Directors
Mary Sano, PhD
Director

Samuel Gandy, MD, PhD
Associate Director

Patrick R. Hof, MD
Associate Director

Geriatric Psychiatrists
Micheline Dugue, MD
Hillel Grossman, MD
Deborah Marin, MD
Judith Neugroschl, MD

Psychologists
Michal Beeri, PhD
Karen Dahlman, PhD
Jane Martin, PhD
Effie M. Mitsis, PhD
Margaret Sewell, PhD

Geriatricians
Patricia Bloom, MD
Cathryn Devons, MD

Neurologists
Greg Elder, MD

Pathologists
Daniel Perl, MD
Dushyant Purohit, MD

Research Scientists
Joseph Buxbaum, PhD
Dara Dickstein, PhD
Anastasios Georgakopoulos, PhD
Vahram Haroutunian, PhD
Patrick Hof, MD
John Morrison, PhD
Giulio Maria Pasinetti, PhD
Nikolaos Robakis, PhD
Jeremy Silverman, PhD
Cheuk Tang, PhD

Social Workers
Elizabeth Fine, M.S.W., C.S.W.
Elizabeth Fine, M.S.W., C.S.W., has been working for more than 12 years at Mount Sinai School of Medicine with Alzheimer's individuals and their caregivers. She is currently Director of the Caregivers Program and is on the staff of the Geriatric Psychiatry evaluation center. Ms. Fine was the first to provide an early stage Alzheimer's support group in New York which she continues to run. She also lectures to health care professionals and the lay public on Alzheimer's disease and has authored numerous articles on this subject. Ms. Fine has a private practice where she provides individual and family therapy as well as geriatric case management.

Ella Jolly, M.S.W., C.S.W.
Ella Jolly, C.S.W., is a social worker in the Memory Evaluation Center and Geriatric Psychiatry Clinic. She received her Masters of Social Work from New York University in 1993, then worked in the inpatient geriatric psychiatry unit at Mount Sinai before coming to the outpatient clinic in 1996. She provides initial evaluations, clinical care for individuals and families, and is a group facilitator for patients with depression, memory disorders, anxiety, and bereavement.

Dante Tipiani, M.S.W.
In March 2006, Dante Tipiani, M.S.W., was hired as coordinator for the Alzheimer's Disease Assistance Center (ADAC) of New York at The Mount Sinai Medical Center. Dante brings with him eight years' experience in palliative care and caregiving research. He holds a masters in geriatric social work, and is fluent in both English and Spanish. Dante was born in Peru and raised in New York City. He attended the State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo and earned a bachelor's degree in Sociology and History. In 2002 Dante received his master's degree from Hunter College School of Social Work and started working at Beth Israel Medical Center (BIMC) in the Deptartment of Pain Medicine and Palliative Care. This was Dante's first position as a social worker where he managed a program for three years for family caregivers of seriously ill patients. Dante is a computer savvy social worker who enjoys traveling and meeting new people from various cultures. One of Dante's favorite quotes comes from a 14th Century French proverb that says "to cure sometimes; relieve often; comfort always."

Dante's responsibilities in ADAC include diagnostic and consultation services, assessments, comprehensive care plans, and crisis intervention. Dante facilitates support groups and trainings on memory loss to seniors and caregivers in English and Spanish. Dante also works closely with community agencies and is a member of the Ears Harlem Inter-Agency Council for Older Adults.

Administrators
Julia Diaz
Julia Diaz, Clinic Coordinator, has been at Mount Sinai since 1992. Her main responsibilities include all administrative duties related to the Geriatric Psychiatry Clinic.

Melissa Rushing, BA
Melissa Rushing received her B.S. degree from the University of Central Florida in the spring of 2004. Ms. Rushing joined the ADRC in July 2006 as a Clinical Research Coordinator. Ms. Rushing is currently the Administrator for the Research Center and oversees all staffing, internal and external grant applications.

Data Managers
Xiaodong Luo, PhD
James Schmeidler, PhD
Tom Volker, MA
Kelly Ware, BA

Research Coordinators
Tamara Baker-Rivera, BA
Mrs. Baker-Rivera received her BA with a double major in Social Work and Economics from New York University. She joined the ADRC in the Winter of 2008, and serves as a research coordinator for a national longitudinal study on memory and aging through the National Alzheimer’s Coordinating center (NACC), ARCS , a audio-recorded cognitive study, and MAC our memory evaluation service. She also manages the ADRC administrative tasks.

Edwin Cañas, B.S.
Mr. Cañas graduated from SUNY Albany with a degree in Biology and has worked as a high school biology teacher. He is currently Research Coordinator for the ADRC, both at the Mount Sinai and James J. Peters VA Medical Center sites where he assesses patients for memory problems in both English and Spanish.

Danielle Charney, BA
Danielle graduated in 2008 from the Boston University with a BA in Psychology. Danielle has worked as a research coordinator for the ADRC since August 2008. Her responsibilities include neuropsychological testing and recruitment for several clinical trials, including Resveratrol.and EPIX.

Jessica Egan, BA
Jessica graduated in 2004 from Georgetown University with a BA in Economics and Studio Art. Jessica has worked as a research coordinator for the ADRC since September 2007. Her responsibilities include coordinating the Home-Based Assessment study and neuropsychological testing for the national longitudinal study and the RAGE Inhibitor study.

Katya Gaynor, BA
Katya Gaynor graduated from Vassar College in 2007 with a BA in Neuroscience and Behavior. Katya has been working as a Clinical Research Coordinator with the ADRC since September 2007. She recruits and administers neuropsychological testing for a number of studies, including a national longitudinal study.

George Marzloff
George Marzloff graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2007 with a BS in Brain and Cognitive Sciences. George currently recruits for the intravenous immunoglobulin and bapineuzumab clinical trials and has previously coordinated the NIC5-15, ADNI, and DHA trials. He also maintains our Delay-AD.org website. George joined the ADRC in 2007.

Erica Mirigliani, BS
Erica Mirigliani graduated from Fordham University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology. As a Clinical Research Coordinator she mostly follows the implementation of the Brain Tissue Donation Program. Other responsibilities involve coordinating assessments for people interested in the longitudinal study, as well as for a clinical trial that is carried out at the Bronx VA hospital. The clinical trial at the VA is the same as one trial at Sinai which tests the effectiveness of Resveratrol, a nutritional supplement that is intended to slow down the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.

Lillian Negroni
Ms. Negroni is currently pursuing a degree in psychology at the College of New Rochelle. Her current responsibilities include coordinating, recruiting, and performing cognitive and functional assessments of participants in the ADRC. She is the Project Coordinator for a multi-center Prevention Instrument Study and recruits minority participants and processes laboratory samples of participants. Ms. Negroni administers cognitive testing in Spanish for the ADRC clinical trials, and is responsible for all recruitment, data entry, and management of Kittay House, one of the sites of the ADRC.

Yunsoo Park, BA
Ms. Park graduated from New York University with a BA in Psychology. She is a Clinical Research Coordinator at the Laboratory of Neuroimaging. She is currently working with the ADRC in a MRI study on the effects of aging on memory and attention. She is responsible for coordinating initial screening visits and scanning sessions of the study examining the underlying neural mechanisms of patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer’s disease.

Shelly Rivas, BA
Ms. Shelly Rivas received her BA in History of Science, History of Medicine from Yale College in 2006. She joined the ADRC in the fall of 2008 and serves as a research coordinator for a national longitudinal study on memory and aging through the National Alzheimer’s Coordinating Center (NACC). She also performs neuropsychological testing in Spanish for subjects enrolled in the center’s clinical trials.

Rachel Shiovitz, BA
Rachel graduated from Barnard College in 2008 with a BA in Psychology. She began working as a research coordinator in the ADRC in June 2008. Her responsibilities include neuropsychological testing, brain imaging, and recruitment for several trials, including the risk factors for mild cognitive impairment trial and the estrogen follow-up study.

Andrew Vigario, BA
Andrew Vigario graduated in 2006 with his BA in Psychology from Rutgers University – Newark, and is currently finishing up his M.A. in Clinical Psychology from Teachers College, Columbia University. Joining the ADRC in 2008, Andrew is the lead coordinator on a number of trials, including the Antipsychotic Discontinuation, ELND005, CONCERT, and Diabetes trials. He also serves as the psychometrician to the bapineuzumab trial, and back-up coordinator on the EPIX trials.

Joy Wang, MA
Joy received her BA from Binghamton University in Psychology. She works as a coordinator overseeing all Aging related studies at Family Studies. She is also working on the Memory and Glycation study which is in conjunction with the Diabetes and Aging department and the ADRC. Joy is currently working on her Masters in Psychology at the New School for Social Research.