Internal Medicine Residency Faculty

Susan Collins, MD, FACP
Program Director, Internal Medicine Residency

Dr. Susan Collins has been with the organization since joining the Vassar Brothers Medical Center hospitalist program in 2012. She has been the Program Director of the Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell Internal Medicine Residency Program at Vassar Brothers Medical Center (VBMC) since 2019 and also served as the Associate Designated Institutional Official for the legacy Nuvance Health Consortium, West from 2023-2025. Prior to working as a hospitalist, she was a nephrologist in a local private practice. She graduated from Dartmouth College with a major in biophysical chemistry and a minor in art history and received her medical degree from Albany Medical College. She then completed her internal medicine residency training at Brown University in Providence, RI where she was selected as a Chief Medical Resident. Upon completion of residency, she did a clinical and research fellowship in nephrology at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York, NY.

Dr. Collins has been actively involved in medical education and research throughout her career and is currently an Adjunct Faculty Member at Touro Medical College in Middletown, NY. She participated in the curriculum committee for the internal medicine residency while she was Chief Resident at Brown and helped to initiate a program teaching the power of observation to “Cops and Docs” at the Rhode Island School of Design. She has led small group sessions with medical students throughout residency and fellowship teaching pathophysiology and clinical skills. She has numerous publications in topics ranging from microbial susceptibility to HIV associated nephropathy. She is a fellow of the American College of Physicians as well as a member of the Society of Hospital Medicine.

Dr. Collins previously worked as the Assistant Medical Director for the Vassar Brothers Hospitalist Program from 2015 until 2018 before accepting the position of Program Director for the Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell Internal Medicine Residency Program at Vassar Brothers Medical Center. She continues to practice as a hospitalist and clinician educator.

Associate Program Directors

Valerie Cluzet, MD
Infectious Disease, Associate Program Director

Alexander Feldberg, MD
Core Faculty, Inpatient Internal Medicine, Associate Program Director

Claire Popplewell, MD
Ambulatory Medicine, Poughkeepsie Primary Care, Associate Program Director

Meet the Faculty

Margaret Apedo, MD
Subspecialty Education Coordinator, Endocrinology

Matthew Apedo, MD
Core Faculty
Critical Care Medicine

Benoit Bewley, MD
Subspecialty Education Coordinator, Cardiology

Ruchira Chandra, MD
Subspecialty Education Coordinator, Geriatrics

Timothy Collins, DO
Critical Care & Pulmonary Medicine, Program Director PCCM Fellowship

Brett Erdreich, MD
Subspecialty Education Coordinator, Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine

Camille Camminati-Webb, MD
Ambulatory Medicine, Poughkeepsie Primary Care, Research Faculty

Ryan C. Denley, DO
Subspecialty Education Coordinator, Hematology Oncology

Saurabh Goyal, MD
Core Faculty, Inpatient Internal Medicine

Nili Gujadhur, MD
Core Faculty, Infectious Disease, Subspecialty Education Coordinator

Ian Kaplan, DO
Subspecialty Education Coordinator, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine

Christine Kerr, MD
Core Faculty, Ambulatory Medicine, Poughkeepsie Primary Care

Kwaku A. Kyere, MD
Core Faculty, Inpatient Internal Medicine

Corina Marcu, MD
Chair of Medicine, Vice President of Medical Affairs

Stephanie Midgley, MD
Subspecialty Education Coordinator, Emergency Medicine

Hector Ojeda-Martinez, MD
Core Faculty, Infectious Disease, Program Director ID Fellowship

Zana Nikolla, MD
Subspecialty Education Coordinator, Gastroenterology

Erin Penn, MD
Subspecialty Education Coordinator, Rheumatology

Radhika Rachamalla, MD
Hematology Oncology

Payam Shakouri, MD
Subspecialty Education Coordinator, Nephrology

Lee Shapley, MD
Core Faculty

Emily Taylor, MD
Core Faculty, Ambulatory Medicine, Poughkeepsie Primary Care

Paul Wright, MD
Neurology

Chief

Robert Chanthavongsa, MD
PGY 4 Chief/Junior Faculty

Program Managers/Coordinator

Nancy Hebrank, C-TAGME
Lead Program Manager

Alexandra Belmonte, MHA, C-TAGME
Program Manager

Christopher Santiago
Program Coordinator