meet our team

Directors

Vinay Srinivasan
M.D./MPH Candidate at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA

Vinay is a first-year medical student at UCLA originally from the Atlanta area. He completed an undergraduate degree in Neuroscience at Pomona College, where he was first exposed to the intersection between health and social justice. For the last three years, Vinay worked as a post-bachelor fellow at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. There, he developed statistical models for the Global Burden of Disease study, predominantly contributing to the estimation of fertility, overweight and obesity, physical activity, and epidemiological transition worldwide. He also had the opportunity to work closely for several weeks with colleagues at the Ethiopian Public Health Institute in Addis Ababa to help devise a protocol to collect and standardize health-related research data towards creating a first-of-its-kind database. While at UW, Vinay earned his MPH in Global Health and for his thesis conducted a global analysis of the prevalence of undernourishment using a novel version of the indicator that he developed. Long-term, Vinay is interested in the applications of data science to local population health problems and would like to integrate these modalities into his clinical practice. In his free time, Vinay is an avid soccer player and hiker.

Kate Coursey
M.D. Candidate at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA

Kate Coursey is a first-year medical student studying at the David Geffen School of Medicine. She grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah, and graduated from Occidental College with a degree in English and Comparative Literary Studies. Volunteering as a sexual assault crisis counselor first sparked her interest in global health, and she subsequently spent two summers in India on a Critical Language Scholarship to attain Hindi proficiency. After graduation, she received a nine-month Fulbright grant to teach English in India, where she worked with a local NGO on a public health project to decrease child marriage. In the U.S., she has contributed to cancer research at the National Cancer Institute, clinical research in pediatric Emergency Medicine, and a clinical trial for type II diabetes. She has a particular interest in women’s health and reproductive care in resource-limited settings. In her spare time, she enjoys writing short stories and children's books.

Public Relations Committee

Angela Bi (Liaison)
M.D. Candidate at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA

Angela Bi is a second-generation Chinese-American from Rancho Cucamonga, California currently studying medicine at UCLA. After completing her undergraduate degree at Pomona College, Angela spent a year teaching English with a Fulbright fellowship in Popayán, Colombia. Here, she witnessed both the shortcomings of an under-resourced health care system as well as the powerful resilience of self-sufficient communities that generated creative solutions on their own. After Colombia, her work in data analytics took her from San Francisco, California, to London, U.K., where her eyes were opened to how fast, easy, and effective health care could be. These experiences and more have encouraged her to work towards improving health care around the world, whether that is through highlighting existing discrepancies or supporting long-term partnerships with institutions abroad. In the future, Angela would love to work towards developing sustainable programming around the world as a physician. In her free time, Angela enjoys cooking, dancing, and exercising.

Saloni Gupta
M.D. Candidate at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA

Saloni is the daughter of two Indian immigrants, and was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. Inspired by her roots, Saloni spent the majority of her high school and college summers participating in prevention education projects in rural and urban Maharashtra, India. One of these projects included surveying and educating new mothers on the importance of Hib and Meningococcal vaccinations for their newborns. These projects gave Saloni insight into the differences in healthcare systems across India and the U.S., and shed light on how each system works for the unique population it is serving. Based on these differences, Saloni created tailored educational videos on health topics, which she circulated in the U.S. and India via Whatsapp. While in college, Saloni also led initiatives to educate the Santa Cruz homeless and vulnerable populations on HIV/AIDS stigma and harm reduction. This experience taught Saloni that education and empowerment isn’t a “one size fits all”, but rather varies from population to population, person to person. This summer, Saloni will be traveling back to India to analyze breast milk nutritional value in a neonatal ICU. After completing her medical education and training, Saloni hopes to continue education prevention in underserved parts of India. In her free time, Saloni loves teaching weekly mindfulness classes, dancing and choreographing (Bollywood, Bhangra, and Garba), singing duets, and designing mandalas.

Anvita Diwan
B.S. Candidate at UCLA, Cognitive Science

Anvita Diwan is a third year undergraduate student at UCLA majoring in Cognitive Science and minoring in Global Health. She is involved in healthcare leadership on campus as the Co-President of UCLA's Business Healthcare organization called CUBE. She is also involved in PILOT - Public Health Initiative Leaders of Tomorrow as the Programming Director, hosting panel discussions and untangling the public health field to make it more accessible for her peers on campus. Her interests lie in the gaining a deeper understanding of healthcare from the management side with a global lens. When she is not discovering the healthcare industry, she enjoys exploring the mountains of LA and rewatching The Office.

Sapna Ramappa
B.S. Candidate at UCLA, Human Biology and Society

Sapna Ramappa is a second year undergraduate student at UCLA with a major in Human Biology and Society and a minor in Public Affairs. Throughout high school and college, she has been interested in social justice, advocacy, and healthcare. In high school, she earned the Girl Scout Gold Award for instituting community-based approaches to tackling anemia in school-going populations in rural India through diagnosis, education, prevention, and treatment. Since entering UCLA, she has been an active member of ARC Medical Program, in which she surveys patients to research the quality of patient care delivered by residents at UCLA Health centers. She has also been involved with UAEM (Universities Allied for Essential Medicines) as the UCLA chapter’s vice president and is a national co-chair for AMSA’s Just Medicine Campaign, a student-centered movement focused on lowering prescription drug prices. In her free time, she enjoys podcasting and singing with her a cappella group.

Priya Kumar
B.S. Candidate at the University of Southern California

Priya Kumar is a third-year undergraduate student at USC majoring in Global Health with a minor in Chemistry. Before moving to LA, she worked as a medical assistant at a pediatric clinic in New York City and in public relations of the Vijayalakshmi Govindarajulu foundation, a nonprofit organization that she co-founded in the name of her grandmother to increase access to higher education in rural India. Here, Priya is the president and co-founder of the USC chapter of Universities Allied for Essential Medicines, a student-led international organization working to improve access and affordability to medicines globally. She is also a research assistant at USC Keck on an intervention designed to prevent childhood obesity in low-income families throughout LA county. Priya aspires to pursue an MD/PhD program to become a child psychiatrist and conduct research in drug discovery and development, specifically for pharmaceuticals that can treat mental illnesses.

Sri Harshini Malapati

M.D. Candidate at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA

Harshini is a first-year medical student at the David Geffen School of Medicine. She completed her undergraduate studies in biology and public health at the College of William & Mary. Having lived in India for eight years, she faced and observed stark inequalities, which initiated her interest in medicine and social justice. During her time in college, Harshini published an article in the Pulitzer Center on child labor trafficking in Hyderabad and Bangalore, India. Shortly after, she documented the work of the first one-stop crisis center for survivors of sexual abuse in India to help facilitate the establishment of such centers in other states of India. She also observed at a rural hospital with limited resources near her hometown of Nandyal, India, to better understand the causes and impacts of health disparities in that area. Harshini is looking forward to continuing to integrate her interests in medicine and human trafficking as a medical student and a physician. In her free time, Harshini enjoys watching thriller movies and cooking.

Logistics Committee

Ambika Verma
B.S. Candidate at UCLA, Human Biology and Society

Ambika Verma is currently a third year undergraduate at UCLA majoring in Human Biology and Society with a minor in Global Health. During the beginning of her sophomore year, she was accepted as a national advocacy intern for the international, student-driven organization Universities Allied for Essential Medicines which seeks to improve access to and affordability of life-saving medicines researched and developed at universities. She worked specifically on the Xtandi Campaign lobbying, supporting communications initiatives in response to developing drug pricing and access to medicines landscape, and building up support on the UCLA community. This year, she recently co-founded the UCLA UAEM chapter, spearheaded the 2019 UAEM North American Conference, and continues to follow coverage relevant to the access to medicines crisis. Aside for UAEM, Ambika is a volunteer with the Assessing Resident CICARE Program, which works to improve patient-physician care, a board member for UCLA’s Project R.I.S.H.I, a nonprofit dedicated to sustainable development and growth of rural Indian communities, a Bruin Belle, and a volunteer with UCLA’s T.E.A.C.H program, which focuses on mentorship and public health education. Outside of school, she loves traveling, taking photos, and exploring new places!

Tessa Fier
B.A. Candidate at UCLA, International Studies and French

Tessa Fier is a second year undergraduate at UCLA double majoring in International Development Studies and French. Originally from Seattle, Tessa's interest in global health began in high school through her involvement with Water1st, a nonprofit focused on ending the global water crisis with whom she travelled to Honduras to learn from community leaders. At UCLA, Tessa has continued her involvement in global health through her membership in the Fellowship for International Service and Health (FISH) as a research and development associate, and now as a member of the LAGHC logistics committee. In the future, Tessa hopes to earn an MPH and work on issues of water access, sustainable nutrition, and examining colonial and imperialist networks both within the United States and abroad, where she is particularly interested in the Francophone world and Latin America. In her free time, Tessa enjoys reading poetry, being in nature, and solving crosswords.

Bre Walsh
M.D./PhD Candidate at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA

Breanna Walsh is a first-year medical student pursuing an MD/PhD within the UCLA-Caltech MSTP. While working toward her B.S. in Biology of Global Health at Georgetown University, she discovered the intrigue of parasitology research by studying the pathogens responsible for giardiasis and malaria. During undergrad, her experiences leading annual service and immersion trips that focused on homelessness in Chattanooga, Tennessee illuminated the socio-structural determinants of health. This exposure and reflection encouraged her to contextualize her research with a greater understanding of global inequity. Breanna spent the last two years as a research assistant at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, where she leveraged CRISPR technology to explore drug resistance in malaria parasites. As a future physician scientist, she is eager to innovate sustainable methods of tackling health disparities in the arena of global infectious disease. In her free time, Breanna enjoys experimenting with new recipes, strolling through bookstores, and exploring the mountains and beaches surrounding LA.

Alex Vesling
M.D. Candidate at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA

Alex is a first-year medical student at the David Geffen School of Medicine originally from Thousand Oaks, California. He completed his undergraduate studies in human biology and a masters in global medicine from the University of Southern California. He subsequently joined Bridge to Health USA, a non-profit organization aimed at building sustainable, comprehensive health programs both in high need areas in the United States and internationally. His research focuses building point-of-care ultrasound training programs in low resource settings and the use of medicine to build local capacity. His interests lie at the intersection of policy, economics, and global health, with an eye towards health systems strengthening and capacity building. He is also die hard LA Kings fan and worked for the King's mascot Bailey during one of his gap years.

Speaker Committee

May Myint Thanda Kyaw
M.D. Candidate at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA

May Kyaw is a first-year medical student and first-generation immigrant who moved here from Myanmar when she was in high school. She graduated from UC San Diego with a Human Biology major/Business minor, and she spent her gap year doing disaster relief work as a CA AmeriCorps Disaster Team member. Her interests in immigrant and refugee health, disaster medicine and global health is largely based on her life experience growing up in a country under military regime and having first-hand experienced a natural disaster herself. She is interested in global health because from emerging diseases to disaster threats, she believes human suffering can be best alleviated if communities can help uplift, protect and support each other through shared resources and knowledge. In her free time, she loves to watch TV shows, go to brunch and do yoga!

Mili Patel
B.S. Candidate at UCLA, Human Biology and Society

Mili Patel is an undergraduate senior at UCLA studying Human Biology and Society, minoring in Public Health. This is her 3rd time serving on the LAGHC Planning Team and is excited to be working with the team again. Mili developed an interest for global health during her freshman year at UCLA, applying to be an advocate for the UC Global Health Institute's Advocacy Initiative. She has presented about the Advocacy Initiative at multiple conferences including: UC Global Health Day, the APRU Global Health Conference, the APHA national meeting, and CUGH 2019. Her research placed 3rd internationally in the 2018 APRU Student Poster Contest. She is scheduled to lead an advocacy satellite panel at CUGH 2020 in Washington D.C. Mili plans to get an MD/MPH and work in the health policy sector. She enjoys going on hikes and hopes to be able to visit every US National Park!

Leilani Gutierrez-Palominos
M.D. Candidate at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA

Leilani is a first-year PRIME-LA medical student at the David Geffen School of Medicine. She was born in Guadalajara, Jalisco and moved to Fresno, California when she was five years old. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Molecular and Cell Biology from UC Berkeley. Additionally, she pursued a minor in Global Poverty and Practice. Leilani has conducted Zika research in Nicaragua as a MHIRT fellow, assessed health disparities in San Francisco’s Bayview-Hunters Point, and worked with the Doctors Academy, a high school health pipeline program in Fresno, CA. She is a former curator of TEDxBerkeley and is passionate about ideas, global health inequities, and increasing diversity in medicine. In her free time you can find her hydrating her gills in any nearby body of water.

Omar Abbas

M.D. Candidate at UC Riverside School of Medicine

Omar is a first-year medical student at UCR School of Medicine with interest in refugee health, conflict medicine, and health inequities and social determinants of health. As a Syrian, his path towards medicine has been shaped by the country's uprising and its implications for the region and on a personal level. This led him to engage in the health and political aspects of the Syrian and Palestinian causes as a translator and advocate through writing and translating medical care archives and analyses as well as appeals and statements and statements. He has also worked to document efforts being made by political activists and health/humanitarian workers across the Middle East to achieve justice and improve health. In the Inland Empire and Southern California, he has engaged with the migrant and refugee community as an outreach and support worker, as a medical interpreter, and most recently as a cofounder of a local asylum clinic.

Conference Advisers

Sam Lewis
M.D. Candidate at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA

Sam Lewis is a second-year medical student at the David Geffen School of Medicine originally from Albany, New York. After completing his undergraduate studies at Williams College, he worked at a pediatric hospital in northern Laos as a Luce Scholar and completed a master's degree in epidemiology at the University of Cambridge. His interests lie at the intersection of policy, economics, and global health, and hopes to work towards health systems strengthening and capacity building. He enjoys exploring national parks and the different cuisines of Los Angeles, the spicier the better.

Carolyn Smullin
M.D. Candidate at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA

Carolyn is a second-year medical student at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. She is interested in global health and inequalities in women's health, giving particular attention to issues of reproductive and maternal-fetal medicine. Her past work has focused on social determinants of health, HIV and sexually transmitted infections. She has conducted research and participated in clinical work in the US and South Africa. Prior to starting at UCLA, she was based at UCSF and researched alternative therapeutic approaches to HIV through a study of the biological basis of HIV-specific CD8+ T cell exhaustion. She later worked on a study quantifying sexually transmitted infections in pregnant women in South Africa, designed to inform management and treatment guidelines. She is currently working on research characterizing the social epidemiology of congenital syphilis. For her undergraduate studies, she attended UC Berkeley, studying molecular toxicology.

Institutional Staff & Faculty

Thomas J. Coates, Ph.D.
Director, UC Global Health Institute

Thomas J. Coates PhD is Director of the University of California Global Health Institute, whichbrings together the 10-campus UC system to solve global health problems and train future leaders. He is Distinguished Research Professor of Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine and Director Emeritus of the UCLA Center for World Health. Before coming to UCLA, Dr. Coates spent 21 years at the University of California, San Francisco. He co-founded the UCSF Center for AIDS Prevention Studies (CAPS) in 1986 and was the Founding Executive Director of the UCSF AIDS Research Institute in 1996. Both continue with extramural and intramural support. San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown declared July 24, 2003 Dr. Thomas J. Coates Day in San Francisco in honor of his work against HIV. Dr. Coates’ NIH and foundation supported research continues to focus on HIV prevention with disadvantaged populations, especially in Malawi and South Africa. Dr. Coates was elected to Institute of Medicine (now the National Academy of Medicine) in 2000.

Traci Wells, Ph.D.
Director of Education, Global Health Program

Dr. Wells is the Director of Education for the Global Health Program, and also serves as an Adjunct Assistant Professor at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine. She speaks French fluently, and her global health fieldwork has included serving as a research consultant for Sesame Workshop in Mali and Niger, with World Vision as a local partner. This formative research examines various aspects of the curriculum for an after-school club that incorporates games, books, and videos that teach about water, sanitation, and hygiene and neglected tropical diseases, with a focus on inclusion of children with disabilities. In her free time, Dr. Wells enjoys going to theme parks with her husband and four children.