Cancer Center Team

Meet the researchers, students, and staff behind the Brooklyn College Cancer Center.

Faculty and Staff

Leadership

Alexander Greer, Director

Staff

  • Ana Bartolomé, Community Outreach Coordinator/Operations Manager
  • Sheena Philogene, Library and Reference Support
  • Leonora Kissis, Technical Support

Research and Education Partners

  • Peter Tolias, Dean of Natural and Behavioral Sciences, Brooklyn College, CUNY
  • Brian Gibney, Dean for the Sciences, Graduate Center, CUNY

Community Outreach and Education Partner

  • Michael Menser, Community Outreach Partner, Brooklyn College

Faculty

  • Jenny Basil
  • Murat Alper Cevher
  • Cheryl Carmichael
  • Jorge Matias Caviglia
  • Maria Contel
  • Lesley Davenport
  • Terry Dowd
  • Garumma Feyissa
  • Emilio Gallicchio
  • Margrethe Horlyck-Romanovsky
  • Ankit Jain
  • Xinyin Jiang
  • Devorah Kletenik
  • Kiyoka Koizumi
  • Aneta Mieszawska
  • Ryan Murelli
  • Sheena Philogene
  • Enrique Pouget
  • Laura Reigada
  • Anjana Saxena
  • Mara Schvarzstein
  • Shaneen Singh
  • Phillip Staniczenko
  • Mariana Torrente

Clinical Scientist Partner

  • Florence Lui, Assistant Attending Psychologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and BCCC-CURE Clinical Scientist Partner.

Research Associates (Brooklyn College, CUNY)

  • Sylwia Dragulska, Chemistry and Biochemistry Department
  • Marek Wlodarczyk, Chemistry and Biochemistry Department

Research Assistant (Brooklyn College, CUNY)

  • Fatima Aftab, Chemistry and Biochemistry Department

Postdoctoral Fellows (Brooklyn College, CUNY)

  • Alvaro Lopez Sanchez, Chemistry and Biochemistry Department
  • Oliatan Oladipupo, Chemistry and Biochemistry Department

Doctoral Students (The Graduate Center, CUNY/Brooklyn College, CUNY)

  • David Amoh-Boateng, Chemistry Ph.D. Program / Chemistry and Biochemistry Department
  • Philip Asamani, Chemistry Ph.D. Program / Chemistry and Biochemistry Department
  • Orugbani Eli, Chemistry Ph.D. Program / Chemistry and Biochemistry Department
  • Serah Essang, Chemistry Ph.D. Program / Chemistry and Biochemistry Department
  • Raven Fisher, Biochemistry Ph.D. Program / Chemistry and Biochemistry Department
  • Ricky Granderson, Psychology Ph.D. Program / Psychology Department
  • Danielle Hazeltine, Psychology Ph.D. Program/ Psychology Department
  • Akshaya Iyer, Chemistry Ph.D. Program / Chemistry and Biochemistry Department
  • Hanjun Jeon, Biology Ph.D. Program /Biology Department
  • Anastasiya Lyubimova, Biochemistry Ph.D. Program/ Chemistry and Biochemistry Department
  • Aaron Manu, Biochemistry Ph.D. Program / Chemistry and Biochemistry Department
  • Katerine Menendez-Borbolla, Biochemistry Ph.D. Program / Chemistry and Biochemistry Department
  • Kamrun Nahar, Chemistry Ph.D. Program / Chemistry and Biochemistry Department
  • Luke Nicholls, Psychology Ph.D. Program/ Psychology Department
  • Stephen Pagay, Biochemistry Ph.D. Program / Chemistry and Biochemistry Department
  • Gamage Pasindu Niroshan Wijerathne, Biology Ph.D. Program / Biology Department
  • Diana Rodriguez, Chemistry Ph.D. Program / Chemistry and Biochemistry Department
  • Carly Wolfer, Psychology Ph.D. Program/ Psychology Department
  • Beyza Yilmaz, Chemistry Ph.D. Program / Chemistry and Biochemistry Department

Master’s Students (Brooklyn College, CUNY)

  • Fulvia Draicchio, Health and Nutrition Sciences Department
  • Joyce Escatel, Psychology Department
  • Jeanette Hausser, Health and Nutrition Sciences Department
  • Marina Krupitskaya, Computer and Information Science Department
  • Tiffany Mitchell, Health and Nutrition Sciences Department
  • Emma Tupone, Psychology Department

Office Interns (Brooklyn College, CUNY)

  • Tre LaForce, Business and Administration Intern
  • Vonetta Elvis, Business and Administration Intern

Advisory Board

Dr. Patrick I. Borgen (M.D.) is the Chairman of Surgery at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York. He is also the Founder and Director of the Brooklyn Breast Cancer program at Maimonides Cancer Center and Clinical Professor, Department of Surgery at SUNY Downstate University Hospital of Brooklyn.

Dr. Carol L. Brown (M.D., FACOG, FACS) is the Senior Vice President, Chief Health Equity Officer, and Nicholls-Biondi Chair for Health Equity at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. She is the Director of MSK’s Office of Diversity Programs in Clinical Care, Research, and Training.

Dr. Marilyn Fraser is the Chief Executive Officer of the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health, a community-based organization dedicated to addressing health inequities. Dr. Fraser is a Research Associate Professor in both the Department of Medicine and the School of Public Health at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University. She also serves as the Co-Director of the Brooklyn Health Disparities Center.

Bernard Garil and wife Ethel established several programs in honor of their children (who lost their lives to cancer), including internships at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Johns Hopkins University for Brooklyn College students intent on careers in cancer research; a breast cancer resource library for patients at Columbia Presbyterian; and research programs at Dana-Farber and Johns Hopkins. They are longtime supporters of the Brooklyn College Global Medical Brigades, and Bernie has been active in the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society since 1975, where he served as a member of its national board and NYC chapters until 2020. He currently serves on the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Education and Services Committee, as well as in the Pediatric Oncology Visiting Committee at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

Professor Jason S. Lewis (Ph.D.) is the Emily Tow Jackson Chair in Oncology, Vice Chair for Research of the Department of Radiology and Chief of the Radiochemistry and Imaging Sciences Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

Dr. Moro Salifu (M.D., M.P.H., M.B.A., FACP) is Chair of the Department of Medicine, at SUNY Downstate, and the Director of the NIH-funded Brooklyn Health Disparities Center. He is also Chief of the Division of Nephrology, and Director of the Kidney Transplant Program at Downstate.

Dr. Joanne Waldstreicher (M.D.) (2021 Brooklyn College Distinguished Alumna Award) is the Chief Medical Officer of Johnson & Johnson. She has oversight across the company’s pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and consumer products for safety, epidemiology, clinical and regulatory operations cross sector transformation, collaborations on ethical science, technology and R&D policies—including clinical trial transparency and compassionate access. Dr. Waldstreicher also chairs the R&D Development Pharmaceutical Pipeline Review Committee.

Contact Us

2900 Bedford Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11210
E: bccc-cure@brooklyn.cuny.edu
P: 718.951.5000

Brooklyn. All in.

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