New Faculty

Ruby Greywoode, M.D., has been named an assistant professor of medicine in the division of gastroenterology at Montefiore Einstein. She completed her gastroenterology fellowship at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital and focuses on managing patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Her research explores how the social determinants of health influence the wellbeing of patients with IBD. She is particularly looking forward to joining her colleagues in building a center for high-quality IBD care here at Montefiore.

Merhunisa Karagic, M.D., joins Einstein Monefiore as assistant professor of medicine in the division of allergy and immunology and an attending physician at Einstein/Montefiore and North Central Bronx Hospitals. She completed her fellowship in allergy and immunology at Einstein Montefiore. Dr. Karagic treats a multitude of allergic disorders, including environmental and food allergies, asthma, urticaria, atopic dermatitis, contact dermatitis and drug allergies. Her special clinical focus is on managing patients with chemotherapy and biological hypersensitivity reactions. She serves as the co-director of the Drug Allergy Center and will work with her colleagues to build the Chemotherapy and Biological Desensitization Program at Montefiore.

Amar Manvar, M.D., is now assistant professor of medicine in the division of gastroenterology at Montefiore Einstein. Dr. Manvar completed his internal medicine residency at Columbia University Medical Center and then did a gastroenterology fellowship and an advanced endoscopy fellowship at Montefiore. His clinical and research interests include pancreas and biliary tract diseases, therapeutic endoscopic ultrasound, advanced endoscopic resection techniques, third space endoscopy, and the application of novel endoscopic technologies.

Marcel Yotebieng, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H., has joined Einstein Montefiore as an associate professor of medicine in the division of general internal medicine. Dr. Yotebieng started his professional career as aphysician in Cameroon before moving to the US. He holds additional degrees in maternal and child health (MPH) and in epidemiology/biostatistics (Ph.D.), both from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Over the past two decades, Dr. Yotebieng has worked in multiple countries in sub-Saharan Africa as a clinician, public health practitioner, and researcher. Between 2009 and 2013, he lived in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where he developed an extensive research portfolio focused on HIV and Tuberculosis prevention, care, and treatment outcomes mostly among women of reproductive age and children. He has served as principal investigator or co-principal investigator for numerous grants funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Gates Foundation, the World Health Organization, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. His work has informed international guidelines on the management and treatment of HIV in children, and the DRC national guidelines on Tuberculosis management. He has been a member of the scientific committee that advises the national TB program in the DRC on its guidelines since 2011. Dr. Yotebieng has also served on the Improving the Quality of Health Care Globally for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. He currently leads a large trial using data driven continuous quality improvement interventions to optimize long-term outcomes of antiretroviral therapy in women in the DRC who initiate lifelong therapy because of pregnancy, and co-leads with Drs. Kathryn Anastos and Denis Nash the Central Africa International Epidemiology Database to Evaluate AIDS. His areas of interest include implementation research, program evaluation, clinical trials, HIV prevention, including the prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission, HIV care and treatment, tuberculosis, and maternal and child health.

New Staff

Jennifer Ayala has joined the department of medicine as clinical research Manager. She will be responsible for navigating industry-sponsored trials from initiation to completion; ensuring that all research team members receive training; assisting with research billing and regulatory documentation; developing an educational program for investigators and coordinators, and helping create a research dashboard to assess productivity. A graduate of Wesleyan University with over 12 years of clinical research experience at Einstein and Montefiore, she began her career at Montefiore in 2007 as a research assistant for the department of family and social medicine, managing research protocols in obesity and nutrition. She then worked as a research coordinator for the department of neurology assisting investigators with epilepsy studies funded by the National Institutes of Health. Most recently, Ayala served as the education coordinator for the Montefiore Einstein office of clinical trials helping build education and training programs for research coordinators working on industry-sponsored clinical trials. She also participated in developing centralized processes to streamline clinical research activity at the institution. Read more about Jennifer Ayala.

Tawania Fergus is the new divisional administrator for infectious diseases, rheumatology and dermatology in the department of medicine. She has taken over Paul Toth’s former position and can be reached at tawania.fergus@einstein.yu.edu

Octavia Lewis, MPA, is Montefiore’s first Transgender Health Coordinator. Octavia is a graduate of the Audre Lorde Project Trans Justice Community School with a background in managed care. guide interdepartmental collaboration and strengthen community connections. Read more about the Transgender Health Program.

New Positions

Tulay Aksoy, M.D., has been appointed the medical director of Wakefield Division Hospital. She was previously the director of the Einstein Medical Service. Dr. Aksoy, an assistant professor of medicine (hospital medicine), completed her residency training at Montefiore (Wakefield) in 2010; after serving as chief resident she was recruited to the Einstein faculty in July of 2011 as an academic hospitalist at Moses Division Hospital. In recognition of her skills and dedication as a teacher she was asked to serve as the sub-internship site director at that hospital in 2014, and was elected to the Davidoff Society for her excellence in teaching in 2018. In May 2017, Dr. Aksoy took on the role of director of the medical service at Weiler Division Hospital, and she has been extraordinary in that role.

Michelle Ng Gong, M.D., M.S., has been named chief of the division of critical care medicine. Dr. Gong, an associate chief of academic affairs, director of critical care research in the division of critical care medicine, and professor in the departments of medicine (critical care medicine) and epidemiology & population health, was selected after a nationwide search from a group of candidates who are prominent leaders in the field. She assumed the role of interim division chief in October 2018, after the passing of Dr. Vladimir Kvetan, who had brilliantly led the division of critical care medicine since 1983. Read more.

Sumit Kapoor, M.D., has been named director of quality in the division of critical care medicine, where he will take participate on committees and in division- and hospital-wide quality initiatives, such as the effort to conquer central line-associated bloodstream infections and catheter-associated urinary tract infections. He worked on developing a procalcitonin algorithm for the hospital with the antibiotic stewardship team and is involved with Montefiore’s Epic electronic health-record system to improve order sets and develop checklists for the intensive care units (ICU), among other projects. Dr. Kapoor is an assistant professor of Medicine and works in the medical ICU and critical care consult service at Moses Division, providing bedside care to critically ill patients. He is involved with the bedside teaching of residents, medical students and fellows in the ICU.

Iyad Kejo, M.D., has been appointed director of the Einstein Emergency Department Hospitalist Program and associate director of the Einstein Medical Service. Dr. Kejo earned his medical degree at the University of Tishreen in 2006 in Latakia, Syria, and completed a fellowship in pulmonary disease and critical care medicine at Damascus University in 2013. He served as the assistant director of the mobile intensive care unit from 2011 to 2013 at St. Louis Hospital in Damascus. In 2018, he completed his residency in internal medicine at Mount Sinai St. Luke’s and Mount Sinai West. During his residency , Dr. Kejo was involved in several quality improvement initiatives for the electronic medical record system and resident education. In July 2018, Dr. Kejo was recruited to the division of hospital medicine at Montefiore Einstein as an emergency department hospitalist.

Keron Lezama, M.D., has been appointed the director of the Einstein Medical Service. Dr. Lezama, an assistant professor in the department of medicine (hospital medicine), earned his undergraduate degree in chemical and biological engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2008, and his medical degree at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in 2012. After completing his residency at Montefiore Medical Center in 2015, he was recruited as an academic hospitalist at Wakefield. In recognition of his skills as an educator, he was named Teacher of the Year by the Wakefield Residency Training Program in 2017. In January 2018, Dr. Lezama was chosen to be the associate director of the Einstein Medical Service and the director of the Emergency Department Hospitalist Program at Einstein, and has led the way in improving care for patients in the emergency department waiting for inpatient beds. The Einstein Medical Service encompasses more than 230 inpatient beds, six teaching teams, nine hospitalist teams, up to 60 patients in the emergency department, and employs 47 hospitalist faculty members and 46 full time physician assistants.