Medical School:Des Moines University College of Osteopathic Medicine
Ahmad is a National Health Service Scholar with a life long dedication to caring for vulnerable and underserved populations. During Medial school he served on the board of the Muslim Student Association through which he helped to coordinate health care for underserved refugee populations. He also volunteered at the student run free clinic. In 2009, he traveled with a human rights organization to the Gaza strip where, in addition to assisting in providing health care, he helped transport and assemble playground equipment for children impacted by the ongoing unrest in that area. He speaks some Spanish.
Yasmine Goelzer, MD
Medical School:Rush Medical College
Yasmine served as a leader in her school's Med-Peds Interest Group. She volunteered at the school's free clinic and volunteered on medical mission trips to both Guatemala and Chile. Prior to medical school she spent a year as a chemistry teacher in a boarding school in Jordan followed by collaborating with elementary school teachers in developing science lessons while in college. She used her experience with education in medical school as an evaluator of the M1 student curriculum helping to develop improvements. She is fluent in Spanish and French and has served as a medical interpreter in both languages.
Lauren Knazze, MD
Medical School:University of Illinois Chicago
Lauren ia a native Chicagoan who was a member of her school's Urban Health Program that teaches leadership skills to people interested in advancing health equity and addressing health disparities. She has participated in research related to diabetes and gestational diabetes and has served as a mentor to multiple high school students interested in pursuing medicine as a career. She speaks some Spanish.
Ari Pence, MD
Medical School:University of Illinois Urbana
We loved Ari when she rotated with us. She has an extensive background in leadership. While in medical school she served as the Family Medicine Interest Group leader, the student government president and she founded THRIVE, a health and wellness program designed to introduce medical students to positive ways to cope with the extensive stressors of medical education. She was inducted into the Gold Humanism Honor Society for her commitment to community outreach, pre-med and medical student education and humanism in medicine. Prior to medical school she served as a associate visiting instructor to the University of Illinois teaching about social determinants of health and health disparities. She designed and led a study abroad course in Australia to teach undergraduates about the health and societal disparities between indigenous and non-indigenous Australian populations. During medical school, she was a teaching assistant in multiple classes and led multiple student volunteer activities earning her many awards. She is fluent in Spanish.
Julian Sacca-Schaeffer, MD
Medical School:Temple University
Julian is a native of NYC with a strong interest in community health and underserved care. He was a student leader for an after school program for elementary and middle school children helping with health and safety community education. He belonged to his school's family medicine interest group and volunteered at the community free clinic serving uninsured and undocumented immigrant populations. He is a musician who has used his musical skills to explore health and wellness through music and art. He speaks Spanish well.
Oanh Truong, MD
Medical School:Louisiana State University School of Medicine
Oanh immigrated from Vietnam with her family at a young age and grew up in Louisiana. Her back-ground inspired her commitment to addressing health disparities and serving vulnerable communities both in the US and abroad. She was an active volunteer in her medical school's clinic for the homeless population and participated in medical mission trips exploring and addressing disparities in underserved communities in Vietnam, Peru, Guatemala, and Haiti. She served as the President of her school's "Tiger Cubs", and organization which mentors at-risk youth in the community who aspire to careers in health care. She participated in a service learning program that explored leadership and quality improvement in care coordination at community health centers. She worked as a student advocate helping to educate Asian American and Pacific Islander communities of policies and civil rights issues impacting them and advocating for them on a legislative level. She is fluent in Vietnamese.
Kevin Volkema, DO
Medical School:Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine
Kevin is committed to caring for vulnerable populations as demonstrated by his extensive volunteer and leadership work at his school's student run free clinic as well as serving on a medical mission trip to Nicaragua earning him the community service TOUCH award 2 years in a row. He served as the Vice President of his school's Student Osteopathic Medical Association and helped to coordinate curriculum around advocacy and fundraising. He speaks Spanish well.
Evan Wittke, MD
Medical School:Loyola University
Evan has a strong commitment to serving vulnerable and marginalized populations. Throughout medical school he volunteered with the Homeless Ministry providing mobile health care to this at risk population. He also volunteered medical services and mentorship in an overnight shelter for homeless LGBTQ youth. He worked with a medical student organization providing mentorship and education to at risk high school students in the community interested i pursuing careers in health care. He served in a leadership role for a LGBTQ student run interest group and served on the admissions and recruitment committee for his school. Time he spent working in a HIV clinic sparked an interest in him to continue working with the HIV population. He speaks some Spanish.
Michelle Byrne, MD, MPH
Medical School:Loyola Medical School
In her prior life, Michelle worked in Washington DC as a policy and Public Affairs intern, a Domestic Policy intern for the Committee on Energy and Commerce. She was one of the interns selected for the inaugural class under President Obama and worked on drafting health care legislation including the ACA. She was a coordinator of her medical school's free health clinic, co-founded an interest group called Business in Medicine, served as a representative advising the Consortium of Universities for Global Health in Washington DC and worked a live-in volunteer at a home for migrant women and children from Central and South America. She also participated in several international medical mission trips, canvassed her neighborhood in support of the creation of a community mental health facility, and completed multiple presentations on issues such as understanding of the ACA, water resources in Uganda, gun violence, medical ethics, care for the homeless and managing fear in medicine. She is intermediate to advanced in her Spanish speaking skills.
Amarpreet Everest, DO
Medical School:Touro University College of Osteopathic Medicine
Amarpreet served as her school class president and her student council president where she was elected to a national council to meet with other student council presidents. She served as the California student delegate for the American Osteopathic Association. She founded an interprofessional musical group that met on a regulate bases and played for residents of a group home for the elderly. She also co-founded an organization dedicated to providing health education and services to communities throughout California, organized a group to raise funds for college scholarships for under privileged students and also organized and worked with various youth camps across California as well as Texas and Wisconsin. Amarpreet speaks basic Spanish.
Caitlin Farrell, DO, MPH
Medical School:University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine
Caitlin was part of a research project where she lived in a hospice center and volunteered with patients at the end of life, was a population health scholar at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement where she completed a project to improve communication between a homeless population and their healthcare providers and served as an American Medical Student Association Patients Safety Scholar while in medical school. She completed several courses on leadership, served as the President for her school's chapter of Physicians for a National Health Policy, was a Quality Improvement Intern at Boston Medical Center. She has multiple publications and presentations on various topics including addiction medicine and hospice care.
Wesley Gibbert, MD, MPH
Medical School:University of Illinois, Chicago
Wesley participated in the Urban Medicine Program at UIC where he was a project team member for the male health forum. He served as the program improvement chair for the Community Health Association of Students which worked with administration at SLU College for Public Health and Social Justice working on curricular improvements. He completed a thesis project with the Institute of Family Health on medical anthropology and public health and worked on several research projects regarding evidence based medicine specifically focusing on community gardens, adherence to preventive medicine guidelines and evidence based medicine public health courses.
Kevin Hu, MD
Medical School:Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai New York, NY
Kevin has been actively involved in organizational leadership and systems improvement of his medial school's free clinic. He helped to develop technology driven infrastructure to improve care delivery and was actively involved sustainability planning and mentorship of ongoing clinic staffing. He co-founded the local school chapter of the Primary Care Progress national organization and was a human rights and social justice fellow at the Mt Sinai Human Rights Clinic where they offer medical assessments and care to asylum seekers. He designed a user experience for a mobile medical app which earned him the innovation Award from the Mr. Sinai IT officer. While in medical school, he co-founded a start-up software company that provides a custom point of care reference app as a service that is now available at 7 different clinical locations. He has won multiple awards in medical school and has multiple publications and presentations about medical studies and health information technology.
Laura Kahn, MD, MPH
Medical School:University of Colorado Medical School
In her prior life, Laura worked as a Certified Nurses Aid following which she spent 4 years in DR Congo as Director of the organization Working Villages International helping to convert a small model farm into what is not the largest food producer and employer in the region. She later served as a Personal Care Coordinator in a residential program for women suffering from addiction, sexual abuse and trauma and served as a support coordinator for residential adults suffering from severe mental illness. She taught English as a second language, was an intern for the Obama "Get out the Vote" campaign, was a Team Leader for for an AHEC health scholars program and participated in a medical school leadership track focused on addressing social determinants of health, cultural context and the legislative process. She served as an alternate delegate to the Colorado Medical Society, Secretary of her Medical Student Council and co-edited her medical school journal of poetry, prose, photography and graphic art. She interned with Colorado Consumer Health Initiative looking to barriers for people trying to enroll in healthcare expansion and completed her capstone project on a historical analysis of the factors leading experiences in DR and caring for the uninsured. Laura speaks basic to intermediate Spanish.
Jennifer MacDonald, MD, MPH
Medical School:University of Illinois, Chicago
Jennifer graduated AOA from UIC with a Masters in Bioinformatics along with her MPH. She was the secretary of her class, served as a Breastfeeding peer counselor and was co-founder and co-president of her school's Medical Students with Families organization. Jennifer was awarded the One Year Focused Leadership Certification by the Chicago Medical Student Council for her service in leadership in presentations on breastfeeding support and education. Jennifer speaks basic Spanish, French, and ASL.
Christopher Smyre, MD, MA
Medical School:University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine
While in medical school, Chris was also attending Divinity School and received his master's in theological ethics. He completed the Medical Education Scholarship Track at Pritzker, and was selected as the 2017 Pritzer School of Medicine, University of Chicago Family Medicine Student of the Year for his sustained interest and commitment to primary care, community service, and scholarly work. Following his first year of medical school, Chris was selected to participate in the NIH-funded Pritzker Summer Research Program, and he researched "Physicians' experiences and beliefs in addressing the spiritual suffering of patients". His scholarly work led to presentations and publications regarding physicians and spirituality in medicine. He is currently working on a project addressing burn out in educators at schools for special needs children and their comfort in addressing these issues with their health care providers. He served as his school's chapter President of the SNMA and served at the national level as the subcommittee chair for the National Leadership Institute within Internal Affairs and as Coordinator in the SNMA Future Leadership Program where he mentored other medical students into leadership positions. He also served on the advisory board for his university's office of Multicultural Student Affairs and has facilitated multiple discussion groups that talked about culture, identity, and maximizing the college experience.
Geethi Abraham, MD
Medical School:University of Illinois, Rockford
Geethi has a long list of activities committed to serving the underserved domestically and abroad. She participated in the Underserved Pathways Program through her medical school as well as serving as the Director of Program Research and Evaluations for the Urban Future Leaders of the World where she mentored at risk inner city youth. Geethi has been involved in community outreach and education where she was taught childcare classes to the underserved community in Little Village, Chicago as well as helping to develop a CPR training program to 8-11 year olds. Geethi's commitment to the underserved earned her an educational grant to serve in medical service missions abroad including a trip she took to Panama. Geethi has participated in multiple research projects investigating screening for pediatric diabetes in rural Illinois and infant mortality in Little Village. Geethi is advanced at speaking Spanish and Malayalam.
Kimberly Beiting, MD
Medical School:University of Illinois, Chicago
Kimberly worked with the Interprofessional Approaches to Health Disparities organization as a M4 student where she developed an interprofessional community-based research project designed to improve health care for an HIV/AIDs population through identifying and addressing the social determinants of health impacting vulnerable populations. She was Vice President of her Global Health Leaders program and worked with her school's Student Leadership Program with focus on geriatrics. Kimberly served in multiple leadership roles at her medical school assisting in curriculum redesign and philanthropy. As an undergraduate she volunteered with orphans and vulnerable children in Kenya offering educational support around health care issues. She has multiple publications and presentations about doctor-patient relationships, resident clinic hard-offs and patient safety.
Adam Del Conte, MD
Medical School:East Tennessee State
Adam is a non-traditional student with a background in acting, performing arts, yoga instruction and clowning before determining that his true calling was in medicine and primary care. During his "prior life" he worked as a dram and voice teacher for children and young adults with Down Syndrome and Autism Spectrum Disorder as well as other developmental delays. He also worked as a Behavioral Health Technician involved with crisis intervention, education groups as well as other responsibilities. While in medical school he served as the President of his school's committee supporting student health, wellness and work/life balance. He volunteered in a local community hospital serving the community's under and uninsured population, served as the clinical director for his school's free clinic and was the Vice President of their Family Medicine Interest Group. Adam also was a student researcher and instructor in a community based research project focused on bullying awareness and stress-management in a local rural high school.
Margaret Russell, MD
Medical School:Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine
Margaret has an interesting background prior to entering medicine. She started her career working in theater production for children and adults with disabilities culminating in 5 years serving as the Stage Manager for Cirque de Soleil in Las Vegas. Following this she realized her calling was in medicine where she came to FSM and has pursued her interest in family medicine. She participated as a leader in the ECMH and also volunteered at the Community Health Center free clinic. She Co-founded and was Co-President of the Student Physicians for a National Health Program chapter at FSM including presentations on a single-payer system at national meetings. She has published work on ethics around quality of life assessments when making treatment decisions. Margaret speaks basic French.
Jacob Smith, MD
Medical School:Rush Medical College of Rush University
We know Jake well--he rotated with us at Erie and on our inpatient services at NAH and we loved him! Jake grew up in a family that values service and community engagement which inspired him, after receiving a degree in dietetics, to enter the AmeriCorps program for 2 years. The first year he worked as a health educator at our sister FQHC, PCC Wellness. The second year he became an AmeriCorps Program Team Leader. While at Rush he also helped to coordinate a National Youth Leadership Forum on medicine mentoring high school students interested in pursuing the medical field. Jake is advanced in Spanish speaking.
