BIDMC Global Health Medicine Fellows

Abdelghani El Rafei

Abdelghani grew up in Damascus, Syria, where he started his medical training. After the civil unrest, he moved to Lebanon and continued his medical training. During his time in Lebanon, he worked on providing humanitarian aid for Syrian refugees in northern Lebanon. The work culminated in the foundation of a Non-Governmental-Organization. He later moved to the U.S. to continue medical training and did his Internal Medicine residency at the University of Minnesota after a year of research at the Mayo Clinic. During his residency, he held primary clinic at the Center of International Health which provides clinical care for recently arrived immigrants to the United States. He additionally received certification in tropical and travel medicine from the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. Abdelghani’s particular interest is in Cardiology, especially in expanding access to advanced therapies. He had research projects on advanced heart failure therapy outcomes in non-English speaking patients in the U.S. His master’s thesis was on outcomes of heart transplantation in immigrants in the U.S. He hopes to continue to pursue research in this area, focusing on expanding access to advanced therapies in low- and middle-income countries. 

Vijai Bhola

Vijai is from Trinidad and Tobago, and completed medical school at the University of the West Indies. He completed internship and residency at Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine. After graduating, he worked as a Hospitalist in Richmond Virginia, during which time he studied Tropical Medicine in Thailand and London, and did Chagas disease research in Bolivia. He served as a disaster relief worker volunteer in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria. He pursued fellowship training in Infectious Disease at the University of Massachusetts, during which time he engaged in research on congenital CMV in Kenya and was awarded the 2020 Massachusetts ID Society Maxwell Finland Award for Excellence in Research.

Katie Ferguson

Katie received her B.A. in Biology and International Health at Dartmouth College. While there, she worked on research and public health efforts around tuberculosis in Tanzania and India. She was Fulbright Scholar in Heidelberg, Germany, teaching high school english and directing their choir. Prior to medical school she was on the administrative staff for Boston's Public Health Department, and a part-time rowing coach a community rowing club. She completed medical school training at Dartmouth and engaged in pain management research in Rwanda before moving west for internship and residency training at Oregon Health and Sciences University. During residency she held her primary care clinic at a Portland FQHC and sought clinical experiences through the Alaska Native Medical Center as well as Scottish Livingstone teaching hospital in Botswana. Katie has a particular interest in Palliative Care, particularly in the ways in which pain, symptoms, and end of life care are handled cross-culturally. She hopes to pursue research in this area, focusing on low and middle income countries, with the ultimate goal to improve palliative care delivery to these communities.

Stephen Mein

Stephen grew up in Virginia, where he completed his undergraduate studies and medical school at the University of Virginia. He has had a passion for underserved populations and studying the role of social determinants of health in health disparities. In medical school, he co-founded both a student run free clinic and a health educational program for previously incarcerated men. He also assisted with the design of a patient navigator program for super-utilizer patients that was later incorporated into the curriculum for all medical students at the University of Virginia. In residency, Stephen studied the effects of pollution on childhood lung function and worked on multiple manuscripts highlighting health disparities occurring during the coronavirus 19 pandemic. He has also been passionate about underserved populations abroad. He participated in global health rotations in Tanzania and Botswana during medical school and residency, respectively. Stephen has particular interests around the intersection of pulmonary medicine and health disparities as well as critical care delivery in resource-limited settings.

Katerina Byanova

Katerina was born and raised in Sofia, Bulgaria. She completed her undergraduate studies at Amherst College, medical school at Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth and residency in Internal Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) in Boston. During residency Katerina was a part of the global health track, which brought her twice for month-long rotations in Botswana, which were among her most formative experiences in residency. Consequently, Katerina joined the global health fellowship program with the hope of having a more sustained impact through teaching, patient care and research during her time in Botswana. Her long-term interest is in the epidemiology and management of chronic lung disease in low resource settings."

Aditya Mohanty

Aditya Mohanty grew up in Los Angeles and completed his undergraduate training at California State University Los Angeles. Aditya regularly spent time with family in rural India during his upbringing, and was frequently stricken by his family’s medical challenges in low-income and resource-limited settings. This was his initial inspiration to purse a career in medicine with a focus on global health. Aditya completed his medical training at University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and internal medicine training at Mather Hospital Northwell Health. During this time, he played multiple roles in global health initiatives in Guatemala, Haiti, and Zambia. With a determination to pursue a career in global health, Aditya completed the Global Health Fellowship at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Through this fellowship, Aditya developed relationships with the Botswana Harvard Partnership and Scottish Livingstone Hospital in Molepolole, Botswana. Aditya is continuing at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center as a clinical instructor and Harvard Medical Faculty Physician, and is hoping to use his relationships in Botswana to continue research and quality improvement projects with the Botswana Harvard Partnership.

Mitch Ross

Mitch grew up near Oklahoma City and attending University of Virginia for undergrad studies. He earned his medical degree at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and completed residency training at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. As an undergraduate he developed an interest in addressing health disparities through volunteer clinical work in northwestern Peru and interning at a health center for uninsured patients who did not qualify for federal aid. At the University of Pittsburgh he served as a student coordinator for the Birmingham Free Clinic, completed global health elective coursework, and worked clinically in a primary care setting in rural Honduras. During residency, he participated in the program's global health track, completing a Global Health Delivery Intensive course at the Harvard School of Public Health and two four-week rotations in Botswana. His global health interests include quality improvement, upstream interventions to improve chronic disease management, and medical education.

Kayla Shirley

Kayla completed her undergraduate training at University of Rochester, medical school at Tulane University, and Internal Medicine residency at University of South Florida in 2019. Alongside medical school, she pursued a Masters in Public Health and Tropical Medicine. Through her training and work for underserved communities, she developed an appreciation for the intersection between health, community, and infrastructure. She was able to engage with these concepts through involvement in diverse service activities while living in New Orleans. Accompanying research on the control of Dengue virus in Latin America, she established further interest in adaptive strategies to address public health needs in resource-challenged settings. These experiences compelled her to seek global health involvement with a longitudinal and multidimensional focus on healthcare, and ultimately pursue the Global Health Fellowship at BIDMC. Long term, she hopes to continue similar work applying a public health perspective to clinical and service projects both locally and abroad.

Mahmoud Abu Hazeem, MD

Mahmoud was born and raised in a small city in Jordan called Al-Salt. After finishing high school, he moved to Al-Karak to attend medical school at Mut'ah University, after graduating in 2008 He practiced Medicine in Jordan for 2 years before moving to the US to start his residency in Internal Medicine at Creighton University Medical Center in Omaha, Nebraska. Mahmoud achieved the best resident award for his graduating class in 2013 and joined CHI Health and Creighton University School of Medicine as an Academic Hospitalist. In 2015, he joined the Internal Medicine residency program as core faculty with designated time to help oversee, mentor and evaluate residents in the program, in addition to recruiting future residents. He also was involved in medical students' education through clinical rounds, mentorship, giving EKG course to the M3 students, and other team building exercises and activities. For his exceptional contributions, he was awarded humanism and teaching awards.

To take humanism work to the next level, Mahmoud joined Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Global Health fellowship program in July 2018, where he works as Instructor of Medicine for Harvard School of Medicine, and practice Internal Medicine in low resources environment in Scottish Livingstone Hospital in Botswana. 

Lesley Jackson, MD

Lesley completed undergraduate training at the University of Evansville, and then medical school training at Indiana University School of Medicine in 2015. She completed internal medicine residency training at the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville, TN. During residency, Dr. Jackson established a global health elective in Uganda for the internal medicine residents of her program, promoting clinical stewardship and medical education of Ugandan medical students. Her experiences abroad and interest in medical education compelled her pursue further global health experience as a Global Health Fellow. She will spend the first 6 months in Boston, and will move to Botswana in December 2018. Long term, Dr. Jackson hopes to assimilate her interests in graduate medical education, global health, and advocacy to pursue a position at an academic medical center.

Amanda Klinger, MD

Amanda grew up in northern New Jersey and attended the University of Pennsylvania for her undergraduate studies. She then matriculated at New York University School of Medicine where she did emergency medicine research during her first year at Korle Bu Teaching Hospital in Ghana, as well as reproductive health research in Madagascar for her fourth year research thesis. She completed her internal medicine residency training at BIDMC where she was a part of the global health residency track, doing two rotations in Botswana. She enjoyed her time in the program so much that she applied to be a BIDMC global health fellow and continue work in quality improvement and intern education at SLH. She has a special interest in critical care in low resource settings. Amanda is currently in Botswana from July 2018 to December 2018 working as a clinical teaching attending.

Bhavna Seth, MD

Bhavna Seth completed her Internal Medicine residency, part of the Medical Education pathway from Boston University Medical Center, a safety-net hospital that caters to Boston's inner-city and refugee population. She spent her formative years and completed her medical education at Lady Hardinge Medical College, New Delhi, India, where she also witnessed the stark realities of how disparities and social injustice acutely affect the lives her patients. Here, in urban metropolitan cities, and further in an inspiring rural Indian setting (Jan Swasthya Sahyog), she experienced how skewed healthcare systems, and structural violence, result, in poor outcomes for preventable illnesses. These experiences, coupled with dinner conversations with her parents, who are doctors and health advocates in India; working with underprivileged children in urban slums, and public hospitals sowed the seeds of her interest in Health Equity.

Besides these interests, she is a medical nerd, and loves dissecting diagnostic conundrums, learning about the fascinating history of medicine, and how evidence-based medicine can be implemented in 'resource-limited settings'. She regularly contributes to NEJM's resident360 forums, and the 'Pages to Practice' section. Outside medicine, she likes reading, exploring different music genres, visiting museums, surfing Wikipedia, and is always amused by a good pun. She is currently based in Botswana the first 6 months of her fellowship, and is working on continuing quality improvement projects in the hospital and community. Bhavna looks forward to pursuing a career to strengthen health systems, at the crossroads of acute & pulmonary care delivery, with a particular focus on implementation solutions, and evidence translation for low- and middle-income countries.

Pooja Gala, MD

Pooja was raised in a suburb of Chicago and studied at Emory University. She completed medical school at Weill Cornell Medical College and residency at New York University. Since college, she has had strong interests in refugee, particularly asylum health and studying non-communicable diseases in low resource settings. During medical school, she co-ran her medical school's chapter of Physicians for Human Rights and conducted asylum affidavit interviews at her medical school's Human Rights Clinic. During residency, she had a second primary clinic site at Bellevue's Survivors for Torture Clinic, one of her most memorable residency experiences. Prior to Botswana, she had the opportunity to pursue volunteer, research, and clinical work in Ghana, Nicaragua, India, and Uganda. During her fellowship, she helped develop the outpatient fellowship experience, expanded the fellowship's community outreach initiatives through a hypertension medication reconciliation study, and worked with the A&E on quality improvement and continued medical education. Read this spotlight to learn more about Pooja.

Neha Patel, MD

Neha is originally from Indiana and attended IU School of Medicine and  completed Medicine/Pediatrics residency at IU in 2017. She was an Anthropology major in college at Emory University, which sparked her interest in social justice and social determinants of health and wellness. She was lucky enough to participate in international opportunities during her time in Medical School and Residency. Neha has spent time Honduras and Kenya in Medical school, returning to Kenya in Residency. It was in Kenya her PGY-4 year when she realized that global medicine and education could be a way to change the world for the better. Through BIDMC, Botswana was her 1^st prolonged international experience after residency. She found it an excellent place to bridge the education gap, learning from her Botswana colleagues while trying to partake some knowledge upon her brothers and sisters overseas. She looks forward to continuing participation in BI-Botswana partnership as she progresses in her medical career.

Celeste Pizza, MD

Celeste is from upstate New York and attended the United States Military Academy at West Point for undergraduate studies followed by St. George's University School of Medicine. During medical school she spent the first year in England as part of a Global Scholars Program followed by a year in Grenada and then clinical rotations in New York City with a focus on global health exposing her to cross-cultural medical practices, which sparked her interest in global health. She completed residency in internal medicine at Virginia Tech Carilion Clinic where her interests included infectious disease and system-based growth in resource-limited settings. During her time in Botswana, she served as clinical teaching attending, worked on curriculum development for local trainees, and contributed to quality improvement work focused on the early recognition and management of sepsis.

Adam Rodman, MD, MPH

Adam is a passionate physician and educator. He was raised in Raleigh, North Carolina, studied history at the University of North Carolina, and earned an MD and MPH in international health and development at Tulane University in New Orleans. He completed residency in internal medicine at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, OR, where he won multiple teaching awards and worked on the residency curriculum. His interest in Botswana started during a residency rotation at Scottish Livingstone Hospital (SLH) in 2015, he went on to join the fellowship program where, beyond serving as clinical teaching attending, he contributed as an editor to a Botswana-wide internship curriculum, led the development and implementation of a sepsis early recognition and management quality improvement project, and continued to produce episodes of his own medical podcast, Bedside Rounds (including one post on his experience in Botswana).

Kiran Kilaru, MD

Kiran grew up in Michigan and graduated from Northwestern University, where she co-chaired a quarterly academic lecture series on the impact of public policy on race, poverty, and inequality.  During her time at the University of Toledo College of Medicine, Kiran traveled to Uganda to research the dissemination of HIV information at the national and local level, which solidified her interest in global health. Kiran rotated in Botswana during her residency at BIDMC and, upon graduation, became a global health fellow. Her interests include gastrointestinal diseases with a focus in hepatology, as well as healthcare delivery and medical education in resource-limited systems. During her fellowship, she served as clinical teaching attending, developed educational resources on gastrointestinal diseases, and performed a root cause analysis of early in-hospital mortality. 

Colleen Kershaw, MD

Colleen graduated from BIDMC's internal medicine residency in 2015.  She is a native of Cleveland, Ohio, and attended Ohio State University for undergraduate studies, followed by Georgetown University School of Medicine. Her interest in global health piqued when she was afforded the opportunity to rotate in Botswana's Scottish Livingstone Hospital in 2014.  Her special interests include infectious diseases as well as the emergence of non-communicable diseases in resource-limited settings and strategies for prevention. During her fellowship in Botswana, Colleen served as clinical training attending, contributed to student and intern education focused on management of tuberculosis and HIV, and led a study looking at preventable in-hospital mortality. 

Peggy Williams, MD

Peggy completed her Internal Medicine residency at University of Michigan. She grew up in Columbus, Ohio, graduated from Princeton University, and later completed medical school at The Ohio State University. She also spent three years teaching English in Vietnam, where she enjoyed being part of the local community. Her first medical mission trip to Rwanda while she was in high school sparked an interest in international medicine which has also taken her to Guatemala, Viet Nam and most recently Botswana. At Scottish Livingstone Hospital she served as a clinical teaching attending, she contributed as a lead editor to a curriculum for University of Botswana medical interns, developed training sessions for hospital nurses, and did quality improvement work focused on improving the efficiency of inpatient rounds.