I am an Executive Physician, Laboratory Director, and Program Director with broad experience in laboratory development. For the last 15 years, I have served at Montefiore Health System, one of New York’s premier health systems. It is comprised of 10 hospitals and more than 200 outpatient ambulatory care sites.
Nationally recognized for its clinical excellence, Montefiore and its Albert Einstein College of Medicine represent the future of patient care, science, and education. My commitment is simple: to do more for every patient in every community we serve with fiscal responsibility and entrepreneurship.
I have developed reference laboratory-based Molecular and Genomics services at Baystate Medical Center, Massachusetts, developed a Cancer Genomics Laboratory at Texas Children’s Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, and built cutting-edge laboratories including Genetics and Genomics, Molecular Pathology, and Genetics at Montefiore Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York.
My skills include strategic planning, outcomes analysis, research design, operations, management, development, and clinical trial work.
Academic and Professional Leadership
Since 2009, I have been a Professor of Pathology and Director of the Molecular Pathology and Genetics Laboratory. I also serve as the founding Program Director for the Laboratory Genetics and Genomics (LGG) and Molecular Genetics Pathology (MGP) fellowship programs at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Medical Center in New York.
The Department of Pathology at Montefiore Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine provides diagnostic services of the highest quality. The department is unique among area hospitals because its pathologists and laboratory directors maintain national and international reputations in their fields of expertise.
Montefiore Pathology is particularly skilled in cancer diagnosis and receives referrals from other medical centers across the country. Our cytologists are world-renowned for their work in Pap smears and fine needle aspiration of suspected tumors.
In laboratory medicine, we operate some of the most technologically advanced diagnostic systems, analyzing approximately three and a half million specimens each year. This testing is supervised by a team of physician-scientists who are leaders in hematology, endocrinology, rheumatic diseases, microbiology, virology, and the laboratory diagnosis of heart disease, liver disease, and AIDS.
Our department is fully accredited by and participates in the Quality Assurance Programs of the College of American Pathologists.
Training and Certifications
I am dual board certified in Clinical Molecular Genetics and Clinical Cytogenetics, with more than 25 years of academic and service experience at leading medical centers in the United States, including Tufts University in Boston, Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, and Montefiore Health System and Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York.
I completed my fellowship training in Boston at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and the Center for Human Genetics at Boston University.
National and International Leadership Roles
I have served in multiple leadership positions at the American College of Medical Genetics and the Association of Molecular Pathology (AMP). Currently, I serve as the Immediate Past Chair for the Council of Program Directors at the Association of Molecular Pathology.
I also represent the American College of Medical Genetics (ACMG) on the Undergraduate Training in Genomics Committee (UTRIG) under the Association of Pathology Chairs. Recently, I was selected as a member of the Association of Molecular Pathology Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Working Group.
In addition, I have served in key leadership positions at APPNA, a 15,000-member North American physicians’ organization. My roles have included President of APPNA New York Chapter, elected Treasurer of APPNA Central, Editor of APPNA Journals, Chair of the Research & Education Scientific Affairs Committee, Chair of the Young Physician Guidance Committee, and many others over the past 25 years.
I am also a founding member of the Pakistani Association of Molecular Pathology and the Pakistani Association of Medical Genetics and Genomics (PSMG).
Public Service Contribution
In 2007, with the support of Rotary Club and APPNA, I helped establish the first public-sector, free-of-cost Cytogenetics Laboratory for childhood leukemia at the National Institute of Child Health in Karachi, Pakistan. This was the first laboratory of its kind and remains one of the most meaningful milestones in my professional journey.