Rachael Jayne Benson, MD

Carl Bazil completed his undergraduate studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, followed by a combined MD/PhD program at Emory University, with a doctorate in pharmacology. He was a resident and chief resident in Neurology at New York University, and completed his fellowship in Epilepsy/EEG at the Neurological Institute of New York. He was then Assistant Professor of Neurology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Since 1996, he has been an attending neurologist at Columbia University Division of Epilepsy and Sleep Disorders, and was Director of the division from 2008-2021. He has done extensive research in the relationship between epilepsy and sleep and in development of antiseizure drugs, and continues to evaluate patients with epilepsy and sleep disorders.

Michelle Bell, MD, is an associate professor of neurology at the CUMC, in the Division of Epilepsy. Dr. Bell obtained her undergraduate degree from Harvard University, followed by a medical doctorate at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. During medical school, she was valedictorian of her graduating class and was also inducted into the Gold Humanism Honor Society. Dr. Bell then pursued her medicine internship and neurology residency at Columbia University. During residency, she was awarded the Daniel Sciarra Award for her commitment to patient care and humanism as well as the Department of Medicine House Office Award for her dedication to the Internal Medicine residents and their patients. After residency, Dr. Bell served for one year as chief resident, then completed a two-year fellowship in Clinical Neurophysiology/Epilepsy. Dr. Bell was the recipient of the Lewis P. Rowland Resident Teaching Award in 2017, the Richard Mayeux Award in 2021, and the Stephen Shafer Humanism in Neurology Award in 2023. She is a professional advisory board member for the National Epilepsy Foundation and the Epilepsy Foundation of Metropolitan New York. She is also currently the Vice Chair of Education for the department and the Program Director for the Adult Neurology Residency Program.

Dr. Manubay has a background in Family Medicine, and completed a post-doctoral fellowship in Substance Abuse at Columbia University. Afterward, she joined our Division as a junior faculty member working with Dr. Maria Sullivan and Dr. Sandra Comer, primarily focusing on research of opioid dependence. She continues to provide supervision and medical coverage for research studies in our Division. In addition, she has extensive clinical experience with MAT with buprenorphine and was the Medical Director of the Buprenorphine Program of Columbia University from 2008-2011. She is also the Clinical Director of the Opioid Overdose Prevention Program at NYSPI, and for all of the Ambulatory Care Network outpatient clinics at both NYP-Columbia and Cornell campuses. As a part-time faculty member in the Department of Family Medicine at New York Presbyterian Hospital-Columbia, she works at the outpatient office, Farrell Clinic, and teaches medical students and residents. Her interests are in opioid research and in implementing MAT in the outpatient clinics to help expand care to more individuals with opioid use disorder.