Meet the Faculty
Mount Sinai South Nassau Family Medicine
Samuel Sandowski, MD
Vice President, Medical Education
Chair, Family Medicine
Doctor Samuel Sandowski is Professor of Family Medicine and Professor of Medical Education at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and Vice-President for Medical Education at Mount Sinai South Nassau (MSSN). He is also Chair of Family Medicine at MSSN and was the past director of our family medicine residency for 20 years. Doctor Sandowski graduated cum laude from the Technion Faculty of Medicine in Israel. After completing his family medicine residency at South Nassau Communities Hospital (now Mount Sinai South Nassau), and a faculty development fellowship at the State University of New York Health Science Center, in Brooklyn, NY (SUNY Brooklyn), he served as Medical Director of the SUNY Brooklyn Family Medicine Center for six years. He returned to South Nassau to assume the role as Program Director. His current responsibilities include oversight of all medical student education, graduate medical education, and continuing medical education (CME) for MSSN, as well as leading the Department of Family Medicine. Doctor Sandowski has served as a member of the New York State American Academy of Family Physicians’ Leadership Commission and was Vice Chair of both their Education Commission and their Public Health Commission. He has published several articles and book chapters, co-edited the textbook, Primary Care, edited Family Medicine: Board Exam Practice Questions: Book 2, and is a reviewer for the journal, American Family Physician. He is a regional and national presenter and is dually boarded in family and adolescent medicine.
Anubhav Agarwal, MD, CAQ-Sports Medicine
Program Director, Family Medicine Residency
Doctor Agarwal earned his medical degree from Kasturba Medical College, India, and completed a preliminary residency in general surgery and a family medicine residency at Nassau University Medical Center and Mount Sinai South Nassau, respectively. He is fellowship trained in primary care sports medicine from the University of Nevada, Reno. He is board certified in family medicine and holds subspecialty certification in primary care sports medicine. Doctor Agarwal's experience includes serving as a sports medicine physician for the New York City Marathon, many collegial football, volleyball, and wrestling events, as well as covering several rodeos throughout United States. As a New York native, Dr. Agarwal prides himself in supporting his community as both a family and a sports medicine physician. He oversees the administration and operation of the Family Medicine residency which includes resident recruitment and selection, all aspects of resident education and patient care. Partnering with the Chair of Family Medicine, he is responsible for the overall quality of the Residency and that it fully complies with the policies and procedures of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. Doctor Agarwal has advanced education in ImPACT concussion care training for athletes, treating trauma patients, and has a breath of musculoskeletal procedural skills. These have made him a recognized leader in the field of sports medicine at Mount Sinai South Nassau. In addition to several publications, he recently published the Ninth Edition of Magill’s Medical Guide. As a family doctor, Dr. Agarwal believes that exercise and function are intricately related, and that regardless of age, every person deserves an active lifestyle that promotes physical and mental fitness.
Paul Moglia, PhD
Associate Program Director, Family Medicine Residency
Institutional Director of Faculty Development
Doctor Paul Moglia obtained an MA in family studies at Fordham University before obtaining his MA and PhD in counseling psychology from Boston College, where he was awarded several graduate assistantships and teaching fellowships. He completed a clinical fellowship from the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, where he studied medical-liaison psychiatry, family therapy, and geriatric neuropsychology. He was the first psychologist to complete a faculty development fellowship at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He was a peer reviewer for Family Medicine, Journal of Family Practice and American Family Physician for many years and served as a member of the Networking Resource Line, a panel of experts who provide consultation and assistance to residencies throughout the United States. He is author of over 70 articles, from premature birth, familial Down syndrome, hypochondriasis, and behavioral economics to sexuality, divorce in the elderly, death and dying, and medical student engagement. He is a co-editor for the Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, and this year’s Ninth, five-volume, 3,000-page Magill's Medical Guide. In 2015, he edited the five-volume, 3,000-page Psychology & Behavioral Health 4th Edition, and the first edition, four-volume 1,700-page, Adolescent Health & Wellness. In 2019, he edited the Second Edition of the two-volume Addiction, Substance Abuse and Alcoholism, followed in 2020 with his editing the two-volume, Aging, and the four-volume, Salem Health: Integrative, Complementary, and Alternative Medicine. In 2022, he compiled and edited Parenting: Styles and Strategies. An award-winning educator, he has made dozens of presentations at national and regional conferences and is Clinical Assistant Professor of Medical Education at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He is core faculty for all the residencies here at South Nassau and holds a monthly, inter-specialty, resident-only conference. He runs Journal Club for Family Medicine which has received national recognition for its methodology, and teaches the third-year, month-long rotation, Health Systems Management, or as he likes to say, “How to make a living as a physician.” He also runs Balint for each year’s class in both the Family and Internal Medicine residencies. He consults to residents and faculty on research methods and biostatics. He serves on the Graduate Medical Education, Continuing Medical Education, and Protocol Review committees. In addition to his responsibilities here, he is active in the New York State Psychological Association as Chair of its Listserv Committee and member of its Continuing Education Committee. He is a member of the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine and the Nassau and Westchester County psychological associations, the counties where he maintains a full-time private practice.
Russell Porter, MD
Associate Program Director, Family Medicine
A locally practicing community physician, Dr. Porter ran a busy family medicine practice for over 25 years, admitting to three hospitals, was the Chair of Family Medicine at Mercy Medical Center in Rockville Centre while an active staff physician at Mount Sinai South Nassau during this time. Doctor Porter is board-certified in family medicine, as all our faculty, and obtained certificates of advanced qualification in geriatrics and sports medicine. In addition to running our geriatrics clinic, he precepts regularly at the Family Medicine Center and regularly runs the family medicine inpatient teaching service. Doctor Porter is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Family Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
Nelson Giraldo, MD
Faculty Attending
Doctor Giraldo joined the Department of Family Medicine as a part time faculty attending in April 2015. Though he has over 30 years of active clinical practice, he takes as his own personal commitment to teach, but also learn from, our residents. Doctor Giraldo completed his Bachelor of Science at City College, part of the City University of New York system in 1980. He obtain his medical degree from the Universidad Autonoma de Guadalajara in Jalisco, Mexico, from which he went on to complete a Fifth Pathway at New York Medical College’s affiliated site, The Mount Vernon Hospital, in Mount Vernon. Doctor Giraldo completed his residency in family medicine at Jamaica Hospital, Queens, where he was also chief resident. He stayed on for one year and worked as a faculty preceptor and interim assistant program director. He has been in private practice since 1989 and has admitting privileges Good Samaritan, Southside, as well as South Nassau. His practice is currently based out of Bay Shore. In our program, he is faculty attending and a clinical assistant professor in family medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He rotates at the teaching attending on our inpatient family medicine service and precepts in Oceanside at the Family Medicine Center. As all our faculty, he readily covers the broad range of clinical care across all ages, and he has particular interest in wellness, bariatric and addiction medicine.
Emad Hanna, MD, MSc, MS
Faculty Attending, Family Medicine Residency
An alumnus of our program, Dr. Hanna was the recipient of the Resident Teacher of the Year Award from the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine in his graduating year. Prior to training in family medicine, he had 10 years of busy general surgery practice during which he obtained his Master’s degree in Surgery from the University of Cairo, where he also had obtained his medical degree. Doctor Hanna also completed a residency in preventive and occupational medicine, receiving his second masters from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. While readily dealing with the broad range care that is the hallmark of family medicine, his particular areas of focus include office procedures, epidemiology, preventive, occupational, and community medicine.
Scott Ippolito, MD
Senior Faculty Attending, Family Medicine Residency
Past Chair, Department of Family Medicine
Scott Ippolito, MD, completed his residency in family medicine at Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, Queens. He subsequently become a fellow in both obstetrics/gynecology and faculty development at the State University of New York Downstate Medical School. After spending time in private practice, Dr. Ippolito returned to academic medicine, quickly rising to Associate Chair of the Department of Family Medicine at Wyckoff Heights Medical Center, Brooklyn. There he founded and directed their family medicine residency. Doctor Ippolito next served as Chair of the Department of Family Medicine at St. John's Episcopal Hospital, Far Rockaway, where he created both the clinical Department of Family Medicine and its family medicine residency. In 2000, Dr. Ippolito came to South Nassau as Chair of the Department which he resigned earlier this year. In his current role, he serves as teaching attending on the Inpatient Family Medicine Service, receptor in our family medicine center, and medical director of South's Employee Health Service. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the New York College of Osteopathic Medicine Education Consortium as well a member of various leadership boards and committees at both South Nassau and the Long Island Health Network. Doctor Ippolito is Clinical Assistant Professor at the State University of New York Downstate Medical School, an Adjunct Associate Professor at the New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine, and an Associate Dean of Clinical Sciences at Ross University School of Medicine. He is an active teacher to our residents, regularly participating in office-based precepting and as a teaching attending on our inpatient service. Doctor Ippolito has published several textbook and review book chapters and is nationally renowned for medical risk mitigation. He is well known for being a fierce advocate for the specialty and for residency education.
Mary Kristine Ellis, MD, FAAFP
Program Director, Transitional Year Residency
Dr. Ellis grew up in Queens and graduated from ROSS University School of
Medicine and then completed her residency at the Tulane
University Family Medicine Residency Program at East Jefferson General
Hospital in New Orleans. She has been faculty and Associate Program
Director at the NYU Langone Brooklyn Family Medicine Residency Program
and faculty at the Mount Sinai Downtown Residency in Urban Family
Medicine. Dr. Ellis is passionate about Trans Gender Medicine, Culinary
Medicine and Diversity Equity and Inclusion. She has dedicated her
career to working with the underserved and has worked in Federally
Qualified Health Centers throughout her career. She is also dedicated to
teaching and mentoring Medical Students. In her free time she loves to
dance, ride her peloton, cook and find new places to eat in NY, read a
good book and spend time with her two dogs. She and her husband both
love to travel to new places and she hopes to one day find time to do
more medical missions.
Linda Roethel, MD
Faculty Attending, Family Medicine Residency
Coordinator, Women’s Health, Family Medicine Residency
A graduate of Universidad del Noreste, Mexico, and St. Joseph’s Medical Center’s Family Medicine Residency, Yonkers, New York, Dr. Linda Roethel completed a fellowship in obstetrics and gynecology at Montefiore Medical Center and North Central Bronx Hospital in New York City. She is an active teacher for our inpatient family medicine teaching service and an active preceptor for our outpatient family medicine center. As Coordinator of Women’s Health, Dr. Roethel provides obstetrical and gynecological procedures in the Family Medicine Center.
Robert Cavera, PsyD
Clinical Health Psychologist
Doctor Rob Cavera is a New York State licensed psychologist who serves the Mount Sinai South Nassau Family Medicine as its Clinical Health Psychologist. He provides integrative, patient-centered medical home (PCMH) services that include consultation, assessment, diagnosis, intervention, follow-up, and referrals for our patients with comorbid behavioral-medical disorders. Providing “in the moment” short-term behavioral and cognitive interventions for any age patient, he focuses on patients with high-risk diseases such as diabetes mellitus, peptic ulcer disease, asthma, and hypertension. Doctor Cavera works hand in hand with his faculty preceptor colleagues and adds another layer of education for our residents in the practical application of the biopsychosocial model of health care delivery. He enjoys teaching, offering a monthly behavioral science conference, and mentoring resident physicians on the impact and interrelation of psychological distress on medical diseases and disorders. Doctor Cavera has presented nationally regarding the role of integrating behavioral health in primary care settings, and the effect of integration on patient outcomes. He received his Bachelor of Science degree from Fordham University, and his master's and doctoral degrees from Hofstra University in School-Community Psychology. Prior to working at Family Medicine, Dr. Cavera worked Mount Sinai South Nassau’s Mental Health Counseling Center in Baldwin. His primary area of expertise is post-traumatic stress, anxiety, and depression. He is an adjunct instructor of psychology at Molloy College, where he teaches undergraduate and graduate psychology courses. He also maintains a private practice where he treats children, adults, and families with a wide range of psychopathologies.