Shabnam Jaffer, MD, has been named chair of pathology and laboratory medicine at Lenox Hill Hospital. In this role, she will develop and implement a strategic plan for the growth and enhancement of the department. Dr. Jaffer will spearhead deployment and utilization of laboratory testing, resources and procedures that adhere to Northwell Health Laboratory Services’ standards. She will also oversee professional education and academic accreditation of the department’s training programs.
Dr. Jaffer comes to Lenox Hill Hospital after more than two decades at Mount Sinai Medical Center where her clinical and educational focuses were breast pathology and cytopathology. Starting as director of autopsy and as an attending pathologist, she was later named director of intraoperative consultation and more recently director of breast pathology. In addition, she was the director of pathology education at the Sophie Davis School of Biomedicine at the City University of New York from 2000 to 2013.
Dr. Jaffer has served as consultant pathologist at several prominent establishments, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Astra-Zeneca Daiichi Sankyo, Komen Foundation for the Cure and the Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium. She has been on the education committee of numerous illustrious societies, such as the New York Pathology Society, American Society of Breast Diseases and National Consortium of Breast Centers. She was elected officer-at-large by the International Society of Breast Pathology.
Dr. Jaffer is board certified in anatomic and clinical pathology including cytopathology. She received her bachelor’s degree at the Sophie Davis School of Biomedicine at the City University of New York before earning her medical degree at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She completed her internship at Northwell’s Long Island Jewish Medical Center and did her residency at Mount Sinai Medical Center. She then pursued fellowships in oncological pathology and cytopathology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering.
Jeannine Villella, DO, FACOG, FACS, a top gynecologic oncologist, has been appointed Director of the Northwell Health Cancer Institute at Lenox Hill Hospital; Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital; and the new Northwell Medical Pavilion. Dr. Villella will continue to serve as executive vice chair of gynecology, chief of gynecologic oncology and chair of the cancer committee at Lenox Hill Hospital and as associate professor at the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell. She will also maintain her active clinical practice.
In her new role, Dr. Villella will lead the vision, strategy and development of programs aimed at exceptional multidisciplinary clinical expansion, research, education and community engagement. She will serve as the physician liaison for the Manhattan cancer program, collaborating with leaders from the Western Region ambulatory team, Lenox Hill Hospital and the Northwell Cancer Institute.
Dr. Villella was recruited from NYU Langone Hospital-Long Island to Lenox Hill Hospital in 2015 to create the division of gynecologic oncology. This robust, comprehensive and growing program includes state-of-the-art screening, complex abdominal and robotic surgery, chemotherapy, survivorship and novel clinical trials.
After concluding her undergraduate studies at the University of Carolina at Chapel Hill, Dr. Villella earned her medical degree from the New York College of Osteopathic Medicine. She completed her residency at NYU Langone Hospital-Long Island and completed her training in post-doctoral fellowships at Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons and Roswell Park Cancer Institute.
Dr. Dean Chou, a renowned neurosurgeon who specializes in minimally invasive surgical techniques and complex spine surgery, has been named Chief of the Spine Division in the Department of Neurosurgery at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center, where he will lead the neurosurgical spine program at Och Spine at NewYork-Presbyterian Allen Hospital. Dr. Chou has also been named Professor and Vice Chair in the Department of Neurosurgery at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons.
Dr. Chou was previously a professor of neurosurgery and orthopedic surgery and the associate director of the Neurospine Center in the Department of Neurosurgery at the University of California, San Francisco. In his new role, Dr. Chou will work alongside surgical and nonsurgical spine care specialists from Columbia University Irving Medical Center and Weill Cornell Medicine to enhance the world-class spine care provided by Och Spine at NewYork-Presbyterian.
Dr. Chou attended medical school at the University of California, San Francisco, completed his residency in neurosurgery at The Johns Hopkins Hospital and a fellowship in complex spinal surgery at The Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, Arizona. He is board certified by the American Board of Neurological Surgery and has been elected by his peers for 10 consecutive years to the list of “Best Doctors in America,” according to Best Doctors, Inc.
Tucker Woods, DO, FHELA, has been appointed chair of the emergency department and associate medical director of Lenox Health Greenwich Village. As chair, he will direct the management of all emergency medical services at the facility. He will also identify and develop new clinical programs to enhance emergency patient care. As associate medical director, Dr. Woods will provide senior oversight of clinical programs and services, patient care quality and clinical research at Lenox Health Greenwich Village.
Dr. Woods comes to Lenox Health Greenwich Village after serving as chief medical officer and medical director at Restorative Management Corporation – an outpatient addiction medicine program. During this time, Dr. Woods was also an attending physical at Optum Health/Riverside Urgent Care.
Dr. Woods is board-certified in both emergency and addiction medicine by the American Osteopathic Board of Emergency Medicine. He is a member of several prestigious organizations, including the American College of Emergency Physicians and the American Society of Addiction Medicine. For his healthcare advocacy for the LGBTQ community, Dr. Woods earned a citation from the city council of Jersey City and received the Evolution Award from the Hudson Pride Center and Hudson County Cultural Affairs. Dr. Woods is also a fellow of the Healthcare Executive Leadership Academy at Seton Hall University/Medical Society of New Jersey.
Dr. Woods graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a bachelor‘s degree in science received his medical degree in osteopathic medicine from Nova Southeastern University. He then completed his emergency medicine internship and residency at St. Barnabas Hospital/Union Hospital.
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) announced the appointment of Lawrence Schwartz, MD, as MSK’s new Chair of the Department of Radiology. He will assume the role in early 2023. Dr. Schwartz is internationally recognized for his expertise in quantitative imaging, artificial intelligence in cancer imaging, and for his pioneering work in the development and validation of novel imaging biomarkers in oncology.
Since 2009, Dr. Schwartz has been Chair of the Department of Radiology at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians & Surgeons and Radiologist-in-Chief at NYP/Columbia University Medical Center. Prior to this role, Dr. Schwartz served in a variety of leadership roles at MSK from 1993 to 2009.
Dr. Schwartz earned his medical degree at Boston University School of Medicine, his residency at the New York Hospital-Cornell University Medical College, and a fellowship in Cross Sectional Imaging (MRI/US/CT) at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. He is a diplomate of the American Board of Radiology and a member of the American Roentgen Ray Society, Radiological Society of North America, International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, New York Roentgen Ray Society, Society for Computer Applications in Radiology, American Society of Clinical Oncology, and a Fellow at the International Cancer Imaging Society.
Harvinder S. Sandhu, MD, co-chief emeritus of the spine service at Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) in New York, was appointed the Chair of the Department of Orthopedics at Stamford Hospital, effective November 1, 2022.
Before joining HSS in 1997, Dr. Sandhu was chief of the spinal surgery service at UCLA. His clinical practice specializes in minimally invasive spine surgery, robotic surgery, and the use of spinal biologics to enhance healing. Dr. Sandhu is also actively engaged in researching and developing medical devices and instruments used in spinal surgery and holds several patents. In addition, he has authored or co-authored well over 100 articles published in peer-reviewed journals and has received research awards from the North American Spine Society, the Orthopaedic Research Society and the International Society for the Study of the Lumbar Spine, including the prestigious Volvo Award in Spinal Research.