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Leadership Team

Program Director

Scott Kopec, MD

Pulmonary Disease, Critical Care Medicine

Dr. Scott Kopec was born in Passaic, New Jersey, and graduated college from Boston University. He then graduated from Rush Medical School in Chicago in 1989, and after completing his Internal Medicine Internship at Bethesda Naval Hospital in 1990, he served as the Medical Office on the USS Nashville during Operation Desert Storm. Upon completion of his military service, Dr. Kopec joined the UMass family to complete his Internal Medicine residency, followed by a Pulmonary and Critical Care fellowship. In 1997 he joined the UMass faculty, and following his dream of being a teacher, he joined the Internal Medicine Residency Program as an Associate Program Director in 2003. In 2009 Dr. Kopec added the duties of the Program Director for the Pulmonary and Critical Care fellowship. After serving as an Associate Program Director for 15 years, Dr. Kopec took over as the Program Director of the Internal Medicine Residency Program. Scott likes spending time outdoors hiking, fly fishing, running, snow shoeing, cross country and downhill skiing, and doing nature photography. He especially likes spending time with his wife and 3 daughters at their camp on Moosehead Lake in northern Maine.

Senior Associate Program Director

Paula M. Cullinane, MD, MPH

General Internal Medicine

Dr. Cullinane grew up in Canton, MA. She attended Stonehill College in Easton, MA, majoring in Biology and minoring in Chemistry. She worked in several university labs before attending Boston University School of Medicine. She left Massachusetts for her residency training at the University of Pittsburgh. She returned to BU for a General Internal Medicine Fellowship. She has been here at UMass Memorial Healthcare since she completed her fellowship. She is a primary care physician. Her present roles are Associate Program Director, Tatnuck firm chief, Site Director for the Memorial campus, recruiter of continuity clinic providers, & residency recruitment leader. She is married and has one son who is in college. She enjoys spending time with family and friends, reading, walking, knitting, and being outdoors.

Program Director, Primary Care Residency Track

Elizabeth Murphy, MD, MPH, FACP

General Internal Medicine

Dr. Murphy is a lifelong Massachusetts resident. She graduated from the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA as a Psychology/Pre-Med Major. She received her Medical Degree from Boston University School of Medicine. In 1995, she arrived at UMass for her internship and has not left. She completed her residency and Chief Residency here and developed her interest in and love for teaching. In 1999, she joined the Division of General Internal Medicine, where she continues to practice and precept in the Benedict Adult Primary Care Clinic. Dr. Murphy has been involved in ambulatory education since finishing her residency. She completed the inaugural UMass Quality Scholars Faculty Development program in 2009 and developed a robust QI curriculum and training program for our IM residents. In 2015, she became an Associate Program Director for Ambulatory Training in the IM residency program and implemented the 4+1 scheduling/residency learning community structure we have today. In 2019, she achieved her career dream when she was asked to create and lead a new Primary Care Internal Medicine Residency at UMass! She is an avid sports and musical theater fan. She treasures time with her husband and two sons, traveling, and relaxing on Lake Winnisquam, NH with family and friends.

Associate Program Director

Christie Donahue, MD

Hospital Medicine

Dr. Donahue grew up in Lynn, MA and got her undergraduate degree in Biology and Religion at Williams College. She volunteered in a health clinic in Tamil Nadu before attending University of Massachusetts for medical school and residency. After serving a year as chief resident, she joined the Division of General Medicine for 2 years as a primary care physician. She then began work as a nocturnist with the Division of Hospital Medicine before transitioning to more daytime roles. Her interests include perioperative medicine and anticoagulation, as well as diagnostic reasoning and evidence-based learning strategies. She was honored to be asked to join the IM residency as an Associate Program Director in 2019, as she gets the most joy out of working with learners at all stages of their education. Outside of the hospital Dr. Donahue likes travel, music, Zumba, & spending time with her resource-guarding dog as well as the rest of her family.

Associate Program Director

Maria M. Garcia, MD, MPH, FACP

Hospital Medicine

Dr. Garcia was born and raised in Puerto Rico within a military family and lived in various countries including Germany. She obtained her undergraduate degree from Rutgers University and received her medical degree from the Medical College of Pennsylvania. She completed internal medicine residency at Boston University Medical Center and obtained a master’s degree in public health from the University of Massachusetts. She joined Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and then UMass Memorial Medical Center as a Primary Care physician taking care of patients both in the outpatient and inpatient settings. She then joined the Hospital Medicine Division working more closely with residents on the inpatient service. She became an Associate Program Director in 2011. Her passion is serving as a clinician educator and working with residents interested in international clinical or research experiences. Outside of work, she enjoys dancing Salsa and Merengue, visiting England where her son attends a Pro-soccer training academy and traveling to New Zealand and Puerto Rico to visit family.

Associate Program Director

Andrea Poisson Irani MD

Hospital Medicine

Dr. Poisson Irani grew up in Narragansett, RI and spent most of her young life either on a beach or playing competitive soccer. She earned her undergraduate degree in Biology and French at Bucknell University. She attended Drexel University College of Medicine (go Dragons!) before starting residency at UMass. She served as a Chief Resident at UMass before transitioning to the Division of Hospital Medicine as a hospitalist. She also serves as a Physician Adviser for Care Coordination as well as a Co-Director for the Interstitial Curriculum in UMass Medical School. Her clinical interests include medical education, feedback and evaluation, as well as interprofessional education. She is a firm believer in medicine as a team sport and the non-hierarchical culture of UMass. She takes particular joy in helping learners at all levels succeed and leveraging the wisdom of the interprofessional care team in caring for her patients. When not at work, she is kept busy by her two toddler sons and husband. She loves spending time with family in Hershey, PA as well as beach days in her hometown.

Administrative Manager

Mary Philbin, EdM

Director of Faculty Development for the department and Assistant Program Director for Internal Medicine Residency

For the Residency, Mary develops and coordinates curriculum and designs evaluations. She mentors faculty and Chief Residents, helping them improve their teaching skills and develop plans to support struggling learners. Mary also teaches in the Medical Education elective. She is Co-Director and faculty for a regional faculty development program called Teachers of Tomorrow (TOT). In the Medical School, she is “on-call” as a small group facilitator for the 1st year medical student course, Doctoring and Clinical Skills, which she taught for fourteen years. She has a special interest in Health Literacy and clear communication with patients. Mary also does projects with the UMass simulation center, iCELS. Previously she was Director of the UMass Standardized Patient Program and a consultant to the National Board of Medical Education and the Education Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates. Mary earned her undergraduate and Master of Education degrees at Harvard. Although not strictly part of her job, she is happy to teach/assess issues involving knitting, weaving and quilting, unless she is reading or busy in the garden.

Master Clinician Educator

Christine MacGinnis, DO

General Internal Medicine

Dr. MacGinnis grew up in Worcester and was born at UMass Memorial Healthcare, Memorial campus. She was a high school softball standout and avid kickboxer until she ruptured her Achilles tendon. She attended Boston University and received a master's degree in Physical Therapy. After working two years as a physical therapist, she attended the University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine & then returned to Worcester for IM residency at UMass Memorial, Memorial campus. Her last year she served as one of the chief residents. Upon graduation, she joined the Community Medical Group as a primary care physician working in outpatient and inpatient settings. She remains actively involved with teaching residents in both the clinic and the hospital. Dr. MacGinnis has a significant teaching presence in the medical school, where she serves as a mentor, head of house and course director. In June 2019 she was honored to receive the Sara Stone award for medical education and has recently taken on the role of division chief community internal medicine. She is married with three sons. She enjoys early morning workouts, all New England sports, and time spent with her family, friends and new puppy Pemi. If she wasn’t a physician, she thinks she may have been a prosecutor, which most of her family and friends attribute to her excessive love of Law and Order. She is however thrilled to be a physician and blessed to work with her talented colleagues as well as the gifted, dedicated residents and students that make up UMass Memorial Healthcare.

Master Clinician Educator

Prashant Veerreddy, MD, MPH, FACP

Hospital Medicine

Dr. Veerreddy was born and grew up in India. After graduating medical school from Gandhi Medical College, Hyderabad, India, he moved to the United States in 2000 to pursue Master’s in Public Health at University of North Texas Health Science Center, FortWorth. After earning his MPH, he moved to Boston, MA to start his residency training in Internal Medicine at North Shore Medical Center, Partners Healthcare. He became a Chief Resident, during which he discovered his passion for medical education. He subsequently pursued a career in Academic Hospital Medicine and joined the University of Massachusetts Medical Center in 2006. His desire to be a Generalist at heart and passion for Acuity has taken him to specialize in Acute Medical Care, and he currently practices as an Academic Hospitalist at UMass Medical Center. His clinical interests are in POCUS in IM, End-of Life care, EBM, Peri-Operative Medicine. Dr. Veerreddy is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at UMass Medical School and UMass Medical Center. His penchants for medical education led to his appointment as a Master Clinical Educator (MCE) with the Kelley Firm of Internal Medicine Residency Program, UMass Medical School since 2012. Over the course of his career he has mentored and nurtured numerous resident physicians. He was subsequently also appointed as a Learning Community Mentor (LCM) for Burncoat House at UMass Medical School in 2021 and enjoys the same mentoring role with UMass Medical students. He always likes to say, "The day you stop learning, is the day you hang up your white coat to retire."

He is blessed with a loving family of wife and two daughters and loves spending time with them. He likes to play chess, tennis and cricket; has a passion for gardening; loves traveling and photography.

Master Clinician Educator

Majid Yazdani, MD

Hospital Medicine

Dr. Yazdani grew up in lower New York State and came up to Boston University for his undergraduate education. At BU, he stayed on for his masters in medical sciences and then attended BU medical school. He left Boston for his residency in internal medicine at University of Massachusetts. While working as an in-house doctor/intensivist at Deaconess Waltham hospital, an opportunity came up to return to University of Massachusetts as one of the initial hospitalists on staff. He has been in the Division of Hospital Medicine ever since. Dr. Yazdani has focused his career on medical education and working with learners at all levels of training. He is the director of the 4th year sub-internship in medicine and is co-director of medical consult services along with being the Sub-I director (aka Acting Internship Director). His clinical interests include peri-operative medicine, POCUS (point of care ultrasound) and end-of-life care/palliative medicine. Outside of the hospital, he enjoys spending time with his family and dog as well as getting into trouble working on various home improvement projects.

Master Clinician Educator

Jonathan C. Min, MD

Hospital Medicine

Dr. Jonathan Min comes from a family of physicians, including his older sister and both parents. He was born and raised outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and played the cello in various youth orchestras before discovering his love of string quartets and chamber music while attending Amherst College. He then worked in a virology research lab under Priscilla Schaffer at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. He attended UMass Medical School and in his words is now a UMass “lifer”. He stayed at UMass for his internal medicine residency and remained for another year as a chief resident, before assuming his current role as assistant professor and academic hospitalist. In addition to remaining active in the medicine residency, he completed his quality improvement LEAN green belt training in 2019, focusing on multidisciplinary rounds and geographic cohorting. He serves as a house specialty advisor for Burncoat House for the medical school and started as a Master Clinician Educator for Quinsigamond House for the internal medicine residency in July 2021. Jonathan is excited to work closely with the internal medicine residency, particularly with the chief residents and looks forward to continuing his role as a mentor to residents, interns, and students. In his free time, Jonathan enjoys visiting his sister in California, his parents in Pennsylvania, being an uncle to his 2 nephews and niece, practicing (relearning) the cello, and taking his resident teams out to dinner.

Master Clinician Educator

Nancy Lee, MD

Hospital Medicine

Dr. Nancy Lee grew up in Dorchester, a neighborhood of Boston, as a child of immigrants from Taiwan and Vietnam. She attended Boston University for her undergraduate degree in Biology and worked in a research lab studying Tuberous Sclerosis and LAM at Brigham and Women’s while also working as a hospice volunteer. From here she went to UMass Medical School and the Internal Medicine residency program where she served as a Chief Resident, before joining the Division of Hospital Medicine as a hospitalist. As one of many UMass “lifers”, Dr. Lee is passionate about maintaining the inclusive and nurturing culture that UMass is known for. She has served as the Physician Director for 7 East as part of the UMass Acute Care Unit Collaborative and is the Director of the Hospital Medicine Advanced Practice Provider Service. Her areas of interest include medical education, mentoring trainees at all levels of training, end-of-life care/ palliative medicine, transitions of care, clinician wellness, social equity and inclusion. Outside of the hospital, Dr. Lee enjoys exploring new places and new foods/ cuisines with her wife and family.

Primary Care Residency Track Leadership

Elizabeth Murphy, MD, Track Director

Laura Hallett, MD, M Ed, Primary Care Core Faculty

Nancy Skehan, MD, Primary Care Core Faculty

Jeeva Subramanian, MD, Primary Care Core Faculty

Medicine-Pediatrics Program Director

John Solomonides, MD

Site Directors

Richard Palken, MD & Jeeva Subramanian, MD, Benedict Primary Care Site Directors

Andrew Siber, MD, Tri-River Primary Care Site Director

Brian Ferrara, MD, Milford Hospital Site Director

Paula Cullinane, MD, MPH, Memorial Site Director