Business Insights: Innovations in COVID Research & Beyond

Dr. Amler was appointed by New York’s governor in 2006 to chair the regional advisory council for the Berger Commission on hospital and long-term care utilization. He helped secure independent access for physical therapists in New York and has consulted for academic medical centers on clinical research support, graduate medical education, regional service integration, and disaster preparedness.

Dr. Amler previously was Regional Health Administrator, US Dept of Health and Human Services, where he secured supplemental SCHIP funding for Medicaid programs. He oversaw hospital emergency preparedness and directed federal medical emergency assets during heightened external threats to the region. As chief medical officer at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC)’s Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), he coordinated medical monitoring for anthrax response teams, launched a nationwide program to protect children from chemical hazards, established standardized environmental medicine biomarkers, and created a nationwide clinical network (Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Units, PEHSU) that has since expanded to several other countries. He led CDC’s development of the evidence-based risk models for Health Risk Appraisal (HRA) that underlie standards used today by government, military, and industry. At NYMC, he secured funding to repurpose the Dana Road and Skyline facilities, oversaw growth of the physical therapy and speech-language pathology programs, and launched the Institute of Public Health which includes the Public Health Practice Council and centers of excellence in Disability and Health, Disaster Medicine, Environmental Health, and Long-Term Care.

A practicing physician, Dr. Amler is a graduate of Dartmouth College, New York University, UMDNJ Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, and the CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service, with residencies at Bellevue and at St. Lukes–Roosevelt. He is a Board member of the Westchester County Association, and Hudson Valley Economic Development Corporation; Fellow and former Chapter President of the American Academy of Pediatrics and Fellow of the American College of Preventive Medicine, and New York Academy of Medicine. He was his medical school’s Distinguished Alumnus of the Year in 2005 and Keynote Lecturer in 2011. A co-founder of BioInc, the biotech incubator at NYMC, he received the Doctor of Distinction Award for Medical Entrepreneurship from the Westchester Business Journal and Medical Society, the Outstanding Service Award from the American Academy of Pediatrics, and in 2015 was named to City & State’s “Responsible 100: New York’s Most Outstanding Corporate Citizens.”

Asha Mellor, MA. CCRC, has devoted the last 24 years to research. Starting in wildlife biology, as a field researcher, and then moving into human clinical trials in 2006. Asha currently serves as the Administrative Director of Clinical Research at Northwell Health’s Northern Westchester Hospital. She is a member of the Northwell Health System Institutional Scientific and Ethical Review Board, the Northwell Health System Clinical Trials Advisory Committee, the Northwell Health System Clinical Trials Mentoring Program, and is an active member in Northern Westchester Hospital’s Breast Program Leadership. She has been a Certified Clinical Research Coordinator through the Association of Clinical Research Professionals since 2012.

Dr. Rachel Grisham is an Associate Attending within the Department of Medicine at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) where she is the Section Head of Ovarian Cancer Treatment and the Director of Gynecologic Medical Oncology at MSKCC Westchester. She is board certified in Medical Oncology. She received her Medical Degree at Duke University School of Medicine. Dr. Grisham performed her Internal Medicine Internship and Residency at Massachusetts General Hospital. She then came to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center where she served as the Chief Fellow of the Hematology and Oncology Fellowship Program. Dr. Grisham subsequently joined the Gynecologic Medical Oncology Service in 2012. Dr. Grisham’s research focuses on determining the molecular drivers of low-grade serous ovarian cancer and the development of targeted treatment strategies for patients with recurrent ovarian cancer. She has served as the principal investigator for over 20 clinical trials and serves on multiple committees within ASCO, NRG and SGO. Dr. Grisham is the recipient of an ASCO Merit Award, a Conquer Cancer Career Development Award, an Ovarian Cancer Research Fund Liz Tilberis Award, a Kaleidoscope of Hope Grant, multiple Cycle for Survival Grants, and a Translational and Integrative Medicine Research Fund Grant.