Faculty

Teresa Dolinar, MD is an active clinician, educator, and researcher with a strong focus on geriatrics, dementia care, and medical ethics. She is deeply engaged in interdisciplinary and systems-level initiatives within the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), contributing to both local and national efforts to improve care for older adults.

Dr. Dolinar serves on multiple committees, including the VA Ethics Committee and the local and regional VA VISN 10 Dementia Care Committees. She has played a key role in advancing discussions on complex geriatric care issues, including participating as a planning committee member and panelist for the June 2025 regional bioethics conference, “What Does It Mean to Have Capacity for Independent Living?”, where she contributed a geriatric medicine perspective. In January 2025, she delivered a presentation to a national VA audience on disseminating the Dementia Care/Memory Care Model, highlighting implementation experiences at the Cleveland VA Medical Center. She is also involved in the Cleveland VA Life-Sustaining Treatment Committee’s quality improvement initiative, which focuses on enhancing goals-of-care discussions and documentation for high-risk patients.

As an educator, Dr. Dolinar is core faculty for the innovative KOWAL Seniors Advisors in Aging (SAGE) curriculum at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, launched in September 2025. This longitudinal program pairs first-year medical students with older adults to foster meaningful relationships and experiential learning centered on the Age-Friendly Health Systems “4Ms” framework (What Matters, Medication, Mentation, and Mobility). The curriculum incorporates interprofessional collaboration with physical therapy and the VA GEROFIT program, as well as experiential learning activities, simulation exercises, and structured reflection.

In addition to her clinical and educational roles, Dr. Dolinar is a co-investigator with the Cleveland Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC) at the Cleveland VA site. This prospective research collaboration includes University Hospitals, Cleveland Clinic, and the VA Medical Center, contributing to advancements in the understanding and care of Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders.

Elizabeth Fine Smilovich, MD is a geriatrician with over a decade of experience in geriatric program development and medical education. She currently serves as Director of the Geriatric Patient-Aligned Care Team (GeriPACT) at the Cleveland VA, where she focuses on designing and implementing interdisciplinary care models to enhance outcomes for older Veterans.

Dr. Fine Smilovich was selected as a 2023–2024 Health and Aging Policy Fellow, during which she concentrated on advancing geriatric care through policy and systems-level change. In this role, she worked within the VA Office of Geriatrics and Extended Care as part of the Geriatric Research, Education, and Clinical Center (GRECC) Age-Friendly Health Systems initiative. She continues to contribute at a national level through her work with the VA Electronic Health Record Council for Geriatrics and Extended Care.

In addition to her clinical and policy work, Dr. Fine Smilovich is an active educator. She co-directs the KOWAL Seniors Advisors in Aging (SAGE) course at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, an innovative curriculum that pairs first-year medical students with community-dwelling older adults. The program emphasizes experiential learning grounded in the Age-Friendly Health Systems “4Ms” framework, preparing future physicians to deliver high-quality, patient-centered geriatric care.