About CIR

The Committee of Interns and Residents (CIR) is the largest housestaff union in the United States. We are a local of Service Employees International Union (SEIU), representing over 40,000 resident physicians and fellows who are dedicated to improving residency training and education, advancing patient care, and expanding healthcare access for our communities.

Our Mission

We empower interns, residents and fellows to fight for excellence for our patients, our training, and our healthcare system through organizing, collective bargaining, and advocacy.

Medical training doesn’t have to be a demoralizing experience. CIR leaders are addressing the root causes of burnout. Our framework is one which allows us to come up with innovative solutions to systemic issues in medical training. Every day, we treat patients whose health has been compromised by a system that costs too much and leaves too many behind. We believe that a commitment to health justice for all requires us not only to be healers for our patients, but advocates.

Our History

CIR was founded by approximately two thousand interns and residents in New York City’s public hospitals in 1957. Our first collective bargaining agreement was signed in 1958. Staff pushed for higher salaries (which were raised from $852 to $1,212 per year), on-call rooms, hour limitations, better working conditions and quality of patient care – all of which we still continue to strive for today for our members. In the 1990s, CIR became a national union and in 1997 the delegates voted to affiliate with SEIU. Today, we are the largest housestaff union in the United States and we continue to grow. Read more.

What is Collective Bargaining?

CIR is not just an organization that we belong to. We are responsible to ourselves and each other, and it’s up to us to ensure that every single patient can get the care they need. Having a union helps us to do that.

We raise the standards for residency programs everywhere by transforming patient care and partnering with hospital administrators to make real change locally and nationally.

Every day, we treat patients whose health has been compromised by a system that costs too much and leaves too many behind. We believe that a commitment to health justice for all requires us not only to be healers for our patients, but advocates.

Join CIR

2024-26 Leadership

President:

A. Taylor Walker, MD, MPH

Cambridge Hospital
Family Medicine

Executive Vice President:

Dina Jaber, MD

Kings County Medical Center
Internal Medicine

Secretary-Treasurer:

Mahima Iyengar, MD

LA County – USC Medical Center
Medicine/Pediatrics

2024-26 Regional Vice Presidents

East

Regional VP – NE:

Dipavo Banerjee, DO

UMass Memorial Medical Center
Psychiatry

Regional VP – NE:

Alex Cerjanic, MD, PhD

Mass General Brigham
Neurology

Regional VP – NE:

Justin Halloran, MD

Cambridge Hospital
Psychiatry

Regional VP – NE:

Brett Lewis, MD

Boston Medical Center
Family Medicine/Psychiatry

Regional VP – NE:

Chris Schenck, MD

Mass General Brigham
Internal Medicine

Regional VP – NY Public:

Luis Aguilar Montalvan, MD

Jacobi Medical Center
Emergency Medicine

Regional VP – NY Public:

Nicholas Frazette, MD

Bellevue Hospital Center
Pathology

Regional VP – NY Public:

Ashna Shome, MD

Jacobi Medical Center
Pediatrics

Regional VP – NY Private:

Stephanie Aroworade, MD

Brooklyn Hospital Center
Pediatric Surgery

Regional VP – NY Private:

Mahdi Khattabi, MD

One Brooklyn Health
Internal Medicine

Regional VP – NY Private:

Melissa Marseille, MD, MPH, MS

Brooklyn Hospital Center
Emergency Medicine

Regional VP – NY Private:

Soheila Sanchez-Molina, MD

BronxCare
Family Medicine

Regional VP – NY Private:

Rohan Pinto, MD

Maimonides Medical Center
Internal Medicine

Regional VP – Mid-Atlantic:

Natasha Driver, MD, MSc

Howard University Hospital
Obstetrics & Gynecology

Regional VP – Mid-Atlantic

Michelle Munyikwa, MD

UPenn Health Systems
Medicine-Pediatrics

Regional VP – Mid-Atlantic

Saraaga Tamirisa, MD

Rutgers University – NJMS
Medicine/Pediatrics

Regional VP – Mid-Atlantic

Trina Van, MD

Children’s National Medical Center
Pediatrics

Regional VP – FL:

Alan Alvarez, MD

Jackson Memorial Hospital
Psychiatry

Central

Regional VP – Great Lakes:

Nicolette Alberti, DO, MPH

University of Illinois Chicago
Emergency

Regional VP – NM:

Rupali Gautam, DO

University of New Mexico
Pediatrics

West

Regional VP – NW:

Kelly Stewart, MD

University of Washington
Emergency Medicine

Regional VP – NorCal:

Kayla Authelet, MD

Alameda
Emergency Medicine

Regional VP – NorCal:

Miguel Pena, MD, MPP

Stanford Health Care
Diagnostic Radiology

Regional VP – NorCal UC:

Marysol Encarnacion, MD

UCSF Medical Center
Psychiatry

Regional VP – NorCal UC:

Paul Glasheen, MD

UC Davis Medical Center
Internal Medicine/Psychiatry

Regional VP – NorCal UC:

Olivia Harden, MD, MS

UCSF Medical Center
Internal Medicine

Regional VP – SoCal:

Frances Gill, MD, MPH

LA County – USC Medical Center
Psychiatry

Regional VP – SoCal:

Andrea N. Soto Lopez, MD

LA County – USC Medical Center
Medicine/Pediatrics

Regional VP – SoCal UC:

Asha Ayub, MD

UCLA Medical Center
Urology

Regional VP – SoCal UC:

Diana Dayal, MD

UCLA Medical Center
Emergency Medicine

Regional VP – SoCal UC:

Nekisa Haghighat, MD, MPH

UC Riverside
Psychiatry

Regional VP – SoCal UC:

Garrett Kneese, MD, MPH

UC San Diego Health
Family Medicine