Meet the Faculty
Mary Kristine Ellis, MD, FAAFP
Program Director, Transitional Year Residency
Dr. Ellis grew up in Queens and graduated from ROSS University School of Medicine and then completed her residency at the Tulane University Family Medicine Residency Program at East Jefferson General Hospital in New Orleans. She has been faculty and Associate Program Director at the NYU Langone Brooklyn Family Medicine Residency Program and faculty at the Mount Sinai Downtown Residency in Urban Family Medicine. Dr. Ellis is passionate about Trans Gender Medicine, Culinary Medicine and Diversity Equity and Inclusion. She has dedicated her career to working with the underserved and has worked in Federally Qualified Health Centers throughout her career. She is also dedicated to teaching and mentoring Medical Students. In her free time she loves to dance, ride her peloton, cook and find new places to eat in NY, read a good book and spend time with her two dogs. She and her husband both love to travel to new places and she hopes to one day find time to do more medical missions.
Anubhav Agarwal, MD
Program Director, Family Medicine Residency Program
Faculty Attending, Coordinator of Sports Medicine
Doctor Anubhav Agarwal completed his medical school from Kasturba Medical College, two years of General Surgical Residency at Nassau University Medical Center, followed by the Family Medicine Residency at Mount Sinai South Nassau, and finally his Sports Medicine Fellowship at University of Nevada. Doctor Agarwal's extensive experience includes being the sports medicine physician for many events such as the New York City Marathon, many college volleyball, wrestling, and football events, as well as covering several rodeos throughout America. As a New York native, Doctor Agarwal prides himself in his community by supporting many patients as a sports medicine physician. Through his advanced education in ImPACT concussion care training for athletes, as well as trauma patients, and musculoskeletal procedural skills, doctor Agarwal has become a recognized leader in the field of sports medicine at Mount Sinai South Nassau. As the coordinator of the sports medicine clinic and a preceptor both in-patient and out-patient, doctor Agarwal works closely with the residents during their training. Doctor Agarwal believes that exercise and function are intricately related, and that regardless of age, every person deserves an active lifestyle that promotes physical fitness. As such, doctor Agarwal’s expertise at Mount Sinai South Nassau continues to expand patient care and resident education in unique ways.
Robert Cavera, PsyD
Clinical Health Psychologist
Dr. Robert Cavera is a New York State licensed psychologist who serves the Mount Sinai South Nassau Family Medicine as its Clinical Health Psychologist. In this capacity, he provides integrative services that include consultation, assessment, diagnosis, intervention, follow-up and referrals for our patients with comorbid behavioral/medical disorders. Providing “in the moment” short-term behavioral and cognitive interventions for any age patient, he focuses on patients with high-risk diseases such as diabetes mellitus, peptic ulcer disease, asthma, and hypertension. Doctor Cavera works hand in hand with his faculty preceptor colleagues and adds another layer of education for our residents in the practical application of the biopsychosocial model of health care delivery. He enjoys teaching and mentoring resident physicians on the impact and interrelation of psychological distress on medical diseases and disorders. Doctor Cavera has presented nationally regarding the role of integrating behavioral health in primary care settings, and the effect of integration on patient outcomes. Doctor Cavera received his Bachelor of Science degree from Fordham University, and his Master’s and Doctoral degrees from Hofstra University in School-Community Psychology. Prior to working at Family Medicine, Dr. Cavera was employed at Mount Sinai South Nassau's Mental Health Counseling Center in Baldwin. His primary area of expertise is post-traumatic stress, anxiety and depression. He is an adjunct instructor of psychology at Molloy College, where he teaches undergraduate and graduate psychology courses. He also maintains a private practice where he treats children, adults and families with a variety of psychopathologies.
Robert Dean, MD
Faculty Attending, OBGYN
Doctor Dean received his medical degree from SUNY Downstate Medical Center College of Medicine and completed his OBGYN residency training at Winthrop University Hospital. He held multiple leadership roles with the Nassau Obstetrical and Gynecological Society, including being their Treasurer and Vice President. He has published multiple times on the ACOG website. Doctor Dean acted as the Director of Obstetrical and Gynecological Care of the Department of Family Practice from 1997-2018. He has been the OBGYN Clerkship Director for Ross University School of Medicine since 2014. He became a core faculty of the OBGYN residency program at Mount Sinai South Nassau in 2016 and joined as core faculty for the Transitional Year Residency in 2017. Alongside of training residents, he is actively involved with medical student education as the Clerkship Director for OBGYN.
Lincoln Ferguson, MD
Chairman, Pediatrics Department
Faculty Attending, Pediatrics
Mount Sinai South Nassau has named Lincoln Ferguson, MD, chairman of the Department of Pediatrics. In his role, Dr. Ferguson is instrumental in the development of the pediatric outpatient services and sees patients at the Family Medicine Center in Oceanside (many insurances, including Mount Sinai South Nassau’s employee insurance, are accepted). In addition, he plays a role in the growth and development of the Pediatric inpatient services at Mount Sinai South Nassau. Dr. Ferguson first joined the Mount Sinai South Nassau staff in 2006 as director of the Pediatric Emergency Room and a clinical pediatric attending physician, where he provided daily oversight of the service’s operations.
After earning a Bachelor of Medicine/Bachelor of Surgery degree from the University of the West Indies in Jamaica, he completed a medical internship in Jamaica, West Indies, and residency in pediatrics at Howard University Hospital in Washington, D.C. Board-certified in pediatrics, he also earned a master’s degree in public health from The John’s Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. Dr. Ferguson brings to his role more than 13 years of experience in private practice in pediatrics and over 17 years in pediatric emergency medicine.
Nelson Giraldo, MD
Family Medicine Attending
Coordinator, Simulation Medicine
Doctor Giraldo joined the Department of Family Medicine as a part time faculty attending in April 2015. Though he has over 30 years of active clinical practice, he takes as his own personal commitment to teach, but also learn from, our residents. Doctor Giraldo completed his Bachelor of Science at City College, part of the City University of New York system in 1980. He obtain his medical degree from the the Universidad Autonoma de Guadalajara in Jalisco, Mexico, from which he went on to complete a Fifth Pathway at New York Medical College’s affiliated site, The Mount Vernon Hospital, in Mount Vernon. Doctor Giraldo completed his residency in family medicine at Jamaica Hospital, Queens, where he was also chief resident. He stayed on for one year and worked as a faculty preceptor and interim assistant program director. He has been in private practice since 1989 and has admitting privileges Good Samaritan, Southside, and St. Catherine of Siena hospitals. His practice is currently based out of Bay Shore. In our program, he is faculty attending and clinical instructor, precepting the Oceanside office. He has particular interests in wellness and bariatric medicine.
Emad Hanna, MD, MSc
Family Medicine Attending
Coordinator, Occupational Medicine
Dr. Emad Hanna, an alumnus from Mount Sinai South Nassau Nassau Family Medicine Residency Program, was the recipient of the Resident Teacher Award from the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine in his graduating year. Prior to training in family medicine, he had 10 years of active clinical practice in general surgery from which he went on to complete a residency in preventive medicine at The Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York. Dr. Hanna's particular areas of focus are office procedures, preventive medicine, occupational medicine, community medicine and epidemiology.
Scott Ippolito, MD
Family Medicine Chair Emeritus
Dr. Scott Ippolito completed his residency in family medicine at Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, Queens. He subsequently become a fellow in both obstetrics/gynecology and faculty development at the State University of New York Downstate Medical School. After spending time in private practice, Dr. Ippolito returned to academic family medicine, quickly rising to Associate Chair of the Department of Family Medicine at Wyckoff Heights Medical Center, Brooklyn. There he founded and directed their family medicine residency. Dr. Ippolito next served as Chair of the Department of Family Medicine at St. John's Episcopal Hospital, Far Rockaway, where he created both the clinical Department of Family Medicine and its family medicine residency. In 2000, Dr. Ippolito came to Mount Sinai South Nassau as Chair of the Family Medicine department. In his current role, he oversees the clinical department, its family medicine residency, and its in- and outpatient services. He is a member of the board of directors of the New York College of Osteopathic Medicine Education Consortium as well a member of various leadership boards and committees at both Mount Sinai South Nassau and the Long Island Health Network. Doctor Ippolito is Clinical Assistant Professor at the State University of New York Downstate Medical School, an Adjunct Associate Professor at the New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine, and an Associate Dean of Clinical Sciences at Ross University School of Medicine. He is an active teacher to our residents, regularly participating in office-based precepting and as a teaching attending on our inpatient service. Dr. Ippolito has published several textbook and review book chapters and is nationally renowned for medical risk mitigation.
Paul Moglia, PhD
Associate Program Director & Institutional Director of Faculty Development
Dr. Paul Moglia received his MA and PhD in counseling psychology from Boston College, where he was awarded several graduate assistantships and teaching fellowships. He was awarded a clinical fellowship from the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, where he studied medical-liaison psychiatry, family therapy and geriatric neuropsychology. He was also the first psychologist to complete a faculty development fellowship at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. A peer reviewer for Family Medicine, Journal of Family Practice and American Family Physician, he is a member of the Networking Resource Line, a panel of experts who provide consultation and assistance to residencies throughout the United States. He is author of numerous articles, from premature birth, familial Down syndrome and behavioral economics to sexuality, divorce in the elderly and death and dying. He is a co-editor for the five-volume, 3,000-page Magill's Medical Guide and the co-editor of Salem Health: Guide to Complementary and Alternative Medicine. In 2015, he edited the five-volume, 3,000-page Psychology & Behavioral Health 4th Edition, and the first edition, four-volume 1,700-page, Adolescent Health & Wellness. Currently he is editing the second edition of the two volume Addiction, Substance Misuse and Alcoholism. An award-winning educator, he has made dozens of presentations at national and regional conferences and holds associate professorships at several of the area's medical schools. In addition to his responsibilities here, he maintains a full-time private practice in Nassau and Westchester counties.
Russell Porter, MD
Family Medicine Attending
Dr. Russell Porter is a family physician with over 20 years of private practice experience in nearby Rockville Center, N.Y. He has been an active staff physician at Mount Sinai South Nassau during this time.
In addition to board certification in family medicine, he holds board certification in both geriatric and sports medicine. Dr. Porter is a clinical instructor in the Family Medicine Center, as well as on our inpatient medicine service.
Linda Roethel, MD
Coordinator, Women's Health
Family Medicine Attending
Dr. Linda Roethel is a graduate of the Universidad del Noreste, Mexico, and St. Joseph's Medical Center's Family Medicine Residency Program, Yonkers, N.Y. After her residency, Dr. Roethel completed a fellowship in obstetrics/gynecology at Montefiore Medical Center and North Central Bronx Hospital in New York City.
She is an active preceptor for inpatient medicine and in our Family Medicine Center. Additionally, Dr. Roethel is the Coordinator of Women's Health and provides obstetrical care and teaching in the Family Medicine Center and in our hospital's Labor & Delivery unit.
Samuel Sandowski, MD
Chair, Family Medicine Department
Vice President, Medical Education
Faculty Attending
Dr. Samuel Sandowski graduated cum laude from the Technion Faculty of Medicine in Israel, and completed his family medicine residency here at Mount Sinai South Nassau from which he completed a faculty development fellowship at the State University of New York Health Science Center, Brooklyn. After serving as Medical Director of their family medicine center for several years, he returned as Program Director. He has since been appointed Director of Medical Education for our entire hospital. Dr. Sandowski has particular expertise in faculty development and academic medicine and has published several articles and book chapters, and co-edited the textbook, Primary Care. He takes pride in teaching and in being a family doctor providing direct patient care. Dr. Sandowski is double board certified in family and adolescent medicine.
Joanne Barkley
Residency Coordinator
Mrs. Joanne Corley-Barkley, has been our Residency Coordinator since the start of the program in 2014. A mother of 8, she has unsurpassed organizational skills and keeps the complexities of running the Program intelligible for everyone else. Joanne studied theater at Morgan State University in Baltimore and enjoys decorating, painting, gardening, and reading.