THE DIVISIONS OF GRADUATE AND PROFESSIONAL STUDIES • FALL 2024
LEADERS OF POWERING TOMORROW
SCHOOL OF HEALTH SCIENCES ALUM DAN ROOTENBERG SUCCEEDS IN BUSINESS AND PAYS IT FORWARD. P 26
MESSAGE FROM DR. PATRICIA SALKIN
This issue of LINKS Magazine highlights an inspiring and recurring theme throughout the graduate and professional divisions—powering leaders of tomorrow. The pages that follow tell an interwoven story of how University alumni use their Touro education in leadership positions to make a difference for people and communities.
Whether it’s impacting the lives of young students as a social worker, school principal or innovative teacher; leading a team of technology professionals at an international bank; or advocating for those who can’t speak up for themselves as an attorney, our graduates are using their skills to make a real difference in so many critical arenas.
When it comes to the healthcare space, Touro University itself is a national leader and our health science alumni exemplify those leadership qualities. Read about a physician assistant who stepped up during an international crisis and a physical therapist who’s an industry leader now serving the community and helping develop a new generation of professionals.
Please take the time to learn about the remarkable journeys of our exemplary Touro University alumni and how they are paying forward their Touro education as leaders who are helping others achieve success and fulfillment.
Patricia E. Salkin, JD, Ph.D. Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Provost, Graduate and Professional Divisions
6 OPEN WIDE
Whether chronic pain or routine care, dentist Lana Hashim is driven to heal her patients and grow the profession
Touro College of Dental Medicine
10 DON’T SAY NO
Social worker Sophia Shaw deploys her powers of conviction and convincing to get the services her clients need
Graduate School of Social Work
16 STAR ATHLETE BECOMES FIVE-STAR DOCTOR }
Orthopedic surgeon RobTrasolini coaches his patients both inside and outside the operating room
Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine
20 MODERN HISTORY
Alum Chani Gotlieb brings her lifelong passion and academic rigor to educating students to understand and document
Jewish history
Graduate School of Jewish Studies
22 CREATE IT AND THEY WILL COME
High school director Amit Bahl credits The School Leadership program for helping him teach his students to soar Graduate School of Education
FIELD OF DREAMS
When New Yorker Dan Rootenberg’s dream of a baseball career ended, he bounced back with a degree in physical therapy and a booming business (cover story)
School of Health Sciences, PT Program 32
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY MADE TANGIBLE
Software engineer Vimal Kumar takes what he learned from a Touro program and applies it far and wide
Graduate School of Technology 34 THE PERFECT DOSE
Pharmacy school graduate Evan Sasson creates the perfect prescription for patient care
Touro College of Pharmacy
42 LEGAL EAGLE
Touro Law alum Julia Ansanelli, a bright and busy corporate attorney, happily makes times to fight for asylum for immigrant teens
Touro University Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center 46
STOIC AND SKILLED
Whether in routine or war, physician assistant Michele Freund cares for patients without flinching
School of Health Sciences, PA Program
BET ON YOUR OWN BOLD SELF
With an idea and an entrepreneurial spirit, Touro’s Moonshots Scholars Program gives students the chance to act on their ideas
Graduate School of Business
~
WHETHER CHRONIC PAIN OR ROUTINE CARE—ONE
DENTIST IS DRIVEN TO HEAL HER PATIENTS AND GROW THE PROFESSION
Lana Hashim had priorities and plans when she considered studying at Touro College of Dental Medicine. After she met with professors, saw the state-of-the-art equipment and the futuristic simulation laboratories, she was all in.
Four years later, in 2020, Hashim made history alongside her fellow students, as a member of the first graduating class of Touro’s dental school. “The newest techniques and technology in dentistry were all there for us,” she says.“The teaching matched. I remember how tough our oral pathology class was. But because of what I got from that professor, I’ve become very good at spotting oral cancers that another dentist might miss. I’ve helped to save patients’ lives. It doesn’t get better than that.”
Beyond her dental skills, Hashim possesses strong leadership chops. She is the new dentist committee chair for the Ninth District Dental Association,
in Hawthorne, New York. “I make new dentists aware of all the American Dental Association has to offer with regard to wellness, career choices and finances,” she says. “I act as a voice for new dentists and coordinate fun, interactive and informative events.”
She also serves as a New York State Dental Association delegate, lobbying legislators in Albany on behalf of her profession. In that post, she makes certain politicians know the concerns of dentists from helping to keep their insurance rates reasonable to improving access to care.
“I believe it’s hugely important to be part of a community,” says Hashim, who is 30 and lives in Yonkers. “I’ve always been involved in advocacy and activism, and I always will be.”
She attended McGill University in Montreal, where she majored in anatomy and cell biology and business management. Rigorous academics did noth-
OPEN WIDE
Dr. Lana Hashim works on a patient
State-of-the-art simulation laboratory at Touro College of Dental Medicine
“I believe it’s hugely important to be part of a community.”
ing to lessen her entrepreneurial passion. She created YouthStart, a social entrepreneurship project, part of the global nonprofit group Enactus. “We implemented a business plan workshop in various Montreal high schools, where we held competitions for the best student business plans,” says Hashim, who in addition to English, speaks French and Arabic. “The kids also had to learn to pitch their ideas.”
Once at Touro, she took on a project that married her desire to help future patients with her drive to organize and create whatever she believed was needed: Touro College of Dental Medicine became an official member of the American Student Dental Association. Hashim became one of its first presidents. Under her leadership, the Touro chapter raised money to send
students to national conferences, created a mentorship program and a “Spa Day” for fellow dental students in desperate need of balance in their busy academic lives.
Reared in Upstate New York by a dentist father and OB-GYN mother, Hashim knew her career would be in the medical field. “At various times we had my grandparents—on both sides—living with us,” she recalls. “I loved helping care for them, listening to them, being with them, whatever they needed or wanted I loved doing. It’s where I learned that I love to help and heal people.”
Hashim completed her residency at Montefiore Medical Center and now works as a general dentist, but also performs other services from cosmetic improvements to jaw pain to sleep apnea issues. Like everything else in her life, Hashim does not do half measures. She works full time, practicing general dentistry with her father in his full-service office in Poughkeepsie. “I have always been a hard worker and a perfectionist,” she says. “It works great for dentistry.”
NO Say Don’t
A SOCIAL WORKER DEPLOYS HER POWERS OF CONVICTION AND CONVINCING TO GET THE SERVICES HER CLIENTS NEED
Sophia Shaw (center) with staff at HeartShare, including fellow GSSW alum Cosmos Peters (right)
For as long as she can remember, Sophia Shaw knew she belonged in the room where it happens. Is she a formidable force? On behalf of others, oh, yes, indeed! “To have a voice for people to get the attention and the services they need,” says Shaw, vice president of Residential and Housing Programs for the non-profit HeartShare St. Vincent’s Services, “you have to be in a position to have those with power of the purse and political clout really see you, hear you and to act.”
Today, Shaw manages over eight contracts and budgets of more than $20 million. Among her numerous duties, she opened and assumed operations of two shelters for women and children. She oversees juveniles in children’s community residences and group homes, as well as supportive housing for young adults who are homeless or at risk of homelessness, adults leaving state psychiatric hospitals, living in homeless shelters and being discharged from state prisons who need housing.
and empower them to earn a GED diploma.
Her work on behalf of New York City youth and families has not gone unnoticed. Shaw recently was recognized by City & State Magazine as one of “The 2023 Above & Beyond Innovators: New Yorkers who are disrupting the status quo and driving transformative change.”
“Accomplishing this is my passion.”
Her immediate plan includes convincing lenders, politicians and government officials to help HeartShare build from ground up a supportive housing building and create a one-stop shop of housing, mental healthcare and other crisis needs under one roof. Currently, HeartShare clients live in rental apartments scattered throughout the city. “Imagine how we can improve services and support when everyone is in one location,” says Shaw, 47. “Accomplishing this is my passion, but it’s rooted in pragmatism.”
Shaw holds training sessions to help her team meet the complex needs of HeartShare’s young and vulnerable clients. Housing is a start, but Shaw and her staff also reunify clients with family members and, when possible, ease them back into school
Shaw, who came from Jamaica when she was 22, and eventually saved enough money to bring her mother and disabled brother to live with her, worked as a paralegal with the Legal Aid Society in Brooklyn for years. She eventually became a manager. Still, she knew she could do much more for young people—abused, neglected, mentally ill, homeless—navigating the complex maze of the New York juvenile justice system. “Judges give more weight to what a social worker says than to the information from a paralegal, even though we spend a lot of time with the kids in the system and know how to navigate it for their benefit. But in the pecking order, paralegals are not licensed, and social workers are licensed,” Shaw says bluntly. “So, I became a licensed social worker.”
Shaw makes it sound easy. It was not. An intern in her office showed Shaw a brochure from Touro University Graduate School of Social Work (GSSW). Though she worked full time and had no money for school, Shaw took out loans and graduated with a master’s degree in social work in 2015. “Touro was a godsend,” she says. “Every single professor was caring and compassionate and knew what they were talking about because they were professionals in the field. They infused me with the values that I approach my work every day—with seriousness, professionalism and love.”
In fact, says Shaw, “I hire Touro graduates because I know the quality of individual I’m getting.”
LEADING THE WAY
Aboveher desk at Jewish Association Serving the Aging (JASA), where she is program director at a center for older adults in the Bronx, Yvette Kouamenan, MSW, has posted a list detailing how to be an effective leader.
It’s just one of many tools she acquired in a new “Social Work Leadership and Management” course at the Touro Graduate School of Social Work (GSSW) for students interested in human service, government and nonprofit leadership.
“I look at it every day to remind myself to remain humble, be an effective listener, grow in my position and help my team,” says the 2023 alum.
The list was a gift from Founding Dean Emeritus and Professor Steven Huberman, who created and teaches the course, and mentors select fellows in a follow-up seminar that further prepares students for management responsibilities.
“Many of our students had aspirations to be change agents and directors of their own agencies or start up their own organizations,” explains Dean Nancy Gallina. “It was critical to give students who want to go in that direction an opportunity to receive a structured curriculum on management and leadership.”
The course covers financial management and budgeting, supervising employees and volunteers, resource development and programming, leadership styles, management theories and practices, ethical and moral dilemmas, performance improvement, creating positive organizational cultures and marketing. Students design a new and innovative project.
Last spring, 40 students had completed the course and six of the 40 had completed the fellowship, which involves seminars with leaders and handson experience creating special initiatives in the
field that apply what is learned in the classroom.
As a fellow, Kouamenan developed and ran groups for high school students in the Bronx who wanted to talk about their problems—from bullying to their uncertain futures. Eventually, she would like to earn a doctorate and develop a nonprofit to help orphan children in West Africa.
“I use what I learned in the classroom every day. It’s been helpful in guiding me and giving me the tools I need,” she says.
Social worker Yevette Kouamenan, Touro GSSW leadership fellow
S tar Athlete becomes Five-Star Doctor
AN ORTHOPEDIC SURGEON COACHES HIS PATIENTS BOTH INSIDE AND OUTSIDE THE OPERATING ROOM
Rare is Rob Trasolini—an excellent orthopedic surgeon minus the outsized ego that can overtake an operating room. And here’s the clincher: Nurses who’ve seen him at work choose Dr. Rob, as he’s known, for their own surgeries and recommend him to relatives and friends.
Most important, perhaps, are the more than 500 strangers-turned-patients who overwhelmingly gift him with five-star reviews nicely summed up in two comments, “nice human being and great doctor,” and “he talks to me, not at me.”
As much as he loves performing surgeries, Trasolini, a sports medicine specialist, admits he likes mentoring future orthopedic surgeons just as much. “I had little exposure to medicine growing up. In a new medical school, where I was only in the second graduating class, I didn’t have prior alumni to provide direction. Given my experience, it makes sense that I want to help smooth the way for those who are coming up after me,” says Trasolini, 39, who graduated a decade ago from Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine and now works for Northwell Health, in several Long Island hospitals.
“At Touro, the professors and students were a team,” says Trasolini. “Look, the academic part of medical school is the same no matter where you go, and Touro’s professors knew their stuff. But what counted more was their dedication, their availability to us and the camaraderie they fostered in the students.”
Though he’s made himself available to med students and fellows for phone calls, email exchanges and in-person chats for years, it’s now official. Transolini has accepted the position of vice chair of the TouroCOM Alumni Board. “The only difference to me is that I now have an official title for what I’ve been doing unofficially for years,” he says, laughing. “But this is good, because it helps organizationally and structurally. We can set up group events and other get-togethers to answer questions, provide
prospective and help secure internships.”
Trasolini was a star lacrosse player at Colgate University and a four-sport athlete in his Long Island high school. His father, who came to America from Italy at 30 and built a construction business, died of a massive heart attack at 52, right after Trasolini, who was living in Chicago, took his Medical College Admission Test. Though he was accepted to several schools, he chose Touro, in part to be close to his mother and younger siblings. “We’re Italian,” he says, simply. “You come home.”
Trasolini is a specialist with a clinical focus on arthroscopic treatment of the shoulder, elbow, hip, knee and ankle. He specializes in complex ligament reconstruction of the knee, including, but not limited to, anterior cruciate reconstruction, posterior cruciate reconstruction and collateral ligament reconstruction. Trasolini also has a special interest in the shoulder, including arthroscopic surgery, open procedures and shoulder replacement.
Having torn his own ACL twice, Trasolini can identify with myriad of emotions of young athletes—and not so young former athletes—who need surgery, rehab and a gradual reentry to an endeavor they pursued for hours every day. “Athletes identify as athletes forever and often believe they are invincible,” he says. “Along with the physical, emotionally it can be very tough. For kids today, the pressure to do one sport only, and be excellent at it, is intense. I understand. I spend a long time talking with them about the emotional component of what they will likely experience.”
A father of three little ones, Trasolini and his attorney wife, Jennifer, live in Garden City. His mother lives a few blocks away. Trasolini coaches t-ball and elementary school lacrosse in his spare time.
Much of each day is spent performing surgeries on everyone from 12-year-old soccer stars to 68-yearold pickleball players. “I’ve found, personally and professionally, that athletes always consider themselves athletes,” he says, adding sheepishly. “I do.”
Modern History
A TEACHER BRINGS HER LIFELONG PASSION AND ACADEMIC RIGOR TO EDUCATING STUDENTS TO UNDERSTAND AND DOCUMENT JEWISH HISTORY
Annual exhibit of the Genealogy Project, developed by Graduate School of Jewish Studies alum Chani Gotlieb (pictured above left, with student)
If cloning Chani Gotlieb was possible, high school history students everywhere would rejoice: No more dull lectures, unpronounceable names and endless memorization of long-ago dates.
“It was the way I learned when I was in school,” says Gotlieb, who teaches Jewish history and the history of the State of Israel to junior and seniors at Manhattan High School for Girls. “The teacher would lecture, and we would have to memorize, memorize, memorize: Boring!”
A former chemist who came to New York City on a sabbatical from her home in Israel, Gotlieb says that when she first gazed upon the Statue of Liberty, she felt “elated,” imagining ancestors who came to Ellis Island out of desperation while still daring to hope. Gotlieb stayed in New York City and received her master’s degree from Touro’s Graduate School of Jewish Studies. “I credit Touro for taking me from an amateur to a professional Jewish historian, who learned how to identify myths interwoven in the historical narrative and corroborate personal accounts with reputable secondary sources. Touro taught me to do rigorous research,” says Gotlieb, “so I teach my students in a more intellectual way, focusing on ideas, trends, culture, and always highlighting human nature and patterns that repeat themselves, because human nature doesn’t change. This past October, while teaching about the Crusaders rampaging Jewish homes in the Rhine Valley, I felt as if I was teaching current events, and couldn’t help comparing October 7, 2023, to the massacres of 1096. Last fall’s attack was not ancient history. It reflects world events of today with echoes of Jewish history throughout the ages.”
Gotlieb has always wanted more than academics for her students. She has sought to endow them with a similar experience to the ones she had while hearing stories firsthand from eyewitnesses to history while interviewing for the Spielberg Shoah Foundation and Yad Vashem. And so, she developed a unique curriculum in genealogy, guiding students to record the oral
history of their ancestors for posterity.
The Genealogy Project she has designed and directed at the high school of some 200 young women uses expertise she acquired in her own interactions with Holocaust survivors. Gotlieb has also employed the research skills she learned through her Touro training and subsequent experience, to teach the art, science and deep thinking required of a historian.
The central focus of the Genealogy Project is students’ interviews of the oldest member of their families, often a Holocaust survivor. “Some have never before spoken about what they experienced,” Gotlieb says. “It is very moving.”
To help them prepare for the video interview, students meet with their subject for a preliminary session to learn about the milestones in their lives. Then they come up with 50 questions designed to draw out the full life story of the person they’re interviewing, and off they go.
Students submit the recorded interviews to Gotlieb, who watches every video. “I once heard a grandmother say, ‘Oh, come on! Your teacher will listen to all that?’ Each story is one-of-a-kind, shedding light on that person’s slice of Jewish history. I only wish someone would have assigned me this project when my grandparents were alive.”
For the next step, students either create documentaries or write essays based on the video interviews. The culmination of the Genealogy Project is an annual event when all the stories are presented. Students curate an exhibition for their families and other visitors, showcasing rare, original artifacts and documents they discovered in the process of researching their subject. The edited essays are collected and published, along with photos and documents.
“Students who interview their ancestors realize that they themselves are the hard-won rewards of the struggles endured and crucial choices made by those who came before them,” explains Gotlieb. “They grasp the enormous responsibility that rests on their shoulders to build a better future for humanity.”
Touro Graduate School of Education alum
Amit Bahl (pictured second from left) with students at Urban Dove High School, where he is director
HIGH SCHOOL DIRECTOR AMIT BAHL CREDITS THE SCHOOL LEADERSHIP PROGRAM FOR HELPING HIM TEACH HIS STUDENTS TO SOAR
If easy is the game plan, steer clear of the School Leadership Program in Touro’s Graduate School of Education (GSE). “It is intense,” says Amit Bahl. “I mean, intense!”
And he loved every minute of the program, which earned him a master’s degree and knowledge that took him from being a social studies teacher to the director of two (soon to be four) transfer high schools in New York City, called Urban Dove. The school’s mission is to use teamwork in sports and academics to transform the lives of more than 600 struggling students.
Fully half of Urban Dove’s students failed ninth grade not once, but twice. “Virtually no school was taking transfer students who were 14, 15 and 16,” he says. “They were on track to drop out. Our kids may work full time, or care for their siblings, or have other social or emotional issues like depres-
sion, not to mention poverty, that keep them from attending, much less succeeding, in school.”
Urban Dove’s attendance rate is 65 percent. In contrast, the daily attendance rate in the city’s transfer schools is 50 percent. “If we can get them here three days a week, they will learn, they will flourish, they will graduate,” says Bahl, who began with Urban Dove when it opened in 2012, shortly after he received his master’s degree in school leadership. Now 44, Bahl has been a teacher, an assistant principal and eventually rose to director of the high schools. “All credit,” says Bahl, “goes to Touro.”
It may seem odd in these days of the so-called slacker work ethic, to prize a graduate program that holds students accountable and expects them to excel. But in his years as a professor in the School Leadership Program, Thomas Troisi, a former teacher, principal and superintendent, believes success lies first in choosing the right candidates. “We look for leaders,” says Troisi. “Someone who empowers not only themselves, but other people to reach individual or group goals. They have the discipline and desire to rise in their field.”
The students tend to be in their mid-20s and older, and already hold one master’s degree in education and are willing to work full time for a second. In the program, they learn technical skills such as how to conduct teacher evaluations, school finance, application of education law and more. In the school’s human resources course, for example, students are charged with developing a comprehensive plan for the recruitment and selection of a classroom teacher.
But nothing has had the lasting power—or impact—than the required internships. Not just one, but two internships.
Bahl valued the camaraderie between students and professors, and that he was taught by those with extensive experience in the educational arena. “But the key was the internships—were they demanding! But essential.”
Bahl interned at the school where he was already teaching five social studies classes to more than 100 7th and 11th graders daily. But none of that count-
Professor Thomas Troisi empowers leaders in Touro GSE’s School Leadership Program
LEARN MORE
gse.touro.edu
“If we can get them here three days a week, they will learn, they will flourish, they will graduate.”
ed as an internship. So, he ran meetings and sat in on meetings, he took on the role of data analyst and figured out ways to make computer information more relevant and easier to upload, download and digest for relevancy. He learned to supervise others and how to understand the school’s entire budget and curriculum. “I even planned a fundraiser, the annual Christmas party and the graduation ceremony,” he recalls, laughing.
Touro’s two-year program is entirely asynchronous, and the flexibility seems to work well for professors and students. Graduates have gone on to become principals, superintendents, headmasters, department heads of curricula, data, human resources and a myriad of other leadership roles in schools and other educational organizations. “We create all sorts of online get-togethers and seminars, and we go out and visit students where they are interning,” Troisi says. “But we also treat them
like the grown-ups they are.”
As Bahl looks back at his time at in the School Leadership Program, he found inspiration through another requirement, the “situation journal.” No matter the day’s demands, students had to write about what stood out to them, what they learned, what challenged or delighted them. “Now my situational journal is in my head every single day,” Bahl says. “It is the framework and foundation for how I do my job.”
Field of
DREAMS
WHEN A NEW YORKER’S DREAM OF A BASEBALL CAREER ENDED, HE BOUNCED BACK WITH A DEGREE IN PHYSICAL THERAPY AND A BOOMING BUSINESS
This is the story of the day Dan Rootenberg’s dream died. This is also the story of the day Dan Rootenberg put aside his lifelong dream and began to create a reality that has become a dream come true.
After graduating from college in 1994, Rootenberg, who had played baseball since childhood, was about to be signed as a free agent by the Philadelphia Phillies. His timing was not good. Almost immediately, players went on strike and Major League Baseball froze all signings, including Rootenberg’s.
Reared by a mother whose professor husband had died suddenly, leaving her to support their three children on her teacher’s salary, Rootenberg was a dreamer who became a pragmatist. “I got the call at 10 am from Touro, which had initially wait-listed me—a student didn’t show up for the first class, so they offered me the spot—I made an instant decision. Touro was giving me the chance to start a different dream and I was going to grab it.”
In 1999, Rootenberg and fellow Touro physical therapy program graduate David Endres co-founded the Spear Physical Therapy Center. Today there are now an impressive 50 offices in the New York Metropolitan area. Spear employs over 800 therapists and staff and has racked up dozens of prestigious awards, among them: Top Physical Therapy Practice in the nation (twice)—once by the APTA and once by WebPT’s Ascend Practice of the Year Award for exceptional business results; Inc. Mag-
azine’s 5000 list of fastest growing companies (several times including 2024); twice winning Columbia University’s Award for Leadership in Clinical Education; and National Practice of the Year by the American Physical Therapy Association. “All the success would have been impossible without Touro taking that chance on me,” Rootenberg says. “It’s time to show my gratitude in a concrete way.”
Called The Spear Scholarship, Rootenberg is donating $360,000 over three years to his alma mater, the School of Health Sciences. Each year, the money will allow 12 students, many of whom are “underserved and underrepresented in the field, to become physical therapists,” Rootenberg says. “I know what it’s like to do work I love, and I want to provide that opportunity to future physical therapists.” Program participants will also complete one clinical rotation at Spear and will be offered post-graduation employment.
Rootenberg, who lives with his wife and three children on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, holds leadership webinars and is invited to speak routinely on panels nationwide. He is in demand both as a physical therapist with heart and as a healthcare specialist with a keen head for business.
“Touro was giving me the chance to start a different dream and I was going to grab it.”
When the pandemic slammed New York City in 2020, businesses were laying off employees and giving up building spaces. Rootenberg did the opposite. Like everyone else, Spear offered Telehealth appointments, but Rootenberg refused to furlough a single therapist. “It was a fearful time for everyone, and people were handing back their
Dan Rootenberg (right) with a patient at his awardwinning practice, Spear Physical Therapy Center
“I’m not overstating when I say our therapists were heroic on behalf of our patients.”
keys to landlords and running for cover,” recalls Rootenberg, 51. “We were signing new leases, betting on the fact that you should never bet against New York City. We signed four new leases and we never walked away from a single office.”
The secret ingredient was communication and continuity in a time of crisis. “I’m not overstating when I say our therapists were heroic on behalf of our patients,” he says. “Everyone on our team stuck it out and remained dedicated to those who needed them.”
Rootenberg also used that time to help other physical therapy businesses by hosting webinars for the American Physical Therapy Association
Dr. Rootenberg with staff
(APTA) and other organizations. His topics included everything from how to stay in business to how to handle the pandemic and loans from the government’s Paycheck Protection Program. Rootenberg received the APTA’s Board of Directors Service Award for volunteers who have dedicated significant time leading, serving and advancing the profession.
As it celebrates a quarter-century in business, Spear boasts close to three times as many physical and occupational therapists in greater New York City than their nearest competitor.
Rootenberg, meanwhile, has happily moved on from the dream of playing professional baseball to
being just another ardent dad-fan, watching from the bleachers as his three children participate in their own sports and interests. “I’ve become an avid tennis player,” says Rootenberg, who adds, ruefully: “So avid, that I’m seeing a physical therapist for tennis elbow.”
A SOFTWARE ENGINEER
TOOK WHAT
HE LEARNED
FROM A TOURO PROGRAM AND APPLIED IT FAR AND WIDE
Fortune smiled brightly on software engineer Vimal Kumar in the form of both geography and a graduate school program. Kumar works at the UBS complex in New York City’s leafy Madison Square Park neighborhood. As it happens, Touro’s Graduate School of Technology (GST) was located in the same area, so Kumar received his master’s in IT Project Management from GST in 2012.
It had been two years working as an IT guy for Credit Suisse (recently acquired by UBS) when Kumar, a software engineer with a master’s degree from a university in India, began planning his next professional move. Remember, Kumar is an engineer: “Planning,” he explains wryly, “is in the genes.”
He credits the knowledge he gained at Touro’s GST, and his own professional drive, for his current position as a vice president of information technology. He manages IT people and projects in-house and overseas, on everything from client-server networks to machine learning and generative AIbased applications. And he doesn’t keep what he learned to himself. Kumar is proud to mentor and educate younger team members and colleagues.
“I learned so many things that I use every single day, taught by real professionals, not just bookish professors, but real people who are or were out here in the world doing what we were learning,” says Kumar, who lives in Jersey City with his wife and two children. “I must say, the most important thing I learned is to be confident, not tentative. To believe in myself and my skills and ability. I learned to handle a project from beginning to end. And I learned how to create a dedicated team by being a leader.”
The Project Management Program also offered Kumar something tangible and invaluable: It gave him
a vocabulary that has proved critical in his work. “It gave me depth of knowledge,” he explains. “You see your seniors do a job and you hear their vocabulary, but I learned in concrete terms what they were saying and doing. I learned what certain terms meant and how to initiate projects. A shared language is everything. They know you know what you’re talking about.”
Kumar began working for Credit Suisse 13 years ago, shortly after arriving from India. Though he held a master’s degree in computer software already, Kumar says he longed to round out his education by studying at an American university. “American leadership is renowned,” he says. “I wanted leadership training from an American perspective.”
It wasn’t simply the professors and their experience in American corporations; his fellow students proved “so interesting and varied in their professions,” he says. “I made, and still have, some lovely friends from the program. They taught me creativity; they were creative people. One is a cybersecurity engineer for the U.S. Coast Guard now. Other students were working in startups and in all sorts of interesting projects.”
Kumar is proud of his own achievements, including having realized his dream of completing a program at an American university, but he is honored to use his knowledge to lift up other engineers, particularly those from India.” I find it rewarding to teach people coming up how to approach a problem, resolve it, guide them in analysis and in follow-through. At Touro, I learned to guide, not micro-manage. It teaches those less experienced or insecure to grow better and better and take on leadership roles with confidence knowing someone has their best interests at heart.”
The Perfect Dose
A PHARMACY SCHOOL GRADUATE CREATES THE PERFECT PRESCRIPTION FOR PATIENT CARE
Evan Sasson jokes that “despite my mother’s wishes, I became a pharmacist instead of a doctor.”
Certainly, the disappointment has been eclipsed by pride for Mrs. Sasson by what her son has accomplished with his degree. Today, Sasson is the associate director of pharmacotherapy services and the residency program at Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in Bushwick, New York.
In fact, there was no such program at Wyckoff until Sasson played a key role in creating it.
Sasson, who has extensive clinical pharmacy experience in cardiology and ambulatory care services, worked during pharmacy school at a drugstore chain. “I realized early on I wanted more interaction with patients rather than just filling and handing prescriptions over and filling the next one,” says Sasson, 37, who graduated from Touro College of Pharmacy in 2014. “I always preach to my residents what I learned at Touro, to explore all the options available through a pharmacy degree.”
Touro College of Pharmacy is known for a curriculum steeped in real-world experience, something that appealed to Sasson. Lots of time in the classroom doing the crucial academic learning, but more time perhaps, than any other such school, Touro pharmacy students are required to work in hospitals, drugstores, clinics and other healthcare agencies. “We spent a lot of our time practicing, experiencing and enhancing what we learned in school,” says Sasson, who lives in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and counters his long workdays by prac-
ticing martial arts. “We were encouraged to explore all the possible areas of pharmacy careers we could pursue.”
Sasson was drawn from the start to interacting with patients, helping them understand what medications worked best and how they affected their systems. During his student rotations, Sasson thought a patient needed a higher dose of antibiotics than prescribed. He spoke with the doctor, who agreed and increased the dose. “I still remember how gratifying it felt to know that the doctor listened, and that the patient would get better quicker,” he says.
Prior to moving to Wyckoff, Sasson was at Brooklyn Hospital Center. There, he served as a clinical pharmacist as well as director of the post-graduate year one program. Under his leadership, the program thrived, creating top-notch pharmacy practitioners and enhancing patient care in numerous ways, including developing mutually respectful communication between pharmacotherapists and physicians.
All invaluable experience, when in March 2022, Sasson was tapped to create a residency program
at Wyckoff. “It was from the ground up and it was hard and rewarding and worth every minute of work,” he says. “The hospital had never had pharmacy residents. That’s the first steppingstone for a direct patient care role. That’s important in many ways. For residents, it’s immeasurable experience in patient care, and for patients it elevates their level of care and decision-making. Most important for residents, patients and doctors in a small community hospital, there is now access to pharmacists right there as part of an in-house team.”
Sasson also took the lead in a collaborative drug therapy management agreement between the pharmacy and Wyckoff’s medical department. That gives Sasson and other clinical pharmacotherapists prescribing privileges, the ability to order labs and document notes in medical charts. What’s more, the agreement established pharmacist-run outpatient clinics. “All of this,” Sasson says, proudly, “was new to Wyckoff Heights Medical Center.”
Thanks in large part to Sasson’s work, the phar-
macy program at Wyckoff has been reviewed and accredited and is set to be expanded in 2024. He administers the program, but the day-to-day demands of getting it up and going have subsided. He is back to practicing both his specialty and favorite area of pharmacotherapy, as part of the hos-
“We were encouraged to explore all the possible areas of pharmacy careers we could pursue.”
pital’s cardiac team, helping to care for patients with heart ailments. Sasson may not be a cardiologist, but he is an invaluable part of a life-saving team. What’s more, as his success and job satisfaction grow exponentially, Sasson’s mother has mellowed—a bit: “She’d probably still prefer I went to medical school,” he says, laughing, “but I know she’s proud of me.”
Pharmacist Evan Sasson at Wyckoff Heights Medical Center
SELF BET ON YOUR OWN BOLD
WITH AN IDEA AND AN ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT, TOURO’S MOONSHOTS SCHOLARS PROGRAM GIVES STUDENTS THE CHANCE TO ACT ON THEIR IDEAS
Dr. Rima Aranha (right), director of the Moonshots Scholars Program, with student Nadia Ambarsom (left)
Nadia Ambarsom is a perfect poster person for the Moonshots Scholars Program at Touro’s Graduate School of Business (GSB), a course created for Touro students inclined toward—or, more precisely, passionate about—becoming innovators and entrepreneurs.
“It was the most impactful experience of my life,” says Ambarsom, who is in her second year at New York Medical College with plans to become a pediatrician. She felt so empowered by the Moonshots classes that she applied for, and has received, a provisional patent on a makeup product she has created. “Every week my mind was blown by Dr. Aranha and what she brought to the sessions.”
Though she’ll happily accept the title mindblower, Dr. Rima Aranha is more formally known as associate provost for strategic initiatives at Touro University. She has shaped and taught the ten-week Moonshots program since 2020. From creating the curriculum, choosing the text, Bold: How to Go Big, Create Wealth, and Impact the World, and planning each week’s topic and field trips, Aranha keeps at the forefront the overarching theme of “thinking outrageously.”
While creating the curriculum, it dawned on Aranha, “I seem to have fashioned the program that I would have needed and loved to have been a part of when I was a student,” she says. “It’s an honor to help students learn to believe in themselves and their ideas. Equally important is to witness them going from tentative to confident in their ideas and ability to become future entrepreneurs, if that’s what they choose to be.”
Aranha, who holds a Ph.D. in Education, with an emphasis on culture, policy and society, is not, strictly speaking, an entrepreneur. But she is an entrepreneurial enabler. She has been a researcher at a women’s domestic abuse nonprofit and a professor of Race, Class and Gender at various colleges and universities, among other prior posts. “I loved teaching and research,” she says, “but I also need challenges and to be able to take good ideas and
help implement them.”
She teaches the class every fall semester to some 20 students who come from schools as diverse as social work, education, dentistry and more. Moonshots is a non-credit course. It’s also free. Those factors may incentivize students initially to Zoom in, but no burdened undergrad or graduate student will tune in ten Tuesdays for pablum and platitudes.
“Touro University Graduate School of Business is proud to offer our intercollegiate Moonshot Scholars Program that bridges the gap between academic learning and real-world application. In today’s era, where innovation and adaptability define success, universities must go beyond traditional education to prepare students for the future. Irrespective of students’ chosen field of study, promoting entrepreneurship is a powerful strategy to equip students with essential skills such as strategic thinking, teamwork, problem-solving, a forward-thinking initiative-taking mindset and valuable networks to thrive in today’s dynamic world,” said Dr. Mary Lo Re, dean of GSB.
The Moonshots Scholars Program is the brainchild of Dr. Howard Baruch, a member of the New York Medical College Board of Trustees. “I am deeply moved by the profound success of our Touro University Moonshots Program, which has kindled inspiration and empowerment in so many of our future leaders. Truly, the future lies in the hands of our students, and it is through their vision and dedication that we shall illuminate the path ahead,” said Baruch.
In Moonshots sessions they learn what happens when AI, robotics, virtual reality, digital biology and sensors crash into 3D printing, blockchain and global gigabit networks. They learn about marketing, advertising, financing and every aspect of a startup business. They go on field trips and meet entrepreneurs. Recently they visited a doctor and scientist at Touro’s BioInc—an incubator, with laboratories and other services for entrepreneurs in biotechnology and medical technology—who ignored every-
LEARN MORE gsb.touro.edu
one who said he would never accomplish his goal of a creating a certain cancer treatment. He has proved doubters wrong and is on the cusp of realizing his dream. “He talked to us about trusting yourself and your idea and doing the hard work,” says Ambarsom, 31. “But what stuck with me is when he said curiosity is the most important characteristic an innovator and entrepreneur must possess.”
That’s exactly what Aranha means by “thinking outrageously.” Not outside the box. There should be no box. “I want them to be bold in their belief in themselves and in their ideas,” Aranha says. “It’s about thinking big and developing the mission of entrepreneurial spirit that Touro University prides itself on imbuing in its students.”
At the semester’s end, students pitch their idea to their colleagues and teacher, as though they are deep-pocketed bankers and equity managers that must be convinced to part with the green.
Knowing how quickly the market changes, medical student Ambarsom, whose grandmother was a housekeeper and whose father arrived in America from Iran at 15, moved fast.
The provisional patent she was awarded is for a hygienic, sustainable makeup applicator. It’s hardly a frivolous creation. Dirty makeup brushes and sponges often result in a petri dish of germs and can cause serious viral, fungal and bacterial infections, including E.coli and MRSA.
Ambarsom didn’t have to travel far for the impetus: “My mother’s makeup brushes look like a dog’s fur, and I stay far, far away from my sister’s makeup brushes—they’re gross,” she says, ruefully. “They’ll be my first customers.”
Dr. Howard Baruch
LE AL EAGLE G
ONE BRIGHT AND BUSY CORPORATE ATTORNEY
HAPPILY MAKES TIME TO FIGHT FOR ASYLUM FOR IMMIGRANT TEENS
When corporate attorney Julia Ansanelli turns her considerable attention to a challenge, trust that it will get solved.
A little perspective:
Ansanelli was the top student at Touro University’s Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center (Touro Law Center) from the first semester to the last, graduating as class valedictorian in 2016. This was accomplished while she worked a full-time job.
Ansanelli was placed as a summer associate at the New York City-based global corporate giant, Proskauer Rose LLP, and was hired immediately upon graduation. Today, she is a senior associate in the 800-strong team of lawyers around the world. “I felt well prepared because of Touro’s uniquely hands-on approach to law school,” says Ansanelli, who applied after hearing her attorney husband’s glowing assessment of the school. Indeed, her work at Touro was once recognized by the highest court of Idaho, which cited for support her Touro Law Review Case Note in a decision called Verity v. U.S.A. Today, 436 P.3d 653 (2019). “We had judges as teachers, we were across the street from the Eastern District of New York’s courthouse where we could get externships with federal judges and we all received amazing support from the deans, professors and administrators, who helped guide us in our careers in the real world. I would not be where I am today if not for the Touro’s Career Services director’s encouragement and guidance.”
Among her many real-world responsibilities, Ansanelli, 34, is a member of the Litigation Depart-
ment and of the firm’s White Collar Defense & Investigations, Securities Litigation and Asset Management Litigation Practice Groups. The mother of two young children, Ansanelli has defended clients facing criminal and regulatory investigations by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission. In addition to those roles, she is a member of the litigation team that represents the Financial Oversight and Management Board in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico’s bankruptcy proceedings. She is also a member of the firm’s Associate Council, for which she recently led an initiative that resulted in policy changes to encourage recycling throughout the firm’s Times Square building.
Spare time may sound oxymoronic, but Ansanelli somehow manages to make every minute matter, particularly when it comes to pro bono work. In 2018, she was honored with a Legal Aid Society Pro Bono Publico Award and a Proskauer Golden Gavel Award for an amicus brief she helped prepare in support of a class of thousands of immigrant children and teens that had been denied special
immigrant juvenile status in New York, based on a then-new United States Citizenship and Immigration (USCIS) policy. The Southern District of New York court judge ultimately ruled that the policy violated federal immigration law. “My mom came to this country from the Dominican Republic,” says Ansanelli, a Spanish speaker that helps translate for her clients, “so it’s especially rewarding to get to help families like my own.”
Recently, she won the right for a 16-year-old girl (now 23) who fled gang violence in Honduras to remain in this country. “I love my corporate work, but I balance it with helping people who are powerless,” she explains. “It often can be lifesaving for them and endlessly gratifying to me.”
Julia Ansanelli at her desk at Proskauer Rose LLP (top); Ansanelli is hooded at her commencement by her husband, Adam Ansanelli, who graduated from Touro Law Center in 2011 (bottom)
Michele Freund outside Lenox Hill Hospital, where she works as a physician assistant
STOIC AND Skilled
WHETHER IN ROUTINE OR WAR, A PHYSICIAN ASSISTANT CARES FOR PATIENTS WITHOUT FLINCHING
Michele Freund demanded far more than a paycheck when she chose her career. “I wanted to work in a field that was meaningful,” she says. “Every single day.”
A 2021 graduate of the Touro University School of Health Sciences, Freund is now a physician assistant (PA), part of an OB-GYN medical team at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan. “This field of healthcare suits me and satisfies what I want to do in the world to help people.”
Like many PAs, Freund prides herself on being flexible and unflappable, no matter the situation:
“You just push forward and do whatever needs to be done wherever you are.”
On October 7th, she was in Israel. There to visit relatives and attend a friend’s wedding, she was awakened before dawn that Saturday to emergency sirens and the reverberations from rocket explosions. She quickly learned of the horror of murders and kidnappings that Hamas terrorists had inflicted on Israelis in the wee hours. “Israelis cannot afford to take the time to mourn,” says Freund, 29, whose father is Israeli-born and whose paternal grandparents were Holocaust survivors. “There’s no time to sit in their
“WHEN THERE’S SOMETHING THAT HAS TO BE DONE, I CAN’T SIT. I HAVE TO DO.”
pain. They must get up and act.”
Freund headed to the Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv, where she spent the remaining week of her vacation volunteering. She was dispatched to the neurosurgery department, where she triaged patients, inserted IVs, prepared patients for surgery and did whatever was needed in a hospital short on doctors who had left their medical posts for military service. “They were happy to have me, even if many didn’t know exactly what a physician assistant is or does,” she says. “Though it’s a booming field in America, it’s not yet common or well understood in Israel. It hasn’t been integrated into their medical system.”
Freund vowed to change that. While her PA work with patients spoke for itself, Freund also deployed her PR skills to educate those around her on the essential role physician assistants play in all aspects of patient care. “My dream is for PAs to be in every medical office and hospital in Israel,” she says.
Freund grew up in Miami, the middle child of three. Her uncle was a physician in his native Brazil but became a PA when he settled in the States. “He inspired me,” she says. “But I was always passionate about medicine, even when I was young.”
She graduated from New York University, where she majored in psychology and pre-med, but Freund felt she struggled balancing her education with her Jewish identity before coming to Touro. “I didn’t have to sacrifice my religion for my academics,” she says, simply. “The PA education is really difficult, somewhat like medical school but accelerated. At Touro, I could work hard academically and still be with my family for holidays without feeling pressure of falling behind or having to explain what Jewish
holidays are.”
She also appreciated her professors, professionals in the field who prepared students for what to expect as physician assistants in the real world. During COVID, the PA program needed to be creative in finding settings for students to complete their required rotations. “That flexibility was so important,” she recalls, “and taught us how to be adaptable.”
She was hired in Lenox Hill’s OB-GYN department straight out of Touro. Freund does everything from seeing patients to performing Cesarian section surgeries. “A lot of people in medicine are problem-solvers,” she says. “When there is something that has to be done, I can’t sit. I have to do.”
Nowhere was that more evident than when Freund was in Israel. “Even though I was very anxious and scared,” she says, “I couldn’t be in a country I love that was being targeted by terrorists and do nothing.”
The hospital she chose was the very same institution in which her late grandmother, who had fled Hungary during World War II, had worked as a nurse. “I felt very close to her,” Freund says. “I know she would be very proud that I was there.”
Freund fought through the chaos and pain she was witnessing. She happened upon a young woman, likely in her early 20s, a victim of the attack by Hamas on attendees at an outdoor music festival. For just a moment, Freund froze. She stared at the unconscious patient, who had suffered multiple gunshot wounds and was intubated. “That patient was so hard for me,” Freund says. “Seeing her so young, so vulnerable… it could have been me.”
CLASS NOTES
1980’s
Garry Garnet ’83, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, joined Orange Bank & Trust Company’s Special Needs Trust and Guardianship Department in Mount Vernon, NY as Vice President and Trust Officer.
Patricia Marcin ’85, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, Partner at Rivkin Radler LLP, was named a NY Metro Super Lawyer®.
Philip Tornetta ’86, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, recently retired from his position as a Judge of the State of New Jersey.
Jeffrey A. Wurst ’87, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, Partner at Armstrong Teasdale LLP, was named a NY Metro Super Lawyer®.
1990’s
Jennifer Tunnard ’90, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, was sworn in as a New Jersey Superior Court Judge.
Christine Malafi ’91, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, Partner at Campolo, Middleton & McCormick, LLP, was named a 2023 NY Metro Super Lawyer®. She was also named Chairperson of the Judicial Screening Committee of the Suffolk County Bar Association.
The Townwide Fund of Huntington elected Janice Whelan, Esq. ’91, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, as President for 2024-2026.
Wendy H. Sheinberg ’92, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, Partner at Rivkin Radler LLP, was named a NY Metro Super Lawyer®.
Elbert F. Nasis, ’95, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, Partner at Forchelli Deegan Terrana LLP, was named a NY Metro Super Lawyer®.
David Rhode ’95, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, started a new position as Executive Vice President for Legal Affairs and General Counsel at New York City Housing Authority.
Leonard R. Rivera ’96, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, Esq., a globally recognized Data Privacy Attorney, has achieved the esteemed Fellow of Information Privacy (FIP) designation by the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP).
Blanche Leeman, EdD, OT/L, CHT, School of Health Sciences, Occupational Therapy Program, won the Occupational Therapy Alumni Award, for her exemplary position of Associate Professor at the University of St. Augustine and her work with 3D printing for adaptive devices.
Violet Samuels ’99, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, of the firm Samuels and Associates, was named to the New York State Bar Association task force to study
legal issues surrounding medical aid in dying.
2000’s
Erik Lindemann ’03, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, was named SVP and General Counsel of NIP Group.
Dr. Gayle Steele, ’03, ’08, Graduate School of Education, MS in Childhood Education and Special Education (Grades 1-6) ‘03 and MS in School District Leadership ’08, was named Superintendent of the Elwood, NY, School District in Huntington, Long Island.
Timothy Sorrell ’04, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, has joined McGuire, Pelaez & Bennett, P.C. as an Associate.
Jennifer Maertz ’05, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, accepted a position as an Attorney at Martyn, Smith, Murray & Yong.
Elizabeth Culmone-Mills ’06, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, has been named Deputy Chief Assistant District Attorney at the Ulster County District Attorney’s Office.
Dennis McCoy ’06, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, was promoted to Partner at Tully Law Group, PC.
Jennifer Basile ’07, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, started a new position as Principal Assistant County Attorney at Suffolk County Department of Law.
Mohammed Mujumder ’07, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, became the first chairperson of Bengali descent in New York City’s history when he was elected to lead Community Board 9 in the Bronx earlier this year.
Crystal Ogir, OTD, OTR/L ’07, School of Health Sciences, Occupational Therapy Program, won the Distinguished Leadership Award for her work at the NYC Public Schools’ SEED Program and the Learning Loss RECOVS Program, which promotes equity and access in inclusive settings.
Salaam Bhatti ’08, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, was named Director of The Food Research & Action Center’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
Jessica Bookstaver ’09, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, has been elevated to Partner at Goldberg Segalla.
Seth Dobbs ’09, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, started a new position as Equity Partner at Fox Rothschild LLP.
Christina Rickheeram Jonathan ’09, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, has joined Jaspan Schlesinger Narendran LLP as Partner.
Jesse Vogel, OTD, OTR/L ’09, School of Health Sciences, Occupational Therapy Program, won the Vera Jean Clark Brown
Service Award for Engagement in Humanitarian and Community Services both locally and internationally.
Olga Chernomaz ’09, ’16, Graduate School of Education, MS in Special Education and Teaching ’09 and Advanced Certificate TESOL Program ’16, has been appointed ML/ELL Services Administrator for the Department of Education’s District 23.
2010’s
Jacquelyn Moran ’10, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, Partner at Moritt Hock & Hamroff LLP, was selected to Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in America for 2024.
Congratulations to Christopher Shishko ’10, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, Senior Partner at Guercio & Guercio, LLP, on being named a 40 Under 40 Honoree by Long Island Business News.
Andrew Bernstein ’11, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, Partner at Armstrong Teasdale LLP, was named a NY Metro Super Lawyer®.
Joseph Indusi ’11, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, and his wife welcomed a new baby girl.
Heather S. Milanese ’11, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, Associate at Rivkin Radler LLP, was named a NY Metro Super Lawyer®.
Meghan M. Reap ’11, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, joined Whitcomb Law Firm, PC as an Associate Attorney.
Pallvi Babbar ’12, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, was elected Vice President of the Long Island Hispanic Bar Association.
Raymond A. Castronovo ’12, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, was promoted to Of Counsel at Forchelli Deegan Terrana LLP, and was named a NY Metro Rising Star®.
Cheryl Van Dyke ’12, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, started a new position as Sr. Director Analyst at Gartner.
Jared Scotto ’13, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, was recognized as a Distinguished Leader by the New York Law Journal for his work running the Sexual Abuse Litigation Team at Weitz & Luxemberg PC.
India Sneed ’13, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, started her own law firm.
Vincent J. Costa ’14, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, Partner at Campolo, Middleton & McCormick, LLP, was named to the 2023 Super Lawyers Rising Star list.
Congratulations to Steve Dalton ’14, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, Principal Law Clerk at the New York State Supreme Court, for being named a 40 Under 40 honoree by Long Island Business News.
Ann Glassman, DO ‘14, Touro College
of Osteopathic Medicine (TouroCOM), joined the faculty of TouroCOM Harlem. She is Board Certified in Family Medicine and OMT; and practices Obesity and WeightLoss Medicine in Manhattan.
Lauren Koffman, DO ’14, Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine (TouroCOM), will virtually address the TouroCOM Class of 2028 at their White Coat Ceremony at the Apollo Theater this summer. She is a Neurologist in Philadelphia and a member of the TouroCOM Alumni Board.
James Kuo, DO ’14, Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine (TouroCOM), is a Hospitalist at Providence Medford Medical Center in Medford, OR.
Ryan LeGrady ’14, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, started a new position as Investigative Counsel at the Office of the New York State Attorney General.
Deborah Lolai ’14, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, is serving as Clinical Instructor at Harvard Law School’s LGBTQ+ Advocacy Clinic.
Shoji Samson, DO ’14, Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine (TouroCOM), is a Neonatologist in Illinois and a member of the TouroCOM Board of Directors. He recently joined the Pediatrics faculty of The University of Chicago.
Martin Tankleff ’14, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, Special Counsel at Barket Epstein Kearon Aldea & LoTurco, LLP, was named to the New York Super Lawyers Rising Stars List for his criminal defense work.
Tiffany Taveras ’14, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, was named Assistant Chief Counsel for the US Department of Homeland Security.
Matthew Albert, OTR/L, CHT ’15, School of Health Sciences, Occupational Therapy Program, started an Adjunct position at Touro University’s Occupational Therapy Program.
Tara Darling ’15, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, joined Polsinelli’s nationwide real estate finance group as a Shareholder. She is in the Dallas office.
John R. Lopez, LCSW ’15, Graduate School of Social Work, Master of Social Work, was named President of the Touro Social Work Alumni Association. Lopez currently works as a therapist in private practice and in the Student Counseling Center at CUNY-College of Staten Island.
Keetick Sanchez ’15, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, was named a New York Metro Super Lawyer 2023 Rising Star Personal Injury Attorney.
Darren Stakey ’15, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, has been named Partner at Certilman Balin Adler & Hyman LLP.
Svetlana Walker ’15, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, Partner at Walker & Mackenzie, P.C., was voted a Rising Star by Super Lawyers for 2023.
Courtney J. Wilson, PhD, LCSW ‘15, Graduate School of Social Work, Master of
Social Work, completed his PhD and was promoted to Associate Professor at the Florida International University School of Social Work. He recently worked on a $1.5 million grant for the Florida Department of Health that evaluated the effectiveness of their programs. Courtney was also the Principal Investigator on a grant for the Florida Institute on Child Welfare.
Roman Zuckerman, DO ’15, Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine (TouroCOM), practices Rheumatology in Ridgewood, NJ. He is the proud parent of an incoming TouroCOM Student in the Class of 2028.
Cyndi Lalanne ’16, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, started a new position as Senior Associate Attorney at Wood, Smith, Henning & Berman LLP.
Chad Lennon ’16, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, Senior Associate at Tully Rinckey PLLC, was named a 2023 Super Lawyer. He was also elected to the Suffolk County Legislature.
Melana Portnoy ‘16, Graduate School of Business, Master of Business Administration, was promoted to CLE Specialist at Lowenstein Sandler LLP.
Alexandros Tsionis ’16, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, was promoted to Partner at Arum J. Rosen PLLC.
Sumaiya Zaman ‘16, Graduate School of Business, MS in Human Resource Management, started a new position as Human Resources Operations Analyst at the Institute of International Education.
Andrew Filipazzi ’17, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, was appointed as an Alternate to the Zoning Board of Appeals of the Village of Massapequa Park.
Naseem Hossain, DO ’17, Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine (TouroCOM), is an Interventional Cardiology Fellow at NYP-SUNY Downstate in Brooklyn.
Nimrah (Ahmed) Hossain, DO ’17, Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine (TouroCOM), is a Fellow in Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology at NYP Brooklyn Methodist Hospital.
Ruben Izgelov ’17, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of We Lend, has secured a seat on the NPLA Advisory Council.
Dorothy Kong ’17, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, was promoted to Assistant District Attorney, Felony Trial Bureau I at the Queens District Attorney’s Office.
Rachel Levinson, LCSW ’17, Graduate School of Social Work, Master of Social Work, was promoted to Assistant Director, Family Violence Services, Met Council, and has also opened a private practice.
David Mintz, DO ’17, Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine (TouroCOM), is practicing as a Heart Failure Cardiologist at Morristown Medical Center.
Congratulations to Marissa Ottavio ’17, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, on the birth of her baby girl.
George J. Pammer ’17, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, was named to the 2023 New York Metro Rising Stars list. He announced that, together with Claudia Batarseh ‘19, he opened Batarseh Pammer LLC.
Karlene Williams ‘17, Graduate School of Business, MS in Human Resource Management, started a new position as Human Resources & Administration Manager at the Grenada Investment Development Corporation.
Alexander Yuan, DO ’17, Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine (TouroCOM), completed a Cardiology Fellowship at San Antonio Uniformed Services Health Education Consortium (aka Brooke Army Medical Center) and is in Practice at Keesler Air Force Base/ Medical Center in Biloxi, Mississippi.
Jenna Albano, DO ’18, Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine (TouroCOM), completed her Residency in Anesthesiology, becoming the Chief Resident at St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center; she is now an Anesthesiology Attending there.
Victoria Ceru ’18, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, is now serving as Deputy Town Attorney in the Town of Riverhead.
Brian Conaty ’18, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, is serving as District Attorney of Sullivan County, NY.
Lissa Hewan-Lowe, DO ’18, Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine (TouroCOM), is a Physiatrist in Greenville, SC. This year she founded a Scholarship at TouroCOM Harlem intended to ease the financial burden of medical school for a student who is a single parent.
Jazmine Kendrick ’18, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, was named a Top 40 Under 40 Black Lawyers in the State of New York by the National Black Lawyers professional organization.
Tania Maheshwari, DO ’18, Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine (TouroCOM), is entering Practice with Virtua Cardiology in New Jersey.
Dale-Marie McKie DO ’18, Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine (TouroCOM), joined the Family Medicine Practice at Sentara Physicians in Chesapeake, VA.
Jonathan Meadows, DO ’18, Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine (TouroCOM), is a Medical Toxicology fellow at the University of Arizona in Tucson.
David W. Pernick ’18, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, Attorney at Jaspan Schlesinger Narendran LLP, was recognized in the 2024 edition of Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in America for Banking and Finance Law.
Nicolaus Pizzo ’18, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, was promoted to Partner at Arum J. Rosen PLLC.
Brett Potash ’18, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, started a new position as Associate Attorney at Mental Hygiene Legal Service.
Claudia Batarseh ’19, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, together with George Pammer ‘17, opened Batarseh Pammer PLLC, a firm focused on matrimonial, family, criminal, and traffic court matters.
Yash Chaudhry, DO ’19, Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine (TouroCOM), will be at Yale University as a Fellow in Orthopedic Trauma.
Gabriella Leon ’19, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, has joined the firm of Quatela Chimeri PLLC, concentrating in the matrimonial and family law practice group.
Jaime Marguerite Parker ’19, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, started a new position as Staff Attorney at The Retreat.
Zachary Markofsky ’19, School of Health Sciences, Department of Behavioral Sciences, MS in Industrial-Organizational Psychology, started a new position as Senior Specialist, Data Science at TalentNeuron.
Jonathan Rodriguez ’19, School of Health Sciences, Department of Behavioral Sciences, MS in Industrial-Organizational Psychology, started a new position as People & Culture Business Partner at Global Citizen.
Lisa Valente ’19, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, was named Partner of the Makofsky Valente Law Group.
2020’s
Dr. Nino Barayev ’20, Touro College of Pharmacy, is a medical senior manager on the Global Medical Migraine Team at Pfizer Inc.
John Michael Castillo, DO ’20, Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine (TouroCOM), will start a Pediatric Anesthesiology Fellowship at Boston Children’s Hospital.
Samuel Cohen, DO ’20, Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine (TouroCOM), is a Family Medicine Resident at Boston University Medical Center. This year he spent a month working at a ski resort in Vermont treating ski injury patients.
Jaclyn Czarnecki ’20, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, was promoted to Agency Attorney Level II within the New York Police Department.
Leah Jackson ’20, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, has started a new position as Associate Attorney at Lieb at Law, P.C.
Shannon Keown ’20, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, started a new position as Assistant District Attorney at Bronx County District Attorney’s Office.
Rachel Koyfman ‘20, Graduate School of Business, Master of Business Administration, started a new position as Senior Revenue Accountant at Cano Health.
Dr. Jessica Li ’20 (first graduating class), Touro College of Dental Medicine, is an Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Resident at Nassau University Medical Center.
Jessica Lilly ‘20, Graduate School of Business, MS in Human Resource
Management, was promoted to Senior People Specialist, HR Business Partner at Mastercard. Also started a new position as Adjunct Professor at Touro University Graduate School of Business.
Emmanuelle (Syndie) Molina ’20, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, has joined The Nilson Law Group, PLLC’s Intellectual Property team.
Dr. Cody Novotny ’20 (first graduating class), Touro College of Dental Medicine, and his wife welcomed a new baby boy.
Jeremy Palmer, DO ’20, Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine (TouroCOM), is a Sports Medicine Fellow at Penn State University in Hershey, PA.
Kassandra Polanco ’20, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, is an Associate Attorney at Silberstein, Awad & Miklos, P.C. She was also selected as a NY Metropolitan Area Super Lawyer Rising Star for 2023.
Nicholas Rothbard, DO ’20, Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine (TouroCOM), completed his Chief Resident year in Anesthesiology at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, where he will now begin practice.
Semona Saitskiy ‘ 20, Graduate School of Business, Master of Business Administration, was promoted to Product Support Manager at Workers Benefit Fund.
Alexandra Sanchez ’20, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, is an Attorney at Mauro Lilling Naparty LLP.
Sara Shteyman, DO ’20, Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine (TouroCOM), is an Endocrinology Fellow at UConn Health in Farmington, CT.
Dr. Yujun Wang ’20 (first graduating class), Touro College of Dental Medicine, is Prosthodontics Resident at Harvard School of Dental Medicine.
Xiao Lu Zhang, DO ’20, Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine (TouroCOM), will start an Obstetric Anesthesiology Fellowship at the University of Alabama, Birmingham.
Amos Alcius, DO ’21, Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine (TouroCOM), matched into a Cardiothoracic Anesthesiology Fellowship at Tufts Medical Center.
Samantha Cortez ’21, Graduate School of Education, MS in School Counseling, Homes Scholar, is a Therapist at Footprints Counseling in Bronx, NY.
Chaim Feldman ’21, School of Health Sciences, Department of Behavioral Sciences, MS in Industrial-Organizational Psychology, started a new position as Human Capital Consultant at Deloitte GPS.
Fauzia Hanif ’21, Graduate School of Education, MS in General Education and Special Education Childhood (Grades 1-6), Homes Scholar, is a Special Education Teacher at Clara Barton High School in Brooklyn, NY.
Tracy Lane ‘21, Graduate School of Social Work, Master of Social Work, is completing a PsyD degree. Her dissertation topic
is “The Relationship Between Parental Incarceration and Anxiety in Adults: An Examination of Racial/Ethnic Differences.”
Melissa Rodriguez ‘21, Graduate School of Business, Master of Business Administration, started a new position as Director of Talent Acquisition at Bridge Hotel Group. Also started a new position as Adjunct Professor at Touro University Graduate School of Business.
Captain Sara Rosen, DDS ’21, Touro College of Dental Medicine, is fulfilling a lifelong dream of joining the military as an oral and maxillofacial surgery resident at Tripler Army Medical Center in Hawaii.
Sara Salazar-Diaz ’21, Graduate School of Education, MS in General Education and Special Education Childhood (Grades 1-6), Holmes Scholar, is a Special Education Teacher at PS 84 Jose de Diego in Brooklyn, NY.
Batsheva Sholomson, DO ’21, Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine (TouroCOM), completed her Residency in Emergency Medicine at Staten Island University Hospital. She is starting Practice in the Emergency Department at Saint Peter’s University Hospital in New Brunswick, NJ.
Bianca Spivak ’21, School of Health Sciences, Department of Behavioral Sciences, MS in Industrial-Organizational Psychology, started a new position as Human Resources Manager at Jones Software.
Lushan Toney ‘21, Graduate School of Business, MS in Healthcare Management, started a new position as Student Services Specialist at Touro University Graduate School of Technology.
Tarun Uppalapati, DO ’21, Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine (TouroCOM), will start a Pediatric Anesthesiology Fellowship at Baylor College of Medicine/ Texas Children’s Hospital.
Ta’Loria Young, DO ’21, Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine (TouroCOM), is Chief Resident in Internal Medicine at Lenox Hill Hospital, with a special interest in Health Informatics.
Jacob Abadi ‘22, Graduate School of Business, Master of Business Administration, started a new position as Founder and Head Ace at The Ace of Wines.
Avi Aminov, MS, OTR/L ‘ 22, School of Health Sciences, Occupational Therapy Program, won the Alumni Award and works for the NY Public School System as an Occupational Therapist specializing in assisting middle and high school students with Autism and Learning Disabilities and the NEST Program.
Reka Barna ’22, School of Health Sciences, Department of Behavioral Sciences, MS in Industrial-Organizational Psychology, started a new position as Operations Associate at Forvis Mazars US.
Ariel Berkowitz ’22, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, is an Associate at Hoagland, Longo, Moran, Dunst & Doukas in their Construction Law Department.
Stephanie Buckheit ’22, School of Health Sciences, Department of Behavioral Sciences, MS in Industrial-Organizational Psychology, started a new position as Premium Operations Lead at Live Nation Entertainment.
Katherine Carroll ’22, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, has accepted an Associate position at SGR, LLC in Denver, Colorado.
Kayla Chaparro ’22, School of Health Sciences, Department of Behavioral Sciences, MS in Industrial-Organizational Psychology, started a new position as Program Recruitment Coordinator at Brooklyn Workforce Innovations.
Dean Fazio ’22, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, joined Lyons PC as a Law Clerk.
Gaurav Jain ‘22, Graduate School of Business, Master of Business Administration, started a new position as Financial Analyst at Costaimports.
Dr. Tamar Leiderman ’22, Touro College of Dental Medicine, is specializing in Pediatrics and started her career at LIJ Cohen Children’s Hospital.
Alberto Menaged ‘22, Graduate School of Business, Master of Business Administration, started a new position as Staff Accountant at Accommodations Plus International.
Olawale Onasanya ‘22, Graduate School of Business, MS in Human Resource Management, started a new position as Auditor at Office of the NYS Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli.
Congratulations to Aaron Ozeri ‘22, Touro College of Dental Medicine, in General Practice Residency at Woodhull Hospital, and Rachael Slater ‘23, on their wedding.
Christopher Palmieri ’22, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, started a new position as Associate Attorney at Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani, LLP.
Claudia Pius ’22, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, joined the Personal, Family & Business Planning Practice Group at Rivkin Radler LLP.
Dr. Marie Robles ’22, Touro College of Dental Medicine (TCDM), is a Special Needs Fellow at TCDM as part of a New York State Academic Dental Centers (NYSADC) Fellowship to Address Oral Health Disparities.
Suan Townsend ‘22, Graduate School of Business, MS in Human Resource Management, started a new position as Claims Specialist at Social Security Administration.
Hayley Valla ’22, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, was appointed Assistant Law Clerk to the Hon. George Nolan at Suffolk County Supreme Court, Riverhead.
Lindsey Zager ’22, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, joined Rivkin Radler LLP in their Insurance Fraud Practice Group as an Associate.
Yoav Arjang ’23, Graduate School of Jewish Studies, was promoted to become
the Director of Student Life at North Shore Hebrew Academy Middle School. Michael Balzan ’23, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, joined Rubin Paterniti Gonzalez Rizzo Kaufman, LLP as a Law Clerk.
Taylor Bialek ’23, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, is working as an Associate at Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker LLP.
Benjamin Black ’23, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, is working as an ADA at the Bronx District Attorney’s Office.
Dr. Madrona Boutros ’23, Touro College of Pharmacy, spent the last year working at Novartis as a Global Development Fellow in “Clinical Development Excellence.”
Julia Buli ’23, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, is an Associate at Bartlett LLP.
Natalie Segev Douek ’23, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, is working as an Attorney with the New York City Law Department.
Nicole El-Zind ’23, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, is working as an ADA at the Bronx District Attorney’s Office.
Congratulations to Dr. Gabrielle Demicco Fusco ’23, Touro College of Dental Medicine, on the birth of a baby girl, Olivia Marie.
Nancy Gallagher ’23, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, is working as a Junior Assistant District Attorney at the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office.
Felicia Gaon ’23, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, is an Adjunct Professor at Touro Law, teaching in the Education and Youth Justice Clinic.
Kara Glassman ’23, School of Health Sciences, Department of Behavioral Sciences, MS in Industrial-Organizational Psychology, launched her own Leadership Coaching firm.
Michelle Halse ’23, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, started a new position as an Assistant Town Attorney with the Town of Brookhaven.
Aleza Kleinworm Jerome ’23, Graduate School of Technology, MS in Instructional Technology, is starting a new job as a Product Analyst at Adobe.
Max Lindenfeld ’23, Graduate School of Jewish Studies, was named Partner in the Tel Aviv Law Office of Pearl Cohen Zedek Latzer Baratz LLP.
Anthony Matamoros ’23, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, is working as an Attorney with the New York City Law Department.
Miguel Mercedes ‘23, Graduate School of Business, MS in Healthcare Management, got accepted to the PhD program in Health Sciences at Seton Hall School of Health and Medical Sciences to start Fall 2024.
Dana Ortiz-Tulla ’23, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, is working as a Judicial Law Clerk at the Middlesex County Superior Court for the Hon. Michael A. Toto.
Shahzadi Raza ’23, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, is an Associate at Bartlett LLP.
John Riccardi ’23, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, began working as an Assistant District Attorney at Kings County District Attorney’s Office.
Stephanie Stephenson ’23, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, accepted a position as Law Clerk in Lowenstein Sandler LLP’s Corporate department.
Congratulations to Dr. Blanche Weintraub ’23, Touro College of Dental Medicine, on the birth of a baby.
Alexa Zuppa ’23, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, started her post-graduate clerkship as Law Clerk to the Honorable Thomas McCloskey, a General Equity Judge of the Middlesex Vicinage of the New Jersey Superior Court.
Jamar Daniels ’24, Graduate School of Education, MS in Early Childhood Education & Special Education (Birth-Grade 2), part of Touro’s Holmes Scholar Program, became the AACTE Holmes Scholars Master’s Representative nationally for 2024-2025
Lashari Gochiashvili ’24, Graduate School of Technology, MS in Data Analytics, just started as a Data Scientist at Ingersoll Rand based in North Carolina. Abhilasha Hirawat ’24, Graduate School of Technology, MS in Data Analytics, is starting a new job at Kyvos Insights as a Software Engineer-Professional Services.
Yalitza Marie Negron-Rivera ’24, School of Health Sciences, Department of Behavioral Sciences, MS in Industrial-Organizational Psychology, started a new position as Head of Talent Acquisition and Recruitment at New York State Teachers’ Retirement System (NYSTRS).
In Memoriam
Lois Schwaeber ’92, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, former Director of Legal Services for The Safe Center LI, passed away on June 2nd.
Myles Patrick Varley II ’03, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, passed away recently. He leaves behind his wife Alison and their three children, Grace, Myles III and Conor.
Brooke Peltz Cohen ’11, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, and her husband Toby Cohen, loving parents to Jake, Cooper, and Addison, died in a tragic car accident on Thanksgiving. Jake, Cooper, and Addison continue to recuperate in the constant love and care of Brooke and Toby’s families.
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