the Pediatric Psychiatry Department of New York Presbyterian Hospital, Columbia Medical Center. Dr. Schwartz was a NIH BIRCWH (Building Integrative Research Careers in Women's Health) postdoctoral fellow at SUNY Downstate from 2004-2007. Her primary research interests are in the areas of primary and secondary prevention of HIV and other STIs with a focus on mental health and other psychosocial correlates of risk behavior, particularly as they pertain to women. She is currently a co-investigator on a multi-site study of HIV positive women and the principle investigator on a local study focused on the association between gender-based violence and medication adherence among HIV positive women.
Jeanne M. Stellman, PhD
Dr. Stellman is a Professor of the Department of Environmental Health Sciences and Associate Director for Research. A former Guggenheim Fellow, Dr. Stellman has extensive research experience in occupational and environmental health. Directed major research study on Agent Orange exposure for National Academy of Sciences. Editor-in-Chief 4th edition ILO Encyclopaedia Occupational Safety & Health. Editor Journal Women and Health, 1986-2004.
Emanuela Taioli, MD, MS, PhD
Dr. Taioli is Professor of Department of Epidemiology. Dr. Taioli obtained her Medical Degree from the University of Milano, where she also completed her Residency in Cardiology. She obtained an MS and a PhD in Epidemiology from Columbia University.
Dr. Taioli worked under a NATO fellowship at the American Health Foundation in New York, and then as Assistant Professor in the Department of Environmental Medicine at New York University. During that period, she conducted studies on genetic susceptibility to environmental factors in lung and breast cancer, and differences in estrogen metabolism with ethnicity in women.
She then accepted a position as Director of the Unit of Molecular and Genetic Epidemiology at the main University Hospital in Milano (Italy). She became the PI of the GSEC project, an International Study on Genetic Susceptibility to Environmental Carcinogens started in 1997, funded by the European Commission for Research. It is a pooled analysis of individual epidemiologic and genetic data including over 170,000 subjects.
Dr Taioli has also been technical advisor to the Italian Ministry of Health between 2002 and 2004. In that capacity, she was member of the European High Group of Reflection on Patients Mobility.
In 2005 she accepted a position as Professor of Epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh and Director of the Division of Cancer prevention and Population Science. She was awarded the Arnold Palmer Endowed Chair in Cancer Prevention.
Dr. Taioli is the co-author of 220 peer reviewed papers.
Tracey E. Wilson, PhD
Tracey E. Wilson, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of the Department of Community Health Sciences. She is a behavioral scientist with expertise in the study of attitude formation and change in general, and behavioral issues as they relate to sexual and reproductive health more specifically. Dr. Wilson's primary research interests are in the social and psychological aspects of HIV/STI prevention and treatment, and the design and evaluation of behavioral interventions promoting sexual and reproductive health of women and men. She currently serves as a Principal Investigator and Co-Investigator on several federally funded research projects addressing these issues, and has been an author on over 60 peer-reviewed articles on these topics.
