Debra L Powell, MD

Chair, Department of Medicine Division Chief, Infectious Diseases Medical Director of Infection Prevention

Dr. Powell received her undergraduate degree in microbiology from the Pennsylvania State University, a Master of Science degree in clinical microbiology from MCP Hahnemann University (now Drexel University), and a medical degree from Penn State College of Medicine. She completed her Internal Medicine Residency at Reading Hospital and completed a Fellowship in Infectious Diseases at Penn State Hershey Medical Center. Dr. Powell has been a member of the medical staff of Reading Hospital since 2008. Her research interests include Lyme Disease, Babesiosis, candidemia, and the COVID-19 immune response. She is an Associate Professor in Medicine at the Drexel University College of Medicine and a fellow at the Infectious Diseases Society of America. She heads the Section of Infectious Disease, serves as Chair of the Department of Medicine, and is an active medicine residency teacher in the inpatient and outpatient settings.

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Benjamin J Lloyd, MD

Program Director, Internal Medicine Residency Program

Dr. Lloyd has served as the program director for internal medicine since 2015. He is a graduate of the Hahnemann University School of Medicine and Reading Hospital’s Categorical Medicine Residency. After serving as chief medical resident, he entered private practice for two years before helping form the department’s Faculty Practice, integral to teaching primary care skills to residents and medical students. Board certified in internal medicine, Dr. Lloyd is clinical associate professor of medicine at Drexel University College of Medicine. He is engaged full time as faculty member specializing in inpatient teaching and simulation training.

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Debra A Zimmerman, DO

Director, Primary Care Track

Dr. Zimmerman is a graduate from Penn State University and Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine. She completed her Internal Medicine Residency at Reading Hospital. After serving as chief resident, Dr. Zimmerman entered private practice for six years and now serves as the director of the Internal Medicine Residency Primary Care Track. She is board certified in Internal Medicine and is an assistant professor medicine at Drexel University College of Medicine. Her interests include ambulatory medicine with a focus on preventative health.

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Ryan P Zimmerman, DO

Director of Ostepathic Education Associate Program Director

Dr. Zimmerman is a graduate of Elizabethtown College and Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine (VCOM-Virginia). He completed his Internal Medicine Residency at Reading Hospital and then served as Chief Resident/Junior Faculty member. He is a member of the ambulatory medicine faculty and is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Drexel University College of Medicine (DUCOM). Dr. Zimmerman is a Diplomate of the American Board of Internal Medicine and the American Osteopathic Board of Internal Medicine. He is a member of the ACOI-Council on Graduate Medical Education and was selected to the ACGME-Osteopathic Principles Committee. His professional interests include student and resident education, incorporating osteopathic principles into general internal medicine practice, ambulatory management of complex medical patients with chronic disease, and maintaining focus on humanism within the patient-physician relationship.

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Anthony A Donato, MD

Transitional Year Program Director

Dr. Donato completed his undergraduate work at Georgetown University and Medical School at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine on a scholarship program with the United States Air Force. Following completion of an Air Force Internal Medicine residency and teaching military residents and students as a Clerkship Director for Uniformed Services University, he joined Reading Hospital Internal Medicine Faculty in 2001. He continued his pursuit of improving his teaching skills with his completion of a General Internal Medicine Fellowship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2005 and completed a Master of Health Professions Education program through the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2012. His professional interests involve direct observation techniques and deepening apprenticeship models of resident development through innovative educational techniques. He currently serves as Associate Program Director of Internal Medicine, teaches residents on the inpatient wards, and is a professor at Drexel University College of Medicine. Dr. Donato is also very involved with the Tower Health Street Medicine Program as a provider and administrator. He was selected as a Master of the American College of Physicians in 2021.

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Krysta L Brown, DO

Assistant Ambulatory Student Clerkship Director

Dr. Brown is a graduate of Franklin and Marshall College and the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. She completed a residency with the Reading Hospital Internal Medicine Residency Program and served as Chief Resident/Junior Faculty Member. She joined the Internal Medicine Practice as a full-time residency faculty following the completion of her residency. Dr. Brown is an assistant professor of medicine at Drexel University College of Medicine. Her professional interest include high value cost conscious care, ambulatory medical education and the role of nutrition and dietary changes to prevent and reverse chronic disease. She is a member of the Gold Humanism Honor Society and received the PCOM Excellence in teaching award in 2017.

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Jeremy M Ellis, MD

Director of Quality and Patient Safety

Dr. Ellis completed his undergraduate work at the University of Pittsburgh prior to his medical education at the Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University. He graduated from residency at Lehigh Valley Health Network and is very excited to have joined the faculty at Reading Hospital. His professional interests focus on resident education and quality improvement initiatives.

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Sarah J Luber, DO

Dr. Luber is a graduate of Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine and Reading Hospital’s Internal Medicine Residency Program. After serving as chief medical resident, she joined the internal medicine faculty with an inpatient clinical focus. Dr. Luber is a core member of the Reading Hospital Street Medicine Program, providing free care to the homeless of Berks County. Additionally, she holds an appointment as Associate DIO of Wellness and Professional Development, with the goal of providing a conducive learning environment that promotes physical and emotional well-being of all residents. She is also involved in international medical missionary work and has developed a curriculum for an international elective within the IM program. She holds the title of Assistant Professor of Medicine at Drexel University College of Medicine.

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Neha R Majmudar, MD

Outpatient Faculty

Dr. Majmudar is a graduate of George Washington University Medical School and Yale Primary Care Internal Medicine Residency. She is board certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine. Previously, Dr. Majmudar worked at the VA hospital in East Orange, N.J., and was affiliated with UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School. Her interests include outpatient medicine with focus on women’s health. She is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University.

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Lisa M Motz, MD

Student Clerkship Director & Inpatient Faculty

Dr. Motz is a graduate of Moravian College and Temple University School of Medicine. She completed her Internal Medicine residency at Reading Hospital, where she also served as Chief Resident prior to joining the faculty in 2000. As Clerkship Director, she enjoys teaching and mentoring medical students who rotate through the Department of Medicine and its subspecialties and working with our affiliated medical schools to improve undergraduate medical education. She is a clinical associate professor of medicine at Drexel University College of Medicine and holds an adjunct faculty appointment at Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. She serves as a key academic hospitalist member of our faculty, teaching regularly on the inpatient medicine service.

  • 2011 Dean's Award for Excellence in Education - Jefferson Medical College - Medicine
  • 2011 Leon Peris Memorial Award for Teaching - Jefferson Medical College
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Jonathan M Nesfeder, DO

Associate Program Director, Outpatient Medicine

Dr. Nesfeder is a graduate of The Pennsylvania State University and Nova Southeastern College of Osteopathic Medicine. He completed residency training in Internal Medicine as a member of the Primary Care Track at Reading Hospital, Reading Health System in 2016. Following his Chief Resident/Junior Faculty year, Dr. Nesfeder remained with the program and is currently serving as Associate Program Director of Ambulatory Medicine and Medical Director of The Reading Hospital Internal Medicine Practice. His professional interests include medical education, ambulatory chronic disease management, and the integration of technology and patient care delivery.

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Bryan J Romero, DO

Outpatient Faculty

Dr. Romero received his undergraduate degree in Religious Studies from Franklin and Marshall, went on to graduate from PCOM with a DO degree and Reading Hospital Internal Medicine Residency Program. He was voted Resident of the Year in 2012. He is a diplomat of the American Board of Internal Medicine and American College of Osteopathic Internists. He serves as Clinical Instructor for the residency program and a mentor to medical residents and students. Dr. Romero and his residents work on Quality Improvement research in their office and reach out to community education programs. He also has an interest in addiction medicine and works as a physician in a local addiction treatment center.

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Caitlyn R Moss, MD

Director of Curricular Development

Dr. Moss graduated from Washington College before completing her medical education at Penn State College of Medicine, where she graduated with distinctions in both AOA and the Gold Humanism Honor Society. She completed her internal medicine residency at Harvard Medical School affiliate Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, MA. She serves as the Director of Curricular Development and an Academic Hospitalist. She also oversees the Tower Health Medical Humanities Curriculum Committee, which incorporates the arts into the sciences to create more well-rounded physicians. Dr. Moss is also an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Drexel University College of Medicine where she teaches 1st-year and 2nd-year students at the West Reading campus. She enjoys spending time with her young children, thrift shopping, and golfing with her husband when she's not working.

  • 2023 Pennsylvania Medical Society Top Physicians Under 40
  • 2023 Drexel University COM Emerging Clinical Leader and Innovation Award
  • 2023 Dean’s Special Award for Excellence in Clinical Teaching at Reading Hospital - Tower Health
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Kaitlin M Tarconish, DO

Faculty

Dr. Tarconish is a graduate of The Pennsylvania State University and Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. She completed residency training in internal medicine as a member of the Primary Care Track at Reading Hospital, Tower Health System, in 2018 and served as a Chief Resident/Junior Faculty member following her residency. After one year practicing as a non-academic outpatient internist, she was excited to return to the program as a full time ambulatory faculty member. Dr. Tarconish is an assistant professor of medicine at Drexel University College of Medicine. Her professional interests include medical student and resident education in the ambulatory setting and ambulatory management of the complex medical patient.

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Pavani D Pagolu, MD

Faculty

Dr. Pagolu is a graduate of SV medical college, NTR University of Health Sciences, India. She completed her residency in internal medicine at Reading Hospital in 2008. She is an assistant professor of medicine at Drexel University College of Medicine. She worked as an academic hospitalist for 12 years before joining the faculty of internal medicine. She brings her experience in quality improvement as a co-director for the heart failure program and the physician leader for the Heart Failure Unit and facilitates resident QI teams. Her interests are medical education, with focus on bedside teaching, clinical reasoning, and point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS). She is the course director for POCUS rotation. She received a 2023 Professional Enrichment and Growth grant from Drexel University College of Medicine to improve the POCUS training.

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Syed Z Jaleel, MD

Faculty
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