Our Team

Our Leadership Team

The MGH Chelsea Community Research Program is led by Amy Izen, MS, CCC-SLP, a speech-language pathologist; Julie Levison, MD, MPhil, MPH, an infectious disease specialist; Rohit Chandra, MD, a child psychiatrist; and Juliana Ison, BA, the research program coordinator. Josh Metlay, MD, PhD, chief of the Division of General Internal Medicine, provides feedback to the program.

Amy Izen, MS, CCC-SLP

Amy Izen, MS, CCC-SLP, is the founder and co-director of the MGH Chelsea Community Research Program. In 2013, Amy's interest in conducting a research study regarding bilingual children and parent-led language stimulation techniques led her to connect with others at MGH Chelsea who were engaged in research. Through sharing research questions across MGH Chelsea departments, common issues of health equity and patient and community engagement surfaced, and the MGH Chelsea Community Research Program was born. Amy's program development and leadership with the MGH Chelsea Community Research Program led her to initiate further collaborations on behalf of young children via quality improvement initiatives with the Healthy Chelsea coalition. Amy combines her clinical speech-language pathology work, advocacy for including all service providers in research opportunities and her passion for the community collaboration in her role.

Julie Levison, MD, MPhil, MPH

Julie Levison, MD, MPhil, MPH, is a co-director of the MGH Chelsea Community Research Program and an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School. Julie works a Massachusetts General Hospital campuses located in both Chelsea and Boston, and her clinical work focuses on general infectious diseases, HIV medicine and immigrant health with an emphasis on a team-based, patient-centered approach to delivering infectious disease specialty care in the community setting. Through rich connections with individuals across both Mass General and Harvard, Julie integrates her own interests in research, community building and health equity with her role. Julie also serves on leadership teams across varied research initiatives in the Greater Boston community to improve inclusion and access to clinical trials in health services for individuals underrepresented in research, with an emphasis on Latino immigrant populations.

Rohit Chandra, MD

Rohit Chandra, MD, is a child, adolescent and adult psychiatrist at MGH Chelsea HealthCare Center who was appointed by Amy Izen as one of the co-directors of the Community Research Program in 2014. He is primarily a clinician-educator who keeps up with research findings in his field and maintains an electronic library for the Behavioral Health Unit at MGH Chelsea HealthCare Center. He supervises Mass General psychiatry residents clinically, teaches Harvard medical students didactically in a monthly exam review session, sees patients with medical students in MGH Chelsea’s Crimson Care Clinic and co-directs a monthly culture and social justice seminar for the Behavioral Health Unit.

Juliana Ison, BA

Juliana Ison, BA, is the research program coordinator for the MGH Chelsea Community Research Program. Juliana completed her BA in Psychology and Spanish at the University of Notre Dame in the spring of 2019 and has a general background in developmental psychology as well as implementation science. Her major research interests include developmental psychopathology, equitable/representative research design and practice and implementation science. She is fundamentally focused on implementing community-based, culturally-sensitive psychological studies among communities historically excluded in research to help bridge the gap between ameliorative scientific investigation and practical implementation. Juliana is excited to pursue her passion for the community-based research through her role as Research Program Coordinator for the MGH Chelsea Community Research Program.

Research Council

The Research Council consists of 8–12 individuals who represent a variety of departments at MGH Chelsea HealthCare Center, all of whom have experience conducting research and/or an interest in promoting research and quality improvement. The Research Council meets quarterly to work toward Community Research Program goals. Julie Levison chairs the Research Council.

Current Research Council Members

• Rohit Chandra, MD, Department of Psychiatry
• Adriana Cohen-Hausmann, MD, Department of Pediatrics
• Sofia Devine, PT, Department of Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy
• Efren Flores, MD, Department of Radiology and Imaging
• Colleen Ford, MD, Department of Medicine
• Amy Izen, MS, CCC-SLP, Department of Speech, Language and Swallowing Disorders
• Julie Levison, MD, MPhil, MPH, Department of Medicine
• Tara McCarty, LDN, IBCLC, WIC Nutrition Program
• Jeannette McWilliams, MHA, MGH Chelsea HealthCare Center Administration
• Pam Miller, EdD, LICSW, Department of Behavioral Health
• Sanja Percac-Lima, MD, Department of Medicine
• Heather Ryan, RN, Departments of Nursing and Pediatrics
• Altaf Saadi, MD, MSc, Department of Neurology
• Kelly Washburn, MPH, Center for Community Health Improvement (CCHI)

Advisory Board

The first meeting of the MGH Chelsea Research Advisory Board occurred in October 2016. The Advisory Board consists of 7–13 people who work across the Mass General Hospital system to provide ongoing bi-directional communication between the Community Research Program and the Advisory Board members’ constituency. Meetings are held annually with the Research Council.

Current Advisory Board Members

• Margarita Alegría, PhD, Disparities Unit
• Gaurdia Banister, PhD, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN, Nursing
• Steve Bartels, MD, MS, The Mongan Institute
• Maurizio Fava, MD, Department of Psychiatry; Division of Clinical Research
• Jordan Green, PhD, CCC-SLP, FASHA, MGH Institute of Health Professions
• Jonathan Jackson, PhD, Division of Clinical Research
• Martha Jones, MS, Human Research Affairs
• Josh Metlay, MD, PhD, Division of General Internal Medicine
• Jim Morrill, MD, PhD, MGH Charlestown Healthcare Center
• Joan Quinlan, MPA, Center for Community Health Improvement
• Elsie Taveras, MD, MPH, Mass General for Children
• Anne Thorndike, MD, MPH, Tobacco Research and Treatment Center
• Dean Xerras, MD, Department of Medicine