My name is Monica V. Marks and I am the administrator and event coordinator for the New York City Dysphagia Study Group (NYCDSG). 

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I am an American Speech & Hearing Association certified speech-language & swallowing pathologist at the New York VA Medical Center in Manhattan. I truly love working for our Veterans who served our country. Working with our United States Veterans has challenged me to think critically about complex medical diagnoses and to understand my areas of strengths and weaknesses as a swallowing pathologist.  Many of the topics which are selected each month, are often clinical care topics I had either questioned or had limited exposure to. Other topics are derived from clinical care questions, research or complex case studies other members have experienced and are willing to share with our group. We are an extremely unique group and very fortunate to have each-other to faciliate our knowledge and clinical skills in dysphagia. The group was originally founded in the mid-1990's by my colleague and mentor, Latimer Kells. Original members, Lonnie Burke Aresse, Andrea Leone, Keri Danzinger, Shoana Scribner, Luis Riquelme, Marta Kazandjian, Cathy Lazarus, Michelle Graham and Deborah Guida established the foundation for the group today. 

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The group is members-only and requires physical attendance to at least three group meetings per year to sustain membership. There is no fee to attend group sessions, our only requirement is that members commit to attending at least three group meetings per year. To sign up, please click here: 

The group has grown by over 45% over the past three years and physical attendance is typically 30-55 members per meeting. Members are both newly trained clinicians entering into the field of dysphagia and others are highly seasoned clinicians, educators and leaders in the field. 

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The NYCDSG is represented by 30 medical centers in NY-tri state area (e.g., NY-Presbyterian, Cornell, Mount-Sinai Health System (Queens, Manhattan), Elmhurst Hospital, Bellevue Hospital,  the Brooklyn Hospital Center, VA-New York Medical Center, VA-Brooklyn Medical Center, VA- St. Albans Community Living Center, New York-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital, Winthrop-University Hospital, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Silver Crest Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation, the Visiting Nurse Service of New York, Montefiore Medical Center, among several others and represented by 6 Universities including: Columbia University, New York University, Teachers College, City University of New York,  New York Medical College, Touro College and Hofstra University. 

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