Puneet Sahota, MD, PhD

Puneet Sahota, MD, PhD

Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, CMSRU
Matthew S. Salzman, MD

Matthew S. Salzman, MD

Medical Director of Research, Cooper Center for Healing
Medical Director of Inpatient Consult Services, Addiction Medicine
Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine, CMSRU

About Me

Matthew Salzman, MD, MPH, graduated from Jefferson Medical College, now the Sidney Kimmel Medical College, and trained in Emergency Medicine and Medical Toxicology at Drexel University College of Medicine. He recently completed his master’s in public health at the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University. He is the Medical Director of the Addiction Medicine Consult Liaison Service at Cooper University Health Care as well as the Medical Director of Research for Cooper’s Center for Healing.

Dr. Salzman is board-certified in Emergency Medicine, Medical Toxicology, and Addiction Medicine. He is a volunteer consultant at the Philadelphia Poison Control Center and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. He is an Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at Cooper Medical School of Rowan University and an attending physician in Emergency Medicine and Addiction Medicine at Cooper University Health Care. In addition to working with medical students, residents, and fellows in the Emergency Department and throughout the hospital, Dr. Salzman lectures locally, regionally, and nationally. He has academic interest in allostatic load and resilience in individuals with substance use disorders, as well as acute pain management for people with opioid dependence and opioid use disorder.

Edmond Sarkis, MD

Edmond Sarkis, MD

Assistant Professor of Medicine, CMSRU
Simon A. Sarkisian, DO, MS, FAAEM

Simon A. Sarkisian, DO, MS, FAAEM

Medical Director, Disaster Medicine in the Division of EMS and Disaster Medicine
Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine, CMSRU

About Me

Major (Maj.) Simon Sarkisian, DO, MS, FAAEM is a U.S. Army Reserve physician and attending physician in Cooper University Hospital's Department of Emergency Medicine. He is also the Emergency Physician on the 912th Forward Resuscitative Surgical Detachment (FRSD) based out of Cranston, Rhode Island.

Major Sarkisian was awarded the U.S. Army Health Professions Scholarship Program scholarship in 2011 and graduated from Touro University in California with a Doctor of Osteopathy degree in 2015. He attended the Emergency Medicine residency program at Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center in Fort Hood, Texas. In 2018 he graduated from his residency program as a chief resident. Maj. Sarkisian's first duty assignment after graduation was at Cooper University Hospital as part of the Army Medical Department Trauma Team Training (AMCT3) program.

In 2020 to 2021, he was deployed to Baghdad, Iraq with the 115th Field Hospital as part of Operation Inherent Resolve. In 2021, he was deployed to Kabul, Afghanistan with the 274th FRSD and 82nd Airborne Division to assist in the evacuation of Afghan refugees as part of the XVIII Airborne Corps Immediate Response Force (IRF). In 2022 he deployed to Romania with the 240th FRSD for the Russian invasion of Ukraine as part of the XVIII Airborne Corps IRF. Maj. Sarkisian enjoys teaching medical students, residents, and military/diplomatic rotators as well as improving Cooper's disaster medicine and preparedness programs. Maj. Sarkisian has authored/co-authored numerous publications in emergency and military medicine. His interests also include operational/austere medicine, disaster medicine, and emergency preparedness.

Maj. Sarkisian currently serves as the Medical Director of Disaster Medicine in the Division of EMS and Disaster Medicine.

To learn more about Cooper's Center for Disaster and Austere Medicine, visit https://cooperhealth.org/services/disaster-medicine.

Kathleen Schaeffer, DO, FACOG

Kathleen Schaeffer, DO, FACOG

Head, Section of Surgical Gynecology
Associate Professor of Clinical Obstetrics and Gynecology, CMSRU
Kurt W. Schenk II, MD

Kurt W. Schenk II, MD

Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology, CMSRU

About Me

Dr. Schenk, a native of southeastern Pennsylvania, studied Cell and Molecular Biology at West Chester University of Pennsylvania. Thereafter he completed his medical school education at Jefferson Medical College and anesthesiology residency at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. After completing his training in Philadelphia, PA, he worked in private practice for a short time in New Jersey before joining Cooper University Hospital and Cooper Medical School of Rowan University.

Dr. Schenk is on the vascular and regional anesthesia teams and is a clerkship facilitator for the 3rd year core clerkship in anesthesiology.

In his free time, he enjoys running, cycling, cooking, traveling, and spending time with his Boston terriers.

Stephen Schepel, MD

Stephen Schepel, MD

Teaching Faculty

About Me

Dr. Stephen Schepel grew up in central New Jersey and studied Biology and Physiology at Cornell University. He then spent time as an EU visiting researcher at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden before attending medical school at Ross University School of Medicine, where he graduated second in his class. He interned in Internal Medicine at Hahnemann University Hospital in Philadelphia, completed his Anesthesiology residency at Boston University School of Medicine, and undertook a fellowship in Pediatric Anesthesiology at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington D.C.

Dr. Schepel has strong academic and clinical interests in pediatric perioperative pain, pediatric regional anesthesia, obstetric anesthesia, and adult regional anesthesia. His extra-clinical interests include perioperative environmental stewardship. In his free time, he enjoys cooking, gardening, and being outdoors with his friends and family.   

Ryan B. Schmidt, MD

Ryan B. Schmidt, MD

Medical Director, Recovery Village Cherry Hill at Cooper
Assistant Professor of Medicine, CMSRU

About Me

Ryan Schmidt, MD is Program Director for the Cooper University Health Care Addiction Medicine Fellowship, Medical Director of Recovery Village Cherry Hill at Cooper, and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Cooper Medical School of Rowan University (CMSRU). He is a graduate of the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, and completed his internal medicine residency at Temple University Hospital and addiction medicine fellowship at Caron Treatment Center.

Dr. Schmidt is board-certified in both internal medicine and addiction medicine. He is a member of the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM), the American College of Academic Addiction Medicine, and the ASAM Physician-in-Training Committee. He is a previous recipient of the ASAM Ruth Fox Scholarship.

Dr. Schmidt is a certified buprenorphine training instructor through Provider Clinical Support System (PCSS) and has participated in multiple trainings at Cooper as well as state-level trainings. He has had multiple poster presentations at the ASAM Annual Conference on topics including hepatitis C virus (HCV) screening for those undergoing inpatient substance use disorder (SUD) treatment and co-prescribing naloxone in primary care patients on chronic opiates.

Follow Dr. Schmidt on LinkedIn and Twitter.