Why Dr. Anthony Jabra Stayed

“I don’t like change,” he said, laughing. “The year I graduated they asked if I wanted to stay on and I never left.”

His path to podiatry began years earlier in Hackensack, New Jersey. In high school, he participated in the HCOP program, which allowed students to shadow physicians in different specialties. He observed several doctors, but one experience stood out.

“I shadowed different doctors, and only the podiatrist seemed happy,” he said. “He enjoyed his job in comparison to all the other doctors."

Another push came during his undergraduate years at Ramapo College. While seeking help from a writing tutor, he learned that her father was a podiatrist involved with NYCPM. “I wrote an essay that began, ‘I want to be a podiatrist,’ explained Dr. Jabra. “Her father was a podiatrist she introduced me.”

“I only applied to NYCPM,” Dr. Jabra said. “I already knew what I wanted to do.”

He graduated from Ramapo in 2012 and began at NYCPM that same year. He remembers the culture among his classmates as collaborative rather than competitive. “You kind of become friends with everyone,” he said. “It’s truly not competitive since we all know what we want — to become podiatrists and go to residency. It was a good culture of learning.”

The class formed close bonds. Several students married classmates, and Dr. Jabra was one of them. He met his wife, Dr. Ashley Bittar, during his time at NYCPM. She completed her residency at Montefiore Medical Center, where she now works. (She has taught many NYCPM students as residents.) The couple lives in New Jersey with their two young sons.

After graduating in 2016 and completing his residency at the same institution, Dr. Jabra was asked to remain on faculty. He joined the surgery department, one of several academic divisions within the college that also include medicine and orthopedics. Today, his work spans clinical care, surgery and teaching. He covers clinic at Metropolitan Hospital and Harlem Hospital and delivers podiatric surgery lectures each year, but most of his time is spent in hands-on instruction with students and residents during surgical rotations.

He performs surgery four days a week, treating a wide range of foot and ankle conditions. “Surgeries come in waves,” he said. “One week it might be hammer toes and bunions. Other times it’s ankle-related fractures.” At Harlem Hospital, he collaborates closely with orthopedic surgeons, assisting with complex ankle cases and working alongside younger physicians who are early in their own careers.

Collaboration extends beyond the operating room. At Metropolitan Hospital, he helped establish a diabetic clinic that integrates podiatric care with endocrinology fellows. The goal is both patient care and education, ensuring that future endocrinologists learn how to conduct comprehensive foot exams and recognize lower-extremity pathology.

Dr. Jabra also maintains a private practice across from Harlem Hospital, serving a diverse patient population that includes individuals managing diabetes, HIV and other chronic conditions. His clinical experience reinforces a central point he makes to students: podiatry requires broad medical training. “People think podiatry is only feet,” he said. “The first two years you learn about the whole body. The next two years you learn how body conditions affect the lower extremities.”

That foundation shapes his diagnostic approach. He recalled a patient treated elsewhere for a “diabetic wound” who was not diabetic; the lesion ultimately proved to be skin cancer. In another case, a patient repeatedly treated for a fungal infection required further evaluation when standard therapies failed. “If the creams aren’t working, you can’t be afraid to take a biopsy,” he said. “You have to step outside the box.”

Teaching students to think that way is central to his role. As both advisor and instructor, he encourages them to conduct thorough examinations and develop their own clinical reasoning rather than simply repeating prior assessments. “Don’t be afraid to do a full, thorough exam,” he tells them. “Be confident with what you learned.” He understands the uncertainty students face because he remembers it well. “You feel like there’s never an end goal, especially if there are courses that aren’t going your way,” he said. His advice is steady: focus on the work in front of you, persist, and trust that growth comes with time.

He often reminds students that podiatry offers something uniquely tangible. “This is one of the main professions where people can come in with pain and, within the same clinic visit, walk out without pain,” he said. “It’s nice to see that.”

“When you take a step back, you realize you’re surrounded by people trying to help you,” he said about NYCPM. “That’s why I’m still here.”