Staff

Patricia Volland, MSW, MBA
Director, Social Work Leadership Institute
Senior Vice President for Strategy and Business Development, New York Academy of Medicine

Patricia Volland is the Senior Vice President for Strategy and Business Development at The New York Academy of Medicine and the Director of the Academy's Social Work Leadership Institute, a national initiative working to grow the healthcare workforce and improve care for America's older adults.

Before joining The New York Academy of Medicine, Ms. Volland spent 25 years as a hospital administrator. She has held administrative and clinical social work positions at several academic medical centers, including 15 years at The Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions. She has served as national president and board member of the Society for Social Work Administrators in Health Care of the American Hospital Association and as Chairman of the Board of Planned Parenthood of New York City, where she placed special emphasis on advocacy to ensure access to health and reproductive services.

Ms. Volland is a Fellow of The New York Academy of Medicine and a nationally recognized expert on issues of aging, workforce development, social work, and women's health. She has edited and published in numerous scholarly journals and books and is the recipient of major grant support for developing health and aging services. She currently sits on the Board of the New York City-based Altman Foundation, and serves on a number of national advisory groups focused on transforming the long-term care system and improving services to older adults. She is a member of numerous professional organizations and serves on the editorial board of the journal Social Work in Health Care.

Jeannine Melly, MPH
Deputy Director, Social Work Leadership Institute

Jeannine Melly is Deputy Director of The New York Academy of Medicine’s Social Work Leadership Institute. Before joining SWLI, she worked in The Academy’s Division of Health Policy and spent 13 years at a New Jersey nonprofit, developing and running housing programs for people living with HIV and managing fundraising initiatives.

Ms. Melly also has experience in direct service to inmates, the homeless, and women with substance use difficulties. She is chair of the HIV Law Project Board of Directors, and has served as a member of the New Jersey Women and AIDS Network's Board of Directors.

Ms. Melly holds a master’s degree in public health from the Hunter College Program in Urban Public Health and a bachelor’s degree in social work from Livingston College, Rutgers University.

Ruth Finkelstein, ScD
Policy Advisor, Center for Aging Policy and Director, Division of Health Policy

Ruth Finkelstein, ScD is currently the Director of the Division of Health Policy, a multi-disciplinary group of experts in anthropology, sociology, urban planning, public health and social work at the New York Academy of Medicine. Trained in health policy, Dr. Finkelstein has over twenty years experience working in the policy and advocacy arenas to remove barriers to health care access for vulnerable populations. Dr. Finkelstein is a leader in research and evaluation on HIV/AIDS and substance abuse treatment programs, as well as an expert in state and federal health care financing as well as private insurance.

In New York State, she was a leader in successful efforts to adopt community rating and open enrollment in the small group market, as well as other insurance reforms to facilitate access to comprehensive benefits. One of the architects of the original Ryan White CARE Act, Dr. Finkelstein has authored policy studies that have influenced changes during each reauthorization cycle. Her most recent study analyzed the relationship between each state's health care financing environment and their allocations of CARE Act funds. In addition, through Dr. Finkelstein's leadership, the NYAM is now spearheading programs to improve care and services for immigrant populations and the needs of the urban elderly.

Julia C. Spring, MSW, JD
Policy Associate

Julia Spring is a policy associate with the Social Work Leadership Institute, Center for Aging Policy, where she conducts policy research on care coordination and workforce development, develops white papers and briefings. tracks legislative initiatives, and coordinates a national coalition on care coordination.

Ms. Spring comes to SWLI from the Vera Institute of Justice Guardianship Project, where she wrote curriculum, trained and worked with family members who had been appointed legal guardians for their mentally incapacitated adult relatives. She was at Columbia Law School for over twenty years as and associate clinical professor and then director of student counseling. Before that Ms. Spring was a staff attorney with New York State’s Mental Hygiene Legal Service and senior attorney at the Sadin Institute on Law and Public Policy, Hunter/Brookdale Center for Healthy Aging and Longevity. She has taught law and social welfare policy at NYU and Hunter College Schools of Social Work.

Ms. Spring holds a BA from Radcliffe College/Harvard University, an MSW from University of Michigan School of Social Work, and a JD from New York University School of Law.

Oscar León Bernal, MA
Research Policy Associate

Oscar León Bernal is a Research Policy Associate at The New York Academy of Medicine’s Social Work Leadership Institute. He contributes to research and strategy to advance SWLI’s advocacy efforts and legislative objectives, including federal policy initiatives on comprehensive care coordination legislation affecting older adults.

Before joining SWLI, Mr. Bernal spent seven years as a Research Associate at the Public Health Division/Center for the Advancement of Collaborative Strategies in Health at the New York Academy of Medicine, where he worked on a range of health-related research projects.

Mr. Bernal holds a master's degree in sociology from Northeastern University and a bachelor's degree in sociology from the University of California, Berkeley. Mr. Bernal is a Ph.D. candidate at the cultural anthropology program at the City University of New York’s Graduate Center.

Kadia Darby, BS
Administrative Assistant

Kadia Darby is the Administrative Assistant for The New York Academy of Medicine’s Social Work Leadership Institute. She coordinates department meetings and conferences and assists in the production of department projects. She holds a Bachelor of Science in community health from Hunter College.

Joseph Shuluk, BA
Project Assistant

Joseph Shuluk is a Project Assistant at The New York Academy of Medicine’s Social Work Leadership Institute. He assists with research for SWLI’s Evidence Database, an online resource of published articles on aging care workforce and long-term care coordination issues and providing general research support on all of SWLI’s projects.

Before joining SWLI, Mr. Shuluk was a research assistant at Rockefeller University’s Leibowitz Laboratory of Behavioral Neurobiology where he studied the neurobiological actions of eating behavior and alcohol consumption along with the mechanisms by which they relate to obesity and addiction. He holds a bachelor’s degree in sociology and political science from the Thomas Hunter Honors Program at Hunter College.

Carin Tinney, LMSW
Associate Program Officer

Carin Tinney is Associate Program Officer at The New York Academy of Medicine's Social Work Leadership Institute where she supports the Hartford Partnership Program for Aging Education and other projects to strengthen the social work workforce in the field of aging.

Before joining SWLI, Ms. Tinney spent seven years in various positions at the Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute, a national non-profit organization that works to improve the lives of people who need long-term care by improving the lives and jobs of frontline care workers. In last two years of her tenure at PHI, Ms. Tinney led training and curriculum development for supervisors, leaders, consumers, and direct care workers. As a direct practitioner for eight years, Carin has experience in a range of long-term care settings including residential, home, and adult day care.

She holds a master's degree in social work with an advanced generalist focus from Kean University and a bachelor's degree in sociology and women's studies from Livingston College, Rutgers University

Liz Wright
Program Associate and Executive Assistant

Liz Wright is a Program Associate and Executive Assistant at the New York Academy of Medicine’s Social Work Leadership Institute. Her background is in administration, research and writing for health and social service related enterprises. Previously, Ms. Wright worked for six years in the production and rehearsal departments of the Metropolitan Opera. She is a graduate of Barnard College with a major in English literature, and has recently begun working part- time towards a master's degree in biochemistry at Hunter College following post-baccalaureate pre-medical studies at City College.

Jarmin Yeh, MSSW, MPH
Program Strategy Associate

Jarmin Yeh is a Program Strategy Associate at The New York Academy of Medicine’s Social Work Leadership Institute where she promotes the Hartford Partnership Program on Aging Education, a national educational initiative cultivating student leadership in the field of social work with older adults, and other SWLI initiatives.

Before joining SWLI, Ms. Yeh was a research associate at the Ford Foundation and Projects for Public Spaces, examining the impact farmers markets have on community health. She has also worked at the California State Assembly. Ms. Yeh holds a Master of Public Health and a Master of Science in social work from Columbia University. She holds a bachelor's degree in social welfare from the University of California, Berkeley.