Meet Our Administrative Fellows

Current Fellow

Madeline Lei, MHA, Cornell University

Current Fellow, 2025 - 2026

Madeline Lei is a recent graduate of the Cornell Sloan Program in Health Administration. Before Sloan, she earned her Bachelor’s degree in Public Policy from Cornell University, with a minor in healthcare design and hospitality.

Madeline’s passion for holistic healthcare was shaped early on by her upbringing as the daughter of immigrant parents, instilling in her a deep commitment to advocate for patient-centered systems. While in college, she worked as a social care navigator, connecting patients in Tompkins County with essential health resources. As a graduate student, she also interned at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, contributing to service line management as well as healthcare design and construction projects. These hands-on experiences deepened her interest in the intersection of policy, equity, and design and affirmed her dedication to building more inclusive healthcare environments. Inspired by Montefiore’s community-focused mission, she looks forward to growing and serving the system’s broader network, with the ultimate goal of creating healing experiences for all.

Outside of work, Madeline enjoys all things creative: exploring music genres, selling her art, and perfecting (or rather, attempting to perfect…) her morning cup of coffee. She is also a self-proclaimed adventurous foodie who loves to host and discover new restaurants!

Sparkle Sillim, MHA, Cornell University

Current Fellow, 2024-2025

Sparkle Sillim graduated from the Sloan Program in Health Administration at Cornell University. Though originally from Ghana, she now calls the Bronx home and is passionate about serving the community she grew up in. Sparkle began her academic journey at Bronx Community College, studying Liberal Arts and Sciences with a concentration in Chemistry, before transferring to Cornell University, where she earned a Bachelor’s degree in Human Biology, Health and Society. Her coursework sparked a deep interest in population health and the social determinants of health (SDOH), which she further explored while earning her master’s degree in health administration, also at Cornell. During her graduate studies, she served as a teaching assistant for several courses.

Sparkle’s professional interests are rooted in healthcare operations and patient-centered care. As an undergraduate, she interned at The Enclave Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, supporting administrative and HR efforts. She later joined Cleveland Clinic Florida as a medical operations intern during graduate school, where she gained exposure to hospital operations and leadership.

As an Administrative Fellow at Montefiore Einstein, Sparkle has led and supported a variety of strategic and operational initiatives across the Faculty Practice Group. In the Infectious Disease Clinic, she functioned in a practice manager capacity overseeing referral workflows, improving staff utilization strategies, resolving HR-related issues, and supporting day-to-day operations. Her work involved close collaboration with clinical leadership, frontline teams, and social services to improve patient access and care coordination.

During her Professional Services rotation, Sparkle engaged in cross-functional work around revenue cycle optimization and operational reporting. She collaborated with analytics teams and helped present departmental performance metrics to leadership.

In the last few months of her fellowship, she continues to support departments like Psychiatry in planning and development of new clinical programs, including workflow redesign for adult and women’s mental health services, support for a new child outpatient site, and onboarding of new clinical team members. She also participates in leadership committees to help build project plans for the Behavioral Center of Excellence.

These experiences have strengthened her skills in project management, business communication, and health system operations, all grounded in a deep commitment to advancing equity and access in healthcare.

Outside of work, Sparkle enjoys listening to music, watching TV (everything except horror), and connecting deeply with friends through games like We’re Not Really Strangers.

Previous Fellows

Albert Wah, MPH, Boston University

2023-2024

Divisional Administrator, Endocrinology, Department of Medicine

Albert Wah graduated from The University of Buffalo in 2017 with a Bachelor of Arts in Health and Human Service. Post-graduation he worked as an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) in Far Rockaway, Queens. These experiences highlighted the systemic issues within healthcare and motivated Albert to delve into healthcare administration. Albert also interned at Gracie Square Hospital (GSH) in the quality improvement department as part of the Greater New York Hospital Association (GNYHA) Summer Enrichment Program. As an intern he assisted in the implementation of a new Falls Assessment and Prevention program and participated in a survey by the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). Post-internship he accepted a full-time role as a quality analyst with GSH.

At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Albert resumed working as an EMT and joined New York City’s Office of Emergency Management COVID-19 Hotel Isolation Program. His experiences during the pandemic further motivated Albert to pursue his Master of Public Health at Boston University’s School of Public Health. To complete his practicum requirement, Albert interned with DocGo, a mobile health provider. There, he credentialed the practice into new states to prepare for a service area expansion. Following the internship, he assumed responsibility for overseeing the practice’s medical malpractice insurance renewals across all states and managing physician payroll.

In his free time, Albert loves to travel, exercise, learn new skills and ride his bike around New York City.

Wendy Huang, MHA, Columbia University

2021-2022

Revenue Cycle Snr. Engagement Manager, Consumer Engagement Center

Wendy Huang graduated from New York University in 2019 with a Bachelor of Science in Global Public Health and Applied Psychology. Her devotion to healthcare stemmed from serving communities in diverse settings, ranging from a political campaign to a local nonprofit to hospitals across New York City. After her role as community organizer on Assemblymember Yuh-Line Niou’s 2016 campaign, Wendy volunteered at Bellevue Hospital as a Health Leads advocate connecting patients and families to community-based resources and government-funded programs based on socioeconomic needs. She then worked at NYU Langone – Brooklyn as an administrative intern in the postpartum and nursery department where she gained an interest in the impact of operations on patient care.

Realizing the multiple facets that impact access, quality, and cost of care, Wendy decided to pursue her Master of Health Administration at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the healthcare system from a management perspective. During this time, she interned at The John A. Hartford Foundation (JAHF) where she worked with industry leaders in philanthropy and geriatrics to urgently improve care for older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic. She conducted market research on acute and long-term care facilities to advance grant development and drafted academic publications with notable organizations, such as the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) and National Academy of Medicine. She has published a book in collaboration with JAHF and IHI to spread the Age-Friendly Health Systems movement and teachings.

After completing her administrative fellowship, Wendy took on a role as Revenue Cycle Engagement Manager within the Department of Professional Services at Montefiore where she serves as the primary liaison between multiple clinical departments (Cardiology, Community Pediatrics, Orthopedic Surgery, Otorhinolaryngology, and Pediatrics) and the central billing office. Her role has focused on revenue opportunities in all aspects of the revenue cycle and implementing operational and systematic solutions to address roadblocks. In Montefiore’s development of the Consumer Engagement Center, Wendy looks forward to becoming more involved in front end patient access, prior authorizations, and financial clearance. In her free time, Wendy enjoys traveling, exercising to HIIT and Pilates, and urban hiking while eating her way around the city.

Major projects:

• Pediatric Emergency Department to Inpatient Unit Throughput

Khadyja Sarr, MPH, Boston University

2021-2022

Project Manager of Special Projects, Faculty Practice Group

Khadyja Sarr, a New York native, graduated from Howard University in 2018 with a Bachelor of Science in healthcare management. During that time, she interned at the Department of Family Medicine at Howard University Hospital and gained a keen understanding of the registration process for patients. Khadyja was also a charter member and Co-President of GlobeMed at Howard University, an organization that assisted in bringing the value of public health to the forefront at her university. She was a certified peer educator for GlobeMed, which also gave her the opportunity to develop and coordinate workshops designed to educate and create behavioral changes related to substance abuse, HIV/AIDS and hepatitis.

After graduating, Khadyja pursued her Master of Public Health degree, concentrating in healthcare management at Boston University School of Public Health. While there, she interned at the Boston University Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine during the school year. Additionally, Khadyja also interned at Mount Sinai Health System in the corporate supply chain department as part of the Greater New York Hospital Association (GNYHA) Summer Enrichment Program. While interning there, she worked on a project to address outstanding invoices for three out of the eight hospitals in the system. In the 10-week internship, she was able to resolve over 250 invoices valued at $2.25M.

Having always been passionate about community service, Khadyja is an active member of Sister to Sister International, Inc. Within this organization she has served as a mentor, panelist, scholarship recipient—among other roles throughout her matriculation of high school, college, and graduate school and now as a young professional.

After spending nearly six years away from home, Khadyja is excited to be back, especially now, with the opportunity to work in an organization like Montefiore Einstein. Serving in the community that she grew up in has always been a goal of hers, and she is thankful to be able to do so with such a committed health system. In her free time, she likes to paint, travel and cook new recipes—as a self—described “foodie,” being back in New York City is a dream come true!

Fellowship Alumni