Health Care Panel:
Featuring Distinguished Alumni: The Road from QC to MD
Dr. Jonathan S. Steinberg, ’76, is the Director of the Arrhythmia Center of the Summit Medical Group in New Jersey, the largest independent medical group in the United States. He is also Professor of Medicine (adj) at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, and Core Professor of Cardiology and Internal Medicine at the Seton Hall-Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine.
Dr. Steinberg graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Queens College of the City University of New York in 1976. He received his MD from Mount Sinai School of Medicine and completed his residency training at New York University Medical Center. He was a fellow in cardiology at George Washington University Medical Center and a fellow in electrophysiology at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center. Dr. Steinberg has published more than 225 peer-reviewed papers. He has participated in, held executive positions in, or directed numerous multicenter clinical trials. He serves as a reviewer for many cardiology and electrophysiology journals and holds positions on several editorial boards, including that of Heart Rhythm.
Dr. Penny Stern, '77, is the Director of Preventive Medicine and an occupational medicine physician at Northwell Health’s Department of Occupational Medicine, Epidemiology, and Prevention, and the Center for Equity of Care; the Co-Chair of the system-wide CME Committee, and an Assistant Professor at the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/ Northwell, where she serves on the Admissions Committee. An Alpha Omega Alpha honor graduate of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Dr. Stern received her medical degree with distinction in neuropathology research. She was residency-trained in Preventive Medicine/Public Health (Cornell) and Occupational/Environmental Medicine (Mount Sinai) and is board-certified.
Immediately prior to coming to Northwell Health, Dr. Stern was the Deputy Medical Director at the World Trade Center Health Program (Mount Sinai), and served as the Medical Director at the Pfizer manufacturing facility in Brooklyn, New York, until its closure in 2008. Her fields of expertise in the occupational health setting include safety and environmental health (through the OSHA Voluntary Protection Program, she helped shepherd the Pfizer facility to the achievement of OSHA Star status); medical surveillance; disability management; the use of acupuncture and other complementary modalities in the workplace; and wellness. She provides insight and expertise in the area of accident/injury prevention. As a Clinical Assistant Professor, she has been actively teaching medical students at the Weill-Cornell (formerly CUMC) Medical College for more than two decades.
Dr. Stern is the immediate past president of the Queens County Medicine Society and a past president of the New York Occupational and Environmental Medicine Association (NYOEMA). She is currently President of the Zucker School of Medicine’s Faculty Council. Deeply involved in public health education provided to the communities in the Northwell Health service area, she routinely presents to dozens of community and workplace groups each year. Dr. Stern graduated from Queens College as a summa cum laude history major.
Dr. Steven G. Friedman, '76, is the Chief of the Division of Vascular Surgery at ProHealth Care Associates. He received a BA from Queens College of the City University of New York in 1976, and he received the rarely-conferred degree, MD With Distinction in Research, from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry in 1980. In 2011, he received an MBA from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Dr. Friedman completed a general surgical residency at the Brigham & Women’s Hospital of Harvard University in 1985, and a vascular surgery fellowship at New York University Medical Center in 1986. In 1996, he founded and directed the North Shore University vascular surgery fellowship program in Manhasset, NY, and in 2001, he founded and directed the vascular surgery fellowship program for the North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System. Dr. Friedman was the Chairman of the Department of Surgery at New York Presbyterian Lower Manhattan Hospital from 2004 to 2014, as well as the Chief Medical Officer from 2012 to 2014.
He is the author of more than 80 scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals, numerous book chapters, and the book, A History of Vascular Surgery. His work has also appeared in the New York Times, Midstream Magazine, and Downtown Magazine. Dr. Friedman is a member of all of the major national and international vascular surgery societies and he is a distinguished member of the Society of Vascular Surgeons. He is a past president of the New York Society of Vascular Surgery and he is Clinical Professor of Surgery at both the Weill Cornell Medical College and the Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell.