Graduate Scholars
Ali Corley - 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 socio-economic 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.
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 - Urology
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
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
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
Leslie is from Orlando, FL, where she graduated from Bishop 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
Katie grew up in West Hartford, CT, attended college at 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 Masschusetts 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 Schweiter 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.