Shuaibu Ali - 2021
Vivian Bhushan - 2021
Vivian was born and raised in Queens, New York. Having come from very humble beginnings, Vivian was aware of health disparities and socioeconomic-related issues early on. Her early experiences inspired and motivated her to go into medicine to help serve others in unfortunate positions. She graduated from St. John's University with both a bachelor's and master's degrees in Chemistry. In 2014, she became involved with a non-profit organization called Mentoring in Medicine (MIM), which provides many opportunities for underrepresented students who are interested in pursuing a career in the health professions. Vivian started off as a volunteer in their Emergency Department Clinical Exposure and Mentorship Program. Her time volunteering at Montefiore Medical Center gave her the chance to engage with patients and witness the daily practice of ER physicians in an overcrowded ED. She was able to interact with patients who were struggling with chronic ailments and/or language barriers. Having worked through a disadvantaged background with immigrant parents herself, she empathized and developed a strong desire to help those in need. She then got involved with MIM in another capacity, community outreach and raising awareness of health disparities in the Bronx. She assisted with organizing fitness festivals in the community and other events that promoted preventive medicine through daily lifestyle changes. Most recently, she taught Biology to Bronx high school students as part of an in-school program, introducing various health professions, and performing relevant demonstrations in academic settings. Vivian is passionate about community outreach and has goals of creating a life-long mentorship program targeted at minority youth. A self-described fitness junkie, Vivian is always looking for healthy ways to take her body to the next level. Lifting weights, or riding her bike through each of the five boroughs are some of the things she enjoys doing in her spare time. Vivian is excited to become a part of the Urban Health Scholars and is confident that she will be able to integrate her training at Geisel, her passion for teaching and mentoring, and her communication skills to maximize health care delivery and raise awareness in urban, underserved populations.
Cynthia Chan - 2021
After being a satellite baby in China for her first four years of life, Cynthia rejoined her parents in her birthplace (NYC), where she eventually also lived with her maternal grandparents and younger sister. Together, they moved from Section 8 housing into a home more of their own. Having spent over 5.5 formative years in Asia, Cynthia identifies as a 1.5th generation immigrant. In high school, she served as a local politician's constituent aid and helped other immigrants with various concerns. She continued her social work during college, primarily by working with underserved adults in New Haven and China to address their social determinants of health, including socioeconomic class, race and ethnicity, educational attainment, employment history, and (dis)ability status. While majoring in Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, Cynthia engaged with more macro-level public and global health classes and experiences, both locally and internationally. Between Yale and Geisel, Cynthia served as a Fulbright researcher and cultural ambassador to China, where she interviewed hundreds of metal miners for an occupational health cohort. These and other experiences have informed her goal to serve indigent people and populations through medicine, and her desire both to do good and to do well. Cynthia joined UHS (and Global Health Fellows) to share and support that goal and desire. At Dartmouth, she hopes to gain the skills, experiences, and relationships necessary to become--What kind of doctor?--a good doctor (and scholar). Cynthia also enjoys traveling, eating, trying new things, oil painting, bowling, listening to some podcasts, and watching certain films. Most of all, she enjoys spending time with people she cares about.
Laura J. Cheng - 2021
Laura grew up in Troy, Michigan. As a second-generation Chinese-American, she learned to speak English and Mandarin starting from a young age. For high school, she attended the International Academy in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan before moving to Cambridge, Massachusetts to attend Harvard University. Laura graduated from Harvard in 2015, majoring in Neurobiology and minoring in Global Health & Health Policy. During college, she completed an honors thesis at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and the Shanghai Mental Health Center, which examined differences in the default mode network between healthy controls and youth at risk for schizophrenia in a Chinese population. Outside of research, Laura has been involved in multiple volunteer activities in the Boston area. Throughout college, she tutored GED/HiSet test preparation weekly at the South Bay House of Corrections, a medium-security prison, and volunteered with Health Leads, where she helped connect low-income patients with social resources in the community in attempt to address the social determinants of health. Following graduation, Laura worked for two years as a Research Coordinator at the Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Women's Mental Health while continuing to work with incarcerated populations as a tutor and health educator. As a physician, she plans to work with urban underserved communities, including incarcerated and immigrant communities, to help reduce existing health disparities.
Diana Funk - 2021
Diana hails from the small town of Perkasie, Pennsylvania. Born at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, she returned to Penn for college, receiving a degree from Wharton in Economics with a concentration in Healthcare Policy in 2010. At Penn she was involved in community service throughout West Philadelphia and taught business essentials to high school students. After graduation she moved to the golden state of California to work for Google in People Operations and communications. While in San Francisco she worked with the WATCH Clinic, teaching nutrition to at-risk children and their families. She also worked with the city of San Francisco to design an application for affordable housing using user-centered design. After completing a post-bacc program at UC Berkeley, she came to Geisel where she hopes to learn more about the challenges that urban populations face -- be it healthcare, nutrition, education, access, or inequality, and discover new ways to address those problems through service and policy.
J Gresham - 2021
Chad Lewis - 2021
Chad originally hails from San Francisco, CA. Shortly after graduating from high school, he enlisted in the Marine Corps a few weeks after the attacks on Sept. 11th, 2001 and eventually earned the rank of Sergeant. While serving, Chad completed a combat tour with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable) in Iraq's infamous "Triangle of Death" from 2004 to 2005, and was also awarded the Humanitarian Service Medal by the Department of Defense for providing relief to the victims of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, LA.
After returning home, Chad completed his B.S. at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale and left the Marines in 2007 to work as a field engineer in the homeland security and telecommunications industries for a number of years. Most recently before matriculating at Geisel, he worked under the 17th Surgeon General of the United States, Dr. Richard H. Carmona while conducting public health research and managing multiple health promotion programs in low-income communities across the country. While there, he concurrently completed his Master of Public Health at The George Washington University in the spring of 2016, and was a recipient of the Andrew F. Pleasant Scholarship for Advanced Studies in Health Literacy and Prevention.
Chad is currently a member of the Student National Medical Association (SNMA)'s National Board of Directors and is a Co-Chair of SNMA's External Affairs Committee. His long-term career goals are to practice medicine in urban underserved communities while being a leader in the fields of public health, veterans' health, and youth development.
Sandra G. Mastrangelo - 2021
Sand was raised in White Plains, New York and graduated from Brown University with a degree in Cognitive, Linguistic, and Psychological Sciences. In 2010, Sand received an Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award in the Department of Public Health to study recruitment approaches for under-resourced, marginalized populations and the role of social networks in healthcare decisions and patient psychology. A four-year student-athlete, she partnered with Pat Griffin and the Gay and Lesbian Sports Education Network to mandate diversity training for National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) athletes and coaches to increase awareness of issues affecting sexual and gender minorities. Following graduation, she taught 9th grade English and bilingual education as a Teach For America corps member in Denver, Colorado. While teaching, Sand participated in the Teaching as Leadership and Education 4 Justice Fellowships where she coached incoming cohorts of TFA corps members to build their pedagogies upon critical race theories and cultivate student-centered, multicultural classrooms. This experience led her to San Francisco to work in educational technology and social justice pedagogy. Sand is a certified Emergency Medical Technician and worked as an Emergency Department Medical Scribe at Bronx Lebanon Hospital Center in New York City prior to completing the postbaccalaureate premedical program at Bryn Mawr College. Sand is excited to be a member of Urban Health Scholars because she is committed to understanding the sociocultural factors that impact health outcomes of urban medically underserved populations and aspires to pursue clinical opportunities in urban health and trauma-informed care.
Jacob Perlson - 2021
Jacob is a Chicago native and graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He graduated in 2015 with a degree in Biology and minor in Global Health. During his junior year at UW, Jacob organized a semester of fieldwork in the cone of South America where he found himself in such settings as a volunteer in a Patagonian national park to a community health worker in Buenos Aires. This latter experience, combined with his senior year involvement with an LGBTQ healthcare advocacy organization, piqued his interest in HIV/AIDS services and healthcare in medically underserved communities. Jacob then served as an AmeriCorps member in the HIV program of a Federally Qualified Health Center in Chicago in the year following his graduation. The experience of providing health education, program support, and HIV testing services all helped solidify Jacob's commitment to joining the fight for health equity, especially for people living with or vulnerable to HIV. Through his time at Erie Family Health Center, Jacob came to understand that HIV does not exist in a vacuum, but rather at the intersection of many other co-occurring social and medical issues ranging from substance misuse to unequal access to healthcare. This desire to understand "epidemics" in all in their interdisciplinary nuance helped motivate Jacob's decision to focus on urban health while at Geisel. As an Urban Health Scholar, Jacob hopes to better understand the forces that shape health disparities through direct service and learning alongside a group of peers equally committed to positive change in urban underserved areas.
Kenneth Williams - 2021
My name is Kenny Williams and I'm from Albany, NY. After graduating High School I attended Union College in Schenectady, NY where I majored in Neuroscience. During my time in college I became increasingly interested in education and education policy so upon graduation I joined Teach for America. I began teaching middle school math and science on the west side of Chicago and quickly fell in love with the students and community. I also pursued a graduate degree in education at Dominican University in IL. After several years, I decided to leave the classroom and pursue my interest in medicine. I completed a Post-Baccalaureate program at Loyola University in Chicago which helped me to re-engage with my science courses and prepare for medical school. I am excited to be a part of the Urban Health Scholars program as I plan to work in communities similar to those I taught in. I am also deeply interested in and passionate about the interplay between health and education.
Trenika Williams - 2021
Lucas Mayer - 2020
Luke Mayer grew up in rural Hartland Vermont, just 10 miles south of Hanover along the Connecticut River. Luke went to Hartford High School before shipping off to Los Angeles to play baseball at Claremont McKenna College. After graduating, Luke spent a year in a cancer immunology lab at the University of Connecticut before transitioning to research the clinical implications of baseball pitcher biomechanics for the orthopedics department at Massachusetts General Hospital. During this time, Luke also developed and directed an academic biotechnology-focused summer camp for the National Student Leadership Conference. This experience, as well as growing up in a family full of teachers, has helped Luke understand the extent to which mentorship can alter the trajectory of a student's path. With that in mind, Luke hopes to create an academic mentorship program that provides students from undereducated communities with the vision of a path to a STEM career. With his own career plans ultimately taking him to an urban environment, Luke seeks to prepare himself to serve that community through working to better understand the challenges unique to the urban context.
Spencer Mcfarlane - 2020
Spencer was raised in Queens, New York and then Baton Rouge, Louisiana, going on to graduate from The Ohio State University with a degree in Biology. He has been interested in urban health since his family opened up a medical practice (primary care) in Gonzales, Louisiana, an underserved city. From childhood to the present day, he came across many instances of disparity between where his family lived as opposed to the less socioeconomically advantaged community the clinic served. With the rationale that, through law and policy, he could address these and other societal components of health, and also to explore other interests, he attended and graduated from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law, concentrating on the human rights and health policy side of the law. He spent time volunteering on an HIV/AIDS health education project in Thailand and Vietnam at a Southeast Asian human rights NGO and subsequently worked as an associate at a bioethics public affairs organization. After realizing that practicing medicine was a career that would be the most fulfilling for him, he decided that he would do both -- practice medicine and serve as an advocate. As an Urban Health Scholar, I would like to create a space where I can work with my colleagues toward my goal of combining these two disciplines. Ultimately, I would like to continue exploring some of the ever-present socioeconomic disparities in America's urban society and also investigate the ways that law and policy may raise the quality of health and life of underserved populations.
Sima Sadeghinejad - 2020
Sima grew up in Los Angeles and graduated from UCLA in 2005 with degrees in neuroscience and physiological science. Her two passions in life are helping improve therapeutic options available to patients and helping underserved populations access better health care. To realize these goals, she has volunteered as a research assistant at UCLA's Brain Mapping Center since 2002. In her studies of neurophysiology and pathology, she employed the non-invasive neurostimulation technique transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). She utilized TMS to study novel treatments for a variety of neurological disorders, such as epilepsy and dystonia, with promising results. She also enjoyed volunteering at a local Emergency Room where she provided patient support and advocacy. In addition to her volunteer work, she worked full-time managing a business in downtown Los Angeles selling ladies fashion footwear since 2006. She also founded and managed the business's online presence, which more than doubled yearly revenues. She hopes to bring the values of teamwork and innovation to her medical career. As an Urban Health Scholar, she aspires to learn how to best use available resources to mitigate the socioeconomic and environmental pressures that affect the health of urban populations. Growing up as an immigrant from a humble background, Sima saw first-hand the healthcare difficulties underprivileged people face. Her experience with limited resources allows her to appreciate the unique hardships endured by low-income and minority communities. Sima's ultimate goal as a physician is to use her experiences and insight to help provide better access to care to underserved communities in Los Angeles.
Cristina Alcorta, MD - 2019
Cristina grew up in northern New Jersey, right across the Hudson River from New York City. She graduated from Harvard University in 2012 with a degree in Human Evolutionary Biology. As an undergraduate, Cristina was involved in multiple community building and advising programs. She was a member of Latinos in Health Careers, a group that supported student professional interests with multiple resources, and served as a Peer Advising Fellow for Harvard freshmen. She volunteered as a Student Researcher at Harvard Medical School's Crimson Care Collaborative, where she gathered demographic and quality improvement data for a poor, refugee/post-incarcerated population in Chelsea, MA. After graduating college, she worked for Boston Children's Hospital as a Research Coordinator in the Neonatal Pulmonary Department, focusing primarily on respiratory issues in premature infants. Cristina wishes to stay active in urban communities as a pediatrician. She believes the Urban Health Scholars Program will fortify her values of service and give her ample opportunity to stay involved in resource-deficient populations.
Brendin Beaulieu-Jones - 2019
Brendin grew up in Vernon, Connecticut. He graduated from Dartmouth College, with a degree in Biology (Genetics) and a minor in Applied Ethics. As an undergraduate, he worked in a computational genetics lab and completed a senior thesis investigating the associations between diet, genetics and metabolic syndrome in a cohort of Alaskan Natives. This work underscored the importance of considering lifestyle factors and the role of environment in investigating disease-related outcomes. After graduation, he completed a Health Policy Fellowship at The Dartmouth Institute, where he supported the implementation and analysis of the National Survey of Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), as well as the evaluation of patient reported outcomes measurement. Brendin is interested in examining how innovate payment systems (e.g., global payment) will impact the care of vulnerable populations in urban communities, and how support for other contributors of health is integrated into the traditional spheres of healthcare. He is also passionate about learning how to achieve better population health through community-based initiatives (e.g., smoking cessation programs, substance abuse support services, HIV education and screening, healthy eating and exercise programs, etc.). Outside of the classroom, Brendin is a volunteer assistant coach for the Dartmouth Track and Field team, and he also enjoys skiing, hiking and exploring the Upper Valley.
Aaron Briggs - 2019
Aaron hails from the sandy, windswept shores of San Diego, California. While Aaron was privileged enough to grow up in a quiet suburb much of his extended family lives in poverty in Northern Philadelphia. Seeing his family struggle beneath the crippling disparities that permeate underserved urban communities inspired Aaron to use his privileged, educated upbringing to help those who were not as fortunate as himself. Throughout high school and his undergraduate study at Dartmouth Aaron worked extensively with underserved populations - focusing specifically on supporting the homeless, as well as victims of domestic violence and abuse. Aaron graduated from Dartmouth College in 2015 with a degree in Biology and began his first year at Geisel shortly after. While Aaron entered medical school with the intention of practicing within underserved urban areas he was unsure of the capacity in which he may best serve these communities. Aaron joined the Urban Health Scholars to gain an understanding of the unique medical challenges facing underserved communities in order to better prepare himself for a career in which he might work to meet them.
Chinwe Echeazu - 2019
Chinwe was born and raised in Chicago, IL. Growing up on the south side of Chicago, Chinwe saw first had many of the challenges and disparities faced by its residents everyday. She also worked as a Pharmacy Technician for CVS Pharmacy in various locations throughout the city, and saw the vast gap between the privileged, the poor, and those in between when it came to health care access, quality, and delivery. These experiences amplified Chinwe's pursuit of not only becoming a physician, but also an advocate for those in need. She graduated from University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign in 2012 where she obtained her bachelors degree in Community Health, specializing in Health Planning and Administration. After graduating, she moved further south in Illinois to Southern Illinois University in Carbondale where she completed the MEDPREP program and obtained her Master in Public Health specializing in Health Education. Here, Chinwe was deeply involved in efforts on campus to decrease unwanted pregnancies and STI contraction among high risk students. She also traveled to Naranjito, Honduras during January 2013 to participate in a medical brigade that brought medical services to a small town that would otherwise completely lack access to health care. Chinwe is very passionate about the promotion of healthy behaviors, both mental and physical, and is confident in the experiences, knowledge, and networking that she will gain from the Urban Health Scholars.
Alec Fisher - 2019
Alec was born and raised in Los Angeles and almost became a professional surfer - decided to study physics at Johns Hopkins instead. At Hopkins I became interested in Neuroscience, majored in it and changed life trajectory to go to medical school. Before applying to medical school I wanted to get real life experiences and work with helping others so I went into Teach for America in Los Angeles specifically teaching in Watts at Locke High School. I taught physics for two years and raised engagement in sciences with hands on labs and after school science discovery clubs. Teaching at Locke exposed me to the disparities across socioeconomic boundaries which has led me to want to work with underserved populations. What excited me to go to Dartmouth Medical School so I could be part of the Urban Health Scholars group and get access to underserved populations while in a rural environment. The pipeline dream is to become a neurosurgeon and work to care for underserved populations in my hometown of Los Angeles, providing opportunities to care on a volunteer basis and work with local schools to increase interest in medical sciences and build mentorship programs for underprivileged high school students interested in medical sciences.
Sarah Ghabbour - 2019
Sarah was born and raised in Arlington, MA, a Boston suburb. She graduated from Boston University in 2015 with a major in health science and minor in business administration. During her time at BU, she got involved with Health Leads, a non-profit that helps connect patients and families to local non-medical recourses that impact their health and well-being. It was through Health Leads that Sarah volunteered at both Boston Medical Center and Dimock Community Health Center in Roxbury but it was though the community health center that she really saw how a community integrated approach could combat the social determinants of health. Afterwards she interned at the Brigham and Women's Southern Jamaica Plain Health Center where she had two roles: coordinating care on an interdisciplinary team for high-risk patients and helping out with the center's NCQA application to get certified as a patient centered medical home. As an Urban Health Scholar, Sarah hopes to continue to stay involved in and learn more about the needs of urban communities, so that she can ultimately advocate for and implement changes that will better her patients' overall health and wellness. Outside of Geisel, she enjoys skating on Dartmouth's figure skating team, playing soccer, and spending time with family.
Courtney Hanlon - 2019
Courtney was raised in Fullerton, California. She graduated from Amherst College in 2011 with a degree in English. After her undergraduate work, she lived in Salzburg, Austria where she played for the city's professional team within the Elite Women's Hockey League. She then spent two years in Boston, working to coordinate clinical trials for patients with multiple myeloma. Her most rewarding work in Boston was in helping to improve access to care by securing oncology therapies for patients who could not otherwise afford treatment. She received her Masters in Pharmaceutical Development with an emphasis in biologics manufacture and in-vitro diagnostics from the Keck Graduate Institute in Claremont, CA. There she worked as a peer health advocate, providing health and wellness counseling for undergraduate students within Los Angeles County. Through her work she learned the importance of educational programs in forming students' health behaviors; she co-developed risk mitigation programming for students to promote positive mental, physical, and sexual health behaviors. Through the Urban Health Scholars program, Courtney aims to learn new strategies and care models to best serve urban populations--after graduation she hopes to return to Los Angeles to address challenges of care access and health literacy through community-based initiatives. Outside the classroom, Courtney is a volunteer assistant coach for the Hanover High School girls hockey team and enjoys exploring the greater NH/VT area.
TR Harris - 2019
Tim was born and raised in Portland, OR, Tim studied social science at the University of Washington. Making the most of his time there, yet having no clue on a career path, Tim joined Teach For America, and taught chemistry and AP Chemistry in inner city Detroit. It was there where Tim found his passion for critical consciousness and social justice. What started out as a two-year stint evolved into 5 years, where Tim took on leadership and administrative roles in Detroit's education, fostering the development of more than 5,000 students city-wide. While in the classroom, Tim saw gross inequalities, rooted in two concepts. First, there were a lack of resources that severely impeded access to an education, to healthcare, proper nutrition and many other basic human rights. Second, this inequality was systemic, running along lines of race, class and privilege. This committed Tim to seeking an opportunity to not only provide resources and treatment, but also help the most disadvantaged populations advocate for themselves. That is how Tim found medicine, a profession beyond simply providing treatment, but helping patients and the most disadvantaged populations advocate for their own health. So he took classes, volunteered in emergency rooms and is now reflecting on opportunities to serve inner-city populations after medical school.
T.J. Meehan - 2019
T.J. was born and raised in central Connecticut in a suburb of Hartford. He graduated from Colby College in 2012 where he majored in Science, Technology & Society. During each summer of his undergraduate years, T.J. worked as a Research Assistant at Qualidigm, a consulting and research firm focused on quality improvement and cost-effectiveness of health care. It was through this organization that he learned that the care received by minority patients in his home-state is suboptimal and that disparities exist in access, use, and patient experience of care. Following college, T.J. continued working for Qualidigm on two research projects: one that measured the impact of EHRs on quality of care, and another focused on reducing hospital readmission rates. After a year with Qualidigm, T.J. joined the Community HealthCorps, a Connecticut-based AmeriCorps program that allowed him to serve as a Health Navigator and Quality Improvement Project Manager at Community Health Center Inc., a multi-site FQHC. Some of the most rewarding experiences that he had as an AmeriCorps member included: spending time at a veteran's home talking to patients about affordable oral care services; going door-to-door in low-income neighborhoods talking to residents about the Affordable Care Act and what it meant to them; meeting with low English proficiency immigrants to assist them in enrolling in health insurance plans; and providing free HIV/AIDs screening tests at a homeless shelter. At Geisel, T.J. hopes to find his niche at the intersection of urban health and community development. T.J. enjoys playing and coaching basketball and spending time with friends and family.
Dwan Pineros - 2019
Dwan was born in Bogota, Colombia and immigrated to the United States with his family when he was 8 years old. He graduated from Boston College where he majored in economics. Dwan then worked for a technology consulting firm on merger integration projects for clients in the biotechnology and technology services sectors. Although he enjoyed many aspects of consulting work, it was lacking in one key respect. Dwan longed for work that satisfied his humanitarian impulses. After he resigned from his position, he spent a summer volunteering at the inpatient pediatric unit at the Boston Medical Center. It was during this volunteer experience that he was inspired to pursue a career in medicine and, in particular, to work with immigrant and urban underserved populations. He completed the medical school prerequisites at the Harvard Extension School and concurrently volunteered with The Family Van, a mobile health unit that provides free health screenings and health counseling to members of the inner city communities of Boston. Dwan also worked as a research assistant at the Massachusetts General Hospital and the Brigham and Women's Hospital on basic science and clinical research projects. His interests in medicine mirror his pre-medical experiences. He is interested in pediatrics, primary care, and addressing healthcare disparities. As an Urban Health Scholar, Dwan hopes to continue to cultivate his interest for urban health and to share his knowledge and passion for urban health with his fellow scholars as well as the greater Dartmouth community. In his spare time, Dwan enjoys outdoor activities and spending time with friends and family.
Fernando Vazquez - 2019
David Whitehead, MD - 2019
Dave grew up in Downingtown, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Northwestern University with a degree in Chemical Engineering. During his time at Northwestern he served communities in nearby Chicago by triaging at a free health clinic and volunteering at a housing shelter. Abroad, he worked in Panama to address wastewater management challenges facing the town of Portobelo. After graduating, Dave's desire to work directly with communities to improve livelihoods brought him to Masindi, Uganda. In Uganda he helped start an agricultural social enterprise that strives to increase the incomes of small-holder farmers by empowering them with access to high-value markets. These experiences introduced Dave to the many challenges in promoting health and delivering healthcare to communities and have spurred his desire as a physician to work to improve disparities in health. Dave sees UHS as an awesome opportunity to continue to learn how to cultivate healthy, vibrant communities in underserved urban areas and as a place to learn from and encourage others striving to do the same. He enjoys traveling, backpacking, soccer, snowboarding and spending time with family and friends.
Andrea Jaresova, MD - 2018
Andrea is a Czech native who spent most of her childhood growing up in New York City. She earned her Bachelor's Degree from Dartmouth College in 2012, with a major in Women's and Gender Studies and two minors in French and Biology. As an undergraduate, Andrea was involved in numerous sexual assault prevention and awareness initiatives, serving as co-director of Mentors Against Violence as well as being a member of the Student Presidential Committee on Sexual Assault. Andrea also volunteered in her community at WISE of the Upper Valley, a domestic and sexual abuse crisis center in Lebanon, NH. Prior to attending the Geisel School of Medicine in 2014, Andrea spent two years working as a special education teacher in a Title I public high school in New York City and earned her masters degree in special education from Hunter College. Her experiences in both her undergraduate and graduate life have helped her cultivate a strong passion for working to empower underserved communities: first, by working to bridge the disparities gap in healthcare, and second, by creating initiatives in which the education system and the healthcare system collaborate together to ensure that a child's potential for success is not hindered by his or her inability to access quick, reliable and confidential health services.
Bianca Williams, MD - 2018
Bianca Williams was born and raised in the South Shore region of Chicago, Il. about 10 minutes from where former Senator Barack Obama resided. During her youth, she was involved in countless activities including jazz, ballet, bible study, girl scouts, gymnastics, volleyball, etc. The list can go on and on, mainly due to the encouragement from her family. They are a very influential part of her life and the reason she is in medical school today. Bianca graduated from Howard University in May 2011 Magna Cum Laude, with a Bachelors of Science degree. For those who are not aware of the university, Howard is the original and most prestigious of the historically black colleges. The university is rich with history just like Dartmouth College. There she was accepted into the Phi Beta Kappa Honors Society. After graduation, she took a year to devote her time to volunteerism at her church food pantry and at LaRabida Children's Hospital. Bianca also continued work as a bank teller, a more exciting job than one would expect. Her love of science is rooted in the educational values her grandparents bestowed upon her. Bianca is eager to learn not only from the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, but also what you as her peers and colleagues will have to teach.
Alyssa Corley, MD - 2017
Ali is a California native, but spent the majority of her childhood growing up in Colorado Springs, CO. She attended Pomona College in Claremont, CA and graduated in 2011 with a major in Biology. After graduating, Ali moved first to Chicago, and then to San Francisco where she spent two years working on a research team at the VA Palo Alto to conduct biomedical informatics research. Much of Ali's work at the VA involved developing tools, such as clinical decision support systems and natural language processing programs, that integrate with and effectively use data in the electronic health records to improve quality of care in primary care settings. While living in San Francisco, Ali regularly volunteered at a homeless shelter in her neighborhood which had an especially serious problem concerning homelessness and inaccessibility to health care. Her experiences in Chicago and San Francisco helped spark Ali's interest in medicine, and in particular, urban health. Ali has also co-founded an IRS 501(c)3 approved non-profit organization called Alliance for Medical Aid, or ALMA for short. The mission of ALMA is to provide medical supplies, financial support and assistance to doctors, clinics and hospitals in underserved communities all over the world. Ali is passionate about the health issues faced by both local urban populations and other diverse global populations in need and sees many areas of overlap between the two populations and the types of effective interventions and volunteer efforts that can be directed to help them.
Tiffany Hoang - 2017
Tiffany Hoang was born and raised in Fort Worth, Texas before moving to Los Angeles, CA for high school and college. She attended California State University, Fullerton as a President's Scholar and graduated in 2012 with a degree in biological science. During her undergraduate studies, she volunteered with local and international free clinics and at two hospitals where she assisted with delivering direct patient care and played music for patients. Tiffany spent a summer studying abroad in South Africa and observed the healthcare situation for HIV/AIDS patients. Before starting her medical studies, she embarked on a backpacking trip through Europe as a solo traveler. Tiffany's interest in urban medicine stems from her experiences living near urban centers, traveling through urban cities, and volunteering in different healthcare settings. She recognizes that urban medicine is closely associated to socioeconomic problems. As an Urban Health Scholar, Tiffany hopes to further explore the medical and socio-economic challenges of urban medicine to better prepare to serve her future patients. In her spare time, she enjoys traveling, playing music, snowboarding, and trying new foods.
Tina Jaramillo - 2017
Tina was born in upstate New York and raised in Bethlehem, PA. From there, she went on to graduate in 2012 from Cornell University with a B.A. in Biological Sciences and Psychology. Her time spent working at the Cayuga Medical Center sparked her interest in medicine as well as caring for the underserved. After graduation, she spent the year working in the Americorps program, City Year Boston, where she tutored and mentored 10th graders at an inner-city public high school. From this experience, she gained perspective on the challenges low-income populations face, both inside and outside of the classroom. These challenges included many health related issues, and she saw her students struggle to gain access to the high quality care they deserved. Her time at the English High School confirmed that she wants to eventually work to close the disparity gap in health care, as well as work with youth populations who are the most at risk. As an Urban Health Scholar, she is excited to gain insight and knowledge on the struggles of at-risk inner-city populations, as well as strategies on how to spend her career advocating for health equity. After Geisel, she isn't sure exactly what branch of medicine she would like to pursue, but is strongly considering looking for a specialty within the pediatric realm.
Hayley Jones - 2017
Evelyn Bae - 2016
Evelyn Bae was born and raised in Blue Bell, PA, outside of Philadelphia. She graduated from Cornell University in 2010, having majored in Human Development Studies. She first became interested in public health issues while at Cornell, volunteering with several local health organizations including a syringe exchange program at an AIDS clinic and pregnancy center. These experiences spurred her interest in local health programs targeting community specific needs. After graduating from college, she worked for two years in aging research at the Columbia University Medical Center. Living and working in New York City, while continuing to volunteer with programs serving predominantly immigrant populations, she recognized the importance of cultural and socioeconomic diversity, and access in issues relevant to urban medicine. As an Urban Health Scholar, she hopes to further explore how these areas are being addressed in neighboring urban communities and incorporate this knowledge into her future role as a practicing physician. In her free time, she enjoys traveling, sleeping, and learning winter sports!
Asha Clarke - 2016
Asha Clarke lived in a number of places growing up, but spent many years in Seattle, WA and just outside of London, England. She graduated from Tufts University in 2008 with a degree in Clinical Psychology and Comparative Religions. She pursued a career in the social services sector, working as a counselor in a group home for children and later as an Inclusion Specialist in an inner-city school in Boston. In doing this work, Asha saw how inequalities in the health care system left many of her clients vulnerable and unable to access adequate care. She hopes to pursue pediatrics, with an interest in working with underserved urban populations and in exploring health policy to improve access to care.
Asha McClurg - 2016
Asha McClurg was born and raised in Fort Collins, Colorado. She went to the University of Colorado, where she met her husband and fellow Urban Health Scholar Wade Harrison. During her undergraduate education, she was a research assistant at the Center for Gait and Movement Analysis at the Children's Hospital in Denver, chaired the board for the university's student health clinic, and participated in neurophysiology research. After graduation she moved to India to work in urban hospitals, volunteer at rural clinics and backpack across the country. She returned home from India to work as a medical assistant for an ENT surgeon in Fort Collins, CO. In 2010 she moved to the Upper Valley and joined The Dartmouth Institute as a Health Policy Fellow where she worked on projected focused on payment reform and accountable care organizations. Her experiences in hospitals and clinics around the world and studying domestic health care policy at TDI sparked Asha's passion for developing policy solutions that will address the disparities in health care. She hopes to learn in UHS how to develop health care systems tailored to the unique needs of urban populations that can improve care for vulnerable patients.
Inyang Udo-Inyang - 2016
Inyang was born in Hong Kong, but raised in Lagos, Nigeria. He graduated from Oberlin College in 2012 with a degree in Biochemistry. As a Bonner Scholar at Oberlin, he was greatly involved with service in the community and also spent a considerable amount of time working on conflict resolution as a mediator/facilitator for the Oberlin College Dialogue Center. Inyang's interest in Urban medicine primarily stems from his upbringing in Lagos and the 5 years he spent in Cuba during his teenage years. The time spent in Havana, exposed him to a different style of Western medicine with much better outcomes and triggered a burning desire to address the lack of appropriate healthcare in his home country. He views the Urban Health Scholars program as an amazing opportunity to continue to get exposure to the issues concerning undeserved patients while in medical school. Inyang is a big soccer player and an avid fan of Real Madrid and the Miami Heat. His other hobbies include reading, traveling and spending time with friends and family.
Emily Atwood - 2016
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.
Wade Harrison - 2016
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 Geisel 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.
Joseph Graterol - 2015
The University of California, San Francisco, CA - Emergency Medicine
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. 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. While at Geisel, he used 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 Geisel 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
Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, NH - Internal Medicine
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 connected with classmates who were equally passionate about urban medicine and gained a better understanding of the issues influencing healthcare for medically underserved populations. She increased awareness of the disparities in healthcare access and delivery that exist in urban centers and to expand the urban health opportunities available for Geisel students. Swapna learned from physicians and patients alike while at Geisel. She also worked to promote good health within the community.
Katherine Zeitler - 2015
Boston University Medical Center, Boston, MA - Primary Medicine
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 Geisel 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 planned to return to Boston with her husband for her residency as a primary care physician, and was therefore committed to learning as much as she could 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 also looked to leave Geisel proficient in Spanish, and created 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 - 2015
Boston University Medical Center, Boston, MA - Dermatology
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.
Aly Lopez-Aguiar - 2014
Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA - General Surgery
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.
Naveen Krishnan - 2014
Georgetown University Hospital, Washington, DC - Plastic Surgery
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. His interest in urban medicine and international medicine stems from his work in developing countries and background as the son of immigrant parents. While at Geisel, he continued 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. In his spare time he likes to play tennis, travel, and watch television/movies.
Stephanie Rolin - 2014
NYP Hospital - Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY - Psychiatry
Devang Sharma - 2014
University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA - Uroplogy
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 expanded his medical experiences with underserved communities and provided mentorship to urban youth.
Katherine Loftus - 2013
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY - Anesthesiology
Katie 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. While in medical school, she was eager 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 shared this understanding with fellow classmates, as well as increased the opportunities for Geisel 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
UCLA Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA - Internal Medicine
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 continued 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 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.
Christopher Worsham - 2013
Boston University Medical Center, Boston, MA - Internal Medicine
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. Though he enjoyed helping others one-on-one in the hospital or in the clinic, he also got involved by teaching and working with youth, promoting good health practices, and combating disease on the community and population levels. He knows his experiences in the Urban Health Scholars program provided him with knowledge and experience to help launch a career in urban health and medicine.
Mina Ghaly - 2012
Einstein/Montefiore Medical Center, Bronx, NY - Plastic Surgery
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. 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. This eventually led him to Geisel in 2008. In his spare time, he likes to follow the Patriots, Red Sox and Celtics and he also enjoys traveling.
Bilal Mahmood, MD - 2012
URMC Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation, Rochester, NY
URMC Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation, Rochester, NY
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. In the future, he wants to work in urban and international environments. As a former member of UHS, Bilal wants to improve urban opportunities for current and future Geisel students. He also wants to raise awareness of urban issues in health care that may not be stressed otherwise.
Mary Kate Rod Hattan, MD - 2012
Greater Lawrence Family Health Center, Lawrence, MA (Tufts) - Family Medicine
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 was excited to be a part of UHS while at Geisel. 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, MD - 2012
University of Washington Affiliated Hospitals, Seattle, WA - Internal Medicine
University of Washington Affiliated Hospitals, Seattle, WA - Internal Medicine
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. While at Dartmouth, he was excited to have the opportunity to be part of the Urban Health Scholars program, and loved learning more about the many unique social and health concerns that face urban communities both domestically and abroad.
Kimberly Cartmill, MD - 2011
NYU School of Medicine, New York, NY - Primary Medicine
Kimberly is from Wappingers Falls, NY and graduated from State University of New York at Albany in May 2007. After her residency, she is planning on entering an Infectious Disease fellowship. As part of UHS, she worked to obtain more urban clinical experiences for Geisel students. It is important that Geisel students receive adequate training to work in underserved cities. She also tried to expand some of the Spanish speaking programs at the medical school to help prepare students to practice medicine with a diverse population.
Patricio Roman, MD - 2011
University of Kansas School of Medicine, Kansas City, KS - Plastic Surgery
Pat was born in St. Lucia from Chilean parents, raised in Venezuela, and is now a US citizen. The youngest of three kids, Pat attended high school in Caracas, Venezuela, and graduated in 1999. One year later he moved to Orlando, Florida where he lived with his parents before joining the US Army. After serving for 4 years and participating in operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom Pat was honorably discharged and started his path to becoming a doctor. He obtained his A.A. in General Studies at Valencia Community College and later his B.S. in Molecular Biology and Microbiology at the University of Central Florida. Being raised in an urban environment, Pat was a first hand witness to the problems that affect this population, and once he chose to become a physician he decided to do his part in helping those who he saw suffering as he grew up.
Liz Killien, MD - 2011
University of Washington, Seattle, WA - Pediatrics
Liz is from Seattle, WA, and is a 2006 graduate of Williams College. At Williams, she majored in political science with a focus on international relations, and minored in neuroscience. She studied abroad in Copenhagen during her junior year of college, living with a Danish family and studying European Union politics and Scandinavian health care and medicine. She also rowed for four years on the Williams crew team, which won the Div. III NCAA championship her senior year. After graduating, Liz worked as a clinical research associate in pediatric orthopedic surgery at Seattle Children's Hospital, and completed research projects on diabetes at Seattle's Harborview Medical Centerand on health care access at a local community clinic.
Liz's interest in urban health stems from her work at these large urban medical centers, and her desire to experience the diversity in clientele and health conditions encountered in urban settings. As a member of UHS, she worked to participate in projects involving homelessness and health care access, learn more about effective cross-cultural health care provision, and bring speakers and events to Dartmouth to expose other Geisel students to issues in urban health. Liz was also a member of the Patient Partners program, was a co-leader of the Pediatrics Interest Group, and through a Schweitzer Fellowship developed an outdoor activities and education program for at-risk middle school students. She enjoys hiking, biking, cross-country skiing, and running, and is currently training for a triathlon.
Katie Au, MD - 2011
Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, OR - Obstetrics/Gynecology
Katie is a San Francisco native and a graduate of Oberlin College where she majored in Neuroscience, played libero on the volleyball team, and threw the javelin for the track & field team. After graduation, Katie moved back to San Francisco to work at UCSF and San Francisco General Hospital. She worked on studies evaluating health care status and outcomes of the homeless and marginally housed and also led a study on physician hospital admission decisions of homeless patients entering the Emergency Room. Katie has many interests in minority health and in care for the underserved. At Dartmouth, Katie sang in the Dermatones a capella group, was a member of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day planning committee, worked on a mental health project at the Good Neighbor free clinic in White River Junction, VT, and played in a co-ed volleyball league with other medical students and residents. She also enjoys stained glass artwork, singing, various ethnic foods, finding new ways to be green, the outdoors, frequenting the local farmer's markets, and just about any sport.
Nick Ellis, MD - 2011
Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, NH - Surgery-Preliminary
Nick's interest in Urban Health started with his work internationally when he discovered an interest in health disparities and issues around access to care. Nick's main focus in college was on Latin America and in medical school he has continued that interest in Latin America which has also grown into access to care for Latino populations in this country.
Leslie Claracay, MD - 2010
Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC - Pediatrics
Moore Catholic High School in 2003. In 2006, she graduated from Georgetown University with a Biology degree. At Georgetown, Leslie was an EMT for the Georgetown Emergency Response Medical Service, CPR Instructor, intern for Senator Mel Martinez, member of Club Filipino, peer advisor, and TA in biology, biochemistry and calculus. She also loves playing volleyball, playing the piano, practicing yoga, running, learning languages, and traveling. In 2005, she went on a Delegation on Medicine to South Africa. Then, in 2006, Leslie co-founded Georgetown's MESAHI Project, a healthcare initiative for the Tuikut village in Kenya, which runs a mobile clinic with Georgetown undergrads, medical students, and Kenyan doctors. In 2007, she received a Dartmouth International Health Group (DIHG) fellowship to teach dengue fever prevention in the Philippines, where she also participated in a nutrition month campaign. Leslie also did work in Manchester, NH, as a Geisel Urban Health Scholar, where she did a lead screening project with the health department. At Dartmouth, she am also a CPR Instructor for Geisel Heart, volunteer and website designer for the school's free student-run Mascoma Clinic, and a Patient Partner for an elderly woman with renal disease. Leslie became involved in Urban Health Scholars because she envisioned herself working in underserved urban communities and doing international volunteer work. Through the UHS program, she was exposed to the health issues in underserved urban populations, and brought awareness of these issues back to the Geisel community.
Umbareen Mahmood, MD - 2010
University of South Florida College of Medicine, Tampa, FL - Plastic Surgery
Umbar was born and raised in Short Hills, NJ and graduated from Dartmouth College in 2006 where she majored in Psychology and Brain Sciences. During her undergraduate studies, she dedicated a significant amount of time to her roles as Senior Interviewer on the Admissions Committee, Civic Intern at the Tucker Foundation, the Presidential Scholar program, and as an undergraduate advisor. She participated in research at NYU Medical School and was also a Cancer Research Training Scholar at the NIH-NCI. One of her most significant and life-altering experiences was traveling to Rawalpindi, Pakistan with an international healthcare team through the International Children's Heart Foundation, an organization whose mission is to perform critical surgery on children with congenital heart disease and educate healthcare professionals in foreign institutions. She spent the summer following her first year of medical school as a research fellow at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in NY and notes that it was a wonderful experience in which she was able to explore various facets of the medical field. At the Geisel School of Medicine she served on the Admissions Committee, and was involved in Physicians for Human Rights and the American Medical Association. Umbareen was enthusiastic about being involved in the UHS program as she hoped to serve as a physician in underserved urban communities and in international settings in the future. She believes that exposure to urban health issues provides indispensable insight and skill in being able to communicate and understand individuals of all backgrounds, as well as increases awareness of the unique cultural, social, and environmental elements that are fundamentally associated with being able to provide medical care for any individual.
Rajesh Ramanathan, MD - 2010
Virginia Commonwealth Univ. Health System, Richmond, VA - General Surgery
Rajesh was born in Bangalore, India, and studied Molecular & Cellular Biology and Philosophy at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. At the Geisel School of Medicine, Rajesh had the opportunity to be involved in a number of organizations including the American Medical Students Association, the Public Health Policy and Advocacy Committee and the Urban Health Scholars Program. Some of his interests include exploring unique issues of underserved youth, HIV/AIDS in urban communities and refugee populations, and international development. Through the Urban Health Scholars program, he further explored these issues and contributed through learning and service.
Omri Ayalon, MD - 2010
NYU Hospital for Joint Disease, New York, NY - Orthopaedic Surgery
Omri's upbringing allowed him to be exposed to a wide array of people and experiences, including the rich Southwestern culture of southern Arizona, a slice of small-town-USA in upstate New York, as well as some time over seas in an urban setting in Rishon-Le-Zion, Israel. During his time at Brandeis University as an ecology major and anthropology minor, he became interested in the interactions people have with each other as well as with their environment. This joint interest in the biological and sociological sciences led him to pursue medicine as a career at Geisel. In the medical school setting, UHS provided Omri with an opportunity to continue his interests and apply them unique ventures in learning about urban medicine. While at Geisel, he undertook an UHS-inspired experience in Israel and presented upon his return. While on a clinical rotation there, Omri learned about Israeli urban medicine, its attributes and drawbacks, as well as highlight the state of Palestinian health within the country.
Katie Ratzan, MD - 2010
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI - Pediatrics
Georgetown University and a post-baccalaureate program at UConn. Before medical school, she worked in Chelsea & Revere, Massachusetts implementing a food insecurity screening and outreach support program for Massachusetts General Hospital. In addition, Katie volunteered in southwestern Uganda organizing a clean water project in several small villages. While at Dartmouth, Katie worked extensively with Physicians for Human Rights both at the local and national levels. Her main interest in urban health centers is around the glaring inequalities in healthcare of those living in urban settings. She spent three months of her 4th year working at a pediatric clinic in Gabon. Her favorite activities are cooking, eating ice cream, watching Arrested Development and The Family Guy, and telling herself she'll exercise starting tomorrow.
Carolyn Presley, MD - 2009
Yale-New Haven Hospital, New Haven, CT - Primary Medicine
Carolyn Presley graduated from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities with a B.S. in genetics and a minor in foreign studies. She first became interested in medicine while interning in an inner city clinic in Dakar, Senegal. In medical school, through the Albert Schweitzer fellowship, she worked with underserved women in the Upper Valley recovering from homelessness and drug and alcohol addiction. Carolyn's career goals include changing national health policy to help Americans afford basic healthcare. Carolyn also enjoys international health work and learning new languages. When she is not at the hospital she enjoys cooking, biking, hiking, and tennis.