Student Biosketches
Daniel K. Addyson
Daniel Addyson graduated from Penn State University in the spring of 2008 with a BS in Geography and Minor in Chinese. As an undergraduate he has been investigating spatial clustering of cancer and visualization strategies for cluster identification. Dan is also the Brigade Preventive Medicine Officer for the Pennsylvania Army National Guard’s 56th Stryker Brigade Combat Team.
Amy Badler
Amy Badler is currently enrolled as a part time student in the MPH program. She graduated from Franklin & Marshall College with a degree in Biology. For the past six years she has worked on various health disparities research projects. Her most recent experience was at the University of Chicago where she worked as a project coordinator for the Robert Wood Johnson National Program Finding Answers: Disparities Research for Change. Her interests include health disparities, vulnerable populations and women’s health issues.
Amy Bastianelli
Amy Bastianelli hails from Newark, Delaware. She is a MSW/MPH dua-degree student, having graduated from the University of Richmond in 2007 with a BS in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology and Spanish. Amy intends to pursue macro social work practice, with special focus on advocacy and policy formation relative to her public health interests, which include reproductive health services and ethnic health disparities. Amy is inspired by the work of Paul Farmer. She likes to spend her free time with friends and family.
Inna Bleckman
Inna graduated from Penn with a Bachelor of Arts in Health and Societies and a minor in biology. Her experience includes working for Penn's Center for Research on Reproduction and Women's Health and the Family Planning Council (Philadelphia, PA). She also worked for the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine (PCOM) as coordinator of PCOM's component of the Bridging the Gaps program as well as a general community outreach coordinator. Since 2005, Inna has been a research coordinator at the Center for Sleep at Penn. Inna is a member of the Pennsylvania Public Health Association (PPHA) and the Association of Clinical Research Professionals (ACRP). She is certified by both Penn and ACRP as a Clinical Research Coordinator. In her personal life, Inna is a co-founder of a charity organization, an applicant interviewer for Penn and an advisor for Penn's Office of Career Services. She enjoys travel, photography, and reading.
Elizabeth Brooks
Elizabeth Brooks is originally from West Chester, Pa. She graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a bachelor’s degree in political science and Russian, in 2008. As an undergraduate student she worked closely with a professor on research relating to polical, social and health issues. Long interested in government and the policy-making process, Elizabeth is also a student in the M.S. Social Policy Program at Penn, interested inanalyzing issues of helath policy from a perspetive grounded in the essentials of public health study.
Wenjia Chen
Wenjia Chen hails from Guangzhou, South China. She loves painting and running in her spare time. Her lifetime dream is to use her MPH education to help improve China's and the world's public health systems.
Carly Chornobil
Carly Chornobil's personal interest in public health was fostered by her academic studies in Psychology and Neuroscience at Kenyon College. As a first year student in the MPH program, she completed a concentration in Public Health Policy and Management. In addition, she hope to explore issues surrounding global health. Her primary objective is to improve the quality of health care for individuals at a national level, with a focus on family health care. She wishes to be more involved in formulating policy and optimizing administrative and operational development. Furthermore, she plans to broaden her public health knowledge through advanced research opportunities.
Stephanie Ciosek
Stephanie Ciosek is a research specialist at the University of Pennsylvania. Over the course of her eleven year career in biomedical sciences, she has studied genetic diseases, development, and virology. One goal of her studies is to use her scientific knowledge to help people understand health and biomedical issues as they relate to governmental policy.
Maya Dewan
Aqsa Durrani
Aqsa Durrani holds a Bachelor’s degree from New York University in Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies with minors in Biology and Chemistry. After spending many of her formative years living in Selma, Alabama, she became interested in healthcare access and disparities. At NYU, Aqsa melded this interest with global public service by studying abroad and leading service trips to disaster- and poverty-afflicted regions. She explored these issues further by working with various organizations and hospitals in New York, including the New York City Free Clinic, as well as by focusing many of her academic courses on health, health policy, and social work. After designing an interdisciplinary independent study, Aqsa was able to link her global health and Middle Eastern interests in a study of health policy in the Middle East. She has decided to continue exploring these overlooked areas in her graduate studies and will focus her Master of Public Health degree in International Health.
Aqsa currently works as a primary research associate for UPenn’s Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) on Skin Cancer. Upon completion of her MPH at UPenn, she plans to attend medical school in hopes to deliver healthcare to under-served populations, as well as to be better prepared to address health policies from a multitude of perspectives. Aqsa intends to continue working with overlooked and under-served communities at home and abroad throughout her graduate and professional careers.
Melissa Fernando
After obtaining a Bachelors degree in Computer Applications from Stella Maris College, Chennai, Melissa Fernando moved to Philadelphia in the summer of 2004. After much consideration, Melissa decided to pursue the route of the biomedical sciences. She accepted a position at the Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Department at the School of Medicine, where she developed and performed a wide variety of immunological experiments and analyzed her findings in scientific reports and presentations. During this period, Melissa successfully completed a course in Immunobiology where she gained sound knowledge of the biological basis of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). This sparked her interest in HIV and further research led her to find that HIV is the leading cause of death in African Americans. She pursued her interest further by exploring the research work of the University of Pennsylvania Faculty and found the work of Dr. Chris Coleman to be intriguing. Melissa interviewed with Dr. Coleman and accepted his offer for the position of Research Assistant. During the past few months, Melissa has been working for Dr. Coleman on his latest research,“The Black Men’s Health Promotion Project.”This project is a randomized behavioral trial for African American seropositive men who have sex with men 50 years and older. Melissa has been in charge of screening and recruitment, module development, data collection and general database management of the Project. Currently, Melissa works as a Research Coordinator at the Center for Sleep and Respiratory Neurobiology at the School of Medicine.
Kathleen Flandrick
Kathleen Flandrick was first drawn to public health while living in New York City and working with investigators at Columbia University preparing research grant proposals. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota. Currently, Kathleen is a manager in the Office of Research Program Development at Penn’s School of Medicine. Her interests are in research funding and equitable access to affordable, quality health care.
Melissa Frank
Melissa Frank graduated from the George Washington University in 2006 with a BA in International Affairs and minors in French and History. For the past two years, she has been involved in researching endogenous pathways controlling central nervous system cell death following neonatal brain injury. She is now a full-time MPH student, and hopes to do work improving disaster preparedness and response plans.
Carmen Frazier
Carmen Leticia Frazier is pursing a Master of Public Health degree with a concentration in Administration and Health Policy. Currently, she is the project manager of the WIN Asthma Study at the University of Pennsylvania. Carmen received her Bachelor of Science degree in Neuroscience from East Carolina University in 2005. Her interests lie in the areas of child and family health, immigration and health issues affecting the Hispanic community.
Amy Fuller
Amy Fuller entered the Master of Environmental Studies program after working at an animal shelter for two years post graduation. Public health classes taken through that program led her to apply for the Master of Public Health degree, which she plans to finish as a dual program with the MES. Amy hopes to find a Capstone Project that focuses on sustainable agriculture and nutrition in developing countries. After graduation she would like to enter the public health field through an international NGO or government position.
Michael Harhay, MBe
Michael Harhay is pursuing his PhD and MPH at Penn. He is currently involved in a number of research projects with collaborators at the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi), the UNICEF/UNDP/World Bank/WHO Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR), and the Economist Intelligence Unit of The Economist.
Link for Michael's most-recently pubhlished articles to which he contributed:
http://www.plosntds.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pntd.0000484
Josh Havassy
Since graduating for Haverford College in ’04, Josh has worked at the Renfrew Center (a comprehensive eating disorder treatment center) in Philadelphia in several capacities, but mainly as a counselor for the inpatients. Josh eats with the patients, runs support groups, has one-on-one sessions, and generally tries to be whatever they need as they go through treatment. Josh is coming to the MPH program after watching the agony of thousands of eating disordered women and with the memory of scores who’ve died from their disorders. He is tired of watching people he cares about hate and slowly kill themselves, and he plans to work on improving prevention measures and treatment efficacy, and on increasing awareness of this plague... In his free time Josh likes to cook (poorly), argue about baseball, and hang around town with friends.
Shally Iyer
After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania in 2006 with a Bachelor of Arts in Hispanic Studies with a concentration in cultural competency, Shally pursued a career in healthcare consulting. She specialized in clinical operations improvement and worked for the New York Department of Health and Mental Health to improve medical intake procedures for Rikers Island Prison Facilities. Shally’s work in New York stimulated her interest in clinical improvement for underserved communities and she is excited to be returning to her alma mater for her Master of Public Health.
Margaret Johnson, M.D.
Margaret Johnson, MD is Family Medicine physician currently practicing medicine at Penn Family Care in West Philadelphia. She has an interest in reproductive health within primary care including contraceptive counseling, IUD insertion and prevention of unintended pregnancy, STD treatment and prevention, colposcopy, and early medication and aspiration pregnancy terminations. She has collaborated on research regarding resident education of reproductive health procedures as well as the safety and efficacy of abortion care in the primary care setting.
Gabrielle Jones
Kevin T. Jones
Kevin Trimell Jones works full-time at the HIV/AIDS Prevention Research Division in the School of Medicine as an Ethnographer; there, he examines neighborhoods, bars, bathhouses, “crack houses,” and sexual networking websites to better understand the context of “risks” in the transmission of STD/I for various populations. As a qualitative researcher, he has provided data collection and analysis trainings for Philadelphia’s Department of Public Health, various community based organizations and professors and graduate students at the University of Botswana. His current interests focus on the use of media and communication in the social construction of risks, and in the design of clinical trial recruitment strategies and sexual health messages. Kevin is a national trainer with the Gay Men’s Health Leadership Academy; a founder of the Black Gay Men’s Leadership Council; and the founder of the Black LGBT Archivists Society of Philadelphia. He received a BA from the University of Michigan, and a MEd from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.
Jin Hui Joo, M.D.
Jin Hui Joo, M.D., M.A., is a residency graduate of the Department of Psychiatry and a geriatric psychiatry research fellow in the Geriatric Unit at the University of Pennsylvania. She also has a master's degree in international affairs from Tufts University. Dr. Joo's interests include treatment of late-life depression in the community, with an emphasis on psychotherapy and disparities in mental healthcare. She is interested in exploring how mental health care for older adults can be extended beyond the biomedical model and the traditional clinic and how the community can be integrated into a care model which will increase engagement and improve outcomes.
Vanesa Karamanian
Before entering medical school, Vanesa served as a volunteer for several non-profit organizations. She had the opportunity to provide relief to victims of disasters, help improve access to health care, education and food to low-income families. These experiences greatly influenced her decision to pursue a career involving humanitarian work. Therefore, she enrolled in medical school in order to make a difference in the life of the economically and medically disadvantaged.
As a medical intern Vanesa assisted in a clinic in rural northern Argentine, an area with limited resources, where her team provided basic medical services and educated local villages regarding healthy lifestyle choices, vaccinations, oral contraception as well as proper hygienic practices. She found this experience to be very rewarding, as it highlighted the importance of providing preventive health care and basic medical services to the community, which has since remained a cornerstone of her humanitarian philosophy.
After completing her medical training, Vanesa became a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania, where she currently works as a member of a multi-disciplinary multi-center research team, whose goal is to better understand and develop new diagnostics and therapies for pulmonary hypertension. Specifically, her research is focused on identifying a novel panel of serum antigens that that they believe will serve as the basis for novel diagnostic tools as well as potential therapeutic targets.
Vanesa's divers life experiences and exposure to different cultures have allowed her to better understand the importance of preventive medicine, primary care, quality of life and accessibility to health services for the community. She is delighted to have been accepted into the MPH Program and she is ready to begin this new step in her career.
Myra Lazo, MSPA-C
With 7 years of clinical experience as a physician assistant in the field of obesity and weight loss surgery, Myra decided last year to pursue a master’s in public health. Her role in the practice ranged from surgical assisting, surgical evaluation, in-patient and out-patient post-operative care, nutritional counseling, health education & promotion, practice marketing, various administrative functions, health insurance approval process and obesity research.
Being involved in both the clinical and organizational care in a private surgical practice, Myra became increasingly interested in the delivery of healthcare, health promotion and disease prevention. She believes that focusing not only in clinical care but also in the management and organization of available resources with business considerations such as issues of costs, governmental regulation and public and private policies are fundamental in providing better healthcare in the future.
With an MPH degree with a focus on healthcare administration and policy, Myra plans to fill a leadership role in public or private health institution that aims to provide quality healthcare, improved access to healthcare, maintain excellent delivery of healthcare, increase focus on promoting healthy lifestyles and disease prevention that would affect the local, national and possibly in the global community. She believes that this program will help me gain perspective on how our current healthcare systems can promote health and improve access to healthcare.
Susan E. Levy, M.D.
Susan E. Levy, M.D., is a board certified pediatrician with certification in Neurodevelopmental Disabilites. She is currently a clinical Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and Associate Division Chief for the Division of Child Development, Rehabilitation and Metabolic Disesase of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), and the Director of the section of Developmental Pediatrics. Dr. Levy's research interests include epidemiology of autism spectrum disorders (ASD), early identification of children with ASD, and Complementary and Alternative Medical treatments of ASD. She is the Co-principal investigator (with Dr. Jennifer Pinto-Martin, UPENN School of Nursing) of the Pennsylvania CADDRE (Center for Autism and Developmental Disabilities Research and Epidemiology), which is funded by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. This multi-center grant is devoted to investigating risk factors and causes of autism in children ages 2-5 years of age as well as conducting surveillance studies of ASD.
Dr. Levy is active in policy and advocacy on te local, regional and national levels. She co-chaired the research subcommittee of the Pennsylvania Autism Task Force and was chairperson of the workgroup to standardize ASD evaluation in Pennsylvania. As a member of the Autism Expert Panel for the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), Dr. Levy contributed to the recent (2007) clinical report and Autism Toolkit for pediatricians. She is a member of the Executive Board for the Council on Children with Disabilities of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Hilary Nelson, Ph.D.
Hillary Nelson is an Associate Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. She received her B.S. from Yale University and her Ph.D. from MIT. Following a postdoctoral fellowship in Cambridge, England, she was a faculty member at University of California, Berkeley, before moving to Penn. Despite spending most of her career as a molecular biologist and biochemist, Hillary has always been interested in the public health implications of basic science. She is acting on these convictions by pursuing her MPH, with an emphasis on public health genetics.
Anna Payanzo
Anna Payanzo holds a BA in Social Anthropology from Harvard College, with a focus on medical anthropology and critical science and technology studies. Undergraduate studies included research in tradition healing and religious practices in a Central African urban community, particularly as a means of addressing psychiatric and behavioral distress. Anna has been working, since completing her undergraduate studies, in inpatient and community mental health service setting, first with individuals, as a mental health specialist on a unit for dissociative and trauma, and most recently in program and housing development for a community-based social service agency operating throughout southern New Jersey. She is interested in researching policy and programmatic solutions to the nexus of health issues around homelessness, trauma, and dislocation and behavioral health program assessment. Anna would like to use her current work in supportive housing development as a focal point, but explore how research and programmatic interventions can be applied to similar issues among folks dislocated by war, trauma and poverty in Africa and in the Rural Native American Southwest United States.
Charity Payne
Charity Payne received her Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 2006, as a biology major and sociology minor. She has a very strong background in athletics, including 4 Varsity Collegiate years on the Women’s Track and Field team at Penn. Charity plans on working towards her Masters in Public Health as a part-time student and using the degree to become a well-rounded physician. After receiving her MPH in 2011, she plans on pursuing her career goal by attending an osteopathic medical school. Charity hopes to combine her two passions in life with a concentration in sports medicine.
Bradley Pennington
Bradley Pennington, B.A., University of Chicago '06, is currently employed with Merck & Co., Inc. in the Customer Strategies and Solutions Group. As an internal pharmaceutical sales representative, he focuses on healthcare technology and health communication delivery. He has executed on initiatives to promote chronic disease management programs, life-saving medicines, and multi-channel marketing plans partnering with small, group and health systems across the nation. Brad's expertise lies in healthcare delivery,managed care organizations and patient self-care management.
Brad hopes to focus on innovative partnerships between the different healthcare sectors to service and improve the unmet medical needs on an individual, community and nationwide level. He believes the current evolutions in e-healthcare, public health economics, and program evaluation will increase the need for public health professionals who can capitalize on the influence of public policy and the interests of private industry.
Tiffany Richardson
Tiffany’s interest in Global Public Health first stemmed from her experiences working in social work and psychiatry, as well as volunteering abroad in Mexico and Bolivia. She graduated from Drexel University with a Bachelors degree in Psychology. Tiffany is currently a Clinical Research Coordinator, working on research related to anxiety and depression at the University of Pennsylvania. Though originally planning to pursue a doctorate in clinical psychology, her work with under served populations inspired her to focus on issues in public health.
She is interested in working on sustainable health programs, particularly in developing countries. Her primary research interests include sustainable access to safe water and sanitation. She is also interested in health issues related to women’s rights and food security.
She plans to use her knowledge from the MPH program to volunteer and work abroad in the future.
Natalie Shih, M.D.
Natalie received her medical degree from the University of Auckland, New Zealand. After three years of working as a medical house officer in NZ, Natalie moved to Taiwan, where she encountered a different health system and SARS outbreak. The SARS experience was particularly heartbreaking for Natalie. People including medical personnel were seriously ill and they died before the cause of the disease could be identified. Thus, Natalie decided to go back to Pathology, the basis of all diseases.
In 2007, after four years of solid training in Anatomical Pathology, Natalie passed her Board Exam and became a fully-qualified Anatomical Pathologist in Taiwan.
She now wants to combine her knowledge in the fields of Pathology and General Medicine and apply them in her study of Public Health. Her major interests lie in the areas of Global Health and Women’s Health. Natalie is determined to become competent in developing health policies in these areas, so that she can use her knowledge and contribute more to the society.
Victoria L. Vetter, M.D.
Victoria L. Vetter (Vicki) is an attending staff physician at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in the Division of Pediatric Cardiology. She graduated with her undergraduate and medical degrees from the University of Kentucky, received her pediatric training at Johns Hopkins Hospital and Vanderbilt University Hospital, and trained in pediatric cardiology and electrophysiology at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia where she has been since her training. She is a Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and was the Director of Electrophysiology at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the Chief of the Division of Pediatric Cardiology, having served in this capacity for over 14 years. She is the principal investigator of the NIH/NHLBI supported Pediatric Heart Disease Clinical Research Network (at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia)—a collaboration of eight national clinical sites that conduct research studies in children with congenital or acquired heart disease.
Her research interests have been in the evaluation and treatment of abnormal heart rhythms in children and in the prevention of sudden cardiac arrest. Dr. Vetter is also the principal investigator of the Healthy Heart Screening Study, a large epidemiologic study aiming to evaluate over 50,000 children using electrocardiograms to determine the best methodology to identify children at risk for sudden cardiac arrest. Additionally, her public health interests involve determining the factors that originate in childhood that result in the development of cardiovascular disease in adults and finding the best preventive methodology. She is interested in applying the knowledge base of the public health field to health policy to effect changes that will improve the health of children. She has worked with a number of community and national advocacy organizations including Sudden Arrest Death Syndromes Foundation (SADS) and the Cardiac Arrest Research and Education Foundation (CARE), Parent Heart Watch, the American Heart Association and the Philadelphia Safe Heart Coalition. She is the Medical Director of the Youth Heart Watch at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, an affiliate of Project ADAM, a national program aimed at public access defibrillation and automated external defibrillator (AED) implementation within schools.
Victoria L.Vetter (Vicki) is an attending staff physician at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in the Division of Pediatric Cardiology. She graduated with her undergraduate and medical degrees from the University of Kentucky, received her pediatric training at Johns Hopkins Hospital and Vanderbilt University Hospital, and trained in pediatric cardiology and electrophysiology at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia where she has been since her training. She is a Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and was the Director of Electrophysiology at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the Chief of the Division of Pediatric Cardiology, having served in this capacity for over 14 years. She is the principal investigator of the NIH/NHLBI supported Pediatric Heart Disease Clinical Research Network (at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia)—a collaboration of eight national clinical sites that conduct research studies in children with congenital or acquired heart disease.
Her research interests have been in the evaluation and treatment of abnormal heart rhythms in children and in the prevention of sudden cardiac arrest. Dr. Vetter is also the principal investigator of the Healthy Heart Screening Study, a large epidemiologic study aiming to evaluate over 50,000 children using electrocardiograms to determine the best methodology to identify children at risk for sudden cardiac arrest. Additionally, her public health interests involve determining the factors that originate in childhood that result in the development of cardiovascular disease in adults and finding the best preventive methodology. She is interested in applying the knowledge base of the public health field to health policy to effect changes that will improve the health of children. She has worked with a number of community and national advocacy organizations including Sudden Arrest Death Syndromes Foundation (SADS) and the Cardiac Arrest Research and Education Foundation (CARE), Parent Heart Watch, the American Heart Association and the Philadelphia Safe Heart Coalition. She is the Medical Director of the Youth Heart Watch at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, an affiliate of Project ADAM, a national program aimed at public access defibrillation and automated external defibrillator (AED) implementation within schools.
Tara Walhart
Tara is currently a Registered Nurse in the Emergency Depart at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. She is pursuing dual master's degrees from the University of Pennsylvania in Master of Science in Nursing, Family Nurse Practioner and Master of Public Health. She is very interested in Global Health initiatives, with focus on improving access to health care in vulnerable popularions. She was awarded a 2009 Global Health Frameworkds Fellowship to study undernutrition in children under the age of five in India this past summer.
John Wierzbowski, M.S.
John Wierzbowski, MS, is employed at Pennsylvania Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania Health System. He is currently practicing Safety, Industrial Hygiene, and Emergency Management at the Hospital. His primary focus is the anticipation, recognition, evaluation, and control of workplace health hazards (chemical, physical, biological, and radiological) and taking on all phases of the Emergency Management Life Cycle such as mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery in taking an “all hazards” approach to the management of any and all types of disasters that may affect Hospital Operations, whether natural or man-made. His expertise in safety, industrial hygiene, and hazardous materials has allowed for the successful development of a Patient Decontamination Response Team, and has also been involved in hospital, community, and citywide planning and preparedness for Pandemic Influenza. Moving forward, John is a strong believer that Emergency Preparedness is emerging into a large Public Health issue, and evidence shows a need for integration into sound public health practice. He believes this academic preparation will assist him is his important leadership role at Pennsylvania Hospital and in the surrounding community in which it serves, as well as be a resource for his home community.
Cara Zayac
Cara Zayak is originally from the small town of Scranton, PA. She received her undergraduate degree in Life Science with a minor in Psychology (cognitive/neuro emphasis) from Penn State University. Cara started out as a pre-med major, but questioned whether pursuing an MD was the way to truly pursue the common good. After working in research at Harvard Medical School for an epidemiological study focusing primarily on pulmonary function in spinal cord injured patients, Cara thought more seriously about a degree in public health. She realized her goals in medicine would be better served working for the benefit of entire populations or communities, rather than one single case at a time, as a sole physician.
Cara has found she has many interests in health care, specifically promoting wellness, hygiene, access to care, and policy issues, and needed a dynamic field and career, such as public health. She enjoyed the research she did in epi, and hopes to find a project she can feel passionate about. Cara is looking toward pursuing a PhD in epi and possibly staying in academia.