Position Description

System Chair, Department of Neurology

Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ISMMS)

Mount Sinai Health System (MSHS)

About the Mount Sinai Health System

Mount Sinai Health System is one of the largest academic medical systems in the country, with 48,000 employees working across seven hospitals, more than 400 outpatient practices, more than 600 research and clinical labs, a school of nursing, and a leading school of medicine and graduate education. Mount Sinai advances health for all people, by taking on the most complex health care challenges of our time—discovering and applying new scientific learning and knowledge; developing safer, more effective treatments; educating the next generation of medical leaders and innovators; and supporting local communities by delivering high-quality care to all who need it.

Through the integration of its hospitals, labs, and schools, Mount Sinai offers comprehensive health care solutions from birth through geriatrics, leveraging innovative approaches such as artificial intelligence and informatics while keeping patients’ medical and emotional needs at the center of all treatment. The Health System includes approximately 9,000 primary and specialty care physicians and 10 free-standing joint-venture centers throughout the five boroughs of New York City, Westchester, Long Island, and Florida. Hospitals within the System are consistently ranked by Newsweek’s® “The World’s Best Smart Hospitals, Best in State Hospitals, World Best Hospitals and Best Specialty Hospitals” and by U.S. News & World Report's® “Best Hospitals” and “Best Children’s Hospitals.” The Mount Sinai Hospital is on the U.S. News & World Report® “Best Hospitals” Honor Roll for 2025-2026.

About the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai is internationally renowned for its outstanding research, educational, and clinical care programs. It is the sole academic partner for the seven member hospitals of the Mount Sinai Health System, one of the largest academic health systems in the United States, providing care to New York City’s large and diverse patient population.

The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai offers highly competitive MD, PhD, MD-PhD, and master’s degree programs, with enrollment of more than 1,200 students. It has the largest graduate medical education program in the country, with more than 2,600 clinical residents and fellows training throughout the Health System. Its Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences offers 13 degree-granting programs, conducts innovative basic and translational research, and trains more than 560 postdoctoral research fellows.

Ranked 11th nationwide in National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding, the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai is among the 99th percentile in research dollars per investigator according to the Association of American Medical Colleges. More than 4,500 scientists, educators, and clinicians work within and across dozens of academic departments and multidisciplinary institutes with an emphasis on translational research and therapeutics. Through Mount Sinai Innovation Partners (MSIP), the Health System facilitates the real-world application and commercialization of medical breakthroughs made at Mount Sinai.

Department Description

For well over a century, Department faculty have made significant contributions to medical knowledge through clinical and scientific research, trained many generations of neurologists, and held prominent positions on the national and international neurological stage.

With interdisciplinary centers focused on the most common and most complex neurological disorders, the Department provides patients with a unique blend of personalized care powered by our groundbreaking research teams and technology. This integrated approach is instrumental in our pursuit of improving outcomes in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, and many other neurological disorders, referred from within our expansive health system, as well as from throughout the world.

The Department offers a variety of educational programs that provide a broad foundation in neuroscience and the clinical skills to diagnose and treat the full spectrum of neurological diseases. The Health System’s span of facilities across Manhattan, Queens, and Brooklyn affords opportunities for elective rotations in diverse populations and settings. Multiple fellowship opportunities enable many choices for sub specialization after residency, as well as in-depth research opportunities funded by the National Institutes of Health. Mount Sinai also provides opportunities for advanced degrees in fields including master’s degrees in Epidemiology, Biomedical Informatics, and Clinical Research, among others.

The Department is at the nexus of an institution wide neuroscience and neurological research effort at Mount Sinai, and it has achieved an enormous growth in research funding over the past six years. In 2023, the Department of Neurology at the Icahn School of Medicine received 13.2 million in National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding, which was a top 24 Department of Neurology in the U.S. in NIH funding. In 2024 our total sponsored research funding from all sources exceeded $45 million.

Position Overview

Reports to:

• Dean, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
• Dean for Clinical Affairs

General Summary:

The Chair of the Department will provide visionary leadership across the clinical, research, educational, administrative, and philanthropic missions of the Department. The role requires a dynamic leader with a demonstrated track record in translational and clinical research; a commitment to excellent patient care, faculty development, research innovation, education, and community engagement; and the ability to cultivate interdepartmental collaboration and align financial incentives to advance shared goals. The Chair will ensure the highest quality standards in clinical practice; foster a robust, collaborative, and inclusive research environment; oversee comprehensive training and educational programs; and manage the Department’s fiscal health and operational effectiveness. The successful candidate will also serve as an advocate and ambassador for the Department, engaging with institutional leaders, affiliated hospitals, external partners, and philanthropic supporters to advance the Department’s mission in concert with the One Mount Sinai organizational goals and values.

Specific responsibilities include, but are not limited to the following:

Clinical:

• Monitoring the quality and appropriateness of services rendered anywhere in the System Hospitals and outpatient practices as appropriate.
• Developing regulations for patient care requirements, patient safety, etc., as appropriate.
• Ensuring that the quality and appropriateness of all procedures performed in the Hospital Departments and practices are monitored and evaluated and that appropriate action based on findings is taken when necessary.

Institute Model and Service Line Orientation:

• Mount Sinai’s integrated Institute model bringing together Neurology, Neurosurgery, and other specialties
• Dual reporting structure (faculty report to both Institute leader and Department Chair)
• Chair must be open to and ideally experienced with this governance model

Research:

• Lead and further build the Department’s clinical and basic research enterprise, including grants management, clinical research compliance, and the oversight of core facilities.
• Foster a culture of academic excellence the foundation of which is highly innovative research in better understanding, treating, and preventing neurological diseases.
• Encourage faculty participation, leadership, and grant acquisition in research endeavors, monitoring progress of investigators.
• Further develop and enhance a high quality, accountable, and equitable network of mentorship for investigators and trainees.
• Ensure compliance with all governmental and pharmaceutical regulations and appropriate and timely submissions to the Grants and Contracts Office (GCO) and Institutional Review Board (IRB).
• Lead and direct the research and educational functions of the System Departments as defined in the Department’s mission statement.
• Encouraging cross-departmental and cross-institute research and training collaborations.
• In particular, the Chair will be expected to develop programs that bridge laboratory discovery with clinical application, accelerating patient-centered innovations in neurological care.

Education:

• Ensuring high quality settings for the education and training of students, house staff, clinical fellows and postdoctoral fellows.
• Securing external funding to support these educational and training programs.
• Establishing a program of continuing education for all individuals who have privileges in the Hospital Departments. The program shall include educational conferences such as Grand Rounds, morbidity and mortality conferences, and in-service training, and be based in part on the results of the evaluation of care as appropriate.
• Fostering an academic environment conducive to the advancement of faculty through appropriate support, mentoring and faculty development programs.

Administrative:

• Providing fiscal oversight to ensure the Department is financially sound.
• Monitoring the financial status of the department on an ongoing basis and develop corrective action plans to address deficit situations.
• Comparing faculty productivity to appropriate benchmarks and formulating strategies to maximize clinical productivity while maintaining well-being.
• Collaborate with other Department Chairs and research Institute Directors to facilitate inter-departmental cooperation and coordination of clinical services, educational programs, and research.
• The Chair will be expected to actively support integrated service lines (e.g., stroke and cerebrovascular disease) through collaboration with Institute leaders, ensuring alignment of resources, reporting structures, and incentives.
• Participating in the development of policies relating to the functioning of all staff and faculty in the Hospital Departments and the administration of various departments/services of the Hospitals, etc.
• Oversee the professional conduct of the faculty within the Department across the Health System, its affiliates and the Network.
• Recommends faculty appointments, clinical privileges and other employment arrangements as appropriate for individuals with primary responsibility in the Department of Neurology.
• Clinical privileges shall be processed through established medical staff channels.
• Oversee appointments and promotions for all recruitments and existing faculty within the Department and the Network.
• Ensuring that space and facilities needed for the Department to carry out its clinical, educational, and research missions are adequate and appropriate throughout the Mount Sinai Health System campuses.
• Recommends to the administration and staff in the Department the type and amount of equipment necessary for routine procedures and for related efforts, assuring through at least annual review, that such equipment is available.
• Maintain relationships and provide academic leadership as required with the leaders of the Icahn School of Medicine affiliated hospitals.
• Maintain excellence in information technology infrastructure and connectivity.
• Oversee compliance both internally and externally with regard to all contractual agreements relating to the faculty and staff associated with the Department.
• Oversee the Department’s compliance as it pertains to our medical insurance carrier, City, State and Federal regulatory agencies.
• Ensuring that Departmental participation and performance in the Mount Sinai Health System is appropriate and productive.
• Conducting regular system wide faculty meetings.
• Communicating appropriate information from the school and hospitals to faculty, trainees, and staff in a timely and regular manner.
• Identifying opportunities for growth and improvement of the department's clinical, research, and educational programs.
• Directly conducting/working with division chiefs to conduct annual performance reviews with faculty.
• Responsible for maintaining the quality and efficiency of services provided by the Department and related academic functions for the Mount Sinai Health System including Elmhurst and Queens Hospital Center.
• Maintain contact and provide academic leadership as required with the leaders of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai affiliated hospitals.

Philanthropy:

• Work closely with the Health System’s and School of Medicine’s Development Office to ensure robust philanthropic support for the Department’s research, educational and clinical programs.
• Actively participating and encouraging faculty to engage in fundraising activities with the Development officer assigned to the department.

General:

Your responsibilities will be assigned by the Deans, and may be reasonably altered in response to changing institutional needs after a good faith consultation with you.