Leadership

Joseph E. Parrillo, M.D. is a Professor of Medicine at University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey/Robert Wood Johnson Medical School; Chief, Department of Medicine; Edward D. Viner M.D. Chair, Department of Medicine; and Director, Cooper Heart Institute at Cooper University Hospital in Camden, NJ. Dr. Parrillo is board certified in internal medicine, allergy and immunology, cardiovascular disease, and critical care medicine. He has authored more than 900 manuscripts, chapters, reviews, editorials, books, and abstracts. Dr. Parrillo is a past president of the Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM) and is presently editor-in-chief of Critical Care Medicine, the premier journal devoted to the discipline of critical care. He is a fellow of the American College of Cardiology, American College of Chest Physicians, and the American College of Critical Care Medicine, and a member of the Association of American Physicians (AAP) and the American Society of Clinical Investigation (ASCI). In 2005, Dr. Parrillo was the recipient of the American College of Critical Care Medicine’s Distinguished Investigator Award, which represents the College’s highest recognition for “scientific and educational contributions...(that)...demonstrate career commitment and excellence.” His major interests have been cardiac function in sepsis; cardiovascular performance in shock; pathogenesis and treatment of severe dilated cardiomyopathy; myocarditis; and the critically ill cardiovascular patient.

R. Phillip Dellinger, M.D.
Deputy Chief, Education and Research

R. Phillip Dellinger, M.D. is a Professor of Medicine at University of Medicine and Dentistry of NJ/Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. He is Head, Division of Critical Care Medicine, and Director, Medical/Surgical ICU at Cooper University Hospital, Camden, NJ. He received his medical degree from the Medical University of South Carolina and completed his internal medicine residency and pulmonary fellowship at Wilford Hall USAF Medical Center. He is a fellow of the American College of Critical Care Medicine. Dr. Dellinger was president of the Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM) from 1998 -1999. He is currently an associate editor for the SCCM’s journal, Critical Care Medicine. He is the creator of the SCCM Fundamental Critical Care Support (FCCS) course, which is now taught in over 30 countries and translated into 7 languages. Dr. Dellinger has authored over 300 journal articles, films and book chapters in the field of critical care medicine, featuring both laboratory and clinical research. He has edited over a dozen books and journal issues with emphasis on sepsis and acute respiratory distress syndrome. He co-edited the second and third edition of the major critical care textbook, Critical Care Medicine (Elsevier/Mosby). He chaired the committee that created the 2008 14-organization sponsored International Guidelines on the Management of Severe Sepsis and Septic Shock and is heading up the 2012 revision involving 26 international organizations. He has received numerous awards and honors, including induction into the Baylor College of Medicine Teaching Hall of Fame and the SCCM’s Distinguished Service Award.

Vijay Rajput, MD, MBBS, FACP, SFHM is an Associate Professor of Medicine and Assistant Dean for Curriculum at Cooper Medical School of Rowan University. He also serves as the Program Director of the Internal Medicine residency programat Cooper University Hospital, UMDNJ/Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in Camden, New Jersey. Dr Rajput is an associate fellow at the Center forBioethics at University of Pennsylvania. He has authored or co-authored moret han 60 papers, abstracts and book chapters. Since 2010 he has served as a Guest Editor for the Ethics Section of the Yearbook of Critical Care Medicine. He has presented more than 100 invited and peer-reviewed workshops, seminars and grand rounds at regional, national and international meetings. Over the last 13 years, Dr. Rajput has received more than fifteen “Excellence in Teaching” awards from students and residents. He was recently awarded the ACGME ParkerJ. Palmer “Courage to Teach Award”—the most prestigious teaching award, in its 10th year. He also received the prestigious Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Foundation award for distinguished Teaching in 2006 and was inducted in the UMDNJ’s Master Educator Guild in 2005. In 2004, Dr. Rajput received an “Excellence in Teaching Award” from the Society of Hospital Medicine. Dr. Rajputwas a key founding member for the new Cooper Medical School of RowanUniversity’s curriculum and student affairs committees. Dr. Rajput’s main areas of interest are bedside teaching, real time Evidence Based Medicine, professionalism, ethics and humanism in medicine as well as, problem based learning and curriculum development. He has developed a core ethics curriculum for the Society of Hospital Medicine. 

Brian P. Gable, M.D., FACP
Associate Program Director

Brian P. Gable, M.D. FACP is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at UMDNJ Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and currently serves as an Associate Program Director for the Internal Medicine Residency. Dr. Gable received his medical degree from UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School where he was elected into both the Alpha Omega Alpha (AOA) and Gold Humanism Honor(GHHS) societies. Dr. Gable remained at UMDNJ-RWJMS for his residency training in internal medicine and subsequently served as chief resident of the program. Dr. Gable was previously the Associate Program Director of the Robert  Wood Johnson Internal Medicine Residency Program in New Brunswick, NJ where he was integral in the development and implementation of the educational programand assisted in the administrative oversight of the residency. During this time, hewas also actively involved in undergraduate medical education by teaching and mentoring countless medical students on the third-year clerkship, acting as the director of the fourth-year subinternship, participating in the physical diagnosisand Patient-Centered Medicine courses, and serving as the AssociateDirector of the second-year Pathophysiology course. Dr. Gable also served as the Chapter Adviser of the Gold Humanism Honor Society at Robert Wood Johnsonand co-authored the article "Humanism at Heart: Preserving Empathy in Third-Year Medical Students.”Dr. Gable is passionate about medical education. His interests include teaching clinical skills, promoting clinical reasoning, and bedside teaching. Dr. Gable has received eight teaching awards from residents and students in his young career,including the prestigious Foundation of UMDNJ Excellence in Teaching Award.

Elizabeth Cerceo, M.D., FACP is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at theUniversity of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey/Robert Wood JohnsonMedical School. She graduated summa cum laude from Rutgers University andcompleted her medical degree at University of Medicine and Dentistry of NewJersey/Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, where she was selected for theAngelo P. Angelides Award for Academic Excellence in Medicine and the AlphaOmega Alpha Honor Society. She trained as an intern and resident at the Hospitalof the University of Pennsylvania. She is a board-certified general internist in theDivision of General Internal Medicine and a member of the Society of HospitalMedicine and the American College of Physicians. Dr. Cerceo has multiple publishedand ongoing research projects. She has a special interest in qualityimprovement and is developing several Cooper QI initiatives into research studies.Dr. Cerceo is involved in medical education at both the resident and medicalstudent level. She lectures on a broad variety of topics including the Resident asTeacher curriculum and was instrumental in developing the Hospitalist lectureseries as well as incorporating it into the resident curriculum. As AssociateProgram Director at Cooper, Dr. Cerceo oversees the inpatient hospital experiencefor the residency program.

Andres Ferber, M.D. is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey/Robert Wood Johnson Medical School-Camden and an Associate Program Director of the Internal Medicine Residency Program at Cooper University Hospital. Dr. Ferber graduated from theUniversidad de la Republica in Montevideo, Uruguay. He did a research fellowship in Cell Biology at Temple University and at the Thomas Jefferson University studying molecular mechanisms of cell cycle regulation. He trained in Internal Medicine and then Hematology and Medical Oncology at Thomas Jefferson University where he became part of the Hematology and Bone Marrow Transplantation programas an Assistant Professor of Medicine. He received a five year research award from the National Blood and Heart Institute to investigate molecular mechanisms of angiogenesis. He was also the Program Director for the Hematologyand Medical Oncology fellowship program at Jefferson. Dr. Ferber came to Cooper University Hospital in 2007 and is currently the Director for the Hematological Malignancies Program for the Cooper Cancer Institute. He is also a member of the Hematology and Medical Oncology fellowship committee. Dr. Ferber has authored numerous peer reviewed papers, book chapters, abstracts and presented at many national meetings. Dr. Ferber has trained multiple residents and hematology and medical oncology fellows bothin the Clinical and Basic Sciences. His main areas of interest are physical diagnosis teaching, clinical application of basic science research, clinical research, performance improvement and innovative medical curricula.

Anna Headly, M.D., MFA

 Associate Program Director

Anna Headly, M.D., M.F.A. graduated cum laude from Harvard College and wenton to receive an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Michigan, whereshe also received her MD with honors. She trained as an intern andresident at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and remained there fora fellowship in General Internal Medicine with an emphasis on medicaleducation. At Cooper University Hospital, Dr. Headly is Program Director of thePrimary Care Track, Associate Program Director of the Internal MedicineResidency Training Program and directs the outpatient continuity care experiencefor the residency program. She also serves as a Director of UndergraduateMedical Education, in which capacity she oversees the third-year medical studentclerkship in Internal Medicine. Dr. Headly is very active in national organizationsrelated to medical education, including the Association of Program Directors inInternal Medicine, Clerkship Directors in Internal Medicine, the Arnold P. GoldFoundation, and the Society for General Internal Medicine; she has served oncommittees for those organizations as well as presented multiple workshops atnational meetings. She has special interests in communication skills, humanismin medicine, evidence-based medicine, and trainee well-being, and has publishedarticles on those topics in peer-reviewed journals. She co-authored the CDIM’sPrimer to the Medicine Clerkship. She oversaw the development of the Evidence-Based Medicine curriculum for medical students and residents at Cooper, is a keyparticipant in the Resident as Teacher curriculum, and was instrumental in thedevelopment of the Internal Medicine resident program in Literature andMedicine, for which she serves as facilitator.

Antoinette Spevetz, M.D., FCCM, FACP
Associate Program Director

Antoinette Spevetz, M.D., FCCM, FACP is a graduate of Hahnemann University Medical School. She trained as an intern and resident at Abington Memorial Hospital, where she was selected to be a Chief Resident. She then completed a fellowship in Critical Care Medicine followed by a fellowship in Pulmonary Medicine, both at Cooper University Hospital. After her fellowships, Dr. Spevetzbecame an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Florida at Jacksonville, where she was the Director of the Intermediate Care Unit and became actively involved in residency education. After 4 years in Florida, Dr.Spevetz took a position as Director of Critical Care for the Upper Chesapeake Health System in Maryland, where she also served as Chief of Pulmonary Medicine. Dr. Spevetz is very involved in national Critical Care organizations,including the Society of Critical Care Medicine, where she is the past Chancellor of the Board of Regents. She is also active in graduate and continuing medicaleducation, serving as a member of the Liaison Committee to the American Boardof Internal Medicine as well as several guideline committees. Dr. Spevetz was the 2007 recipient of the Critical Care Teaching Award. Dr. Spevetz was also a former President of the Internal Medicine Section of the SCCM and prior Chair of the ABIM Critical Care Medicine review courses. Dr. Spevetz is Director of the Intermediate Care Unit as well as Director of Operations for the Intensive Care Unit. In June of 2007, she became Associate Program Director for the Internal Medicine Residency Program and is responsible for directing the medicine fellowship programs. In 2009, Dr. Spevetz was appointed as Senior Medical Director of Education within the Office of Academic and Medical Affairs.

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Contact Information

Director: Vijay Rajput, M.D., FACP
Associate Program Directors:  Elizabeth Cerceo, M.D., FACP,  Andres Ferber, M.D., Brian Gable, M.D.,
Anna Headly, M.D., MFA, Antoinette Spevetz, M.D., FCCM, FACP
Contact: Medical Education Office
Phone: 856 - 757 - 7842
Fax: 856 - 968- 9587
Email: IMresidency@cooperhealth.edu
Address: Cooper University Hospital, UMDNJ– Robert Wood Johnson Medical School at Camden,
401 Haddon Avenue, E&R Building, 3rd Floor, Camden, NJ  08103