Health Science Programs

Dr. Peggy Tallier is a board-certified family nurse practitioner specializing in pediatric and family medicine. Prior to joining the Katz School, she was dean of nursing at the Harriet Rothkopf Heilbrunn School of Nursing at LIU Brooklyn, where she led the undergraduate and graduate nursing programs through a 10-year reaccreditation.

In addition, she has served as the research and magnet consultant for Northwell Health and New York-Presbyterian hospitals, founded Vigilance Healthcare, an international nursing education company, and was chief nursing officer and vice president of Patient Care Services at St. Vincent Catholic Medical Center in Midtown Manhattan.

Tallier holds an Ed.D. from the Nurse Executive Program at Teachers College, Columbia University, M.S. in family nurse practitioner from Long Island University, MPA in public administration and nursing management from Fairleigh Dickinson University and a B.S. in nursing from Kean State University of New Jersey.

EXPERTISE: Multiple Sclerosis. Use of modalities (Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation or NMES, Surface Electromyography or sEMG, neuromuscular taping, ultrasound) for speech and swallowing rehabilitation. Dysphagia. Motor speech disorders, cognition and neurogenerative diseases

Dr. Barrera, Ph.D., assistant dean of health sciences, an associate professor and MSCS and CCC-SLP, is an internationally recognized medical Speech-Language Pathologist and Multiple Sclerosis Certified Specialist. She has extensive specialized training in the evaluation and treatment of individuals with neurological conditions and is a leading expert on the use of modalities (NMES, sEMG, neuromuscular taping, ultrasound) for speech and swallowing rehabilitation.

As a researcher and author, Dr. Barrera has lectured in over 15 countries on a wide array of clinical topics ranging from dysphagia, NMES, motor speech disorders, cognition and neurogenerative diseases. She has over 80 research abstracts and has been featured in Women’s Health, Vice Magazine, ADVANCE for Speech-Language Pathology and MTV. She also is the founder and owner of the New York Neurogenic Speech-Language Pathology.

Dr. Barrera holds a Ph.D. from the CUNY Graduate Center, an M.S. and M.Phil. from Columbia University, and a B.A. from Marymount Manhattan College.
 

Specializing in work and industry, employee safety, ergonomics, injury prevention, and health and wellness, Dr. Roy brings extensive clinical and administrative experience from senior leadership positions at Northwell Health, New York’s largest healthcare system, where she led workforce wellness initiatives aimed at reducing workplace injuries and promoting employee well-being.  

Read More

Dr. Lorraine Cashin has been a practicing PA in emergency medicine for over 23 years. She brings deep expertise in PA program leadership and a passion for extending care to underserved communities, both locally and internationally. Since 2009, she was assistant professor and director of the graduate program in physician assistant studies at Mercy University, a leading PA program. There, she established Mercy University’s international medical mission program, leading faculty and students from several health disciplines on medical missions to Mali, Nicaragua, Columbia, the Gambia and the Dominican Republic. In addition, she led students and faculty who provided health screenings and education to underserved communities in the Bronx through Mercy University’s Mobile Health Vehicle Initiative.

Prior to Mercy, Dr. Cashin was the founding director of PA Services and the Sexual Assault Program at Nassau University Medical Center. She was clinical director of the Women’s Interagency HIV Study, a longitudinal study examining the long-term effects on women of HIV at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx. She also served as co-PI on a multimillion-dollar NIH study of HIV primary care, including antiretroviral therapy, and cervical cancer among women survivors of genocidal rape in Rwanda, where she helped establish one of the first HIV clinics to serve women who were HIV positive or at high risk.

Dr. Cashin holds a doctor of medical science from the University of Lynchburg and a master of science in physician assistant studies from Mercy University.

Andrew Christler, CCC-SLP, is a medical speech-language pathologist and an expert in the areas of voice disorders, transgender voice and swallowing difficulty. He also has extensive therapeutic experience in gastroenterology and genetic syndromes, neurology, otolaryngology, pulmonology and speech-language pathology. He is the author of The Voice Ball Protocol, published in 2018, which explores the physiology of how voice and breath are coordinated.

As an advanced clinician, he uses endoscopy and fiber optic endoscopic evaluation of swallowing (FEES) as diagnostic and biofeedback tools for gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). As a senior consultant and instructor for Boston-based SEC Medical and Speech Pathology since 2012, he has established FEES programs across the country and around the globe, and from 2009 to 2017 he was director of clinical services for MedSpeech in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.

For over a decade, he has been using telepractice to reach patients globally through his own private practice. Andy teaches courses related to the management of head and neck cancer and the use of endoscopy, as well as several clinical education classes.

Christler holds a master's degree in speech-language pathology from Wayne State University and an MBA with a concentration in healthcare economics and administration from the University of Cincinnati.