Graduate Program in Public Health
PART 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.
David Ackman, MD, MPH
Dr. Ackman, who received his MD degree from Downstate Medical Center, is Assistant Professor in the Graduate Program in Public Health. He currently serves as Commissioner of Health of Nassau County. Prior to this he was Assistant Medical Director for Ambulatory Care at Lutheran Medical Center, and Director of the Bureau of Communicable Disease Control of the New York State Department of Health. Dr. Ackman did his residency in Primary Care Internal Medicine at Bronx Municipal Hospital, and received a Master of Public Health degree from Columbia University School of Public Health. He is an Assistant Professor of Epidemiology at the SUNY Albany School of Public Health.
Michael Augenbraun, MD
Dr. Augenbraun, Associate Professor of Medicine, is Hospital Epidemiologist at University Hospital of Brooklyn. He received his MD degree from the University of Rochester, and did his residency in Internal Medicine at North Shore University Hospital, Manhasset, NY, and at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Dr. Augenbraun held a Clinical Fellowship in Infectious Diseases, followed by a Research Fellowship in Infectious Diseases, at SUNY Health Science Center at Brooklyn. He is Medical Director of the KCH Sexually Transmitted Diseases Clinic, as well as Acting Director of the KCH Lumbar Puncture Clinic. Dr. Augenbraun serves as President of the Brooklyn Infectious Diseases Society.
Marcia Bayne-Smith, PhD, MSW
Dr. Bayne-Smith is an Assistant Professor in the Graduate Program in Public Health. She received her PhD and MSW from Columbia University's School of Social Work. The focus of her doctoral work was on health care policy as it relates to women's health. She has conducted community and population based research for the past 25 years and has published extensively on the health issues of women, immigrants and racial/ethnic minorities. Her articles appear in the American Journal of Public Health, the Journal of Immigrant Health, The Journal of Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation, the Journal of Gerontological Social Work, the Journal of Health Education and The International Journal of Ethnicity and Health, among others. Dr. Bayne-Smith most recent book project, “Community Based Health Organizations: Advocating for Improved Health Outcomes,” was released in 2005 by Jossey-Bass. Her current book project is “Black Women and the Politics of HIV/AIDS policy: 1990-2007”.
Manny Bekier, MS
Manny Bekier is Director of Biomedical Communications at SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. He also holds a faculty appointment with the School of Public Health. Manny holds an MS from the Medical College of Georgia Graduate School in Medical Illustration/Biomedical Communications.
He currently serves on the Board of Governors of The Association of Biomedical Communication Directors and is their Association Editor to the Journal of Biocommunications. Manny served last year as President of The Association of Biomedical Communication Directors. He also served as President of SUNY Educational Technology Officers Association. Manny Bekier has given numerous presentations at international conferences. The most recent, at the 49th International Conference on Health & Science Communications, June 21, 2008 at Yale University.
In addition to his professional endeavors, Manny has worked for Steven Spielberg’s Shoah Foundation, conducting video interviews with survivors of the Holocaust. He also, as part of a humanitarian mission in 1999, has gone to refugee camps in Kosovo. Today, Manny speaks out on the crises in Darfur. An article about his life as an activist was published in the Fall ’99 issue of Lifestyles Magazine.
Alvin M. Berk, PhD
Dr. Berk is Assistant Professor in the Graduate Program in Public Health and serves as Assistant Vice President for Management Systems at SUNY Downstate Medical Center. Born and raised in Brooklyn, Dr. Berk earned his undergraduate degree at Queens College and his doctorate at the City University of New York. He has taught at Brooklyn College and Fordham University at Lincoln Center, and has guest-lectured on municipal government and community organization at Brooklyn College and Long Island University. Dr. Berk is an outspoken advocate for the role of grass-roots organizations in formulating public policy, expressing his views in contributed columns to Newsday, the New York Post, and the New York Times, and on TV. Since 1989, he has served as chairman of Brooklyn Community Board 14, and, since 1993, as chair of the Coalition of Brooklyn Community Boards.
Jeffrey Birnbaum, MD, MPH
Dr. Birnbaum is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at SUNY Downstate Medical Center. He is the Principal Investigator and Program Director of Health & Education Alternatives for Teens (HEAT) as well as the Family Adolescent and Children’s Experiences at SUNY (FACES) Network. At HEAT, he has provided medical care to hundreds of HIV infected youth ages 13-24 years since 1992. Dr. Birnbaum is an adolescent medicine specialist and Board certified pediatrician who has focused most of his professional career working with HIV infected youth. In addition to his clinical work at HEAT, he devotes much of his time in community mobilization efforts to identify and engage in care HIV infected youth. He serves as Board member for the SUNY Downstate Medical Center HIV Center for Women and Children and Institutional Review Board. He serves as liaison to the New York State Department of Health AIDS Institute’s Pediatic/Adolescent Ambulatory Care Guidelines Committee, which sets standards for HIV testing and medical care for HIV infected children and adolescents in New York State. His research collaborations include numerous cohort studies and behavioral intervention projects on HIV infected adolescents as well as pregnant women and clinical trials for new antiretroviral medications. He has lectured widely on issues relating to HIV/AIDS and adolescents in the USA and abroad. His overseas HIV technical assistance work has been conducted in Poland, the Czech Republic, Russia and Nigeria. He has also served as a consultant to the World Health Organization and UNICEF in developing guidelines for service development for HIV infected adolescents and young adults in resource poor countries.
Elizabeth Boskey, PhD, MPH
Dr. Boskey, Assistant Professor in the Graduate Program in Public Health. She received both her PhD in Biophysics and her Master of Public Health from Johns Hopkins University. She is a Building Interdisciplinary Research Centers in Women’s Health (BIRCWH) Scholar examining the role of feminine hygiene behaviors on women’s reproductive health. Her other research interests include the epidemiology of bacterial vaginosis, vaginal microbicides, and contraceptive choice. Dr. Boskey teaches Introduction to Epidemiology and Human Sexual Behavior in the Graduate Program in Public Health.
George Braman, MD
Dr. Braman is Assistant Professor in the Graduate Program in Public Health and currently teaches in the department's required medical school programs. A native of Brooklyn, Dr. Braman earned his medical degree at the Downstate Medical Center, and trained in Internal Medicine at Sinai Hospital of Detroit and Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn. He completed an NIH Fellowship in Hematology at Maimonides Medical Center, and served as Capt. USAF and Assistant Chief of Medicine at the Regional Air Force Hospital at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota. Most recently he was Director of Quality Management and Assistant Attending Physician at Elmhurst Hospital Center in Queens, where he successfully guided the hospital through two JCAHO Accreditation Surveys. His experience includes seven years as Public Health Physician with the New York State Department of Health, and clinical and teaching positions in Geriatric Medicine. His interests encompass medical ethics and writing poetry. Several of his poems have been published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
Ruth C. Browne, MPP, MPH, ScD
Dr. Browne is an Assistant Professor in the College of Health Related Professions at the SUNY Downstate Medical Center. She is the founding Executive Director of the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health (AAIUH). Dr. Browne’s commitment to community health empowerment is evident in her work with AAIUH, where she has created behavioral health intervention programs in low-income communities of color. These intervention programs engage lay leadership in churches, schools, beauty salons, barbershops, tattoo and body-piercing salons, and laundry mats. She is the principal investigator on two National Cancer Institute research grants. In April 2003, she was appointed to the NIH Director’s Council of Public Representatives.
Robb K. Burlage, PhD
Dr. Burlage is the Founding Director of the Joint Graduate Degree Program in Public Health and Urban Planning at Columbia University and was Associate Professor and Acting Director of the Division of Urban Planning.
He is currently Senior Management Consultant for the New York City Health & Hospitals Corporation (NYCHHC). His systems study for the Institute for Policy Studies, New York City’s Municipal Hospitals, while a Graduate Fellow at the Harvard University Littauer Center for Political Economy, was instrumental in the creation of the NYCHHC. As founding editor of the Health Policy Advisory Center, for a quarter-century the HealthPAC Bulletin was published and Dr. Burlage was co-author of a number of best-selling books, including American Health Empire (Random House).
He is currently Assistant Professor in the SUNY-Downstate Graduate Program in Public Health. He has taught courses at numerous institutions including branches of City University and New School University. He was Inter-University Lecturer in Urban Health for the National Council of Churches Program on Civic Renewal. He has produced numerous journal articles and other publications and widespread public testimony. He received The Merit Award from the Public Health Association of New York and a Winston Churchill Traveling Fellowship from the English-Speaking Union.
He is completing a book on fifty years of health systems policy in New York (tentative publisher, Vanderbilt University Press). He has been active in community health planning and advocacy, including in North Manhattan and the South Bronx. He is active in public education and interdisciplinary research regarding health systems policy, including the Community & Labor Health Study Group, which has met regularly over three decades; now meeting with the Committee of Interns & Residents/SEIU.
Gerald W. Deas, MD, MPH
Dr. Deas, Research Assistant Professor in the Graduate Program in Public Health, and Director of Health Education Communication at the HSCB. A graduate of the Downstate Medical Center, he did his residency in Medicine at Kings County Hospital. Prior to attending medical school, he received a Master of Public Health degree from the University of Michigan. For many years Dr. Deas had a primary care practice in an inner-city area of Queens, NY, and has been deeply involved in health education throughout his career. For ten years he was the medical reporter on the McCreary Report on Fox Television (Channel 5). For 20 years, he has spoken on WLIB radio five mornings a week, Monday through Friday, addressing issues of health promotion and disease prevention. In addition, he has a weekly half-hour show on Time-Warner cable TV, as well as shows on Brooklyn Cable Access TV (BCAT) and Brooklyn/Queens Cable TV. His articles appear regularly in the Amsterdam News, Caribe News, and the New York Voice, among other publications. Dr. Deas has lectured and served as a preceptor in the department's required small group teaching programs for more than twenty years.
Barbara G. Delano, MD, MPH
Dr. Delano, Professor of Medicine, and Director of the Home Dialysis Program for Kings County Hospital/Downstate Medical Center, and Associate Director of the Renal Disease Division of State University Hospital. She received an MD degree from State University of New York, Downstate Medical Center, and an MPH from the New Jersey Graduate Program in Public Health at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-Rutgers University(Epidemiology).
Dr. Delano's research has focused primarily on hemodialysis, and she is particularly interested in gender and racial issues in access to care for End Stage Renal Disease. She is the author of numerous publications in the field. She is on the editorial boards of Clinical Nephrology and Nephrology News and Issues.
Imogene A. Drakes, MS, MBA
Imogene Drakes is an Assistant Professor in the Graduate Program in Public Health. She received an MBA from Pace University and a Master of Science in Forensic Science from John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. Her experience extends across the healthcare spectrum – Forensic Science (in particular, Forensic Toxicology), Clinical Laboratory Science, and she is currently a third year Toxicology student in the Doctor of Public Health program at Columbia University. Ms. Drakes’ work experience includes the toxicological analysis of veterinary samples and professional collaboration with epidemiologists and other public health workers.
Ms. Drakes’ management experience also includes Clinical Laboratory Supervision and Operations Management in the fourth largest hospital laboratory in the United States, including coordinating the interlaboratory processes involved in referring specimens from several institutions. Ms. Drakes has managed the Quality Assurance aspects of clinical and pathologic laboratories and is currently an Assistant Director in the Quality Management Department of Bellevue Hospital.
Lorna M. J. Fairweather, MPH
Ms. Fairweather completed both her undergraduate and graduate studies at Hunter College of the City University of New York, where she earned a Bachelors Degree in Health Education and a Masters Degree in Public Health. She also attended the Not-For-Profit Institute of Management at Columbia University.
Currently, Ms. Fairweather is the Director of Community Planning with the Healthy Start Brooklyn Program within the Brooklyn District Public Health Office in the Division of Health Promotion and Disease Prevention with New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. The Healthy Start Brooklyn Initiative is federally funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). She also lectures part-time at St. Joseph's College, Brooklyn Campus and she currently serves on the Community Advisory Board for the March of Dimes, New York Chapter.
Prior to her current assignment, Ms. Fairweather was employed with the Caribbean Women's Health Association(CWHA) for 13 years and her last assignment was the Director of Social Services. She also served as the President of the Membership Organization during which, the members assisted in raising critically needed funds for program operations.
John A. Fallon, MD, MBA
Dr. Fallon is Clinical Professor of Medicine. He previously served as Chief Executive Officer and Senior Vice-President for Clinical Affairs at the SUNY Downstate Medical Center, with oversight of the entire clinical enterprise including University Hospital of Brooklyn and the Physician Faculty Practice. Currently, he is Chief Physician Executive at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts. He received his MD from Tufts University School of Medicine, and an MBA from the University of South Florida. He completed his internship and residency in Medicine at Boston City Hospital, and had over 20 years of internal medicine practice in a teaching environment. He also has over 17 years of managerial experience involving all aspects of hospital operations, finance, quality management, physician practices, and health care network development. He also has an extensive history of managed care experience including contracting, negotiations, and operations. Dr. Fallon actively teaches in the Graduate Program in Public Health. He previously served as course director for the required course, Principles of Health Systems Management.
Stephen M. Friedman, MD, MPH
Dr. Friedman is an epidemiologist in the Bureau of Preventable Diseases of the New York City Department of Health, and Assistant Professor in the Graduate Program in Public Health. He received his medical degree from New York University School of Medicine, and a Master of Public Health in Epidemiology from the Columbia University School of Public Health. He completed a New York City Public Health Residency Program in the Bureau of Preventable Diseases. Dr. Friedman has taught for many years in the department's first and second year small group teaching programs, and is a preceptor in the case-based learning curriculum.
Francesca Gany, MD, MS
Dr. Gany received her MD degree from Mount Sinai School of Medicine, and a M.S. degree in management and health from New York University. Since 1989, she has been the Executive Director of the New York Task Force on Immigrant Health, and Director of the Center for Immigrant Health. She is an Attending Physician at New York University Medical Center, and is an Assistant Professor in the Graduate Program in Public Health at the Downstate Medical Center.
Norma J. Goodwin, MD
Dr. Goodwin is Clinical Associate Professor. She received her medical degree from the Medical College of Virginia, and did her residency in Internal Medicine at Kings County Hospital, where she served as Chief Resident. She later was a National Institute of Health Fellow in Nephrology, and Director of the Hemodialysis Center at the Health Science Center at Brooklyn and at Kings County Hospital. Dr. Goodwin then joined the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation, where she became Senior Vice-President for Community Health and Ambulatory Care. She is the Founder and immediate Past-President of AMRON Management Consultants, a consulting firm specializing in planning, developing, delivering, administering and evaluating human services, and in conducting training programs. Dr. Goodwin is also the Founder and President of Health Watch Information and Promotion Service, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the health and longevity of blacks in America by motivating healthier lifestyles and behavior. Dr. Goodwin also founded the Bedford Stuyvesant Healthy Heart Program.
Judith Hey-Hadavi, MD, DDS
Dr. Hey-Hadavi received her MD and D.D.S. degrees from the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands. An Assistant Professor in the Graduate Program in Public Health, she is also an Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine and Assistant Professor of Clinical Dentistry at Columbia University. Dr. Hey-Hadavi is Medical Director of Medical Regulatory Affairs for the Metabolic and Cardiovascular Group at Pfizer Inc. Her area of expertise is research design.
Robert J. Karp, MD
Dr. Karp is Professor of Pediatrics and Director of the Social Pediatrics Initiative at Downstate. He received his MD degree from Jefferson Medical College, interned in Pediatrics at New York Hospital/Cornell Medical Center, and was Chief Resident in Pediatrics at Temple University School of Medicine, St. Christopher's Hospital for Children. For eleven years, until 1998, Dr. Karp was Director of the Pediatric Resource Center of Kings County Hospital, a comprehensive health care center providing integrated team-delivered care for high risk inner-city children and families. He is also Associate Director of the New York/New Jersey Regional Center for Clinical Nutrition Education, sponsored by the New York Academy of Medicine.
Among his research interests are the effects of malnutrition and undernutrition among low-income children in the United States.
Florence Kavaler, MD, MS, MPH
Dr. Kavaler is Professor in the Graduate Program in Public Health, State University of New York, Downstate Medical Center, College of Medicine, Brooklyn, New York. She was formerly Assistant Surgeon General and Director of the U.S. Public Health Service Hospital, Staten Island, New York; Study Director, Milbank Memorial Fund Commission for the Study of Higher Education for Public Health; and Assistant Commissioner for Health and Medical Insurance Programs, New York City Health Department and Principal Clinical Coordinator, IPRO, New York. Dr. Kavaler is currently the Chair of the New York State Board for Medicine. Dr. Kavaler was educated at Barnard College (BA), SUNY Downstate Medical Center (MD), and Columbia University School of Public Health and Administrative Medicine (MS, MPH). She is a Diplomate, American Board of Quality Assurance and Utilization Review Physicians; a licensed nursing home administrator (New York); and a licensed health care risk manager (Florida Department of Insurance). Dr. Kavaler is President, Institute of Medical Law, Inc. (New York), which offers seminars in Health Care Risk Management; and President, Medical Network Managers, Inc. (New York), which has health care consulting contracts with nursing homes, HMOs, and varied health agencies. Her consultation skills capitalize on extensive experience in hospital administration, ambulatory care services, health insurance, long-term care, and malpractice analysis. Wide experience in long-term care stems from her role as a regulator in the nursing home industry, and as a medical director of a combined skilled nursing/intermediate care facility. Her many publications address the areas of medical care evaluation in multiple settings, administrative public policy dynamics, and research activities in drug addiction, hospital cost control, aging, public health, and aspects of medical history.
Bonnie Kerker, PhD, MPH
Dr. Kerker is the Assistant Commissioner of the Bureau of Epidemiology Services at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. The Bureau focuses on collecting, analyzing and communicating data to inform policy-makers and program-planners both within and outside of the Health Department. The Bureau also conducts epidemiologic analyses to help further the work of the agency and improve the health of New Yorkers. Dr. Kerker received her MPH and PhD in health policy and epidemiology at Yale University’s School of Public Health. Her main interests include social and structural determinants of health, child welfare policy, and translating data into policy. Most recently, her research has focused on the health of homeless, under-housed and incarcerated populations.
Patricia Kizilay, EdD
Dr. Kizilay has been practicing nursing for many years and has had several roles in her career. She is a Family Nurse Practitioner and a Mental Health Clinical Specialist. Prior to coming to SUNY Downstate she was the coordinator of the graduate program at Seton Hall University.
Joseph Lovett
Joseph Lovett is a Lecturer in the Graduate Program in Public Health. He was a producer on the ABC-TV News show "20/20" for ten years, and prior to that was an editor and producer at CBS News for five years. He now runs his own film company, Lovett Productions. Mr. Lovett has participated in conferences sponsored by the Institute for Health Policy Analysis at Georgetown University Medical School, and is on the Executive Board of AIDSFILMS, a non-profit company committed to furthering AIDS education and prevention in the inner city. In 1997, he was a recipient of the National Leadership Award of the AIDS Action Foundation in Washington, D.C. because of his many fine media contributions in the field of AIDS and health. He has lectured regularly to second year medical students on issues related to medicine and the media.
Larry I. Lutwick, MD
Dr. Larry I. Lutwick is Professor of Medicine. He received his MD degree from the SUNY Downstate Medical Center, and did his internship and residency in Internal Medicine at the Barnes Hospital, Washington University School of Medicine. He did a post-doctoral fellowship in Infectious Diseases in the Department of Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine. For a number of years, he served as Director of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Maimonides Medical Center. He is currently Director of the Division of Infectious Diseases at the Veterans Administration New York Harbor Health Care System, Brooklyn Campus.
Suzanne M. Lutwick, RN, BS, MPH
Suzanne M. Lutwick received her RN degree from the Hospital for Sick Children School of Nursing in Toronto, Canada, a BS degree in Community Health and Human Services from Saint Joseph’s College in Patchogue, New York, and a Master of Public Health degree from New York Medical College Graduate School of Health Science. She previously practiced infection control at Maimonides Medical Center, and later served as the Director of Infection Control there. She is currently Project Epidemiologist with the New York Anti-microbial Project at the Public Health Research Institute of New York.
Heather Mavronicolas, MPH
Heather Mavronicolas is an Assistant Professor in the Graduate Program in Public Health. Currently, she works as a Research Scientist for the Bureau of HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control at the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. She is also completing a PhD in health systems management at Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, where she has focused her research on access to health services among indigent persons and health outcomes. While completing her doctorate coursework at Tulane University, she worked as a Senior Program Coordinator for the Tulane Cancer Center during which she assisted with the administration of the Cancer Center. Prior to her doctorate studies at Tulane University, she received a Masters Degree in International Public Health from the University of Sydney in Australia.
Karen A. N. Myrie, MD, MPH
Dr. Myrie received her MD from SUNY Downstate College of Medicine and her MPH from Columbia University School of Public Health. She completed her pediatrics residency in Social Medicine at Montefiore Medical Center (Bronx). Dr. Myrie, an attending pediatrician, is currently the Medical Director for the Lutheran Family Health Center Network School Health Program. The program has 14 School-Based Health Centers throughout Brooklyn and is the second largest in the state. She was recently appointed to the Advisory Panel on HIV, Hepatitis and STIs for the Medical Society of the State of NY.
Her dedication to educating the community about the needs of children and adolescents extends from her career through her personal life. Her civic duties include serving on the Board of the Edwin Gould Services for Children and Families; being the Financial Secretary and Health Committee chair for the New York Coalition of 100 Black Women; and being active in the Church of St Mark (Episcopal, Brooklyn) & Tau Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.
Patricia Ann O'Neill, MD, RN
An Assistant Professor of Surgery, Dr. O'Neill is Co-Chief, Division of Trauma and Surgical Critical Care at Downstate. She is also Medical Director of Downstate's Clinical Trials Support Office for the Research Foundation. Dr. O'Neill received her MD degree at Downstate, where she also did her surgical residency. She received her RN degree from the Kings County Hospital School of Nursing.
Dr. O'Neill serves as a faculty Sponsor and Mentor for medical student clinical research projects. She is also Faculty Resident Adviser for the Surgical Residency Program. Her current areas of research interest include perioperative infection in surgery and trauma; prevention of sepsis and organ failure; trauma scoring systems; domestic violence; handgun violence prevention; and behavioral manifestations of post-traumatic stress disorders.
Darrin Pruitt, PhD, MPH
Dr. Pruitt is the Senior Educator for Healthcare Emergency Preparedness Program (HEPP) at the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) in New York City. He provides expertise and guidance in the development and evaluation of training programs, and the design, development, conduct and evaluation of hospital drills and exercises sponsored by the DOHMH. He is the HEPP’s point of contact for the National Incident Management System as well as the Homeland Security Exercises and Evaluation Program.
He is an educator by training, focused on organizational and professional development, with over 19 years of experience in managing complex projects and recovery of operations. He contributed to the recovery of the University of New Orleans post-Katrina, re-assembling more than three quarters of the university’s course offerings for online delivery to UNO students scattered across the country. He has significant expertise in the development and evaluation of online training and learning management systems.
Dr. Pruitt holds MPH and PhD degrees from Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Steven D. Ritzel, MPH
Steven D. Ritzel is Clinical Assistant Professor in the Graduate Program in Public Health. He received his Master of Public Health degree from Columbia University School of Public Health. He is currently Director of the Regional Planning and Research Unit in the Office of Planning and Institutional Advancement at the Downstate Medical Center. He previously served in the New York City Department of Health in several capacities including Public Health Epidemiologist and as Senior Grants Manager.
Anthony J. Santella, DrPH, MPH
Dr. Santella, Assistant Professor in the Graduate Program in Public Health, is the Director of HIV Care and Treatment Policy, Planning, and Implementation at the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH). In this role, he spearheads the HIV/AIDS service delivery plan development process, as well as the strategic planning and policy analysis efforts of the Ryan White program in NYC. Prior to joining DOHMH, Dr. Santella worked as a Pharmacoeconomist in the areas of managed care and HIV at the Grey Healthcare Group in New York City, and as a Health Research Scientist in injury and cancer prevention and control and at both the Battelle Centers for Public Health Research and Evaluation and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. Dr. Santella earned a BS in Biomedical Sciences from the University of Connecticut, a MPH in Health Policy and Management from Emory University, and a DrPH in Health Systems Management from Tulane University.
Pamela Sass, MD
An Assistant Professor in the Department of Family Practice, Dr. Sass serves as Director of Community Medicine activities and Course Director of Community Oriented Primary Care for Family Practice Residents. She is also active in curriculum reform for the College of Medicine at Downstate. Dr. Sass received her MD degree from Rush Medical College and completed a three-year Family Practice residency at Brookdale Hospital. Prior to coming to Downstate, she was a physician and Medical Director of Montefiore Medical Center's Valentine Lane Family Practice Center.
M. Monica Sweeney, MD, MPH
Dr. Sweeney received her MD degree from the SUNY Downstate Medical Center, and her Master of Public Health degree from Columbia University School of Public Health. She completed her internship and residency in Medicine at SUNY University Hospital/Kings County Hospital Center, and has had, since that time, a continuing relationship with the medical center. She is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine and the Department of Preventive Medicine and Community Health.
In her present position as Vice-President of Medical Affairs at the Bedford Stuyvesant Family Health Center, Dr. Sweeney and staff teach third and fourth year medical students. Additionally, Dr. Sweeney serves on the curriculum committee at both the Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education and at Downstate.
In addition to direct patient care, teaching, and administration, Dr. Sweeney is active in local, state, and federal health policy advocacy resulting in her most recent appointment by President George W. Bush to the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS.
Mahfouz H. Zaki, MD, Dr. PH, MPH
Dr. Zaki, Clinical Professor in the Graduate Program in Public Health, has been a preceptor in the department's first and second year small group teaching programs for over 25 years. Until recently, he was Director of Public Health for Suffolk County, NY. His scientific research on public health issues is widely cited in the literature, and his innovative public health interventions regularly duplicated throughout the country. Dr. Zaki received his medical degree from Cairo Medical School of Cairo University in Egypt. He has a Master of Public Health degree from the Institute of Public Health of Alexandria University in Egypt, and a Doctorate in Public Health from Columbia University School of Public Health in New York City. He has served as a Peace Corps Physician and Advisor in Public Health to the Government of Afghanistan.
