Dr. Juan Wisnivesky is a clinical epidemiologist whose research focuses on chronic lung disease, such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), cancer epidemiology and outcomes research, and long-term outcomes of Covid-19. He is the System Chief of the Division of General Internal Medicine at Mount Sinai. He has led several studies evaluating determinants of self-management, outcomes, and disparities in care of patients with chronic lung diseases. Currently, he is PI of multiple R01-funded studies evaluating symptoms perception and asthma self-management in the elderly, self-management of COPD in patients with comorbidities, and investigating the biologic and behavioral pathways linking depression with asthma self-management behaviors and outcomes. Since 2020, Dr. Wisnivesky has been leading the Mount Sinai Health System Post-Covid-19 Registry, assessing the long-term outcomes of Covid-19 patients. His work has also been related to lung cancer treatment in the elderly and disparities in care. He has been involved in several projects involving SEER-Medicare data and other large cancer registries. He published several manuscripts using population-based cancer registries addressing issues related to screening, diagnosis, treatment, disparities in care and outcomes of patients with lung cancer. In the past, he led 3 R01s evaluating staging and treatment of lung cancer using the SEER-Medicare registry and a 4-site cohort study funded by the American Cancer Society to study disparities in lung cancer care. He has been the primary mentor of 9 junior faculty with externally funded career development awards. He is also MPI of an NCI T32 program in Cancer Prevention and Control in Priority Populations.
Melissa Martynenko, MPA, MPH – Research Program Director
Melissa Martynenko is the Research Program Director in the Division of General Internal Medicine. She received a master’s degree in public policy and administration from Rutgers University specializing in non-governmental organization management and a master’s degree in public health from New York University with a concentration in global health and epidemiology after serving in the Peace Corps. For over 12 years, Melissa has worked closely with clinician researchers in the Division to manage the study activities, research staff, budgetary requirements and regulatory compliance of pre- and post-award grants.
Olga Alagiozidou, MBA – Assistant Research Program DirectorOlga Alagiozidou is the Assistant Research Program Director for the Division of General Internal Medicine at Mount Sinai. She received a Bachelor of Communication Arts from Marymount Manhattan College and a Master of Business Administration from Colorado State University. Prior to joining the Division, she served as Program Manager of the Institute for Medical Education at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai where she oversaw the operational and administrative aspects of the institute, including program management, grant management, financial management and communications. In this role, she oversees the Human Resources and Operations of the research program and is responsible for post award finance and regulatory compliance for several projects.
Stephanie Margolin, MSW – Grants Manager
Stephanie Margolin received a bachelor’s degree from Roanoke College in sociology and a master’s degree in social work from Columbia University. Prior to joining the Division of General Internal Medicine at Mount Sinai, Stephanie served as Senior Grants Officer at LAPA Fundraising, developing and executing fundraising strategies for nonprofit organizations providing supportive social services in NYC. She also served as Associate Manager of Government Grants and Institutional Strategy at VNS Health, where she was responsible for the prospecting and procurement of government and institutional funding across business lines. In her role as Grants Manager in the Division, Stephanie supports both pre- and post-award grant management.
Pranav Gwalani, M.B., B.S, MPH – Data Analytics Manager
Dr. Pranav Gwalani graduated from B.J. Medical College in India with a bachelor’s degree in medicine and from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public health in 2022 with an MPH in epidemiology. He provides statistical support and data management for the COVID registry study led by Dr. Wisnivesky and for the SEER-Medicare cancer database studies by Drs. Wisnivesky, Sigel, Lin and Kong.
Nadia Zubair, MPH – Senior Project Manager
Nadia Zubair received her bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Kentucky and her MPH in epidemiology from Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She has worked in clinical research for the past 4 years and currently manages numerous observational and intervention studies examining chronic illnesses, overseeing study operations, data collection, research staff, compliance, and pre- and post-award finance.
Alyssa Civil – Project ManagerAlyssa Civil received her Bachelor of Science in Exercise Science from the University of Delaware in 2019. Prior to her current role, she worked as a clinical research coordinator on Dr. Wisnivesky’s industry sponsored study with Regeneron that examined the extent, quality and durability of immune responses of immunocompromised patients to SARS-CoV-2 and compared them to control patients. Now, she manages that study as well as multiple of Dr. Wisnivesky’s COVID-19 studies including Dr. Wisnivesky’s NIH RECOVER study, which aims to understand the long-term health impacts of COVID-19. In addition, she helps with the RECOVER-Neuro intervention, a clinical trial studying possible treatments to
Kathryn Marcon, MPH – Project ManagerKathryn Marcon graduated from George Washington University in 2019 with a bachelor’s degree in exercise science and with a master’s degree in public health in 2021. Prior to this role, Kathryn worked as a public health consultant and a clinical research coordinator on multiple NIH-funded studies. Currently, she oversees Dr. Wisnivesky’s RECOVER study, which aims to understand the long-term health impacts of COVID-19. In addition, she also works on RECOVER-Neuro, a clinical trial studying possible treatments to improve memory, attention, and brain processing speed in individuals with Long COVID.
Dhanya Chanumolu, MPH – Project Manager
Dhanya Chanumolu received her MPH in applied biostatistics from University of Colorado Denver. Currently, she oversees two of Dr. Wisnivesky’s research grants. The first is the Mount Sinai Health System Post-Covid-19 Registry, which is a longitudinal study that follows patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection and/or COVID-19 to assess the long-term consequences of infection across multiple organ systems and compare their outcomes with patients without confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection. The second is an NIH funded clinical trial that tests the effect of a personalized asthma self-management support intervention and improve perception of airway limitation for older adults.
Maya Nussenzweig, MPH – Compliance Research Program CoordinatorMaya Nussenzweig graduated from Skidmore College in 2013 with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and from Tufts University’s School of Public Health in 2016 with an MPH in healthcare services management and policy. She previously worked on Dr. Juan Wisnivesky’s RECOVER study and currently leads regulatory and quality initiatives of the Research Program in the Division of General Internal Medicine.
Grace Mhango, MPH – Data Analyst II
Grace Mhango holds an MPH with a concentration in biostatistics, earned in 2008 from the Yale School of Public Health. She works primarily on large database projects, including lung cancer and breast cancer projects based on the SEER-Medicare data and the SEER incidence data. She also works on Medicare claims data that are available for research from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) through the Research Data Assistance Center (ResDAC).