Our Team at the ALS Multidisciplinary Clinic in the Healey Center for ALS

Nazem Atassi, MD
Associate Professor of Neurology, Harvard Medical School

James D. Berry, MD, MPH
Winthrop Family Scholar in ALS Sciences
Averill Healey Endowed Chair in ALS
Director, MGH Neurological Clinical Research Institute (NCRI)
Chief, Division of ALS and Motor Neuron Diseases

Kate T. Brizzi, MD
Instructor in Neurology

Sheena Chew, MD
Instructor in Neurology

Merit Ester Cudkowicz, MD
Chief, Neurology Department
Director, Sean M. Healey & AMG Center for ALS
Julieanne Dorn Professor of Neurology, Harvard Medical School

William S. David, MD, PhD
Chief, Division of Neuromuscular Medicine
Director, Neuromuscular Diagnostic Center
Director, EMG Laboratory

Doreen Ho, MD
Physician Investigator
Neurologist

Sabrina Paganoni, MD, PhD
Co-Director, MGH Neurological Clinical Research Institute (NCRI)
Assistant Professor, Harvard Medical School

Haatem M. Reda, MD
Site Director, Neurology Clerkship
Associate Director, Advanced General and Autoimmune Neurology Fellowship

Darlene Sawicki, NP
617-726-6190 or dsawicki1@partners.org

Jen Scalia, NP
617-726-0316 or jbscalia@partners.org

Debra Skoniecki, NP, MSN
617-643-0422 or debra.skoniecki@mgh.harvard.edu

Julie MacLean, OTR/L
Occupational Therapist
617-726-2960 or jlmaclean@partners.org

Elizabeth Christiansen, MS, CCC-SLP
Speech Language Pathologist
617-724-0790 or echristiansen@mgh.harvard.edu

Stacey Sullivan, MS, CCC, SLP
Speech Language Pathologist
617-724-2045 or ssullivan@partners.org

Jin Yun (Helen) Chen
Genetic Counselor
617-726-4878 or Jin.Chen@mgh.harvard.edu
Jin Yun (Helen) Chen is a certified genetic counselor working in the Department of Neurology and the Center for Genomic Medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital. She is specialized in providing genetic counselling services to patients and families with neuromuscular, neurodegenerative and movement disorders. She participates in provider outreach and education related to genetic counseling and testing approach for genetic neurological conditions. She involves in the newborn screening for SMA and serves on the Medical Advisory Council for the CURE SMA Foundation.  Prior to this, she worked as a laboratory genetic counselor in the Division of Genomic Diagnostic at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where she gained expertise in variants analysis and report interpretation for both sequence variants and copy number alterations, as well as utilized clinical expertise to perform clinical correlation for report interpretation and generation. She received her master’s degree in Genetic Counseling from Brandeis University and bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Diane Lucente
Genetic Counseling Manager
617-726-1561
Diane Lucente, MS, LCGC worked as a research technician investigating genetic causes of neurological diseases for several years before training to become a Genetic Counselor, a role that she has filled for the past 20+ years. For the past 15 years, she has been a Research and Clinical Genetic Counselor in the MGH Center for Genomic Medicine and Department of Neurology. She provides clinical care to patients and families with neurodegenerative and neurodevelopmental conditions, including diagnostic testing for patients with symptoms and presymptomatic testing for individuals with a 50% chance of inheriting a genetic condition. She is also actively involved in research, the focus of which is to try and determine the natural history and underlying causes for many neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative conditions.

Victoria Siddall
Resource Specialist
vsiddall@mgh.harvard.edu
As the Resource Specialist Victoria helps patients by connecting them to community resources in their area. Additionally, she helps patients navigate Social Security Disability and Medicare, and helps patients and families connect to and navigate the different types of care and home care options.