Why a Master’s Degree? Mount Sinai Graduate Students Share Their Experiences and Aspirations

Updated on Jul 12, 2024 | Featured, School

Six recent master’s graduates at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai’s Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences discuss what they accomplished and how they are using their degrees to explore new paths and careers.

How ‘Incredible’ Research Opportunities in the Master of Science in Biomedical Science Program Helped Student Kate Jankowski Excel

“Fundamentally, I can’t forget the incredible research exposure this program provides, which is the reason I came here. The vast number of labs, the varying types of experiences, the great emphasis on science, and the ability to share ideas with others is paramount here.”

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Hands-On Research in New York City’s Most Diverse Communities Deepens Kelsey Chandran’s Passion for Patient Education and Engagement as She Earns a Master of Public Health Degree

“I think Mount Sinai does a great job of cultivating community. The diverse group of students within a class, combined with the emphasized focus on collaboration, allows for a range of thoughts, perspectives, and vulnerable discussions that really touch on the main pillars of public health to enact change.”

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How One Student Vastly Expanded Her Knowledge and Skills in Biology and Technology While Studying Biomedical Data Science at Mount Sinai

“The chance to learn from professors at the forefront of biomedical research made [Mount Sinai] the ideal place for me to expand my knowledge and skills,” says Angie V. Ramirez Jimenez.

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Barriers to Equitable Access to Vaccines During the COVID-19 Epidemic Motivated Allenie Andrea Arnedo to Enroll in the Master of Public Health Program at Mount Sinai

“When I was initially searching for public health programs, I felt drawn to the world-class researchers, personalized mentorship, and welcoming students. The variety of tracks offered for my program was valuable for me because I was just embarking on my career path in public health.”

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Kiran Nagdeo, BDS, Highlights How a Master of Public Health Degree Put Her on a Career Path to Improve Maternal and Child Oral Health on a Global Scale

“I had many milestones [at Mount Sinai], which include authoring two full-text publications. I also attended six conferences, where I gave more than a dozen presentations, and participated in a global health summer research program offered by Mount Sinai, which involved shadowing both dental and medical complex care services teams at Rikers Island.”

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How a Master of Health Administration (MHA) Degree and Mentorship From Top Mount Sinai Scientists Are Helping Daniel Caughey Advance His Career

“I was looking for a program that would offer the skills needed to succeed as a leader in the health care field, and that is exactly what I found in this program. The MHA offers a diverse curriculum with courses such as Strategic Planning, Finance, Marketing, and Population Health, to name a few.”

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Mount Sinai Creates a New Department as it Reenvisions Public Health Education, Research, and Practice for the 21st Century

Updated on Jul 12, 2024 | Featured, School

Rosalind J. Wright, MD, MPH

Building on its long history of groundbreaking science and advocacy in public health, and its research strengths in exposomics, genomic sciences, genetics, and big data analysis, the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai has established a Department of Public Health to address the urgent and mounting medical and environmental challenges of the 21st century.

Renowned physician and researcher Rosalind J. Wright, MD, MPH, was named Chair of the department and inaugural Dean for Public Health. Dr. Wright is Horace W. Goldsmith Professor and, most recently, the former Dean of Translational Biomedical Sciences at Icahn Mount Sinai. She is a founding Co-Director of the Institute for Climate Change, Environmental Health, and Exposomics, the nucleus of Icahn Mount Sinai’s work on studying environmental exposures and their effects on development, health, and disease across the life course.

Dr. Wright, who has authored or coauthored more than 350 peer-reviewed journal articles and delivered more than 150 regional, national, and international presentations, has long been committed to mentoring the next generation of public health scientists, having trained nearly 100 predoctoral and doctoral students and postdoctoral fellows over her career.

Bolstering these efforts is Icahn Mount Sinai’s extraordinary research capabilities, which include being ranked No. 4  among U.S. medical schools in National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding for Public Health, and No. 2 for Genetics (Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research 2023 fiscal year), and No. 1 nationally in National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences funding.

In the following Q&A, Dr. Wright discusses the transformative steps that will further strengthen Icahn Mount Sinai’s leadership in public health education, research, and practice.

Mount Sinai has been on the front lines of public health for decades. Why a Department of Public Health now?

We’re already widely recognized for our strengths in exposomics, genomic sciences, genetics, and big data analysis. And our public health research and advocacy work has frequently raised our national profile through studies, symposia, and testimony we’ve given before congressional committees looking into public health reform. By carefully assessing that repertoire of strengths—which often is the envy of others in the field—and bridging them, we can create a public health ecosystem that would allow our teams to cohesively share new knowledge, skills, and technology.

How, specifically, do you envision this?

Imagine if we could seamlessly marry the work of our environmental scientists in exposomics and genomics with the work of our computational and computer scientists. We could bring those data streams together even more than we are already doing and factor in our artificial intelligence and machine learning expertise to make sense of data patterns and profiles involving thousands of variables. The result would be revelations and gains in the field of public health not possible in the past.

How do you get there?

One of the ways we plan to set the stage for those breakthroughs is cross-training our students and workforce. Our goal is a transdisciplinary trained workforce so that MDs, PhDs, and other clinicians have the skills to understand climate science, for example, and to use data science methods, such as machine learning, to more precisely identify health-relevant environmental and genetic factors impacting all of our patients. Likewise, we want our data scientists to acquire the same basic skills in epidemiology and environmental health sciences to enable team science. Those ambitious goals will clearly require innovation and change around public health education at Mount Sinai.

We’ll be establishing doctoral programs in public health areas where our research and practice can lead the field, such as climate science and exposomics. But first, our plans are to expand our Master of Public Health programs to synergistically feed into planned doctoral programs. The public health programs were created in 2001 and are the oldest and largest graduate studies at Mount Sinai. We want our new department to be not just an academic home for investigators and public health practitioners, but an incubator for real curricula innovation.

We have what I see as a key advantage over other institutions in the field that will fortify our work: Mount Sinai Health System and Icahn Mount Sinai serve the greater New York City region, which includes East Harlem, an area of Manhattan that has one of the most diverse patient populations in the United States. It amounts to a laboratory rich in socioeconomic strata perfectly suited for research and clinical and public health practice. Just as importantly, we’ve advanced our science through programs like the BioMe®️ BioBank Program, with its tens of thousands of DNA samples driving genetic, genomic, and epidemiologic investigations, and through the Mount Sinai Million Health Discoveries Program, where we’ve woven genetics into real-world clinical care and have a goal to sequence 1 million Mount Sinai patients.

All of these approaches are essential if we are going to reinvent our response to the kinds of public health challenges we are seeing today—which are the same challenges we urgently need to address as a health system, too—climate change and environmental exposures of children within their communities, which we know can lead to asthma, obesity, learning disabilities, and much more. These will disproportionately impact communities that are already more burdened by these disorders. Nothing will focus us more as a department than gaining a more-informed understanding of the nature and impact of health-relevant environmental hazards that may contribute to health disparities in our communities.

You are building on a formidable legacy. What are the most impactful discoveries Mount Sinai researchers have made over the decades?

Uncovering the impact of asbestos on human health has been among the most consequential. Our work can be traced to Dr. Irving Selikoff, a pioneering researcher, who created in the 1960s the nation’s first hospital division of occupational medicine at Mount Sinai. His research on asbestos-related disease shaped public policy for working men and women around the world. It was also responsible for the landmark 1970 Occupational Safety and Health Act.

More recently, we’ve actively studied per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), the class of synthetic chemicals ubiquitous in the environment and our bodies. Our investigators have developed novel metrics to gauge our cumulative exposure to PFAS and have shown how that exposure is linked to significant reductions in female fertility, as well as child health outcomes, such as asthma. We’re proud that our science is now informing regulatory change around PFAS, undertaken by the Environmental Protection Agency in 2023.

My own lab has done considerable work with air pollution exposure. We were among the first to link that exposure to asthma onset, as well as to cognitive dysfunction in children in early life, and to show that this starts in utero and weighs disproportionately on low income and ethnic minority populations. We were also among the first with research to show that psychological stress in pregnant women puts their babies at higher risk of developing conditions like asthma, given the impact of stress on the immune system.

What excites you most about your new role?

My passion throughout my career has been public health—from the time I started my fellowship in pulmonary medicine and felt the sudden need to get a Master in Public Health degree. I realized that this knowledge would help me to better understand the disparities I was seeing in my asthma patients—disparities I knew couldn’t be explained by heritability or genetics alone, which led me to studying broad environmental influences as well. In the same way, I feel I’m now in a position to do something really unique as the new Dean for Public Health—to translate the scientific capabilities that we can collectively bring together to improve the health of our communities. And there’s no better place to accomplish that than at Mount Sinai.

Watch a video to learn more about the vision for Public Health at Icahn Mount Sinai.

Voices From the Class of 2024 at Icahn Mount Sinai’s Commencement

Updated on May 24, 2024 | Featured, School

Dennis S. Charney, MD, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean of Icahn Mount Sinai, addressing the school at the 55th Commencement ceremony.

Cloudy skies could not dampen the excitement of the class of 2024 of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, who had gathered at the David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center for their Commencement on Friday, May 10. It was, after all, a milestone of their medical school journey—one that began right as the COVID-19 pandemic took off in New York City.

“You arrived here nearly four years ago, when New York City was under siege,” said Dennis S. Charney, MD, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean of Icahn Mount Sinai. It was a class that experienced major disruptions to coursework, but also one that witnessed how physicians can be challenged to care for patients and deal with viral outbreaks. “At Mount Sinai, you will forever be known as the ‘pandemic class,’” Dr. Charney said, to much laughter.

At the 55th Commencement of Icahn Mount Sinai, degrees were granted to 191 recipients: 115 MDs, 57 PhDs, and 19 dual degrees—eight MD/PhD, two MD/MPH, and nine MD/MSCR. (Master’s degrees will be conferred at a separate ceremony in June.)

The journey of the class of 2024 was a challenging one: starting medical school completely remotely, learning anatomy through what felt like a video game, and getting to know classmates through a computer screen, recalled Candida Damian, MD, who gave one of the student Commencement speeches. These challenges were made harder by isolation as lockdowns happened during COVID-19 outbreaks. However, she quipped, “Like Mount Sinai says, ‘We Find a Way.’”

Jumping into the future is daunting, but that’s because the graduating class stands at the frontiers of science and medicine, noted Sally Claridge, PhD, who gave the other student Commencement speech. “You cannot look in the back for the answer key; you’re writing the textbook,” she said. “Now that we have made it here, to this auditorium, to this moment, it is still inspiring and overwhelming because across all of us graduating today, we have now already written ‘the textbook’ many times over and then some.”

In this year’s recap, hear from various students about their time at Icahn Mount Sinai and the memories they’ll treasure as they embark on the next steps in their medical and research careers.

Ava Adler, MD

Next step: General surgery residency at Mount Sinai

During one of our Objective Structured Clinical Examination sessions where we practice being a doctor, my first time going in I was very nervous. I tried to sit on the stool and it completely came out from under me and I fell on the floor. I was so embarrassed and so upset about it, and all my friends were there and said, ‘It’s OK.’ They told me to brush it off and said it will get better. It was a very funny but also very memorable moment for me. I’m definitely not the same person as I was when I first started. Being around patients and seeing how it’s a privilege to be there for them, knowing the difference you can make by giving them a smile, giving them an ounce of happiness during a hard time, it is so incredible that it makes every single day worth it.

Michael Fernando, PhD

Next step: Postdoctoral fellow at Rockefeller University, New York City

It is a rainy day, but we’re all here celebrating big splashes that we’ve done at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. I’ll always cherish all of the hard work that we’ve collectively done to advance science and medicine, and the hours that we’ve spent in the lab pursuing development of ourselves both personally and professionally. I’d like to thank my advisors, Kristen Brennand, PhD, and Paul Slesinger, PhD. I owe all of my success in the lab and outside the lab to them, and the cultures that they’ve fostered within their scientific environments.

Arman Azad, MD

Next step: Emergency medicine residency at University of California, Los Angeles

I can’t believe it: I’m going to be a doctor! It’s been four crazy years—crazy fun years. I’ve met the best people, and I think I’m ready. Mount Sinai just has the best medical students in the world. They’re all so smart, but they’re also just the kindest, warmest people. And our staff, our faculty, our professors, everyone has been just rooting for us for so long. I’m going to miss them so much. I’ve learned that it’s important to focus on your studies and your work, but also on yourself and the relationships with the people around you. That’s one thing we had the space to do and I’m really thankful for it.

Ning Ma, PhD

Next step: Postdoctoral fellow at Mount Sinai

Something I’ve learned is to never give up. If you never give up, you will achieve something. It’s what kept me successful in getting this degree. At the beginning, it was challenging to figure out the project—what’s the hypothesis of your research, literature review, and back-and-forth with your mentors. But the key is to always have a passion for what you want to pursue.

Candida Damian, MD

Next step: Triple board residency at Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island

I’m incredibly grateful and excited for the future. It’s been a long journey, and I can’t wait to get to work! In the beginning, I faced challenges and often doubted whether I was good enough to become a doctor. I overcame these feelings by being vulnerable and seeking out support. My family, my mentors at Mount Sinai, and most definitely my classmates all helped me along the way.

Amara Plaza-Jennings, MD/PhD

Next step: Neurology residency at Mass General Brigham, Boston

I’m feeling very grateful and excited for everything that I’ve accomplished over the past eight years at Mount Sinai. I learned that I’m capable of more than I’ve thought I was. If there’s something I don’t know, I have the ability to figure it out and to teach myself new skills.

Nicola Feldman, MD

Next step: Pediatrics residency at Boston Children’s Hospital

I’m in awe that this moment has actually come, and that these next steps are actually happening. It’s amazing to look in the audience and see so many family and loved ones of my classmates, and that they are all celebrating us. About a year ago, my uncle unexpectedly passed away. It would be really amazing for him to be here today—he’s a lot of fun—and we’d be having even more fun with him here. That’s something I’m missing today, even though overall it’s a really happy day.

Megan Schwarz, PhD

Next step: Postdoctoral fellow at Mount Sinai, then joining the biomedical research industry

During the pandemic, I was stuck at home, and I couldn’t be in the lab except to check on some mice. My PhD advisor, Ernesto Guccione, PhD, called me up. We’re a cancer lab, and he asked if I wanted to do this unrelated COVID-19 project. He said it will probably be done by summer of 2020. Fast forward to June 2022, we’re publishing a paper, involving many clinicians, patients, institutes—many continents involved—and that all started with this phone call because we were bored. It taught me that I’m capable of adapting and collaborating.

Benjamin Oseroff, MD

Next step: Neurology residency at Mount Sinai

A highlight of my time at Icahn Mount Sinai was having my daughter born 10 days before orientation. Carrying her across the stage at graduation feels like such an achievement; I feel so fortunate. I’d like to thank my wife—she’s done so much for me and our family.

Ethan Veit, PhD

Next step: Looking for job opportunities

I’m so thankful for my Principal Investigator, Matthew Evans, PhD; all of the graduate school administration; and Basil Hanss, PhD, Senior Associate Dean for Student Affairs and Career Development, who was one of the first people involved in recruiting me to Mount Sinai. One of my biggest achievements was being able to participate in the numerous Virus-Host Symposiums and also win the best presentation award at that symposium.

Rishab Revankar, MD

Next step: Intern year at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, dermatology residency at University of Virginia

One of my best memories at Mount Sinai was being able to have our White Coat Ceremony. Usually, it is held in the first week of medical school, but we had it between our second and third year because of COVID-19. That was one of the first times we were all together in person, and it was an amazing moment to relish our resilience and togetherness. I came to Mount Sinai to pursue an MD degree, looking to be a doctor, but I feel like I got so much more than that. I got an understanding of what it means to be a physician-leader. I want to make Mount Sinai proud by being a good doctor, but also be a good leader in my community and in society.

Navigate with the arrows to learn more about the Class of 2024 and their time in medical and graduate school.

Brandon Linaksita, DDS, Receives Award From the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry

Updated on Apr 20, 2024 | School

Brandon Linaksita, DDS

Brandon Linaksita, DDS, Chief Resident of Mount Sinai’s Pediatric Dentistry Program, has been selected for the “Resident Recognition Award” by the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry (AAPD).

This prestigious award is given to pediatric dental residents across the United States who have demonstrated innovative activities in their training programs.

Dr. Linaksita is one of four residents to be honored. He will receive the award in May at the AAPD General Assembly.

Dr. Linaksita was nominated for the Resident Recognition Award for his commitment to pediatric dentistry, research, and patient care, and for being an advocate for patients with craniofacial differences. He worked with the Mount Sinai Multidisciplinary Cleft and Craniofacial Team, serving as an educational liaison between his co-residents, the team, and parents of patients with cleft lip/palate or craniofacial diagnoses.

Dr. Linaksita has been a pediatric dental resident at The Mount Sinai Hospital since July 2022, serving as the Chief Pediatric Dental Resident beginning in July 2023. He is also working on his MPH degree at Brown University. He was selected to complete the only fellowship in craniofacial pediatric dentistry in Canada at The Hospital for Sick Children, which begins in the fall.

From 2021 to 2022, he was in the General Practice Residency program at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. He earned his DDS degree at Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry in London, Ontario, in 2021.

Learn more about Dental Residences at Mount Sinai

How the Intersection of Biology and Technology Inspired Angie Ramirez to Study Biomedical Data Science at Mount Sinai

Updated on Apr 16, 2024 | Featured, School

Angie V Ramirez Jimenez

Angie V Ramirez Jimenez is a second-year student in the Master of Science in Biomedical Data Science program. In this Q&A, she discusses why she chose the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

Why did you decide to study at Icahn Mount Sinai?

After completing my undergraduate degree, I came to Mount Sinai to work as a research associate in the lab of Michelle E. Ehrlich, MD, and Samuel Gandy, MD, PhD, in the Neurology Department. There I had the opportunity to work on various projects that investigate the mechanisms of neurodegenerative disorders including Alzheimer’s disease, dystonia, and Huntington’s disease, and learn about all the research opportunities that were available at Mount Sinai. The chance to learn from professors at the forefront of biomedical research made it the ideal place for me to expand my knowledge and skills.

What attracted you to study Biomedical Data Science? What about it inspires you?

My journey into Biomedical Data Science stemmed from a fascination with the intersection of biology and technology. The realization of the potential of programming to revolutionize scientific research sparked my interest in this field. I was inspired by the ability of data science to unlock insights from various biological datasets, leading to a deeper understanding of complex biological systems. The prospect of using data to drive advancements in precision medicine and ultimately improve patient outcomes motivated me to pursue a career in Biomedical Data Science.

What were some of your achievements as a master’s student?

During my time as a master’s student, I trained and worked in the Bioinformatics for Next Generation Sequencing (BiNGS) core at The Tish Cancer Institute at Mount Sinai. At the core, I was able to contribute to various projects, in addition to my own capstone project, which included assessing the effectiveness of a novel keratinocyte differentiation protocol on induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and embryonic stem cells (ESCs), as well as investigating the impact of different extracellular matrix (ECM) environments on cancer cell dormancy. For my capstone project, I analyzed RNA-seq, ATAC-seq, and CUT&RUN data to dissect the epigenetic and transcriptional landscapes of hepatocellular carcinoma models.

What activities outside the classroom have contributed to your success?

I believe that my involvement in research projects outside the classroom have been pivotal to my success. As an undergrad, I went on a research trip to Costa Rica to investigate the resilience of microbial communities in Costa Rica’s rainforests post-hurricane. This was the first time I was part of real-world scientific research, and thanks to that, I saw a side of research I had not seen in the classroom—large-scale data analysis and how powerful it can be in understanding complex biological interactions.

This experience helped me realize this was something I wanted to pursue and once I started working in the Ehrlich/Gandy lab I was able to pursue my interest in bioinformatics and work alongside great postdocs who mentored me on how to do various types of analysis.

I’ve also worked at Liberty Science Center in Jersey City, New Jersey, where I taught kids how to do different lab experiences. I think working with the kids really taught me how not to make assumptions about how much people may know about a topic, which really helps me when trying to teach others. I also learned that everyone has the power to make an impact on others even when we may not realize it.

I think that just being open minded and not closing yourself off to opportunities, even when they seem very daunting or even insignificant, when they come is really what helps you learn and grow. Sometimes opportunities arise from the most unexpected places, but you will never find them if you don’t put yourself out there.

What are your plans after you have completed your degree?

I plan to continue my journey in the field of Biomedical Data Science. My goal is to help make a positive impact in the biomedical field, potentially preventing others from experiencing the loss of loved ones to diseases like cancer. In the distant future, I also hope to open a bike shop that can also serve as a sort of community center where people can connect with others and learn about bikes.

Learn more about the Master of Science in Biomedical Data Science program at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Student Sooyun Caroline Tavolacci, MD, MSCR, Shares How Mount Sinai Inspired Her to Study Thoracic Oncology and Enhanced Her Career in Medicine

Apr 9, 2024 | Featured, School

Sooyun Caroline Tavolacci, MD, MSCR

Sooyun Caroline Tavolacci, MD, MSCR, is a first-year student in the PhD in Clinical Research Program at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. As a graduate of the Master of Science in Clinical Research program, she reflects on her experiences and achievements, and discusses why she chose Mount Sinai for her PhD education.

What brought you to Icahn Mount Sinai as a master’s student?

Five months after arriving in the U.S. following my graduation from medical school in South Korea, I began searching for a master’s program. While I had gained experience in basic science research throughout my medical education, I lacked exposure to translational and clinical research. I sought a program that would bridge the gap between scientific research and clinical practice. Mount Sinai’s Graduate School seemed ideal for gaining insight into both realms and stood out for its distinguished physicians and scientists.

What were some of your achievements as a master’s student?

Nearly every course I undertook was an eye-opening experience. I was able to directly apply the research methodology and statistics I learned in class to real-world projects. Engaging in discussions with colleagues from diverse backgrounds provided invaluable insights into different aspects of the U.S. health system.

I joined the lab of Fred Hirsh, MD, PhD, at the Center for Thoracic Oncology at the Mount Sinai Tisch Cancer Institute and gained translational science experience while working on a National Institutes of Health-funded COVID-19 study in patients with lung cancer. I interacted with patients daily, observed clinic encounters, and gained more than just research experience under the guidance of Jorge Gomez, MD, and Nicholas Rohs, MD. In the lab, while working alongside two postdoctoral fellows, translational scientist Philip Mack, PhD, virologists, immunologists, pathologists, and statisticians, and simultaneously utilizing cutting-edge techniques to analyze serological responses, I gained invaluable experience in basic science research and statistical analysis. In my second year, I also explored the efficacy of treatment in lung cancer patients with Dr. Hirsch and Rajwanth Veluswamy, MD, MSCR, who is also a graduate of my master’s program. I participated in two studies: one evaluating the difference in the efficacy of immune treatment between sexes in lung cancer patients, and another investigating radiation pneumonitis among locally advanced lung cancer patients who received chemoradiation. I presented three abstracts as a first author at national and local conferences and published two articles under my mentors’ guidance.

Beyond my education and thesis project, I had the privilege of meeting several cardiothoracic surgeons and collaborating on research with them. I engaged in student activities and worked together with graduate and medical students on various projects. The Mount Sinai community is diverse and extensive, and I am grateful to have met such outstanding mentors and colleagues who will undoubtedly remain assets even after I graduate from the program.

What attracted you to this area of study?

Throughout my pre-medicine education, I had an exceptional professor, Ho-Yeon Song, MD, PhD, at the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, College of Medicine, Soon Chun Hyang University, who sparked my interest in immunology. During my medical education, this interest further developed, particularly in transplantation medicine. At the time of my graduation from medical school, I was considering general surgery or cardiothoracic surgery for my specialty. I was drawn to thoracic oncology due to my longstanding interest in immunology and cardiothoracic surgery.

Why continue your education with a PhD in Clinical Research?

The two years of training in the master’s program were intense and filled with invaluable experiences. While I felt close to achieving my goal of becoming an independent physician-scientist, I recognized the need for more practice and experience. By the end of my master’s program, my mentors provided me with opportunities to continuously work on their projects. I also refined my interest in health outcomes research and wanted to pursue advanced statistical courses that would be highly beneficial for analyzing large health care data in comparative effectiveness studies. I felt like once I started my graduate medical training, I might not have dedicated time for research unless I had continuous mentorship and my own projects.

I appreciated the flexibility of my master’s program, which allowed students to gain real-world experience and tailor their education. Therefore, I was determined to continue my education in the same program, even if it meant self-funding. With the experience I gained at the Mount Sinai Tisch Cancer Institute, I was offered a promising position. However, just over six months into my new role, I faced the decision of whether to continue both work and pursue a second doctoral education.

Thanks to Mark Hurwitz, MD, Department Chair/Director of Radiation Medicine at New York Medical College and Westchester Medical Center, who supported my decision to pursue a PhD while maintaining my work duties and readily agreed to be my mentor, I am balancing both work and education. Recently, I applied for a grant to initiate my outcome research project under his guidance before entering the dissertation phase. Having mentors at Mount Sinai and in the field of medicine through the PhD program has been a great source of support as I navigate my career.

What are your plans after you complete your PhD?

After completing my second year in the PhD program and transitioning into the dissertation phase, I intend to apply for graduate medical education in surgery or cardiothoracic surgery. While pursuing training in my desired field, I aim to concurrently work on my dissertation project. My ultimate goal is to become a surgeon-scientist.

Learn more about the PhD in Clinical Research Program

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