The Team

Dr. Syra Madad, Co-Principal Investigator

Dr. James Salway, Co-Principal Investigator

Priya Dhagat, Advisor for Infection Prevention and Control

Dr. Vikramjit Mukherjee, Senior Medical Advisor for Critical Care

Dr. Laura Iavicoli, Senior Medical Advisor for Emergency Medicine

Michael Meguerdichian, Senior Medical Advisor for Simulation

About the Principal Investigators

Dr. Syra Madad, DHSc, MSc, MCP is an internationally recognized public health leader and epidemiologist in infectious disease and special pathogens preparedness and response. She serves as the Co-Principal Investigator at the Institute of Disaster and Disaster Management and Senior Director of the System-wide Special Pathogens Program at New York City Health + Hospitals. She is also the Health and Safety Lead of the Enhanced Investigations Unit of NYC Test & Trace Corp, Core Faculty in the National Emerging Special Pathogens Training and Education Center (NETEC), and Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. Dr. Madad’s work focuses on the preparedness for, response to and recovery from infectious disease outbreaks with an emphasis on healthcare and public health biopreparedness. She’s responded to multiple infectious disease outbreaks including Ebola, Zika, measles and COVID-19. Dr. Madad is featured in 2 documentaries, the Netflix docuseries, Pandemic: How to Prevent an Outbreak and the Discovery documentary, The Vaccine: Conquering COVID.

Email: syra.madad@nychhc.org

Dr. Richard James Salway MD, MSc, CHEP is a practicing emergency medicine physician and the Co-Principal Investigator at the NYC Health + Hospitals Institute of Disaster and Disaster Management. He is also the Senior Director in Emergency Management in the Office of Quality & Safety and fellowship-trained in emergency management and disaster medicine. Dr. Salway has responded to numerous disasters and infectious outbreaks both nationally and internationally and also helped extensively with the NYC response to the COVID-19 pandemic. He has written extensive peer-reviewed articles on aspects of disaster management, is a member of the ASPR TRACIE SME Cadre, and also works in event medicine throughout NYC.

Email: salwayr@nychhc.org