Internal Medicine Faculty
The faculty and staff of Saint Mary’s Internal Medicine Residency Program are experts in their respective fields. Residents will benefit from their knowledge, collaborative spirit and passion for providing top-notch medical education.
Internal Medicine Residency Faculty
Sina Raissi, MD
Dr. Raissi is Interim Chairman of the Department of Medicine and Chief-Section of Nephrology at Saint Mary’s Hospital. He is also an Assistant Professor at the Frank Netter School of Medicine at Quinnipiac University and a Clinical Instructor at the Yale University School of Medicine.
Sina Raissi graduated from Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran, in 1990. He graduated from Internal Medicine residency program at Wayne State University, Detroit Medical Center in 1998. Subsequently, he received training as a fellow in Nephrology at Emory University. Dr. Raissi joined the Department of Medicine at Saint Mary's Hospital in September 2001 and has been actively involved in clinical teaching of the internal medicine residents on both general medicine, and nephrology rotations.
Dr. Raissi is Board Certified in both Internal Medicine and Nephrology. He is an active member of American Society of Nephrology, American College of Physicians, International Society of Nephrology, and American Society of Hypertension. His primary areas of interest are hypertension, diabetic kidney disease, and electrolyte disorders.
Shawnette Alston, MD FACP
Shawnette Alston is the Program Director of the Internal Medicine Residency. Dr. Alston received her medical degree from Albert Einstein College of Medicine in 2000 and completed her Residency in the Yale Primary Care Internal Medicine Program in 2003. She is board certified in Internal Medicine and a Clinical Instructor at Yale University School of Medicine. Dr. Alston is especially passionate about the Internal Medicine Residency Program at St. Mary’s having been with the Program since its first year, first as Clinician Educator and most recently as Associate Program Director. In addition to supervising residents on the inpatient medicine service and in the outpatient clinic, she also sees patients in the Faculty practice.
Michael Simms, MD
Dr. Simms joined the faculty in 1984 following a fellowship in Infectious Diseases at Brown University School of Medicine. Since that time he has immersed himself in the diagnosis and management of infectious diseases, undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate/peer education, and hospital infection prevention. During these years he has been engaged in most aspects of medical education at Saint Mary’s Hospital. He has served on and chaired many committees for the improvement of patient care, education, and quality; and has served as Chairman of the Department of Medicine. Dr. Simms is Chief of Infectious Diseases/ Infection Prevention, Chairman of the Infection Prevention Committee, an Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine at Yale University School of Medicine, Associate Clinical Professor at Quinnipiac University and past President of the Connecticut Infectious Disease Society. When not in the hospital he can be found outdoors in the woods, hiking, biking, kayaking and on rainy days/nights engaging his passion for learning new things, especially American history.
Rebecca Newell, MD
Rebecca Newell is the Director of the Family Health Center and is a Yale University Clinical Instructor. Dr. Newell graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from Cornell University 1995. She received her medical degree from University of Pittsburgh in 2000 and completed a residency in Internal Medicine/Pediatrics at Case Western Reserve - University Hospitals of Cleveland in 2004. She went on to become the first Med/Peds Chief Resident at Case the next year. She is currently a general practitioner of Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at the Family Health Center. Additionally, Dr. Newell supervises residents in the outpatient setting and teaches medical students, physician assistant students and nurse practitioner students. Dr. Newell’s interests include obesity, diabetes, nutrition and disparities in healthcare. She is a member of the American College of Physicians, American Academy of Pediatricians and the Society of General Internal Medicine.
Ali Vaezy, MD
Ali Vaezy graduated from the University of Kentucky College of Medicine and completed a combined residency in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at Yale. He served as chief resident in the Yale Primary Care Medicine Residency Program before joining the faculty at Saint Mary's as a Clinician Educator. He is board certified in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics, and he is an Assistant Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at Yale. He sees both adult and pediatric patients at the Children's and Family Health Center and attends on the inpatient medical service at Saint Mary’s Hospital. His interests include resident education and board review.
Carolina Borz-Baba, MD
Dr. Borz-Baba received her medical degree from the University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Before coming to the U.S., she had completed postgraduate training in Internal Medicine and was a research coordinator in studies focusing on Hepatitis B treatment. Dr. Borz-Baba completed her Internal Medicine Residency training at St. John’s Hospital South Shore in New York, where she also served as a Chief Medical Resident. She is an Assistant Professor at the Yale School of Medicine and has years of experience teaching students and residents. Before assuming the role of Associate Program Director, Dr. Borz-Baba served as Site Director for the Medical Students. Her areas of interest include clinical research, quality improvement related activities, and didactics.
Arjet Gega, MD
Arjet Gega is the Section Chief of Infectious Diseases and a Clinical Educator in our residency program. He was born and raised in Albania and received his medical degree from Istanbul University Cerrahpasa School of Medicine in Istanbul, Turkey. He completed his internal medicine residency at the University of Florida in Gainesville and his Infectious Diseases fellowship at Yale. He is board certified in internal medicine and infectious diseases.
Dr. Gega has a special interest in chronic viral diseases including HIV, Hepatitis B and C. He has worked and published his research related to HIV and CNS compartmentalization. He runs the largest Hepatitis C practice in the greater Waterbury area and has participated in many hepatitis C panels as speaker. Dr. Gega is a member of Infectious Diseases Society of America. He is married and has one son and one daughter. When he is not working in the hospital he likes to volunteer in the local Albanian Community Centers, watch and play soccer and spend time with his children.
Rohit Beri, MD
Rohit Beri received his medical degree from Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences in Haryana, India. He completed his Internal Medicine residency at Jersey Shore University Medical Center where he also served as a chief resident. He subsequently did a Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine fellowship at University of Illinois, Chicago and joined Saint Mary’s Hospital in July 2009.
He is board certified in Internal Medicine, Pulmonary Diseases, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine. He is a fellow of the American College of Chest Physicians. His clinical interests include sepsis, lung cancer, bronchoscopy, pulmonary HTN, sleep disordered breathing and pulmonary physiology. In addition to supervising residents in the ICU and pulmonary rotation, he has a private pulmonary practice.
He is the Director of the Intensive Care Unit at Saint Mary’s Hospital.
Howard Zhang, MD
Howard Zhang received his medical degree from Shandong Medical University, China and PhD in pharmaceutical science from University of Rhode Island. He completed his internal medicine residency training at Saint Mary's Hospital, Waterbury, CT, and pulmonary and critical care fellowship at University of Maryland Medical System, Baltimore, MD. He received multiple awards during his residency and fellowship training. He returned to Saint Mary's Hospital as a pulmonary and critical care consultant in 2011. He is board certified in internal medicine, pulmonary and critical care medicine. He supervises residents and medical students in pulmonary and critical care services.
He is the Associate Director of the Intensive Care Unit at Saint Mary’s Hospital.
Clifford Berg, MD
Dr Clifford Berg is a Clinician Educator for the Internal Medicine Residency Program. Dr Berg graduated from University of Connecticut, School of Medicine in 2010. He completed his internal medicine internship and residency at Tufts Medical Center in 2013. After completing his residency, Dr Berg worked as an Academic Hospitalist and Clinician Educator at Maine Medical Center prior to moving back to his home state of Connecticut. Dr Berg is board certified in Internal Medicine.
Dr Berg’s interests include medical education for both medical students and residents. His clinical subspecialty interests include nephrology and cardiology. His nonclinical interests include hiking and birding.
Bethel Shiferaw, MD MPH
Bethel Shiferaw MD MPH attained her doctorate degree in medicine from Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia where she was practicing as a physician and university lecturer. She received her master of public health at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore. She completed her internal medicine residency training at Nassau University Medical Center in New York and infectious disease fellowship training at Yale School of Medicine. Dr. Shiferaw is board certified in internal medicine. She is interested in teaching and working with medical students and residents. She is married and has a daughter.
Monzurul Chowdhury, MD
Dr. Chowdhury received his Medical Degree from Dhaka Medical College, in Dhaka, Bangladesh and his Membership of the Royal College of Physician (MRCP) from London, UK. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine at Saint Mary’s Hospital, where he also served as a Chief Resident. He subsequently completed his fellowship training in Nephrology at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He is board-certified in the Internal Medicine and the active member of the American Society of Nephrology, International Society of Nephrology and American College of Physicians. His areas of interest include chronic kidney disease, hypertension, renal stone disease, and cystic kidney diseases.
Ashish Arora, MD
Dr. Ashish Arora received his medical degree from Lala Lajpat Rai Memorial Medical College in India. He completed his residency at Baystate Medical Center/Tufts University School of Medicine, a fellowship in Critical Care Medicine at the same institution and a fellowship in Pulmonary Medicine at Bridgeport Hospital/Yale New Haven Health. He served as an Intensivist in the Pulmonary and Critical Care Division of Yale New Haven hospital before joining the faculty at Saint Mary’s Hospital in September 2019.
He is board certified in Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Internal Medicine. He is also certified by the National Board of Echocardiography and received his Certificate of Completion in Critical Care Ultrasonography. His clinical interests include critical care ultrasound, COPD, asthma, and functional hemodynamics.
Oltjon Albajrami, MD
Dr. Oltjon Albajrami was born and raised in Albania. A recipient of government scholarship, he received his medical degree at Istanbul University Cerrahpasa School of Medicine in Turkey in 2008. He completed his internal medicine training at Saint Mary’s Hospital and subsequently served as a Chief Resident. Then he worked as Academic Hospitalist and as Lead hospitalist before pursuing his nephrology fellowship at Boston University Medical Center. He subsequently came back at Saint Mary’s as faculty. His interests include diabetic kidney disease with special focus on SGLT-2 inhibitors, CKD, renal replacement therapy and electrolyte disorders. He is board certified in Internal Medicine and active member of American Society of Nephrology and American College of Physicians. He is married and has two kids. Dr. Albajrami is very involved with the Albanian community in the area.
Internal Medicine Residency Staff
Leigh Aronin
Leigh received her Masters Degree in Health Care Management from Hartford Graduate Center and has been part of the Saint Mary’s Hospital family since 1982. She is the Program Coordinator for the Internal Medicine Residency Program, supervising every aspect of resident recruitment and other vital program functions. She is coordinator, mother, and friend to our residents.
Stephanie Perez
Stephanie is the Assistant Program Coordinator for the Internal Medicine Residency Program. She joined Saint Mary’s in February, 2011, and serves as the Administrative Assistant to the Chairman of Medicine and to the Directors and Associate Program Directors.
She is also the Administrative Coordinator for the Trinity Health Of New England Physician Leadership Institute.
Stephanie holds an Associate’s Degree in Digital Media and has over ten years experience as a Graphic Designer.
Dan Keifer
Dan received his Associates Degree in Electronics Engineering from the Community College of the Air Force. He serves as a Residency Support Specialist, providing administrative and technology support to the Department, coordinating resident schedules and educational conferences, and maintaining the program’s online supports and resources.