About Us
Gayatri Devi, MD, FACP, FAAN, the Director, is a Clinical Associate Professor at New York University School of Medicine, and an Attending Physician at Lenox Hill Hospital. She is a board certified neurologist, with additional board certifications in Pain Medicine, Psychiatry, and Behavioral Neurology. She is an elected fellow of the American College of Physicians, and of the American Academy of Neurology. Dr. Devi has specialized in the early diagnosis and treatment of memory disorders related to aging and menopause for 20 years.
Dr. Devi completed her training at SUNY Downstate, serving as Chief Resident of Neurology. She then became a Behavioral Neurology Fellow at Columbia University, after which she was an Assistant Professor at SUNY Stony Brook, and Director of the Long Island Alzheimer's Disease Center. Dr. Devi returned to Columbia University as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurology, and became Director of the Memory Disorders Center at the Center for Women's Health at Columbia Presbyterian-Eastside. She established the New York Memory and Healthy Aging Services in 1999.
Dr. Devi has over 50 publications in peer-reviewed journals on the topic of memory loss. She has presented at national and international conferences, including the annual meetings of the American Neurological Association, the European Federation of Neurologic Sciences, the North American Menopause Society, and the European Menopause Society. Her current focus of research is the use of brain stimulation to treat Alzheimer's disease, and other memory and cognitive disorders.
Dr. Devi serves as consultant to the New York State Committee for Physician's Health, assessing physicians on behalf of the CPH for cognitive and neurologic deficits. She also serves as a neurologic consultant to the National Football League in the assessment of players with concussions and other sports related injuries.
She has discussed memory disorders on the BBC, NPR, CBS, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal, and TIME. She is President of the not-for-profit National Council on Women's Health, and serves on the board of the Partnership for Gender Specific Medicine at Columbia University. Dr. Devi was elected president of the American Medical Woman's Association for the 2012-2013 term. She established the Sex Trafficking Task Force at AMWA. She is proud to be a member of the NYC Parks Enforcement Patrol Mounted Auxiliary Unit. She has been chosen as a Super Doctor for many years, a peer reviewed selection of the top 5% of New York City neurologists.
She is the author of "Estrogen, Memory and Menopause" (Alphasigma Press; 2000), "What your doctor may not tell you about Alzheimer's Disease" (Time Warner Books; 2004), and "A Calm Brain" (Penguin Books, 2012).
Leilanie Martin, MSN, FNP is our nurse practitioner. Leilanie completed her undergraduate studies at Adelphi University, graduating cum laude, during which she studied abroad in Portugal, leaving her fluent in Portuguese. She completed her nurse practitioner training at Lehman College. Leilanie did a critical care fellowship at North Shore Long Island Jewish hospital. She has over 8 years of experience working in the cardiothoracic and neurologic intensive care units of LIJ and the Columbia Presbyterian Health Care System. She has been with NY Memory for six years.
She has additional CCRN certification from LIJ and certification in repetitive transcranial magnetic coil stimulation from Harvard University. She serves on the not-for-profit board of the National Council for Women's Health.
Abby Agnew, M.S. completed her undergraduate studies in Psychology at Seton Hall University and her graduate degree in Educational Psychology at Columbia University, concentrating in cognition and learning. She has been working at the New York Memory and Healthy Aging Services for 11 years, where she performs neurocognitive studies and works with cognitive rehabilitation. Abby works with a wide range of patients, from children to seniors, with cognitive impairments such as attention deficits, memory loss, processing speed and language skills due to Alzheimer's Disease, brain injury and dementia.
Casey Linnane, MS Ed is a New York State certified school psychologist, graduating with an MS from Long Island University and she received additional training at New York Memory in cognitive rehabilitation. Casey performs neurocognitive studies and devises tailored cognitive exercises for individual patients to help maintain and improve brain function. She brings enthusiasm, encouragement and a great degree of expertise to her work. Casey is a native New Yorker and hails from the great borough of Brooklyn.
Christine Montecer, BS, RN graduated from SUNY Buffalo and works as a pediatric emergency nurse in New York City, one of the most demanding of nursing specialties. She has worked at the New York Memory Services for the last year, covering for Leilanie when she is away. A native New Yorker, Christine is an excellent nurse and has a gentle touch with needles! Christine harbors a profound love for English bulldogs (she makes an exception for Lola), deep sea fishing, and being a true New Yorker, for shopping.
Angie Santiago is our certified medical assistant, and has nine years of experience in the field. Prior to working with us, Angie worked for the NY Presbyterian Hospital System. Angie hails from the Yankee borough, and loves reading mystery novels and yoga.
Diana Echevarria is our office receptionist and secretary. Diana is of Italian and Puerto-Rican ancestry and is an excellent cook. She is warm, helpful, personable, and prone to hugging. She likes all genres of music, and enjoys comic books.
Ida Kiss has been our EEG technologist for a decade. Ida works at Lenox Hill Hospital in this capacity as well.
Christine Sperry, B.A.is our part-time bookkeeper and personnel manager, keeping us all in line, having worked with NY Memory for eight years. She has excellent right and left brain skills: In addition to her proficiency with book keeping, she lends her soprano talents to various professional and church choirs, and teaches voice.
Lola was certified with Bide-a-wee and The Delta Society Pet Partners, where she completed therapy courses and service dog training. She has appeared on CBS News, and in the Wall Street Journal in a feature article on dogs in doctors’ offices. Perhaps because she has been a New Yorker for nearly all of her life, Lola brings a certain
Gage has been a welcome member of New York Memory since the passing of the ever-loyal and soft-hearted Wolfie, who had been with NY Memory for 14 years. Originally from Brooklyn, Gage has a pleasant and mellow disposition which contrasts and complements Ms. Lola’s more edgy and cosmopolitan style. He is an exceptionally gentle soul with a particular affinity for small children who invariably return his affection. Gage has sadly left us for greener pastures in the sky after an unexpected bout of cancer. We miss him with all our hearts.