Part-time Faculty

  • Neil J. Gonter, MD FACR

    • Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine

    Dr. Gonter is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City. He is active on the voluntary teaching staff teaching medical students, residents and rheumatology fellows and attends clinics and inpatient consultations at Columbia Presbyterian's main campus.

    He sees patients in his office in Teaneck, N.J. www.njarthritis.com

    He has been voted by his peers to NJ Top Doctors many times as well as the prestigious Castle Connolly Top Doctors.

    Dr. Gonter is board certified in rheumatology and has served as a primary investigator in numerous clinical research studies in rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, gout, SLE, and osteoporosis for academic institutions as well as pharmaceutical companies. He has written a blog on osteoporosis for a few years and has been interviewed for many media outlets including CBS in NY, U.S. News and World reports and News 12 NJ, among others.

    Areas of Interest

    • Rheumatoid Arthritis
    • Gout
    • PMR
    • Lupus
    • Osteoarthritis and Musculoskeletal pain
    • Vasculitis
    • Osteoporosis
    • Musculoskeletal ultrasound

    Education

    • BA: Brooklyn College, magna cum laude, New York, NY, 1994
    • MD: SUNY Health Science Center at Syracuse School of Medicine, Syracuse, NY, 1998
    • Internship & Residency: University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey-Newark, Newark, NJ, 2001
    • Fellowship: SUNY Downstate-Brooklyn, New York, NY, 2003
  • Alexandru Kimel, MD

    • Instructor in Clinical Medicine

    Dr. Kimel has been actively practicing medicine since 2003. He was awarded his Doctorate in Medicine from The University of The State of New York after completion of his schooling at New York Medical College.  He completed his internship and residency at Mount Sinai School of Medicine at Jersey City Medical Center in Internal Medicine. He also served as chief medical resident at the same institution where he worked under Dr. Robert G. Lahita, a world renowned Lupus and Autoimmune Disease expert and author.  He completed a rigorous fellowship at Robert Wood Johnson School of Medicine in Rheumatology and Connective tissue diseases. He is an active member of the American College of Physicians (ACP), American Medical Association (AMA), and the American College of Rheumatology (ACR). He is board certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine in both Internal Medicine and Rheumatology.

    Dr. Kimel continues to be active in the American College of Rheumatology at the Fellows Mentoring session and in various committees with assisting in the fellows transitioning into private practice. He has published several papers regarding rheumatological diagnosis and care.  His primary interests are the inflammatory myopathies, rheumatoid arthritis, Polymyalgia Rheumatica, Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, vasculitis and gout.

    He presently teaches medical students at New York Medical College and is an Instructor of Medicine at Columbia College of physician and Surgeons and an Assistant Attending at New York Presbyterian Hospital and works directly with the rheumatology fellows. He has been awarded various teaching and accomplishment awards from his past and present institutions and has been awarded Top Physician for the past several years.

    His private office in in Teaneck, New Jersey and has admitting privileges at Hackensack University Medical Center and Holy Name Medical Center.

    Dr. Kimel was born and raised in Latin America and is fluent in Spanish and Romanian.

    Education

    • MD: New York Medical College
    • Residency: (Internal Medicine) Mount Sinai School of Medicine - Jersey City
    • Chief Resident: (Internal Medicine) Mount Sinai School of Medicine - Jersey City
    • Fellowship: (Rheumatology) Robert Wood Johnson School of Medicine - UMDNJ
  • Dimitrios Pappas, MD

    • Adjunct Assistant Professor in Medicine

    Clinical Interests

    Dr. Pappas has an expertise in the diagnosis and management of inflammatory arthritis. He is using musculoskeletal ultrasound technology for diagnostic and interventional purposes in patient care. He holds an adjunct faculty appointment with Columbia University. He covers our inpatient consult service once a year.  

    Research Interest

    Dr. Pappas is involved in registry based research. His research work is mainly with observational data. He is focusing mainly on comparative effectiveness and comparative safety studies for therapeutic agents used in rheumatoid arthritis.

    Education

    • Rheumatology: Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
    • Masters in Public Health: Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health 
    • Internal Medicine: Albany Medical College – Union University 
    • MD: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

    Societies

    • American College of Rheumatology (ACR)
    • American College of Physicians (ACP)
  • Allison Beitler, MD

    • Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine

    Allison J. Beitler, MD, is a rheumatologist with ColumbiaDoctors, the faculty practice of Columbia University Medical Center, and NewYork-Presbyterian Medical Group Westchester in Eastchester. She is an assistant professor of medicine at Columbia University Medical Center. After graduating from Yale University, Dr. Beitler earned her medical degree from SUNY Downstate Medical Center. She completed her residency in internal medicine and her fellowship in rheumatology at Montefiore Medical Center. With more than 20 years of experience, Dr. Beitler diagnoses and treats patients with autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, including lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, polymyalgia rheumatica, scleroderma, Sjogren’s syndrome, myositis, spondylitis, psoriatic arthritis, vasculitis and gout. She partners with her patients to help them understand the latest research and treatments so that they can actively articipate in their own care. Dr. Beitler is board certified in rheumatology and a member of the American College of Rheumatology and the American College of Physicians. She has been a resident of Westchester for more than 25 years.

  • Kelly Steed, MD

    • Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine