KL2 Scholars
KL2 scholars complete a rigorous training program that guarantees exposure to a wide range of clinical and translational research methods in both classroom and experiential settings.
Current KL2 Scholars
Melissa Beauchemin, PhD, MSN
- Assistant Professor, Nursing
Project: Characterizing and Mitigating Financial toxicity in Adolescents and Young Adults with Cancer
Dr. Beauchemin is an Assistant Professor of Nursing and the Scientific Co-Lead of Cancer Care Delivery Research for the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Minority-Underserved National Cancer Institute Community Oncology Research Program (NCORP) at Columbia University. Her research aims to improve equitable supportive cancer care delivery for children, adolescents, and young adults with cancer and reduce health outcome disparities. Currently, she is developing, testing, and implementing patient-informed interventions to address unmet financial and social needs during cancer treatment.
Ashley Blanchard, MD, MSc
- Assistant Professor, Pediatrics in Emergency Medicine
Project: Lock and Protect: Randomized Controlled Trial to Reduce Adolescent Access to Lethal Means of Suicide
Dr. Blanchard cares for children in the Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital Emergency Department at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. Dr. Blanchard’s research focuses on prevention of pediatric injuries among high-risk populations in the pediatric emergency department. Specifically, testing and implementing ED-based interventions and mobile health technology to improve emergency care of patients presenting for behavioural health concerns and prevent adolescent suicide. Working with the Columbia Center for Injury Science and Prevention, she has also worked to describe epidemiologic patterns of injuries among people with Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Dr. Blanchard received her medical degree from the University of Colorado School of Medicine and subsequently completed her Pediatric residency and Pediatric Emergency Medicine fellowship at Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital, Columbia University Irving Medical Center. During her clinical training she completed a Master’s of Science in Patient-Oriented Research at the Mailman School of Public Health.
Whitney Booker, MD, MS
- Assistant Professor of Obstetrics & Gynecology
Project: Oral Nifedipine versus Intravenous Labetalol for Postpartum Hypertensive Emergency: A Randomized Clinical Trial
Whitney A. Booker, MD, MS is a double-board certified physician in Obstetrics and Gynecology and Maternal-Fetal Medicine, nationally recognized for providing care in prenatal fetal diagnosis and high-risk maternal medicine. She specializes in advanced ultrasound imaging, prenatal diagnostic genetic testing and treatment of women with rare medical conditions in pregnancy. In addition to her clinical care, Dr. Booker is a physician-scientists with multiple sources of University and NIH grant funding, with a research focus on cardiovascular disease and hypertension in pregnancy. Beyond her interest in hypertension, Dr. Booker also specializes in pregnancies of women conceived by IVF, advanced maternal age and various other rare maternal medical conditions. Additionally, she is trained in cerclage placement and takes care of pregnancies at risk for preterm birth.
Jerard Kneifati-Hayek, MD, MS
- Assistant Professor of Medicine
Project: Develop Real-Time Automated Measures to Detect Diagnostic Imaging Order Errors and Investigate Underlying Factors
Dr. Kneifati-Hayek was the inaugural Patient Safety Research Fellow at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. He graduated from Weill Cornell Medicine in 2014 and completed residency at NewYork-Presbyterian Weill Cornell in 2017. He completed his Patient Safety Research fellowship in 2020 and went on to join the faculty at Columbia University Irving Medical Center Department of Medicine, Division of General Medicine as an Assistant Professor. He now serves as an Assistant Director of Quality and Patient Safety for the Department of Medicine, the faculty advisor to the NewYork-Presbyterian Columbia Housestaff Quality Council, the Co-Chair of the NewYork-Presbyterian Columbia Patient Safety Working group, a member of the founding Board of Directors of the Vagelos Physicians & Surgeons Latino Association, and a member of the Columbia University Irving Medical Center Institutional Review Board. During his time as faculty Dr. Kneifati-Hayek has received a National Institute of Health Loan Repayment Award and is currently an Empire Clinical Research Investigator Program Fellow at NewYork-Presbyterian Columbia.
Nadia Liyanage-Don, MD
- Assistant Professor of Medicine
Project: Remote Monitoring and Feedback Intervention to Improve Inhaler Adherence in COPD
Dr. Liyanage-Don is a practicing general internist and tenure-track Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center. She is also a member of the research faculty at the Center for Behavioral Cardiovascular Health. Her research focuses on the design and implementation of behavioral interventions aimed at improving outcomes and reducing disparities in cardiovascular disease. She is specifically interested in understanding how health-related social needs influence hypertension management, as well as how to deliver effective, equitable, and human-centered interventions for improving blood pressure control, particularly in minoritized patient populations.
Julia McGuinness, MD
- Assistant Professor, Medicine
Project: Deep learning mammographic evaluations to refine breast cancer risk prediction
Julia McGuinness, MD, MS, is a breast medical oncologist and an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Hematology/Oncology at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. Her research focuses on the evaluation of novel imaging-based tools to refine individualized breast cancer risk prediction and also to assess response to breast cancer therapies. Specifically, she is evaluating a deep learning-based mammographic evaluation that is applied to standard of care breast imaging that might improve the accuracy of breast cancer risk prediction in diverse populations, particularly when combined with clinical breast cancer risk models. Dr. McGuinness received her undergraduate degree from Williams College and medical degree with Baylor College of Medicine. She completed both her Internal Medicine residency and Hematology/Oncology fellowship at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. She is the recipient of multiple career development awards, including from the American Society of Clinical Oncology and Susan G. Komen Foundation.
Katherine Nash, MD, MHS
- Assistant Professor of Pediatrics
Project: Identifying Meaningful Quality Measures for use in Pediatric Equity Measurement
Katherine Nash, MD, MHS is pediatric hospitalist and health services researcher. Her research focuses on promoting the hospital and health system's role in health and health care equity for structurally marginalized populations, through quality measurement, payment policy, and community engagement. She has a particular interest in pediatric mental health care utilization and disparities in the management of mental health emergencies.
Ohemaa Poku, PhD, MPH
- Assistant Professor of Global Mental Health
Project: Promoting Help Seeking Behaviors for Black and Latinx Adolescents and Young Adults Affected by HIV and Mental Health Challenges: The Role of Stigma, Inequities, and Resilience
Dr. Poku holds a MPH in Global Health and Research Methods from Boston University. She then completed her PhD at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health where she was a NIMH T32 Global Mental Health Predoctoral Fellow. Her research interests include the cross-cultural interpretations of illness and how stigma impacts access to psychosocial care for individuals living with HIV, particularly for Africans and the African diaspora. She is particularly interested in utilizing community-based participatory research methods and a variety of qualitative methods to culturally and contextually tailor HIV and mental health care for adolescents and young adults.
Dana Sacco, MD
- Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine
Project: DEtecting FENtanyl to Decrease ovERdose (DEFENDER)
Dr. Dana Sacco is an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at the Columbia University Medical Center. Dr. Sacco is a graduate of Washington University School of Medicine and she did her residency training at New York Presbyterian. Dr. Sacco is board certified in emergency medicine.
Past KL2 Scholars (2022 - 2024)
2024
Christina Eckhardt, MD, MS: Role of extracellular vesicle-encapsulated microRNAs in interstitial lung disease
Rob Eschmann, PhD: An Investigation of the Effects of Racism on Health and Wellbeing, Protective Mechanisms, and a Technology-based Intervention
Andrew Geneslaw, MD, MS: Neurodevelopmental and mental health outcomes after severe childhood respiratory illness: a longitudinal, electronic health record-based study
Brett Youngerman, MD, MS: Use of Recommended Evaluation for Surgery in Patients with Drug-Resistant Epilepsy: An Administrative Claims and Electronic Medical Record Study
2023
Andrea T. Duran, PhD, MPhil, MS: Implementing Telehealth-enhanced Hybrid Cardiac Rehabilitation among Acute Coronary Syndrome Survivors: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial
Lisa Eisler, MD: Predicting and Improving Management of Allogeneic Transfusion in Pediatric Patients Undergoing Spine Surgery
Cristina R. Fernández, MD, MPH, FAAP: Associations between prenatal food insecurity and inadequate physical activity and feeding practices, cardiac autonomic function, and emotional regulation to stress in high-risk infants
Thomas Hays, MD, PhD: Genetic Contribution to Small for Gestational Age (SGA) birth and Severe Illness in SGA Preterm Infants
Caleb Miles, PhD: Personalizing treatment decisions and understanding causal mechanisms for functional and occupational outcomes among patients with schizophrenia
Fatemeh (Flora) Momen-Heravi, DDS, PhD, MPH, MS: Extracellular vesicle-mediated immune modulation in oral squamous cell carcinoma
Imama A. Naqvi, MD: Integrated Telehealth After Stroke Care (iTASC): a pilot randomized controlled trial
2022
Talea M. Cornelius, PhD, MSW: Reactions to Acute Care and Hospitalization
Alexander Melamed, MD, MPH: A predictive model to identify ovarian cancer patients who will benefit from neoadjuvant chemotherapy
Jordan Nestor, MD: Physician Utilization of Genomic services in Nephrology Through Clinical Decision Support Tools
Past KL2 Scholars (2007 - 2021)
2021
Scott Barbuto, MD, PhD: Effects of Exercise Training on Degenerative Cerebellar Disease
Syed Husain, MD, MPH: Preventing Deceased Donor Kidney Discard by Improving Organ Quality Assessment
Yiyi Zhang, PhD, MS: Optimal Atrial Fibrillation Screening Approach in Cryptogenic Stroke Patients
2020
Robyn Gartrell-Corrado, MD: Establishing key characteristics of the tumor immune microenvironment to allow for personalized immunotherapy of pediatric high-grade glioma
Katherine Dimitropoulou, PhD, OTR/L: Adaptive motor decisions in response to task demands in children with Cerebral Palsy Hemiplegia
Justine Kahn, MD, MS: Leveraging Tumor Registry and Consortium Data to Examine Cancer Care and Survival Disparities in Adolescent and Young Adult Hodgkin Lymphoma
Minjae Kim, MD, MS: Improving Risk Prediction of Perioperative Morbidity and Mortality: Role of Intraoperative Variables
Lynn M. Petukhova, MS, PhD: eMERGE Part I: Columbia GENIE Biobank Construction
Meghna Trivedi, MD: Patient and Physician Knowledge, Attitudes, and Expectations of Genomic Testing to Inform Treatment Decisions for Advanced Cancer
2019
Melissa Accordino, MD: SWOG 1703CD: Randomized Multicenter Trial Comparing Tumor Marker Directed Diesase Monitoring Versus Usual Care in the Monitoring of Metastatic Hormone Receptor Positive Breast Cancer Patients
Hilda Fernandez, MD: Genomic Disorders, CKD, and Neurocognitive Status in Children
Eliza Miller: Modifiers of Long Term Cerebrovascular Risk in Women with History of Preeclampsia: The California Teachers Study
2018
Marwah Abdalla, MD, MPH: Obstructive Sleep Apnea and Masked Hypertension
Natalie Bello, MD, MPH: Relaxing and Subsequent Hypertension Risk in Women with a History of Pregnancy Induced Hypertension
Bernard Chang, MD, MPH: Test of an Alternative Emergency Department Management Strategy for TIA and Minor Stroke Patients; an Explanatory and Guideline-Relevant RCT to Reduce PTSD after TIA and Minor Stroke
Lauren S. Chernick, MD: A personalized interactive text message intervention to improve the reproductive health of young adolescent female
Arthur R. Garan, MD: Optimizing Function of Cardiac Rhythm Devices in Patients Supported by Left Ventricular
Angela Gomez-Simmonds: Elucidating transmission of plasmids harboring blaKPC among carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae using a combined bacterial genomics and epidemiologic approach
2017
Brett Anderson, MD, MBA, MS: Effects of Surgeon Technical Skill on Outcome and Resource Utilization for Children with Congenital Heart Disease
Eileen Connolly, MD, PhD, MS: Utilizing Combined Chemoradiation Therapy to Improve the Locoregional Control of Locally Advanced Triple Negative Breast Cancer
Sheng-fu (Larry) Lo, MD, MHS: Development of Patient-Derived Xenograft Models of Chordomas in Humanized Mice to Investigate in Vivo Effect of Immunotherapy: A step toward Precision Medicine in Chordoma Treatment
Stephanie Lovinsky-Desir, MD: The Impact of Physical Activity Level on Environmental and Epigenetic Mechanisms in Asthma
Paul Oberstein, MD: The impact of physical activity level on environmental and epigenetic mechanisms in asthma
Gissette Reyes-Soffer, MD: Understanding the Regulation and Metabolism of Ip(a) Levels, an Understudied Risk Factor for Cardiovascular Disease
Marisa Spann, PhD, MPH: Early Brain Networks of Attention and Language as Precursors to Childhood Neuropsychiatric Disorders
Jennifer Woo Baidal, MD, MPH: Accelerating Point-of-Care Testing to Diagnose Pediatric Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease
2016
Jiook Cha, PhD: A Developmental Neuroimaging Study of Fear Generalization and Pediatric Anxiety
Kristen Klemenhagen, PhD: Cognitive and Emotional Pattern Separation: A Possible Therapeutic Target for Anxiety and Depression
Badri Vardarajan, PhD, MS: Whole exome sequencing in Caribbean Hispanic families to identify coding variants in Alzheimer's disease
Teresa Lee, MD, MS: Identification of Novel Genetic Causes of Infantile Cardiomyopathy
Daniel Freedberg, MD, MS: Adverse Effects of Proton Pump Inhibitors on the Gastrointestinal Health of Children
2015
Carmela Alcantara, PhD, MA: Prognostic Risk of Sleep Deficiency After Acute Coronary Syndrome
Aviva Sopher, MD, MS: Effect of Metformin on IR, NAFLD and Body Composition in Adolescents with PCOS
Kevin Kalinsky, MD, MS: Monitoring Neoadjuvant Anti-Angiogenics in Breast Cancer with Optical Tomography
Gabrielle Page-Wilson, MD: Utilization of Proopiomelanocortin and Agouti-related Protein ELISAs for the Differential Diagnosis and Evaluation of ACTH-dependent Cushing’s syndrome
Ragy Girgis, MD, MS: Antipsychotic Binding to the D3 and D2 Receptors in Schizophrenia: a PET study using 11<-(+)-PHNO
2014
Siqin Ye, MD, MS: Patient Health Information Preference and Statin Therapy
Matthew Baldwin, MD, MS: Improving Critical Illness Survivorship for Older Adults
Guillermo Horga, MD: Neural Mechanisms of Sensory Predictions in Schizophrenia with Hallucinations
Quan Hoang, MD, PhD: Pathologic Myopia: Natural History and Novel Approaches in Therapy
Jemima Frimpong, PhD, MPH: Workplace Diversity in Substance Abuse Treatment Programs and Disparities in Patient Outcomes
Rebecca Schnall, RN, PhD: Using Queuing Theory to Improve HIV Testing in the Emergency Department
2013
Benjamin Lebwohl, MD, MS: Quality Issues in the Diagnosis of Celiac Disease
Rachel Shelton, PhD, MPH: Treatment Decision-Making among Stage II Colorectal Cancer Patients
Elizabeth Verna, MD, MS: Serum Lipopolysaccharide Measurement to Predict Hepatic Fibrosis in Liver Transplant Recipients with Hepatitis
2012
J. Michael Schmidt, MD: Prediction of Delayed Cerebral Ischemia after Subarachnoid Hemorrhage using Multivariate Time Series Classification Models
Matthew Maurer, MD: Tensirolimus, Erlotinib, and Cisplatin Combined to Treat Triple Negative Breast Cancer Patients
Christopher Ochner, PhD: Changes in Brain Activation and Appetite-Related Hormones following Bariatric Surgery for Obesity
Jonathan Lu, MD: Measurement of Cardiac Repolarization Reserve Using Patient-Specific Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells
2011
Andrew Einstein, MD, PhD: Estimating and Reducing Radiation Risk in Cardiac Imaging
Roy Alcalay, MD, MS: The Role of Glucocerebrosidase in Parkinson Disease
Thuy-Tien Dam, MD: Hormonal Mediators of Body Composition and Frailty Transitions
Sameer Patel, MD: Improving Vancomycin Use in Hospitalized Children
Scott Schobel, MD: Testing Novel Mechanisms of Antipsychotic Therapy With High-resolution Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Humans and Mouse Models of Disease
2010
Abby Siegel, MD: NASH, Metabolic Syndrome, and HCC Outcomes
Krzysztof Kiryluk, MD: Genetic Determinants of IgA1 Glycosylation Defects in IgA Nephropathy (IgAN)
Hannah Wunsch, MD, MSc: Evaluation of the Utility of Head CTs in General Medical and Surgical Intensive Care Patients
Catherine Clelland, PhD: Association of GCH1 with Schizophrenia: Genetic and Functional Analysis and Novel Treatment Strategies
2009
Angela Yoon, DDS, MPH: Biomarkers for Non-Invasive Oral Cancer Screening
Alexandra Sporn, MD: Neurocircuitry of Autism Spectrum Disorders: fMRI and TMS studies
Ismee Williams, MD, MS: Prenatal Effects of Congenital Heart Disease on Neurodevelopmental Outcome
Vaidehi Jobanputra, PhD: High Resolution Genomic Microarrays for Genotype-Phenotype Correlations of Constitutional Chromosome Abnormalities
Kathleen Friel, PhD: Mechanisms of Cerebral Palsy Recovery Induced by Balancing Motor Cortex Activity
Heather Greenlee, ND, PhD: Effects of Coenzyme Q10 on Preventing Cardiotoxicity in Breast Cancer Patients Receiving Doxorubicin Treatment
Neeraj Badjatia, MD: Metabolic Impact of Therapeutic Normothermia after Subarachnoid Hemorrhage
2008
Allegra Broft, MD: Bulimia Nervosa and Dopamine - A link to addictions?
Hyunmi Choi, MD, MS: A Prospective Study to Improve Epilepsy Management Utilizing Decision Analysis
Katherine Crew, MD: Vitamin D and Breast Cancer Risk and Survival
Peter Dayan, MD, MS: Multicenter ED Study of Children with Apparently Unprovoked Seizures
David Lederer, MD, MS: Explaining Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis
Thomas Nickolas, MD: Bone Quality and Mechanical Competence in Chronic Kidney Disease
2007
Deborah Levy, MD, MS: Neurocognitive Function in Childhood-onset Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (cSLE)