Meet the Scholars
Emily Carson - 2015
Emily grew up in Wheaton, IL, a suburb outside of Chicago. She graduated from Harvard University in 2009 with a degree in Psychology. While she was always interested in serving in an urban area, Emily originally focused on the realm of education. She joined Teach For America after graduating from college, and spent two years teaching math and science in a public middle school in Philadelphia. In working with her students and their families, Emily saw how problems relating to personal health care and access to health resources impacted her students' academic potentials. She is hopeful that a career in medicine will give her the opportunity to provide care to those in need, and to work with professionals in other fields to address inequities in urban health care. While not entirely sure what type of residency she will pursue, Emily hopes to eventually practice primary care with an emphasis on maternal and/or child care.
Joseph Graterol - 2015
Joseph was born in Ithaca, NY but lived in Maturin, Venezuela for seven years. He returned to Ithaca to study Biological Sciences with a Microbiology concentration at Cornell University, graduating in May 2010. He has worked in patient transport in Ithaca, NY as well as in nurse assisting while in Washington, DC. His experiences living abroad and as a minority in the US fostered not only an interest, but a sense of responsibility to serving underserved populations while practicing the principles of cultural competency.In the future, he plans to use his position as a health care provider and educator to try to make a difference within low resourced communities both nationally and internationally. He hopes to use his position as an Urban Health Scholar as a platform to facilitate learning and development opportunities on topics including health inequality and cultural competency for the larger DMS community, as well as to mentor youth on issues such as maintaining good health and achieving academic success within the confines of socioeconomic and cultural barriers.
Swapna Sharma - 2015
Swapna Sharma is from Gaithersburg, Maryland and graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park with a degree in Civil Engineering. She then pursued a Master's degree in structural engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. Realizing medicine is her true passion, Swapna volunteered in the emergency department at her local hospital, served as a Patient Ambassador at the NIH Clinical Center, and has shadowed at the National Naval Medical Center in the Pediatric/Adolescent Nephrology & Cardiology Clinics. As an Urban Health Scholar, Swapna hopes to connect with classmates who are equally passionate about urban medicine and to gain a better understanding of the issues influencing healthcare for medically underserved populations. She hopes to increase awareness of the disparities in healthcare access and delivery that exist in urban centers and to expand the urban health opportunities available for DMS students. Swapna is eager to learn from physicians and patients alike while at DMS and is most looking forward to promoting good health within the community.
Katherine Zeitler - 2015
Kate grew up the eldest of five children in Wilbraham, MA and attended Dartmouth College where she studied Engineering. She went on to pursue a Masters degree in Biomedical Engineering at Northwestern University in Chicago, and spent the next 4-5 years living and working in Boston before joining the DMS community. Kate fell in love with the city of Boston during her time there, and had wonderful experiences working at both the Boston VA Hospital and Boston Medical Center. She felt particularly privileged to have had the opportunity to work with the diverse, inner-city patient population served by Boston Medical Center. She also took great joy out of the time she spent volunteering with her church's homeless ministry over those many years. Kate has always been passionate about serving the underserved, and continues to hold the struggling individuals and families of Boston in her heart as she works through medical school. She hopes to return to Boston with her husband to serve as a primary care physician, and is therefore committed to learning as much as she can about the challenges related to urban health and about the ways in which we can improve healthcare quality and accessibility for those in the city who can least afford it. Kate is also looking to leave DMS proficient in Spanish, and would like to create opportunities for herself and her classmates to learn and speak Spanish in a clinical setting. In her free time Kate enjoys playing soccer, hiking with her dog Petey, and spending time with her husband and family.
Judy Cheng - 2014
Judy was born and raised in Great Neck, NY - a small suburb outside of New York City. She graduated from MIT with a degree in biology and then went to Columbia University to obtain a MPH. While in college, she worked with a hepatitis B organization where she helped screen immigrant populations for hepatitis B and organized public health outreach events. She also did research in targeted drug therapy using aptamers to treat prostate cancer. Her interest in urban medicine stems from experiences working with communities in Boston and New York City that suffer from inadequate health care access and a disproportionate burden of environmental pollutants. Although Judy doesn't know what field of medicine she plans to go into, she is interested in working in an urban teaching hospital where she can address factors that contribute to diseases and health disparities in urban communities. Judy hopes to be an active patient advocate for preventive interventions and to work towards a sustainable model of health care provision for underserved populations. Her hobbies include tennis, skiing, and traveling.
Wade Harrison - 2014
Wade grew up in Columbia, South Carolina and attended the University of Colorado at Boulder for college. He graduated in 2007 with a degree in Integrative Physiology, Biology, and Political Science. His interest in urban health began during his sophomore year when he completed an internship at The Children's Hospital in Denver where he first became aware of the enormous discrepancies in the ways that diverse communities access health care. After graduating from CU, Wade traveled to India where he volunteered at a large Hospital and also with the Red Cross. Back in Colorado he continued to pursue his interest in working with underserved communities at a federally qualified health center that provided primary care to all patients, with priority given to low income, migrant farmworkers, and medically underserved individuals. Wade plans on pursuing a residency in pediatrics and then a career in pediatric community health. He also carries a strong interest in health care policy, particularly surrounding issues of access and the delivery of care. As an Urban Health Scholar, Wade hopes to further his own understanding of how diverse populations access health care while creating opportunities for the DMS community to learn more about health care inequality and to be prepared to critically examine the causes and potential solutions to these problems. In his free time Wade enjoys cycling, skiing, and hiking with his dog Lucy.
Regina Duperval - 2014
Regina comes from a country where there's a lack of access to health care due to a dearth of resources and doctors in the quasi totality of the urban areas. Thus, she would love to get the opportunity to receive appropriate training with patients from underserved communities. She is extremely interested in public health and urban medicine and would therefore be pleased to participate in national conferences regarding urban health issues, participate in clerkships with patients, and especially receive training in disease management specific to a multicultural environment. Through volunteering with the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, she acquired a great deal of knowledge and experience in this field. She would thus like to become more competent in the urban health area and utilize her existing skills as well as those newly acquired through the Urban Health Scholars Program to the benefit of underserved communities.
Aly-Lopez Aguiar - 2014
Aly was born and raised in Miami, Florida. She graduated from Princeton in 2009 having majored in English Literature. She has, however, had a variety of experiences in hands-on health care. She has worked in the Trauma Center of Jackson Memorial Hospital, the Special Care Nursery of the hospital in Princeton and volunteered with a local Emergency Medical Services group . She discovered that what she wants most is to give back, to make her role in the community one of service. She pictures herself working in a big city in the future as there is a great need for good health care in cities and she wants to be part of the effort to reach out to underserved communities.
Devang Sharma - 2014
Devang was born and raised in Gaithersburg, MD, and graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park in 2009. He developed a profound appreciation for cultural and socioeconomic diversity by working in various areas around the nation's capital. He spent four years working with an interdisciplinary research team in College Park, nine months as a scribe in an Emergency Department in Annapolis, and a year as a volunteer for both a local hospice and a special-needs school in Gaithersburg. Devang wanted the opportunity to represent his fellow peers interested in practicing medicine in urban settings. As an Urban Health Scholar, he hopes to expand his medical experiences with underserved communities and provide mentorship to urban youth.
Naveen Krishnan - 2013
Naveen was born and raised in San Diego, CA and graduated in 2007 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he majored in Brain and Cognitive Sciences. He then spent six months conducting health work in India, Nepal, and Malaysia. Naveen then obtained an MPH from the University of Cambridge as a Gates Cambridge Scholar. He is now a first year student at Dartmouth Medical School. His interest in urban medicine and international medicine stems from his work in developing countries and background as the son of immigrant parents. He will continue this passion by working with underserved minority populations at the Lawrence Clinic in Lawrence, MA in addition to conducting a summer research project in Africa. He is interested in surgery and its application in international health. In his spare time he likes to play tennis, travel, and watch television/movies.
Katherine Loftus - 2013
Katie is a first year medical student at Dartmouth. She is originally from Clifton Park, New York, a town just north of Albany. She graduated from Boston College in 2006 with a degree in biochemistry. While at Boston College, Katie was involved in starting a program that encouraged urban high school girls to pursue careers in science, and also did volunteer work at a Boys and Girls Club in Boston. After graduating she stayed in Boston and spent three years working at The Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, coordinating clinical trials of new therapies to treat the disease Multiple Myeloma. After spending seven years in Boston, the city and its residents began to feel like home to Katie. She is eager to begin to understand some of the problems that arise in urban centers on a deeper level while she is in medical school. As a member of UHS, she hopes to share this understanding with fellow classmates, as well as increase the opportunities for DMS students to do volunteer work in urban areas. Katie's medical interests include family medicine, oncology, and infectious disease. Her hobbies include traveling, photography, running, and learning to golf and ski.
Ji Qi - 2013
Ji was born in Beijing, China and was raised in Plano, TX, a suburb of Dallas. She graduated from MIT with a degree in biological engineering and minor in biology. During college, she served as both a mentor and coordinator for Science Projects at MIT (SciPro), a science-mentoring program aimed at inspiring middle school students from underserved and underprivileged areas of Boston and Cambridge, MA, to become interested in science learning. The goal of the program was to help the middle school students learn about and apply the scientific process through one-on-one mentorship with MIT undergraduate and graduate students. She also served as a volunteer on The Family Van, a mobile community outreach program run by Harvard Medical School that provided free medical screenings and counseling to the residents of Boston's underserved and underprivileged neighborhoods. Through UHS, Ji hopes to continue to work with at-risk and underserved youth populations through the Career Planning and Mentorship Program to Promote, Encourage, and Guide Inner City Adolescents into Health Care Professions. Her experience with The Family Van has made her interested in working to understand healthcare disparities in underserved and impoverished urban neighborhoods, help improve healthcare access in these populations, and to stress the value of preventative medical practices. In her free time Ji enjoys photography and cooking.
Stephanie Rolin - 2013
Stephanie has never felt like she has a geographical "home"—born in Belgium, she moved to the United States at an early age. Before coming to Dartmouth, she lived as far north as Alaska and as far south as Australia. She also spent time in Canada as an undergraduate student at McGill University, where she studied theoretical mathematics. Her career interests took a dramatic turn when she volunteered at an indigenous clinic in Queensland, Australia. Since then, she's become dedicated to pursuing a career in public health and medicine. In that pursuit, Stephanie completed a master's degree in public health at Dartmouth in 2008, and subsequently spent a year in Alaska working for the CDC. Stephanie is happy to be back at Dartmouth, and hopes to broaden her range of experiences through medical school. She feels motivated to work towards a model of health equity, both within and outside of the United States. Her hobbies include snowboarding and swimming.
Christopher Worsham - 2013
Chris was born and raised in Washington, D.C. and graduated from the University of Michigan in 2009 with a degree in Statistics. During college, Chris worked on research in eye development and was also involved in health and elderly related community service and outreach in the Ann Arbor area. While he does not yet know what field of medicine to pursue, he does know that he wants his career to be based in service to the community. Though he looks forward to helping others one-on-one in the hospital or in the clinic, he is also eager to get involved by teaching and working with youth, promoting good health practices, and combating disease on the community and population levels. He hopes his experiences in the Urban Health Scholars program will provide him with knowledge and experience to help launch a career in urban health and medicine.
Mina Ghaly - 2012
Mina was born and raised in Cairo, Egypt where he then moved to Massachusetts at the age of 12 to attend middle school and high school there. He graduated from 2008 from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst where he majored in Biology and Molecular Biology and Biochemistry. He is now in his first year at Dartmouth Medical School. His interest in urban medicine started from witnessing how low access to health care affected the populations in Egypt and he continued that interest by volunteering in various hospitals in Boston. Although his future career path is still open, he has an interest in surgery and in international medicine. In his spare time, he likes to follow the Patriots, Red Sox and Celtics and he also enjoys traveling.
Bilal Mahmood - 2012
Bilal is from Clifton Park, NY and graduated as a mathematics and physics major from Union College in June 2008. While at Union, Bilal was involved in a number of activities, including radio astronomy research, serving on student government, tutoring, and working as a resident advisor and EMT on campus. He also spent a mini-term abroad in Egypt and volunteered in New Orleans after hurricane Katrina. At Dartmouth, Bilal is currently a first year student. With regards to medicine, he is unsure of what path to take, and he is starting his first year with an open mind. In the future, he wants to work in urban and international environments. As a member of UHS, Bilal wants to improve urban opportunities for current and future DMS students. He also wants to raise awareness of urban issues in health care that may not be stressed otherwise.
Mary Kate Rod - 2012
Mary Kate is originally from Connecticut and graduated from Boston College, where she was involved in BC's sketch comedy troop and Nicaraguan Immersion Program. After graduating, she spent two years working and living in rural communities in Haiti, Nicaragua and on Taos Pueblo Reservation in New Mexico, helping organize community members around voluntary schools house construction projects. Afterwards, she moved to Boston, MA and worked for a number of years as an advocate for people who were chronically homeless and moving from shelters into permanent housing. Mary Kate is now in her first year of medical school, and is excited to be a part of UHS. She is interested in issues regarding housing and homelessness, international development and immigration. She also loves trail running, hiking and rivers and is happy to be living in the Upper Valley.
David Wenger - 2012
David is a native of Oakland, CA. After completing his undergraduate degree at UC Berkeley in 2006, he spent much of the last two years trying to get outside of the textbook and gain some life experience in the arena of urban health. For a little over a year he worked as an Emergency Medical Technician for the 911service provider in Los Angeles County, and then had the pleasure to work in Central America as a member of the International Health Service. While abroad David was part of a team which establish a functional clinic in the small village of Yaruca, Honduras, a town which prior to their arrival had not had a resident physician in over 15 years. Upon returning to the Bay Area this past summer, he took a position with the First Tee organization, a foundation which works with underprivileged kids and uses the game of golf as a means to teach crucial life lessons intended to transcend sport. Now that David is at Dartmouth, he is excited to have this opportunity to be part of the Urban Health Scholars program, and looks forward to learning more about the many unique social and health concerns that face urban communities both domestically and abroad.
Pablo Valdés - 2012
Pablo Valdés was born in Guatemala, but raised most of his life in Tegucigalpa, Honduras to his wonderful parents and two siblings. He did his undergraduate studies in Miami, Florida, where he graduated with his BS in Chemistry from The Florida International University. Pablo is currently a 3rd year MD/PhD student at Dartmouth Medical School and the Thayer School of Engineering, Dartmouth College. His engineering research involves developing neurosurgical image-guidance technologies. He wishes to pursue neurosurgery as a clinical career path, and as a practicing physician find a balance between his clinical and research passions. His interest in the Urban Scholars Program arises from his experience in working with underprivileged communities in large urban areas and his desire to continue such work in his life. Meanwhile, he is enjoying his training at Dartmouth, as he prepares to become an excellent physician-scientist, and, overall, just a good citizen of the world.