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Biographies by Name Joy became interested in medicine and global health while volunteering at a rural hospital in Zimbabwe as part of a study abroad program in college. She then took a year off and volunteered on Mercy Ships in Sierra Leone and The Gambia, officially working in the ship's galley while spending her free time with the medical outreach teams to the local villages. After her first year of medical school, she returned to Zimbabwe and participated in a research project involving an innovative adolescent reproductive health intervention aimed at reducing the rates of teenage pregnancy, STI's and HIV/AIDS. Also during medical school, she traveled to Rwanda and worked in the pediatric, obstetric, and surgical departments of a rural hospital, learning good quality medicine in a low-income setting from the local Congolese and Rwandan doctors. She hopes to return to Africa in the future for a career involving clinical medicine, public health and local education.
Alex spent three months during medical school working on the general surgery service in St. Petersburg, Russia, in a setting of nationalized healthcare system, where access to any technological advancement is limited by each patient's ability to "pay extra". As part of his career as an academic surgeon, he is planning to spend a portion of his time on achieving self-sustainable primary surgical care in parts of the 3rd-world by training local healthcare workers and civilians in the level-appropriate techniques and procedures. In 2007-2008, he will travel to Uganda to work on a research collaboration with the Makerere University, to study pre-hospital trauma care of injured patients.
Nerys Benfield is a global lady and, as an ob/gyn third year resident, has a strong interest in global health. She holds a degree in social theory from Harvard University and has worked internationally researching maternal to child transmission of HIV in Guatemala. Nerys is excited to put her plans to the test and engage in solid international health discourse. She is most interested in obstetric fistulas, both their repair and prevention, as well as the crucial importance of affordable and accessible contraception as a human health and rights issue.
Cyndi's interest in international health began during a year-long study abroad experience in Quito, Ecuador during her undergraduate nursing studies. She subsequently conducted ethnographic research in rural Zambia, then went on to gain clinical nursing experience in several large Emergency Departments in Los Angeles and San Francisco. She has since volunteered at church-affiliated mobile clinics in Mexico and downtown Los Angeles, and written grants and nursing protocols for several public health organizations in India. After graduate school, Cyndi hopes to work as a Clinical Nurse Specialist with Mexican immigrants and migrant workers in California, on issues surrounding HIV/AIDS and female empowerment.
Between his 3rd and 4th years of medical school, Richard lived and worked in Bangkok, Thailand as a Henry Luce Scholar. He helped lead workshops in work site safety for agricultural and small enterprise workers in rural areas with the goal of helping them to make their worksites safer. Richard hopes to do program development, policy work, education, or clinical research abroad and would love to end up in Asia again one day. For his residency project, he is working with Royce Lin at SFGH on developing an HIV educational model.
Dr. Elizabeth Bukusi is a senior research officer at the Kenya Medical Research Institute. She received her MBChB. and her M.Med in Obstetrics and Gynecology from the University of Nairobi. Soon after completing her specialist training, Dr. Bukusi began to study reproductive tract infection, which eventually led to her completing an MPH in Epidemiology at the University of Washington. She is currently completing her dissertation for a PhD in Epidemiology. She has participated in several investigations in reproductive tract infections, including studies on diaphragm efficacy and acceptability, male microbicides, and bacterial vaginosis. Dr. Bukusi supervises graduate students in the department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Nairobi.
Dr. Cohen is an Associate Adjunct Professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). He conducts medical research in two major areas: female reproductive tract infections and HIV/AIDS care and support in developing countries. He is PI for the Sexually Transmitted Infections Clinical Trials Group (STI CTG), a seven-year NIH contract that supports clinical trials for STI diagnostics, treatment and vaccines, as well as microbicides, both domestically and internationally. Dr. Cohen is director of the CDC PEPFAR-funded Kenya-based FACES, Family AIDS Care and Education Services, which provides HIV/AIDS care and support to patients and their family members in Nairobi and Nyanza Province in western Kenya. Starting in 1994, he established a research and training program in Nairobi and Kisumu, Kenya. In addition to conducting research, the goal of the program is to enhance local capacity to conduct biomedical research through training and infrastructure development. Overall, the collaborative program employs approximately 200 full-time staff in Kenya including epidemiologists, physicians, nurse-counselors, laboratory technologists, field workers, data managers, biostatisticians and administrative staff. In addition, Dr. Cohen has mentored over 30 predoctoral students, residents and post-doctoral fellows, most of whom have conducted research in Kenya.
The summer after his first year in medical school, Mark spent six weeks volunteering in a pediatric hospital in Dakar, Senegal. The following summer he spent six weeks in Mexico, in part rotating through a pediatrics ward and emergency room in Puebla. During his third year he completed a family medicine rotation in an Inuit town in northern Quebec, on the coast of the Hudson Bay. Finally, Mark spent a year in Ecuador conducting clinical research in tuberculosis prior to starting residency. Currently, Mark is focusing on a project to develop and implement a pediatric emergency medicine curriculum in Oaxaca. He hopes to continue to pursue medical education in developing countries as well as to serve in more acute medical settings, such as refugee camps.
Ibrahim Daud first considered specializing in sexually transmitted infections (STI) when he began work in the STI department of the National AIDS/STI Control Program (NASCOP) in Kenya. Daud quickly recognized that patient treatment was inadequate due to imprecise diagnoses and a lack of antibiotic sensibility testing. Noting the lack of empirical research on the scientific intricacies of HIV/AIDS and STI in Kenya, Daud resolved to gain research skills that he could apply to this issue in the interest of improving STI diagnosis, treatment, and prevention in resource-limited countries. Currently, Daud is working in a Molecular epidemiology lab that focuses in Human Papilloma Research (HPV) research. His other studies at UCSF focus on the nature, pathogenesis, virulence and the diversity of STI causative agents with the view to innovate scientific solutions. Studying at UCSF offers the opportunity to pursue such knowledge and skills.
Kohar first became interested in global health during her first year in college, in which she spent 3 months in Armenia working at a Pediatric Burn Center. After graduating, she returned to Armenia as a member of the Armenian Volunteer Corps. Kohar became intricately involved in developing training and education modules in the areas of Maternal and Infant Health for rural villages in Armenia and the war torn enclave of Nagorno Karabagh. She also collaborated with several NGOs to research health disparities and to strategize about implementing public health campaigns in a country where none existed. During medical school, she also spent time in Swaziland, working in an HIV/AIDS hospital in Steki.
Lisas global health experience includes studying barriers to care in Ecuador, working with community health workers in Guatemala, and implementing home-based rapid HIV testing for orphans in Botswana. She has also volunteered and studied in Costa Rica, Belize, Cuba, Mozambique and Uganda. In the future, Lisa hopes to work in Africa addressing child health and the HIV/AIDS epidemic. She feels lucky to be beginning her career at a time with such renewed energy and passion regarding global health.
Kainne was raised in Nigeria and experienced firsthand the devastating effects of poor health. Determined to make a difference, she decided on a career in medicine and public health, hoping to reduce the high rates of morbidity and mortality of preventable diseases in endemic areas. During medical school, she spent time doing clinical electives in Lagos, Nigeria, which exposed her to the local healthcare system and the need for well trained physicians in developing countries. Her research interests include increasing access and ensuring adherence to antiretroviral regimens among HIV infected individuals in resource-limited settings. She is currently doing a residency in internal medicine, after which she hopes to partake in the CDC Epidemic Intelligence Service program and also undergo fellowship training in infectious diseases. Her goals are to combine clinical care, research and coordinate public health efforts focused on the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases in sub-Saharan Africa.
Sean became interested in global health in high school when he volunteered in Michoacan, Mexico with the nonprofit organization Amigos de las Americas to promote health awareness and community sanitation in rural Mexico. He has continued to work with Spanish-speaking families through various organizations during college, medical school, and residency. He is interested in researching urologic needs in underserved areas and promoting the reduction of morbidity and mortality from both benign and malignant urologic conditions in these areas.
Jane's interest in international work began in Haiti and expanded across Latin America where she studied the disparities between public and private healthcare in Chile. Soon after, Jane headed to Cuba to learn about an alternative healthcare system. Interested in how some of these concepts could be transposed in a capitalistic society, she moved to Berlin where she worked with midwives and learned about a third alternative to healthcare delivery. Interested in expanding her clinical skills, Jane worked as a RN in emergency departments in Washington DC and Quito, Ecuador. Most recently, Jane returned from Africa where she was working on curriculum development with Mzuzu University's School of Nursing in Malawi.
Charles has been interested in global health since college, when a post-apartheid trip to South Africa introduced him to the overwhelming health needs of that country's black majority. Before medical school, he worked in Honduras on a community health project, and in northern Mexico on a multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) control program among the indigenous Tarahumara. During medical school, he worked with Partners in Health (PIH) in Lima, Peru, on community-based programs to treat MDR-TB. He has, in addition, worked with other students, faculty, and administrators to create Columbia's first student program for Global Health Training and Education. Since beginning residency, he again worked with PIH to deliver community based care, this time in rural Haiti, and plans to return there in the coming years. His research interests include the impact of socioeconomic factors on adherence to ART and the development of viral resistance, and the effect of community health workers on adherence to therapy and outcomes among people with HIV disease.
Jessicas interests in global health include workforce development and medical education global health curriculum development. Jessica has completed ethnographic research about harm reduction care delivery amongst Australias IV drug users and sex workers and spent time in rural Kenya. She serves on the Board of Directors of the International Federation of Medical Students Associations United States of America (IFMSA-USA,) a non-profit organization that aims to expose US medical students to global health issues and facilitate collaborations with their counterparts abroad. As a resident at San Francisco General Hospital, Jessica delivers primary care to refugee and low income patients. Domestically, she also studies racial disparities in health care among diabetic adults. Through the Global Health Clinical Scholars Program, Jessica will complete a study using qualitative and quantitative measures to gauge job satisfaction among a cohort of Tanzanian resident physicians with the aim of identifying factors which propel physicians to leave their countries in search of professional development.
Rafaela Salgado Ferreira, 22, has been selected to be the first graduate student in Chemistry and Chemical Biology to be offered a scholarship in the area of concentration in Global Health Sciences. A native of Brazil, Ferreira developed a passion for Chemistry and Biology in high school. While at school and throughout college, Ferreira was able to apply her enthusiasm towards Chemistry by working on tropical diseases with the Rene Rachou Research Center-Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (FIOCRUZ)- Ministry of Health, Brazil. Primarily interested in structure-based drug development, she believes the CCB program at UCSF offers an interdisciplinary environment in which there are people working in different stages giving her the opportunity to get more information about the entire drug development process. The weakness to develop drugs in Brazil for tropical diseases is one of the important aspects that brought her to the United States. Ferreira is inspired and motivated to work on these diseases because she feels they are neglected. She hopes to be part of a team that works towards building development in this area.
Samantha first became interested in international health during college when she spent a summer in Chiapas, Mexico doing fieldwork for her social anthropology thesis. Later on, in medical school, she spent two winters abroad doing clinical work, first in Guatemala and the following year, in Colombia. In Guatemala, she worked in rural health clinics, caring for women and children. In Colombia, she worked in a pediatric emergency room in one of Medellín's public hospital and then with a foundation caring for children with HIV/AIDS in Cali. She's considering pursuing a pediatric emergency room fellowship and plans on continuing to be involved in Latin America over the course of her career.
Tenner spent six months during medical school working in a primary care clinic administering care to underserved, impoverished residents of the pueblos surrounding Antigua, Guatemala. This experience illustrated the need for a global health perspective in the administration of health care and also inspired him to make global health a centerpiece of a career as an orthopaedic surgeon. The role of orthopaedic surgery in the global health sphere is not yet fully defined, and the relative dearth of needs-based assessments as well as preventative measures in orthopaedic trauma on a global scale certainly leaves the door open for much research. Tenner looks forward to the exciting and enriching challenge of molding a career in global orthopaedics, and he is thankful to be a part of a department that has made global health a priority among its faculty and residents.
During medical school, Reena investigated generic antiretroviral therapy (ART) treatment outcomes in Uganda and worked to expand the Family Treatment Fund which provides free antiretroviral therapy to HIV-positive individuals in Mbarara, Uganda. She also worked with the Centers for Disease Control in Guatemala and designed a study evaluating the impact of a government health education program on HIV/AIDS knowledge and health behaviors among commercial sex workers. While in Boston, she worked with the Prevention and Access to Care and Treatment (PACT) Project, a Partners in Health organization, to help develop a directly observed ART program for HIV-positive patients. During college, Reena received a Bates fellowship to study the impact of various policies of the Family Planning Association of India on reproductive rights among women in rural Gujurat, India. Reena is interested in HIV primary care and the opportunities that scale-up of antiretroviral therapy has created for developing models and systems of care to expand primary care infrastructure. She would like to pursue a career in program development for the delivery of high quality primary care in developing countries and be involved in clinical research to evaluate the efficacy of these programs.
Bethann Hromatka, 28, is the first graduate student in Biomedical Sciences to be the recipient of a scholarship in the area of concentration in Global Health Sciences. She is excited to be involved from the beginning of what she considers an innovative and integrative program bringing together a host of disciplines at UCSF. Hromatka was encouraged by her mother to explore, travel, and be independent. This led her to live abroad in Chile, South America for one year as a foreign exchange student. It was at this juncture in her life that she became interested in global health and becoming a scientist. Living and traveling abroad she was witness to the prevalence of untreated chronic and infectious diseases that are unheard of in developed nations. Hromatka became personally committed to global health when she herself became ill in a developing country. After receiving her B.A. in Biology and Spanish, she worked as a research associate at UCSF for four years before applying for her PhD. Hromatka is interested in the Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program at UCSF as she believes in its goal to teach students how to apply molecular and biochemical techniques to studying human disease.
Michelle became interested in global health during medical school, when she was able to work on malnutrition intervention projects in rural Honduras through the Shoulder to Shoulder Foundation and the Children's Nutrition Research Center. She also undertook a pediatrics HIV/AIDS clinical elective in Gaborone, Botswana. Michelle hopes to do work that will bring together her interests in pediatrics, infectious diseases, public health and epidemiology. She would like to work in China.
Prior to medical school, Prasanna spent a year abroad in Delhi, India, performing an ethnographic study at Mother Teresas Home for the Dying and Destitute that analyzed the etiology and implications of health care provision for marginalized communities by religious institutions. In medical school, he became interested in the care of HIV-infected persons, and worked with Partners in Health and the Prevention and Access to Care and Treatment Project to help develop a directly observed therapy-HAART program for patients in Boston. As a fourth year student, he spent two months at McCord Hospital in Durban, South Africa doing a medical rotation in internal medicine. Prasanna is particularly interested in HIV and infectious disease and after completing his residency, plans to pursue an infectious disease fellowship focusing on HIV and TB. His ultimate career goal is to combine clinical work and research, focusing on research that assists in the effective and timely roll out of therapeutic and preventative interventions and infrastructure development.
Ramin comes to the Clinical Scholars program with no prior international health experience, but a great desire to learn about the general options for involvement and the relevant political, financial, scientific and ethical underpinnings. In 2007 he will travel to Makerere University in Uganda to participate in a program aimed at reducing the incidence of and extent of injury from pediatric burn injuries.
Kevin's interests in global health began while serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in a rural town in Cameroon, Central Africa. Working in a local hospital he began to understand firsthand the burden people living in rural areas face with infectious disease, lack of sanitation and access to healthcare. He also taught HIV-AIDs education during his assignment as a high school science teacher. Kevin is looking forward to exploring many aspects of global health and is interested in access to healthcare in rural areas, providing sustainable healthcare through provider education and also working with refugee populations.
Felicia's interest in international health started when she studied abroad during high school. Her interest continued through college where she developed a major in International Health. During that time, she researched health development projects in Mexico, child nutrition projects in Guatemala, and Adolescent reproductive health and sex work in Cuba. During medical school, Felicia received a grant from the Center for Human Rights and the University of Michigan Population Fellows Program to conduct reproductive health research in Cambodia. This research was used as the basis of her MPH thesis. She returned to Cambodia in May of 2005 to conduct further research in this area. During her third year of medical school, she took research time to co-author a paper on pregnancy among young, married adolescents for a WHO/Population Council meeting and publication. She has co-authored two other publications with her mentor, Suellen Miller. One on fistula in developing countries, and the other on new technologies for controlling post-partum hemorrhage in low-resource settings. During her final year in medical school, she went to Egypt to work on a study of the Non-Pneumatic Anti-Shock Garment (NASG), a devise used to control post-partum hemorrhage. Her interest now continues in maternal and child health, with a focus on maternal mortality, emergency obstetrical care and reproductive healthcare in low-resource settings.
Hema's interest in global health stemmed from her many experiences in children's health and welfare in the United States. While studying political science and health disparities of local immigrant populations during college, she developed her interest in a rights-based approach to health care. She then spent a year working in South Africa for a local children's health and human rights organization focused on violence and injury prevention. During medical school, she founded the University of Pennsylvania's first student-run global health program through a community partnership with a local HIV/AIDS hospice in Gaborone, Botswana. She also conducted research examining the health-seeking behavior of adolescents in Gaborone for STD symptoms, in relation to their level of HIV knowledge and rate of HIV testing. Now doing her pediatric residency at UCSF, Hema hopes to address the needs of marginalized populations through a career in health and human rights based on patient care, community-based research, and activism.
Ayonija's interest in health in low income countries began early when as a refugee of the Gulf war in Kuwait, she was exposed to deep gender-based inequities in healthcare in India, her country of origin. Moved by those experiences, she began shadowing health care providers catering to women's health in rural India as a teenager, and later incollege in the United States, worked directly with survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence. Her interest in gender based violence peaked when she had the opportunity to research the healthcare and health needs of women and girls trafficked for sexual servitude in India. The unique role of gender in determining the health needs of women and its impact on healthcare delivery became the focus of her studies in public health school. As a global health scholar during residency, she hopes to continue to work in the field of gender based violence through continued research, program development, and advocacy efforts in sex trafficking.
Ana Miranda Maldonado was born in San Salvador, El Salvador and immigrated to the U.S. with her family at the age of four. She grew up mostly in the Los Angeles area, and attended college at USC. While in college she participated in two public health research projects, one examining the effects of allergens on the respiratory health of Latino children and another project examining maternal health in the small village of Tocachi outside of Quito, Ecuador. While in medical school, she participated in a month long clinical Infectious Diseases rotation in Mumbia,, India. She is currently a resident in the Primary Care Internal Medicine at SFGH and has an interest in working with immigrant, primarily Spanish speaking patient populations. She plans on ultimately working in a community clinic setting in Los Angeles in the areas of advocacy and program development on behalf of Central Americans in the U.S. as well as in her native El Salvador.
James McKerrow, the Robert E. Smith Endowed Chair in Experimental Pathology, directs the Sandler Center for Basic Research in Parasitology and the Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program at UCSF. Dr McKerrow teaches in a wide variety of classes at UCSF, including directing the BMS Macromolecules course, teaching the cell biology and biochemistry of hemostasis to medical students, and teaching the series on parasitology in the Infection, Immunity, and Inflammation course. His lectures have ranged from diseases of the pancreas to microbial pathogenesis. He is the recipient of several teaching awards. His laboratory has three primary interests. The first two focus on defining the biology of the host-parasite relationship for global parasitic infections such as schistosomiasis and trypanosomiasis. The third area is the role of proteases in tumor progression. Dr. McKerrow earned a PhD in biology at University of California, San Diego working on peptide chemistry with side trips in molecular genetics and molecular evolution. Following his graduate work he received an M.D. at SUNY Stony Brook and did postgraduate clinical training in internal medicine in New York and in pathology at UCSF.
Susans work in global health began prior to medical school, when she volunteered with a humanitarian aid organization in South Sudan. She continued this interest throughout medical school, earning an MPH in international health, and doing primary care work in India and Haiti. In psychiatry residency at UCSF, she started the Bay Area International Mental Health Interest Group (~300 members) and returned to Africa to work with refugees through the UCSF psychiatry research program. She is currently working with Barbara Harrell-Bond on a controlled trial of psychological trauma therapy for Darfuri refugees in Cairo with measures assessing interpersonal violence and community solidarity. Susans goal is to work full time in academic research. Her primary interest is in how psychological trauma increases the tendency toward interpersonal violence, particularly domestic violence, and how this phenomenon might destabilize communities that are attempting to recover from ethnic conflict and fuel ongoing violence.
George Michuki began exploring his interest in disease pathogenesis while a researcher at the Centre for Microbiology Research at KEMRI, where he was involved in clinical and environmental bacteriology research. Michuki built upon the skills he acquired at the Centre in obtaining a Masters degree in Medical Microbiology. Currently in his PhD studies, Michuki is working towards the goal of determining the role of bacteriophage in development of bacterial vaginosis condition in women. To achieve this goal he is applying molecular and bioinformatics techniques in the DeRisi lab, Biochemistry and Biophysics Department, UCSF. His future interests are to join other scientists in understanding and contributing to knowledge on tropical infectious diseases by research. Based on the belief that the world is a global village, Michuki hopes to be involved in collaborative research with scientists not only in Kenya but globally.
Dorothy Ngacha is a senior lecturer in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Nairobi. She completed her MPH in 1997 at the University of Washington as part of the Fogarty International Center AIDS International Training and Research Program (AITRP). Currently, Dr. Ngacha is the Kenyan PI on the study of cellular immune responses in HIV uninfected babies exposed to breastmilk, and co-PI on The pilot project on prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (of HIV/AIDS in Kenya. She also heads the clinical team for th HIV DNA vaccine study in Kenya. Dr. Ngacha has extensive experience in mentoring graduate students in the Department of Pediatrics and training in research methods. She is the immediate past Deputy Director of the Nairobi Clinical Epidemiology Unit and has often served as the acting Chairman of the Department of Pediatrics.
Benjamin Ngugi's interest in medical research began while working at the Kenyatta national Hospital in Nairobi Kenya as a Medical Officer. He applied and was awarded a Department for International Development (DFID) scholarship to study Epidemiology at the University of Cambridge, UK, where he graduated in May 2003. He proceeded to work for KEMRI at the Centre for Microbiology Research (CMR) where he was involved in data analysis of an ongoing filariasis project. Currently in his PhD research, Ngugi is working towards the goal of determining the factors which may influence the colonization of the vagina by probiotic lactobacilli (Lactin V, Osel Inc.) given to women diagnosed with Bacterial Vaginosis (BV) for prevention of recurrence after they are treated with Metronidazole vaginal gel. To achieve this goal he is working on a protocol for a cohort study to be nested in the main phase ?? Randomized Controlled Trial assessing the effectiveness of Lactin V in women with BV. His career goal is to become an experienced researcher in the field of Medical Epidemiology and to be an expert in sexually transmitted infection (STI) research, especially in the use of probiotics and other upcoming remedies to treat genito-urinary diseases and to prevent the spread of HIV. Ngugi also hopes that while at UCSF and when he goes back home he will form collaborations to increase the scope, knowledge base and international coordination in his area of research.
Hilary Njenge developed an interest in Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) while volunteering at National HIV Reference Laboratory, at the National Blood Transfusion Center and Institute of Primate Research (IPR) in Nairobi, Kenya. The Infectious Disease Research Training Program at UCSF has greatly empowered him in designing clinical research and developing epidemiological skills. He is working towards applying these skills to global health problems, specifically blood borne diseases. Currently, Njenge is attached at the Blood Centers of the Pacific, working towards the goal of determining the prevalence and risk factors of Hepatitis B Virus and Hepatitis C Virus in HIV-discordant couples as well as the risk factors for HBV and HCV concordance among HIV discordant couples in Kenya.
Everlyne Ombati became interested in sexually transmitted infections after an eye-opening lecture on the scope of infectious diseases in Africa. After listening and watching documentaries on the impact HIV/AIDS has had on many families in Africa, she decided to pursue a career in STIs. Having lived in Africa, she is a witness to the many health challenges faced by developing countries, where women and children are the most affected due largely to their unequal social status. Everlyne's main objective is to gain comprehensive understanding of the new principles of management and control of sexually transmitted infections. Her primary interest is working with young women with the aim of evaluating the risk behavior and determining the prevalence of STI which will assist in STI and HIV prevention intervention strategies. Her plans for the future are to work in a research institution collaborating with other scientists as part of the global endeavor to address the infectious and non-infectious diseases the world is facing.
Gabriela was born in Honduras and was raised all over Central America and the Caribbean. She then came to the USA to continue her education but kept up her interest Latin American health issues. During college, she traveled back to Honduras and worked with local doctors who collaborated with medical mission teams from all over the United States and Europe. She also interned at WHO headquarters in Geneva. While in medical school, she traveled with a medical team from Virginia to rural Honduras. She is now working on establishing an educational relationship between UCSF and the national medical school of Honduras.
Meg's nascent interest in global health and health equity issues was strengthened during medical school through involvement in the Yale Health and Human Rights Committee, a student group affiliated with the national group Physicians for Human Rights that believes that human rights are essential preconditions for the health and well-being of all people and that health professionals are uniquely qualified to promote health by protecting human rights. She led HHRC as a second-year student, collaborating with other concerned students and physician activists on issues such as landmines and the global HIV pandemic. Wanting to seek out more hands-on experiences in global health, she spent a "5th year" of medical school traveling in the developing world, which included medical work in the Indian Himalayas, Eritrea and Honduras.
Tammy's global health interest began during her junior year of her undergraduate degree when she spent a summer in Thailand studying community health and HIV/AIDS. After college, Tammy joined the Peace Corps and served in Madagascar and South Africa. While in Southern Africa, she focused on community and home health. Currently, she is a second year student at UCSF in the Advanced Community Health and International Nursing program with a focus in HIV/AIDS. Tammy plans to serve underserved populations both domestically and internationally in primary care and program development.
Krista began to formulate her interest in global health during MPH coursework between the third and fourth years of medical school. In addition to non-academic international travel during that year, she completed one month in Costa Rica in an immersion Spanish program and spent time in a women's clinic in San Jose. During her fourth year of medical school, Krista participated in a tropical diseases course in Lima and Iquitos (Amazon region), Peru and also participated in an elective for MD/MPH students in CDC's Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS). Following completion of residency, she hopes to participate in CDC's two-year EIS program. Eventually, Krista would like to complete a pulmonary/critical care diseases fellowship and become more involved in HIV-related pulmonary disease research and tuberculosis control and eradication, focusing her efforts toward resource-poor settings.
Nick has taken courses in global health and holds a master's in cultural anthropology from Stanford. In the Global Health Clinical Scholars Program he will participate in his first research project abroad. The "Modelos" project will evaluate three groups of practitioners and their impact on maternal mortality in Mexico. He plans to complete a fellowship in family planning, and is interested in the need for contraception in the developing world, unsafe abortion, and maternal mortality. In the future, he envisions being involved in providing direct services and capacity building in developing countries.
Ginelle's global health interests began while serving as a translator with a medical team at La Buena Fe, a community clinic outside of San Pedro Sula, Honduras. She revisited the area, as a dentist and served at El Refugio, a Honduran orphanage, where she focused on dental care and education. This second trip inspired Ginelle to organize a benefit concert, whose proceeds support the health care needs of El Refugio children. As a pediatric dentistry resident, Ginelle is interested in raising awareness to children's oral health needs and related quality of life issues while providing education and service on local and international levels.
Growing up, Harriette Sande always wanted to work in the health sector but not necessarily be a doctor or a nurse. After graduating from her undergraduate degree program, Sande worked as an administrator and teacher. During this year, she felt she could do more in the field of health. With encouragement from her mother she enrolled in the Public Health Program at ITROMID. Sandes primary interest is in how to improve health care access in resource poor settings. Being part of the Infectious Disease Research Training Program at UCSF has given her an opportunity to learn how important research is in the development of health care systems especially in resource poor settings. She eventually hopes to work with organizations whose goal is to improve and manage health care systems to ensure that it is accessible to all who need it.
Nora is a second year masters student in the school of nursing pursuing the Advanced Community Health and International Nursing Clinical Nurse Specialist track. She has been a nurse for 6 years and received her bachelor of science of nursing from USF in 2001. After completing 2.5 years in the Peace Corps in the Dominican Republic she was sure she wanted to dedicate her career to global and public health. In the Peace Corps her projects included an HIV/AIDS peer education youth group, establishment of a clinic/community center in her community and multiplication of health education with health promoters in the region. She is dedicated to working with the underserved, and has a passion for Latin American culture. She would like to develop education programs in sexual and reproductive health for adolescents as well as pregnancy and prenatal education for this group. She believes that prevention and education is the key to healthy life and enjoys the challenge of promoting this in resource poor areas.
Jennifer has managed patients at community hospitals and HIV clinics serving townships in Cape Town, South Africa. She also developed a health education project and provided medical services to rural villages outside Quito, Ecuador and worked in the city hospital and community clinics in Sucre, Bolivia. She plans to work as a clinician in academic family medicine while incorporating her training in public health into clinical research, community program planning, and global medicine. Jennifers vision is to dedicate part of her career to clinical research to study the barriers that prevent the socially marginalized and underserved from receiving proper healthcare. As an application of this, she plans to develop effective and sustainable programs for underserved communities both locally and abroad.
Dr. Chris Stewart is the Director of Inpatient Pediatrics at San Francisco General Hospital. He has been involved in a number of international volunteer efforts, including work in Vietnam for which he was awarded the Chancellors Award for public service in 2004. He has given numerous lectures and has administered training programs in international settings, including Asia and Central America. As a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, he is Chairperson of the Selection Committee for the Section on International Child Healths Executive Committee. He is a faculty leader for the Pediatric Leadership for Underserved (PLUS) program. He has developed UCSF training curriculum in child abuse for both residents and medical students. Dr. Stewart received his MD degree from Harvard University and completed his residency training in pediatrics at UCSF.
Lauren's entrée in global heath work was in rural Honduras, where she was first exposed to the reality of preventable maternal mortality. After college, she conducted research on women's mental health in neighboring Guatemala. In Africa, Lauren assisted a Ghanaian midwife in expanding her novel prenatal care model. Most recently, she worked in Moçambique, on a cervical cancer screening proposal and with nurses and midwives in infection prevention and control. Lauren is interested in the reduction of maternal morbidity and mortality and in the training of nurses and midwives in low-resources settings.
Daniels interest in global health began while serving as a science teacher with the US Peace Corps in the Eastern Caribbean. He provided technical assistance and data analysis for evaluation of international health projects funded by USAID before attending medical school. As a Global Health Scholar at UCSF he plans to conduct research on health care delivery for children with HIV/AIDS.
Charles Wachihi first considered specializing in STI/HIV management while in his fourth year of undergraduate medical training, following a three month attachment at the Microbiology department of the University of Nairobi. He recognized that one of the biggest challenges that medical practitioners would face in Kenya was in the area of STI/HIV prevention and management. Due to the lack of empirical research on best practices in preventing and treating HIV/AIDS and STIs in Kenya, he resolved to gain research skills that he could apply to this issue in the interest of improving STI prevention and management in resource-limited countries. Currently, Wachihi is working at the University of Nairobi, International Institute of Tropical Diseases, as a clinician in a sex worker research clinic that focuses on HIV/STI research. His other studies for the MSc in Public Health focus on the interaction between bacterial vaginosis and sexually transmitted infections, with a focus on human papilloma virus.
Dr. Peter Waiyaki is currently the Assistant Director of KEMRI in charge of Corporate Affairs. He has been working with KEMRI for over 20 years and is the KEMRI liaison with ITROMID. He has published extensively, served as the Director of CMR at KEMRI, and has mentored a large number of masters, doctoral and post-doctoral students throughout his career.
Dr. Njeri Wamae is the first female Director of the Center for Microbiology Research (CMR) at KEMRI and one of two female directors among the 10 KEMRI centers. She holds a PhD in parasitology and an MSc is Public Health from Tulane University, Louisiana. She received her bachelors degree in Parasitology and medical entomology from Bowling Green State University, Ohio. As the Chief Research Officer and Director of CMR, she mentors and supervises students at postgraduate and doctoral levels in the fields of parasitology, public health, and sociology. Dr. Wamae has served as a WHO consultant and has over 20 years of research experience.
Over the past year, Jennifer has worked to expand the UCSF Surgery Department's collaboration with Makerere University, Uganda, which involves both research and educational exchange of faculty and trainees. She also developed a project to implement ultrasound for the evaluation of trauma patients at Mulago Hospital She spent last July in Kampala doing a surgery rotation at Mulago Hospital and getting the research project underway. Jennifer plans to complete a fellowship in colorectal surgery, and following that pursue an academic career. She hopes to develop similar collaborations with teaching institutions in developing countries, with a focus on helping improve awareness and care for colorectal diseases.
Adam is the founder of OrthoJamaica, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to improving care of injured people in Jamaica, West Indies through donated orthopaedic education and hardware. While pursuing a master's degree in Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley, Adam focused on violence and injury prevention and designed a trauma research center for Jamaica. While studying as an undergraduate, Adam worked in viral vaccines at Chiron Corporation, discoverer of the hepatitis B vaccine. Throughout his academic training, Adam has been committed to improving access to health and education in underserved communities. At Stanford University School of Medicine, Adam was selected as a Traveling Scholar and worked with researchers at the University of the West Indies to improve health outcomes for low birth weight babies in Kingston, Jamaica. He currently serves on the Advisory Board of the Mural, Music, and Arts Project, an arts-based education project that employs at-risk youth in East Palo Alto, California.
Emily's global health experience includes research on adherence to HIV and TB medications in Durban, South Africa and research on the diagnosis of chronic meningitis in a population with high rates of HIV. Recently she spent clinical and research time at the Johannesburg General Hospital. She continues to collaborate with researchers at University of Witwatersrand and is currently working on a project about antiretroviral toxicities and their effect on the durability of first-line regimens in the South African national antiretroviral program. She plans to specialize in Infectious Disease and to pursue a clinical research career with a focus on the co-epidemics of TB and HIV.
Rosie grew up outside of Portland, OR. She went to Yale University where she played volleyball. While there she was involved with Habitat for Humanity. After college she joined the Peace Corps where she served in Tanzania teaching biology and chemistry, working on HIV education and girls' empowerment.
As a medical student, Jessica led the Yale Project for Health Action, a group begun by Yale medical students to develop global health initiatives. Throughout the academic year, a core group of medical students met weekly to educate themselves about the many challenges of AIDS in South Africa, and to design a sustainable project. These efforts culminated in an HIV/AIDS education program which Jessica and two classmates taught to teenagers in rural South Africa; these students, in turn, went on to be peer educators in other local high schools. Outside of classroom efforts, the medical students worked with doctors in the local hospital, shadowing them on the wards and helping prepare the hospital to offer the first publicly available anti-retroviral therapy. Jessica also spent a month delivering primary health care in Eritrea. She would like to develop a career in global health that integrates peoples needs not merely for clinics and medicines, but for adequate supplies of water, food, and financial resources. Jessica plans to pursue a fellowship in infectious disease after residency and subsequently work within the framework of an NGO to develop and implement projects that situate the provision of health care within the context and realities of peoples lives. These projects will be clinically based, but will work with people trained in different disciplines to unify the delivery of healthcare with the delivery of other basic resources.
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