Zachary L. Hickman, MD, FAANS, FACS, FCNS*
Director, Department of Neurosurgery
NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst
Associate Professor of Neurosurgery
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Zachary L. Hickman, MD, is a board-certified neurosurgeon and Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery in the Department of Neurosurgery at the Mount Sinai Health System and Director of the Neurosurgery Department at Elmhurst Hospital Center in Queens, New York.
Dr. Hickman completed a post-graduate fellowship in neurotrauma and neurocritical care at Jackson Memorial Hospital and Ryder Trauma Center at the University of Miami Medical Center, under the directorship of M. Ross Bullock, MD, PhD. Dr. Hickman obtained his MD at Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons in New York City and completed his neurosurgery residency at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center.
Dr. Hickman’s clinical and research interests include traumatic brain and spine injury, neurosurgical emergencies and neurocritical care, intracranial multimodality monitoring, patient-oriented outcomes research, international neurosurgery, and quality improvement.
Dr. Hickman has been published in a variety of scholarly peer-reviewed journals including the Journal of Neurosurgery, Neurosurgery, Neurocritical Care, Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism, and Stroke.
Jamie S. Ullman, MD, FACS, joined Northwell Health in 2013 as director of neurotrauma at the Institute for Neurology and Neurosurgery at North Shore University Hospital. She brings 25 years of specialized expertise in the surgical management of head and spinal cord injuries, as well as acute neurological conditions such as stroke, cerebral hemorrhage, hydrocephalus and brain tumors.
A founding member of the Northwell Health Concussion Program, Dr. Ullman leads a team of experts in traumatic brain injury. She also works closely with the neurocritical care team in the Neurosurgery Intensive Care Unit at North Shore University Hospital to deliver comprehensive neurological services to the community.
Fully committed to being accessible for her patients, Dr. Ullman is always there to answer questions and address any concerns with kindness and compassion. She takes the time to go over every aspect of care, whether it s reviewing diagnostic films or explaining the thorough details of a procedure.
Research is also important to Dr. Ullman. She is actively involved in various neurosurgical clinical trials and studies including intracranial pressure monitoring and minimally invasive removal of blood clots in strokes. Her work has been highlighted in more than 60 medical publications.
A recognized leader in her field, Dr. Ullman has received numerous awards from national organizations, including the Distinguished Service Award from the Congress of Neurological Surgeons. She was also nominated for Northwell s President s Award, recognized for her leadership in elevating the neurotrauma program at North Shore University Hospital, the first trauma center in downstate New York to receive level I verification from the American College of Surgeons.
Dr. Ullman received her medical training from Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Jersey. She completed a residency in neurosurgery and fellowship in neurosurgery critical care at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, and an additional fellowship in neurotrauma at the Shock Trauma Center at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.
After completing her training, Dr. Ullman continued to pursue her passion for education. She has held faculty and leadership roles throughout her career, and currently serves as professor of neurosurgery at the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell. As a core faculty member of Northwell s neurosurgery residency program, she is committed to training the future leaders of brain surgery.
Dr. Ullman currently serves on the New York state trauma and advisory committees, and was the first woman to serve as an officer and vice president of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons. She also previously served as chair of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons and the Congress of Neurological Surgeons Section on Neurotrauma and Critical Care. Dr. Ullman has been recognized as one of Castle Connolly s Top Doctors .
Dr. Korley is a Professor and the Associate Chair for Research in Emergency Medicine at the University of Michigan. He is also the scientific director of the Massey TBI Grand Challenge, sponsored by the Weil Institute at the University of Michigan, which distributes up to $750,000 annually to investigators with high-risk and high-reward ideas for developing novel diagnostics and therapeutics in traumatic brain injury (TBI). Dr. Korley has conducted pioneering work in uncovering and quantifying gaps in emergency department evaluation and management of traumatic brain injury (TBI) and has developed novel diagnostic and therapeutic approaches to bridge these gaps. He is a PI of several NIH and Department of Defense-funded studies that aim to develop novel therapies for TBI and to use blood-based biomarkers to monitor response to therapy. He holds four patents for panels of brain‑injury biomarkers and the methods used to measure them. Dr. Korley’s research has been published as first-author manuscripts in high-impact journals such as NEJM, JAMA, JAMA Cardiology, Journal of the American College of Cardiology, and Lancet Neurology. He is the recipient of the 2021 SAEM Mid-Career Investigator Award. He is an elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigators.
I am a neurosurgeon devoted to clinical practice and research in trauma, emergency care, neurotrauma, and critical care. I graduated in Colombia as a medical doctor and neurosurgeon. I was also trained in neurotrauma and clinical research in the United States. From 2006 to 2010, I was a fellow of the Fogarty International Center, collaborating with the University of Pittsburgh in the USA and Universidad Del Valle in Colombia. I have been involved in trauma care research and global health advocacy, working with international medical societies as a member of the Trauma and Emergency Care Committee of the World Health Organization (WHO) since 2007. I participate in multiple research projects to develop trauma and neurotrauma care capacity in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Since 2005, I have worked as medical director, educator, and researcher at MEDITECH Foundation in Colombia, training undergraduate and postgraduate emergency medical technicians and MDs in advanced trauma care, including police and military nurses from special operations groups. I have also been participating since 2007 in trauma quality improvement activities with the WHO and the Pan-American Trauma Society, in LMICs in Latin America. In 2015, I began collaborating with the Global Initiative for Essential and Emergency Surgical Care of the World Health Organization, promoting safe surgical care for LMICs. Due to my expertise and background, I have been appointed Chair of the Neurotrauma and Critical Care Committee of Latin American Association of Neurosurgical Societies, Chair of the International Committee of the Neurotrauma and Critical Care Section of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons and Chair of the Neurotraumatology Committee of the World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies. I also participate in the Brain Trauma Foundation guidelines developing group. In addition, I was the lead author of the Colombian TBI Guidelines for the Ministry of Health. I have recently participated in several international consensus statements for TBI management in different contexts. Recently, I have been developing and disseminating protocols and guidelines in neurotrauma care in Colombia and working on the ground in urban and rural hospitals and with EMS teams, to promote quality improvement in the integral care of patients with traumatic brain injury.
Khaled Alok is a neurosurgeon in New Haven, Connecticut. He received his medical degree from Damascus University Faculty of Medicine.
Current position(s) and affiliations: Professor of Neurosurgery at Cleveland Clinic and Medical Director of the Brain Trauma Foundation
Greg completed his neurosurgical residency at the University of Toronto. During this time he also completed a basic science PhD in Neural Repair and Regeneration under the supervision Dr. Michael Fehlings which examined the mechanism by which neural precursor cells augment recovery from spinal cord injury.
He leads the development of the Brain Trauma Foundation’s head injury guidelines, Co-Directed the development of the SIBICC algorithms and is the recipient of numerous prestigious awards for academic achievements such as the Murray Goldstein Award of the National Neurotrauma Society as well as humanitarian awards such as the University Health Network’s Sopman Humanitarian Award.
Specific expertise: spine and brain trauma
Dr. Kapinos is a board-certified neurologist, neurointensivist, neurosurgical intensivist, neuroimager, neurosonologist, critical care neurophysiologist and bioethicist. He is licensed in the states of California and New York and speaks English and French fluently. The field of practice of Dr. Kapinos is neurocritical care, a new discipline at the intersection of neurology, neurological surgery, endovascular interventional neuroradiology, anesthesiology & critical care, trauma & emergency medicine. His focus is on improving outcomes of patients with neurological life-threatening illnesses.
Konstantinos Margetis, MD, PhD, is Director of Complex Spine Surgery for the Department of Neurosurgery at The Mount Sinai Hospital and Director of Spine at Mount Sinai Downtown-Union Square. He is also an Associate Professor of Neurosurgery, Rehabilitation and Human Performance, and Orthopedics at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
Dr. Margetis is a uniquely qualified neurosurgeon with dual postgraduate fellowships in Complex Spine Surgery from The Cleveland Clinic in Ohio under Dr. Edward Benzel, and in Pediatric Neurosurgery from Weill Cornell Medical College in New York under Dr. Mark Souweidane. Dr. Margetis obtained his medical degree at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki Medical School in Greece. At the University of Athens, also in Greece, he earned his PhD for research related to the effects of Intrathecal Baclofen Therapy on the Central Nervous System and completed his Neurosurgery residency. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England and holds a Master Certificate in Health Care Leadership from Cornell University. Dr. Margetis has been published in a variety of scholarly journals including the Journal of Neurosurgery, World Neurosurgery, Neuromodulation, and the Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology. Dr. Margetis is also fluent in Greek.
Dr. Margetis practices general neurosurgery and complex spine surgery at The Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan, New York. Dr. Margetis also sees patients at Mount Sinai Union Square.
Paul Perrin is a Professor of Data Science and Psychology at the University of Virginia. He believes that disparities in the context of disability and health are one of the most shocking and inhumane forms of oppression and that the academic and medical communities have a central role to play in their alleviation. A combination of data science, modern analytic techniques, and community-based participatory research approaches are key tools for identifying the sources of—and potential solutions to—these disparities. With this aim, his research area of “social justice in disability and health” encompasses three facets: (a) cultural, familial, and international approaches to disability rehabilitation and adjustment, particularly in medically underserved and minority populations with neurological conditions; (b) social determinants of health (e.g., stigma, access to integrated care and telehealth, personal and collective strengths); and (c) social justice approaches to understand and dismantle oppression. Perrin also serves as Co-Director of the Polytrauma Rehabilitation Center Traumatic Brain Injury Model Systems Program at the Central Virginia Veterans Affairs Health Care System and is editor of Rehabilitation Psychology. He is passionate about mentoring trainees in data science, psychology, and rehabilitation medicine to become agents of social change in their personal and professional lives with an emphasis on disability and health. He teaches courses in multivariate statistics, research methodology, health disparities, health psychology, multicultural psychology, and community intervention.
Dr Roxanne Todor, MD, FAANS, FACS is the Director of Neurosurgery at Jacobi Medical Center. Dr. Todor completed a fellowship in cerebrovascular surgery at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation after completing Neurosurgical Residency at New York Medical College. She obtained her MD at SUNY Downstate Medical Center where she also completed 2 years of general surgical residency.
Dr Todor’s clinical and research interests focus on neurotrauma, especially moderate and severe traumatic brain injury in adults and children. She is part of a multidisciplinary team that manages craniofacial trauma and activity participates in quality improvement. She actively participates in neurotrauma education and has presented at local and national conferences.
Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Spinal Cord Injury Medicine
Northwell Health
Assistant Professor
Physical Medicine
Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell
Czarina Alonzo is a Neurosurgery Physician Assistant since 2014 and joined Northwell Health in 2015 becoming part of North Shore University. Hospital’s Neurosurgery and Neurocritical Care team. She is experienced in providing direct patient care for individuals with traumatic brain injury. Her work involves managing patients from ICU and into their recovery in and discharge from the Neurosurgery floor.
Division Chief of Neurosurgery
Assistant Professor of Surgery, Neurology, and Orthopedic Surgery
SUNY Downstate College of Medicine
Assistant Professor of Public Health
SUNY Downstate School of Public Health
President and Co-Founder,
Society of Haitian Neuroscientists
Dr. Ernest J. Barthélemy is a neurosurgeon, global health scientist, and Chief of the Division of Neurosurgery at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University. He subspecializes in trauma and acute care neurosurgery, and his clinical practice focuses on surgical care for acquired brain injury, degenerative spinal conditions, and cancer affecting the central nervous system. Dr. Barthélemy is the founding director of the Downstate Global Neurosurgery Laboratory, which focuses on multidisciplinary investigations geared towards advancing health equity in acute care neurosurgery. He is also co-founder and co-director of the Downstate Global Neuroscience Initiative, which hosts annual symposia that prioritize advancing global neuro-health equity. A Haitian-American native of New York City, Dr. Barthélemy completed his medical education and neurosurgery residency at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and subsequently completed post-residency fellowships in both clinical neurotrauma and in health equity at the University of California, San Francisco. From 2017 to 2019, he was a Paul Farmer Global Surgery Research Fellow at Harvard University, where he also obtained a Master of Public Health degree with concentrations in Global Health and Public Health Leadership at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Dr. Barthélemy is the founding president of the Society of Haitian Neuroscientists, a growing Haitian Diaspora organization with over 100 members in six countries that aims to advance neurological care and mental health in all Haitian communities. He is also the 2024-2025 Chair of the Global Neurosurgery Committee of the American Society of Black Neurosurgeons, a member of the Global Neurosurgery Committee of the World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies for the 2024-2026 period, and a member of the Mission: BRAIN Medical Board.
Juri Chung, PharmD, BCCCP is a critical care clinical pharmacy specialist and currently maintains a clinical practice in the Neurosurgical Critical Care Unit (NSCU) and Neurology/Stroke Unit at North Shore University Hospital.
Dr. Chung received her PharmD from Northeastern University. She completed an ASHP-accredited PGY-1 pharmacy practice residency and PGY-2 critical care pharmacy residency at NYU Langone – Long Island.
Dr. Chung currently serves on the Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmacology Committee within Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM). She also continues to be an active member of New York City Society of Health-System Pharmacists (NYCSHP) and the Long Island Society of Health-System Pharmacists (LISHP).
Kristen Dams-O’Connor, Ph.D. is Jack Nash Professor and Vice Chair of Research in the Department of Rehabilitation and Human Performance at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ISMMS) in New York, NY. She serves as Director of the Brain Injury Research Center (BIRC) of Mount Sinai and is a Professor of Neurology at ISMMS. Her multidisciplinary research program aims to identify mechanisms, risk, and protective factors to improve long-term outcomes in individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and repetitive head trauma sustained through sports participation, military service, and intimate partner violence. She leads the Late Effects of TBI (LETBI) project, a longitudinal prospective TBI brain donor program that aims to characterize the clinical phenotype and postmortem pathological signatures of post-traumatic neurodegeneration and its associations with Alzheimer’s disease (AD), AD-related dementias (ADRDs), traumatic encephalopathy syndrome (TES), and underlying neuropathological processes. Her team uses modern psychometric and statistical techniques to measure individual differences in trajectories of change over time among survivors of TBI. One goal of this work is to improve diagnosis of secondary post-traumatic conditions during life so they can be treated.
She is Project Director of the New York Traumatic Brain Injury Model System of care, one of 16 centers of excellence for TBI research and clinical care in the United States. Her research is supported by federal grants from the National Institutes of Health, National Institute for Disability Independent Living and Rehabilitation Research, Department of Defense, Centers for Disease Control, and Patient Reported Outcomes Research Institute.
Nurse Practitioner
Department of Neurosurgery
North Shore University Hospital
Northwell Health Institute of Neurology and Neurosurgery
Northwell Health
Amy R. Morganstern, MSPT, CSRP
Senior Physical Therapist NeuroSciences
North Shore University Hospital at Manhasset
Amy R. Morganstern is a hospital based acute care Physical Therapist for over 26 years. She received her Master of Science in Physical Therapy from Touro College. Amy is a Certified Stroke Rehabilitation Professional and has been the Senior Physical Therapist for the NeuroSciences rotation at North Shore University Hospital for over 17 years. She has presented at Northwell Health Rehabilitation Network’s “Fundamentals of Rehabilitation of a Stroke Patient” and at Northwell Health Rehabilitation Network’s 9th and 10th Annual Brain Injury Conferences.
Kate Twelker, MD, FACS is a board-certified general surgeon and surgical intensivist with a clinical and
academic focus on trauma, critical care, and neurologic injury. With a career rooted in high-acuity
surgical environments, her scholarly interests span the application of nutritional and pharmacologic
therapies in neurotrauma and pain, socioeconomic factors in trauma outcomes, and the metabolic
effects of critical illness.
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