Dr. Alessandra Scalmati is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Associate Director of the Division of Geriatric Psychiatry and the Fellowship Training Program, Montefiore Medical Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine. She was born in Italy, where she received an MD and PhD from the University of Modena. She came to New York to perform post-doctoral studies at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, where she remained for 18 months, until she started residency training in General Psychiatry at Montefiore Medical Center. At the completion of four years training, she was appointed Administrative Chief Resident (“super chief”). Subsequently she completed fellowship training in Geriatric Psychiatry also at Montefiore. She is Board Certified in General and Geriatric Psychiatry and Psychosomatic Medicine. As the Associate Director of the Fellowship Training Program in Geriatric Psychiatry, she teaches, supervises, maintains an active practice, and is engaged in research. She has extensive responsibilities for psychotherapy teaching in the Adult Program and is one of the most sought-after supervisors. She is the recipient of grants from the United Jewish Appeal/Federation, The Butler Foundation, the Weinstein Foundation, and The Fan Fox and Lesley Samuels Foundation. Dr Scalmati’s main area of interest is the development and implementation of Trauma Informed Person Centered Services for older adults. She focuses both on curriculum development and on collaborative practices with community agencies. In 2018 Dr. Scalmati received a 3 years grant on Excellence in Medical Education by the Albert Einstein College of Medicine for her development of a curriculum to teach medical students about Trauma informed care with special focus on geriatric patients. This curriculum is ongoing. Other areas of interest include elder mistreatment, long term effects of trauma, psychiatric care of Holocaust Survivors, prevention of burnout among health professionals, and the effectiveness of psychodynamic psychotherapy for older adults. Her publications have focused on cancer and more recently on physician education and psychotherapy in late life. As part of her clinical and supervisory responsibilities, Dr. Scalmati leads the multidisciplinary geriatric psychiatry outpatient team at the outpatient mental health clinic at Montefiore Medical Center, she provides individual supervisions to the fellows, coordinate several teaching seminar each weeks and supervises all new intakes. In 2019, Dr. Scalmati started an outpatient geriatric psychiatry consultation service, which has improved access to care for older adults with behavioral disturbance due to neurocognitive disorder who were previously unable to access services at the Article 31 clinic. Consultations at this clinic are now part of the training experience for trainees rotating through the service. Preliminary data about this service and model of care has been presented at local and national conferences.
Assistant Director
Dr. Mirnova Ceïde is an Assistant Professor of Geriatric Psychiatry and Geriatric Medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Montefiore Medical Center and the Assistant Program Director of the Geriatric Psychiatry Fellowship. She completed her Adult Psychiatry Training at John Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, MD where she was Chief Resident. She went on to complete a HRSA Fellowship at SUNY Downstate in Geriatric Psychiatry where she also participated in health disparities research at the Brooklyn Health Disparities Center. Dr. Ceïde is an NHLIBI PRIDE Scholar in Behavioral Medicine and Sleep Disorders. She joined the Geriatric Psychiatry Division at Montefiore Medical Center in 2013 where she is the psychiatry consultant for the Montefiore Home Care Geriatric Psychiatry Program, and the Associate Director of Center for the Aging Brain. She is a co-investigator on several pilot programs to serve depressed and homebound older adults including the Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Montefiore Home Care Psychotherapy Program for Depressed, Cognitively Impaired Patients (MHCPP-DCI) and the NYS Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Grant Decreasing Depression and Increasing Social Connectedness Among NYC’s Older Adults. She was awarded an Albert Einstein College of Medicine KL2 scholar’s award (mentored research development) in 2017 entitled "The Biological and Structural Correlates of Apathy in Dementia Pathogenesis” and completed the Einstein Clinical Research Training Program Master’s in Science Program. She most recently completed a Columbia Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Alzheimer’s Disease Disparities Pilot Project in 2021 to cross validate a novel measurement model of apathy in a diverse, urban clinic populations. Her research interests include apathy as dementia risk factor and non-pharmacological interventions to decrease cognitive and functional decline.
Faculty
Allison Glasgow, the 2021-22 Fellow in Geriatric Psychiatry took her undergraduate degree from Brown University during which she also spent six months at the University of Bologna studying Italian art, language, and literature. She completed medical school at New York Medical College and Residency in Psychiatry at Montefiore Medical Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine where she also completed an Integrative Behavioral Health and Community Psychiatry Fellowship. While at Montefiore she also received an Honors Scholar award from the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry. She has presented posters and spoken at national and international meetings on an array of topics, most recently on staff training for person-centered trauma-informed care.. She has also been a volunteer, advocate, and teacher addressing the needs of disadvantaged communities. She is and exemplary physician admired for her drive, compassion, and creativity.