New VP&S Faculty

The VP&S Office of Faculty Affairs has provided this list of full-time faculty who joined the medical school in August and September 2025:

• Hediyeh Baradaran, MD, Radiology: Baradaran is a board-certified neuroradiologist and serves as chief of neuroradiology. Her research interests include cerebrovascular disease, stroke imaging, and vascular contributions to dementia.
• Leyla K. Bayat, MD, Medicine (Hematology/Oncology): Bayat is a medical oncologist who specializes in breast and gynecologic malignancies. Her research interests include clinical trials, outcomes research and health disparities, and she is involved in community outreach for breast cancer education and screening.
• Godwin B. Boaful, MD, Medicine (General Medicine): Boaful's interests lie at the intersection of arrhythmia and genetics, exploring the mechanisms underlying arrhythmia diagnosis and optimizing the implementation of advanced therapeutic interventions. He is equally devoted to medical education, mentorship, and delivering evidence-based comprehensive care to promote health equity and social change.
• Phillip M. Boiselle, MD, Radiology: Boiselle is a cardiopulmonary radiologist with clinical and research interests in airway and lung cancer imaging. He is also an innovative educational leader who has served as dean of two medical schools.
• Foysal I. Daian, MD, Medicine (Center for Family and Community Medicine): Daian is a board-certified family medicine physician with a deep commitment to providing holistic, patient-centered care. He believes that effective communication and collaboration with health care team members are key to delivering the best possible care. Daian values a diverse, multimodal approach to treatment, ensuring that each patient receives personalized and well-rounded care tailored to their unique needs.
• Brian E. Emmert, MD, Neurology: Emmert is a board-certified neurologist and epileptologist specializing in drug-resistant epilepsy and geriatric epilepsy. He is passionate about medical education, and his research focuses on improving care delivery for patients with epilepsy and understanding how medical students make career decisions.
• Anna L. Eversman, MD, Dermatology: In addition to treating general dermatology patients, Eversman’s clinical interests include supportive oncodermatology (caring for patients experiencing dermatologic complications from cancer therapy).
• Danielle D. Feng, MD, Neurology: Feng provides comprehensive evaluation and care for a wide range of neurological disorders, including neuropathic pain, cervical and lumbar pain, joint and arthritic pain, and complex regional pain syndrome.
• Alejandro Garces-Descovich, MD, Radiology: Garces-Descovich is a board-certified radiologist specializing in breast imaging and cancer diagnosis. His current research interests are related to radiological medical education and breast cancer diagnostic disparities in underserved communities. 
• Jerry Hsu, MD, Ophthalmology: Hsu is a board-certified ophthalmologist specializing in cornea, external diseases, and refractive surgery, with interests in infectious and inflammatory corneal diseases.
• Saara Kaviany, DO, Pediatrics: Kaviany is a pediatric bone marrow transplant physician specializing in the care of children with complex immune and hematologic disorders. Her academic and clinical interests center on non-malignant transplantation, with a particular focus on immunodeficiencies and immune dysregulation. 
• James Maxwell Lai, MD, Medicine: Lai joined the Department of Medicine as the inaugural chief of the new Division of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine. He brings experience in program development and has clinical and research interests in dementia and geriatric care in the Emergency Department.
• Charalambia Louka, MD, Psychiatry: Louka is a psychiatrist who specializes in providing emergency care to individuals with severe mental illness. She also has specific interests in anxiety and mood disorders, cultural psychiatry, and psychopharmacology. 
• Ethan A. Mack, MD, Pathology & Cell Biology: Mack is a board-certified clinical pathologist and transfusion medicine physician-scientist who investigates the intersection of innate immunology, red cell exchange therapy, and sickle cell disease pathogenesis. He serves as the director of Apheresis and Cell Therapy Collections at NYP/CUIMC where he works to improve clinical care for patients undergoing therapeutic apheresis procedures and cell collections for transplants and cell and gene therapy.
• Maureen A. McKiernan, MD, Surgery: McKiernan is a board-certified cardiothoracic surgeon who specializes in congenital cardiac surgery. Her clinical interests span the entire spectrum of congenital heart disease (CHD), from complex neonatal surgery to reoperative surgery in adults with CHD. She is dedicated to improving clinical outcomes for these patients through analysis of large patient databases. She also has an interest in bioethics and how its principles can be utilized in the care of this complex patient population.  
• Jonathan Minkin, MD, Radiology: Minkin is a physician in the department’s Division of Emergency Radiology.
• Moona Nadeem, DO, Medicine (Center for Family & Community Medicine): Nadeem is a primary care doctor with interests in women's health, neuromuscular medicine, and preventive medicine.
• Joseph H. Oved, MD, Medicine and Pediatrics: Oved is a hematologist/oncologist who specializes in the use of stem cell bone marrow transplantation and cellular therapies to treat non-cancerous diseases. He directs the Program for Immune Dysregulation at Columbia.
• Christine Parsons, MD, Medicine (Rheumatology): Parsons provides the highest level of care to general rheumatology patients, including those with inflammatory arthritis. She has a strong interest in medical education and is involved in teaching rheumatology and clinical immunology to medical students, residents, and clinical fellows.
• Sayeeda Rab, MD, Medicine (Cardiology)
• Erin Ramoutar, MD, Pediatrics: Ramoutar is a pediatric hematologist/oncologist.
• Kristina A. Rankine, MD, Neurology: Rankine is a board-certified neurologist with subspecialty training in vascular neurology. Her clinical interests include the management of a broad spectrum of neurologic conditions, with a particular focus on caring for patients with sickle cell disease and other vasculopathies that increase stroke risk. She is also passionate about medical and resident education, as well as global health initiatives.
• Debkumar Sarkar, DO, Radiology: Sarkar is a board-certified interventional radiologist and serves as director of outpatient interventional radiology services. He has extensive experience in interventional oncology and cancer diagnosis and treatment and is locally and nationally renowned for treatment of metastatic tumors in the liver, lung, and kidneys with minimally invasive techniques including Y90 radioembolization, microwave ablation, cryoablation, and histotripsy. He also specializes in treatment of venous disorders, complex biliary interventions, uterine fibroid embolization, prostate artery embolization and procedures for pain management. Sarkar's research includes treatment of metastatic cancers in the liver with radioembolization and ablation as well as use of robotics, artificial intelligence, and informatics in minimally invasive treatments.
• Daniel J. Savaria, MD, Radiology: Savaria is a board-certified radiologist who specializes in breast imaging. He is experienced in all breast imaging modalities that facilitate breast cancer diagnosis, including mammography, contrast-enhanced mammography, ultrasound, and MRI, as well as image-guided interventional procedures, including tomosynthesis-guided breast biopsy, ultrasound-guided breast biopsy, MRI-guided breast biopsy, non-radioactive seed placement, and wire localization.
• Jacqueline L. Steele, MD, Pediatrics: Steele is a primary care pediatrician with special interests in caring for children with complex medical needs, health equity, and medical education.
• Phanthaphan Sureeyathanaphat, MD, Medicine (Cardiology)
• Catherine Teng, MBBS, Medicine (Cardiology): Teng is an interventional echocardiographer.
• Pei-Kang Wei, MD, Radiology: Wei is a board-certified radiologist who specializes in abdominal imaging.