By Sally Friedman • Photography by David Michael Howarth
Shot on location at Paulsdale, the historic Mount Laurel home of suffragist Alice Paul
Renee Patrice Bullock-Palmer, MD
CardiologistDeborah Heart and Lung Center
Growing up in the Caribbean, Dr. Renee Bullock-Palmer remembers going heavy on the science courses to better understand how intricate systems worked together in the body.
Her initial training in the West Indies culminated in internal medicine and cardiology fellowships at several New York hospitals, including one in advanced cardiac imaging. It’s a field that Bullock-Palmer believes will ultimately change the face of medical diagnosis and treatment. As director of the Women’s Cardiac Center at Deborah Heart and Lung Center, this physician uses that technology to impact the lives of her patients.
What excites this dedicated cardiologist is the use of advanced imaging to help diagnose heart function in patients, and also guide medical colleagues in making medical and surgical decisions. Future advancements hold even more solutions to former cardiac mysteries, she says.
"The role of stem cells may be quite vital in the area of heart failure, and our new technologies will help identify patients with sub-clinical cardiac disease risk,” she says.
The recipient of this year’s "Teacher of the Year” award at Deborah, Bullock-Palmer doesn’t mind that her days often begin at 5:30 am and may not land her at home again until 7 pm. But she doesn’t ignore her own heart health. "I head to the gym at least twice a week,” she says.
Like so many women, she juggles two worlds: work and home, often helping her elementary school-age daughter with homework and trying not to miss a mother-daughter talk about the day’s events.
That, after all, is good for the heart.
Ninfa Saunders, PhD
President and Chief Operating Officer
Virtua
Ninfa Saunders has the impeccable credentials to participate in the leadership of one of SJ’s largest healthcare systems – she holds a doctorate in health administration, as well as degrees in nursing and business administration. She also has a successful history leading community hospitals across the country.
But when it came to input on the design of Virtua’s new, state-of-the-art hospital in Voorhees, she also tapped into her own experience as a daughter helping in the care of aging parents.
"I remembered how it felt to be maneuvering endless hallways – how exhausting and confusing it was,” says Saunders, who used that insight as she helped strategize the design of the new hospital.
"I knew we needed to think of our doctors, our patients, their families and even visitors, and we did. My parents didn’t live to see the finished hospital, but I know they would have approved.”
Saunders is responsible for all healthcare operations throughout Virtua’s four hospitals, two rehab centers, senior services, home care, ambulatory and outpatient services. She recently finalized alliances with CHOP and Fox Chase, bringing the expertise of those facilities to Virtua patients. She has lead Virtua through nearly a decade of tremendous growth, eager to find solutions and make decisions that improve the quality of care for the communities Virtua serves.
But there are challenges ahead, and Saunders knows it.
The increasing cost of healthcare, the more than 50 million people who are not insured, and the urgent need to focus on prevention and wellness rather than illness – all occupy this dedicated professional.
"We certainly don’t have all the answers yet,” she says, "but we do plan to find them.”
Annette Reboli, MD
Founding Vice Dean
Cooper Medical School of Rowan University
For 30 years, says Dr. Annette Reboli, there was a dream of a Cooper campus that included a four-year medical school. And now, that dream is almost a reality – with no small credit to this tireless physician and administrator. As founding vice dean of the Cooper Medical School of Rowan University, Reboli was instrumental in achieving national accreditation for the school.
"The need has been great, and Camden is the right place and this is the right time,” she says.
Since 2009, Reboli was responsible for making sure the school would meet the 130 standards required for accreditation. In the end, the school received no deficiency notices after a site visit by the accreditation board.
Reboli is now focusing on faculty development and school affiliations. In her spare time, this wife of a physician and the mother of two sons – one a medical student – also serves as president of the Cooper medical staff.
But she describes her true passion as this medical school that will educate doctors in disease as well as the social issues in urban environments.
"Our building is going up at the corner of Washington and Broadway. So we’re almost at the finish line,” says Reboli. "And that feels wonderful.”
Beckie Michael, DO
Co-Medical Director
The Marlton Dialysis Center
When Dr. Beckie Michael decided she would enter the field of nephrology 20 years ago, it was a field with few women. When she was later asked to join the nephrology division at Jefferson Medical College, she was the only woman – and the youngest physician – in that department.
Today, she manages her own practice and runs a dialysis center, overseeing the quality of care there. "I think, as a woman, I bring a unique perspective to that role.
I review outcomes, collaborate with staff and meet with regulators. Women tend to be good in these areas. We enjoy mentoring. We take criticism well. It’s a job I’m well suited for.”
Michael has two teenage children, and she says she tries to manage family and work as best she can. "I drop my son at the bus stop at 7:15, head into work and then I get home around 7. I try to squeeze in things I have to do for home when I can,” she says.
"My daughter is considering a career in medicine. She knows I consider my job to be very rewarding, and I have a family. I hope she sees that having both is doable.”
Liya Beyderman, MD
Pediatric Neurologist
Center for Neurological and Neurodevelopmental Health
Her family was well-educated but constantly persecuted and denied jobs back in her native Ukraine. So when Dr. Liya Beyderman and her family had the opportunity to leave, they did. Gratefully.
"They felt that although they didn’t know what was outside of Russia, any life would be better.” she says.
Beyderman was accepted at Johns Hopkins University just a few years after she immigrated to America. In medical school, she found her calling in neurology.
"I was awed – I still am – by how damage to the nervous system can potentially steal our senses, leave our bodies limp and rob us of our very essence.”
The wife of a radiology resident at Penn and the mother of two sons, ages 2 and 4, Beyderman is a deft juggler, balancing work and family. "My life is a real whirlwind sometimes.”
But in her work at CNNH, she says she has been helped by the extraordinary advancements in technology.
"We’re learning more and more about how the brain works,” she adds, "and we’re not just learning how to diagnose brain disorders, but how to manage them.”
Courtney Kronenthal, PhD 
Senior Research Scientist
Coriell Institute
It all began with a microscope found in her father’s dresser drawer during an unauthorized survey. Courtney Kronenthal was only 11 years old, but she was utterly fascinated by it and started examining everything from leaves to strands of hair.
"And the passion for science and curiosity still radiates 21 years later,” she says.
Kronenthal has turned that fascination into her life’s work; medical genetics, which may have seemed like science fiction just a few years ago, is now her passion. And she is poised at the center of this new frontier that is revolutionizing medicine.
At Coriell, Kronenthal is the point person for the Personalized Medicine Collaborative research study. The institute is halfway to its goal of 10,000 participants, who enter the study to learn if their DNA shows they are at risk for ailments like heart disease, diabetes and even some cancers. Kronenthal, who is soon to be speaking at a national oncology summit about incorporating DNA information into clinical care, also coordinates Coriell’s multi-million dollar genome center, which performs cutting-edge DNA analysis.
And that microscope that started it all? It’s now safely residing in Kronenthal’s own dresser drawer.
Terrie Beth Ginsberg, DOAssociate Professor, UMDNJ-SOM
Medical Director, Acute Care for Elders
Kennedy University Hospital
"I spent a lot of time with both sets of my grandparents, and loved hearing their stories and witnessing their successful aging,” recalls Dr. Terrie Ginsberg. So it was understandable that Ginsberg was drawn to the field of geriatric medicine.
Ginsberg oversees a groundbreaking concept in hospitalization: a 12-bed unit at Kennedy University Hospital in Stratford specifically for patients over 70. A geriatric team works together to address the unique needs of this older population.
"There are huge challenges about aging because of the myths created by the media,” says Ginsberg. "I work to dispel these myths, and to remind others that older people are actively volunteering, traveling and enjoying their sexuality.”
As a teacher to medical students, Ginsberg emphasizes the need for focused listening with the aging patient and detecting depression that often comes from isolation.
Most troubling, we’re not seeing enough future geriatricians out there.
So I do some promoting, when I can, of how important – and rewarding – this specialty can be. The elderly have a lot to teach us all, and we need to remember that – and respect that.”
Michele Lanza, APN-C
Primary Care Nurse Practitioner
Lourdes Medical Associates
Day after day, nurse practitioner Michele Lanza was seeing patients burdened with stress. "They weren’t coming in for that, they were coming in because they had a sore throat or stomach problems,” she says, "but when I took a minute and asked how they were, they broke down. Because of the economy, so many people are stressed and depressed, and that has its affects on the body.”
Lanza’s recognition of her patients’ anxiety levels caused her to develop a special interest in stress and its harm to the body. She attended a week-long intensive training program on treating the physical affects of stress in Boston with Harvard doctors, and now uses her knowledge to help her patients.
"It’s really fascinating,” she says. "Research shows that stress changes the expression of your DNA, and that change can be for good or for bad. I work with my patients to identify their stress, and then help them cope with it either with medication or without. I believe in anti-depressants when they are appropriate, but I also provide information on other options when a patient asks.
"Most patients want to be well and stay well,” Lanza adds. "Sometimes, they just need someone to help them do that.”
