Spring 2019 Fellows Yearbook

RESIDENCY IN HEALTH POLICY FELLOWSHIP

Spring 2019 Fellows Yearbook

Spring 2019 Fellows

Damilola Akani

Damilola Akani is a second year pediatric resident at Children's National Health System. Originally from Nigeria, she completed her BSC in Biological Sciences at Imperial College London. She then earned her M.D. from University of California, San Diego and an MPH with a concentration in global health at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She has interests in pediatric hospital medicine and health workforce development, particularly in developing countries. She spent a sabbatical year in Nigeria working/volunteering in hospitals and public health organizations specializing in health worker training.

Emily Atwood

Emily Atwood is a third-year pediatric resident at Children's National Medical Center. Emily completed her undergraduate degree in Psychology at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She then taught middle school math and science in Philadelphia through Teach for America for two years, before heading to medical school at Dartmouth's Geisel School of Medicine in Hanover, New Hampshire. She spent a year during medical school completing quality improvement research relating to the care of Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome. After finishing her pediatric residency this year, she'll spend next year as one of the Chief Residents at Children's National and then pursue a career in pediatric hospital medicine. Samantha Baer grew up in Merritt Island, Florida. She attended the University of Florida for her undergraduate education, where she majored in French and Neuroscience. She earned a Master's degree in Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. During her time there, she worked in a lab studying malaria immunology. She completed her medical training at the University of Florida. She is currently a third-year resident in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Tufts Medical Center.

Samantha Baer

Caroline Bockus

Caroline Bockus is a second year resident in the GW Internal Medicine Residency program, and is participating in the Primary Care track. She completed her undergraduate studies at the United States Naval Academy, and was subsequently a naval officer for 5 years. During that time she served onboard a ship for multiple overseas deployments and managed divisions of sailors. She completed a Post-Baccalaureate Pre-Medicine program at UVA, followed by medical school at GW. She plans to practice General Internal Medicine, primarily in the DC area.

Samantha Brackett

Originally a chemistry major from Boston, Samantha attended medical school at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia. She came to GW to pursue a residency in anesthesiology and is currently a chief resident. Next year she will be completing her fellowship in pediatric anesthesiology at Children’s National Medical Center in D.C.

Jimmy Chen

Jimmy Chen graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, and completed a B.S. in Biology at UNC-Chapel Hill. Prior to medical school, he worked for AmeriCorps’ Health Corps and Hospice’s Kids Path, working with children with terminal illnesses. He has recently matched at UNC-Chapel Hill for a child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship starting this upcoming July.

Matt Cichocki

Matt Cichocki is a second-year resident in George Washington's Internal Medicine department. He grew up in New Jersey, attended Case Western Reserve University for undergrad and Rutgers-Robert Wood Johnson for medical school. He has a particular interest in improving policy to address the health inequity that faces vulnerable and underserved populations. He hopes to pursue hospitalist medicine.

Soshana Clerizier

Soshana Clerizier is a PGY4 anesthesiology resident at The University of North Carolina. She went to The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences for her medical degree and she is excited to come back for the Residency Fellowship in Health Policy at The Milken School of Public Health. The RFHP course is important to her because she plans on starting a career in the Washington DC area related to health policy.

Sarah Durrin

Sarah is a second year pediatric resident at Children’s National Medical Center and a part of their Leadership in Advocacy, the Underserved and Community Health (LAUnCH) Track. She is an active member of the DC American Academy of Pediatrics and coordinates a Public Health and Advocacy conference series for residents at Children’s National. Prior to medical school she taught high school science on the southwest side of Chicago.

Marc Delaney

Marc is a 2nd year pediatric resident at children’s national medical center. He attended St. Lawrence University for undergraduate studies. He attended Stony Brook University SOM on Long Island, NY with a scholarly concentration in humanities after studying the social determinants of health in rural indigenous populations in Panama. He is interested in global public health issues of access/delivery of care, insurance reimbursement systems, and social determinants of health. He also has interest in the utility of diagnostic point of care ultrasound in low resource global health clinics. He plans on completing a pediatric cardiology fellowship after residency. Danielle Grams Engskow is an internal medicine resident in the primary care track at George Washington University Hospital. She is originally from Florida where she completed her Bachelor of Science and Medical Degree from the University of South Florida. Her interests include global health, prison health, HIV/AIDS, and improving care for underserved populations. After residency, she plans to remain in DC working in HIV primary care. Outside of medicine she enjoys rock climbing, hiking, travel, and cooking.

Danielle Grams Engskow

Dennis Espejo Dennis Espejo is a family medicine doctor in Washington, District of Columbia. He received his medical degree from University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine and has been in practice for less than 3 years.

Amit Jhaveri

Amit Jhaveri is a current fourth-year medical student at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo. He is originally from Massena, NY and completed his undergraduate studies in Biology and Religion at the University of Rochester. While in medical school, he had the opportunity to spend a year in a laboratory as a Stanley Sarnoff Research Fellow studying the mechanisms of vascular calcification. He is interested in preventive healthcare ranging from the basic sciences to public policy, particularly in rural populations.

Kelly King

Kelly is a current third year psychiatry resident at the George Washington University. She went to undergraduate school at George Mason University where she received a B.S. in Psychology. She completed medical school at the George Washington University, during which time she was inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society and completed research regarding food insecurity in individuals with chronic mental illness. As a PGY-II resident, she received the first Residency Professionalism Award given by the psychiatry department. She has a special interest in therapy and is currently completing the Psychoanalytic Fellowship at the Washington- Baltimore Center for Psychoanalysis. Karan Kochhar was born and raised in Edison, New Jersey He went to undergraduate school at Rutgers University where he completed his BA. He continued his education and attended medical school at the American University of Antigua. He spent 2 years in Antigua followed by clinical rotations in Baltimore, Brooklyn and Staten Island. He is currently a proud resident of the George Washington University Internal Medicine-Primary care program. Outside of goals of becoming a well rounded primary care physician he enjoys cooking and traveling.

Karan Kochhar

K. Benjamin Lee

K. Benjamin Lee is a PGY-4 general surgery resident at the George Washington University. He is a research fellow in the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the D.C. Veterans Affairs Medical Center and the GWU Department of Biomedical Engineering. He is a member of the Resident and Associate Society of the American College of Surgeons Advocacy and Issues Committee. He earned his Bachelor of Science at the University of Texas at Austin and his Doctor of Medicine with distinction in Global Health at the UT Southwestern Medical School.

Matt Magyar

Matt Magyar is a current second-year fellow in pediatric hospital medicine at Children's National Medical Center. He is also pursuing a Master of Public Health in Health Policy at George Washington University. Prior to fellowship, he completed his residency in general pediatrics at the University of Illinois – Chicago. Medical training was completed at the University of Toledo. He received his undergraduate degree in Biomedical Science at the Ohio State University. While a native Hoosier by birth, he grew up in Cleveland. He enjoys running, reading, and being constantly disappointed by Cleveland athletic teams. Samiara Naime attended medical school at the University of Balamand (UOB) in Lebanon. She did her residency at the Charleston Area Medical Center-West Virginia University-WV in pediatrics. She is currently a fellow in the department of Pediatric Pulmonary at Children’s National Health System in Washington, DC. Her future plan is to do the Sleep fellowship at George Washington University in DC.

Samira Naime

Emily Ngueyn

Emily Ngueyn is currently a 3rd year pediatric resident at Children's National Medical Center. She was born and raised in New Jersey and attended Brown University for her undergraduate education, where he majored in Human Biology. She graduated from Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and received her M.D. in 2016. She is considering a career in either hospitalist or primary care medicine after completing residency and has a particular interest in advocacy at the individual, community, and legislative level.

Omer Salih

Omer Salih MD, currently PGY 3 resident at Howard university hospital He has a medical degree from Addis Ababa University school of medicine. After graduation he worked as a general medical practitioner (family practice physician) at different centers in Ethiopia. Apart from clinical practice he served as interim medical director of the hospital, also involved in different public health intervention programs including HIV and nutrition. Later he was granted a scholarship to study nutrition at university of Gent, Belgium. The program is designed to address the public health aspect of nutrition and possible interventions. Jean Shiraki is one of the Chief Residents of Family Medicine at The Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education at Unity Health Care in Washington, DC. Born and raised in Hawaii, she graduated from the University of Southern California with a BA in Health and Humanity and a minor in East Asian Languages and Cultures. After college, Jean moved to Washington, DC as the Daniel K. Inouye Fellow for the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL). She then attended Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine in Harlem, New York where she continued her policy journey by serving as the Chair of the Medical Student Section of the Medical Society of the State of New York (MSSNY).

Jean Shirak

Sarina Solorzano

Sarina Solorzano was born and raised in Chesapeake, Virginia. She graduated from the College of William and Mary in 2011, where she earned her B.S. in Neuroscience. In 2017, she earned her medical degree from George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences. She is currently a second year pediatric resident at Children’s National Health Systems, where she is a member of the Community Health Track. She plans to pursue a career in primary care, with a specific focus on community health and underserved populations. Lisa Strouss is a second-year pediatric resident at Children’s National. She is from Delaware and received her BA in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University. She then attended Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, PA where she received her MD degree. Between her third and fourth years of medical school, she pursued her interest in Maternal and Child Health by getting a Master of Public Health (MPH) degree from the Yale School of Public Health. She hopes to become a neonatologist and focus her research interests on prematurity prevention and optimizing early childhood development.

Lisa Strouss

Huixia Wei

Huixia Wei is a 3rd year Internal Medicine resident at GW. She is a graduate of University of Michigan, and Wayne State University School of Medicine. Being an immigrant interested in serving the immigrant populations, she is interested in gaining an understanding of U.S. health policy in order to find ways to increase access to care for her patients. Huixia plans to pursue a career in hospitalist medicine in California.

Alexis Wesley

Alexis Weasley earned a B.A. in the History of Science, Medicine and Public Health from Yale University. She graduated from the University of Connecticut School of Medicine. She is involved in research projects studying neuropsychiatric disorders in children, such as epilepsy and anxiety, and served in several leadership roles tutoring and advising underprivileged youth. She was awarded a Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) grant through the American Psychiatric Association for her initiative providing mental health education to African American pastors in the DC metro area. Ariel White grew up in Washington DC. She attended medical school at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore. After graduating in 2013, She moved completed her combined Internal Medicine and Pediatrics residency at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis. She is in her final year of an Adolescent Medicine fellowship at Children's National Medical Center with a focus on Medicaid Freedom of Choice legislation and youth access to family planning services in Washington DC. Anna Zelivianskaia is a third-year resident in obstetrics and gynecology at Georgetown University. She completed B.A. degrees in anthropology and biology at the University of Chicago followed by medical school at the University of Illinois-Chicago. She works with the Teen Promise Project, which helps medical students teach anatomy and sex ed to grade schoolers in DC. During residency, Anna has also worked with the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and is part of the resident leadership for the American Medical Women’s Association (AMWA). She will be applying for a fellowship in Minimally Invasive Gynecologic

Ariel White

Anna Zelivianskaia