StARR Program Mentors
Clinical Research Mentors
Marwah Abdalla, MD, MPH
- Associate Professor of Cardiology; Center for Behavioral Cardiovascular Health
Dr. Abdallah is director of cardiac intensive care unit education, director of CUIMC’s Cardiology Pre-Med Mentoring Program, and is core faculty on several NIH training grants. Her research focuses on cardiovascular manifestations of hypertension among African Americans, out-of-office blood pressure monitoring, and sleep. Learn more about Dr. Abdallah.
R. Graham Barr, MD, MPH, DrPH
- Professor of Medicine & Epidemiology
Dr. Barr focuses his research on respiratory epidemiology and risk factors for asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). He is principal investigator of Mesa-Lung (a study of endothelial and lung function), Mesa-Air (a study of the health effects of air pollution), co-PI of the Columbia Field Center for the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis, and PI on NHLBI T32 for postdoctoral fellows pursuing careers as population scientists. Learn more about Dr. Barr.
Keith Diaz, PhD
- Associate Professor of Medicine in the Center for Behavioral Cardiovascular Health
Dr. Diaz is director of exercise testing and wearable devices. He focuses on the role of sedentary behavior, particularly among minoritized populations, in cardiovascular health. He is also founder and co-director of Project PossABILITY, a disability hiring program at CUIMC, and he leads a disability employee resource group at CUIMC. Learn more about Dr. Diaz.
Nancy Green, MD
- Professor of Pediatric Hematology
Dr. Green leads multi-institutional, randomized trials to improve outcomes for children with sickle cell disease. She works to build the capacity of pediatric sickle cell providers both within the US & in Sub-Saharan Africa to screen for and treat the disease and long-term neurologic & other sequalae. Read more about Dr. Green.
Ruth Marie Masterson Creber, PhD, MSc, RN
- Professor of Nursing
Dr. Creber is a professor of nursing with tenure whose research focuses on improving quality of life for patients with cardiac conditions across the disease continuum. She also develops innovative interventions for health care delivery, including mobile integrated health and global, pragmatic, cardiac surgery clinical trials. Read more about Dr. Creber.
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Ana Navas-Acien, MD, PhD, MPH
- Professor of Environmental Health Sciences; Mailman School of Public Health
Dr. Navas-Acien is vice-chair of research in environmental health sciences. She investigates the cardiovascular and pulmonary effects of environmental exposures, molecular pathways/gene-environment interactions, and interventions to reduce environmental health inequalities in underserved populations. Read more about Dr. Navas-Acien.
Matthew Perzanowski, PhD
- Associate Professor of Environmental Health Sciences; Mailman School of Public Health
Dr. Perzanowski is vice chair for education and training in environment health sciences. He leads field and laboratory-based explorations of environmental, molecular epidemiology, focused on exposures that lead to allergic sensitization and asthma, with a focus on low-income areas and minoritized populations. Read more about Dr. Perzanowski.
Uma Reddy, MD, MPH
- Professor and Vice Chair of Research, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology
Dr. Reddy is an expert in the management of high-risk pregnancies complicated by prior preterm birth or pregnancy loss as well as maternal conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, and connective tissue disorders such as lupus. She is the principal investigator of the Maternal-Fetal Medicine Units (MFMU) Network and New York Community-Hospital-Academic Maternal Health Equity Partnership (NY-CHAMP).
Maya Sabatello, LLB, PhD
- Professor of Psychiatry & Clinical Bioethics
Her mixed-methods program of research focuses on the ethical, legal, & social implications (ELSI) of genomic data on marginalized communities, individual rights, adolescent well-being, & health outcomes, particularly as it relates to people with physical or intellectual disabilities. Learn more about Dr. Sabatello.
Marisa Spann, PhD
- Associate Professor of Psychiatry & Pediatrics
Dr. Spann is irector of the Early Neuroimaging & Neuropsychology Lab. Her research focuses on identifying early immune, brain, and neuropsychological antecedents of childhood psychiatric risk, including the effects of maternal cardiometabolomics and socioeconomic stress on offspring. Read more about Dr. Spann.
Marie-Pierre St-Onge, PhD
- Associate Professor of Nutritional Medicine in Medicine
Dr. St-Onge is director of the Sleep Center of Excellence. She conducts randomized controlled interventions to test causality of relations between sleep, circadian rhythms, and cardiometabolic disorders. Dr. St-Onge has an Outstanding Investigator Award R35 grant from NHLBI. Read more about Dr. St-Onge.
Olajide Williams, MD, MS
- Professor of Stroke & Cerebrovascular Neurology
Dr. Williams is a health disparities researcher and implementation scientist, with a primary focus on community-based behavioral interventions for communities of color. He is principal investigator of three active R01 NIH awards and MPI of a large P50 NIH Center award. Read more about Dr. Williams.
Health Services Research Mentors
Jason Adelmen, MD, MS
- Associate Professor of Medicine
Dr. Adelman is vice chair for quality and patient safety in the Department of Medicine. He is PI on an AHRQ T32 grant focused on hospital quality and management. His research leverages health information technology to test replicable, scalable, and impactful solutions to improve patient safety, and the results of his research have changed national Joint Commission guidelines for hospital safety.
Carmela Alcántara PhD
- Associate Professor of Social Work; Lead Mentor
Dr. Alcantara is associate dean for doctoral education in the Columbia University School of Social Work. She conducts community-based interventions and studies how migration, socioeconomic, and psychosocial context contribute in unique ways to mental health, health behavior, sleep, and cardiovascular health outcomes among underserved and vulnerable patient populations.
Hyunmi Choi, MD
- Associate Professor of Neurology
Dr. Choi uses precision medicine to refine our understanding of the roles of vascular risk factors, race, sex, sociodemographics, and genetics in the relationships between epilepsy, dementia, cardiovascular risk, and stroke.
Jamie Daw, PhD
- Assistant Professor of Health Policy & Management
Dr. Daw is a quantitative health services and policy researcher with expertise in quasi-experimental methods, analysis of large surveys, and administrative datasets. She studies how Medicaid policy effects health barriers for women in access to quality, timely, and equitable care.
Caleb Ing, MD, MS
- Assistant Professor of Pediatric Anesthesia & Epidemiology
Dr. Ing leverages large data to analyze the impacts of anesthesia and other perioperative medication exposure on long-term neurocognitive outcomes for children after surgery.
Stephanie Lovinsky-Desir, MD, MS
- Associate Professor and Chief, Division of Pulmonology, Department of Pediatrics
Dr. Lovinsky-Desir is a pediatric pulmonologist and physician-scientist dedicated to uncovering the underlying links between environmental exposures, specifically air pollution and social conditions, and the respiratory health of children living in urban settings to address health disparities.
Lusine Poghosyan, PhD, MPH, RN
- Professor of Nursing, Center for Health Policy
Dr. Poghosyan is an internationally recognized health services researcher with expertise in studying primary care organizations, health care workforce, teamwork, and quality of patient care to assure patients—particularly racial and ethnic minorities & those living in underserved areas—have access to timely, safe, and high-quality primary care.
Patricia Stone, PhD, MPH, MSN
- Prof of Nursing, Center for Health Policy
Dr. Stone’s research has examined how best to organize infection control and prevention in post-acute settings, including nursing homes and home health care to reduce health disparities. Methodologically, she is an expert in mixed methods, combining work on CMS and other large datasets with analyses of qualitative and quantitative data.
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Basic/Translational Science Research Mentors
Wellington Cardoso, MD, PhD
- Professor of Human Development in Medicine
Dr. Cardoso is director of the Columbia Center for Human Development, a multidisciplinary research hub for the investigation of organ development and regeneration and the developmental basis of human diseases. Research focuses on regulation of lung development, regeneration-repair, and the impact of prenatal exposures on adult pulmonary diseases. He is the recipient of an NHLBI R35 Outstanding Investigator Award.
Henry Colecraft, PhD
- Professor of Molecular Pharmacology & Therapeutics
Dr. Colecraft has directed the NHLBI-funded Ion Channel Physiology Lab for more than 20 years. His research has contributed seminal advances in understanding molecular mechanisms of regulation of voltage-dependent Ca2+ /K+ channels, posttranslational modifications, signaling, and inherited cardiovascular, neurological, and respiratory channelopathies.
Donna Farber, PhD
- Professor & Chief of Surgical Sciences in Surgery
From bench, to mice, to bedside, Dr. Farber’s research focuses on memory T cells as essential mediators of protective immunity across a host of conditions. She is the lead of the immunologic arm of CUIMC’s Interdisciplinary Long-Term Follow-up Program for MIS-C and directs the NIH-funded collaborations between the NY Metropolitan organ procurement organization and transplant surgeons to study human adaptive and innate lymphocyte compartmentalization and maintenance in human tissues across the human lifespan.
Giovanni Ferrari, PhD
- Associate Professor of Surgery & Biomedical Engineering
Dr. Ferrari is the director of cardiac surgery research and director of the CUIMC Biobank for Translational Science. His research is focused on heart valve mechanobiology and implantable biomaterials. Trainees will work on a range of NIH-funded projects from myxomatous valve diseases to ischemic reperfusion in large animal models, to mechanisms underlying accelerated failure of implantable biomaterials in pediatric patients.
Gissette Reyes-Soffer, MD
- Assistant Professor of Cardiology
Dr. Reyes-Soffer studies lipid and lipoprotein metabolic pathways. She concentrates on lipid disorders that are genetically regulated and have different ancestry effects. She is an expert in design and execution of clinical research studies using novel therapies.
Jacquelyn Taylor, PhD
- Professor of Nursing
Dr. Taylor is the founding executive director of CUIMC’s Center for Research on People of Color. She is a trailblazer in cardiovascular genomics research among minority populations, as well as in diversity and inclusion efforts. She is PI/MPI on multiple NIH training & research grants focused on precision health in diverse populations.
