David Aguilar, MA, is the Outreach Coordinator for Project AsPIRE (Asian American Partnership in Research and Empowerment) at the Center for the Study of Asian American Health (CSAAH). His role in the Project includes developing outreach strategies, building partnerships, fostering and strengthening relationships with various Filipino-American communities and faith-based organizations, civic and professional associations, and health providers, as well as coordinating health screening events and managing the research data base. David has more than 10 years of combined experience in management of faith- and community-based organizations. He received a Graduate Degree in Management of Non-Profit Organization from Seton Hall University and holds a Master's degree in Canon Law from the Universidad de Navarra, Pamplona, Spain. He also holds a National Trainer Certificate from the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA) and has extensive experience in coalition training and substance abuse prevention.

Allison Avery, MA, is the Diversity Specialist in the Office of Diversity Affairs at NYU School of Medicine. She holds a Master’s Degree from New York University in Counseling Psychology and served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco. Ms. Avery has extensive experience working with public and mental health initiatives that address inequities related to race, gender and aging.

 

William Bateman, MD, is the Liaison to the NYC Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC) for the Institute. He is also a Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at the NYU School of Medicine and directed the Sino-American Healthcare Exchange Program for the Institute for Urban and Global Health at NYU. Dr. Bateman has an unequaled record of health service to Asian Americans and is an expert in health disparities and barriers to healthcare access in the Asian American community. He recently was awarded a Service Honor Award in 2001 from Asian Americans for Equality. His current focus includes improving health and access to care for the uninsured working poor; studying and expanding the use of a remote, simultaneous medical interpreting system; the reengineering of ambulatory service delivery through workforce retraining and using workplace-based learning as a vehicle for improving the quality of healthcare services; and the quality of life of healthcare workers. He is currently the Director of Medical and Professional Affairs at Gouverneur Healthcare Services, an NYU-affiliated institution serving a large Asian American population in Lower Manhattan.

Minerva Figueroa, BS, is the Executive Assistant to Dr. Mariano Jose Rey. Minerva was formerlythe Administrative Assistant to both the Senior Associate Dean for Education and the Senior Associate Dean for Student Affairs at the NYU School of Medicine. Minerva is a recipient of the Contribution for Student Life Award in 2003 and 2005 and the Individual Award in 2006. Minerva has gained the respect not only of medical students, staff and faculty members. Minerva has worked closely with the Institute's Latino Health Conference, the Conference on the Health of African Diaspora, and the Asian American Health Conference. She holds a Bachelors of Science degree in Early Childhood Education from Boricua College.

Romerico Foz, MBA, is a community health worker (CHW) for Project AsPIRE (Asian American Partnerships in Research and Empowerment). He conducts educational workshops on hypertension and CVD; to link and negotiate participants’ access to a primary care physician; to assure adherence to medication and maintenance of medical appointments; and to provide social support beyond outreach and health screening. Mr. Foz is also the Executive Vice President of the board for the National Alliance for Filipino Concerns (NAFCON), a national, multi-issue alliance of Filipino organizations and individuals in the United States serving to protect the rights and welfare of Filipinos by fighting for social, economic, and racial justice and equality. He is also is a leader-organizer for Philippine Forum-New Jersey, a community-based organization devoted to helping Filipinos in the United States raise their social and historical consciousness, helping to organize Filipinos for their social and political rights and economic well-being. Mr. Foz is also a member of the Kalusugan Coalition, a multidisciplinary collaboration dedicated to creating a unified voice for improving the health of the Filipino community in New York and in New Jersey.

Mekbib Gemeda, MA, is an Associate Director for the Institute, Director of the Center for the Health of the African Diaspora and the Assistant Dean for Diversity Affairs and Community Health at NYU School of Medicine. He is responsible for advising the Dean and the senior administration on diversity strategies and for developing and managing programs to recruit and retain a diverse talent to provide excellent education, research and patient care. Mr. Gemeda is also the co-chair of the Dean’s Council on Institutional Diversity, a body charged with assessing and providing recommendations to enhance diversity in all areas of the Medical Center.

Mekbib Gemeda has over a decade of experience in national and local efforts to reduce health disparities and increase diversity in the biomedical workforce. Before coming to NYU, he was involved in developing successful faculty and graduate student recruitment and retention programs at Hunter College of the City University of New York. He was also involved in developing the largest national online network of minorities in science, justgarciahill.org. Mekbib Gemeda has also taught graduate courses in cross-cultural communication.

Krittika Ghosh, MSc, is the Project Coordinator of the Diabetes Research, Education, and Action for Minorities (DREAM) Project at CSAAH.   She oversees the activities of the project which is to develop, implement, and test a Community Health Worker Program designed to improve diabetes control and diabetes-related health complications in the Bangladeshi community in New York City. 

Krittika has been working in the immigrant Asian community on issues such as domestic violence, workers rights and post 9/11 hate crimes against South Asians and Muslims.  She has worked for several New York City based community based organizations including Sakhi for South Asian Women, Workers Awaaz, and the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund. She was most recently the Coordinator of the Community Empowerment Program at CONNECT where she worked to educate youth, communities of faith, LGBT and immigrant communities on how to prevent and respond to intimate partner violence.  She is also a board member of Andolan, a not-for-profit, membership-based group that organizes and advocates on behalf of low-wage, immigrant South Asian workers in New York City. 

Ms. Ghosh’s contribution to the Asian immigrant community was recognized in 2002 when she received an Emmigrant Award citation for “demonstrating outstanding service to community” and in 2007 when she received the Filipino Women’s Network’s Vagina Warrior Award honoring inspirational work on ending violence against women and girls.  Ms. Ghosh graduated Magna cum Laude from Simmons College with a Bachelors degree in Sociology and Women’s Studies and received her MSc in Gender Studies from the London School of Economics and Political Science. 

Juan B. Grau, MD, is an Assistant Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery and Attending Surgeon with the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery and an Associate Director of the Institute for Cardiothoractic Surgery. Originally from Spain, Dr. Grau attended Alcalá de Henares University School of Medicine, Special Center Ramon y Cajal in Madrid, where he graduated with honors. He completed his general surgery residency and cardiothoracic surgery fellowship at NYU Medical Center and spent several years as a senior research fellow in basic science research with NYU’s Laboratory of Developmental Biology and Repair. He is board certified in General Surgery and Cardiothoracic Surgery and is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons and American College of Cardiology. Dr. Grau is recognized as an expert in the management of complex cardiac and thoracic injuries.

As Director of Medical Education at the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Dr. Grau is in charge of the 3rd and 4th year Cardiothoracic Surgery clerkship for medical students and is Preceptor for the Institute’s Program for Preparatory Education in Science and Medicine in the High School Fellows Program and the Summer Surgical Fellowship Program for 1st and 2nd year medical students at NYU School of Medicine.

Dr. Grau holds special distinction for his service as a Second Lieutenant with the Special Operations Forces of NATO during the Gulf War. In addition, he received the White House Medical Unit Certificate of Commendation and the Outstanding Performance as Medical Officer Award, presented by the Special Operations Forces, NATO.

Francois Haas, PhD, is the Director for Biostatistics for the Institute. Dr. Haas was born in Cannes, France in 1942 and has lived in NYC since 1950. He grew up keenly aware of the important reality that different communities have different health care issues and needs because his father, a physician, had always acknowledged this in his own practice. Dr. Haas has a long term affiliation with New York University, beginning with his undergraduate education and then earning his PhD in 1971 in Physiology and Biophysics in the School of Medicine’s Program of Basic Medical Sciences, now the Sackler Institute of Graduate Biomedical Sciences in the School of Medicine. He was awarded an NIH Research Fellowship in 1972. An Associate Professor who received his tenure in 1988, Dr. Haas headed the Pulmonary Function Laboratory for 17 years and since then has been director of the Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation research program, with a personal focus on the objective evaluation of cardiopulmonary rehabilitation and on ethnic differences in normal laboratory values. Dr. Haas is Master of the Lewis Thomas Society in the School of Medicine’s Master Scholar Program, and extramurally serves on the International Advisory Council of the Center for Jewish Medical Heritage. He participates in a range of professional organizations and is a peer reviewer for journals that includes American Review of Respiratory Diseases, Journal of Applied Physiology, Chest, and JAMA. In addition to numerous peer reviewed articles in clinical cardiopulmonary physiology, he is co-author of two handbooks for the general population: The Essential Asthma Book, and The Chronic Bronchitis and Emphysema Handbook.

Henrietta Ho-Asjoe, MPS, is the Administrator for the Institute and the Director of Community Development for the Center for the Study of Asian American Health. Ms. Ho-Asjoe directs the development and operation of program activities; provides fiscal oversight and management; collaborates with community-based partners; markets the Institute’s 5 Centers, programs and projects, as well as organizes seminars and conferences. As the Director of Community Development, she oversees the outreach activities and partnerships building with the community-based organizations, local and national healthcare agencies, and government entities. Formerly, Ms. Ho-Asjoe was the Director of the Chinese Community Partnership for Health at New York Downtown Hospital where she led a multicultural team committed to assisting Chinese Americans overcome barriers to healthcare access. In addition, Ms. Ho-Asjoe’s contribution to the community at large has been recognized with the 2006 Hepatitis B Community Appreciation Award and the 2002 California Pacific Award for Excellence in Patient Education. In 1998 she was awarded a proclamation from the New York Manhattan Borough President’s Office for her dedication in the field of healthcare.

Nadia Islam, PhD, is the Deputy Director of Research within the Center for the Study of Asian American Health. Ms. Islam specializes in community based participatory methods and health disparities research within Asian American and immigrant communities, and has had extensive training in qualitative methods, cancer control research, and access to healthcare issues. Prior to working at CSAAH, Ms. Islam directed the New York site of AANCART, the Asian American Network for Cancer Awareness, Research, and Training based at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. AANCART was a five-year National Cancer Institute funded project dedicated to developing leadership within and collaboration with community-based organizations to address the needs of the medically under-served New York Asian American populations. Through her work with AANCART, Ms. Islam was actively involved in building a sustainable network of community based organizations, health professionals, and activists to conduct health research in the South Asian community. Ms. Islam has also worked as the Linkage Coordinator at the Asian Pacific Islander Coalition on HIV/AIDS (APICHA), where she was responsible for establishing formal linkages with providers and organizations around New York City which could serve as potential sites for referral of HIV/AIDS patients of AAPI descent. Ms. Islam has completed several fellowships and internships focusing on community health issues, and is committed to community organizing around health issues for South Asian in NYC.

Ms. Islam received her doctorate in Sociomedical Sciences at Columbia University. For her dissertation, Ms. Islam conducted an ethnographic case study to understand how non-profit organizations serving South Asian immigrant workers in New York City engage in social movement strategies in the public health arena while simultaneously providing services to the community.

Allen Keller, MD is an Attending Physician in the Bellevue Hospital Primary Care Medical Clinic and an Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine in the Department of Medicine at NYU School of Medicine. Dr. Keller is also the Director for the Center for Health and Human Rights under the Institute, and has served as the Program Director of the Bellevue/NYU Program for Survivors of Torture since it began in 1995. Dr. Keller is on the International Advisory Board of Physicians for Human Rights and has been evaluating survivors of torture through PHR’s asylum network since 1990. Dr. Keller has written extensively on a number of health and human rights issues, including access to health care for prisoners, the medical and social consequences of land mines, and human rights education for health professionals. In 1993, Dr. Keller developed a United Nations funded program to teach human rights to Cambodian heath professionals. In 1996, Dr. Keller led a PHR fact finding mission to Dharamsala, India to interview Tibetan refugees and documented the continued use of torture by Chinese authorities in Tibet.

Lisa Kozlowski, MA, has been the Programs Coordinator of the NYU School of Medicine Salk School of Science Program for six years. She works as a liaison between NYU health and science graduate students and the Salk School of Science community to promote reality-based science learning experiences that target middle school students. The program is the first along the Programs for Preparatory Education in Science and Medicine (PPESM) pipeline, created to encourage and support the pursuit by all students, particularly those from underrepresented communities, to pursue careers in health and science. While research has shown that by the end of middle school a significant number of students will have already lost interest in science, our program works against this unfortunate reality. In addition, she consults and longitudinally evaluates the High School Fellows Program of PPESM. Currently, Ms. Kozlowski is working on a doctorate in science education from Columbia University – Teachers College. She already holds a Master’s of Arts in Secondary Science Education in biology and general sciences from the New York University – Steinhardt School of Education and a Bachelor’s of Arts in physical anthropology with a minor in learning and human development from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. She is a New York State-certified secondary biology and general science teacher.

Simona C. Kwon, DrPH, MPH, is a Research Scientist at the New York University School of Medicine, Center for the Study of Asian American Health. As the Program Manager for the B Free Center for Excellence in the Elimination of Health Disparities (B Free CEED), Dr. Kwon directs the development of this national resource and expert center on hepatitis to provide for the evaluation and dissemination of multi-level, evidence-based best practices and activities to promote the elimination of hepatitis B-related disparities affecting Asian Pacific Islanders. Prior to her move back to New York City, Dr. Kwon completed the 2-year W.K. Kellogg Community Scholars Post-doctoral Fellowship at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in the Department of Health Behavior & Society  During her post-doctoral fellowship, Dr. Kwon was engaged in several community-based participatory research projects with ethnic minority populations in Baltimore, MD. These projects included working collaboratively with a multi-disciplinary team of researchers to develop intervention strategies to address the underserved health needs of the Korean immigrant population in the Baltimore-Washington D.C. metropolitan area, and assessing the environmental as well as the socio-cultural factors influencing tobacco use among non-college attending, urban African American young adults living in Baltimore. She earned her Masters of Public Health in Epidemiology at Yale University and her doctorate in the Division of Sociomedical Sciences at the Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University. While at the Mailman School of Public Health, Dr. Kwon oversaw the creation of a collaborative network with local community leaders and community-based organizations to design outreach, interventions and research projects to address the cancer health needs of the Korean and South Asian immigrant populations in New York City.

Douglas Nam Le, BA, is theProgram Manager for Southeast Asian Programs at the NYU Institute of Community Health and Research. The Institute's Southeast Asian Programs consist of outreach, education, coalition-building and program development targeting the health needs of Southeast Asian communities in New York City, as well as a medical education program for doctoral students between healthcare facilities in New York and Thailand. Douglas is also a co-founder and present coordinator for the Vietnamese Community Health Initiative (VCHI) in New York City. The VCHI is a community coalition based at the Institute’s Center for the Study of Asian American Health whose mission is to build a strong and healthy Vietnamese community through needs assessment, mobilization, partnership, education, and research. Since April 2007, Douglas has assumed the role of Program Manager for the Asian American Hepatitis B Program, through which his responsibilites include the management of program operations, contract reporting, and the planning of community-based Hepatitis B screening and education initiatives. In addition, he leads efforts in marketing and outreach for the Institute through the development of web and print information. He has prior experience in the areas of qualitative research and program evaluation in healthcare, HIV/AIDS, youth development, LGBT health, and community organizing. In 2006 Douglas was recognized by the New York Immigration Coalition as a fellow through the Immigrant Advocacy Fellowship Program, and has been selected by CDS International and the Körber Foundation to participate in the New York-Hamburg integrationXchange Program in 2008, an international learning exchange among immigrant advocates from both cities. He holds a BA from Columbia College in Urban Studies, specializing in Anthropology.

Ana Mola, NP, MA is an Associate Director of the Institute and is the Liaison to the NYU Medical Center. She has served in the field of nursing for 25 years with a specialty in cardiovascular disease with a special interest in culturally diverse populations that exhibit cardiovascular risk. She received a BSN in 1982 from the College of New Rochelle, and completed a MA in Nursing Administration in 1987 from New York University. Ms. Mola received a post graduate NP certificate in Adult Primary Care from New York University in 1998 and became board certified from the American Nurses Credentialing Center in March 1998.

Ms. Mola has worked at New York University Medical Center since 1982 in areas of cardiovascular surgery, noninvasive cardiology and cardiac rehabilitation. She has held the position as Program Director of the Cardiac Rehabilitation and Prevention Center since 1995. In collaboration with two Medical Directors, she established a cardiopulmonary 22-inpatient bed unit and an outpatient program that provides care for over 1000 patients a year. She has established and managed a lipid and heart failure clinic within the rehabilitation center. Ms. Mola has published numerous abstracts and articles related to the care of the cardiac patient, and has presented internationally in respect to the global implications of cardiac disease. She is a committee member of the NYU School of Medicine Dean’s Council on Institutional Diversity and an administration member of the NYU School of Medicine of the Institute for Community Health and Research. Ms. Mola is presently applying for candidacy for a certificate in Transcultural Nursing from Duquesne University in 2007.

Carol Prendergast, JD received her law degree from Georgetown University Law Center. For the past fifteen years she has created and implemented community-based programs, advocacy campaigns and fundraising initiatives to assist individuals and communities that have endured human rights abuses and war trauma. She has worked for NGOs including Amnesty International, Defense for Children International and the Seva Foundation. In the aftermath of 9/11 she was managing director of the lower Manhattan recovery program sponsored by NYU's Center for Catastrophe Preparedness and Response. Prior to joining the Program in July 2005, Ms. Prendergast was a consultant on program development with NYU's Center for Violence and Recovery.

Carlos A. Restrepo, MA is the Coordinator for the High School Fellows Program, part of the Programs for Preparatory Education in Science and Medicine (PPESM), and a Science and Technology Entry Program (STEP), funded by the NY State Education Department in collaboration with the Associated Medical Schools of NY. The HSFP services “underrepresented” high school students who are interested in pursuing a college education and ultimately, careers in medicine, science, technology, and the allied health professions. He coordinates all outreach, recruitment, events, seminars, workshops, meetings, curriculum, student preceptorships, college visits and student field trips. Mr. Restrepo also writes all funding reports, and selects students to the annual New York State STEP Conference to participate and compete in poster presentations of their own research. He is the faculty Instructor and Coordinator for the Medical Spanish Program and the Puerto Rico Summer Elective, teaching all Spanish language classes at NYUSOM for medical students and staff. Each summer he takes a group of medical students to Puerto Rico and places them in a “total language and clinical immersion” program in rural primary health clinics throughout the Island so students can improve their techniques in taking medical histories in Spanish, and become more culturally sensitive to the Latino patient. He is also the coach for the NYU Racquetball Club at the Coles Sports and Recreation Center.

Mariano Jose Rey, MD is the Director of the NYU Institute of Community Health and Research as well as the Senior Associate Dean for Community Health Affairs at the NYU School of Medicine and Medical Center. Within the Institute, Dr. Rey is the Principal Investigator of the National Institute of Health (NIH) P 60-funded Center for the Study of Asian American Health and the NCMHD-supported R24 Project AsPIRE on cardiovascular disease and hypertension. He is also the Administrative Principal Investigator of the New York City Hepatitis B Program - a public health initiative that has become a national model.

Dr. Rey is one of the founding faculty members of the NYU’s Institute for Urban and Global Health and was its Executive Director from 2001 to 2003. He was also the creator and Director of the NYU Centers for Health Disparities Research from 2003 to 2006. Both of these entities were the predecessors of the present Institute of Community Health and Research which was officially established on July of 2006.

Dr. Rey was the Senior Associate Dean for Student Affairs from 2000 to 2006 and during that time he was the originator of NYU’s International Health Program, where students and faculty participate in service and research activities in over 20 countries. Dr. Rey serves as the Course Director of both the Annual Latino Health Conference and the Annual Asian American Health Conference.

After graduating from Columbia College, Dr. Mariano Rey received his M.D. from the NYU School of Medicine. He then completed a residency in internal medicine and a fellowship in cardiology at the NYU/Bellevue Medical Center. He served as Director of the Bellevue Hospital Cardiology Clinic for ten years, as well as the Director of the Nuclear Cardiology and Exercise Laboratories at both Bellevue and NYU for fifteen years.

An expert in cardiac physiology, he was Director of the Physiology course for NYU first year medical students for five years and he is now the Coordinator of the Cardiovascular Physiology section of that course. At present, Dr. Mariano Rey continues to be the Director of the Joan and Joel Smilow Center for Cardiac and Pulmonary Rehabilitation and Prevention at the NYU Medical Center, a position he has held since 1990.

Dr. Rey has published numerous articles and book chapters in his fields of cardiology and cardiovascular physiology, of health disparities and international health, and of medical education and its interaction with the humanities. He has been an Investigator in several grants for multi-center NIH and National Cancer Institute studies, in which he has served as a Core Laboratory Director or as the Principal Investigator at the NYU site. His efforts in these endeavors have resulted in numerous publications in peer-reviewed cardiology and public health journals and in general medicine journals - most recently in the Centers for Disease Control’s Weekly Morbidity and Mortality Report and in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Hawthorne E. Smith, PhD is a licensed psychologist who received his doctorate in Counseling Psychology (with distinction) from Teachers College, Columbia University. Dr. Smith had previously earned a B.S.F.S. from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, an advanced certificate in African studies from Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar, Senegal, and a Masters in International Affairs from the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs. Dr. Smith provides therapeutic services for individuals, groups and families who are survivors of torture and refugee trauma from throughout the world (with a particular focus on clients from Africa). He is one of the founding members of Nah We Yone, Inc., a nonprofit organization working primarily with refugees from Sierra Leone and other African countries. Dr. Smith is also a professional musician (saxophonist and vocalist) with international experience.

Arnold Stern, MD, PhD is an Associate Director for the Institute and has been a member of the faculty since 1970. He is a Professor of Pharmacology, Course Director of Medical Pharmacology, Associate Director of the Sino-American Collaborative Program, Member of the Steering Committee of the Primary Care and Public Health Scholars Program, Member of the Executive Planning Committee of the Center for the Study of Asian American Health and Assistant Dean of Extramural Education Programs. His research interests are in oxidative stress and signaling, with particular emphasis on the role of nitric oxide in signaling. Dr. Stern coordinates and oversees the International Health Program for medical students and the Programs for Preparatory Education in Science and Medicine that focuses on pre-college and college initiatives.

Chau Trinh-Shevrin, DrPH is the Director of the NYU Center for the Study of Asian American Health and Assistant Professor at the NYU School of Medicine. Dr. Trinh-Shevrin develops and implements initiatives and studies in the Outreach, Research and Training Cores of the Center for the Study of Asian American Health. Dr. Trinh-Shevrin is a co-investigator on several NIH, city-funded, and foundation grants focusing on alleviating health disparities in Asian American and other underserved communities. She has extensive experience in community-based research and evaluation. Currently she develops research initiatives for immigrant and minority communities, mentors junior faculty and medical students and residents on community-based research, and provides research support in data analysis and evaluation. She also chairs the Patient Care and Community Outreach Group on the Dean's Council for Institutional Diversity at the NYU School of Medicine and is on the Board of Directors for the Public Health Association of New York City. Dr. Trinh-Shevrin is a social epidemiologist with a Doctorate in Public Health from Columbia University and a Masters in Health Policy and Management at the State University of New York at Albany.

Rhodora Ursua, MPH received a Masters in Public Health at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health with a focus in Population and Family Health in May 2004. At the Centerfor the Study of Asian American Health, she is the Director of Project AsPIRE (Asian American Partnerships in Research and Empowerment), a community-based participatory research project that aims to improve health access and status for cardiovascular disease (CVD) among Filipino-Americans in New York City and New Jersey. Ms. Ursua also serves as the Project Coordinator of Kalusugan Coalition which is a Filipino health coalition she co-founded and the community partner for Project AsPIRE. In addition, Ms. Ursua oversees the Center’s Center Student Investigator (CSI) Program and provides general support for the Center’s activities.