| The Bronx Veterans Medical Research Foundation Board of Directors |
||
|---|---|---|
| Balavenkatesh Kanna, M.D., MPH | Chair and Statutory VA Director | Medical Center Director, JJP VAMC |
| Meenakshi Zaidi, M.D. | Statutory VA Director | Chief of Staff, JJP VAMC |
| Dawn M. Schaal, M.S. | Statutory VA Director | Medical Center Director, VA HVHCS |
| Timothy Hall, M.D. | Non-Statutory Director | Deputy Chief of Staff, VA HVHCS |
| Mary Sano, Ph.D. | Statutory VA Director | ACOS Research, JJP VAMC |
| David Ng, M.D. | Statutory VA Director | ACOS Education, JJP VAMC |
| Sheldon Brown, M.D. | Statutory VA Director | ACOS Research, VA HVHCS |
| Gregory Elder, M.D., Ph.D. | Non-Statutory Director | Medical Center Director, JJP VAMC |
| Iris Cook, Ph.D. | Statutory Non-Federal Director | Public Member |
| Phyllis Schnepf, M.S. | Statutory Non-Federal Director | Dean for Education and Research Administration, MSSM |
| Candace Grant, M.D. | Statutory Non-Federal Director | Public Member |
Click here to view the BVMRF’s Organizational Chart
Balavenkatesh Kanna, M.D., MPH, FACP, CPPS, FACHE
Chair
Dr. Balavenkatesh Kanna is the Medical Center Executive Director at the James J. Peters Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center (JJP VAMC), Bronx, NY.
Dr. Balavenkatesh Kanna was appointed Director of the JJP VAMC on July 17th, 2022. In this capacity, Dr. Kanna directs the operations, finances, and clinical programs of the Bronx VAMC, which serves approximately 26,000 individual veterans at the medical center and 3 local Community Outpatient Clinics (CBOCs). The Medical Center is a comprehensive healthcare system providing tertiary care to veterans with 311 authorized beds and 80 Nursing Home Care Units and a homeless domiciliary program. Dr. Kanna oversees the research program which has approximately $29 million in peer-reviewed funding, which includes VACO, NIH, and private-funded research.
Dr. Kanna is certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine and earned the Certified Professional In-Patient Safety credential from the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. He is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and the New York Academy of Medicine.
He has held several clinical and executive leadership positions, including Chief Patient Safety Officer, Associate Chief Medical Officer, and Associate Graduate Medical Education Director & Facility Research Review Chair. Most recently, he oversaw multiple clinical and non-clinical departments as the Chief Operating Officer of NYC Health + Hospitals/Lincoln, which has an operating budget of over $600M, an inpatient capacity of 362 beds, and is the busiest Level 1 Trauma Center in the northeast region.
As an Affiliate Assistant Dean for the Weill Cornell Medical College, Dr. Kanna served on the Dean's Council of Affiliated Dean’s committee as a liaison lead. Weill Cornell Medicine is committed to excellence in patient care, scientific discovery, and the education of future physicians in New York City and around the world.
Meenakshi Zaidi, M.D.
Director
Dr. Meenakshi Zaidi is the Chief of Staff of the James J. Peters VA Medical Center. She is board certified in Internal Medicine, Fellow of the American College of Physicians, and has been an Attending Physician at the VA since 2008.
She has served as Patient Care Center Director for Primary Care, Geriatrics and Preventive Medicine since 2017 and remains Assistant Professor of Medicine at Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York since 2012.
Dr. Zaidi has been a champion for providing excellence in care, improving patients experience and reducing admissions for congestive heart failure, COPD and diabetes. For this she was awarded Physician of the year award in 2016, winner of Most Innovative award in VISN2 QIDC 2018 and Most Improved Patients Experience Award by VHA 2020.
Dawn M. Schaal, M.S.
Director
Ms. Dawn M. Schaal is the Medical Center Director of the VA Hudson Valley Health Care System (VA HVHCS).
She comes to this role from her position as the Interim Director of VA HVHCS, which she began on October 27, 2019. Prior to that, Ms. Schaal was the Associate Director from November 29, 2015. Ms. Schaal started with the VA in 1997 as a staff occupational therapist and has served in progressive positions since, including Ambulatory Care Line Business Manager, Staff Assistant to the Director, and Chief of Health Administration Service in 2013. She served in this role until January 2015, when the VA Under Secretary for Health appointed her to Interim Associate Director for a 120-day period. Ms. Schaal has also served as the Interim Group Practice Manager. Through her leadership, the medical center’s scheduling process was recognized as a program with strong integrity by the Inspector General, the Joint Commission, and former VA Deputy Secretary Sloan Gibson.
Ms. Schaal earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from Binghamton University, a Master’s Degree in Occupational Therapy from Tufts University. She completed the VISN 3 Bridges to the Future program and has earned a VA-sponsored Healthcare Data Analytics certificate from Nebraska Methodist College. She completed the Northeast Healthcare Leadership Program and VA’s Healthcare Leadership Development Program. In early 2015, Ms. Schaal received the Federal Executive Board Distinguished Service Award.
Timothy Hall, M.D., FACS
Director
Timothy Hall, MD, FACS is the Deputy Chief of Staff at VA Hudson Valley Health Care System. Dr. Hall received his medical degree from Temple University School of Medicine as the AOA Chapter President and trained in Surgery and Cardiothoracic Surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital. He completed a fellowship in Thoracic Oncology at Sloan Kettering Memorial Hospital. He is triple-boarded in Surgery, Thoracic Surgery, and Critical Care. He is a UNOS Transplant director certified in Heart, Lung, and Heart-lung Transplantation. A nationally known, respected surgeon cited for excellence in clinical outcomes for cardiac and thoracic surgery, transplantation, critical care, and cancer care.
Dr. Hall has held medical school appointments at Robert Wood Johnson, UCSF, West Virginia University, Columbia Physicians and Surgeons, and Central Michigan University. He has been, a Chief of Cardiothoracic Surgery and Chief of Surgery, a medical school full professor with distinguished teaching and research credentials including over one million dollars in research grants. Dr. Hall has published over seventy manuscripts and book chapters and 4 books related to research, education, and medical practice.
Mary Sano, Ph.D.
Director
Dr. Mary Sano is a Professor of Psychiatry and the Director of the Alzheimer's Disease Research at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. She is also the Associate Chief of Staff of Research and Development at the James J. Peters VA Medical Center. Currently, she is the director of a national multi-center study known as CLASP (Cholesterol Lowering in Alzheimer's Disease to Slow Progression). Dr. Sano is a neuropsychologist by training and has been involved in designing and conducting clinical trials for Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and mild cognitive impairment of aging. In 1989 she received the Florence and Herbert Irving Clinical Research Career Award to develop methodologies for the assessment of therapeutic agents in Alzheimer's disease. She directed the first ADCS multicenter trial of vitamin E and Selegiline, treatments that delayed the clinical progression of Alzheimer's disease and in 1998 she received the Veris Award for this study. In this study minority participation was more than double that of any other clinical trial for this disease. Her research interests are in clinical trial design and the impact of pharmacological treatments on the functional abilities of individuals with cognitive impairment.
At present, she is the director of a new clinical study to determine if home-based assessments can be used to assess treatments for the prevention of cognitive loss and dementia. She has also developed tools to assess the economic impact of subtle cognitive changes in elderly subjects. Other areas of interest include the role of depression in cognitive impairment and dementia, women's attitudes about the prevention of memory loss, and measuring quality of life in diseases of aging. She is also the recipient of the Alzheimer Association grant to study Resveritrol, one of the active ingredients in red wine. Dr. Sano has also conducted work characterizing the cognitive impact of head injury, Sickle Cell disease, and mitochondrial disorders.
David Ng, M.D.
Director
Dr. David Ng is the Interim Designated Education Officer of the James J. Peters VA Medical Center. He is board certified in Emergency Medicine and Clinical Informatics. He completed his residency in Emergency Medicine at Northwell Health, NY after completing degrees at New York University, Georgetown University and New York Medical College.
He continues to serve leadership roles in Emergency Medicine for VISN2 NY/NJ network as well as occupational health chief at James J. Peters VA Medical Center. His past healthcare leadership roles include Interim Chief of Staff, Chief Health Information Officer, Vice Chair of Emergency Medicine, Director of Performance Improvement and Associate Director of Academic Affairs.
Dr. Ng is passionate about improving quality of care, patient flow and patient experience for veterans using system redesign tools and clinical informatics. Notable national projects include VHA Shark Tank best practice winner, “Surviving your SEPsis90 program-HRO saves lives!” and implementation of a COVID-19 Patient Management tool in CPRS. He was awarded the Physician of the Year award at the James J. Peters VA Medical Center in 2021. He also completed VHA’s Healthcare Leadership Development Program (HCLDP) and VHA’s Inpatient Flow Academy.
Gregory Elder, M.D., Ph.D.
Director
Dr. Gregory Elder is the Practice Chief of the Neurology Service at the James J. Peters VA Medical Center in the Bronx, NY, and a Professor of Psychiatry and Neurology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, NY. His research interests are in blast-related traumatic brain injury.
Phyllis Schnepf, M.S.
Director
Phyllis A. Schnepf is the Dean for Education and Research Administration at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. As a member of the Icahn Mount Sinai executive leadership team, she provides direction and support to the School’s education and research programs, ensuring that activities and goals are aligned with the institution’s strategic objectives.
Since joining Icahn Mount Sinai n 2007, Ms. Schnepf has made countless contributions that have improved the School’s administrative functions and benefited its community of faculty, staff, trainees and students. She served as the chief architect of the Enhanced Scholarship Initiative, which has increased institutional scholarships for medical students and reduced their debt burden. Ms. Schnepf established the Office of Enrollment Services, combining the admissions, registration, financial aid, disability and health insurance functions under a more efficient structure. She also centralized the School’s Master’s degree programs under the administrative umbrella of the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. Ms. Schnepf oversees Middle States Commission on Higher Education accreditation activities and is the School’s liaison to the New York State Education Department.
Ms. Schnepf has led many initiatives in support of the School’s research mission. These efforts include directing the unification of research administration services across sites following the establishment of the Mount Sinai Health System, forming the Investigational Drug Service as a stand-alone entity, and launching a comprehensive orientation program for research faculty.
In addition to her core responsibilities across the School’s education and research enterprises, Ms. Schnepf serves many other essential roles at ISMMS. She established and supervises the Office of Global Operations, which provides expert guidance and oversight for international engagement activities by faculty, staff, and trainees. Ms. Schnepf also directs the School’s trainee housing program. She leads emergency management activities for Icahn Mount Sinai, notably having served as the School’s ears and voice in the Health System’s Emergency Operations Center throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
Prior to joining Icahn Mount Sinai, Ms. Schnepf held a series of progressively senior leadership positions over 25 years of service at The Mount Sinai Hospital, rising to Senior Vice President for Hospital Operations in 2003 with responsibility for the clinical ancillary services, non-clinical support services, supply chain, security, quality, risk, and regulatory departments.
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