Our Team

Marcia Peters

Chief Operating Officer

As the Chief Operating Officer of New York City Health + Hospitals Bellevue, Marcia Peters has been an integral part of the Special Pathogens Team since its inception in 2014, and was an initial collaborator on protocols and policies related patient care. Ms. Peters serves as the Executive Sponsor of the Region 2 RESPTC efforts and supports the strategic and operational roles of the special pathogens program and other collaborative efforts with NETEC and the NSPS system.

Ms. Peters has over 20 years as a healthcare executive and currently serves as the Chief Accreditation Officer for the Health + Hospitals system and is a lecturer at New York University’s School of Professional Studies.

Syra Madad, DHSc, MSc, MCP, CHEP

Senior Director, System-wide Special Pathogens Program

Dr. Syra Madad is an internationally recognized public health leader and epidemiologist in infectious disease and special pathogen preparedness and response. She serves as the Senior Director of the System-wide Special Pathogens Program at New York City Health + Hospitals. She also serves as the Co-Principal Investigator of NYC Health + Hospitals Institute of Diseases and Disaster Management.

In addition, Dr. Madad is Core Faculty at the National Emerging Special Pathogens Training and Education Center (NETEC), affiliate faculty at the Center for Emerging Infectious Disease Policy & Research at Boston University and fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. She serves on numerous advisory committees and forums including the U.S government’s National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) and the National Academies of Science Forum on Microbial Threats.

Dr. Madad’s work focuses on all five phases of emergency management: prevention, preparedness, mitigation, response, and recovery from infectious disease outbreaks with an emphasis on health care and public health biopreparedness. She has been featured in the 2020 Emmy-nominated Netflix docuseries, Pandemic: How to Prevent an Outbreak, which follows a handful of leaders throughout the world on the frontlines to prevent the next pandemic. She is also prominently featured in the 2021 Discovery documentary, The Vaccine: Conquering COVID

Patricia Ann Tennill, RN, BSN

Director of Nursing
Special Pathogen Program Nurse Lead

Patricia Ann Tennill is the Director of Nursing at Bellevue Hospital and the Special Pathogen Program Nurse Lead. She brings her decades of experience as an ICU nurse, including first-hand experience responding to multiple special pathogen outbreaks, to lead special pathogen training and education sessions across the nation. Trish brings her expertise to shape the National Special Pathogen System of Care by serving as NETEC’s Infection Prevention and Control Workgroup Chair, delivering NETEC technical consultations, and developing national guidance on special pathogen preparedness.

Michael Thompson, MBA

Special Pathogen Program Administrative Lead

Michael Thompson joined the Special Pathogens Program in 2023 and serves as the Associate Director. In this role, he works alongside the program’s Medical Director and Nursing Director on all aspects of the program as the administrative lead. He has worked at Bellevue since 2017 and as an administrator at a number of New York hospitals prior to that. He received his MBA from the University of Notre Dame and his bachelors from Adelphi University.

Amit Uppal, MD

Chief Quality Officer

Amit Uppal, MD is an Associate Professor at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine and a member of the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, & Sleep Medicine. He has been at Bellevue since 2008. During that time he has assisted with the Critical Care response to Superstorm Sandy in 2012 and the management of patients under investigation for Ebola Virus Disease between 2014 and 2016. He led the Critical Care response to the COVID-19 pandemic for both Bellevue Hospital and the NYC Health and Hospitals system. He is currently the CQO and Associate CMO at Bellevue.

Justin Chan, MD

Infectious Disease Specialist; Chief Hospital Epidemiologist

Dr. Chan joined NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue in 2021 and serves as Director of Infection Prevention and Control. He is also System Chief Hospital Epidemiologist for NYC Health + Hospitals (H+H), and co-chairs the health system’s Infectious Diseases Clinical Council, composed of all the H+H Infectious Diseases Directors and Hospital Epidemiologists. His work in special pathogens includes serving on Bellevue’s Regional Emerging Special Pathogen Treatment Center (RESPTC). He is also a member of the Special Pathogens Research Network (SPRN) under the National Emerging Special Pathogens Training and Education Center (NETEC).

Born in Toronto, Canada, he obtained his MD at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, NY. Dr. Chan completed a residency in Internal Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and Infectious Diseases fellowship training at the Massachusetts General Hospital / Brigham and Women’s Hospital combined program. He received his MPH at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Dr. Chan is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine.

Radu Postelnicu, MD

Intensive Care Physician; Associate MICU Director

Dr. Radu Postelnicu is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine at New York University School of Medicine. He received his medical degree from Tulane University School of Medicine and completed his residency in Internal Medicine and fellowship in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at NYU. Dr. Postelnicu serves as Associate Director of the Medical ICU, and Co-Director of VV-ECMO at Bellevue Hospital, where he also leads the research initiatives of the Special Pathogens Unit. He has authored several peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on critical care medicine, disaster medicine, and special pathogens.

Logi Rajagopalan, MD

Pediatric Intensive Care Physician & Pediatric Medical Director, Special Pathogens Program

Dr. Rajagopalan is a Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at NYU Grossman School of Medicine.

Erin McGuire, MD

Intensive Care Physician & Associate Medical Director, Special Pathogens program

Dr. Erin McGuire is an intensivist and joined NYC Health and Hospitals/Bellevue in 2022. She is an assistant professor of medicine in the division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep medicine at NYU Grossman School of Medicine. Dr. McGuire completed medical school at University of Southern California's Keck School of Medicine. She completed a combined Internal Medicine and Pediatrics residency at Duke University and Pulmonary and Critical Care fellowship at New York University Grossman School of Medicine.

Samara Soghoian, BSc, MA, MD

Emergency Medicine Physician

Dr. Samara E. Soghoian is a Clinical Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at New York University (NYU) Grossman School of Medicine an attending physician at the Bellevue Hospital emergency department in New York City, and faculty in the Medical Toxicology Fellowship at the New York City Poison Center. Dr Soghoian’s academic interests include issues pertaining to the improvement of emergency health care and medical toxicology services globally. She is delighted to serve the Bellevue Hospital Special Pathogens team in the role of physician liaison for the department of emergency medicine.

Dr. Soghoian is a graduate of McGill University School of Medicine, and completed her residency in emergency medicine at Kings County Hospital/SUNY Downstate in Brooklyn, New York, followed by fellowship in Medical Toxicology at NYU and the New York City Poison Control Center. Before medical school she completed a Masters degree in Medical Anthropology at McGill University.

Jory Guttsman, MPA, CHEP, EMT-B

Director of Emergency Management

Jory Guttsman, MPA, CHEP, BOC-I, EMT-B, is the Director of Emergency Management at NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue. He is responsible for the hospital’s comprehensive Emergency Management program, leading the hospital’s planning, training, exercise, response, and recovery for all emergencies. Prior to that, he served in a similar role at NYC Health + Hospitals/Harlem, and with the American Red Cross. Jory is also a volunteer EMT and on the Board of Directors for BRAVO Volunteer Ambulance in Brooklyn, NY.

Jory received his BA from Brandeis University and his MPA from Baruch College’s Executive MPA program.

Florence Douyon, MBA

Associate Director of Microbiology

Florence Douyon is the Associate Director of Microbiology at Bellevue Hospital. She has her MBA from the University of Phoenix and her Bachelor’s Degree from Xavier University.

Anthony Lo Piccolo

Research Coordinator

Anthony Lo Piccolo is the program’s Research Coordinator. His research areas of focus include Mpox, COVID-19, Influenza, and Ebola Virus. Anthony has published two manuscripts illustrating Bellevue Hospital’s mpox response in the form of testing, therapeutics, and vaccinations. Before working at Bellevue, Anthony worked at Plum Island Animal Disease Center’s BSL-3 laboratory where he planned and prepared the transfer of the lab’s Select Agent biorepository material to Manhattan, Kansas. Anthony completed his Masters at Hartwick College in Translational Biomedical Research Management and Bachelors in Biology at Binghamton University.

Susan V. Donelan MD, FSHEA

Infectious Diseases and Infection Control/Healthcare Epidemiology specialist

Susan V. Donelan MD, FSHEA, is an Infectious Diseases and Infection Control/Healthcare Epidemiology specialist who serves as the Medical Director of Healthcare Epidemiology and Medical Epidemiologist for the Stony Brook Medicine Health System. Additionally, she also provides inpatient clinical consultation on the adult Infectious Diseases service at Stony Brook University Hospital. Dr. Donelan received her MD from New York Medical College. She trained in Internal Medicine and completed an Infectious Diseases fellowship at Stony Brook University, after which she joined the ID faculty. She acts as a Clinical Advisor to the MARO Region's Hospital Preparedness Program, and works closely with her Emergency Management colleagues in Stony Brook Medicine.

Sandra Carpio, MD

Regional Emergency Coordinator

Dr. Sandra Carpio serves as a Regional Emergency Coordinator (REC) assigned to the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) HHS region 2. In her current role, she provides public health readiness and response expertise and facilitates coordinated preparedness and response activities for public health and medical emergencies. She is a conduit for translating federal guidance and supporting implementation of ESF8 Public Health and Medical Emergency Response activities at the regional level for offices within ASPR such as the Medical Reserve Corps (MRC), the National Disaster Medical System (NDMS) as well as other HHS agencies including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Margaret Aldrich, MD

Director of the Health and Medical Unit

Margaret Aldrich is an infectious disease specialist who serves as the Pediatric Hospital Epidemiologist for the NYU Langone Health System. In addition, she performs clinical consultation on the pediatric infectious disease services at Hassenfeld Children's Hospital and NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue. Dr. Aldrich is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine.

She received her M.D. from St. George's University School of Medicine in 2009. After completing combined residency in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, she completed infectious diseases fellowship at Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, New York.

Robert Bristol

Director of the Health and Medical Unit

Robert Bristol is the Director of the Health and Medical Unit at New York City Emergency Management. In this capacity, Robert provides strategic direction to the Unit and oversees the citywide planning and response activities for emergencies that impact the New York City healthcare sector.

Robert holds a Master’s Degree in Emergency Management from Adelphi University, a Bachelor’s Degree in Athletic Training from Sacred Heart University and is a Certified Emergency Manager (CEM), New York State Advanced Emergency Medical Technician (AEMT), and Certified Athletic Trainer (ATC).

Tai Hunte-Caesar, MD

Chief Medical Officer

Dr. Tai Hunte-Caesar is the Chief Medical Officer of the Department of Health in the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI), helping shape the infectious diseases response in her territory. In addition to her role as Chief Medical Officer, she is also the Founding Dean to the University of the Virgin Islands S. Donald Sussman School of Medicine. She is located in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, received her medical degree from Howard University in Washington D.C. and completed an internal and social medicine residency and fellowship in infectious diseases at the Jackson Memorial Hospital at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.

Paritosh Prasad, MD

Director of the Highly Infectious Disease Units

Dr. Paritosh Prasad serves as the Director of the Highly Infectious Disease Units, Director of Transplant & Immunocompromised Infectious Disease, and an Associate Professor at University of Rochester’s Department of Medicine and the Region 2 representative on the NSPS System of Care committee. He is over 15 years of experience as an infectious disease specialist. Dr. Prasad is located in Rochester, New York and received his medical degree from Harvard Medical School.

Louis Sasso

Corporate Director of Emergency Management

Louis “Lou” Sasso is the Corporate Director of Emergency Management at Robert Wood Johnson Barnabas Health (RWJBH) in New Jersey. Lou chairs the Special Pathogens Committees at both Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (RWJUH) which is the designated Special Pathogens Treatment hospital for New Jersey and the RWJBH Health System.

Debra L. Sottolano, PhD, MBA

Emergency Preparedness Consultant

Debra (Deb) Sottolano led the Emergency Preparedness and Response for the Office of Primary Care and Health Systems Management (OPCHSM) during 30- year tenure at New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH). She assisted acute and long-term healthcare facilities as well as diagnostic and treatment centers in planning, guidance, response efforts for emergency events and disease and special pathogens outbreaks. She has done extensive work on information systems, data/trend analysis, planning, training, as well as responding to multiple disease outbreaks including West Nile, H1N1, smallpox, vaccine shortage, and measles.

Deb served as a lead representative for multiple agencies including HHS Region 2 on development of the Region 2 Transport Plan (and its updates). Furthermore, Deb co-led quarterly upstate NY ETC meetings to discuss ongoing issues, standardization and cost savings among the centers, and annual exercise planning and cross training. She worked with NYCDOHMH, Bellevue, NYC EM, FDNY and NETEC to conduct exercises regarding protocols for identification, transport, care of patients with Ebola and other special pathogens. During Covid, Deb helped identified need as well as managed the HHS and Strategic National Stockpile contract.

Stephany Vento

Regional Emergency Coordinator

Stephany Vento serves as a Regional Emergency Coordinator (REC) assigned to the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) HHS region 2. In her current role, she provides operational readiness and response expertise and facilitates coordinated preparedness and response activities for public health and medical emergencies. She focuses on medical countermeasures and is a conduit for translating federal guidance and supporting implementation of MCM programs at the regional level for offices within ASPR such as the SNS, HCORE, and BARDA as well as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) programs that support MCM efforts.