William Black Medical Research Building

Akin Beckley, MD, MBA is an Assistant Professor and Associate Residency Program Director at Columbia University Medical Center’s Department of Rehabilitation and Regenerative Medicine. Dr. Beckley also serves as the Medical Director of the Inpatient Unit at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center. He specializes in seeing patients with neurological problems, cancer, amputations, and cardiopulmonary issues. Dr. Beckley received his undergraduate education at the University of Western Ontario and his MBA and MD from the University of Connecticut. He completed his internship and residency in Surgery at the Hospital of St. Raphael before moving on to complete his residency in Rehabilitation Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia. Dr. Beckley’s interests lie in neurological and cancer rehabilitation. His focus, when treating patients, is to help them get back to their level of function prior to them becoming ill using an interdisciplinary and collaborative method. He employs the help of other departments such as PT and OT to provide the best care necessary for the patient. He also emphasizes the importance of education among his patients and medical students to assure effective continued care.

Laura Donovan, MD is an Assistant Professor of Neurology at CUIMC in the Division of Neuro-Oncology. She completed her undergraduate work at Providence College and earned her medical degree from Emory University School of Medicine. Following an internship in internal medicine at Brown University/Rhode Island Hospital, she completed her neurology training at NYP/Columbia University. She served as Chief Resident of the Neurology Department at Columbia University from 2016-2017. She completed her fellowship training in Neuro-oncology at Columbia University Irving Medical Center and Weill Cornell Medical Center. Her research interests include improving care delivery and identifying interventions to improve quality of life in patients with primary and metastatic brain tumors.

Andrew B. Lassman, MD, is a Professor of Neurology and Associate Dean of Clinical Trials at the Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. Dr. Lassman also serves as Chief of the Department of Neurology Division of Neuro-Oncology and Associate Director for Clinical Trials at the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center. As a clinician-scientist, Dr. Lassman focuses both his research and clinical efforts on improving the understanding and treatment of brain tumors.Dr. Lassman has particular expertise in translational clinical trials for brain tumors, with molecular correlative analyses to understand the reasons for treatment success or failure, and to refine treatment paradigms. Dr. Lassman has led retrospective studies, single institution prospective clinical trials, and multicenter prospective trials conducted nationally through the National Cancer Institute sponsored National Clinical Trials Network. His contributions to the field of Neuro-Oncology have been recognized with numerous awards, including the Preuss Award in Neuro-Oncology from the American Academy of Neurology, the Boyer Clinical Research Award from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and the Gary Lichtenstein Humanitarian Award from Voices Against Brain Cancer.Dr. Lassman earned his BS and MS degrees in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, as part of a combined four-year program at Yale University. He attained his MD from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and completed Neurology residency at the Neurological Institute of New York, at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center. Dr. Lassman completed his fellowship in Neuro-Oncology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, where he joined the faculty and served as fellowship director, until his return to NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center.