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Summer Institute Program to Increase Diversity (SIPID)

Presenters


Mohamed Boutjdir, Ph.D.: Dr. Boutjdir is a Professor of Medicine, Anatomy and cell Biology Physiology and Pharmacology with extensive experience in mentoring students, both MD and PhD, in the conduct of cardiovascular research (See list of mentored trainees in Appendix 2). To date, more than 20 clinical and basic science fellows have trained with Dr. Boutjdir and all are currently working in prestigious academic departments across the nation. Dr. Boutjdir also has extensive teaching experience. He has been a regular contributor to the teaching programs of cardiovascular physiology and laboratory classes for cardiac electrocardiography at the Departments of Physiology and Pharmacology, Anatomy and Cell Biology and Medicine. He also teaches graduate students the molecular and cellular aspects of ion channels in normal and diseased settings. Dr. Boutjdir is the Director of the Training and Mentoring Core of the Brooklyn Health Disparities Research Center. The Core provides monthly cultural competency and health disparities seminars that are attended by faculty and students institution-wide. In addition, he directly supervises the placement of fellows under the Core with mentors who conduct health disparities research.

 



Judith E. Mitchell, MD, FACC, FAHA: Dr. Mitchell is Associate Professor of Medicine and Director of the Heart Failure Center at the State University of New York Health Science Center in Brooklyn. Dr. Mitchell is a graduate of Wesleyan University and Tufts University School of Medicine. Her postgraduate training includes a medical internship and residency and a fellowship in cardiology at the Hospitals of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. She is a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology, and the American Heart Association, and she is board certified in cardiovascular diseases, nuclear cardiology and echocardiography. Her commitment to abolishing disparity in health care is unwavering. She serves as an active member of the local American Heart Association disparity group. She also serves as a member of the National American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology Heart Failure and Transplant Committee and as a member of the Education Committee of the Heart Failure Society of America. Dr. Mitchell is widely published including several book chapters. She is a frequent lecturer at Grand Rounds and for invited lectures at national and international cardiovascular meetings. She is a reviewer for several journals including Circulation, Journal of the National Medical Association, American Family Physician, Consultant-Consultations in Primary Care, and the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

 



Luther T. Clark, MD: Dr. Clark has a longstanding interest in improving the delivery of cardiovascular care, and throughout his career, he has championed the effort to reduce cardiovascular health disparities. During the past 20 years, he has participated in a number of national efforts relating to minority health and cardiovascular diseases. In April 2003, he received the Charles Richard Drew Award from the National Minority Month, Inc. for “meritorious work in the area of cardiovascular health in the minority community.” In August 2003, Dr. Clark chaired a Special Emphasis Panel and Working Group sponsored jointly by the Association of Black Cardiologists (ABC), National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NCMHD), National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB), National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive Kidney Diseases (NIDDK). This special panel, brought together twenty of the nation's leading cardiovascular specialists to: 1) analyze the barriers and challenges to eliminating cardiovascular disparities, and 2) recommend strategies that will specifically reduce disparity in the death rates between minority and majority populations. The proceedings and recommendations of the Panel have been presented to the sponsors in a document entitled “Eliminating Disparities in Cardiovascular Care and Outcomes: Roadmap to 2010”.




Ruth C. Browne, ScD: Dr. Brown is the Executive Director of the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health. She is one of the faculty in charge of providing training in cultural competency and community-based participatory research. Dr. Browne received her doctorate from the School of Public Health at Harvard University and has extensive community-based research experience, especially as it relates to Brooklyn communities. She is the Principal Investigator for two National Cancer Institute (NCI) funded studies, both focused on community-based interventions using models of training, technology transfer and empowerment of residents. Dr. Browne is an expert in the field of health disparities, community-based participatory research strategies and increasing the numbers of minority students in the health professions. In this regard, she leads the New York Committee for Minorities in the Health Professions, an effort funded by the Kellogg Foundation. She is African-American.




Michael A. Joseph, Ph.D., M.P.H.: Dr. Joseph is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Preventive Medicine and Community Health at SUNY Downstate Medical Center, Brooklyn, NY. He completed his MPH in Chronic Disease Epidemiology at Yale University and his Ph.D. in Epidemiologic Science at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. 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 teaches Epidemiology and Biostatistics in the SUNY Downstate MPH Program and 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.




Judith LaRosa, Ph.D., RN: Dr. Larosa is Professor and Deputy Director of the Master of Public Health Program of the Department of Preventive Medicine and Community Health at SUNY Downstate Medical Center. From 1991-1994 she was the first Deputy Director of the Office of Research on Women's Health, National Institutes of Health. She is co-author of the legislatively mandated 1994 NIH Guidelines on the Inclusion of Women and Minorities as Subjects in Clinical Research. Dr. LaRosa has published in the areas of heart disease, women's health, workplace health promotion and disease prevention. She is a fellow in the New York Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Nursing and the American Heart Association (AHA). Dr. LaRosa has received numerous awards for her work such as the 1994 NIH Director's Award and NIH Merit Award for her outstanding contribution to women's health and the 1993 American Heart Association for her outstanding contribution to the prevention and treatment of heart disease in women.




Susan M. Czajkowski, Ph.D: Dr. Czajkowski received her Ph.D.in psychology from the University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP) in 1985. She received her MA in psychology from UMCP in 1981 and graduated summa cum laude in 1978 with a BA from George Mason University, Fairfax, VA. Dr. Czajkowski has authored or coauthored over 40 articles on psychosocial aspects of disease. She is a fellow in the Society of Behavioral Medicine, and a member of the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research. She is Project Officer of a study which assessed the post-surgical adjustment of men and women coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery patients. In addition, she manages several research initiatives involving improvement of adherence to lifestyle and medical therapies in patient populations, including minority patients and the medically underserved. In her role as NHLBI Coordinator of Health-Related Quality of Life Studies, she provides guidance to Institute staff and clinical investigators in the design, implementation, and analysis of the health-related quality of life outcomes of patients enrolled in Institute-sponsored clinical research studies. In her work as a research psychologist at NHLBI, Dr. Czajkowski develops and manages several programs of research within the Behavioral Medicine Scientific Research Group, Division of Prevention and Population Sciences. She is Project Officer for the Enhancing Recovery in Coronary Heart Disease (ENRICHD) Patients Study, a multicenter clinical trial which evaluated the effects of treating depression and low social support in recent heart attack patients.




M.A.Q. Siddiqui, Ph.D.: Dr. Siddiqui is Professor and Chairman of the Department of anatomy and Cell Biology at SUNY Downstate Medical Center. Dr. Siddiqui heads a very active laboratory with a main interest in the investigation of the molecular mechanisms underlying heart development and disease. Siddiqui's laboratory has identified two novel transcription factors that appear to play a critical role in myogenic development. The laboratory also has active research in signal transduction mechanisms that are active in the pathological states of heart development such as hypertrophy and myocardial ischemia. Dr. Siddiqui has an outstanding record of training and mentoring students at different levels of education and in a number of different programs.




Michael A. Weber, MD: Dr. Weber is a professor of Medicine and Associate Dean for Research at the SUNY Downstate Medical Center. Dr. Weber's career has focused primarily on hypertension and preventive cardiology. He has published numerous research articles in the medical literature and has authored and/or edited 10 books. Dr. Weber was one of the founders of The American Society of Hypertension and has served as its President. He is currently Chair of the Society's Hypertension Specialists Program. He is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians, the American College of Cardiology, and the AHA. Dr. Weber has particular expertise and extensive experience in the design and conduct of clinical trials. He has helped design and participated in a large number of national and international clinics outcomes trials. His primary research interests include the role of the renin-angiotensin system in the genesis of hypertension and as a major factor in cardiovascular prognosis. He was a pioneer of the technique of ambulatory blood pressure monitoring.




Henry N. Ginsberg, MD: Dr. Ginsberg is Irving Professor of Medicine, Program Director of the General Clinical Research Center, and Head of the Division of Preventive Medicine and Nutrition at Columbia University, College of Physicians & Surgeons. He has an extensive and distinguished record of research and mentoring of research trainees. Dr. Ginsberg's research interest is in the molecular and cellular regulation hypertriglyceridemia, particularly in patients and animal models of insulin resistance and diabetes. Dr. Ginsberg has extensive extramurally funded research and a long track record of research mentoring and commitment to faculty development. He is the Principal Investigator of an NIH Postdoctoral Training Program in Atherosclerosis (T32 HL07343) and is Co-PI of an NIH Master's program in Patient Oriented Research (K30 HL04144). Dr. Ginsberg was original PI of the K30 program but relinquished that position in 2000. He now oversees two one-credit courses in the program.




Jason M. Lazar, MD: Dr. Lazar received his medical degree from the State University of New York Health Science Center at Syracuse, New York and completed his postgraduate training at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in Pennsylvania. Dr. Lazar is currently Director of Non-Invasive Cardiology and Associate Director of the Cardiovascular Fellowship Training Program at the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center. He is also Clinical Assistant Dean in the College of Medicine at SUNY Downstate. Dr. Lazar's research interests include the epidemiology of coronary heart disease in women, in high risk populations, and health disparities. He is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Invasive Cardiology, serves as a reviewer for several peer-reviewed journals, and is widely published. He is a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology and the American College of Chest Physicians. He is also a member of the American Heart Association Long Island Chapter, and the American Society of Echocardiography.




Susana Morales, MD: Dr. Morales is the Director of the Center for Multicultural and Minority Health and Associate Chair of Educational Affairs and Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine, Weill Medical College of Cornell University Associate. She is also an attending physician of the New York-Presbyterian Hospital (New York-Weill Cornell Campus). The mission of the Multicultural Center she directs is to promote cultural diversity among the faculty and house staff of the Department of Medicine; to foster research in minority health and health policy; to educate physicians on the sociocultural influences affecting patient's health, beliefs and behaviors; and to expand the relationship of the Department and the larger institution with the community. Dr. Morales serves as a faculty for the Institute, bringing expertise in cultural competency training, health disparities and teaching and mentoring tools for recruiting and retaining minorities in medicine.




Thomas A. Pearson, MD, MPH, Ph.D.: Dr. Pearson is Department Chair of Community & Preventive Medicine and the Albert D. Kaiser Professor, Division of Epidemiology, Community & Preventive Medicine at the University of Rochester in Rochester, NY. Dr. Pearson has a long and illustrious history in clinical research, research training and mentoring, and commitment to minority faculty development. He is the Principal Investigator for the Rochester Clinical Research Curriculum, supported by a K30 grant from the National Institutes of Health. He has trained 117 fellows in his K30 program, 16% of whom are from underrepresented minority groups. He is also Program Director for an Institutional Research Training Grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, entitled "Research Training in Preventive Cardiology." Approximately one-third of the fellows in this program are minorities. Dr. Pearson also has a demonstrated commitment to patients and scientists with disabilities. He is Principal Investigator of the Centers for Disease Control Prevention Research Center at the University of Rochester. The focus of the center is on the health risks in the deaf and hard-of-hearing population of Rochester. This is the only center of its kind in the United States that addresses health needs among the deaf.




James R. Gavin III, MD, PhD.: Dr. Gavin is Clinical Professor of Medicine and Senior Health Advisor on Health Affairs, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. Gavin has a long and distinguished history of research and commitment to minority faculty development. He is a past president of the Morehouse School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA (2002-2004). He served as senior scientific officer at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) from 1991-2002 and director of the HHMI-National Institutes of Health Research Scholars Program from 2000-2002. Dr. Gavin is Senior Program Consultant and National Program Director (1992-present) of the Harold Amos Minority Medical Faculty Development Program (AMFDP) of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Approximately 150 scholars have completed all four years of the AMFDP. Of these, more than 80 percent are still in academic medicine, including 21 professors, 43 associate professors, and 45 assistant professors. In addition to serving as faculty and advisor to the SUNY Downstate SIPID, Dr. Gavin assists in identifying and recruiting senior minority faculty to increase the pool of mentors and assignment of mentees. Dr. Gavin is African American. In addition to his role as member of the Advisory Committee, he also serves as a faculty member of the Summer Institute as he will give presentations on Career Development and Challenges and Opportunities for Minority Faculty.




Charles K. Francis, MD, FACP, FACC: Dr. Francis is Director of the Office of Health Disparities and Rudin Scholar in Urban Health at The New York Academy of Medicine. He is also past President of the American College of Physicians, and was formerly President of the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, a private not-for-profit institution for higher education in the health professions located in South Central Los Angeles. Dr. Francis has a clinical and research interest in racial and ethnic health disparities, medical education and health services research, and he has contributed extensively to the literature in the areas of coronary artery disease, congestive heart failure, thrombolysis in myocardial infarction, hypertensive heart disease, mitral valve insufficiency, AIDS-associated heart disease, access to medical care, health and public policy and health care for minorities. He serves on the Advisory Committee of the Downstate SIPID and provides guidance and recommendations for recruiting, training, and evaluation of the program. Dr. Francis is African American.




Clinton Brown, MD: Dr. Brown is Director of the Brooklyn Health Disparities Research Center and Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine, Division of Renal Diseases, SUNY Downstate Medical Center.




Constance Hill, MD: Dr. Hill is Clinical Associate Professor of Anesthesiology, Director Medical Student Education Program and Dean of Minority Affairs at the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn. She received her M.D. degree from Howard University, Washington, D.C. and completed her residency training at Presbyterian Hospital in NY, 1970. Dr. Hill's subspecialty is Pediatric Anesthesiology.




Dr. Dexter A. McKenzie, MD: Dr. McKenzie is a dedicated and experienced medical provider, medical educator, organizer and community servant. As a strong believer in the power of knowledge, he has an unwavering commitment to research; community education; mentoring; promotion of healthy living and the elimination of racial and ethnic health disparities. Dr. McKenzie grew up in Brooklyn, New York, earned degrees in chemistry and pharmacy before earning an MD with honors from Meharry Medical College in Nashville Tennessee. He completed residency training at Kings County Hospital in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics. He is the founder of the Student National Pharmaceutical Association at LIU; founder of the Global Alliance Independent Practice Association and co-founder of one of the earliest comprehensive outpatient HIV programs in Brownsville, Brooklyn. Dr. McKenzie is affiliated with SUNY Downstate as Assistant Professor of Medicine. He is the current Chairman of the Health Committee for the Brooklyn NAACP; Chairman of the Health Committee for the National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS and President of the Provident Clinical Society of Brooklyn (Affiliate of the National Medical Association). Dr McKenzie regularly conducts community health forums, hosts a popular radio talk show on health and contributes regularly as health editor of several publications.




Hans von Gizycki: Mr. von Gizycki is finishing his Ph.D. in Cognitive Neuroscience where he has been developing mathematical models of sleep deprivation from experimental EEG and Neuropsychological data based on the neurotransmitter adenosine. At Downstate he is a staff biostatiscian at the Scientific Computing Center where he provides statistical consulting for the Downstate community. Additionally, he has a strong passion for teaching statistics at Downstate and mentoring researchers in data analytic methods. As a scientist, he has developed mathematical analysis methods to measure EEG phase synchrony that can be used to predict the onset of an epileptic seizure before the event itself.




Humberto R. Brown: Mr. Brown is a health care professional, working as an administrator at the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn. In this capacity he is assigned as a loaned executive to the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health, an independent 501©3 organization that partners SUNY Downstate Medical Center on community based participatory research. Prior to coming to Downstate. Mr. Brown held positions in the psychiatric division of Harlem Hospital, where he helped create a cultural orientation and education program for psychiatric residents and other mental health workers. Since 1994, Mr. Brown has been part of a team that trains mental health workers and psycho-therapists to be aware of their own racial, ethnic and class identities and, thus, aware of the attitudes and assumptions informing their perceptions of Latin American and Caribbean peoples. At the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health, has consulted on the training of high school students to understand the role of culture in healing, and to acquire the human relations tools necessary for delivering health care to a multicultural clientele. Humberto Brown is the director of the Arthur Ashe Institute's seminar series on racial, ethnic and gender disparities in health. He is integrally involved in the Institute's National Cancer Institute funded research study, Prostate Cancer Control with Community Barbers. As part of the research team, he conducts focus groups with African American and African Caribbean barbers and their customers on a variety of issues related to the development of a training curriculum for barbers to support them as prostate health advocates in their shops. As part of his work with the Institute and SUNY Downstate, Mr. Brown serves as Chairman of the Committee on Underrepresented Minorities in Medicine of the newly formed Community Coalition to Increase Diversity in the Health Care Professions, a 40 member coalition committed to offering a community grounded voice to this issue in New York City.




Carla Boutin-Foster, MD: Dr. Boutin-Foster is Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Weill Cornell University who graduated from Downstate Medical College. Dr. Boutin-Foster earned a Masters Degree in Clinical Epidemiology and Health Services research at. She is currently on the faculty in the Division of General Internal Medicine. Her research activities and scholarly publications focus on identifying the psychological and social determinants of health disparities in cardiovascular disease. Currently, she has a KO1 from the NHLBI to evaluate the impact of depressive symptoms, social support, and stress on health behavior modification in Latino patients with coronary artery disease. She is also co-investigator on an NHLBI program project to that test the impact of a culturally-tailored educational program on medication adherence in African-Americans with hypertension. Her teaching activities include teaching cultural competence to the first year medical students as part of Medicine, Patients and Society (MPS I) and teaching fellows in the Clinical Epidemiology Fellowship at the Graduate School. Dr. Boutin-Foster has also been involved in numerous community-based participatory research initiatives. Most recently, she worked with the Brooklyn Community Heart Health Council- a community academic partnership between Weill Cornell, the New York Methodist Hospital, and community organizations in Brooklyn. Dr. Boutin-Foster's long-term goal is to develop research that can broaden the current understanding of the root causes of health disparities in cardiovascular disease and to use her research to guide the development of effective community-based interventions.




Marcia Bayne Smith, Ph.D.: Dr. Bayne Smith is currently Associate Professor/Associate Chair of the Urban Studies Department of Queens College, City University of New York (CUNY). She has published extensively on the health issues of women, immigrants and racial/ethnic minorities. Her work appears 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 served as editor and contributing author of the book “Race, Gender and Health,” a Sage Publication, which focused on the health status of four different groups of women: American Indian and Alaska Natives, African Americans, Asian/Pacific Islanders and Latinas and their relationships with the western-based U.S. health care system. Her most recent book, published by Jossey-Bass, a Wiley Imprint, is “Community Based Health Organizations: Advocating for Improved Health Outcomes,” was released in the Spring of 2005. Dr. Bayne Smith is a founding member of the Caribbean Women's Health Association (CWHA) which provides comprehensive, culturally-sensitive health care, immigration, social and support services to a diverse constituency. Dr. Bayne Smith is a highly recognized national and international consultant who specializes in health policy research and program development.




Bruce Scharf, MD: Dr. Scharf is a licensed veterinarian who is certified as a laboratory animal medicine veterinary specialist. Dr. Scharf graduated from the Philippines in 1986 and after completing foreign graduate and licensing requirements joined the US Army as a research veterinarian at the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Chemical Defense. After completing a post doctoral program in laboratory animal medicine at the combined Cornell/Rockefeller University program, Bruce has been the Associate Director at Downstate Medical School division of lab animal resources since 1993. Dr. Scharf is now the Director of comparative Medicine resources at University Medical Dentistry New Jersey at Newark.