Director, Behavioral Science Curriculum
Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Internship
City University of New York, PhD in Clinical Psychology
Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center &
Montefiore Medical Center, Post-doctoral research fellowships

Dr. Alfasi teaches psychosocial aspects of health and illness. She also has a private psychotherapy practice with children, adolescents, and adults. She has explored mother-infant interactions, feeding difficulties, and failure-to-thrive syndrome. Her current research is on breastfeeding in African-American mothers.

Dr. Baird has worked with the Health Outreach to Teens organization, providing medical care to street and squatter youth, and as a community health organizer in Kenya, Africa. His medical interests include adolescent issues and HIV/AIDS. He likes music, travel and any outdoor activity.

Dr. Cohrssen has focused his medical interests on international health and outcome-oriented evaluations in a resident-centered context. He formerly served as program director and acting chairman of the Family Medicine Program at Wyckoff Heights Medical Center. He has a Certificate of Added Qualifications in Sports Medicine and completed the National Program Director Development Fellowship. He is a certified ALSO (Advanced Life Support in Obstetrics) instructor. He supports his local community organization, Neighbors Against Garbage, in their struggle against pollution and luxury housing development. His hobbies include soccer, movies, and being reared by a child.

Behavioral Science
Columbia University Medical Center, Internship in Clinical Psychology
University of Washington - Seattle, PhD

Dr. Fader is a member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers. He lectures nationally on Motivational Interviewing and provides training on Motivational interviewing to the residents. In addition to his work teaching on Motivational Interviewing, Dr. Fader leads Balint Groups for the residents and faculty and organizes the residency's Multicultural Curriculum. Dr. Fader also works as a psychologist for the New York Mets Baseball team.

Medical Director, Phillips Family Practice
Albany Medical College, MD
Beth Israel Residency in Urban Family Health
Albert Einstein College of Medicine Fellowship in Family Planning
Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University

Dr. Geer was born in Guyana. emigrated to the United States when she was four years old and grew up in Queens, NY. She is committed to increasing access to care for under served populations and has a strong interest in women’s health. Her research interests include the effect of culture on reproductive health and improving the quality of care that patients receive. She has currently been transplanted to Jersey City where she lives with her husband and cat.

Project Director, Access Reproductive Health Grant
Suny-Health Science Center at Brooklyn, NY, MD
Beth Israel Residency in Urban Family Practice, Residency

Dr. Gillespie received the 2001 Educator of the Year Award. Her interests include comprehensive reproductive care and maternity. She supervises a women's health procedural session at Phillips Family Practice.

Clinical Pharmacy Faculty, Outpatient Pharmacology Curriculum
BS Pharmacy and PharmD: St John's University, New York, NY
Pharmacy Practice Residency at Albert Einstein Medical Center,Philadelphia, PA

Dr. Ginzburg extended the pharmacotherapy curriculum for the residency program. In addition to helping precept clinic patients at Phillip's Family Medicine, she and her pharmacy students provide education to patients on proper management of their medications, disease states or devices (glucometers, inhalers, etc). In addition, Dr. Ginzburg provides didactic lectures to residents, performs clinical research, runs the Prescription Competency curriculum, and acts as a consultant to EPIC, the Institute's electronic medical record system.

Dr. Ginzburg is also an Assistant Clinical Professor at St. John's University College of Pharmacy & Allied Health.

She and her husband are proud new parents of a beautiful baby girl!

Co-Director of Fellowship Programs
Research Director, Continuum Center for Health and Healing
Boston University School of Medicine, MD
Boston University School of Public Health, MPH
Montefiore Medical Center - Family Practice Program in Social Medicine, Residency

Dr. Kligler's primary academic interest is in the development of curriculum for physicians-in-training in the area of complementary and alternative medicine. He is co-director of the Beth Israel Fellowship Program in Integrative Medicine and is the author of textbooks on integrative medicine. Dr. Kligler is certified in acupuncture and Ericksonian Hypnotherapy, and incorporates these and the use of botanical medicines into his practice. He is the Associate Medical Director of the Center for Health and Healing as well as Assistant Professor of Family Medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He works to make the teaching of alternative medicine a required part of medical education in the United States.

Coordinator, Adolescent Curriculum
Coordinator, Washington Irving School Based Health Center
Medical College of Wisconsin, MD
Paul Ramsey Medical Center, Family Medicine & Community Health, Residency
Paul Ramsey Medical Center, Community & Adolescent Health, Fellowship

Dr. Leanza was born in Switzerland to Italian parents and moved to the US at the age of 4. He spent the next 13 years in Washington, D.C. living with his parents in a communal house with another family from New Zealand, which consisted of a single mom and her two sons. His parents' involvement in local politics, including homeless activism and the “no nukes” movement, formed his passion for social justice and equality.

After finishing his medical training, he began working in the community clinic network in St. Paul, MN. This included working in a school-based clinic, homeless clinic, a reproductive health clinic for teens and a federally qualified health site. Important inpatient clinical duties included obstetrics and ward medicine, including the ICU. He was medical director of the homeless program and working on a Ryan White Grant before coming to New York, and was a faculty member at Montefiore Medical Center before moving to Beth Israel in 2005.

Medical Director, East 13th Street Family Practice
University of California at San Francisco, MD
Montefiore Medical Center - Family Practice Program in Social Medicine, Residency

Dr. Lesnewski graduated from the University of California, San Francisco in 1987 and completed her residency in family medicine at Montefiore Medical Center in 1990. Currently, she works both as an attending physician at the Beth Israel Residency Program in Urban Family Practice and as medical director of East 13th Street Family Practice in patient-centered care, and reproductive health.

Dr. Levin's medical interests include healthcare for underserved communities, obstetrics, and health and human rights. He recently returned from 6 months working with the Nobel-Prize winning humanitarian organization "Doctors Without Borders" in Africa. While in Africa in 2008, he served as the only doctor in a refuge camp on the Darfur border and then worked in a therapeutic feeding center for malnourished children in Niger. Along with Dr. Barr, he supervises resident deliveries and the obstetrics curriculum. He is a certified instructor for the AAP's Neonatal Resuscitation Program and for the AAFP's Advanced Life Support in Obstetrics. He has additional training in obstetrics and community medicine.

Georgetown University School of Medicine, MD
Lawrence Family Practice Residency in Lawrence, MA, Residency

Dr. Mekrut has a strong interest in maternal-child health, women’s health, and international health care. Along with Dr. Levin, she supervises resident deliveries, Centering Pregnancy groups, and the obstetrics curriculum. She practices diagnostic colposcopy at the Phillips Family Practice. Dr. Mekrut is a director for the Non-Governmental Organization, Herman@s Por La Salud. She enjoys hiking, biking, and travelling.

Vice Chair, Department of Family Medicine
Director of the Family Medicine Inpatient Service at Beth Israel Medical Center
SUNY Health Science Center at Brooklyn, MD
Bronx-Lebanon Residency in Urban Family Practice

Dr. Mumford has been associated with the Institute since 1991 when he began his residency training at the Bronx-Lebanon Residency in Urban Family Practice, formerly operated by the Institute. After graduation, Dr. Mumford helped establish the Beth Israel residency program here in Manhattan while serving as inpatient director. In 2001, he was invited back to Bronx-Lebanon as residency director. Six years later, he returns to our Beth Israel program. He is interested in medical informatics and did some of the early work on the inpatient database currently used in family medicine. He is also interested in obstetrics and is a certified ALSO instructor.

Associate Medical Director, Phillips Family Practice
Beth Israel Residency in Urban Family Medicine, Residency

Medical Director, Access Project
Coordinator, Gynecology Curriculum
Cornell University Medical College, New York,NY, MD
Montefiore Medical Center - Family Practice Program in Social Medicine, Residency

Dr. Prine has a strong interest in the integration of women's reproductive health into family medicine teaching and practice. She maintains an active practice in which she offers the full scope of care to her patients, including medical and manual vacuum aspiration abortion and she has published articles about this work. She also teaches early abortion techniques to family medicine residents at Planned Parenthood of New York City and at the Beth Israel Residency Program. Dr. Prine is the medical director of a grant-funded program, the Access Project; she is also active in the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine's Group on Abortion Training and Access. Dr. Prine enjoys the opportunity to work with residents on conference projects and presentations as part of the programs leadership development. She bikes to work every day and is a proud mom of two boys.  

Dr. See is an Associate Clinical Professor at St. John's University College of Pharmacy and Allied Health Professions and has been a faculty member of the family medicine residency program since 1998. She developed the inpatient pharmacotherapy curriculum for the residency program and is very involved with resident education. Dr.See and her pharmacy students attend rounds and collaborate with the team to provide rational, optimal and evidence-based drug therapy for patients. She is the co-creator of the "Pharmacy Pearls" series and serves as an advisor for the PGY1 Evidence-Based Medicine PICO project and PGY3 Journal Club.

MCP Hahnemann School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA
Trident Family Medicine, Charleston, SC
University of Arizona Program in Integrative Medicine Fellow

Dr. Teets practices Integrative Family Medicine, bringing together the best of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) with conventional medicine to his patients. This interest carries over in teaching CAM to the residents. In addition, Dr. Teets is closely involved in the hospital portion of the residency education. He has a Bachelor’s in Philosophy from DePaul University, which drives him to look at how we integrate evidence-based medicine into practice; as well as mind-body issues in the clinical setting. His hobbies include, reading, soccer, and seeing movies.

Behavioral Scientist
Columbia University Medical Center, Internship in Clinical Psychology
Teachers College, Columbia University, PhD

Dr. Zatlin is board certified in both family medicine and pediatrics and has additional training in adolescent medicine, tropical/ travel medicine, and dermatology. Before joining our program, he was Associate Clinical Professor at SUNY-Health Science Center in Brooklyn and he has been Program Director of the SUNY Family Practice Residency Program. He also worked as a field epidemiologist at CDC's Epidemic Intelligence Service, a Peace Corps physician in West Africa, a rural physician at Cape Cod, and for international health projects in Indonesia and Africa. He is listed in Who's Who in Medicine and Guide to America's Top Pediatricians. His interests include micro-farming and history.