Dr. Parkas received both her undergraduate and medical degrees from Brown University and completed her residency training in internal medicine at New York Hospital-Cornell University Medical School and her fellowship in Infectious Diseases at Memorial Sloan Kettering. She came to Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai as an attending in the Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases in 1997. Dr. Parkas has been involved in both clinical care and medical education from the start of her career. Clinically, Dr. Parkas works at the HIV outpatient practice and takes care of HIV-infected inpatients as well. Educationally, Dr. Parkas has been committed to teaching the Icahn School of Medicine students clinical medicine for years. In 2002, she became a course director in the Art and Science of Medicine Course and developed a clinical curriculum which included physical diagnosis, communication, cultural competency, health systems, medical ethics and medical law. In 2004, Dr. Parkas started the Longitudinal Clinical Experience (LCE), an innovative program which allows all medical students to follow chronically ill patients longitudinally for their first two years of medical school. In 2009, she was part of a team that developed an innovative longitudinal clerkship for select medical students committed to urban primary care. Dr. Parkas has received numerous awards that reflect her commitment to teaching and to her students including the Excellence in Teaching Award from the Institute of Medical Education, the Student Council Award of Appreciation, the Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award, the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching and she was elected as a faculty member of Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society. In 2009, Dr. Parkas became the Associate Dean of Admissions for Icahn School of Medicine. In this role she has worked to enhance the recruitment of committed, passionate, scholarly medical school applicants.

Infectious Disease