The 2021-2022 MPHS Commencement will be held on May 19th, 2022.

The Master of Population Health Sciences program would like to congratulate all of our 2021 graduates!

Sydney Beache, MD
Mentor: Dr. Aimee James
Future plans: Continuing General Surgical Residency with anticipated residency graduation date of 2025
James Samuel Broughton
Research: Medical procedures, including their application, efficacy, and outcomes.
I-Ling Chiang
Mentor: Dr. Li Ding
Research: Tumor Microenvironment and Disease Progression in Multiple Myeloma
Future Plans: Internal Medicine Residency at Vanderbilt University Medical Center

Sarah Chiang
Mentors: Dr. Kamlesh B. Patel
Research: Examining the effect of Veau class on Levator Veli Palatini muscle composition
Future Plans: I plan to complete medical school and apply to plastic surgery residency, and I hope to take the skills I have learned throughout this program on with me during my career in academia to improve outcomes in plastic surgery.

Sakshi Dhar, MD
Mentor: Dr. Adetunji Toriola
Research: Clinical outcomes in colorectal cancer
Future Plans: Surgical oncology with a focus on health equity, thanks to the skills I picked up from this program!

Alden D’Souza
Mentor: Dr. Lauren Henke
Research: Investigating the application of MR-only liver SBRT
Future Plans: Immediate: Finishing medical school and then applying into Radiation Oncology
Future: Using the skills learned in this program to take advantage of administrative data to tackle disparities in my field.

Cassandra Fritz, MD
Mentor: Dr. Yin Cao
Research: Investigating the signs and symptoms associated with early-onset colorectal cancer
Future Plans: Assistant Professor in Gastroenterology at WashU

Fellipe Godoy, MD
Mentor: Dr. Yikyung Park
Research: Development and validation of a prediction model for hospitalization within 30 days of the diagnosis of tuberculosis in people living with HIV.
Future Plans: Providing care to people living with HIV at the public healthcare setting in Brazil

Yunan Han, MD
Mentor: Dr. Graham Colditz
Research: Breast cancer prevention, outcome and cancer health disparities
Future Plans: I plan to use the skills and tools I’ve gained from this well-established advanced degree program to conduct research on breast cancer. I will apply to general surgery residency programs in the near future.

Zachery Hong
Mentor: Dr. Anna Miller
Research: Social determinants of health in orthopaedic trauma, professional well-being among orthopaedic surgeons, pelvic ring fractures, fracture nonunion/malunion, review of kinematic motion analysis in upper extremity dysfunction
Future Plans: I will be applying into orthopaedic surgery residency and building upon the skills I have gained from the MPHS throughout my career

Xinwen Hu
Mentor: Dr. Michael Avidan and Dr. Bethany Tellor Pennington
Research: My independent study project is titled: Description of the Content and Quality of Publicly Available Information on the Internet about Inhaled Volatile Anesthesia versus Total Intravenous Anesthesia
Future Plans: Applying to anesthesiology residency

Ashwin Leo
Mentor: Dr. Abby Cheng
Research: Evaluating the feasibility and effectiveness of WYSA (an AI-chatbot based digital mental health application) in improving mental and physical health for pain patients in orthopedic settings
Future Plans: Immediate future: finishing medical school and applying to PM&R residency
Long-term: driving technology and policy implementation at the population level to create a more equitable and effective healthcare system

Martha McGilvray, MD, MSt
Mentor: Dr. Aimee James and Dr. Ralph J. Damiano
Research: Racial disparities in access to cardiac surgical care
Future Plans:
Next Steps: Completion of General Surgery residency and entrance into Clinical Fellowship in Cardiothoracic Surgery
Career: Academic Cardiac Surgery with dedicated Public Health/Epidemiologic research time, specifically in Racial Disparities & Interventions for Equity in Cardiac Surgery

Alex Shiang
Mentor: Dr. Eric Kim
Research: Investigating disparities in long term health outcomes as well as neoadjuvant therapy rates for patients that received cystectomies at our institution
Future Plans: I will be applying to urology residencies during this upcoming cycle. I hope to continue to use the knowledge and skills gained through the MPHS program for future research endeavors

Nirmala Shivakumar
Mentor: Dr. Allison King
Research: Investigating determinants of pushing self in cancer survivors and its role in participation
Future Plans: Currently, I am planning to finish medical school and apply to residency in internal medicine. My future plans include being involved in qualitative research, either as a researcher or community champion

Linh Vuong
Mentor: Dr. William Chapman and Dr. Francesca Dimou
Research: Surgical prehabilitation, adolescent bariatric surgery
Future plans: General Surgery Residency at Indiana University School of Medicine

Jin Zhang, PhD
Research: We develop genomic and machine learning approaches in cancer biology and personalized radiation therapy (RT)
Future Plans: We will integrate population health sciences in our future translational clinical research