Dr. Elyce Cardonick is a Professor in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Cooper Medical School of Rowan University and member of the division of Maternal Fetal Medicine as a perinatal consultant. She received her Bachelor’s Degree in Biology from the University of Delaware, Summa cum Laude, in 1987. She was also a member of Phi Beta Kappa. She then earned her Medical degree from the Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1991. A residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology was completed in 1995 at Albert Einstein Medical Center in Bronx, New York. Subspecialty training in Maternal Fetal Medicine was completed at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in 1997. In 1998, Dr. Cardonick became Board Certified for Obstetrics and Gynecology, and in 2000 board certified for the subspecialty of Maternal-Fetal Medicine. She is a member of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists as well as the Society of Maternal Fetal Medicine.

Dr. Cardonick maintains a registry of pregnant women diagnosed with cancer during pregnancy and follows closely the outcomes for mother and child. A second portion of the registry is dedicated to the pregnancy outcomes of cancer survivors who have children after completing cancer treatment. Dr. Cardonick has presented on the topic of cancer and pregnancy at international meetings including the Society of Maternal Fetal Medicine and both the American College in the US and Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynecology in London UK. She was also invited to speak at the international collaborative meeting of INCIP, an International Network on Cancer, Infertility and Pregnancy as the sole attendee from outside of Europe. She has been  invited several times to lecture on cancer in pregnancy at the postgraduate course  of the Society of Maternal Fetal Medicine. She also presented a poster on the perinatal complications of pregnant women with a history of radiation therapy at the MD Anderson Cancer Center during a cancer and fertility conference. She was an invited participant for the closed meeting the following year.

She was also an invited participant at Georgetown University to discuss the inclusion of women in medical research and presented on this topic as an invited speaker at National Institute of Health concerning this topic as well as a review of chemotherapy exposure during pregnancy.

Dr. Cardonick is medical advisor for the Pregnant with Cancer support network based in Buffalo, NY. She is also only one of two physicians outside of Europe to be invited to join the International Network on Cancer, Infertility and Pregnancy with whom she now collaborates. Awards include Top Docs for Women in 2000 and Top Docs in 2002; Forty under Forty Recipient for Philadelphia Business Journal, Medical College of Pennsylvania/Drexel Medical School Alumni Achievement Aware Recipient and Lower Moreland High School hall of Fame.

Melissa A. Carran, MD, is a graduate of University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. She completed her neurology residency and subsequent fellowship in epilepsy at Thomas Jefferson Hospital. She is an assistant professor of neurology at CMSRU. Dr. Carran is board-certified in neurology and clinical neurophysiology, with more than 15 years of experience as an attending neurologist and epileptologist. She has also been an examiner for the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology and is a member of the Recertification Committee.

Dr. Carran’s practice includes treating and managing epilepsy, including women’s health, developmental issues, and evalu­ations for epilepsy surgery. She also participates in several studies of investigational treatments for epilepsy.

Gerard Carroll, MD, is the Program Director of the Emergency Medical Services Fellowship at Cooper University Hospital and Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at the Cooper Medical School of Rowan University. He graduated from Brandeis University with a Bachelor of Arts with Honors in History. As an undergraduate Dr. Carroll became passionate about Emergency Medical Services, and following graduation became certified as a Paramedic . He worked for nearly a decade in the New York City 911 system and was recognized for his service on the morning of the 9-11 attacks. He then earned his medical degree from Dartmouth Medical School where he was inducted into the Gold Humanism Honor Society. He competed Emergency Medicine Residency at Temple University Hospital and completed a fellowship in Emergency Medical Services at Cooper University Hospital. He is dual board certified in Emergency Medicine and Emergency Medical Services.

Dr. Carroll thrives on prehospital and disaster medicine and is passionate about resident, fellow, and especially about prehospital provider education. He was integral in the creation of our EMS fellowship and is excited to be the second Program Director. Dr. Carroll believes in the apprenticeship model of medical education and created Cooper’s prehospital physician response program to bring both physician level care to patients and to move the bedside teaching model to the prehospital arena. 

Dr. Carroll loves the practice of academic Emergency Medicine and Emergency Medical Services, and is not satisfied with the status quo. He believes strongly that EMS is a practice of medicine and as such needs to constantly be refocused on patient outcomes while optimizing its place in the healthcare system. He is a champion of nontraditional transport models, and helped spearhead the movement of addiction medicine into the field by educating paramedics about Opioid Use Disorder and training them to rescue patients in withdrawal with Medication Assisted Therapy using buprenorphine. Dr. Carroll loves the varied practice environments of EM and EMS making academic, rural, prehospital, austere disaster deployment, and even cruise ship medicine a part of his medical practice.

Tara Cassidy-Smith, MD, is the Program Director of the Emergency Medicine Residency at Cooper University Hospital and an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at the Cooper Medical School of Rowan University. She graduated cum laude from the College of the Holy Cross with a degree in Biology. She was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship and studied in Innsbruck, Austria before matriculating in medical school. She earned her medical degree from UMDNJ/Robert Wood Johnson Medical School -Camden where she was inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society. She then went on to complete an Emergency Medicine residency at Cooper University Hospital, where she was selected to be a Chief Resident. She is board certified in Emergency Medicine.

Dr. Cassidy-Smith is passionate about resident education. She is thrilled to be the program’s fourth Residency Director. She enjoys supporting the program’s social media platforms, both our EM Daily educational website and twitter handle. She enjoys innovating the curriculum for today’s learners and has worked with her team to implore many flipped classroom techniques.

Dr. Cassidy-Smith is also very passionate about the patient and the provider experience. She believes resiliency is built on the relationships with the patient at the bedside. She is a patient experience champion in the ED to improve both patient and physician experience. She enjoys caring for patients in all stages of life and spends a portion of her clinical time caring for children in the Pediatric Emergency Department at Cooper.