Dr. John Safaryn is a native of Northern New Jersey. He was born in the City of Bayonne, and raised in the small town of Roselle. He graduated with a BA from the University of Virginia in 1980 and received an MS in Chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania in 1986 before attending the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (now Rutgers Medical School) in Newark, New Jersey. He received his MD in 1990 and interned at Jersey Shore Medical Center in Neptune New Jersey. He completed his residency in Anesthesiology with electives in Cardiac Anesthesia and Neuro-anesthesia in 1994 at NYU Langone Medical Center/Bellevue Hospital in New York.

Following his graduation, Dr. Safaryn was an attending anesthesiologist and Clinical Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology at Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 1998 he returned to his home state of New Jersey and joined the staff of Cooper Hospital in Camden, New Jersey. He was appointed Clinical Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology at Robert Wood Johnson Medical Center. He transferred to the faculty of Cooper Medical School at Rowan University upon the opening of the new school in 2012 and was promoted to the rank of Clinical Associate Professor in 2018. Since 2015, he has been an instructor in the Scholar’s Workshop course at the Medical School. He is board certified in Anesthesia and is a Diplomat of the American Board of Anesthesiology.

Dr. Safaryn lives in Moorestown, New Jersey with his wife, Elaine, and daughter, Elizabeth. For twelve years he has volunteered at South Jersey Ballet Theater as scenery builder and stage manager for their productions. He enjoys visiting and hiking the national parks with his family, and spends his summers in Florida, Virginia, and the Jersey Shore.

Matthew S. Salzman, MD graduated from Jefferson Medical College, now the Sidney Kimmel Medical College and trained in emergency medicine (EM) and medical toxicology at Drexel University College of Medicine. He is Medical Director of Inpatient Consult Services, Addiction Medicine, at Cooper University Health Care; Research Director at the Cooper University Health Care Center for Healing; an Attending Physician in Emergency Medicine (EM) and Addiction Medicine at at Cooper University Health Care; and Associate Professor of EM at Cooper Medical School of Rowan University (CMSRU).

Dr. Salzman is triple-board certified in EM, medical toxicology, and addiction medicine. He also is a volunteer consultant at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and the Philadelphia Poison Control Center (PPCC). Dr. Salzman has been an invited lecturer locally, regionally, and nationally, speaking about commonly misused substances, contaminants therein, and the overdose crisis. He, along with his collaborators, received a grant from the Emergency Medicine Foundation (EMF) and National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) to develop an SUD curriculum for the EM Residency Program at CMRSU.

Dr. Salzman is heavily involved in helping to design, implement, and review research in the field conducted by Center for Healing faculty and in partnership with other Cooper departments. He is currently working on the opioid genomics project in conjunction with CMSRU and the Coriell Institute for Medical Research and several studies in conjunction with the emergency department (ED), and is mentoring medical students and residents with research interests in the field.

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Major (Maj.) Simon Sarkisian, DO, MS, FAAEM is a U.S. Army Reserve physician and attending physician in Cooper University Hospital's Department of Emergency Medicine. He is also the Emergency Physician on the 912th Forward Resuscitative Surgical Detachment (FRSD) based out of Cranston, Rhode Island.

Major Sarkisian was awarded the U.S. Army Health Professions Scholarship Program scholarship in 2011 and graduated from Touro University in California with a Doctor of Osteopathy degree in 2015. He attended the Emergency Medicine residency program at Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center in Fort Hood, Texas. In 2018 he graduated from his residency program as a chief resident. Maj. Sarkisian's first duty assignment after graduation was at Cooper University Hospital as part of the Army Medical Department Trauma Team Training (AMCT3) program.

In 2020 to 2021, he was deployed to Baghdad, Iraq with the 115th Field Hospital as part of Operation Inherent Resolve. In 2021, he was deployed to Kabul, Afghanistan with the 27th FRSD and 82nd Airborne Division to assist in the evacuation of Afghan refugees as part of the XVIII Airborne Corps Immediate Response Force (IRF). In 2022 he deployed to Romania with the 240th FRSD for the Russian invasion of Ukraine as part of the XVIII Airborne Corps IRF. Maj. Sarkisian enjoys teaching medical students, residents, and military/diplomatic rotators as well as improving Cooper's disaster medicine and preparedness programs. Maj. Sarkisian has authored/co-authored numerous publications in emergency and military medicine. His interests also include operational/austere medicine, disaster medicine, and emergency preparedness.

Maj. Sarkisian currently serves as the Medical Director of Disaster Medicine in the Division of EMS and Disaster Medicine.

Dr. Schenk, a native of southeastern Pennsylvania, studied Cell and Molecular Biology at West Chester University of Pennsylvania. Thereafter he completed his medical school education at Jefferson Medical College and anesthesiology residency at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. After completing his training in Philadelphia, PA, he worked in private practice for a short time in New Jersey before joining Cooper University Hospital and Cooper Medical School of Rowan University.

Dr. Schenk is on the vascular and regional anesthesia teams and is a clerkship facilitator for the 3rd year core clerkship in anesthesiology.

In his free time, he enjoys running, cycling, cooking, traveling, and spending time with his Boston terriers.

Dr. Stephen Schepel grew up in central New Jersey and studied Biology and Physiology at Cornell University. He then spent time as an EU visiting researcher at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden before attending medical school at Ross University School of Medicine, where he graduated second in his class. He interned in Internal Medicine at Hahnemann University Hospital in Philadelphia, completed his Anesthesiology residency at Boston University School of Medicine, and undertook a fellowship in Pediatric Anesthesiology at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington D.C.

Dr. Schepel has strong academic and clinical interests in pediatric perioperative pain, pediatric regional anesthesia, obstetric anesthesia, and adult regional anesthesia. His extra-clinical interests include perioperative environmental stewardship. In his free time, he enjoys cooking, gardening, and being outdoors with his friends and family.