MCCG Founders

Joseph R. Betancourt, MD, MPH

Co-Founder, Manhattan Cross Cultural Group

Director of The Disparities Solutions Center, Institute for Health Policy, and Director for Multicultural Education, Massachusetts General Hospital
Assistant Professor of Medicine and Public Health, Harvard Medical School
Internist, Massachusetts General Hospital

Dr. Joseph R. Betancourt is co-founder of the Manhattan Cross Cultural Group, a training and research organization committed to improving health care to diverse patient populations and eliminating health disparities. Dr. Betancourt is the Director of a center focused on eliminating disparities within the Institute for Health Policy at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). He also serves as Director for Multicultural Education at MGH, where he is a practicing Internist. As an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Betancourt also teaches cross-cultural medicine to medical students and residents.

Dr. Betancourt received his medical degree from New Jersey Medical School, completed an internal medicine residency at Cornell Medical Center in New York City, and obtained a master's degree in Public Health from the Harvard School of Public Health. His primary interests include cross-cultural medicine, minority recruitment into the health professions and minority health/health policy research. He is a principal investigator on several grants from the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the Commonwealth Fund and the California Endowment, in addition to being co-investigator on a projects funded by the National Cancer Institute and the Health Resources and Services Administration.

Dr. Betancourt has served on several Institute of Medicine (IOM) Committees, including those that produced Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Health Care and Developing a National Health Care Disparities Report. He also served on the Physicians for Human Rights Blue Ribbon Panel on Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Health. Dr. Betancourt is an author and co-author of several peer-reviewed publications on issues such as cross-cultural education, hypertension in minority populations, clinical decision-making, ethics, workforce diversity and the impact of language barriers on health care.

Alexander R. Green, MD, MPH

Co-founder, Manhattan Cross Cultural Group

Senior Faculty, The Disparities Solutions Center, Institute for Health Policy, Massachusetts General Hospital
Instructor in Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Internist, Massachusetts General Hospital

Dr. Alexander Green is a co-founder of the Manhattan Cross Cultural Group. Previously Associate Director of the primary care medicine residency program at The New York Presbyterian Hospital-Cornell, Dr. Green recently completed an MPH at the Harvard School of Public Health and a mid-career research fellowship at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center / Harvard Medical School. He now serves as Director of Educational Programs and Outcomes for a new Center on Health Disparities and Cultural Competence at the Institute for Health Policy, Massachusetts General Hospital, and serves on the faculty of Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Green completed his medical degree at the University of California, San Diego, and internal medicine residency at the New York Presbyterian Hospital - Cornell. He then practiced for several years as a National Health Service Corps fellow in a community health center in Queens, New York where, along with Drs. Carrillo and Betancourt, he developed a highly acclaimed curriculum on cross-cultural health care for medical residents.

He has been involved in national panels and research projects on racial/ethnic disparities in health and cultural competence and is currently co-chair of faculty development for the Harvard Medical School Culturally Competent Care and Education Committee. He is also on an expert panel for the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations' project Hospitals, Language, and Culture, and is on the steering committee of the Northeast Consortium for Cross-Cultural Medical Education. He helped develop and wrote a facilitators' guide for Worlds Apart, a documentary film and education project about cross-cultural health care now being used at over 140 medical schools and healthcare organizations.

J. Emilio Carrillo, MD, MPH

Co-Founder, Manhattan Cross Cultural Group

Vice President of Community Health Development of the NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital
President and Chief Medical Officer of the NewYork-Presbyterian Community Health Plan where he directs the Institute of Healthcare Access Research
Associate Professor of Clinical Public Health, and Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University

Dr. J. Emilio Carrillo is co-founder of Manhattan Cross Cultural Group, a training and research organization committed to improving health care to diverse patient populations and eliminating health disparities. Dr. Carrillo graduated from Columbia College and received his M.D. and M.P.H. degrees from Harvard University, and subsequently trained in Internal Medicine at the Cambridge and Massachusetts General Hospitals. For ten years he served in the faculties of Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health, where he practiced and taught medicine. While there he also administered primary care programs as well as conducted research on infant mortality prevention, smoking prevention and cross-cultural primary care.

Dr. Carrillo was an original founder of the Boricua Health Organization. He later founded the Journal of Latin Community Health and the Journal of Multicultural Community Health. Dr. Carrillo has served in many State and Federal advisory councils, including the NCI, National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI), National Centers for Health Statistics (NCHS), Agency for Health Research and Quality (AHRQ) and advisory groups to the Governors of Massachusetts and New York State. He has published widely, received numerous awards and was recently appointed as a Fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine.

Dr. Carrillo’s research and collaborations during his years at Harvard laid the foundation for Patient Based Cross-Cultural Healthcare. He designed and collaborated in the implementation and application of a cross-cultural medicine curriculum that has been adopted by many Medical Centers around the nation and has helped to define the fields of Cultural Competence and Cross-Cultural Communication.

MCCG Staff

Tessa G. Misiaszek, MPH

Chief Operating Officer

Tessa Misiaszek joined Manhattan Cross Cultural Group in August 2004 and is currently the Chief Operating Officer. Overseeing all major operations of the organization, Tessa has responsibility for sales, marketing and distribution efforts for the Quality Interactions programs. In addition, she has responsibility for developing strategic partnerships with organizations interested in incorporating Quality Interactions in their portfolio of training offerings. Tessa has been the primary point of contact for our clients, working with organizations to incorporate Quality Interactions into training curriculums for physicians, nurses and healthcare staff. Tessa has successfully worked with hospital systems and health plans to implement Quality Interactions to train thousands of learners.

Tessa received her Bachelor of Science in Resource Economics and Master of Public Health degrees from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and has extensive experience in healthcare having worked for Johnson & Johnson, Massachusetts General Hospital, and the UMass Memorial Foundation.

If you are interested in learning more about Quality Interactions, you can email Tessa at tmisiaszek@qualityinteractions.org or call (866)568-9918 x701.

Diane Blake

Bergami

Associate Director of Operations

Diane joined Manhattan Cross Cultural Group in December 2005, as Operations Manager. Her primary role is to manage the distribution of the Quality Interactions E-Learning Program, working closely with organizations to ensure their learners are successfully trained. In addition, Diane oversees the Quality Interactions website and provides marketing and sales support.

Diane came from Houghton Mifflin where she was a Web Developer/Project Coordinator for the Corporate IT group. There she helped define and build the HMCO product and other affiliating websites. Prior to joining Houghton Mifflin, she worked at BuyerZone.com, an online marketplace for small to mid-sized business purchasing, as a Web Production Specialist/Site Developer. Her experience also includes account management for FamilyEducation.com. Diane holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Management/Marketing from the University of Connecticut.

You can reach Diane at dblake@qualityinteractions.org or call (866)568-9918 x702.

Alexis Gallardo Foreman

Business Development Associate

As a member of the Manhattan Cross Cultural Group, Alexis's role as Business Development Associate is to focus on marketing and sales of the Quality Interactions training programs, with specific focus on residency programs, nursing and medical schools throughout the country.

Alexis received her Bachelor of Arts in Healthcare Management from Bethany College in Lindsborg, Kansas and her Master of Arts in Intercultural Relations from Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Prior to her work at MCCG, Alexis worked in the fields of training and development as a Relationship Manager for Interaction Associates and higher education as a recruiter and International Admissions Advisor for graduate programs at Lesley University and Emerson College, respectively. Most recently, Alexis worked for the Council on International Educational Exchange as an Account Manager helping US employers to recruit international students for seasonal work and preparing international students for their entry into the US.

If you are interested in learning more about ways to implement Quality Interactions into your Residency, Nursing or Medical school programs, please contact Alexis at agallardo@qualityinteractions.org or call (866)568-9918 x703.

Sarah Rogalewski

Sales Assistant

Sarah joined Manhattan Cross Cultural Group in October, 2007 as Sales Assistant. Her primary responsibilities include managing the sales database, providing marketing and sales support as well as assisting in operations and account set up.

Sarah came from Comstat, Inc. where she was the office manager. There she helped with business development, database and account management, vendor price contract negotiation, and inside sales and marketing. Sarah comes to MCCG with 20 years of experience in small business office management, working mainly in the high tech field.

You can reach Sarah at srogalewski@qualityinteractions.org or call (866)568-9918 x704.