Leadership & Staff

  • Tara Cortes

    Tara A. Cortes, PhD, RN, FAAN

    Executive Director & Professor of Geriatric Nursing, NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing

    Dr. Cortes’ distinguished career spans executive leadership, nursing education, research and practice. She has provided significant contributions to advancing health care, particularly for those people with limited access to the health care system. Significantly, she has developed collaborative models with advanced practice nurses and physicians in traditional as well as non-traditional settings to enhance the care of the American older adult population.

  • Ab Brody

    Ab Brody, PhD, RN, FAAN

    Associate Director, Mathy Mezey Professor of Geriatric Nursing, NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing and NYU Langone Health, Founder, Aliviado Health, & Pilot Core Lead, NIA IMPACT Collaboratory

    Dr. Brody is a board certified geriatric nurse practitioner with clinical expertise and current practice in house calls and inpatient geriatric consult services. Dr. Brody’s research and scholarship activities focus on the intersection of geriatrics and palliative care as he seeks to improve the quality of life, quality of care, and patient outcomes for older adults living in the community.

  • Cynthia Chong

    Cynthia Chong, MPA

    Special Projects Manager

    Ms. Chong’s background includes overseeing departmental and public administration. Her passion is promoting health education by working with community organizations and local agencies to increase health literacy.

  • Liz Seidel

    Liz Seidel, MSW

    Project Director

    Ms. Seidel is a social worker with a background in community-based research, health education, and curriculum development focusing on behavioral health and chronic illness in vulnerable populations. Ms. Seidel’s role at HIGN includes project management, curriculum development and editing, grant writing, and serving as the Try This series editor.

  • Brittany Hamilton

    Brittany A. Hamilton, MA

    Director of Online Learning and Technology

    Ms. Hamilton plans, designs, and creates innovative digital learning experiences based on theories of digital learning and best practices in instructional design. She manages the HIGN eLearning platform, website, and all other instructional technologies utilized by the institute.

  • Diana Ma

    Diana Ma, MHEA

    Budget and Project Administrator

    Ms. Ma has a background in budget and project management. In her previous role she was employed at a teaching hospital in the Department of Nursing Professional Development and Education and was involved in the administration of the Nurse Residency Program. She oversees the financial operations and is responsible for implementing the marketing and communications plan for HIGN. 

  • Shula Adelman

    Shula Adelman, MA

    Learning Designer

    Ms. Adelman is a Learning Designer with a background in using playful design, and design best practices combined with learning and cognitive theories. She develops courses and curriculum, and helps to manage the HIGN Learning Management System.

  • Shih-Yin Lin

    Shih-Yin Lin, MM, MPH, PhD

    Senior Research Scientist/Project Director

    Dr. Lin is a music therapist with research training in nursing science, health services, health informatics, and music therapy. In addition to facilitating the implementation and dissemination of the Aliviado Dementia Care program, Dr. Lin also engages in research activities focusing on promoting early detection, prevention, and management of delirium superimposed on dementia, as well as health informatics-based intervention for older adults and their families.  

  • Kimberly Hom

    Kimberly Hom, MPA

    Pilot Core Program Officer

    Ms. Hom is the Program Officer for the Pilot Studies Core of the IMPACT Collaboratory which funds and guides pilot embedded pragmatic clinical trials (ePCTs) among people living with dementia and care partners within health care systems into full-scale ePCTs. She manages the solicitation and reviews of pilot study proposals for ePCTs of non-pharmacological interventions for dementia care.

  • Aditi Durga

    Aditi Durga

    Project Manager-Aliviado/ED LEAD

    Ms. Aditi Durga is a Project Manager for the Aliviado Team who leads the development of Nurse-Led Telephonic Care (NLTC) as part of the ED-LEAD grant (Emergency Departments LEading the transformation of Alzheimer’s and Dementia care). Her role includes managing Salesforce and automating processes to enhance efficiency. She is also a certified Scrum Master.

  • Eunjung Ko

    Eunjung Ko, PhD, AGPCNP-BC, RN

    Postdoctoral Associate

    Dr. Eunjung Ko is a postdoctoral associate and also serves as a project manager for Dr. Bei Wu and Dr. Mittelman’s research project entitled “New York University Caregiver Intervention–Enhanced Support (NYUCI-ES).” Her research and passion focuses on the adult population, dementia caregiving, caregivers’ health, intervention implementation, and minority populations, particularly Asian Americans.

  • Andreina Jimenez

    Andreina Jimenez, MPH

    Project Manager

    Ms. Andreina Jimenez, is a Project Manager and health service researcher focusing on long-term community based health care services and health disparities. She has managed several studies that focus on the effectiveness of long-term community based health care services for older adults living with dementia, nursing home quality care outcomes measures, staffing outcomes, and more recently lifestyle intervention for Black adults with chronic conditions.

  • Agnes Leong

    Agnes Leong, LMSW

    Licensed Social Worker

    Ms. Agnes Leong is a licensed social worker specializing in supporting Chinese American dementia caregivers. With nearly a decade of experience working with Chinese American older adults, she provides individual and family counseling on dementia caregiving as part of Dr. Bei Wu's team. Her research focuses on improving the quality of care in nursing homes for minority populations.