Miriam T. Vincent, M.D.
Dr. Miriam T. Vincent began her career at the SUNY Health Science Center at Brooklyn as a medical student in 1981. From her first week in medical school, she began caring for patients in the Family Practice Student Model. She followed her panel of patients in the Student Model for her four years of medical school. Although Dr. Vincent’s role in the Medical Center has evolved and grown over the years, she still sees patients every Wednesday afternoon with students as preceptor in the College of Medicine’s Doctoring Experience.

Dr. Vincent graduated cum laude from the College of Medicine as an AOA honor student in 1985. Dr. Vincent has been an integral member of the Downstate community ever since, serving as Chief Resident in Family Practice and joining the faculty of the Department as an Assistant Professor shortly after completing her residency.

Since then, Dr. Vincent has gone from strength to strength, distinguishing herself as a skilled and trusted clinician and as a charismatic and innovative educator. She has been an articulate advocate for the discipline of primary care, serving on the College of Medicine’s Primary Care Education and Training Task Force in 1990-1992, which proposed significant changes in the role of primary care in the medical school curriculum. She is strongly identified with the task of faculty development and has taken a leading role in this regard in both her department and her discipline, and has twice been awarded grant funds from HRSA to support outstanding Faculty Development Programs in Family Medicine. She was promoted to Associate Professor in 1994, in recognition of her numerous accomplishments as a teacher, physician, and scholar.

Dr. Vincent has been the recipient of many honors and awards, including the Dr. George Elliot Liberman Master Teacher in Family Medicine Award, the Caribbean Women’s Health Association Award for Leadership, Excellence and Commitment in Community Health, the Humanism in Medicine Award of the Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey, the Aesclepius Medical Society Special Recognition Award, and most recently the Alumni Association College of Medicine-SUNY Downstate Medical Center Presidential Recognition and Service Award. Despite her demanding workload, Dr. Vincent has also found the time to publish in clinical and basic science research literature and to pursue a Ph.D. in Molecular Cell Biology at Downstate’s own School of Graduate Studies.

Dr. Vincent’s administrative abilities have long been recognized, by both the College of Medicine and University Hospital of Brooklyn, and she was asked to serve as Interim Chair of the Department of Family Practice in 1995. She has also served as Chair of the Hospital’s Executive Performance Improvement Council and as Chair of the Executive Ambulatory Care Committee. Dr. Vincent was appointed Professor and Chair of the Department of Family Practice at SUNY Downstate on October 30, 2001. As Chair, she seeks always to inspire the faculty and staff to clinical, teaching, and scholarly excellence.









Hanna Najib Aghabi, M.D.
Dr. Hanna Najib Aghabi, is currently the Medical Director and Assistant Professor and
Medical Examiner for the Department of Family Medicine at the State University of New York in Brooklyn, USA. (SUNY-Downstate). Dr. Aghabi is the Liaison of the Geriatric Programme for Kingsbrook Hospital and University Hospital of Brooklyn. He is the Advisor and Preceptor for Medical Residents and Member of the University Hospital Ambulatory Care Committee which includes Pediatrics, Ob-Gyn, Internal Medicine and Geriatric Services. Dr. Aghabi has extensive experience in Emergency Medicine. SUNY Downstate is one of the nation’s leading urban medical centers. SUNY-Downstate serves over 2.5 million people.

Dr. Aghabi is a Diplomate of the American Board of Family Practice, a Member of the
American Academy of Family Physicians, and a member of the American Medical Association.

Dr. Aghabi a prominent and respected Family Physician started and completed his Residency in Family Medicine at SUNY-Downstate in 2002. He was an exemplary MedicalResident and he was particularly well liked by his patients.

Dr. Aghabi was honored by the Kings County Hospital Center in Brooklyn, with the Certificate of Appreciation in Recognition for Outstanding Service and Dedication to Patient Care in Commemoration of Doctor’s Day March 30th 2002.

Prior to becoming a physician Dr. Aghabi had studied Civil Engineering. He had pursued a successful career in Real Estate Development business. He is the Founder and President ofMetropolitan Realty and Development Group. Dr. Aghabi and his wife, Katerina Vikatos Aghabi, reside in Fort Lee, New Jersey for over twenty-five years.








Richard Crummer, M.D.
DRichard Crummer, M.D. returned to SUNY-HSCB in 1998 as Assistant Professor in the Department of Family Practice. He is Director of the Family Practice Inpatient Service, Chair of the University Hospital Ambulatory Care JCAHO and Quality Assurance Committee, a Family Practice Department elected rep-resentative to the Medical Board of University Hospital, and faculty liaison to the Department of Medicine regarding residency rotation issues. In addition, Dr. Crummer serves as preceptor and advisor to resident physicians and a registered physician assistant, as well as maintains his own panel of primary care patients.

Prior to becoming a physician, Dr. Crummer had already pursued a successful career in business and man-agement consulting with major U.S. and Canadian consulting firms and companies. He was born and raised in southern Ontario, Canada, with undergraduate and graduate studies and degrees at Canadian and U.S. universities. He completed his medical studies at Universidad Autonoma de Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Initially Dr. Crummer completed two years of residency in Psychiatry, completing his first year of residency at Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia and at SUNY-HSCB. It was then that he transferred into the SUNY-HSCB Family Practice Residency Program, where he went on to be chief resident, completing his residency in Family Practice in 1992. For the next several years, Dr. Crummer was an Attending Physician in the Department of Family Practice at The Brooklyn Hospital Center, where he provided primary care to a diverse group of patients, was department Coordinator of managed care initiatives, Director of the behavioral sciences curriculum for Family Practice residents and Coordinator of medical student activities and programs. He also served briefly as Medical Director of the Stamford Community Health Center in Stamford, Connecticut. He is fluent in Spanish.

Dr. Crummer is a Diplomate of the American Board of Family Practice, a Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians, and a member of the American Medical Association.








Kevin T. Custis, M.D.
The Department of Family Practice welcomed Kevin T. Custis, M.D. to the faculty with the rank of Assistant Professor, on July 1, 1999. Dr. Custis joined our faculty directly upon graduation from our own residency training program. Dr. Custis was an exemplary resident, and he was particularly well-liked by his patients (he was kept very busy during his continuity clinics in Suite B!). The Department of Family Practice has actually known Dr. Custis for a longer time, because he also attended the College of Medicine at SUNY-HSCB.

Dr. Custis has developed a particular interest and expertise in Sports Medicine, and one of his important roles in the Department of Family Practice is to coordinate educational activities for residents and students in this subspecialty. This expertise is especially valuable in Dr. Custis's current role as Medical Director of Wingate Health Center, a role he assumed in the latter part of 1999.

Dr. Custis joined the United States Air Force following his graduation from high school in 1983. In the Air Force, he served as a specialist in medical services, and he received training in patient care, aeromedical evacuation, emergency room services, intensive care, and geriatrics. From 1987 to 1991, Dr. Custis attended Adelphi University.

Dr. Custis grew up in inner-city Baltimore, Maryland, and he is committed to giving service in the field of family medicine in an urban setting, where he sees the needs as most pressing. Right now, the communi-ties of Brooklyn, New York are the beneficiaries of his expertise and caring.








Joseph J. DeRose, M.D.
Except for two years of active military duty (1967-1969) serving as Deputy Chief of the U.S. Public Health Service Outpatient Department in Washington, D.C., Dr. Joseph DeRose has had a continuous relationship with SUNY-HSCB since he attended this institution as a medical student, earning the M.D. degree in 1963. Upon graduation, he embarked upon an internship and residency in Medicine at Kings County Hospital, and he served as Chief Resident in his third year. The following year, he became the first Chief Resident in Medicine at SUNY-HSCB. From 1969 to 1975, Dr. DeRose was Medical Director of University Hospital's Outpatient Department, and he also had appointments to Kings County Hospital (Visiting Physician) and Swedish Hospital (Medical Consultant) during this time. In 1976, Dr. DeRose transferred from Internal Medicine to the Department of Family Practice, where he has continued as an internist and assumed a significant role in teaching Family Practice residents and medical students. All clinicians in the Department of Family Practice, including his faculty colleagues, seek advice and counsel from Dr. DeRose concerning difficult or complex medical problems affecting their patients.

Dr. DeRose has conducted significant research and has written numerous articles for publication. One sig-nificant contribution was as a primary investigator developing the outpatient treatment of Paget's Disease of the Bone. Dr. DeRose was instrumental in establishing the National Paget's Disease Foundation, which is headquartered in Brooklyn. Since 1990, he has been involved in non-invasive cardiology, hypercholes-terolemia, and hypertension, and he has lectured on each of these topics with the Department of Cardiology. He has also served as adjunct lectuer to the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. In addition, Dr. DeRose wrote a chapter on cardiovascular disease for the recently-published textbook Primary Care (edited by Singleton, Sandowski, et. al.).

Dr. DeRose has also served SUNY-HSCB in many institution-wide roles, including long service on the School of Medicine's Admissions Committee, Secretary of University Hospital's Medical Board, and President of the Medical Staff. He has served on numerous other committees throughout his long tenure at SUNY-HSCB.








Suzanne Gentner, R.D., R.N.,C.N.M.
Suzanne Gentner joined the Department of Family Practice in August, 1996 as Midwife in Family Health Services. Prior to this, she had been hired under the Department's Women's Health Initiative grant to teach and precept Family Practice residents and students in matters related to Obstetric care. Ms. Gentner's asso-ciation with SUNY-HSCB dates back to the mid-1980's, when she enrolled in the Nurse-Midwifery Program (Certificate earned in 1988). During the periods 1989-1990, 1992-1993, and from 1995 to the present, Ms. Gentner has served on the staff of the institution as a Nurse-Midwife.

Ms. Gentner brings a broad background to her current role. She earned a B.S. degree from Hunter College in 1972 in the field of Foods and Nutrition. In 1975, Columbia University awarded her the M.S. degree in Public Health Nutrition. From the mid-1970's to the mid-1980's, Ms. Gentner served as nutritionist, nutrition instructor, and nutrition consultant in a variety of settings in metropolitan New York. In 1985, she was awarded the M.S. degree in Nursing. Her initial nursing assignments were at Bronx Municipal Hospital Center in Labor and Delivery and in the postpartum and antepartum wards. After she earned her Certificate through the Nurse-Midwifery Program here at SUNY-HSCB, Ms. Gentner's first professional position as a nurse-midwife was at Gouverneur/Bellevue Hospital.








Charles Harewood, M.D.
Dr. Charles Harewood has been a part-time member of the faculty of the Department of Family Practice since 1980. During his time at the Health Science Center, Dr. Harewood has served as preceptor to first-and second-year medical students in the elective, "Introduction to Continuity of Care".

Dr. Harewood received the Doctor of Medicine degree from this institution in 1976. He completed a three-year residency in Family Practice at Lutheran Medical Center in 1979. Dr. Harewood is currently a community attending physician practicing full-time on staff at Lutheran Medical Center and University Hospital of Brooklyn. His practice includes pre-natal and obstetric care. He sets the model for obstetrics in Family Practice for Brooklyn. Dr. Harewood's other professional activities have included consultation work with the Catholic Childcare Society and voluntary service as a ship's physician and member of the Medical Affairs Committee of the Floating Hospital.








Sanford Herman, M.D.
In February, 1997, the Department of Family Practice welcomed back to its faculty Downstate alumnus (Class of 1983) Dr. Sanford Herman. Dr. Herman is Board Certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, with additional Board certification in both Addiction Psychiatry and Geriatric Psychiatry. He provides teaching, precepting, and mentoring in the area of Human Behavior to the Family Practice residents and students.

Before returning to SUNY-HSCB, Dr. Herman had been associated with the Mt. Sinai Medical Center begin-ning in 1988 where he completed a fellowship in Substance Abuse and the Neuro-Psychiatric Aspects of AIDS. In 1989, Dr. Herman established the Schizophrenia Research Unit at Elmhurst where he participated in several drug trials including Risperidol. In 1992, still under the Mt. Sinai umbrella, Dr. Herman moved on to Queens Hospital, where his duties included opening a new inpatient psychiatric unit as well as a new outpatient community-based clinic. In between, Dr. Herman has also gained expertise in Emergency Psychiatry by virtue of many sleepless nights spent working in the Psychiatric Emergency Room.








Scott Ippolito, M.D.
Dr. Scott Ippolito has been a part-time member of the Family Practice faculty since 1990. His activities at SUNY-HSCB have focused on clinical teaching of both residents and medical students. He has been a regular preceptor for the residents during their continuity clinic in Suite B throughout his time with this institution. He also served as preceptor for the course, "Introduction to Continuity of Care", a clinical elec-tive experience for first- and second-year medical students. Dr. Ippolito's first involvement with the Department of Family Practice was as Family Practice Fellow in Obstetrics and Gynecology, during 1989-1990. OB/GYN is one area of particular focus in his teaching activities with the residents.

Dr. Ippolito earned the Doctor of Medicine degree in 1986 from Ross University School of Medicine, and he completed a three year residency program in Family Practice at Jamaica Hospital in Queens, New York. Dr. Ippolito was founder and director of the Family Practice Residency Training Program at Wyckoff Heights Medical Center from 1993 until 1996, when he became Chair of the Department of Family Practice at St. John's Episcopal Hospital in Queens, New York. In 2000, Dr. Ippolito was named chairman of the Department of Family Practice at South Nassau Community Hospital in Queens, New York.








Rosemary M. Jackson, M.D.
Beginning in 1995, Dr. Rosemary M. Jackson has had a part-time appointment in the Department of Family Practice as Clinical Assistant Professor. As an experienced pediatrician, Dr. Jackson has filled an
important niche in the Family Practice Residency Training Program, serving as preceptor to residents in Suite B for pediatric primary care, as well as coordinating other important aspects of the residents' pedi-atric rotations.

Dr. Jackson's ties to SUNY-HSCB and Kings County Hospital Center go back to the latter part of the 1980's, beginning with the residency program in Pediatrics. She has held a faculty appointment in Pediatrics since 1990, and she has given continuous service to these two institutions as attending physi-cian, preceptor and clinical instructor under the auspices of Children's Medical Center of Brooklyn. Dr. Jackson earned the Doctor of Medicine degree from SUNY Health Science Center at Syracuse in May, 1985.








Louise McCarthy, R.N.C., M.S.N., C.P.N.P.
Louise McCarthy has been Pediatric Nurse Practitioner and Program Administrator of the P.S. 13 Child Health Program in Brooklyn since she set up these clinical services in 1985 under the auspices of the Department of Family Practice and the New York State Department of Health. Additionally, in 1991 Ms. McCarthy was appointed to the faculty of the Department of Family Practice with the title of Clinical Instructor.

Ms. McCarthy earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing in 1975 from Downstate Medical Center. From 1981 to 1983, she attended Columbia University, earning a Master of Science degree in Nursing with a major in Pediatric Primary Care Nursing. Ms. McCarthy is certified and licensed in New York State as both a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner and School Nurse Practitioner.

Ms. McCarthy is currently a doctoral candidate at Teacher's College, Columbia University.








Richard Sadovsky, M.D.
Dr. Richard Sadovsky has been a part of SUNY-Health Science Center at Brooklyn from the very begin-ning of his involvement in the field of medicine. Dr. Sadovsky was awarded the degree of Doctor of
Medicine by this institution in 1974. Dr. Sadovsky remained at SUNY-HSCB for his residency in Family Practice from 1974 to 1977. He served as Chief Resident during the final year of residency. Upon com-pleting residency training in 1977, Dr. Sadovsky accepted a faculty appointment in the Department of Family Practice, and he served as Director of the Residency Program from 1977 to 1988. Dr. Sadovsky advanced from Assistant Professor to Clinical Associate Professor in 1985, and he was awarded tenure as Associate Professor in 1988. From 1988 to 1990, Dr. Sadovsky served as Associate Chairman of the Department of Family Practice.

Dr. Sadovsky has been active in the affairs of the institution throughout his career here. Among other involvements too numerous to mention, he has served continuously on the Medical Records Committee since the time of his initial appointment to the faculty. He has also served several terms on the commit-tee for the Faculty and Medical Staff. He has been a member of the Governing Board of Clinical Practice from 1983 to 1991, serving as Secretary/Treasurer in 1990. Dr. Sadovsky also served two terms as Member-at-Large of the Executive Committee of the Medical Board. In 1993, Dr. Sadovsky became a member of the Committee of Academic and Professional Qualifications (CAPQ), and he became Chairman of CAPQ in 1994. Currently, Dr. Sadovsky is an active member of the Managed Care Committee of University Physicians of Brooklyn, and he chairs the Contract Evaluation Sub-committee. He teaches a course in Practice Management to Family Practice trainees throughout the year.

Dr. Sadovsky's involvements extend beyond the boundaries of SUNY-HSCB. He served on the Board of Directors of the New York State Academy of Family Physicians from 1981 to 1985. In 1985, he became Vice President, and he was elected President in 1987. Dr. Sadovsky has been involved as a Trustee of the American Academy of Family Physicians Foundation since 1985, and he served as Treasurer and Chairman of the Joint Grant Award Committee from 1990 to 1995.

Dr. Sadovsky has written numerous articles and book chapters on a variety of topics related to Family Practice. He is currently Medical Editor of the AAFP Collection, a series of clinical care books by fami-ly physicians for family physicians. Dr. Sadovsky also recently edited a volume for Clinics in Family Medicine on "Hepatobiliary Disease". He is also Associate Editor for AFP. He has also made many pre-sentations nationally and internationally on a wide range of topics.

Richard Sadovsky received his undergraduate education at Cornell University, graduating Magna Cum Laude with a B.A. degree in 1970. He received a Master of Science degree in Health Management from New York University in 1987.








Pamela Sass, M.D.
Dr. Pamela Sass joined the faculty of the Department of Family Practice in 1989 as Clinical Assistant Professor and Chief for the Family Practice unit at the East New York Neighborhood Family Care Center. Dr. Sass received a full-time appointment as Assistant Professor in June, 1991. In this capacity, she serves as Director of Community Medicine activities and Course Director of Community Oriented Primary Care for Family Practice Residents. Dr. Sass is also active in curriculum reform for the College of Medicine at SUNY-Downstate.

Dr. Sass received her medical education at Rush Medical College, being awarded the Doctor of Medicine
degree in 1982. She completed a three-year Family Practice residency at Brookdale College in 1985, including service as Chief Resident in the third year of residency. A two-year fellowship in General Preventive Medicine at Mount Sinai Medical Center followed completion of the residency program. Between 1987 and 1989, she was a physician and Medical Director of Montefiore Medical Center's Valentine Lane Family Practice Center.

Dr. Sass has given several presentations and written journal articles focusing on tuberculosis. She has received several grant awards to pursue research on tuberculosis and tuberculosis testing in children and adolescents in a school-based setting. She has also presented and published her work on teaching com-munity medicine to family practice residents.








Ralph Schlossman, M.D.
Dr. Ralph Schlossman has the distinction of being the senior member of the active faculty in the Department of Family Practice, having joined the Department on a part-time basis in 1972. Since that time, he has served, without interruption, as preceptor to first- and second-year medical students in the elective, "Introduction to Continuity of Care". Dr. Schlossman takes the students on home visits to patients, and he has given numerous lectures on home visits to students and faculty at the Health Science Center. He also offers a one-month elective for fourth-year medical students.

Dr. Schlossman earned the Doctor of Medicine degree from New York University-Bellevue College of Medicine in 1955. Following a two-year internship at Kings County Hospital Center and two years of mil-itary service, he began his career in private practice. Throughout his career, Dr. Schlossman has been active and taken leadership roles in public affairs and medical societies.

Dr. Schlossman recently completed two years of distinguished leadership in the Medical Society of the State of New York.








Joanne K. Singleton, Ph.D., R.N., C.S., F.N.P.
Dr. Joanne Singleton became a Clinical Instructor in the Department of Family Practice in July, 1994. In this position, she precepts students and sees patients in her practice. She is also an Associate Professor at the Pace University, Lienhard School of Nursing, Department of Graduate Studies, and she teaches in the graduate Family Nurse Practitioner Program.

Prior to her appointment at Pace University, Dr. Singleton was an Associate Professor at SUNY-HSCB, School of Nursing, as well as Chairperson of the Nurse Practitioner Programs. She is a nationally certi-fied Family Nurse Practitioner. Dr. Singleton was senior editor as well as contributor to the recently-published textbook Primary Care.








Gloria Achara, M.D.
The Department of Family Practice welcomed Dr. Gloria Achara into the faculty as Assistant Professor in February, 2000. Dr. Achara assumed the position of Residency Director in February 2002. Dr. Achara also teaches residents and students, serves as advisor to assigned residents, and rotates as Service Attending for the Family Practice Inpatient Service in University Hospital.

Dr. Achara was born and raised in Nigeria, West Africa. She received her medical education at the University of Nigeria and the University of Lagos, completing her medical studies in 1983. She followed this with two years of service in Nigeria's National Youth Service Corps and three years in general medical practice in Lagos, Nigeria.

Dr. Achara came to Brooklyn in 1988, where her initial experience was a medical externship at Maimonides Hospital. In 1989, she came to our department here at SUNY-HSCB to complete the three-year residency program and also served as Chief Resident. Following graduation from our residency program, Dr. Achara took a position at The Brooklyn Hospital Center, where she served as attending physician, medical student preceptor, residency faculty, and director of their inpatient service. Dr. Achara has been Board-certified in Family Practice since 1993.









Eve Faber, M.D.
The Department of Family Practice welcomed Dr. Eve Faber into the faculty as Assistant Professor in November, 1999. In this role, Dr. Faber primarily supports the Residency Program and University Hospital by serving as supervising attending physician for a team of residents whenever they are called upon to see managed care Medicaid patients. Dr. Faber also teaches residents and students, serves as advi-sor to assigned residents, and rotates as Service Attending for the Family Practice Inpatient Service in University Hospital.

Dr. Faber was not an unknown quantity to our department, as she had received her undergraduate medical training right here at SUNY-HSCB. As a student, she was a regular volunteer for the "Foot Clinic" spon-sored by the Department of Family Practice at the Bond Street Homeless Shelter. The Doctor of Medicine degree was awarded to Dr. Faber in 1996.

Dr. Faber completed a three-year internship/residency program at the University of Maryland in Baltimore. In her final year of residency, Dr. Faber served as Chief Resident.








Gloria Mtomboti, M.D.
Dr. Gloria Mtomboti became Assistant Professor in the Department of Family Practice in August, 2002. Like Professor and Chair Dr. Miriam T. Vincent and Associate Professor Richard Sadovsky, Dr. Mtomboti is a graduate of both the SUNY Downstate College of Medicine (1999) and the Downstate Family Practice Residency Training Program (2002).

Dr. Mtomboti grew up in South Africa. After working for five years as a medical technologist in Pretoria, South Africa, she emigrated to the United States in 1987. She entered Hunter College a few months later, where she majored in Medical Laboratory Sciences, and received an Academic Incentive Award from the Black Faculty Student Alumni Research Exchange. In 1992, Dr. Mtomboti graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Science (Health Science) degree, becoming the first member of her family to achieve this educational milestone. For the next three years, she worked as a technologist, first at Regenron Pharmaceutical and later at Montefiore Medical Center.

At the time of her graduation from the SUNY Downstate College of Medicine in 1999, Dr. Mtomboti was awarded the Family Practice Graduation Award.








Aneela Hussain, M.D.
The Department of Family Practice welcomed Dr. Aneela Hussain to the faculty in April, 2002. Dr. Hussain assumed responsibility for supervising managed Medicaid patient care for a team of Family Practice residents, in addition to other regular faculty duties (precepting, teaching, advising, rotating as on-call attending, etc.).

Dr. Hussain was already well-known to the Department of Family Practice, for she is a 2000 graduate of the Department’s Residency Training Program, and she served ably as one of the two chief residents during the 1999-2000 training year. Dr. Hussain also distinguished herself as a scholar during her residency by collaborating on several articles and book chapters. Upon graduation from the program, Dr. Hussain joined South Nassau Communities Hospital in Oceanside (New York), an affiliate of SUNY Stonybrook. She maintained close ties with the Department through periodic precepting and teaching activities as a voluntary member of the faculty.

Dr. Hussain earned her degree in Medicine at F.J. Medical College in Lahore, Pakistan. In August 2003, Dr. Hussain became a Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians.








Alla Akivis, M.D.
The Department of Family Practice was pleased to welcome Alla Akivis, M.D. as Clinical Assistant Professor in August, 2002. In this position, Dr. Akivis contributes significantly to the expansion of the Department’s clinical care at SUNY Downstate Medical Center, as she sees patients eight sessions per week. Dr. Akivis also serves as a preceptor for resident patient care in the Family Practice Center, is an advisor for assigned residents, and rotates as Service Attending for the Family Practice Inpatient Service.

Like many of the colleagues she joined in the Department, Dr. Akivis is a graduate of SUNY Downstate’s Family Practice Residency Training Program. Dr. Akivis completed this three-year program during the years 1999-2002.

Dr. Akivis completed her training to be a Medical Doctor at the Second Moscow State Medical School in June, 1988. Immediately following, she completed two years of residency in Internal Medicine at Moscow City Hospital No. 15, from September 1988 to October 1990. After relocating to Israel, she became a postgraduate student in nutrition studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Rehovot in 1991 and became Head of the Laboratory of Energy Metabolism and Clinical Nutrition in the Pediatric Department of Kaplan Hospital in Rehovot, from 1992 until1996. She co-authored four articles for publication in U.S. medical journals based on her work at Kaplan Hospital.

Dr. Akivis relocated to the United States and served as Asthma research assistant in the Department of Emergency Medicine at The Brooklyn Hospital Center, from 1997 to 1999.








Anne Skamai, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor Anne Skamai, Ph.D. joined the Department of Family Practice early in 2002 to fulfill an important role in the residency program. As the Department’s clinical psychologist and Co-Director of Behavioral Science, Dr. Skamai teams up with psychiatrist Dr. Sanford Herman to provide a well-rounded curriculum for the residents in the Human Behavior aspects of medical care. In addition to her precepting and clinical teaching responsibilities with the residents, she is an active behavioral medicine researcher in the areas of stress, chronic illness, and psycho-oncology. In this capacity, Dr. Skamai mentors resident research initiatives and directs the Primary Care Research in Family Practice elective for medical students.

Dr. Skamai’s first experience at Downstate began in 1989 when she enrolled as a student in the Occupational Therapy Program following an early successful career path in investment management. Following completion of that undergraduate degree in 1993, she initiated her practice as a licensed Occupational Therapist in Virginia with specialization in both neurorehabilitation and mental health. Fascinated by the reciprocal impact of psychosocial factors on physical health and well-being, Dr. Skamai returned to New York in 1996 to pursue doctoral studies at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology of Yeshiva University. She was awarded an M.A. in General Psychology in 1999 and graduated from Einstein with her Doctor of Philosophy degree in Clinical Health Psychology in 2001.

Dr. Skamai returned to Downstate in 1999 with a half-time appointment on the core faculty of the Occupational Therapy Master’s Program, where she teaches the psychosocial and mental health aspects of the curriculum. She continues in this role with a dual appointment in the College of Health Related Professions in addition to the important responsibilities she now performs for the Department of Family Practice in the College of Medicine.








Margaret Donat, M.D.
The Department of Family Practice welcomed Margaret Donat, M.D. to its faculty ranks in December 2002. As Assistant Professor, Dr. Donat has assumed two important roles in the department. First, she is serving as pre-doctoral coordinator for the department, and the course director for the new Family Practice Clerkship. Second, Dr. Donat is the medical director for the Family Practice Center at Downstate.

Like many of her faculty colleagues, Dr. Donat first distinguished herself in the Family Practice Residency Training Program, which she completed in July 2001. Upon completion of her residency, she went on to do a fellowship in Women’s Health. For the next few months, Dr. Donat was an Attending Physician in the Department of Family Practice at Brookdale Hospital Center, where she provided primary care to a diverse group of patients.

Dr Donat has been the recipient of many honors and awards, including the Kings County Hospital Center Community Service Award 2001, the Residency Program Director’s Award for Superb Performance, , the Scientific Research Assembly of the American academy of Family Physician June 2001, June 2002, the Aesclepius’ Medical Society Achievement Award 2003. Despite her demanding workload, Dr. Donat has also found time to organize and participate in many health fairs and Research Studies.