Howard D. Apfel, MD

Ashley Lee, MD, is an Instructor and Assisting Attending of Pediatrics at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. Dr. Lee attended Columbia University, NY for her undergraduate studies and medical school at Saint Louis University, MO. She then completed her Pediatric residency at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, MD, and her fellowship in Allergy & Immunology at Icahn Mount Sinai School of Medicine, NY. Dr. Lee completed a year of research fellowship as the recipient of the 2023 Elliot and Roslyn Jaffe Research Award. She worked under the mentorship of Dr. Hugh Sampson, MD, to study the role of food allergen epitopes on food allergy diagnostics and prognostics.Dr. Lee's clinical areas of interest include food allergies, drug allergies, atopic dermatitis, and immunodeficiencies. She is also passionate about community health and providing equitable care to her patients. Her research interests include better understanding the mechanisms of allergic diseases and immunodeficiencies. She is board-certified in Pediatrics and Allergy & Immunology.

Dr. Maria Kwok is an Associate Professor of Pediatric in Emergency Medicine at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center and an attending physician at the New York Presbyterian (NYP) – Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital. Outside of her clinical work, Dr. Kwok is a clinical researcher. Dr. Kwok's recent research has focused on children with asthma, including efforts to identify needs and improve chronic and acute asthma care. Dr. Kwok serves as the Hospital Emergency Department Affiliates Principal Investigator (HEDA PI) to oversee and implement multi-center studies initiated by the federally-funded Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN). In addition, Dr. Kwok is a research collaborator with the Pediatric Emergency Research Network (PERN), an association of pediatric emergency medicine networks globally. Dr. Kwok was a former medical director for the Washington Heights/Inwood Network Best Asthma Care for Kids to improve asthma care in the ambulatory clinics at NYP. Aside from her own research, Dr. Kwok has mentored pediatric residents and pediatric emergency medicine fellows on their research projects. She is also a member of the Scholarly Oversight Committee, Clinical Competency Committee, and Faculty Development Committee with the goals to improve the quality of the scholarly projects and clinical teaching of the trainees and to assist junior faculty with career development. Dr. Kwok received her BA from the Rutgers University in New Jersey; MPH and MD from The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) School of Public Health, and the UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School respectively. She completed her residency in Pediatrics at the Schneider Children’s Hospital in New Hyde Park, NY. She went on to complete her fellowship in Pediatric Emergency Medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, WI. Dr. Kwow is board certified in pediatrics and pediatric emergency medicine

Dr. Anne Ferris is the medical director of the Center for Single Ventricle care at NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital, which she co-founded in 2014. She is also medical director of the cardiology/neurology inpatient unit at the hospital and an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Columbia University in the division of Pediatric Cardiology. Dr. Ferris received her medical degree from St. John’s Medical College in Bangalore, India, did her residency and chief residency in pediatrics at New York Medical College, and stayed on as a faculty member at Columbia after completing her fellowship in pediatric cardiology. During the course of her career Dr. Ferris has volunteered extensively, including at Mother Theresa’s Orphanage, teaching Braille at the Blind School, and working with Afghan refugees under the aegis of the United Nations High Commission for Refugee Relief. She has been on international disaster medical response teams to countries in South Asia and has worked and lived with tribal and primitive societies for several years in rural India. Dr. Ferris has won several awards for excellence in teaching. As chief resident she was inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha honor society, signifying a lasting commitment to scholarship, leadership, professionalism, and service. The department of nursing at NewYork-Presbyterian recently honored her with the physician of the year award in acknowledgement of her commitment to providing a collaborative, collegial environment that supports the highest standards of patient care.