Course Directors:

Anuj Goenka, MD *

View Bio

Dr. Goenka is board-certified in radiation oncology and physics and has extensive experience with proton radiotherapy, intensity modulated radiation therapy, stereotactic body radiation therapy and brachytherapy applications.

He received his medical degree at Johns Hopkins University and completed his post graduate training at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. He specializes in the treatment of cancers of all subsites, including brain, head and neck, lung, breast, esophageal, colorectal/anal, prostate, and gynecological malignancies.

Dr. Goenka is the recipient of several leadership awards, has published numerous articles and abstracts in national and international journals and has participated as a guest speaker internationally. He holds memberships at the American Medical Association, American Society

for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology, and American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin among others and is actively involved in Community Outreach programs.

Louis Potters, MD, FACR, FASTRO, FABS *

View Bio

Louis Potters, MD, FACR, FASTRO FABS is chairperson of the Department of Radiation Medicine at Northwell Health and professor at the Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell. He is Deputy Physician in Chief and the Marilyn and Barry Rubenstein Chair in Cancer Research for the Northwell Health Cancer Institute. He holds an Affiliate Membership at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Cancer Institute.

Dr. Potters is a practicing radiation oncologist and an internationally recognized expert in the management and treatment of prostate cancer. He has authored more than 150 publications, book chapters and editorials. Board-certified in internal medicine and radiation oncology, Dr. Potters previously served as Medical Director of the New York Prostate Institute and as associate member in radiation oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. He received his medical degree from the Rutgers Medical School, and his undergraduate degree from Emory University.

Dr. Potters is currently President for the Society of Chairs in Academic Radiation Oncology Programs (SCAROP) has served as a board member and other leadership roles for the American Society of Radiation Oncology and other medical societies. He has authored several key national cancer treatment guidelines for radiation oncology. Dr. Potters has been a consultant for the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the National Quality Forum and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. He has served as an executive committee member for the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer and has participated on several US Department of Health and Human Services committees and panels. He is currently on the Board for the Long Island Chapter of the American Cancer Society and is the founding Chair of the Northwell Health Physician Partners Board of Governors, the eighth largest medical group in the US.

Dr. Potters oversees one of the largest radiation oncology departments with a faculty and staff devoted to excellent patient care, research and the education of tomorrow’s oncologists. The department is recognized as a pioneer for high quality and safe cancer care through its Smarter Radiation Oncology initiative.

Faculty:

Kaled M. Alektiar, MD, FASTRO

Kaled M. Alektiar, MD, FASTRO

View Bio

Kaled Alektiar, MD, is a radiation oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. He has a broad background in Radiation Oncology, with specific training and expertise in treating soft tissue sarcomas and gynecologic malignancies with external beam radiation (Conventional, Intensity Modulated as Image Guided Radiation Therapy), brachytherapy, and Proton Therapy. He attended Damascus University School of Medicine, followed by internal medicine and Radiation residency a Wayne State University. As a Program Member of the Cancer Center Support Grant, he participates in the Center’s research activities as either an independent investigator, leader of one or more research governance committees, or part of a research team. He currently is the director of Sarcoma and Gynecologic cancers at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

Rachel Bartlett, MD

Rachel Bartlett, MD

View Bio

Dr. Bartlett is an ABR board certified nuclear medicine physicist for NYU Langone Health and assistant professor of radiology for NYU Grossman School of Medicine.  Dr Bartlett received her undergraduate degree in physics from Oregon State University and her Ph.D. in Medical Physics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  She joined the Medical Physics department at Memorial Sloan Kettering as a post-doc in 2009 in the Nuclear Medicine group.  She completed her post-doc in 2012 and has since been a solo nuclear medicine physicist for NYU Langone Health with an appointment in the department of Radiology.

In addition to her clinical commitments, she supports the small animal imaging lab at NYU and serves on the NYU IRB, IACUC, and radiation safety committees.  As the NYU health system continues to grow, her current focus is on standardizing and streamlining the QA and workflows of the nuclear medicine department.  Dr Bartlett is actively involved in the medical physics community serving on multiple exam committees for the ABR, the sub-committee on Nuclear Medicine Physics for the ACR, and the MIRD committee of the SNMMI.

Seth Robert Blacksburg, MD

View Bio

Seth Blacksburg, MD serves as the Chairman of Radiation Medicine at Lenox Hill Hospital and is an associate professor of radiation medicine at the Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell. Dr. Blacksburg specializes in the treatment of genitourinary, breast, gynecologic, gastrointestinal and central nervous system tumors using innovative radiation techniques. He is also an expert in medical informatics and health sector management.

Prior to joining Lenox Hill, Dr. Blacksburg served as the Associate Director of radiation oncology and Medical Director of NYCyberknife Center at NYU Winthrop Hospital. In addition, he held the academic title of clinical associate professor at the NYU School of Medicine. He was also previously a radiation oncologist at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital.  Throughout his career, Dr. Blacksburg has been the principal and senior researcher in a wide array of clinical investigations, which have primarily focused on stereotactic radiation therapy and treatment outcomes for genitourinary cancers.  As a highly sought-after expert within his field, he has been invited to lecture, teach and present at numerous national and international conferences.

Dr. Blacksburg is affiliated with the American Society for Radiation Oncology and the American Board of Radiology. He also serves as a reviewer for several distinguished academic journals, including Practical Radiation Oncology, Frontiers in Oncology, Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Radiology, and Journal of Radiosurgery and SBRT.

After graduating summa cum laude from Tufts University, Dr. Blacksburg concurrently pursued a medical degree from the Duke University School of Medicine, where he served as class president, and a Master of Business Administration degree with a concentration in health sector management from the Duke University Fuqua School of Business.  His post-graduate training included an internship in internal medicine at New York University/Bellevue Hospital and a residency in radiation oncology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, where he served as chief resident for two years. He stayed on as faculty at Mount Sinai where he was the first radiation oncologist selected into the Greater New York Hospital Association/United Hospital Fund clinical quality fellowship.

2449

Yijian Cao, PhD

View Bio

Serving as chief physicist of Department of Radiation Medicine at Northwell, Yijian Cao, Ph.D, oversees and coordinates clinical medical physics operations at all 8 department sites. He is also to develop and grow research and education programs in radiation oncology physics and clinical dosimetry. His research focuses are the optimizations and automations of treatment planning, AI/ML for clinical QA procedures, and workflow management and integration for safety and efficiency. He teaches in Hofstra medical physics graduate program.

Chang - Jenghwa Chang

Jenghwa Chang, PhD, FAAPM *

View Bio

Dr. Jenghwa Chang is a medical physicist certified by ABR and ABMP. His major clinical responsibility is Gamma Knife stererotactic radiosurgery/radiogherapy and he is currently the lead physicist for the Gamma Knife SRS/SBRT program at Northwell Health. Dr. Chang is the Director of the Medical Physics Residency Program at Northwell Health as well as the Director of Medical Physics Graduate Program at Hofstra University.

Dr. Chang received the B.S. degree in control engineering and the M.S. degree in communication engineering, both from the National Chiao-Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan, and earned his Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the Polytechnic Institute of New York University, Brooklyn. Prior to his current position, Dr. Chang held faculty appointments at NewYork Presbyterian Hospital-Weill Cornell Medical College (2010-2016), NYU Langone Medical Center (2008-2009), and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (1997-2008). Dr. Chang is a member of IEEE, AAPM and ASTRO. He is actively involved in professional activities and has served multiple committees and officers for AAPM and RAMPS. He has also offered several SAM educational/professional lectures to colleagues at various national/international meetings, and is a site surveyor for the ACR ROPA program.

Dr. Chang’s research interest involves applying engineering and physics principles to medicine, particularly, in the fields of radiology and radiation oncology. He has published over 60 peer-reviewed journal articles in the fields of electrical engineering, medical physics, radiation oncology and biomedical engineering. Dr. Chang was a pioneer in optical diffusion tomography for early detection of breast cancers. He has also implemented the cone-beam computed tomography on a medical linear accelerator to improve the treatment setup accuracy and critical organ avoidance for radiation oncology patients.  Currently, he is focusing on the research of quality improvement, automation, deep-learning network and small field dosimetry. Dr. Chang is a reviewer for multiple international peer-reviewed journals, including Medical Physics, International Journal of Radiation Oncology Biology Physic, Journal of Applied Clinical Medical Physics…

Chang - Joe Y.Chang ,MD

Joe Y. Chang, MD, PhD

View Bio

Joe Y. Chang (MD, PhD, FASTRO) is a tenured Professor, Director of Stereotactic Ablative Radiotherapy (SABR), MD Anderson Cancer Center. He is the Fellow of American Society of Radiation Oncology and received the award of “The Best Doctors in America”. He is the current chair for American Radium Society/American College of Radiology (ACR) Thoracic Appropriateness Use Criteria Committee, chair of thoracic subcommittee of international Particle Therapy Co-Operative Group (PTCOG), NCCN Thoracic Guidelines Voting Committee Member; He served as a Section Chief of MD Anderson Thoracic Radiation Oncology, senior associate editor for International Journal of Radiation Oncology Biology Physics (Red Journal) and is an editorial board members for several international medical journals. He was the president and Chair of Board of Sino-American Network of Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology (SANTRO). He is an international renowned expert in radiotherapy and one of the pioneers in the field of proton therapy, stereotactic radiotherapy and immunotherapy in lung cancer. He is PI or Co-PI for many institutional, national and international clinical trials in lung cancer. He published more than 250 peer-reviewed SCI articles in the top oncology journals including Lancet Oncology, Nature Review Clinical Oncology, JAMA Oncology, JCO, JAMA Surgery, JAMA Network Open, Clinical Cancer Research, Cancer, Journal of Thoracic Oncology, Intentional Journal of Radiation Oncology Biology Physics and etc. He edited 5 books and published 24 book chapters related to image-guided radiation therapy, stereotactic ablative radiation therapy, intensity-modulated radiotherapy, proton therapy and combined immunotherapy with radiotherapy.

Folkert Michael Faculty Photo

Michael R. Folkert, MD, PhD, DABR

View Bio

Dr. Folkert is an academic radiation oncologist with expertise in brachytherapy/interventional techniques and device development. In 2005, he completed his Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences through the Harvard/MIT joint program, focusing on particle accelerator design and radiation biology research. He earned his M.D. through the Harvard/MIT Health Sciences and Technology Program in 2009 with research in intraoperative radiation therapy while working in the Department of Radiation Oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital as a research associate. He then completed his training in Radiation Oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, with an emphasis on brachytherapy procedural training. From 2014-2011, Dr. Folkert was an attending radiation oncologist at UT Southwestern Medical Center, where he developed a comprehensive brachytherapy and intraoperative radiation therapy program and served as Program Director for the medical residency program, Co-Director of the Brachytherapy Program, Chief of the Gastrointestinal and Musculoskeletal Malignancy Services, and Associate Vice Chair for Education. He joined Northwell Health in 2021 as the Vice Chair and Chief of Brachytherapy.

Goodman - Karyn Goodman, MD

Karyn Aalami Goodman, MD, MS

View Bio

Karyn Aalami Goodman, MD, MS is a Professor and Vice Chair for Research and Quality in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She is also Associate Director for Clinical Research at The Tisch Cancer Institute. Dr. Goodman is an internationally recognized expert in gastrointestinal (GI) cancers and has served in numerous leadership roles on committees to establish national treatment guidelines and best practices for the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the American Society for Radiation Oncology, and the American College of Radiology.   She is involved in developing and leading clinical trial for novel approaches to GI cancers.  Her research focuses on improving outcomes and reducing toxicity in patients with GI malignancies.  She is involved in the development of therapeutic protocols combining radiation, chemotherapy, targeted agents, and immunotherapy for gastrointestinal cancers. Her experience as principal investigator on clinical trials is extensive, and she has received numerous grant awards.  She currently serves as the Co-Chair of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Gastrointestinal Steering Committee where she helps to set the strategic priorities for the development of Phase II and III clinical trials in GI cancers conducted through the National Clinical Trials Network (NCTN).

 

Dr. Goodman received her undergraduate and medical degrees from Stanford University and an MS in Epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health.  She completed an internship in Internal Medicine at Stanford and residency training at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.  She was on the faculty at Stanford University from 2004-2006 and then was the head of Gastrointestinal Radiation Oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering from 2007-2015. She has published over 200 peer-reviewed scientific articles, review articles, and chapters.

Hobbs - Robert Hobbs, MD

Robert F. Hobbs, MD

View Bio

Dr. Hobbs is an Associate Professor and ABR-certified Medical Physicist in the Department of Radiation Oncology and Molecular Radiation Sciences with secondary appointments in Nuclear Medicine and in Oncology.

 

Dr. Hobbs earned his undergraduate degrees (DEUG, Licence, Maîtrise) in physics from the Université Louis Pasteur in Strasbourg, France, with a year spent at the Universität Wien (Vienna, Austria) as an ERASMUS exchange student. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of New Mexico in high energy physics before joining the Radiopharmaceutical Therapy and Dosimetry lab as a post-doc in 2006 at Johns Hopkins. In 2011, he joined the department of Radiation Oncology as a Medical Physics resident. He completed his residency in 2013 and has since held a dual appointment with a 50% clinical component. His research focusses on targeted alpha-particle therapy and dosimetry, as well as personalized dosimetry-based treatment planning for radiopharmaceutical therapy and combined modalities. Dr. Hobbs is an elected member of the MIRD (Medical Internal Radiation Dose) Committee, chairs the AAPM sub-committee on Radiopharmaceutical therapy and is a member of a variety of committees and task forces for a range of societies such as ICRU, IAEA, SNMMI, ASTRO, NCI.

Hong - Linda Hong, MD

Linda Hong, PhD

View Bio

I am an Attending Physicist in the Clinical Physics Service of the Department of Medical Physics at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. I work closely with the Department of Radiation Oncology to develop procedures and provide quality assurance regarding radiation treatment plans for our patients. I am also actively involved in teaching and mentoring junior medical physicists, as well as radiation oncology and medical physics residents. My main research interest is in treatment planning algorithms and methods, and in developing automated treatment planning. I received my PhD in physics from the University of California, San Diego and completed postdoctoral training at Massachusetts General Hospital at Harvard Medical School.

John L. Humm, PhD

View Bio

I am the vice chair of research for the department of Medical Physics and am the chief for the molecular imaging physics clinical service at MSKCC. My principal research interests include targeted radionuclide therapies, the use of nuclear imaging methodologies to study the mechanisms and processes underlying tumor radiobiology, quantitative PET imaging, PET and CT imaging methods to evaluate treatment response, associated response metrics and the integration of nuclear imaging methods into therapy planning. Over the last 5 years, I have focused my research effects on ways to quantify tumor drug delivery and distribution through imaging, especially in pancreatic cancer and in thyroid cancer, both grants  heavily dependent upon the production of cyclotron produced radionuclides (124I and 18F).  I am both an ABR certified medical nuclear physicist, with 30+ years’ experience with radionuclide therapies and ABR certified in Therapeutic Radiologic Physics and have worked for many years on the integration of nuclear imaging techniques into radiation oncology practice such as 18F-misonidazole PET for imaging hypoxia in head and neck cancers.

Rachel Jimenez, MD

View Bio

Rachel Jimenez, MD is an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School and a breast radiation oncologist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, MA.  Dr. Jimenez obtained her MD degree from Harvard Medical School and completed her radiation oncology residency and chief residency in the Harvard Radiation Oncology Program. She serves as the department’s associate director of translational medicine and the associate program director for the Harvard residency training program.

Dr. Jimenez’ primary research interests are focused on the reduction of late toxicity, specifically cardiac toxicity, associated with radiotherapy for breast cancer, as well as the ethics of cancer care delivery.  She has ongoing research protocols examining early cardiac changes in patients receiving protons versus conventional radiation for breast cancer.

seng-boh-lim-1200x800

Seng Boh (Gary) Lim, PhD, CFA

View Bio

I am a board-certified assistant attending medical physicist in the Dosimetry Core of the Clinical Physics Service. I have contributed to various roles from commissioning treatment machines and treatment planning systems (TPS) to clinical research and development. I am currently leading the effort in commissioning and establishing the quality assurance (QA) program of MR LINAC and the in-house solution for independent calculation. I am also involved in the development of a new machine QA program that will provide a scalable standardized workflow and a more quantitative approach for network-wide monitoring and analysis.

As the leader of the TPS, I use the latest technology to improve the accuracy and precision of radiation treatment delivery. I am also involved in training medical physics residents in the area of QA and commissioning.

Bhupesh Parashar, MD

View Bio

Dr. Bhupesh Parashar, MD, DrPH is a Professor and Chief of Radiation Medicine at Queens. He is also the Vice Chair for Research and a lead in head and neck, and colorectal cancers. 

Dr Parashar came to Northwell in 2018 from Cornell in Manhattan, where he was in practice for 13 years following training at Montefiore. At Cornell, he was the residency program director for 8 years prior to joining Northwell. He completed his doctorate in public health from Columbia University, NY. 

Redmond - Kristin Redmond, MD

Kristin Redmond, MD

View Bio

Dr. Kristin Redmond specializes in the treatment of brain tumors and leads the spinal oncology multi-disciplinary program at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She received her undergraduate degree from Princeton University where she graduated magna cum laude with a focus in neuro-psychology. She attended medical school and obtained a Masters in Public Health in health systems management at Tulane University where she was elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society as well as the Gold Humanism in Medicine Honor Society.

Dr. Redmond’s research interest focuses on the development of novel radiation techniques and therapeutic agents to treat brain and spine tumors in order to increase tumor control and overall survival. In addition, she is working to develop innovative approaches to try to limit long term toxicities and minimize neuro-cognitive dysfunction following treatment for tumors of the central nervous system.

Daniel Samson, CHP

Daniel J. Samson, CHP

View Bio

Daniel Samson is Chief of the Radioactive Materials Section for the Bureau of Environmental Radiation Protection with decades of experience in the regulation of ionizing radiation. Dan specializes in the licensing of radioactive materials used throughout New York State. He oversees a team of technical license reviewers and inspectors in the Capital District of New York.

Rajiv Sharma, MD

View Bio

Dr. Rajiv Sharma serves as Residency Program Director for the Department of Radiation Medicine at Northwell Health.  He received his undergraduate degree from Cornell University and his medical degree from Temple University School of Medicine. Dr. Sharma trained in Radiation Oncology at Montefiore Medical Center/Albert Einstein College of Medicine, where he served as Chief Resident. He completed a Fellowship at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in general Radiation Oncology and Proton Beam Therapy.  His clinical and research focus has primarily been in thoracic, gastrointestinal, and pediatric malignancies, in addition to implementing coronary brachytherapy and cardiac SBRT with the Department of Cardiology and Electrophysiology.

Suh - John Suh, MD

John H. Suh, MD, FASTRO, FACR

View Bio

John H. Suh, MD, FASTRO, FACR is Chairman of the Department of Radiation Oncology at the Taussig Cancer Institute, Professor of Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University, and Associate Director of the Gamma Knife Center at the Rose Ella Burkhardt Brain Tumor and Neuro-oncology Center. He obtained his undergraduate and medical degree from the University of Miami through a combined B.S./M.D. program in 1990 and completed his residency and fellowship in Radiation Oncology at the Cleveland Clinic in 1994 and 1995, respectively. His clinical, research and educational interests are focused on brain, spine and ocular tumors, stereotactic radiosurgery and stereotactic body radiation therapy, and innovative radiation technologies. He has contributed numerous peer-reviewed manuscripts and book chapters. He is the co-editor or editor of 3 textbooks and has been He has been editor of Applied Radiation Oncology since 2012. He was the section head for the CNS/pediatrics section of the oral board for the American Board of Radiology from 2008- 2019. Since 2019, he has been on the Board of Trustees for the American Board of Radiology. From 2010-2018, he was on the Advisory Committee for Medical Uses of Isotopes (ACMUI) for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Teckie - Sewit Teckie, MD

Sewit Teckie, MD

View Bio

Dr. Teckie is currently System Chief of Radiation Oncology at NYC Health and Hospitals, and treats primarily head-and-neck cancers in her clinical role at Kings County Hospital.  She is an associate professor of radiation medicine at SUNY Downstate.  Dr. Teckie was at Northwell Health for seven years prior to this role. She completed residency training at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and is an alumna of Harvard College (Economics, cum laude) and Harvard Medical School. She is also currently in Columbia Business School’s executive MBA program.

Tendulkar - RahulTendulkar, MD

Rahul Tendulkar, MD

View Bio

Dr. Rahul Tendulkar is an Associate Staff Physician in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Center, where he joined the faculty in 2008. He currently serves as the Clinical Director and Residency Program Director for the Department of Radiation Oncology. His clinical research interests include developing risk stratification models in the treatment of breast and genitourinary cancers, as well as physician leadership development.

Yolanda Tseng, MD

Yolanda Tseng, MD, MPhil

View Bio

Yolanda Tseng, MD, MPhil currently serves as an Associate Professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Washington and a Joint Associate Professor at the Fred Hutch Cancer Research Center (Seattle, WA).

Her clinical interests are in hematological malignancies, primary CNS tumors, and palliative radiotherapy. Her primary academic focus is on questions that inform therapeutic decisions in daily clinical practice. These include 1) using advanced treatment techniques and treatment algorithms to widen the therapeutic ratio for late effects in lymphoma patients, 2) evaluating how patient characteristics and tumor subtypes affect responses to radiotherapy, and 3) understanding clinical decision-making and workflows in palliative radiotherapy and use of radiation at the end of life.

She currently serves as Chair of the Proton Collaborative Group (PCG) lymphoma committee, Vice Chair of the ASTRO annual scientific committee Palliative track, council member for the International Lymphoma Research Oncology Group (ILROG), and on the executive committee for Society for Palliative Radiation Oncology.

Heather Zinkin, MD

View Bio

Heather Zinkin, MD is a radiation oncologist at Northwell health in Huntington with a special interest in breast cancer, integrative medicine, patient wellness and nutrition. She attended the University of Pennsylvania and graduated Summa Cum Laude.  She graduated from NYU School of Medicine and performed her medical internship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. She completed a residency in radiation oncology at a combined program at Tufts and Brown University and served as chief resident. She then returned to her hometown where she has been practicing for the past 15 years and was appointed Chief of Radiation Medicine at Huntington Hospital. She has given many breast cancer and survivorship lectures both in hospital and community settings including active participation in the Northwell Wellness Center. She has also served on various physician panels for community education and holds certificates in Nutrition from Cornell University.

* Planner

Planners:

Jason Hirshberg

Jason Hirshberg, Medical Resident

View Bio

Jason Hirshberg, DO MHS is a radiation oncology resident physician at Northwell health with a special interest in breast cancer, prostate cancer, health disparities and social determinants of health, and brachytherapy. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Colorado in molecular biology.

He completed his MHS in reproductive and cancer biology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and attended medical school at Midwestern University, Arizona, where he was elected into the Sigma Sigma Phi Honor Society and received the Excellence in Public Health award from the U.S. Public Health Service Physician Professional Advisory Committee.