Public Health Residents, Fellows, and Postdoctoral Associates
Bianca P. Acevedo, PhD (646-962-8099, bia2006@med.cornell.edu), is a Postdoctoral Associate in the Division of Prevention and Health Behavior, working on a National Institute on Drug Abuse funded study of implementation fidelity in the diffusion of the Division’s school-based substance abuse prevention program. Dr. Acevedo received her BA from New York University and her PhD from Stony Brook University. While she was a doctoral student, she worked in the Stony Brook Department of Psychology’s Interpersonal Relationships Laboratory and the University Marital Therapy Clinic. She was also a Visiting Fellow at the Free University of Amsterdam and at Stanford University. She obtained postdoctoral training as a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in Bronx, NY, and in the Department of Psychology of the University of California at Santa Barbara. Dr. Acevedo has taught courses in statistics, human development, and research methods and writing at Stony Brook University and the University of California. She has published several journal articles, two as first author, and one book chapter. She is a reviewer for the Journal of Evolutionary Psychology and the Journal of Comparative Neurology, and she is a member of several medical and psychological professional societies.
Richelle DeMayo, MD, CM, comes to Cornell's fellowship program from the University of Connecticuts School of Medicine, where she has been a member of the the Pediatrics faculty since 2006 and is currently the Acting Chief Medical Information Officer for Connecticut Childrens Medical Center. Dr. deMayo's professional activities have been influenced by interwoven experiences in medicine and health services research. She began her residency at Brown Universitys program at Hasbro Children's Hospital and concluded it at the University of Pennsylvanias program at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, completing a National Research Service Award-supported fellowship at Johns Hopkins Universitys Bloomberg School of Public Health along the way. Prior to becoming a fellow at Cornell, Dr deMayo participated as a member of the inaugural cohort of the joint Cornell-Columbias Health Informatics Technology certificate program.
Dr. deMayo's recent research projects involve obesity detection and prevention in preschool children, and the shared management of pediatric problems by primary care and subspecialist clinicians. She is particularly interested in the use of health information technology to support chronic disease management through clinical decision support, care coordination and patient engagement.
Judith Fontana, PhD (212-746-6913, juf2011@med.cornell.edu), is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Division of Community and Public Health Programs, working with Mirella Salvatore, MD, on her study of non-integrating lentiviral vectors as influenza vaccines. Dr. Fontana earned a BS in Biology from the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, VA, and a PhD in Immunology and Molecular Pathogenesis from Emory University in Atlanta, GA. She was previously a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Microbiology and Immunology Department of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU) in Bethesda, MD. She also has experience as a Research Assistant in the Measles, Mumps, Rubella, & Herpesviruses Laboratory Branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, GA; and as a Howard Hughes Teacher-Scholar and a Teaching Assistant at Emory University. She is currently a member of the New York Academy of Sciences, the American Society for Microbiology, and the American Society for Virology. She has published 3 articles, with 2 as first author.
Sandra Hurtado Rúa, PhD (646-962-8021, sah2024@med.cornell.edu), is a Postdoctoral Associate in the Division of Biostatistics and Epidemiology. Dr. Hurtado Rúa completed her PhD in the Department of Statistics at the University of Connecticut, where she held a Multicultural Scholar Program fellowship and was honored with the H. Fairfield Smith Award for best performance in the applied statistics sequence. Her thesis topic was “A New Class of Bayesian Survival Models and Beyond.” She previously completed an MS in Mathematics with a concentration in Statistics from Northern Illinois University, and a BS in Engineering from the National University of Colombia, where she was honored as exceptional teaching assistant. Dr. Hurtado Rúa has also worked as a statistician for two Colombian brokerage companies. She is a coauthor of one submitted journal article and is working on two more, all with her thesis advisor, Dr. Dipak Dey. She has also authored many proceedings and technical reports based on her research. In the Division, Dr. Hurtado Rúa will perform consulting work for projects from the Clinical and Translational Science Center (CTSC) and the Biostatistics and Research Methodology Core, as well as for other long-term contacts with various departments.
Dr. Hurtado Rúa's website
Sameer Malhotra, MB,BS, MA (646-962-8082, sam2032@med.cornell.edu), Fellow in Quality and Medical Informatics, is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Public Health. Dr. Malhotra also holds the position of Assistant Medical Director of Information Services of the Physician Organization (POIS) at Weill Cornell Medical College and is working on several projects in the realm of Medical Informatics pertaining to improvement of health care delivery and patient safety. His research focuses on medication safety, adoption of interoperable health IT and impact of health information exchange (HIE) on patient care. Dr. Malhotra is currently working on a research study which analyzes the adoption and transition of a vendor based electronic medical record (EMR) from a homegrown system. The study is being funded by the Agency of Healthcare Research and Quality and is based at the Weill Cornell Medical College and Columbia University campuses under the NewYork-Presbyterian health care system. The study will systematically analyze impact on medication errors as a result of transition from one EMR to another, as well as by the availability of an electronic discharge summary seamlessly to outpatient providers. In his current role at POIS, Dr. Malhotra is closely involved with the ongoing deployment and optimization of the institution's ambulatory medical record. He has key roles on several committees and work groups pertaining to the quality of healthcare delivery, decision support alerts, EMR usability, development of clinical case finding and ad hoc reporting tools for physicians and optimization of interfaces with other institutional informational systems such as the Radiology Information System.
Dr. Malhotra attended medical school at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi, India and received his M.B., B.S. degree in 2003. He then pursued a Masters in Biomedical Informatics at Columbia University, New York. He continued research at Columbia University on a National Library of Medicine (NLM) funded study for workflow analysis in the critical care setting, to create models that would allow development of patient safety protocols and decision support systems aimed at reducing incidence of medical errors. He then completed a residency in Internal Medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin.
Tarek Mikati, MD (646-962-8036, tam9044@med.cornell.edu), is a Resident in General Preventive Medicine. Dr. Mikati earned his BS in Chemistry and his MD at the American University of Beirut, Lebanon. He completed a transitional internship at the American University of Beirut Medical Center, an Internal Medicine Residency at the Hospital of Saint Raphael, Yale School of Medicine, and an Infectious Diseases Fellowship at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. He also served as a Hospitalist at the Hospital of Saint Raphael in New Haven and at Saint Mary Hospital in Waterbury, CT. He is a member of the American College of Physicians, the Infectious Diseases Society of America, the European Society of Clinical Microbiology, and the International Society of Travel Medicine. He received the Alpha Omega Alpha award in 2001 and the Excellence in Ambulatory Care Award for medical resident in 2004 and 2005. Dr. Mikati is enrolled in the Master's in Public Health program at the Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University. His current research focuses on the international travel risks and patterns of immunocompromised patients.
Ekaterina Moroz, MD (646-962-2262, ekm2003@med.cornell.edu), is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Division of Community and Public Health Programs, working with Mirella Salvatore, MD, on her CTSC funded project on the response to influenza vaccination in opioid users. Dr. Moroz completed her medical degree and residency at the Russian State Medical University in Moscow. In 2005 she moved to the US and took a postdoctoral fellowship position in Dr. R. Blasberg’s Neurooncology and Molecular Imaging laboratories at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. During this period she authored three publications in peer reviewed journals, including one of them as first author. In 2007, she received a travel award from the Academy of Molecular Imaging and Society for Molecular Imaging to present her findings to the Joint Molecular Imaging Conference.
Nobuaki (Noble) Nakaya, MD (646-962-2088, non2004@med.cornell.edu), is a Visiting Fellow in Public Health in the Division of Community and Public Health Programs. Dr. Nakaya received his medical degree from Kitasato University School of Medicine in Japan. He is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Emergency and Critical Care Medicine at Keio University Hospital. He holds certifications as a medical doctor, an advanced trauma evaluation and care instructor, an immediate cardiac life support instructor, a basic trauma life support provider, a pre-hospital trauma evaluation and care provider, a sports doctor, and an occupational physician. He is a member of several Japanese medical and psychiatric societies and associations. He has presented papers at academic meetings on subjects including emergency medicine, emergency psychiatry, and PTSD. Some of these were later published. He also wrote four textbooks for use in the national medical examination. In the Division, Dr. Nakaya is working with Drs. Ann Beeder and Mary Charlson on research related to the prevention and treatment of drug abuse.
Snezana M. Osorio, MD (212-746-3131, snm2001@med.cornell.edu), Fellow in Quality and Medical Informatics, received her medical degree from the University of Belgrade School of Medicine. She was a Visiting Fellow in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at Weill Cornell Medical College prior to becoming an Instructor in Physiology. She completed her residency in the Department of Pediatrics at WCMC and was selected to serve as Chief Resident from 1995-1996. After doing private practice for a number of years, she returned to Weill Cornell and is currently the Medical Director for the General Pediatric Inpatient Unit at NewYork-Presbyterian Phyllis and David Komansky Center for Children's Health. From her experiences as Medical Director, Dr. Osorio developed a strong interest in quality and safety work, particularly as it relates to engaging families and patients to become active participants in their own care. In 2005, Dr. Osorio conducted several Quality Improvement (QI) projects examining length of stay, leading to a 50% reduction in length of stay on the general pediatric floor. Another QI project she led involved developing proper identification of the attending of record which resulted in an "Excellence Award" for the general pediatric floor in 2005.
In October 2006, Dr. Osorio initiated a program of Family Centered Care at the Komansky Center. This program involved making systematic changes in clinical practice, revising clinical teaching practices, formalizing avenues for community involvement, and creating instruments for evaluating relevant change. She has led the formation of a Family Advisory Council (FAC), which provides a formal role for community members to work on projects to improve the hospitalization experience for families. Dr. Osorio also chairs the Family Centered Care Committee, which is charged with implementing Family Centered Rounds at the Komansky Center. In 2007, Dr. Osorio received the first Clinical Scholar Award for Patient Safety and Quality from the Department of Pediatrics. This award recognized her work and commitment toward engaging families in the healthcare process and has enabled her to conduct two research projects.In addition to this work, Dr. Osorio is also an active participant on multiple hospital committees on patient safety and quality. In 2008, she was co-author on an article entitled "Integrating a Patient Safety and Quality Program Across Two Pediatric Institutions," published in the Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety.
Andrew G. Shuman, MD (shumana@mskcc.org), is a fellow in head and neck surgical oncology in the Department of Surgery at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and is also completing a dual fellowship in medical ethics at Weill Medical College of Cornell University. He completed his residency training in the Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery at the University of Michigan Hospitals. Originally from New York, he is a graduate from the University of Michigan’s College of Literature, Science and the Arts, and also graduated from the University of Michigan Medical School. In addition to completing training and research in medical ethics, he served for the past eight years on the University of Michigan Hospital’s Adult Ethics Committee. Dr. Shuman has lectured and published in the areas of otolaryngology, emergency medicine, and medical ethics. His current research interests include ethical issues that arise among head and neck cancer patients.
Matthew Simon, MD (212-746-7587, mss9008@med.cornell.edu), is a Resident in General Preventive Medicine. Dr. Simon received his BA from the University of Pennsylvania and his MD from Albert Einstein College of Medicine, where he was inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society. He trained as an Intern and Resident in the Weill Cornell Medical College Department of Medicine, and then held a position as a Hospitalist in Internal Medicine at Montefiore Medical Center/Weiler Division. He returned to Weill Cornell to pursue an Infectious Diseases Fellowship in the Department of Medicine. Dr. Simon is a member of the American College of Physicians, the Infectious Disease Society of America, and the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America. In 2009 he received the David E. Rogers Memorial Research Award for work on cryptococcal meningitis at Bugando Medical Center in Tanzania. His current research interests include clinical decision analysis and cost-effectiveness research in infectious diseases.
Alexandra Suppes, PhD (646-962-8067, als2057@med.cornell.edu), is a Postdoctoral Associate in Medical Ethics, working with Drs. Joseph Fins and Nicholas Schiff. Dr. Suppes received her PhD in Psychology from Columbia University. She has concentrated in the areas of cultural psychology, linguistics, and the science of human relationships. Her PhD dissertation at Columbia, “Linguistic Correlates of Social Support,” examined how people in close relationships communicate to provide support during distressing conversations. In addition, she is versed in the literature on communication and dynamics between care-taking and care-retrieving dyads, which is relevant to the assessment of the quality of communications between physicians, patients and surrogates in the setting of discussions about severe brain injury, a topic she will study during her Fellowship. She has also had special training in quantitative data analysis, and was the winner of a dissertation sponsorship award from the Society for Multivariate Experimental Psychology. At Weill Cornell, Dr. Suppes is developing a research initiative exploring the psychology and ethical implications of a linguistic study of the discourse of caregivers of patients with severe disorders of consciousness.
Stephanie Vertrees, MD (212-746-4246, smv9004@med.cornell.edu), is a Fellow in Public Health, as part of the Weill Cornell Medical College-Hospital for Special Surgery Fellowship in Medical Ethics. Joseph J. Fins, MD, and C. Ronald McKenzie, MD, co-direct the program. Dr. Vertrees is also serving as a Fellow in Neuromuscular Medicine at HSS, working with Dale Lange, MD. Dr. Vertrees majored in the Science of Genetics at Texas A&M University, where she also founded the Student Bioethics Forum. She attended the University of Texas Medical Branch School of Medicine, and completed her Neurology residency at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, having served as administrative chief resident during her last year. In addition, she completed the Intensive Bioethics Course at Georgetown University on a scholarship from the American Academy of Neurology. During her residency, she worked with Dr. James Bernat, a highly regarded neurologist and ethicist. Among their collaborations was publication of a case study that resulted from an ethics consultation involving a request to withdraw life-sustaining treatment, and a study of "Nursing Perspectives on Confused and Agitated Patients," results of which were presented at Neurology Grand Rounds. As a Fellow in Medical Ethics, Dr. Vertrees is pursuing an independent research agenda in medical ethics and neuromuscular diseases. She is also a member of the Clinical Ethics Consultation Service and the Ethics Committee at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, and she participates in the Division's educational programs in the Medical College and the two Hospitals as a lecturer and tutor.
