Diversity and Inclusion

Diversity in our Residency Program

We believe that the doctors caring for our patients should reflect the diversity seen in the patient population we treat. This is especially true of our house staff who interact closely with patients on a day-to-day basis. Accordingly, the Weill Department of Medicine is home to a wide array of diversity initiatives for our residents. Our residents enjoy many opportunities for growth and camaraderie. One of the hallmarks of our residency training initiatives is our affiliation with the Diversity Center of Excellence, which focuses on the goals of minority faculty and housestaff recruitment, health equity and health policy research, cross-cultural education, and community outreach. This year, the Department of Medicine formed a Racial Justice Task Force to dismantle segregated care and develop curricula on anti-racism and health equity. We are proud of our trainees who have joined the Task Force and invite our applicants to consider joining.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Housestaff Committee

Our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Housestaff Committee is a resident-run group involved in minority recruitment, mentoring and community outreach. The Committee works to increase the number of underrepresented minorities at Weill Cornell through a variety of projects including outreach activities, networking events with staff and medical students, and volunteerism in the community. Three major events are coordinated each year, including the Make Your Match open house for interested applicants, the Minority Dinner and Diversity Welcome Back program in January for prospective residents, and the Welcome Happy Hour each June. Our house staff have also provided support to protests for social justice.

Women in Medicine

The gender gap in medicine is well known and well documented. Not only does this gap include differences in salary, but also in leadership roles, research opportunities, publications, and mentoring. Our mission is to build a community that empowers women in medicine at NYP-Weill Cornell to have equity in pay, leadership roles, and research opportunities. We aim to spread awareness of the current state of the gender gap, facilitate mentorship for residents, offer skill-building workshops, and highlight the achievements of women in medicine at Weill Cornell.

Recent Initiatives

  1. Contract negotiation workshop
  2. Pipeline mentorship program
  3. Female Fellowship workshop
  4. Reproductive preservation informational meeting

Articles We Love

Gvozdanovic J, Maes K et al. Implicit bias in academia: A challenge to the meritocratic principle and to women’s careers - And what to do about it. LERU Advice Paper. 2018 Jan Vol 23.

Ganguli I, Sheridan B, Gray J, Chernew M, Rosenthal MB, Neprash H. Physician Work Hours and the Gender Pay Gap - Evidence from Primary Care. N Engl J Med. 2020 Oct 1;383(14):1349-1357. doi: 10.1056/NEJMsa2013804. PMID: 32997909.

Koven S. Letter to a Young Female Physician. N Engl J Med. 2017 May 18;376(20):1907-1909. doi: 10.1056/NEJMp1702010. PMID: 28514609.

What does success mean to you?

Dr. Andrea Card
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Andrea Card, M.D.
  • Internal Medicine (Primary Care)

For me, success is like life: fluid and contextual. It is so easy to get caught up focusing on the achievement and miss the richness of the journey getting there. It is seeing the honesty in the reflection.

Dr. Laura Greisman
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Laura Greisman, M.D.
  • Internal Medicine (Hospitalist)
  • Watching your medical students and residents go on to become incredible clinicians, team leaders, and fellows.
  • Laughing so hard that you cry with your team on rounds.
  • Getting through a two-week block on service and never getting a ‘documentation query’ email.
  • Potty-training your toddler during COVID quarantine because you’re stuck at home when you’re not on service.
  • Your patient writing the CEO of the hospital to let him know how impressed she was with the resident team.
  • Your intern telling you that the patient with the severe hypoxic brain injury from a 3-month COVID hospitalization finally woke up and spoke to her.
  • Getting home in time to see your family and put your kids to bed.

Success is loving what you do – even most of the time.

Dr. Kirana Gudi
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Kirana Gudi, M.D.
  • Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine

To be a successful working mother in medicine you need two things: 1. To try and love some part of what you are doing at all times; 2. To master effective multitasking by taking help where you can get it – including not spending a lot of time answering a question that has been so beautifully answered before:

What is Success?
To laugh often and much;
To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children;
To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends;
To appreciate beauty;
To find the best in others;
To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition;
To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived;
This is to have succeeded.
– Ralph Waldo Emerson

Dr. Maria Karas
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Maria Karas, M.D.
  • Cardiology

In medicine we have the unique responsibility of caring for strangers. Our patients share with us private and sometimes the most intimate aspects of their lives. Being able to connect with my patients, touch a life, and help make even a small difference is what success means to me.

Dr. Sydney Katz
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Sydney Katz, M.D.
  • Internal Medicine (Hospitalist)

Success in medicine is:

  • Watching your learners thrive and grow as clinicians, educators, and leaders.
  • Finding a job in which you feel supported and mentored, and have colleagues who you respect, learn from laugh with, and love spending time with.
  • Letting your patients change you for the better and open your eyes.
  • Still prioritizing your health, personal interests, family, and friends, despite the most challenging clinical duties.
  • Letting yourself re-evaluate when things just don’t feel right.
  • Working a full clinical day and getting home to cook a nourishing and healthy meal.
Dr. Lindsey Lief
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Lindsay Lief, M.D.
  • Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine

Success, to me, is knowing that I helped – that today I made the world better for someone.

Sometimes it’s raucous and exciting as we clap when a critically ill patient finally leaves the hospital. But more often it’s a quiet conversation with a patient’s family. It’s feeding a patient her first bite of apple sauce after weeks of tube feeds. It’s the understanding look on a trainee’s face when they finally “get it.”

Success is being able to do what I do at work and get home in time for bedtime. Spending my days consoling grieving families is a constant reminder that my success relies on being a person my children can be proud of (and see once in a while!).

Dr. Kristen Marks
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Kristen Marks, M.D.
  • Infectious Diseases

About 10 years ago, I realized my preconceived measures of success did not necessarily align with my priorities or personal strengths. I have tried to stop judging myself and forcing a pathway.

When I feel in resonance with the work I am doing, opportunities arise more naturally. And that feels like success.

Dr. Susana Morales
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Susana R Morales, M.D.
  • Internal Medicine

Loving relationships with my family and friends.

Work that is meaningful and intellectually and emotionally rewarding.

Advocacy for social change.

The time and energy to be creative, and to play.

Dr. Nekee Pandya
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Nekee Pandya, M.D.
  • Internal Medicine (Hospitalist)

To me, success is about kindness, humor, and love.

It is about providing compassionate care to my patients, and helping students, residents, and fellows mature into caring and compassionate physicians.

It is about working with my colleagues to create a fun and supportive place to work.

It is about bringing lightness and laughter into otherwise difficult situations.

In the hospital, we all care for sick and vulnerable patients, but we only have a short time to get to know them and help them through their illness.

Making a connection with the patient and helping make their experience in the hospital a little bit easier is success to me.

Dr. Sarah Rutherford
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Sarah Rutherford, M.D.
  • Hematology & Medical Oncology

I define success as loving what I do – taking care of patients, investigating new lymphoma therapies, working with exceptional people, then going home to spend time with my husband and daughter.

Dr. Eugenia Siegler
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Eugenia L Siegler, M.D.
  • Geriatric Medicine

Achieving my goals in a way that lifts others.

Dr. Tanping Wong
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Tanping Wong, M.D.
  • Internal Medicine (Hospitalist)

To be present for my patients, my team, and my family; to help each other grow.

Contact Information

Mailing Address

NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/
Weill Cornell Medical Center
Weill Department of Medicine 
525 East 68th Street, Box 130
New York, NY 10065

Residency Office

530 East 70th Street, M-507
New York, NY 10021
Tel: (212) 746-4749
NYPCornell-IMResidency
@med.cornell.edu

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