Heads of Schools
Prof. Michal Kovo, MD, PhD, headsthe Four-Year Program at the Gray School of Medicine, and is Full Professor at the Gray Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences. She is a graduate of the Tel Aviv University School of Medicine, a specialist in Obstetrics and Gynecology, and holds a PhD from the Weizmann Institute of Science. She currently serves as Director of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Shamir Medical Center (Assaf Harofeh). Her research focuses on Obstetrics and Maternal-Fetal Medicine, with particular emphasis on the relationship between placental function and pathology and pregnancy complications, integrating clinical research, basic science, and translational research approaches.
Prof. Ronit Satchi-Fainaro, PhD, is the Head of the Gray School of Medical Sciences. Prof. Satchi-Fainaro is Head of the Cancer Biology Research Center (CBRC), is among the leading researchers in Israel and worldwide in the fields of cancer biology, biomedical engineering, and nanomedicine. Through her scientific and academic work, she serves as an inspiration to an entire generation of researchers, physicians, and students, and she plays a key role in promoting excellence, innovation, and interdisciplinary collaboration.
Prof. Liat Lerner-Geva, MD-PhD, is head of the School of Public Health and a member of the Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine. She is a board-certified physician in Epidemiology and Public Health with special emphasis on reproductive epidemiology. She is the director of the Women and Children's Health Research Unit at the Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research (Ltd) and the founder and director of the National Registry for in vitro fertilization treatment cycles in Israel.
Prof. Sivia Barnoy is the Head of the School of Health Professions at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences and a senior faculty member in the Department of Nursing. She is a nurse and geneticist with extensive clinical and academic experience. After completing her nursing studies at the Hebrew University, she earned a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in Genetics from the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at Tel Aviv University. Before joining academia, she worked as a pediatric intensive care nurse, and in 2021, she was promoted to full professor in Nursing.
Professor Sivia Barnoy served as the Head of the Department of Nursing from 2010 to 2014 and again from 2022 to 2024. She is active internationally in the field of genetic nursing and is a member of the International Society of Nurses in Genetics, which awarded her a research excellence award in 2018. She also represents Israel in the Global Genomic Nursing Alliance (G2NA) initiative, which aims to set global standards for integrating genetics into nursing.
Professor Sivia Barnoy’s research focuses on the psychosocial and familial aspects of genetics and genomics, particularly on genetic information sharing, with an emphasis on involving family members in genetic information and test results. Additionally, she studies nursing technologies and their impact on nursing practice and care delivery.
Prof. Noa Eliakim Raz, MD, is head of the 6-Year Program of the School of Medicine and is an Associate Professor at the Gray School of Medicine. She is the Head of Medicine E and a senior physician at the Infectious Disease Unit at the Rabin Medical Center. She obtained her medical degree from the School of Medicine at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her research focuses on infectious diseases and epidemiology, especially multi-drug resistant infections and treatment options in these infections, infections in immunosuppressed patients and older adults, clostridioides difficile infection and COVID-19.
Prof. Rachel Sarig, PhD, DMD, is head of the School of Dental Medicine, where she is a principal investigator and the head of the Dental Anthropology Laboratory. Sarig is a graduate of Tel Aviv University, having completed her D.M.D. and her Ph.D. in anatomy and anthropology, and her post-graduate studies in orthodontics (summa cum laude), all at the Faculty of Medicine. Prof. Sarig performs research at and is a member of the Dan David Center for Human Evolution and Biohistory Research and the Shmunis Family Anthropology Institute.
Prof. Hagit Eldar-Finkelman serves as the Head of the Graduate School of the Gray Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences at Tel Aviv University. Prof. Eldar-Finkelman is a Full Professor in the Department of Human Molecular Genetics and Biochemistry and holds the Lady Davis Chair in Biochemistry. She completed her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in chemistry and her Ph.D. in life sciences at the Weizmann Institute of Science. She pursued postdoctoral training at the University of Washington in the laboratory of Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine, Prof. Edwin Krebs, and was a faculty member in the Department of Medical Sciences at Harvard University in Boston. Her research focuses on deciphering the biochemical and molecular mechanisms underlying disease. She is a leading researcher in understanding the role of the protein GSK-3 as a major factor contributing to diabetes and to neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and Huntington’s disease. Prof. Eldar-Finkelman is a pioneer in developing unique GSK-3 inhibitors using a strategy developed in her lab “from peptides to small molecules.” She has published over 80 articles in leading scientific journals and is the inventor of about ten patents.
Prof. Gil Zalsman, MD, is head of the Center for Continuing Medical Education. He is a Full Professor at the Gray Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences and formerly served as Director of the Geha Mental Health Center. He is a leading expert in child and adolescent psychiatry. He is the author of more than 220 scientific articles, primarily in the fields of the neurobiology of suicidal behavior, mood disorders, and suicide prevention. Prof. Zalsman founded the Gilly Adar Institute for Research and Treatment of Adolescent Mental Health Crises and serves as Chair of the National Council for Suicide Prevention in Israel. He has completed advanced training at Yale, Columbia, and Harvard, and holds leading positions in international and European psychiatric organizations.
