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Alan R. Roth, DO, FAAFP​

Chairman, Department of Family Medicine

Dr. Roth is a dually certified Diplomate of the American Board of Family Medicine. He is also Board Certified in Hospice and Palliative Medicine. He presently serves as Chairman of the Department of Family Medicine and Director of the Palliative Medicine Fellowship Program. Dr. Roth’s primary goal is to develop and enrich the training experiences of physicians interested in urban Family Medicine. He has completed a Residency Program Director Fellowship with the American Academy of Family Physicians and lectures nationally on urban Family Medicine Residency training and curriculum development. His special areas of interest include cultural competency training in graduate medical education, palliative medicine, disease prevention, health promotion and procedural skills. Dr. Roth is a community minded physician who regularly mentors many of our local youth interested in becoming family physicians.

Gina M. Basello, DO

Program Director, Family Medicine Residency Program
Vice Chair, Department of Family Medicine

Dr. Basello is a graduate of the New York College of Osteopathic Medicine. She is Board Certified in Family Medicine and completed her residency training here at Jamaica Hospital Medical Center’s Family Medicine Residency Program.  Passionate about education, she accepted a faculty position with the program after training and has stayed committed to the organization and the program, rising to the Program Director position as of 2008 and subsequently also to Departmental Vice Chair. Her favorite part about being a Program Director is mentoring residents and providing the professional development and coaching that is crucial to success in a complex healthcare environment. She also serves as the Associate Director of Palliative Care and was one of the founders of that service.  Dr Basello is the clinical chairperson of the hospital’s Graduate Medical Education Committee as well the Performance Improvement and Patient Safety Council.  Some of her other professional areas of interest include ensuring Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Community Engagement, Integrative Health, Communication training and Well-being on an individual, team and system level.

 

Philip Cruz, DO

Director of Osteopathic Medicine

Dr. Cruz is a graduate of the New York College of Osteopathic Medicine. He completed his residency training at Jamaica Hospital Medical Center/Mount Sinai School of Medicine’s Family Medicine Residency Program, serving as Chief Resident in his final year. Subsequent to graduation, Dr. Cruz went on to complete a primary care Sports Medicine Fellowship at the University of Massachusetts. He is Board Certified in Family Medicine and Sports Medicine and co-coordinates the Sports Medicine curriculum. Dr. Cruz oversees all aspects of the department’s osteopathic training. 

David Dovnarsky, MD

Associate Program Director

Dr. Dovnarsky is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He completed his residency training at the West Jersey-Memorial Family Medicine Residency Program in New Jersey and stayed on as a faculty member at the residency, serving as Associate Program Director for many years. More recently, he was on the faculty at SUNY Stony Brook’s Family Medicine Residency Program and served as Program Director there for two years. He also completed Duke Family Medicine’s Faculty Development Workshop Series. Dr. Dovnarsky is board certified in Family Medicine and Geriatrics and is the coordinator of the geriatrics curriculum.

Luigi Tullo, MD, FAAFP

Vice Chair, Ambulatory Care
Chairman of Performance Improvement Committee 

Dr. Tullo is a graduate of Jamaica Hospital Medical Center/Mount Sinai School of Medicine’s Family Medicine Residency Program.  He is the Vice Chairman of Medisys Health Network’s Department of Ambulatory Care and Lead for the Network’s Outpatient Antibiotic Stewardship Initiative.  He was a recipient of the 2019 United Hospital Fund’s Tribute to Excellence in Health Care Award for his work in instituting an Outpatient Antibiotic Stewardship Initiative at Medisys.  In 2019, Dr. Tullo was inducted into Albert Einstein College of Medicine’s Leo M Davidoff Society for Outstanding Achievement in Teaching Medical Students.  He is a member of the New York State Department of Health’s Antimicrobial Resistance and Prevention Control Task Force.  He chairs the family medicine performance improvement committee, working to ensure efficient high quality patient care within the context of residency education.

Cameron Nienaber, MD

Medical Director, Family Medicine Center

Dr Nienaber is a graduate of the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine. She completed her residency training at Brown University’s Family Medicine Program at Memorial Hospital in Pawtucket RI , where she served as Chair of their Recruitment Committee. Her areas of interest include Reproductive and Women’s Health and Humanism in Medicine. She is a co-coordinator of the women’s health curriculum.

James E. Villavicencio

Administrator, Department of Family Medicine and Ambulatory Care Network

Mr. Villavicencio serves as the Administrator for Jamaica Hospital Medical Center’s Department of Family Medicine as well as the institution’s extensive Ambulatory Care Network. Mr. Villavicencio is a graduate of Binghamton University and subsequently completed a Masters of Public Administration with a health care focus from Long Island University. Mr. Villavicencio maintains complete administrative responsibility for 10 primary care centers which span throughout Brooklyn and Queens and our Family Medicine Department. As a result of Mr. Villavicencio’s leadership, there has been significant improvements in the network in areas such as access to care, patient satisfaction and patient volume. Mr. Villavicencio joined the Jamaica Hospital Medical Center executive team in 1994 as an Administrative Fellow. He was the recipient of the Greater New York Hospital Association minority fellowship award in 1994. His vast experience serves as an invaluable resource for resident education regarding the principles and practices of healthcare administration.

Kazi J. Ara, MD

Headshot of Kazi J. Ara, a faculty member of Jamaica Hospital Medical Center's Family Medicine residency program.
Dr. Ara is a graduate of New York College of Osteopathic Medicine. She completed her residency training at JHMC Family Medicine. Dr. Ara’s area of interests include infectious disease, preventative health, and hospitalist medicine.

Dr. Bal, MD

Headshot of Dr. Bal, a faculty member of Jamaica Hospital Medical Center's Family Medicine residency program.

Bryan Billings, MD

Headshot of Brian Billings, a member of the faculty of Jamaica Hospital Medical Center's Family Medicine residency program.
Dr. Billings is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine. He completed his residency training at the University of Oklahoma Family and Preventive Medicine residency program in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and joined the faculty upon graduation. Dr. Billings enjoys medical student education and spent seven years directing the clinical skills courses for preclinical medical students at the OU. He has practiced full spectrum family medicine since graduation and maintains a strong interest in obstetrics, office procedures, and women’s health. He has a passion for obesity medicine and is committed to offering lifestyle, behavioral, and medical interventions for the treatment of obesity.

Karen Birgit Pols, MD, FAAFP

Dr. Pols is a graduate of Brown University’s Program in Medicine. She is board certified in Family Medicine and certified in Alcoholism and Other Drug Dependencies through examination by the American Society of Addiction Medicine. She completed her residency training at the Medical University of South Carolina’s Family Medicine Residency Program in Charleston, South Carolina, where she was the Volunteer Medical Consultant to the American Red Cross for Hurricane Hugo. She was the first Medical Director of the Callen-Lorde Community Health Center at NYC’s LGBT Center. She helped design two additional health centers, including the Student Health Center at NYU’s Abu Dhabi campus. What Dr. Pols enjoys most about family medicine is the diverse interests it has allowed her to pursue, from LGBT health to dive medicine to college health.

Ezra Dweck, MD

Dr Dweck is a graduate of the Medical School for International Health. He completed his Pediatric Residency at Flushing Hospital Medical Center in Queens, New York and is trained in General Pediatrics. He has a special interest in preventative issues. During medical school, he had the opportunity to complete a three month externship in Kathmandu, Nepal.

Kristina Kelvy, MD

Headshot of Kristina Kelvy, a member of the faculty of Jamaica Hospital Medical Center's Family Medicine residency program.
Dr. Kelvy is a graduate of Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and completed her family medicine residency training at Jamaica Hospital Medical Center including a year as Chief Resident. Originally, a native of New Jersey, Dr. Kelvy studied history and humanities at Johns Hopkins University and lived in England for a few years while completing her Masters at King’s College London before settling in Queens. Dr. Kelvy is Board Certified in Family Medicine and serves as the primary care physician for patients at Jamaica Hospital’s Mental Health Clinic, working regularly to provide high quality, whole-person health care for our vulnerable and disadvantaged populations. Having completed a certification in Integrative Medicine from the Andrew Weil Center of Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona during her residency, Dr. Kelvy practices an integrative approach with a focus on the mind-body connection and how physical and mental health interact with each other, community and society to effect health and wellbeing.

Kamica Lewis, DO

Dr. Lewis is a graduate of New York College of Osteopathic Medicine. She completed her residency training at Georgetown University/Providence Hospital Family Medicine Program in Washington, DC. Dr. Lewis is coordinator of the Women’s Health curriculum, which includes prenatal care and GYN procedures. She also coordinates the International Medicine curriculum and travels with the residents throughout the year on different medical mission trips. Dr. Lewis completed a  fellowship  at the University of Arizona Integrative Medicine Program and is using  her training to educate the residents on how to implement this approach to improve both their personal health and the health care of their patients. Lastly, Dr. Lewis is a certified Mindfulness and Emotional Intelligence teacher and collaborates with Dr. Basello to incorporate these skills into the residency education.