News and Highlights
November 2009
Welcome New Faculty
Heather X. Cereste, MD, MPH, is a Physician Ethicist and Assistant Professor of Public Health and Medicine in the Division of Medical Ethics. She is also a Hospitalist Physician in the Division of Hospitalist Medicine of the Department of Medicine. Dr. Cereste received her medical degree from the University of Vermont College of Medicine . She completed her residency training in Internal Medicine at Maine Medical Center and St. Lukes-Roosevelt Medical Center, and she trained in Geriatrics at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. She also completed certificate programs in Health Care Ethics from the University of Washington School of Medicine and in Bioethics and Medical Humanities from Montefiore Medical Center. Dr. Cereste is board certified in geriatrics and internal medicine. From 2006 to2009, she served as a Major in the United States Air Force. Her academic appointment was as an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences (Bethesda, MD) at the Wilford Hall Medical Center Campus in San Antonio, Texas. She was also an Attending Internist/Geriatrician at Wilford Hall, as well as a Consulting Physician and Ethicist, the Clinical Team Chief of the Internal Medicine Outpatient Clinic, the Acting Director of the Internal Medicine Inpatient Service, and the Director of Geriatric Medicine Service. Dr. Cereste spent six months as an Attending Physician at the Air Force Expeditionary Trauma Hospital Intensive Care Unit in Balad, Iraq. In this position she gave lifesaving care to wounded coalition forces and Iraqi civilians, prepared and coordinated care of wounded with flight surgeons to evacuate patients from airplanes, volunteered in the OR as a surgical assistant, and obtained additional training in trauma medicine and neurosurgery.
Andrew Ryan, PhD, MS, is an Assistant Professor of Public Health in the Division of Outcomes and Effectiveness Research. Dr. Ryan has a PhD in Social Policy with a concentration in Health Policy from Heller School of Social Policy and Management, Brandeis University. He also completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Heller School. Dr. Ryan’s research focuses on pay-for-performance and public quality reporting in health care, disparities and discrimination in health care, policy analysis, and applied econometrics. He has contributed to more than 14 published journal articles (10 as first author), as well several book reviews, conference presentations, and monographs. His awards and honors include an AHRQ Training Grant in Health Policy, a Jewish Healthcare Foundation Fellowship, and “Best Abstract” or “Most Outstanding Abstract” awards for 4 of his abstracts presented at AcademyHealth Research Meetings. He won the 2009 AcademyHealth Dissertation Award for his dissertation, “The Design of Value Based Purchasing in Medicare: Theory and Empirical Evidence.”
Harold Pincus, MD, has been appointed Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry and Adjunct Professor of Public Health in the Division of Outcomes and Effectiveness Research. Dr. Pincus is Professor of and Vice Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. He is also Director of Quality and Outcomes Research at the New York-Presbyterian Hospital/New York State Psychiatric Institute and an Attending Psychiatrist. Dr. Pincus received his MD degree from Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He completed his Residency in Psychiatry and then a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholarship at George Washington University Hospital. During this time, he was also a White House Staff/Fellow of the President’s Commission on Mental Health and a Consultant/Fellow at the National Institute of Mental Health and a Congressional Fellow. Among his appointments and positions, Dr. Pincus has been the Deputy Medical Director and Founding Director of the Office of Research of the American Psychiatric Association, an Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Duke University, the Founding Executive Director of the American Psychiatric Institute for Research and Education, the Director of RAND/University of Pittsburgh Health Institute, and Professor and Executive Director of the Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. His current positions include serving as Clinical Professor of Psychiatry in the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Senior Scientist at RAND, National Program Director of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation National Program of Depression in Primary Care, and Associate Director of the Irving Institute for Clinical and Translational Research at Columbia University.
Sheila Palevsky, MD, MPH, has been appointed Adjunct Associate Professor of Clinical Public Health (Courtesy) in the Division of Prevention and Health Behavior. Dr. Palevsky has been a field trip preceptor since 2001 in the Public Health and Community Medicine segment, directed by Dr. Lewis Drusin, of the Medicine, Patients, and Society course for second-year medical students. She is now also taking on the role of co-preceptor in the afternoon seminars for this course. Dr. Palevsky earned her MD from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. She completed a Residency in Pediatrics at Children’s Memorial Hospital of Northwestern University in Chicago and an additional year of Residency in Ambulatory Pediatrics at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx. She was Instructor and then Assistant Professor in Clinical Pediatrics at Columbia University, and Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Physician Assistant Program at Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education of City College of New York. During this time she obtained an MPH degree at Columbia University School of Public Health, and later was a Faculty Fellow in Urban Family Health at Bronx Lebanon Hospital. She went on to hold faculty positions at New York Medical College in Pediatrics and Family Medicine; at George Washington University School of Medicine in Health Care Sciences and Pediatrics; and at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in Pediatrics. Dr. Palevsky is Chief of Professional Education for the Bureau of Immunization at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, where, among other responsibilities, she provides instruction in immunization principles and policy. She is also a Clinical Associate Professor of Pediatrics at New York University School of Medicine.
William Trochim, PhD, has been appointed Professor of Public Health in the Division of Prevention and Health Behavior. Dr. Trochim’s primary appointment is as Professor of Policy Analysis and Management at the Cornell University College of Human Ecology in Ithaca. He is also Director of the Cornell Office for Research on Evaluation and Director of Evaluation for Extension and Outreach. In addition, as Director of Evaluation for the Weill Cornell Clinical and Translational Science Center, he participates actively in the NIH Clinical and Translational Science Awards national evaluation. He is the first faculty member based in Ithaca to be appointed under the new Cornell intercampus appointment process. Dr. Trochim received his Ph.D. from the Department of Psychology at Northwestern University in the area of Methodology and Evaluation Research. His research is in the area of applied social research methodology, with an emphasis on program planning and evaluation methods. In the Division of Prevention and Health Behavior, Professor Trochim will collaborate with faculty on translational research relating to prevention and health behavior, facilitate interaction between the division/department and the WCMC CTSC, participate in division/departmental meetings, and facilitate interaction between the division and other members of the Cornell-Ithaca faculty. Dr. Trochim’s involvement with the division/department has already resulted in the development of a successful 5-year NIH grant submission to study the diffusion of evidence-based prevention programs. He is in the process of organizing a study group that will explore the potential expansion of the work currently being conducted at the WCMC CTSC to include Type 2 translational research.
