Dr. Hassan Khouli is the Chief of the Critical Care Section at Mount Sinai St. Luke’s (now Mount Sinai Morningside) and Mount Sinai West, a Professor of Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and the Director for Center for Advanced Medical Simulation at Mount Sinai West and Mount Sinai St. Luke’s. In this interview, he discusses his childhood in Syria, and immigration to the U.S. circa 1998 to continue to study medicine and develop his skills through several fellowships, which eventually brought him to Mount Sinai St. Luke’s. He discusses the various stages of study and the development of his interest in critical care and simulation medicine, as well as working at St. Luke’s, and more personal topics such as his family and hobbies.

In part one of a two-part interview, Dr. Braun recounts her childhood in Shanghai, China during the third Japanese invasion, before the World War II. She describes her family's struggles to escape the war, her grandfather, who held various diplomatic roles for China and the Kuomintang, and her parents' meeting in the US (her mother is from Poland) and their lives after marriage.