Meet the Team
Andrew Eisenberger, MD
Director – Benign Hematology Service
Adult Hematology, Program Clinical Lead – NYP-CU Campus
Care of individuals with sickle cell disease has been a major part of Dr. Eisenberger’s practice for two decades. Early in his career he was a team member at Newark Beth Israel’s Comprehensive Sickle Cell Care Program, where he learned the importance of integrated multidisciplinary care. Several years ago he spearheaded efforts to create a dedicated inpatient adult sickle cell service at Columbia. Led by two nurse practitioners, the adult sickle cell service strives to provide seamless inpatient and outpatient expert management, fostering patient trust in the medical team. Dr. Eisenberger is currently focusing on developing an enterprise-wide sickle cell disease program, with an eye on ensuring that patients have adequate access to clinical trials of medications in development and curative stem cell transplant therapies.
Shipra Kaicker, MD
Associate Professor of Clinical Pediatrics and Director of the Comprehensive Pediatric
Sickle Cell Program at New York- Presbyterian Komansky Children’s Hospital at Weill Cornell Medicine
Pediatric Hematology, Program Clinical Lead – NYP-WC Campus
Dr. Shipra Kaicker is an Associate Professor of Clinical Pediatrics and Director of the Comprehensive Pediatric Sickle Cell Program at New York- Presbyterian Komansky Children’s Hospital at Weill Cornell Medicine. Dr. Kaicker brings with her two-decades of clinical experience in taking care of children with sickle cell disease. Prior to joining the Department of Pediatrics at Weill Cornell Medicine, Dr. Kaicker was one of two pediatric hematologists at the Infant and Children’s Hospital at Maimonides Medical Center, Brooklyn, NY where she took care of a large population of children with sickle cell disease. Upon joining Weill Cornell Medicine in 2015, Dr. Kaicker built up and expanded the comprehensive pediatric sickle cell program with patients now being referred for care from adjoining NYC boroughs of Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island. Through the Dalio Center for Health Justice’s enterprise-wide sickle cell initiative, she and her team hope to provide the necessary infrastructure required to overcome any social deterrents to care and to provide patients access to clinical trials and newer curative therapies.
Margaret T. Lee, MD, MS
Professor of Pediatrics and Director of the Pediatric Sickle Cell Program at Columbia University Irving Medical Center
Pediatric Hematology, Program Clinical Lead – NYP-CU Campus
Dr. Lee joined the faculty of the Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology/Stem Cell Transplantation at Columbia University Irving Medical Center in 1998, focusing her career in the care of children with sickle cell disease. She is currently the Director of the Pediatric Sickle Cell Program at Columbia. She served as the site Principal Investigator and contributed to the publications of several landmark national multi-center clinical trials in stroke prevention in children with sickle cell disease, including the STOP I/II, SWiTCH and TWiTCH trials, all of which have profoundly led to advancements in the care of children with sickle cell disease. Dr. Lee’s current research is focused on the effect of vitamin D on the respiratory complications of sickle cell disease. Her current clinical focus is to develop an integrated comprehensive program for transitioning pediatric sickle cell patients to adult medical care at Columbia by providing a structured transition service with reliable community health navigation and support to ensure the best outcomes for individuals with sickle cell disease. Along with the Integrative Therapies program at Columbia, Dr. Lee is also exploring the use of acupuncture for treatment of sickle cell pain. As a testament to her dedication to patients with sickle cell disease, the Sickle Cell-Thalassemia Patient Network honored Dr. Lee with a Distinguished Service Award in 2019.
Cheryl Mensah, MD
Assistant Professor and Attending, Division of Hematology and Medical Oncology
Adult Hematology, Program Clinical Lead – NYP-WC Campus
Cheryl Mensah, MD is the site lead for adult sickle cell program at Weill Cornell Medicine at New York Presbyterian. In this role she collaborates with the patient navigator to provide comprehensive care to adult sickle cell patients. Dr. Mensah is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Weil Cornell School of Medicine and Assistant Attending Physician at New York Presbyterian Hospital. Dr. Mensah is part of the Weil Cornell Hematology and Medical Oncology Non-Malignant Hematology Program. Dr. Mensah cares for patients with non-malignant hematologic diseases with a special interest in sickle cell disease and thalassemia.