Part Time Faculty – Profiles & 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
• Michael Augenbraun, MD
• David Berger, MD, MHCM
• Jeffrey Birnbaum, MD, MPH
• Tenya Blackwell, DrPH
• Jeffrey S. Borer, MD
• Carla Boutin-Foster, MD
• Ruth Browne, ScD, MPH
• Camille Clare, MD, MPH
• John A. Fallon, MD, MBA
• Stephen M. Friedman, MD, MPH
• Wayne C. Gietz, MA, BS
• Norma J. Goodwin, MD
• Mary Huynh, PhD
• Michael Joseph, PhD, MPH
• John C. LaRosa, MD
• Howard Minkoff, MD
• Christina Pardo, MD
• Azam Rahman, MD
• Pamela Sass, MD
• Rebecca Schwartz, PhD
• Jeremy Weedon, PhD, MA, BS
• Michael E. Zenilman, MD

David Ackman, MD, MPH

Dr. David Ackman, who received his MD degree from Downstate Medical Center, is Assistant Professor in the School of Public Health. He served as Assistant Medical Director for Ambulatory Care at Lutheran Medical Center. Prior to this, he was Director of the Bureau of Communicable Disease Control of the New York State Department of Health. Most recently, he served as Commissioner of Health of Nassau County, New York. 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 has also served as Assistant Professor of Epidemiology at the SUNY Albany School of Public Health.

Michael Augenbraun, MD

Dr. Augenbraun, Professor of Medicine, is Hospital Epidemiologist at University Hospital at Downstate. 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.

David Berger, MD, MHCM

Dr. Berger currently serves as Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of UF Central Florida Health where he manages the development of high-quality, cost-effective, and clinically integrated patient care services. He has held several key roles including Vice-Chair of Michael E. DeBakey Department of Surgery at Baylor College of Medicine, Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer and Vice President and Chief Clinical Officer at Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center, and Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of Baylor College of Medicine Medical Center.

Dr. Berger was born in Brooklyn and holds a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry from Harpur College at SUNY Binghamton, and a Master of Science in Healthcare Management from the Harvard University T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He returns to Downstate where he earned his medical degree and completed a general surgery residency at Downstate Health Sciences University. Dr. Berger also completed a fellowship in surgical oncology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas.

Jeffrey Birnbaum, MD, MPH

Dr. Birnbaum is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University. 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 Health Sciences University 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.

Tenya Blackwell, DrPH

Dr. Blackwell received her DrPH degree from SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University School of Public Health. She serves as the Director of Community Engagement and Research for the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health where she focuses on community health empowerment and equity, social determinants of health and community based participatory research. Dr. Blackwell has a background as an environmental chemist where her work focused in environmental and occupational health, toxic exposures, and the sampling and analysis of air, water and other environmental media for cancer-causing chemicals including PCBs.

Jeffery S. Borer, MD

Jeffrey S. Borer, M.D., is Professor of Medicine, Cell Biology, Radiology and Surgery at the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center. For many years he served as Chief, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine and, simultaneously, as Chairman, Department of Medicine, at SUNY Downstate, administrative positions he has relinquished to concentrate on directing two research institutes (Gilman Institute for Heart Valve Disease and Schiavone Institute of Cardiovascular Translational Research) at Downstate. Dr. Borer received a BA from Harvard, a M.D. from Cornell, trained at the Massachusetts General Hospital, spent 7 years in the Cardiology Branch, NHLBI, and a year at Guy’s Hospital (London) as Senior Fullbright Hays Scholar and Glorney-Raisbeck Fellow in the Medical Sciences, completing the first clinical demonstration of nitroglycerin’s utility in acute MI following his preclinical studies at NIH. Upon returning to the NIH, he developed stress radionuclide cineangiography, enabling the first non-invasive assessment of cardiac function with exercise and importantly changing the practice of cardiology. He then returned to Cornell for 30 years as Gladys and Roland Harriman Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine and Chief, Division of Cardiovascular Pathophysiology. At Cornell and now at Downstate, he performs clinical service, teaching and research, the latter primarily developing prognosticators for regurgitant valve diseases, and assessing the effects of heart rate modification on clinical outcomes, with trials in coronary artery disease and heart failure. He has been an Advisor to the USFDA for 39 years, chaired the CardioRenal Drugs Advisory Committee for 3 terms and the Circulatory Devices Advisory Panel for one term, was a life sciences Advisor to NASA for 24 years, and is the Chairman-elect of the Cardiovascular Devices Committee of the International Stndardization Organization (ISO). He has served as officer/board member of several national professional societies (most recently founding President, Heart Valve Society of America 2004-2014), has published almost 500 scientific papers and 8 books, has participated in various roles in numerous clinical trials, is editor-in-chief of the journal, Cardiology, and has received several awards and other recognitions for his work including, most recently, the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Heart Valve Society of America and Society of Heart Valve Disease of Europe (2014), and a Legends of Cardiology award at the 10^th Annual Complex Catheter-based Cardiovascular Therapeutics conference (2014). His research has been supported by NIH, AHA and, for many years, by several large private foundations.

Carla Boutin-Foster, MD

Dr. Carla Boutin-Foster graduated from the State University of New York Downstate Medical College and completed her residency training in Internal Medicine at the New York Presbyterian Hospital of Weill Cornell Medical Center. After residency, she completed a Master of Science degree in Clinical Epidemiology at the Weill Graduate School of Medical Sciences. As the Associate Dean for Diversity Education and Research at SUNY Downstate, Dr. Boutin-Foster teaches courses on health equity and creates programs to increase diversity in the biomedical and physician workforce. She oversees a number of programs that attract students from high school to undergraduate schools to pursue careers in medicine. Dr. Boutin-Foster has expertise in community-based participatory research, qualitative research, survey development, and culturally tailoring interventions. She has published peer-reviewed articles on her work. Her research activities focus on identifying the psychological and social determinants of health and on the social epidemiology of health disparities. Dr. Boutin-Foster has received funding from the National Institutes of Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. She was the first principal investigator and director of the Center of Excellence for Health Disparities and Community Engaged Research at Weill Cornell Medical Center. She served as the Chair of the Minority Health Council for New York State Department of Health. She is the co-principal investigator (co-PI) on a Health Career Opportunities Program grant funded to SUNY Downstate from HRSA. She is PI of the NIH/NHLBI funded T32 in Translational Cardiovascular Disease Research program and PI of the 2017-2019 Empire Clinical Research Investigator Program (ECRIP). She directs the undergraduate summer research program (SPRINTER) that is supported by an NIH endowment grant Translational Program of Health Disparities Research Training-TRANSPORT. She is the co-Chair of the Community Engagement Working Group for the NHLBI Jackson Heart Study. She serves as Co-Chair of the Health Equity and Social Justice Work Group at SUNY Downstate College of Medicine.

Ruth C. Browne, MPP, MPH, ScD

Dr. Browne is an Assistant Professor in the School of Health Professions at the SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University. 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.

Camille Clare, MD, MPH, CPE, FACOG

Camille A. Clare, MD, MPH, CPE, FACOG is a board-certified obstetrician and gynecologist. She received her medical degree from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York, and completed her obstetrics and gynecology residency at the State University of New York at Buffalo. She obtained a Master of Public Health in Health Policy and Management at New York Medical College. She is a Certified Physician Executive as conferred by the Certifying Commission on Medical Management.

Dr. Clare previously served as the Associate Dean of Diversity and Inclusion at New York Medical College and the Director of Resident Research for the New York Medical College Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. She received numerous teaching awards from the New York Medical College Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology for medical student and resident teaching, consecutively for the past seven years, and in 2012, received the Association of Professors of Gynecology and Obstetrics (APGO) Excellence in Teaching award. In May 2018, Dr. Clare was inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society, Iota Chapter, New York, New York Medical College as a Faculty member. Dr. Clare was recently appointed as Chair and Professor at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of SUNY-Downstate Health Sciences University College of Medicine and School of Public Health, a role that she began as of January 2021. Her clinical research interests include medical education, health disparities, family planning, female genital cutting, and perinatal mood disorders.

Dr. Clare has been an active member of American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists(ACOG), serving in leadership roles on the section, district, and national levels, and on several national committees. She currently serves as the ACOG District 2 Chair. She has served as Young Physician on the National Board of Directors and is supportive of mentorship of medical students and residents. She was honored to obtain the ACOG Mentor of the Year award in 2017. She also currently serves as the Junior Fellow National Advisor on the ACOG Board of Directors and Council of District Chairs. Dr. Clare is an active member of the National Medical Association (NMA), and has served in leadership roles on the local, regional and national levels. Currently, she is the NMA Region 1 Trustee and the Secretary of the NMA Board of Trustees. She is also the Chair Elect of the NMA Obstetrics and Gynecology Section.

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 Health Sciences University, with oversight of the entire clinical enterprise including University Hospital at Downstate 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 School of 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 Assistant Commissioner in the New York City Department of Health, where he oversees the Immunization Program, and Assistant Professor in the School of 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.

Wayne Gietz, MA, BS

Wayne Gietz is Clinical Assistant Professor of Health Policy and Management, in the School of Public Health. He received his Master of Arts degree with a concentration in Organizational Leadership from Bellevue University He is currently Vice President of Outpatient Services at Brookdale Hospital Medical Center. Prior to joining Brookdale, he served eleven years on active duty in escalating healthcare leadership positions in the United States Army.

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.

Mary Huynh, PhD

Dr. Huynh is currently an epidemiologist working with the World Trade Center Health Registry at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. She received her PhD in epidemiology from the University of Pittsburgh, Graduate School of Public Health. After graduation, Dr. Huynh did her post-doctoral training at the Center for Disease Control’s National Center for Health Statistics. Her research interests include environmental exposures, maternal and child health, and health disparities.

John C. LaRosa, MD

Dr. John C. LaRosa’s career has included positions as a teacher, researcher, and senior administrator. His research has focused on cholesterol metabolism and its relationship to heart and blood vessel disease. That experience fostered a life-long interest in the understanding and treatment of atherosclerosis or "hardening" of the arteries. Dr. LaRosa has published 250 scientific articles and has appeared as a cholesterol expert on the Today Show, Nightline, the Charlie Rose Show and numerous local news outlets. He has appeared in similar public affairs programs in the U.K., Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai and throughout Europe. In addition to his research, Dr. LaRosa has had an interest in health policy and administration. He completed a year-long sabbatical as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Fellow working in the Pentagon for the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs. Dr. LaRosa has served as Dean for Research at George Washington University School of Medicine, Chancellor of the Medical Center at Tulane University in New Orleans and President of the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center. During his tenure as President at Downstate, Dr. LaRosa oversaw the creation of a new School of Public Health, the opening of a new biotechnology incubator, a larger biotech facility at the Brooklyn Army Terminal, now under construction and promising a new role for Brooklyn as a center for new companies and industries.

Howard L. Minkoff, MD

Howard L. Minkoff, MD, has chaired several NIH study sections, had continuous federal research funding for 30 years, and has been a member of the organizing committees of, and has been a speaker at, three Consensus Development Taskforces (Cesarean Section by Choice, Vaginal Birth after Cesarean Section, and Screening for Diabetes) of the US Public Health Service. For more than a decade, he served as the chair of the executive committee of the Women’s HIV Study, the largest multicenter cohort study of HIV in the United States. He has been a national board examiner in obstetrics and gynecology and maternal-fetal medicine. He chaired the Program Committee of HealthRight and the perinatal safety committee of the Greater New York Hospital Association. He also served as vice-chair of ACOG’s national ethics committee, and currently is chair of the Documents committee. He previously served as President of the New York Obstetrical Society. He has edited four books, written over sixty book chapters, and over 400 peer reviewed publications. He is the recipient of the US Assistant Secretary of Health Award for his contributions to the care and research of HIV-Infected women in the United States.

Christina Pardo, MD

Dr. Christina Pardo, MD MPH is a board-certified obstetrician and gynecologist, community advocate and public health professional.

She attended Howard University as a pre-medical student and became actively involved in social and disparity issues in underserved communities. She graduated with honors with a B.S. in Biology in 2004. She then attended Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Jersey, and completed a Master’s in Public Health in International Health at Boston University. With an interest in women’s health and working with underserved and immigrant communities, she completed her residency in Obstetrics & Gynecology at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University in Brooklyn NY

Following residency training she joined the faculty at Stony Brook University where she co-founded the Global Women's Health program. Her interests in health disparities, social determinants of health and equity led her to return to SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University where she started a new Division of Health Equity in the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology and serves as the Vice Chair of Quality Improvement & Innovation. She works actively with community-based organizations and has a focus of practically integrating equity into both clinical practice and education. Dr. Pardo is also the Director of Development and Strategic Planning for Life of Hope where she founded the ‘Sante Se Lavi’ program, who’s aim is to address the unique barriers of care faced by immigrant communities.

Azam Rahman, MD

Azam Rahman, a Medical Doctor, former internist, professor and consultant in Medical Sciences and Health Care Management education. Dr. Rahman is a visiting professor at different Institutions including Berkeley college, Metropolitan college and Queensborough Community College. He is also involved in EMR consultations. As a consultant, he trained medical and administrative staff for practice management software and provided solutions to improve the quality standards and worked to monitor Physician Quality Reporting System.

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.

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.

Jeremy Weedon, PhD, MA, BS

Dr. Weedon is Assistant Professor in the Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics. He is also Associate Director of Downstate's Scientific Computing Center, which provides consulting research support for faculty and students in terms of study design, data collection and analysis, writing results sections for journal articles, power analysis for grant proposals etc. He is also involved in teaching research methods and statistics to other parts of the SUNY Downstate community: medical residency programs, the College of Nursing, and the School of Health Professions. Dr. Weedon describes himself as a statistical generalist, but is particularly interested in the modeling of longitudinal data, and has been involved for many years in the epidemiology of HIV infection in the U.S.

Michael E. Zenilman, MD

Dr. Zenilman is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Health Policy and Management. He received his MD degree from SUNY Downstate and completed his residency training in surgery and a fellowship in gastrointestinal surgery at the Washington University School of Medicine-Barnes Hospital in St. Louis, Missouri. He has held academic appointments at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and at SUNY Downstate where he also served as Chair of the Department of Surgery. He was, in addition, in charge of quality assurance and improvement at Downstate’s University Hospital at Downstate.

A highly respected teacher and researcher, Dr. Zenilman is widely known for his research on and expertise in a number of health care issues especially among the elderly. These include the improvement of the quality of surgical care in the elderly, ethics in clinical practice, palliative care, and the demography of aging and disability.

One of Dr. Zenilman’s major projects in 2011 was co-editing the now standard text, Principles and Practice of Geriatric Surgery, New York: Springer, 2011. In this volume, he included an exceptional new nine chapter section that covers, among other topics, defining quality of care in geriatric surgery, decision making at the end of life, population based medical care, and medical ethics. Another important topic covered is that of physician performative and cognitive abilities with advancing age.

Dr. Zenilman has significantly assisted the Dean of the School of Public Health on a range of educational, administrative and research issues. He has recently provided assistance in the development of the new Advanced Certificate in Public Health Program that will soon be offered to students.