Hillary Kunins, MD, MPHDr. Hillary Kunins, Director of the Primary Care/Social Internal Medicine Residency Program (PC/SM), will be leaving Montefiore Einstein at the end of June. After sixteen years at Montefiore Medical Center, including more than five years as Track Director, Dr. Kunins will be leading the Bureau of Alcohol and Drugs – Prevention Care and Treatment as Assistant Commissioner in New York City’s Department of Health.
"The PC/SM Program remains a flagship for the Department, and Hillary has brought it to yet a new level," said Dr. Victor Schuster, Chairman of the Department of Medicine.
A national search for a successor to the PC/SM Director position will commence shortly. In the interim, Drs. Linnea Capps and Lauren Shapiro will serve as Interim Co-Program Directors.
Dr. Capps brings many years of experience and leadership in global health work and advocacy, including roles as President and CEO of Doctors for Global Health, Program Director for Internal Medicine Residency at Harlem Hospital, Director of the Division of General Internal Medicine at Harlem Hospital, and clinical educator. Dr. Capps has previously participated in the PC/SM Liberation Medicine course and in Montefiore's Society for General Internal Medicine outings.
Dr. Shapiro, graduate, former Chief Resident, and Assistant Firm Director of the Internal Medicine Residency Program, brings an intimate knowledge of the program, outstanding organizational and educational skills, and commitment to residency education and leadership. Dr. Shapiro's enthusiasm for PC/SM and its residents is unparalleled. She will continue in her role as Assistant Firm III Director, knitting together the PC/SM and Categorical Programs.
Dr. Melissa Bender will join PC/SM as Associate Program Director. Melissa joins us from NYU, where she has worked for the last two years as a clinician, researcher, and teacher of clinical epidemiology. Dr. Bender was a Clinical and Research Fellow at MGH/Brigham in Infectious Diseases (2004-2007), received an MPH in Clinical Effectiveness at Harvard (2009), and had conducted studies on tuberculosis and HIV in low resource settings. She is interested in “poverty medicine” and looks forward to focusing on teaching the next generation of general internists to care for vulnerable populations.