Program Information
Contact
Faculty
Susan M. Parks, MD
Bio: Dr. Parks is the Director of the Division of Geriatric Medicine and Palliative Care at Jefferson in the Department of Family and Community Medicine and the Medical Director of Jefferson Geriatrics. She is originally from Southern, NJ. She went to medical school in Newark, NJ at UMDNJ New Jersey Medical School. She matched at Jefferson in Family Medicine in 1994 and has remained here since. She did a two-year fellowship in Geriatric Medicine. She was the Geriatric Fellowship Director for over 10 years (2002-13). She also worked as a medical director in the long-term care arena. Most recently, she is the Medical Director of Jefferson Geriatrics, an outpatient primary care practice for older adults.
Clinical Interests: Dr. Parks’ academic interests include developing clinical and academic programs, academic leadership and improving advance care planning. She helped develop the outpatient practice, Jefferson Geriatrics, which opened in January 2016. Dr. Parks was recently named President of the Association of Directors of Academic Geriatric Programs (ADGAP), a national organization for Division Directors and Chiefs of Geriatrics, and is now serving as Chair of ADGAP.
Personal Interests: Sue and her husband and daughter reside in Southern, NJ. They are avid sports fans. Sue enjoys playing tennis with her family, golf and running. She also enjoys walking with friends. Their family loves to travel.
Brooke Salzman, MD
Bio: Dr. Salzman is originally from the Philadelphia area and attended college at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. She attended medical school at Jefferson, where she stayed for residency in Family Medicine and Geriatric Fellowship. She started as faculty here at Jefferson in 2005.
Clinical Interest: Dr. Salzman is the Associate Director of Geriatric Programs and is an active clinician at Jefferson Geriatrics, the outpatient practice devoted to the care of older adults. There, she provides primary care, co-Directs the Memory Assessment Program and performs home visits. She is particularly interested in improving care for medically and socially complex patients, as well as optimizing interprofessional teamwork. She is involved in education and research about social determinants of health, LGBT care for older populations, and decision-making on cancer screening with older patients.
Personal Interest: Brooke lives in center city Philadelphia with her husband and two daughters. She greatly enjoys the outdoors and hiking. She appreciates good food and traveling.
John Liantonio, MD, MBA, HMDC
Bio: Dr. Liantonio is very excited to serve as Jefferson’s first Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship Program Director. Originally from Queens, New York, John first moved to Philadelphia for Family Medicine residency training at Drexel University College of Medicine, followed by Geriatrics fellowship at Jefferson and then Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship at Mount Sinai Beth Israel in NY.
Clinical Interests: Dr. Liantonio's academic interests include development of palliative care educational curriculum for medical trainees across the Jefferson enterprise. He is currently working on multiple quality improvement projects for the division as well as development of outpatient palliative care for patients with advanced heart failure. He has also recently completed his MBA from Temple University.
Personal Interests: John is an avid traveler and has visited more than 20 countries and has many more on the bucket list. When not travelling his other interests include, enjoying the food and nightlife scene of Philadelphia, spending time with friends and spinning! He and his partner live in center city with their dog Ranger.
Kristine Swartz, MD
Bio: Dr. Swartz is thrilled and proud to be the Program Director for Jefferson’s Geriatric Fellowship. She matriculated at Jefferson Medical College and completed family medicine training at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. She then went on to complete a Geriatric medicine fellowship here as well. She is boarded in Family Medicine, Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine.
Clinical Interest: Dr. Swartz's academic interests include inpatient geriatric medicine, palliative care and geriatric oncology. She manages the inpatient geriatric consultation service, serves as attending one day a week on the inpatient palliative care service and is the co-director for the Senior Adult Oncology Center. She currently assists with the TJUH Falls committee, a newly formed delirium working group and has an interest in improving systems of care.
Personal Interest: Kristine enjoys good food, travelling with her family, and spending time with friends. She recently relocated from Center City to embrace suburban life in New Jersey.
Danielle Snyderman, MD, CMD
Bio: Having moved regularly while growing up due to her Dad having served in the Coast Guard, Dr. Snyderman had never lived in any one location for more than 4 years until she came to Philadelphia for residency at Jefferson. She loves the Philadelphia area and has called it home for the past 14 years. She completed medical school at Howard University College of Medicine. After her family medicine training, she stayed at Jefferson to pursue a geriatrics fellowship and then stayed on as faculty. She has focused her clinical practice at the Hill at Whitemarsh, a Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC) in the Philadelphia suburbs, since 2007 and has served as Medical Director of the Community since 2012.
Clinical Interest: Dr. Snyderman started her career doing both post-acute/long term care as well as palliative care in the hospital setting. She chose to focus on the post-acute and long-term care setting as it has given her the opportunity to provide continuity of care throughout the continuum of aging, including end of life, for patients she has come to know quite well. Her interests include improving and teaching about Transitions of Care, resident and fellow education in post-acute and long-term care, and advance care planning, and narrative medicine.
Personal Interest: Danielle and her husband live in the Philadelphia suburbs with their two daughters. Danielle does family photography on the weekends. She enjoys playing ping-pong, ultimate Frisbee, and fantasy football (team name: No Punt Intended).
Lauren Hersh, MD
Bio: Originally from upstate NY, Dr. Hersh migrated to Philadelphia after completing a post-baccalaureate at Scripps College in California. She attended Temple University for medical school and completed her residency in Family and Community Medicine and her fellowship in Geriatric Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. She joined the Jefferson faculty in 2011.
Clinical Interests: Dr. Hersh maintains a strong interest in geriatric education and curriculum building. She is a recent recipient of a Geriatric Academic Career Award and is currently working on developing an interprofessional complex care curriculum, with a focus on social determinants of health (SDoH). She is the geriatric coordinator for a collaborative partnership between St George’s, University of London and the Sidney Kimmel Medical College. She also serves as the Medical Director for the Physician’s Assistant program. Beyond her strong interest in geriatric education and curriculum building, Dr. Hersh's clinical interests lie in geriatric oncology, women’s health, and outpatient primary care.
Personal Interests: Lauren lives in center city with her husband and two children. Whenever possible, she attempts to merge her passion for photography, the wild outdoors, and spending time with her family.
Christine Hsieh, MD
Bio: Dr. Hsieh is a faculty in the Division of Geriatric Medicine and Palliative Care at Jefferson in the Department of Family and Community Medicine. She went to medical school at the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond, Virginia. She did her Family Medicine residency training from 1996-1999 at Thomas Jefferson University and she completed a fellowship in Geriatric Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University in 2000. She has had experience in a variety of clinical care sites such as hospital service, inpatient geriatric consult service, skilled nursing care, home care and outpatient medicine.
Clinical Interests: Dr. Hsieh’s current academic interests include student and residency education and outpatient clinical care in family and geriatric medicine. She has outpatient practices in both the family medicine and geriatric medicine offices. She also serves as attending faculty once a week for our Home Visit program delivering medical care with students and residents to homebound patient s in the community.
Personal Interests: Christine lives with her husband and 2 sons in South Jersey. She enjoys spending time with her family, reading good books, and riding her bike at the Jersey Shore. She also enjoys traveling and exploring new cities.
Hadijatou Jarra, MD
Gillian Love, MD
Bio: Gillian grew up in central Pennsylvania and attended college at Penn State University. After graduation she came to Philadelphia to attend medical school at Jefferson and has stayed ever since. At Jefferson she completed family medicine residency followed by fellowships in geriatric medicine then hospice and palliative medicine. She loves the city of Philadelphia as well as our patient population.
Clinical Interests: Gillian is passionate about providing care for older adults and people with serious illness. She spends most of her time on geriatric and palliative consult services in the hospital and has a weekly outpatient palliative medicine clinic. She finds fulfillment in assisting patients and families through complex situations. She is also assistant director for the Physician Shortage Area Program at the Sidney Kimmel Medical College. She enjoys working with students, residents, and fellows.
Personal Interests: Outside of the hospital Gillian loves spending time with family and friends. In her spare time she enjoys traveling, trying new restaurants, reading, and playing tennis. She recently moved to Fairmount and is excited to further explore this area of the city!
Advanced Practice Providers
Judy Heredia, CRNP
Bio: At a very young age, Ms. Heredia knew she wanted to help people and followed her grandmother’s footsteps to become a nurse. She graduated from Community College of Philadelphia with an Associate’s degree in Nursing and started her career at Jefferson hospital as a Registered Nurse. Ms. Heredia furthered her education at Jefferson University with a Bachelor’s then Masters’ degrees in Nursing, as she worked in several units in the hospital for 22 years.
Clinical Interests: As a Family Nurse Practitioner for the past 10 years, Ms. Heredia sees patients throughout their lifespan. She loves working with the Geriatric population and promoting healthy aging. Another component of her role is memory evaluation which entails cognitive testing, function and safety assessment. She's looking forward to starting a caregiver support group for our dementia patients and their families and seeing patients in our Home Visit Program at Jefferson Geriatrics.
Personal Interests: Judy enjoys spending time with her family and traveling to different parts of the world meeting people and learning different cultures. She loves her Latin culture and music, enjoys salsa dancing, concerts, and nature walks. Judy is currently taking photography classes for fun.