Education

The Office of Medical Education, Diversity, and Inclusion (OMEDI) embodies the department's commitment to ensuring diversity, inclusion, and equity among our learners, training programs, faculty, staff, and leadership.

The OMEDI team is continuously working to improve, innovate, and create an environment that ensures:

• Learning in the context of humanistic patient care
• Positive interactions among faculty, residents, fellows, nursing staff, and students
• Inclusion of diverse perspectives and voices, which is essential to successful and collaborative work
• Support for well-being and resilience to both prevent and mitigate burnout

OMEDI has a unique structure. OMEDI serves as an umbrella office in the department, includes educational programs across the continuum, and seeks to engage all those involved with the department as learners or educators, including:

Dr. Patrisha Woolard Named Director of Columbia/NYP Pediatric Residency Program

In 2023, after a nationwide search, the Department of Pediatrics appointed Patrisha Woolard, MD, PhD as pediatric residency program director at Columbia/NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. Dr. Woolard, a pediatric hospitalist, served at Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in Brooklyn as director of medical education for rotating students in pediatrics, medical director of the Pediatric Asthma Navigation Program, director of inpatient services for the Department of Pediatrics, and chair of the Committee on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (CDEI).

In 2018, Dr. Woolard established the pediatric residency program at Wyckoff Hospital and served as program director until 2023. “Dr. Woolard’s transformational leadership has created a robust, thriving, and supportive residency program,” says Marina Catallozzi, MD, MSCE, vice chair for education. “She has been lauded by learners and leaders as an inspirational program director dedicated to training caring, skilled, and empathic pediatricians who go on to care for patients in many settings.” Read more about Dr. Woolard here.

OMEDI Leadership

To ensure that learners at every level receive and deliver training that best benefits our learning environment, patients, and community, the OMEDI leadership team includes:

Departmental Leadership Council

• Marina Catallozzi, MD, MSCE, Vice Chair for Education
• Linda Aponte-Patel, MD, Associate Vice Chair for Education and Diversity & Inclusion
• Hetty Cunningham, MD, Associate Vice Chair for Education and the Learning Environment
• Sarah Lusman, MD, Director, Fellowship Program and Fellows’ Academy

Residency

• Patrisha Woolard, MD, PhD, Program Director
• Sumeet Banker, MD, MPH, Associate Program Director
• Candace (Cece) Johnson, MD, Associate Program Director
• Mariellen Lane, MD, Associate Program Director
• Shoshana Friedman, MD, Director of Resident as Teacher Program and Director of RAMP (Resident Academic Mentored Projects)

Fellowship

• Karen Soren, MD, Adolescent Medicine
• Ramsay Fuleihan, MD, Allergy and Immunology
• Julie S. Glickstein, MD, Cardiology
• Alejandro Iglesias, MD, Clinical Genetics
• Linda Aponte-Patel, MD,  Critical Care Medicine
• Cindy Roskind, MD, Emergency Medicine
• Patricia Vuguin, MD, Endocrinology
• Sarah Lusman, MD, Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition
• Prakash Satwani, MD, Hematology, Oncology, and Stem Cell Transplantation
• Steven Lobritto, MD, Hepatology
• Sumeet Banker, MD, MPH, Hospital Medicine
• Natalie Neu, MD, MPH, Infectious Disease
• Tina Leone, MD, Neonatology
• Catherine Kavanaugh, MD, Nephrology
• Melissa S. Stockwell, MD, MPH, Primary Care/Community Health
• Aliva De, MD, Pulmonology

Medical Student Education

• Marguerite (Maggie) Costich, MD, MS, Pediatric Clerkship Director
• Kathleen Brennan, MD, MS, Associate Pediatric Clerkship Director
• Kelsey Fawcett, MD, Associate Pediatric Clerkship Director
• Elaine Dinolfo, MD, Pediatric Clerkship Director at Harlem Hospital
• Steve Caddle, MD, MPH, Director, Pediatric Electives and Sub-Internships
• Joseph A. Picoraro, MD, Co-Director of the Foundations of Clinical Medicine Tutorials