World Trade Center Health Program Faculty & Staff | NYU Langone Health

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World Trade Center Health Program World Trade Center Health Program Faculty & Staff

World Trade Center Health Program Faculty & Staff

Diverse faculty and staff within NYU Grossman School of Medicine’s World Trade Center (WTC) Health Program bring a rich variety of life experiences, cultural backgrounds, and professional expertise to our patients. We have members who speak Spanish, Cantonese, and Mandarin. Other languages are available via medical interpreters.

Medical Treatment Faculty and Staff

Our medical treatment faculty and staff includes the following specialists.

Denise J. Harrison, MD
Clinical Director

Susan Richman, MD, MSc
Attending Physician

Nishay Chitkara, MD
Attending Physician

George Friedman-Jimenez, MD
Associate Medical Director

Andrea Thompson, MA, RN, CCM
Nurse Case Manager

Ms. Thompson is the program administrator and case manager for the Bellevue/NYU Occupational Environmental Medicine Clinic, where she helped coordinate 9/11 and Robin Hood Foundation World Trade Center treatment grants from 2002 to 2004. She also coordinated the WTC Health Monitoring Program from 2003 to 2004. She was a first responder at the WTC disaster site and has worked with WTC patients since 2002. She received training from Mount Sinai WTC Health Program professionals to administer mental health, medical, and exposure questionnaires to this population and has 20 years of experience processing New York State Workers Compensation cases. In addition to being a registered nurse and a certified case manager, Ms. Thompson is a certified National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health approved spirometry technician.

Priscilla Asiamah, MSN, AGPCNP-BC
Nurse Practitioner

Ms. Asiamah is a board-certified adult gerontology primary care nurse practitioner (AGPCNP-BC) whose duties at the WTC Health Program include providing medical monitoring examinations for WTC responders and completing certifications for WTC-related conditions. She received her bachelor’s degree in nursing at State University of New York at Plattsburgh and her master’s degree in nursing at Stony Brook University. Ms. Asiamah completed a nursing externship on an oncology unit and worked on a neurology/neurosurgery unit at Mount Sinai Hospital. She has cared for patients with epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, and other neurological disorders. She began her career as an AGPCNP-BC at a primary care clinic in the Bronx, where she managed care for patients with chronic diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, and asthma. She also worked at Employee Health at Mount Sinai Hospital before assuming her role as a nurse practitioner at the WTC Health Program.

Keisha Bennett, DNP, MSN, AGPCNP-BC
Adult Nurse Practitioner

Dr. Bennett provides medical evaluations, treatment, and case management for WTC responders and survivors and applies her clinical informatics skills to various WTC Health Program initiatives. She also leads the WTC-Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) quality initiative which aims to improve CPAP use among WTC responders treated for Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA). She received a bachelor’s degree in nursing and a master’s and doctorate in AGPCNP-BC from Hunter College, City University of New York. She has worked in telemetry and medical surgical nursing at what is now NYU Langone Hospital—Brooklyn. She also has a background in clinical nursing informatics and is proficient in various electronic medical record systems. Her clinical practice as AGPCNP-BC began in 2016, when she volunteered at Housing Works in Brooklyn. She later worked at Park Slope Family Health Center at NYU Langone, where she assessed, diagnosed, and managed the health of adult patients. Dr. Bennett also performed physical exams, ordered and interpreted diagnostic tests, managed acute illness and injuries, as well as chronic illness such as HIV and diabetes mellitus. Other duties included providing health promotion, disease prevention, and injury prevention.

Mental Health Faculty and Staff

Our highly qualified mental health faculty and staff members include the following.

Peter T. Haugen, PhD
Director of Mental Health

Daniel E. Roberts, MD
Attending Psychiatrist

Dr. Roberts earned his medical degree from the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine and completed his psychiatry residency training at NYU Grossman School of Medicine. Prior to his transition to medicine and psychiatry, he worked as a clinical social worker, specializing in treating co-occurring disorders both in individual and group psychotherapy. Dr. Roberts is a board-certified psychiatrist and the attending psychiatrist for the NYU Grossman School of Medicine’s WTC Health Program Clinical Center of Excellence. He is also a clinical assistant professor at NYU Grossman School of Medicine and is actively involved in clinical research at the Center for Psychedelic Medicine in NYU Langone’s Department of Psychiatry.

Trace Rosel, LCSW
Clinical and Member Services Coordinator

Ms. Rosel is a member of the clinical mental health team providing direct care and monitoring services to WTC first responders. Her professional interests include a variety of therapeutic modalities to address the treatment of post-traumatic stress syndrome. She also oversees social services and is an outreach coordinator for the WTC Health Program. Ms. Rosel received an MSW from NYU Silver School of Social Work, during which time she completed her internship at Bellevue Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinic. She is also a graduate of the American Institute of Psychoanalysis and recently completed the Post-Master’s Palliative and End of Life Care Program at NYU.

Alyce Foster, PhD
Senior Psychologist

Dr. Foster received a BA in psychology from Loyola University New Orleans before completing her MA and PhD in clinical psychology from the New School for Social Research in New York City. She became involved with the WTC Health Program during her APA-accredited pre-doctoral internship training at NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue. She continued as the clinical psychology postdoctoral fellow for the program before assuming a full-time position as a psychologist. Her research interests include understanding trauma-related psychopathology throughout the life span and the relation between trauma exposure and mechanisms of emotion dysregulation.

Aditi Werth, PhD
Senior Psychologist

Dr. Werth received a BS in psychology from Indiana University and an MS and PhD in clinical psychology from the University of North Texas. Her involvement in the WTC Health Program began as the clinical psychology postdoctoral fellow. She later accepted a full-time position as a psychologist. She is co-principal investigator for the NYU Grossman School of Medicine’s WTC Health Program Clinical Center of Excellence psychotherapy process and treatment outcome research program and is actively involved in the training of undergraduate and postgraduate research assistants, psychology externs, and postdoctoral fellows. She is also research coordinator for a multisite Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health–funded grant investigating the prognosis and determinants of asthma morbidity in WTC rescue and recovery workers.

Brian Van Buren, PhD
Staff Psychologist

Dr. Van Buren received his PhD from LIU Brooklyn and completed his postdoctoral internship training at Massachusetts General Hospital where he provided treatment to combat veterans and their family members with post-traumatic stress disorder and related conditions. Dr. Van Buren’s research interests include assessing and treating trauma, grief and loss, and moral injury occurring from significant occupational stress. He has also conducted research on shame resulting from grief and trauma. Dr. Van Buren is a clinical instructor at NYU Grossman School of Medicine and is actively involved in the training of students.

Rena Ferrara, MA
Volunteer Research Assistant

Administrative Staff

Lin Y. Luo
Assistant Director

Grace Zheng
Quality Assurance Analyst

Tricia Guarin
Outreach and Retention Associate

Susana Sanchez
Administrative Coordinator

Shirnelle Joseph
Administrative Coordinator

Jesse Martinez-Duperon
Transfer Coordination Project Assistant

Sylinda Charles
Project Assistant

Grace Vasquez
Project Assistant

Gwendolyn Hicks
Project Assistant