Dr. Kerry Frommer Fierstein is Chief Executive Officer of Allied Physicians Group, a primary care independent physician group with over 30 locations throughout the New York metropolitan area. Dr. Fierstein is also Chief Executive Officer of Adjuvant.Health, a premier Managed Services Organization, offering a wide range of medical practice solutions and administrative consultative services. She has been an active Executive Chair since its’ inception in 2017 and is also a Board Member of Allied Foundation and United Health Care Children’s Fund. In 2018, she was a recipient of Bridges to Excellence (a physician office systems recognition program). This program recognizes practices that use systems to enhance the quality of patient care, a huge accomplishment.
She was Managing Partner of Pediatrics Health Associates prior to joining Adjuvant.Health in 2011, retains this title and has held additional roles with increasing responsibility during her tenure with Adjuvant. As a leader, Dr. Fierstein is consistent, logical and clear headed. She understands the big picture and ties projects and work into the organizational goals seamlessly. The organization and her teams have grown under her leadership in roles including Treasurer and Chief Medical Officer. Her presence and style foster a strong confidence in her abilities. As CMO, Dr. Fierstein greatly impacted many competencies within the business and her subject matter expertise in Pediatrics is demonstrated by her successful speaking engagements with Pediatric Supergroup, at the Molloy Early Childhood Conferences and the Academy of Pediatrics National Convention. She is Pediatric Board Certified, a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and on Healthgrades Honor Roll.
Dr. Fierstein believes strongly in the importance of physician leadership in the healthcare arena, and that physician independence leads to premier quality healthcare and better experiences for both the doctor and the patient. It is her mission, and that of Allied and Adjuvant, to give physicians the support necessary to be the drivers in healthcare delivery. She is an active practitioner and is trained in Pediatric Clinical Hypnosis.
Born in the Bronx and raised in Queens, Dr. Fierstein is a New Yorker all the way! She attended New York University where she attained her undergraduate degree. She then earned her Doctorate in 1987 at New York Medical College where she also met her husband David, an internist. She completed her residency at North Shore University Hospital. Here, her passion and excellence in pediatrics soared and in 1990 she joined Pediatrics Health Associates. Dr. Fierstein and David have three children, Dana, Evan and Andrew. She is also the proud grandmother to her first grandchild, Aiden.
Valerie Mayer is Chief Financial Officer of Adjuvant.Health, powered by Allied Physicians Group, a premier Managed Services Organization offering a wide range of medical practice solutions and administrative, consultative services. She also holds roles of Vice President, Finance of Allied Physicians Group, a primary care independent physician group with over 30 locations throughout the New York metropolitan area, and Treasurer/Board Member of the Allied Foundation. She joined the Allied team in 2017 as VP of Finance and Accounting and was promoted to her current role in 2018. Since joining the organization, Valerie was a key contributor to the implementation of GL Advisor, which allows a cross-segment view of the business financial analytics, streamlines reporting, and creates finance process cost savings across the organization.
She has restructured the Finance/Accounting function resulting in an infrastructure that supports strategic and operational goals. Valerie has provided organization-wide guidance on fiscal responsibility, profitability, and policy which has broadened the abilities and culture of the leadership team.
Valerie is a subject matter expert in treasury and debt management, strategic FP&A, budgeting, forecasting, internal controls, and fiscal policy. She has over 20 years of experience in financial planning and operations in multiple verticals, including healthcare, manufacturing, and construction. Prior to joining Allied, she held roles of increasing responsibility in healthcare and manufacturing. While managing finance, accounting, and total rewards, she implemented various policy changes and operating procedure improvements, which resulted in significant cost savings across the organizations she supported.
Valerie holds a BS from St. John’s University, MBA in Accounting from Hofstra University, and is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA). She was awarded by LIBN, One of the 50 Top Women in Business and is recognized as a thought leader. She demonstrates a leadership style of listening, planning, and execution and recognizes past mistakes as opportunities for growth and development within the team.
Valerie lives in Long Island with her husband and 4 children and is Treasurer of Rolling Hills PTA – Commack School District. In her leisure time, Valerie enjoys spending time with her family, beach vacations, and a good book.
Leslie Baker is Chief Operating Officer and Chief Experience Officer of Adjuvant.Health, powered by Allied Physicians Group, a premier Managed Services Organization, offering a wide range of medical practice solutions and administrative, consultative services. She joined the Allied team in 2015 in a consultant capacity and was promoted to her current role in 2017. Since joining the organization, Leslie has managed efforts to enhance the patient and family experience across the continuum of care and developing and implementing a comprehensive strategy to increase patient and practice satisfaction. She led an initiative to implement text/email patient communications, online scheduling for patients, and telehealth after hours to all Allied practices. Leslie developed and facilitated an office manager curriculum, MBA (molding brilliant administrators), for all Allied office managers. The results and benefits of this course have been widely recognized across the organization, with increased productivity and heightened employee engagement levels in many practices. She also developed “Best You = Best Us,” a training for staff members focused on employee engagement, culture, and best patient experience. Leslie performs monthly site visits to assist with technology implementations.
With over 20 years of experience in healthcare and management, Leslie is a subject matter expert in practice management, education, training, technology, and workflow/process improvement. In prior roles, Leslie demonstrated a strong track record in Practice Administration, marketing, and technology. She supported the implementation of several medical management tools and solutions that resulted in improved revenue. Specifically, utilizing these skills and expertise she protected a practice from economic crisis, thereby increasing revenue by 22%. Leslie was pivotal in retaining high-potential employees and developed a bonus incentive plan during this transition. She also created workflows to eliminate patient wait room time, streamline the check-in process and improve the overall patient experience.
Leslie holds a LEAN Healthcare Certification from GA Tech, is a member of MGMA and HIMSS, and participates on the Customer Advisory Board for Virence, Solution Reach, and Anytime Pediatrics. She also sits on the GE advisory board for their practice management and EMR solutions and is a guest speaker at several healthcare conferences nationally. Leslie was recognized with the Telly Award for her contribution to a commercial produced for a practice/company. Humility is the foundation of her leadership style.
Kevin Edwards is the Associate Vice President of Adjuvant.Health, powered by Allied Physicians Group, a premier Managed Services Organization offering a wide range of medical practice solutions and administrative, consultative services. He joined the Adjuvant.Health leadership team in 2018. During his short tenure, Kevin established a committee joining 12 independent practices to develop and build a “One Allied
Physicians Group” approach to business operations. Previously, Kevin held roles as Director of Compliance and IT Security and Business Development Executive at Flexible Business Systems. During his tenure, he led various initiatives to drive technology value and mitigate risk. Earlier in his career, Kevin focused on strategy, customer service, and technology to provide organizations with progressive solutions to positively impact business value.
Kevin is a subject matter expert in HIPAA compliance, security risk assessment, cyber security, and medical technology. A career milestone includes performing as Program Director for an Epic EMR Community Connect rollout to the Catholic Health Services affiliate practices. He also created a HIPAA compliance division at Flexible Systems to help medical practices across the country attain and sustain compliance. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree from SUNY Oswego and is Epic Care Certified. His leadership style focuses on integrity, loyalty, and enabling others to demonstrate their expertise. He has high regard for his team and emphasizes the importance of effective communication.
Kevin received the Eagle Scout award and currently coaches little league baseball and softball. He lives in Long Island with his wife and 3 children and has a passion for coaching, outdoor activities, and travel.
Ricardo Santiago is Chief Information Officer of Adjuvant.Health, powered by Allied Physicians Group. He joined the Allied team in 2015 as VP of Technology. Since joining the organization, Ric has provided technology vision and leadership in the development and implementation of the company-wide IT program. He developed a long and short-term technology roadmap, goals, and objectives for the organization. He led the initiative to restructure services and outsource selective systems and operations to achieve efficiencies and cost-beneficial results. Ric led the migration of mission-critical systems (EMR/Practice Management and ancillary systems) to a new data center with no downtime and minimal impact to end users. The team also established a security program, including policy development and institution of technology controls and safeguards.
An active member of the executive leadership team, he frequently participates in key decisions and policy-making. He ensures the security and compliance of all information systems while maintaining a high level of customer service and value to the organization. With focuses on governance, security, and service delivery, Ric has been able to align business priorities with technology strategy, delivering transformative outcomes. He demonstrates subject matter expertise in healthcare technology, cyber security, process improvement, and project management.
Ric is a creative and seasoned healthcare technology professional with over 20 years of diverse experience in hospital, long-term care, home care, and ambulatory environments. Prior to joining the Allied group, Ric was CIO at Village Care of New York. During his tenure, he developed and maintained an enterprise Disaster Recovery Plan by establishing a secondary data center with 85% resource capacity of the primary data center. This created a redundant infrastructure with replicated data, hot and standby virtual server replicas offsite. He also led the transition of on-premises infrastructure to a private cloud-based environment, thereby reducing costs and increasing systems availability and performance.
Ric holds a CCSA (Certified Cyber Security Architect) and consistently demonstrates empathy, creativity, and passion in his leadership style.
Dr. Shaer is a pediatrician, the Chief Wellness Officer of Allied Physicians Group, and a certified executive and life coach. In addition to general pediatrics, she spends much of her time coaching parents and patients on healthy habits, behavior, mental health, and breastfeeding. Dr. Shaer believes strongly in harnessing the power of the mind to maximize health and well-being and spends much of her time empowering teens, parents, and fellow physicians, to step up and live their best life.
Dr. Shaer is a graduate of Mount Sinai School of Medicine. She completed her pediatrics residency at Albert Einstein/ Montefiore Medical Center and was chief resident at Jacobi Medical Center. Dr. Shaer is a board-certified pediatrician, a certified executive and life coach, an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant and a fellow of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine. She is a practicing partner at Peconic Pediatrics in Riverhead & Southold, New York. Dr. Shaer also serves as the Chief Medical Officer at Allied Physicians Group, a primary care independent physician group with over 30 locations throughout the New York metropolitan area and is on the Board of Directors of Allied Foundation.
In her free time, she enjoys yoga, meditation, reading, hiking, nature, and spending time with her husband, three children, and dog.
Dr. Fell is a graduate of The Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education and SUNY Health Science Center in Syracuse. He completed his Internship and Residency at Steven and Alexandra Cohen Children’s Medical Center (formerly Schneider Children’s Hospital), where he also served as Chief Resident. He is a board-certified pediatrician and has been practicing medicine for 30 years. Dr. Fell is a practicing partner at Peconic Pediatrics in Riverhead & Southold, New York. He was a founding member of Allied Physicians Group, where he has been the company’s Compliance Officer and Privacy Officer, as well as the Billing and Coding Chairman. He became the company’s Chief Operations Officer in August 2022.
Dr. Gary Mirkin, a founding member of Allied Physicians Group, graduated from The Ohio State University with a B.S. in Microbiology in 1979. He then went on to The Ohio State University College of Medicine, which he completed in 3 years, graduating in 1982. Dr. Mirkin completed his residency in Pediatrics at The New York Hospital-Cornell University Medical Center from 1982-1985. He has been board certified in Pediatrics since 1989, is a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and has a special interest in dealing with infectious disease and autism. He has been honored with the Healthcare Heroes Physician Hero Award in 2013 as well as a “Top CEO” in 2016 by Long Island Business News. Dr. Mirkin serves as the President of Allied Physicians Group and is a practicing partner at MDs4Kids in Great Neck, New York.
Dr. Cohen was born and raised in New York. She received her bachelor’s degree from Binghamton University and then went on to receive her medical degree from SUNY Syracuse. She completed her pediatric residency at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset. She has enjoyed caring for the Garden City Pediatric community for the past 20 years. Dr. Cohen formerly served as the Allied Physicians Group Treasurer.
Dr. Eric Levene joined Chester Pediatrics in 1993. Dr. Levene grew up on Long Island. He obtained his undergraduate degree in Mathematics from Franklin and Marshall College and received his medical degree from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. He completed his residency at Long Island Jewish Hospital where he then continued for one more year as Chief Resident. Dr. Levene serves as the Allied Physicians Group Marketing Committee Chair.
Dr. Salvatore Caravella did a three-year research fellowship at Westchester County Medical Center. During his fellowship, he participated in numerous research endeavors and is well-published in the pediatric medical literature. After his arrival in Huntington, NY his main goal was to modernize the neonatology service at Huntington Hospital which came to fruition in 1994 when full-time 24hour/7 day neonatology in-house coverage began at the hospital. Dr. Caravella is a member of the American Medical Association, the New York State Medical Society, the New York Pediatric Society, The Suffolk County Medical Society, the Suffolk County Pediatric Society and is a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics. He is double board-certified in Pediatrics and Neonatology. Dr. Caravella serves as the Chief Quality Officer for Allied Physicians Group.
Safety Officer, Human Resources Committee Chair, RISE Committee, Credentialing Committee Allied Physicians Group
Dr. Scott Svitek received his Bachelor of Science in Molecular Genetics at the University of Rochester and Medical degree at the University of Buffalo. He completed his pediatric training at LIJ medical center and then served as the Senior Chief Resident. But after serving several years than an academic setting at the Schneider’s Children’s Hospital t LIJ, Dr. Svitek returned home and has been at Commack Pediatric Associated since 1998. Dr. Svitek serves as the Human Resources Committee chair for Allied Physicians Group.
Born and raised in Kentucky, Dr. Stewart Samuel graduated from Indiana University and the University of Louisville School of Medicine. He completed his pediatric training at the Children’s Hospital Medical Center in Cincinnati and then spent four years in the US Army at FT Knox where he served as Chief of Pediatrics, Medical Director for the Early Intervention Program, and coordinator of services for child abuse victims. Dr. Samuel is a practicing partner at Pediatric Health Associates in Plainview, New York. He also serves as Chairperson of the IT Steering Committee for Allied Physicians Group.
Dr. Lashley’s undergraduate training was at Vanderbilt University. Dr. Lashley finished his medical training at Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn and completed his residency in pediatrics at The Brookdale Hospital Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York. Dr. Lashley is Board Certified by the American Board of Pediatrics and is a Fellow in the American Academy of Pediatrics, and Nassau Academy of Medicine. He was president of the local chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics from 2013-2015 and now serves as an advisor to them. Dr. Lashley also has been on the Executive Board of the Nassau Pediatric Society for several years as the Chairman of both the Membership and Immunization Committees and was President of the Nassau Pediatric Society in 2002. Dr. Lashley has been appointed to the faculty of Hofstra Medical School and is a student mentor for them. In 2018, Dr. Lashley was given the prestigious Top Doctor Award from NY TopDocs. Dr. Lashley also serves as the Mental Health Committee Chair.
Dr. Visentin is a graduate of Albany Medical College. She completed her pediatric internship and residency at the Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital. She is a board-certified pediatrician and has a special interest in breastfeeding medicine. Dr. Visentin is an International Board-Certified Lactation Consultant and a member of the Academy of Breastfeeding medicine. She practices at Peconic Pediatrics in Riverhead and Southold, NY, and serves as the Billing and Coding Chair for Allied Physicians Group.
Dr. Raphael (Ralph) Strauss has been a practicing allergist for over 23 years. In 2007 he opened, Strauss Allergy & Asthma Therapy’s Westbury office. He is certified by the American Board of Allergy & Immunology. After graduating cum laude from Brandeis University, he began his medical career at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, where he received his medical degree in 1986. He did his internship and residency in pediatrics at Schneider Children’s Hospital/ Long Island Jewish Medical Center. There, he was recognized with the Best Resident Teaching Award in 1989. He followed up his residency with a two-year fellowship in allergy and immunology at the Long Island Jewish Medical Center. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Nassau County Medical Society, and the American College and the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. He has authored and co-authored a number of publications for professional journals. Dr. Strauss has made several TV appearances as an expert in allergy and has been quoted in media publications such as the New York Times. Dr. Strauss serves as a Physician Leader for Allied Physicians Group.
