Chisaraokwu Asomugha, MD, MPH is a pediatrician who received her undergraduate degree in history at Stanford. She received her medical degree from Duke University, a masters degree in public health at the University of North Carolina and completed her residency in pediatrics at the University of Pittsburg. Dr. Asomugha is interested in research and advocacy related to child abuse and neglect.
Jill Barron, MD is a child psychiatrist who received her undergraduate degree in foreign languages at Adelphi University. She attended Ponce School of Medicine in Ponce, Puerto Rico and completed her medical degree at SUNY Brooklyn School of Medicine. Dr. Barron recently completed a child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship at the Yale Child Study Center and at the Edward Zigler Center in Child Development and Social Policy. Her research interests include understanding the impact of trauma on children and adolescents and the development of best treatment practices to inform policy and protect at-risk children. She is also interested in mental health parity.
Back to top
Rhondee Benjamin-Johnson, M.D., M.A. University of California, Los Angeles
Rhondee Benjamin-Johnson, M.D., M.A., graduated Summa Cum Laude from Spellman College in Atlanta with a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry. She later attended The London School of Economics and Political Science where she earned a masters degree in anthropology and development. She completed her undergraduate medical training at Harvard Medical School and then completed her residency in internal medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She is interested in examining and creating access and quality measures for HIV care in underserved populations.
Nazleen Bharmal, M.D. University of California, Los Angeles
Nazleen Bharmal, M.D., M.P.P. completed her internal medicine residency at Brigham and Women's Hospital. She completed medical school at Harvard Medical School, her masters in public policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, and was awarded the Massachusetts Medical Society scholars award. She completed her undergraduate studies at Brown University receiving her bachelor's in Neuroscience. Her areas of interest are chronic disease prevention in racial/ethnic minorities. Potential projects include healthy lifestyle interventions among low-income South Asian immigrants and assessing risks for premature mortality among African-American men.
Peggy Chen, MD, MSc is a pediatrician who received her undergraduate degree in English at Stanford. She received her medical degree at Columbia and a masters degree in science in health policy, planning and finance at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the London School of Economics. Dr. Chen completed her pediatric residency at Yale. She has a particular interest in health inequalities in the pediatric population and pediatric care in resource-limited areas.
Evan S. Fieldston, MD, MBA University of Pennsylvania
Evan S. Fieldston, MD, MBA is a pediatrician, who received his MD and MBA from the University of Pennsylvania. He was a resident and chief resident at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. During college and medical school, he was engaged in research and legislative advocacy related to public health issues and children with special needs. As a resident, Dr. Fieldston continued his involvement in these areas and participated in advocacy and legislative activities at the hospital, city, state, and federal levels. Outside of legislative advocacy, he started a program to teach Philadelphia school students ballroom dance and health lessons as a means to address a need and combat the obesity problem. The program is now entering its third year and is expanding to more schools in Philadelphia with new partners. Dr. Fieldston's current research interests include access to care for children, economic and non-economic incentives around patient and provider behavior, insurance, and safety net coverage.
Back to top
John Gore, M.D. University of California, Los Angeles
John Gore, M.D. is a urologist who is a Veteran Affairs Fellow in the Clinical Scholars program. He graduated summa cum laude in chemistry and biology at the University of Minnesota and then received his medical degree from Baylor College of Medicine. He then completed his residency in urology at UCLA. His research interests focus on quality and access to care among patients with bladder cancer.
Luke Hansen, MD is an internist who received his undergraduate degree in American studies at Yale and his medical degree at Loyola University in Chicago. Dr. Hansen completed a residency in general internal medicine/primary care as well as a tenure as Chief Medical Resident at Brown University-Rhode Island Hospital. Dr. Hansen’s research interests are in disparities in access to health services and disparities in health outcomes with a particular focus on pain management.
Justin Hunt, MD is a psychiatrist who completed both medical school and general psychiatry training at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock, AR. While completing residency, Dr. Hunt developed an interest in studying college mental health services. Through his residency research track, he completed a qualitative study examining college counseling centers throughout the South and Midwest. In addition, he was awarded the prestigious Laughlin Fellowship by the American College of Psychiatrists and also participated in the NIMH-funded Career Development Institute hosted by the Univ. of Pittsburgh and Stanford University Departments of Psychiatry. He is active on the national level by serving as a consultant to the American Psychiatric Association’s Committee on Mental Health on College and University Campuses. His current research interests focus on the organization of college mental health services and financial barriers to care including frequent gaps in insurance coverage among the college and broader young adult population.
Robert D. Karch, M.D., M.P.H., FAAP (Pediatrics) University of Pennsylvania
Robert D. Karch, M.D., M.P.H., FAAP (Pediatrics) is originally from Kutztown, Pennsylvania. He earned his Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree in Biology from the University of Delaware and his Masters of Public Health (M.P.H.) degree from the Columbia University School of Public Health. He received his medical degree from the Georgetown University School of Medicine in 2000. He completed his Pediatric internship and residency training at the Miami Children’s Hospital, where he also served as Chief Pediatric Resident. Dr. Karch practiced General Pediatrics for two years in rural Northern Arizona as a National Health Service Corp (NHSC) scholar. The NHSC is a program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services with a mission to eliminate physician shortage areas by placing primary care providers in medically-underserved communities within the United States and its territories. Dr. Karch practiced at the Canyonlands Community Health Care center, which is based in Page, Arizona. His interest in Nutrition and the medical morbidities associated with childhood obesity grew from his clinical interactions with pediatric patients and their families in Arizona. After completing his NHSC service in 2006, Dr. Karch began his Pediatric Clinical Nutrition fellowship at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. He hopes to concentrate his efforts within the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars program in pediatric weight management and nutritional health policy.
Back to top
SreyRam Kuy, MD
Yale University
SreyRam Kuy, MD, (VA Scholar) is a surgery resident who received her undergraduate degrees in philosophy and microbiology at Oregon State University and worked as a Barbara Jordan Health Policy Scholar for Senator Tom Harkin.
Christie Lancaster, MD is an obstetrician and gynecologist. As an undergraduate, she majored in Spanish at Davidson College and is a graduate of the Medical University of South Carolina. She completed her residency in OB/GYN at the Universityof Florida. Her research interests include screening for antenatal depression and utilization of care among obstetric patients with psychiatric disease.
Patrick Link, M.D. University of California, Los Angeles
Patrick Link, M.D. finished his bachelor degrees in chemistry and philosophy at the University of North Carolina. He also received his medical degree at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine and his master’s degree in public health at the University of North Carolina School of Public Health. He completed his training in general psychiatry at UCLA and the West Los Angeles VA. His current research interest is focused on studying how illness self-management, psychoeducation, and recovery orientation affect the clients’ psychiatric health and their use of psychiatric services.
Sean C. Lucan, MD, MPH(Family Medicine)
University of Pennsylvania
Sean C. Lucan, MD, MPH (Family Medicine) completed an MD/MPH dual-degree program at Yale University before entering his Family Medicine residency at the University of Pennsylvania. Sean was one of only 3 students to become a Pisacano Scholar in 2003, and one of only 20 residents to receive the AAFP/BMS Award for Excellence in 2006 - both prestigious national honors recognizing leaders in Family Medicine. Although he has published papers on smoking cessation, he is more broadly interested in environmental influences on lifestyle decisions and how they contribute to chronic disease. Sean serves as a reviewer for the American Journal of Health Promotion, and is working with the D.C.-based Robert Graham Center on a project to evaluate the position of Family Medcine at the NIH.
Gerardo Moreno, M.D. University of California, Los Angeles
Gerardo Moreno, M.D. completed his undergraduate studies in environmental studies and chemistry at San Jose State University. He then attended the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA for his medical degree. He completed his post-doctoral training in Family Medicine at San Francisco General Hospital/UCSF. Dr. Moreno’s current research interests include healthcare access and delivery to uninsured and immigrant populations.
Raina Merchant, MD, (Emergency Medicine)
University of Pennsylvania
Raina Merchant, MD, (Emergency Medicine) received her MD from the University of Chicago where she also completed her emergency medicine residency, and a resuscitation research fellowship. Her research is focused on preventing potentially avoidable deaths from cardiac arrest. Using geographic information software, she would like to identify communities at risk for cardiac arrest and determine unique strategies for improving cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training and automated external defibrillator AED availability. In the in-patient setting, she is interested in using large administrative data sets to identify disparities in post-resuscitation care.
Tammon Nash, MD is a pathologist who earned her BS in Physiology from Michigan State University in East Lansing, MI. She received her medical degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. She completed her residency at William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, MI and her fellowship in Transfusion Medicine at the Blood Center of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, WI. Dr. Nash is interested in Transfusion Medicine and policy and her research will focus on significant disparities in health care as they relate to underrepresented minorities and factors influencing blood and organ donation.
Matthew O’Brien, MD,(Internal Medicine) University of Pennsylvania
Matthew O’Brien, MD, (Internal Medicine) received both his BS and MD degrees from Brown University’s Program in Liberal Medical Education. During medical school, he was co-director of a free clinic that provided primary care services to undocumented Latino immigrants. He completed his residency in internal medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, which supported his regular work at Project Salud, a clinic in rural southeastern PA serving Mexican migrant farmworkers. He has also worked with his faculty mentor and a dedicated group of students to start a clinic for Mexican immigrants in Philadelphia, called Puentes de Salud, which recently opened. His research interests include alternative models of primary care delivery to address disparities in access and outcomes among underserved populations.
Kara Odom, M.D., M.P.H. University of California, Los Angeles
Kara Odom, M.D., M.P.H. is a family physician who was raised in Newark, Delaware where she obtained her undergraduate degree in chemical engineering at the University of Delaware. While earning her medical degree at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, she took a year to complete a master’s degree in public health at John Hopkins School of Public Health with an emphasis in health policy and management. She has served the Student National Medical Association as National President and also the National Medical Association as Postgraduate Physician Trustee. During residency at UCSF, she also was involved in research examining issues in physician workforce diversity. Her research interests are social determinants of health and their impact on access to healthcare for vulnerable populations.
Mitesh Rao, MD (VA Scholar) is a surgery resident who received his undergraduate and medical degrees in a 6-year program at Pennsylvania State University and Jefferson Medical College. He is currently a surgery resident at SUNY Upstate Medical College. Dr. Rao is interested in breast cancer treatment and preventive care disparities in African American and Caucasian populations.
Joan Ryoo, M.D. University of California, Los Angeles
Joan Ryoo, M.D. attended Harvard University to complete a joint degree in fine arts and anthropology. Prior to matriculation at Harvard Medical School, she attended the University of Cambridge, England on scholarship to study geography. She is in the midst of post-graduate training in general surgery at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston. As a Clinical Scholar, she would like to investigate gastric cancer understanding and health care utilization in the Korean American community of Los Angeles.
Comilla Sasson, MD is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine. She completed her emergency medicine residency at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. Her work with the uninsured population at Grady Hospital and on the national level in emergency medicine resident issues sparked her interest in pursuing the RWJ Clinical Scholars program. Her areas of research interest include predictors of survivability of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest and emergency department utilization patterns of nursing home patients within their last six months of life.
Lisa Schweigler, MD, MPH (VA Scholar) is an emergency medicine physician who completed her residency at the University of Michigan/St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in 2007. Her current research interests center around the problem of emergency department overcrowding. She is focusing on how overcrowding affects the function of the ED as a safety net, specifically for vulnerable populations. Additionally, Lisa also has an interest in international emergency medicine, specifically how ED utilization differs between countries and health systems.
Vijay Singh, MD, MPH, is a family physician who earned a BA in Biology and an MD from Northwestern University. Before residency he graduated with an MPH from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, where he also completed a post-doctoral research training fellowship. He completed family medicine residency at UCLA, where he served as an Academic Chief Resident in his last year of training. Dr. Singh’s research career began in medical school, when he conducted a qualitative study at the Navajo Indian Reservation, performed a family violence screening project in the Cook County Hospital emergency department, and presented both of these topics at American Public Health Association Annual Conventions. While a fellow at Johns Hopkins University, he co-wrote a book chapter on the health of children in cities and undertook research on developing a primary care screening program for perpetration of domestic violence. As a Clinical Scholar he will gain a health services research training and perspective while continuing these investigations into family violence screening in primary care.
Back to top
Gareth Warren, MD
University of Michigan
Gareth Warren, MD (VA Scholar) is a general surgery resident at SUNY Upstate Medical University. He is interested in disparities and outcomes in renal transplantation within minority and underserved populations. Gareth completed his undergraduate degree at Morehouse College and received his medical degree from the University of Maryland.
Joanne N. Wood, M.D.(Pediatrics)
University of Pennsylvania
Joanne N. Wood, M.D. (Pediatrics) received her M.D. from University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and completed her residency at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). She spent a year as Chief Resident and completed a one year fellowship in Child Abuse and Neglect at CHOP. During medical school and residency she completed and published a research study comparing the presentation of young children with inflicted and accidental abdominal trauma. Dr. Wood’s research is currently focused on the evaluation of physical injuries in victims of child abuse.
Pierre Yong, MD, MPH earned his MD from Brown University's Program in Liberal Medical Education and his MPH from Columbia University. Pierre completed his residency in Internal Medicine at New York Hospital/Weill-Cornell Medical College, where he was awarded the Weiner Award for Compassionate Care. While completing his residency at New York Hospital, Pierre put his public health background to work, by designing curricula for patient and provider audiences and providing targeted training on the changes and transition to Medicare Part D. Prior to entering his residency program, Pierre worked at the Bureau of Tuberculosis Control's Education and Training Unit at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. His projects there included designing public education materials regarding identifying and controlling TB in the community, as well as conducting practitioner trainings throughout the city. Currently, Pierre is applying his public health and clinical backgrounds to his research interests of asthma and the impact of quality-of-care measures on health outcomes and racial disparities
