Anuj Bhatnagar
Dr. Bhatnagar is a geriatrician in the Baltimore-Washington area. He has also been involved with the PACE program since finishing his fellowship.

Ariel Green
Dr. Green is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology at Johns Hopkins University. Her research involves the decision-making process regarding the appropriate level and types of care that is most appropriate for older adults.

Monica Sandoval 
Dr. Sandoval is geriatrician and palliative care specialist in the Baltimore. She’s currently an instructor in the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Department of Medicine in General Internal Medicine and Palliative Care.

Fatima Sheikh
Dr. Sheikh is the Medical Director of two large skilled nursing facilities in Baltimore. She also directs the long-term care continuity experience for geriatric medicine fellows from Johns Hopkins University.

Nancy Schoenborn
Dr. Schoenborn is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology at Johns Hopkins University. She provides primary care to older adults while conducting research around improving cancer screening in older adults by individualizing the care they receive. 

Jennifer Gabbard
Dr. Gabbard is an Assistant Professor in the Section on Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine at Wake Forest School of Medicine in Winston-Salem. She is also the Fellowship Program Director of the Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship and serves as core faculty within the medical school teaching Medicine, Patients, and Society (MAPS) course. She is active in medical education and patient care in both departments. 

Olivia Nirmalasari
Dr. Nirmalasari works that the Program of All-Inclusive Care (PACE) program in Seattle, WA. She also teaches geriatric medicine to the full spectrum of trainees. 

Halima Amjad
Dr. Amjad is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University, Division of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology. She specializes in dementia research and also serves as attending physician in the Johns Hopkins Memory Center. 

Tyesha Burks
Dr. Burke is an Assistant Professor of Biology (Genetics) in the Department of Natural Sciences at Bowie State University. Her research focuses on deciphering the underlying molecular mechanisms of sarcopenia. 

Stefan David
Dr. David is practicing geriatric medicine with Gilchrist Greater Living at the Greater Baltimore Medical Center. His primary clinical interest is centered on reducing hospital readmissions from skilled nursing facilities and improving the continuum of care for elderly and frail patients. 

Antonio Graham
Dr. Graham is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Emory University in Atlanta, GA; he also has a primary appointment at the Atlanta VA. He is involved in medical education as well as speaking at regional geriatric medicine conferences. 

Mattan Schuchman
Dr. Schuchman is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology Johns Hopkins University. He is the Medical Director of our house call program (now known as “J-HOME”). He is involved in teaching and patient care and health system reform involving the care of home-bound older adults. 

Mia Yang
Dr. Mia Yang is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Section on Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine at Wake Forest School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, NC. She is the medical director of Home-Based Primary Care program and leads clinical trials as part of Alzheimer's Disease Research Center. 

Orion Courtin
Dr. Courtin is a geriatrician at the Center for Successful Aging at MedStar Good Samaritan Hospital in Baltimore, MD. He will be working with a multidisciplinary team to provide person-centered care for medically complex older adults living in the community. 

Marcela Davalos-Bichara
Dr. Davalos-Bichara is working with Med-El in Austria. She is also planning to collaborate with clinicians and researchers in that region regarding the optimal care older adults within that health system.

Michael Devine
Dr. Devine is planning to open a concierge practice for older adults in the Philadelphia area. Along with his geriatrician brother, he is developing a proper business plan to allow him to reach a large number of patients. 

Scott Snyder
Dr. Snyder provides optimal care for older adults with needs for palliative care expertise as a geriatrician at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. 

Elena Beidler
Dr. Beidler is a Geriatrician and Primary Care Doctor with the Duke Health Network, Durham, NC. She coordinates a memory assessment service as part of her role. 

Thomas Cudjoe
Dr. Cudjoe is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, MD. He is a health services researcher who is investigating social determinants of health and the impact on older adults. He also provides clinical care services with the JHOME program (house calls). 

Maryam Hasan
Dr. Hasan is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Geriatric Medicine, Palliative and Post-Acute Care at the University of Massachusetts-School of Medicine, Baystate Medical Center, which is an IHI designated Age Friendly Healthy System. She serves as Medical Director of an Acute Care for Elders (ACE) Unit as well as Associate Program Director for the Geriatrics Fellowship program with particular interest in educational innovations to promote holistic age-friendly approaches to patient care with a focus on reducing ageism and reframing aging in health care education. 

Phillip Magidson
Dr. Magidson is an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, MD. He specializes in emergency care of older adults at the Johns Hopkins Hospital and Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center.                                 

Reyhan Westbrook
Dr. Westbrook is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology at Johns Hopkins University. He is a basic science researcher who investigates the connections between chronic inflammation and functional decline and aging using mouse models. His current focus is exploring the role of the kynurenine pathway in aging. 

Shaista Ahmed
Dr. Ahmed is a Clinical Associate at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, MD. She leads/provides care for the inpatient consultation service focusing on delirium and cognitive assessment in hospitalized older adults. 

Berny Bastiampillai
Dr. Bastiampillai is Geriatrician and Family Physician in Toronto, Ontario, where she runs her own outpatient family practice with a special focus on geriatrics. She manages those community dwelling older adults with the most complex geriatrics issues. 

Aliza Dharssi
Dr. Dharssi is a geriatrician and primary care provider in Toronto, ON. 

Ricky Heath
Dr. Heath is the Director of Wellspan Geriatrics Clinic in Lebanon, PA and Medical Director of Span Crest Manor in Lebanon, PA. He is a Certified Medical Director (CMD). 

Chitra Hamilton
Dr. Hamilton is an Assistant Professor of Medicine, Texas A&M College Medicine, Bryan, TX and Geriatrician with Baylor Scott & White Health in Temple, TX. 

Casey Yamashita
Dr. Yamashita is a Clinician Educator and Clinical Assistant Professor Medicine, USC Keck School Medicine, Los Angeles, CA. His primary interests and work involves care for the underserved and uninsured. 

Cecilia Cai
Dr. Cai will be working fulltime as an attending physician at FutureCare Health, a nursing home company in Baltimore/ DC area. She will care for patients in both long-term care and skilled rehab facilities. In addition, as the medical director for two nursing home facilities, she will oversee the facilities' quality improvement and patient safety processes, and provide education to staff and geriatric fellows.

Karen Cohen-Glickman 
Dr. Cohen-Glickman is pursuing a clinical position that combines both acute and longitudinal geriatrics. This will begin in the fall of 2021. 

Andre Davies
Dr. Davies provides primary care geriatrics and internal medicine as part of the NCH Physicians Group at Marcos Island, FL. He completed the Clinical Leadership Fellowship Track in Geriatric Medicine at Johns Hopkins (2019-2020). 

Lolita Nidadavolu
Dr. Nidadavolu is an Assistant Professor of Medicine, Johns Hopkins, Baltimore, MD. 

Mariah Robertson
Dr. Robertson is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology at Johns Hopkins University. Her clinical work is focused on care of the community-dwelling older adult with specific interest in caring for those who are home bound. She is also a passionate educator with a desire to inspire learners to think differently about the care of their elders. 

As a four year old, Halima Amjad, M.D., M.P.H., told her parents that she wanted to be mommy and daddy’s doctor when she grew up. But she never truly imagined she would become a geriatrician and dementia care researcher when that was precisely what her family would need. “I had little exposure to clinical geriatrics and research before residency. But I knew I wanted to take care of patients holistically and improve clinical care where I saw gaps. Being a geriatrician researcher allows me to do just that.” As a resident learning about geriatrics, Dr. Amjad found herself drawn to the art of medicine and individualized decision-making that is at the heart of geriatrics. “I also found myself drawn to the benefit of a ‘less is more’ approach for some of my more complex or frail hospitalized patients.”

Alongside clinical training, Dr. Amjad’s family experiences guided her evolving expertise and career interests. Dr. Amjad’s father was diagnosed with early-onset dementia due to frontotemporal degeneration in 2009, around the time she was graduating from medical school. Challenges that her family encountered guided Dr. Amjad not only to geriatrics but also to dementia-centered care. She completed a clinical and research fellowship in geriatrics at Johns Hopkins from 2013 to 2016, and then joined our faculty as a clinician investigator. Today, she sees patients at the Johns Hopkins Memory and Alzheimer’s Treatment Center and conducts epidemiologic and health services research focused on improving dementia diagnosis and care.

“The fellowship program allowed me to get both the clinical and research training that I needed to establish a career that would allow me to honor my dad and other families grappling with dementia. I credit the fellowship training and mentorship at Johns Hopkins for all that I have accomplished and still hope to accomplish.”

In 2003, having studied internal medicine, Alicia Arbaje, M.D., M.P.H., Ph.D., applied for a fellowship in health services research, interested in “the interface between healthcare and public policy.” Johns Hopkins seemed like the perfect choice though Dr. Arbaje had heard that it wasn’t the friendliest, most welcoming environment.

Currently a geriatrician and health services researcher in the Johns Hopkins Division of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology, Dr. Arbaje would like everyone to know that her impression of Johns Hopkins was completely wrong. “I chose Hopkins in part because the director of the health services research fellowship program seemed really interested in my career and I believed he would be a caring and invested mentor.” That interest in her future coupled with the flexibility, creativity, and resources that Hopkins offered sold Dr. Arbaje.

When she decided to do a second fellowship in geriatrics, she only applied to Hopkins. By then, thanks to her mentor, Dr. Arbaje was set on a career as a geriatrician. “I’d been interested in how we can improve medical care to vulnerable populations. My mentor pointed out that the most vulnerable among us are older adults. If we can improve care for those whose needs are the most complex, then we can improve it for everyone.”

She devotes her career to patient care as well as health services research, looking for ways to make navigating the health system easier for older adults. Dr. Arbaje is so passionate about geriatrics that she currently appears on a local Baltimore station to host a segment about health issues older adults may face.

Choosing Hopkins for that second fellowship gave her access to “every single model of care you can imagine for older adults plus so many opportunities for one-to-one interaction with patients that you can’t get anywhere else.” She also discovered a group of mentors and colleagues who “were really interested in my career and my success. The Division of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology is a really nurturing microcosm within the Hopkins system.”

The combination of extensive clinical care programs and a National Institutes of Health Gerontology Research Center on campus drew Richard Bennett, MD, to a fellowship at Johns Hopkins from 1985 through 1987. Almost 25 years later, he continues to work on the campus, now as president of Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center and professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

“The challenge of providing care to patients with complex medical needs and the satisfaction inherent in working with medical care teams to deliver the best care possible to the most vulnerable patients” is what drew Dr. Bennett to his career in geriatric medicine. His fellowship focused on C. difficile infection among nursing home patients and Lancet published two of his reports from the fellowship study.

“Fellowship training at Johns Hopkins Bayview remains unique with the presence of a comprehensive continuum of care on one campus, research training that spans the gamut from epidemiology to bench science, and the presence of the National Institute on Aging in a recently opened tower.”

As a teenager, Thomas K.M. Cudjoe, M.D., M.P.H., was a caregiver for his grandparents, accompanying them to doctor’s appointments and helping them with their activities of daily living. These experiences compelled him to pursue medicine, public health and the care of older adults. These early interactions exposed him to the importance of social connections on the health of older adults. Dr. Cudjoe completed clinical and research fellowship at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine from 2015-2018. During this time, he also participated in the Robert Wood Johnson Culture of Health Leaders Program.

A 2020 recipient of the Junior Faculty Teaching Award and the Caryl and George Bernstein Center for Innovative Medicine Human Aging Project Scholar, Dr. Cudjoe is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology and Core Faculty in the Johns Hopkins Center on Aging and Health.  His recent research has focused on social isolation, accessible housing and mobility concerns, and advanced care planning, among others. Those are just some of the reasons why he was named among the 125 Hopkins Heroes as part of the university’s 125th Anniversary. In addition to being a Hopkins Hero, Dr. Cudjoe has a strong reputation for infusing caring into his teaching and research, yielding meaningful findings with impact.

Dr. Cudjoe was installed in the spring of 2021 as an inaugural Robert and Jane Meyerhoff Professor, this endowed professorship will support his research and professional development. In addition, to his research Dr. Cudjoe cares for older adults in their homes via the Johns Hopkins Home-based Medicine Program.

“The fellowship program gave me the space to explore my interest at a critical juncture in my career this along with supportive mentors in medicine, nursing, and public health have enabled me to advance my career and interest in an area to which that I am deeply committed.”

“What I valued most about the MSTAR program and working with geriatricians at Johns Hopkins was that it emphasized the importance of treating the entire individual and not just the disease,” says Ashleigh Hatcher Hicks, M.D., who participated in the program in the Division of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology in the summer of 2003, after her first year of medical school.

Growing up, she spent summers in Pittsburgh visiting her grandparents and great aunt. “Seeing the struggles and resilience of family members as they got older peaked my curiosity to develop a more comprehensive understanding of the physiological and psychological dynamics of aging.”

Coming to Johns Hopkins gave Dr. Hicks a chance to get out of the classroom and into the experience of working with “master clinicians treating a very vulnerable population, suffering from multiple comorbidities and facing many challenging social situations. I learned that there is no universal algorithm that can be used to treat sickness. Because of this, one of the most valuable resources is the time spent listening to patients, understanding the complexities of their medical illnesses and knowing what they value most in life.”

Today, Dr. Hicks is back in the Division of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology, completing a two-year clinical fellowship. “Any medical student who thinks that they might be interested in geriatrics should apply for the MSTAR program at Johns Hopkins. It offers such a broad view into the field of geriatrics from clinical medicine to clinical/basic science research to healthcare policy. No matter what field of medicine is ultimately chosen, they will gain a fund of knowledge and skill set that is relevant to any specialty.”

Mariah Robertson's journey to where she is today has been a bit circuitous, but when she reflects on her "why" this path been written in the stars all along. Out of college, she diverged from my colleagues in the premed track. While they all pursued medical school, she decided she wanted to tackle the healthcare system from a population level. She received a Masters of Public Health with a focus on Epidemiology and Behavioral Sciences. She spent five years working in the realm of health disparities, specifically focused on access to physical activity and nutrition. Her personal life events, namely her mother being diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease, served as another turn in her path. She realized she wanted to be physically closer to her so that she could care for her, but also as a frustrated caregiver, she wanted to change the systems of care that just weren't built well for her or others like her. Mariah decided to pursue medicine broadly and geriatric medicine specifically. As serendipity would have it, she met Dr. John Burton on a site visit to her medical school and he put a bug in her ear about a residency program in Baltimore, Maryland that just might be a good fit for someone with her interests. When her mother passed away from complications of her disease, she no longer needed to remain in the Midwest, and decided to shoot for the stars and apply to Johns Hopkins Bayview for residency. The rest is history.

All of her life, including her personal and professional experiences, have lead her to geriatric medicine broadly and care of homebound and socially isolated patients specifically. Her health disparities experience in the field of public health made her laser-focused on changing the way we care for our most vulnerable older adults. Her personal life experiences afford her an empathy rooted in watching her own mother suffer in a healthcare system that failed her. She knows what it is like to be a caregiver and feel helpless and hopeless. Mariah is driven to help empower and support her patients and their caregivers both on an individual level and at a systems level. She is also driven to educate the next generation of physicians to be advocates for their older adult patients. "I feel such gratitude that as I look backward each step I have taken has lead me to where I am and I am excited to make a continued impact on the elders I am fortunate to serve in the Baltimore community and beyond."

There isn’t much that Crystal Simpson, M.D., doesn’t love about geriatrics. “You can learn so much from older adults. I love working with them,” she says, adding that she also enjoys the teamwork. “The nurses, nurses aides, physical therapists, and social workers all come together to help patients meet their goals.”

And that appreciation for the field extends to the fellowship she did at the Johns Hopkins Division of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology between 1999 and 2002. “Hopkins is one of the best places to train. You learn from the best geriatricians in the country how to treat older adults. The experience I had was invaluable. I worked with a great team of people.”

She believes that what she learned during her fellowship has helped her throughout her medical career. For her, the practice of geriatric medicine is like putting a jigsaw puzzle together, but with a far better result. “With multiple medical problems to take care of for each patient, it is like the challenge of a puzzle, trying to make sure that all of the solutions will work together,” she notes. But when you solve the puzzle of patient health, the result is far better quality of life, she says.

Today, Dr. Simpson works at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), providing medical input for Medicare payment rules for chronic care, such as what is provided at hospices and skilled nursing facilities. “I chose Johns Hopkins because of the wonderful physicians/faculty. They were excellent clinicians and teachers. Learning from people who are experts in their fields was the most valuable part of the fellowship for me.”

“I would say that given the demographic imperative of increased numbers of older adults, a well-trained geriatrician with both clinical and research skills has incredible potential for a highly rewarding career,” says Jeremy Walston, M.D.. He should know. He continues to enjoy a successful and engaging career in clinical research as a professor of medicine in the Johns Hopkins’ Division of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology.

His career has benefited greatly, he says, from the work he did in a clinical research fellowship at Johns Hopkins from 1991 to 1994. The value of his fellowship had less to do with the focus of his research—type 2 diabetes mellitus—than the great mentoring he received and the invitation to step outside his comfort zone. “I was open to learning about signal transduction pathways within cells, which was a big change from the clinical pathways that I had been trained to follow.”

He continues to rely on that open-minded learning approach as he studies “aging-related cellular changes that are broadly applicable to etiologies of chronic disease and the development of disability in older adults.” The knowledge he has gained has allowed him to think about “how best to translate basic biological findings into meaningful clinical translation that will improve the quality of life of older adults.”

“The fellowship program represents a fantastic opportunity to learn both clinical skills and research skills at a top institution,” Dr. Walston says. “The depth of scholarship in both realms at Johns Hopkins continues to amaze me, as does the ability to truly make a difference to the well being of older adults.”