Our Team

Dr. McDonald graduated from New York University with a bachelor’s degree in biology. He received his medical degree from the New York University School of Medicine. Dr. McDonald remained at NYU after graduating from medical school to complete his internal medicine residency training there. He then completed fellowships in cardiovascular disease and advanced heart failure and transplant cardiology at New York Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center. Presently, Dr. McDonald is a heart failure cardiologist at NYP/Weill Cornell Medical Center. He is interested in all aspects of advanced heart failure and transplant cardiology including caring for patients with heart failure with preserved ejection fractions, cardiac amyloid, and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy..

Christina Ramasami graduated from Molloy College with her BSN in 2014 and received her Adult/Geriatric Nurse Practitioner certification from Hunter College. Christina has worked as a cardiac specialized nurse for several years, including working as a critical care nurse at New York Presbyterian Weill Cornell.

Dr. Kaitlyn Pinkos is a board certified cardiology pharmacist. She attended The University of Maryland School of Pharmacy and completed her residency at UChicago Medicine. Dr. Pinkos works at New York Presbyterian as a CTICU Clinical Pharmacy specialist, and supports the HFpEF and Cardiac Amyloidosis Program through working with patients on medication management.

Aileen Aylward is a Research Coordinator for Program for the Care and Study of the Aging Heart at Weill Cornell Medicine. She received a Master of Social Work and a Master of Public Health at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and has worked in geriatrics research and programming since 2018, primarily focusing on social determinants of health for older adults. She joined the lab in September 2023 and looks forward to supporting Dr. Goyal’s research efforts to enhance the quality of life for older adults with cardiovascular disease.

Princess Osma obtained her B.A. in Biochemistry from Hunter College in 2020 with minors in Psychology and Sociology. She joined the lab as a Research Assistant in July of 2022 where she currently assists various research-related activities on N-of-1 trails for deprescribing beta-blockers for HFpEF and Cardiac Amyloidosis patients to address polypharmacy. Princess looks forward to the continuation of her professional and organizational growth with the program as she hopes to advance into a career in medicine working with diverse groups of patients.

Maryam Hyder graduated from Barnard College in 2022 with a B.A. in Linguistics and joined the lab in 2021. Maryam assists with various research-related projects and is involved in qualitative data analysis for N-of-1 trials on deprescribing beta-blockers for patients with HFpEF. Maryam is eager to pursue a career in medicine. 

Alexandra Reich graduated from Cornell University in 2023 with a B.S. in Human Biology, Health, and Society (HBHS) with a minor in Education. Alexandra joined the lab in June 2023 where she manages our HFpEF & Cardiac Amyloidosis Registry, and contributes to multiple other ongoing studies related to HFpEF and Cardiac Amyloidosis. Alexandra has a keen interest in a future career in medicine. 

Musarrat Nahid is a Senior Research Data Analyst in the Division of General Internal Medicine at WCM, providing data analytic support to various faculty members including Dr. Goyal. She has an MSc degree in an interdisciplinary field and a BSc degree in engineering, and has a broad range of knowledge and experience in data analysis. Her passion lies in learning new statistical methods and software.

Dr. Reid is a board-certified Internal Medicine physician. He completed his undergraduate degree at Oakwood University and his medical degree from Ross University School of Medicine. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine at St. Joseph’s University Medical Center and joined the Weill Cornell Medicine in 2021 as an Instructor in Medicine and a health equity research fellow in the Master’s of Science in Clinical Epidemiology and Health Services Research program. Dr. Reid spends his time as a hospitalist (seeing acute patients with diverse medical conditions) and as a researcher with a special interest in social determinants of health and successful aging. 

Dr. McDonald is a current Fellow in Geriatrics at New York-Presbyterian Weill Cornell with a special interest in deprescribing. As a Chief Resident at the Yale Primary Care-Internal Medicine Residency in New Haven, Connecticut, he created an interdisciplinary Deprescribing Clinic at a Federally Qualified Health Care Center that focused on strengthening the relationship between the pharmacist and the patient. He is now excited to work with Dr. Goyal and his team on their efforts to improve patient's wellbeing through careful review of their medications.

Dr. Kate Zarzuela is the Research Program Manager for the Program for the Care and Study of the Aging Heart at Weill Cornell Medicine. She earned her Medical Degree from Universidad Católica Nordestana in the Dominican Republic. Following this, she has held positions to manage clinical trials in both the academic and industry setting. Since 2019, Dr. Zarzuela has leveraged her prior training and experience toward managing multiple clinical research studies in Dr. Parag Goyal’s clinical research lab, including observational cohort studies, prospective registries, and clinical trials. Over the coming years, Dr. Zarzuela seeks to continue to help Dr. Goyal with programmatic growth of a broader Geriatric Cardiology program that includes clinical, research, and educational arms—with the overarching objective of improving outcomes and the wellbeing in older adults with cardiovascular diseases.