Occupational and Environmental Medicine Residency Program

Faculty

The residency faculty includes full-time faculty in the Department of Community Medicine as well as affiliated faculty at rotation sites. The faculty are engaged in research in a number of areas, including clinical occupational medicine research, work-related musculoskeletal disorders, occupational pulmonary disease, skin diseases among workers, injuries in the construction trades, biomarker research, and outcomes research. The faculty encourage residents to participate in these research activities, and many residents complete publishable research during their residency.

Core clinical faculty include:

Debra Milek, Ph.D., M.D., M.P.H.

Dr. Milek is the Director of the Occupational Medicine Residency. Her research interests include neuromusculoskeletal disorders of the upper extremity and the back, ergonomics and occupational injury treatment and prevention in the arts.

Winston C. Kwa, M.D., M.P.H.

Dr. Kwa is the Deputy Residency Director for Occupational Medicine. He is Board certified in both Internal Medicine and Occupational Medicine. Dr. Kwa's interest includes occupational lung diseases and health effects resulting from the World Trade Center disaster. He serves as a physician at the World Trade Center Medical Monitoring and Treatment Program.

Jacqueline Moline, M.D., M.Sc.

Dr. Moline is the Vice-Chair of the Department of Community Medicine. She has a joint appointment in the Department of Medicine; She is Board certified in both Internal Medicine and Occupational Medicine. She is currently Clinical Services Director and Co-Principal Investigator of the WTC Medical Monitoring Program, and in 2006 she became the Principal Investigator of the Mount Sinai Clinical Center, the largest center in the WTC medical consortium. She is also Director of the NJ/NY Education and Research Center. Dr. Moline's research interests include the health effects of environmental and occupational lead exposure and other heavy metals, asbestos related disease, health concerns of theatrical performers, the health effects of creosote, and health effects related to the World Trade Center collapse.

Philip J. Landrigan, M.D., M.Sc.

Dr. Landrigan is Chair of the Department of Community and Preventive Medicine, a professor of Pediatrics and Director of the Children's Environmental Health Center.

Robin Herbert, M.D.

Dr. Herbert is Medical Co-Director of the Mount Sinai - I. J. Selikoff Center for Occupational and Environmental Medicine. Dr. Herbert’s research interests areAn Associate Professor of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine Dept. of Community and Preventive Medicine, Dr. Herbert serves as Co-Director of the Dept's Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine as well as the Director and Principal Investigator of the federal World Trade Center (WTC) Medical Monitoring and Treatment Program's Data and Coordination Center. An occupational medicine physician, Dr. Herbert's clinical and research interests include upper extremity WRMDs and WTC-related health effects.

Stephen Levin, M.D.

Dr. Levin is an Associate Professor in the Department Of Community And Preventive Medicine, Dr. Levin serves as Co-Director of the Dept.'s Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine and as Co-Director of The Mount Sinai - I. J. Selikoff Center for Occupational and Environmental Medicine. An occupational medicine physician, Dr. Levin's clinical and research interests include asbestos-related disease and other occupational lung diseases, WTC-related health effects and upper extremity WRMDs.

Ekong Ekong, M.D., M.P.H.

Dr. Ekong is an Assistant Professor in the Department Of Community And Preventive Medicine. His research interests include health effects related to the World Trade Center collapse. Dr. Ekong teaches and supervises residents in the Irving J. Selikoff Center for Occupational and Environmental Medicine. Further, he treats patients in the World Trade Center Health Effects Treatment Program.

George Piligian, M.D.

Dr. Piligian is Associate Director of the Program to Prevent and Treat Work-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders of the Occupational Health Clinical Center. His areas of special interest are occupational musculoskeletal disorders of the upper extremities, especially among musicians.

Penny Stern, M.D., M.P.H.

Dr. Stern is currently the Associate Medical Director of the WTC Medical Monitoring & Treatment Program. She is board-certified by the American Board of Preventive Medicine and is residency-trained in both Preventive Medicine (Cornell) and Occupational Medicine (Mount Sinai). Her interests include health promotion and workplace injury prevention. Prior to returning to Mount Sinai, Dr. Stern served as the final medical director of the Pfizer manufacturing facility in Brooklyn.

Jaime Szeinuk, M.D., M.Sc.

Dr. Szeinuk is a pulmonary physician who is board-certified in Occupational Medicine and is a NIOSH certified B reader. His main area of interest is occupational lung disease. He is also Medical Co-Director of Mount Sinai-IJ Selikoff Center for Occupational and Environmental Medicine and Medical Director of the Hudson Valley Division of the Mount Sinai-IJ Selikoff Center for Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

Rafael de la Hoz, M.D., M.P.H., M.Sc.

Dr. de la Hoz is an occupational pulmonologist, assistant professor in the Division of Occupational Medicine, and Medicine, and assistant medical director of the WTC Medical Monitoring and Treatment Program. His major clinical and research interests include occupational lung diseases, obstructive lung diseases, chronic disease epidemiology, respiratory toxicology, and WTC-related diseases.

Aboaba Afilaka, Jr., M.B.B.S.

Dr. Afilaka is an Assistant Professor in the Department Of Community And Preventive Medicine. His areas of interest include asbestos related diseases, asthma, and musculoskeletal Disorders.

Michael Crane, M.D.

Dr. Crane has long experience in both occupational medicine and administration. Before joining Mount Sinai, Dr. Crane spent 16 years as Chief Medical Officer of Con Edison of New York. In 2002 he established a medical monitoring and treatment program for Con Edison workers who assisted in recovery efforts at the WTC site. Dr. Crane is currently Deputy Director of the Mount Sinai WTC Monitoring and Treatment Program.

Elizabeth Garland, M.D.

Dr. Elizabeth Garland is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Community and Preventive Medicine and Pediatrics at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Dr. Garland's research interests have centered on health disparities: pediatric asthma, reducing risk factors for diabetes in adolescents and violence intervention and prevention.