IHSJ 2007 Summer Interns

Every year the Institute for Health and Social Justice (IHSJ) at PIH hosts a summer internship program for a select number of students and professionals early in their careers who are interested in learning about current issues in health and social justice. The 2007 interns proved to be a talented group, and were tremendous assets for many different programs and projects. Here are just some of their many accomplishments:

Ashish Agrawal
Ashish Agrawal is a student at Harvard College majoring in Biochemical Sciences. His main project as a PIH intern involved writing a literature review to isolate the qualities of a successful community health worker program. His research also addressed the issue of cost-effectiveness, showing that in many international and domestic studies, community health workers are both less costly and more effective than the alternative. Ashish hopes to enter medical school in the fall of 2008.

Kathryn Birch
Kathryn Birch spent her summer internship working on research for food security, specifically community-based agriculture and the cost of malnutrition. She also worked on helping to organize a food and health symposium that will take place in October. As a grad student at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, she is focused on Development Economics and Global Health, and hopes to use her degree and experiences at PIH to work as an advocate for the poor in the areas they most need.

Karen Finnegan
After spending time working in an urban community health center, Karen Finnegan enrolled in a MPH program at Emory University to study epidemiology. For her internship with PIH, she worked with data from the TARGA Plus project in Peru. The study evaluates directly observed HAART treatment in patients who are also receiving a social support intervention. Her specific research has focused on patients who are co-infected with TB and HIV.

Julia Geynisman
A 2007 graduate of the University of Illinois at Chicago, Julia Geynisman used her internship to focus on the PIH's project with Tomsk, Russia. She got the opportunity to edit a Global Fund grant, help manage a $100,000 grant from the Ford Foundation, translate documents from Russian to English, and create a newsletter template. "I met fabulously inspirational people, learned about policymaking, read Russian, Haitian and African history and discussed the complex principles of 'liberation theology' and 'human rights'," she said. "Hearing the diverse ways in which the physicians at PIH use their clinical skills both at home and abroad strengthened my conviction to pursue medicine - a career that would allow me geographical flexibility, legitimacy in health advocacy and a direct and personal way in which to impact human lives." This coming year, Julia will be traveling to Israel as a Fulbright Fellow to conduct research on the absorption of Russian émigré physicians into the Israeli healthcare system. She also plans to begin medical school in 2008.

Salman Khan
Salman Khan attended the University of South Florida, where, as an Oxfam America CHANGE Leader, he campaigned on social justice issues including gold mining, fair trade, and hunger. He spent his summer internship doing research and advocacy on food security, nutrition, and health. Presently, he is working as a Directly Observed Therapy (DOT) Specialist through the Prevention and Access to Care and Treatment (PACT) Project, providing guidance and support to marginalized HIV/AIDS patients. He aspires to pursue a career in medicine and global health.

Brent Kim
Since graduating in 2002 with a degree in Computer Science from Tufts University, Brent Kim has worked as a digital artist for various software companies, a tutor and teacher for Simmon's Upward Bound Program, and a high school mathematics teacher for the Boston Day and Evening Academy in Roxbury, MA. He recently returned from nine months of volunteer activity in Himmachal Pradesh, India, where he worked with Indian and Tibetan NGOs to engage youth and empower the poor through academic support, language skills, job training and health education. As an intern with PIH, he worked with the Electronic Medical Records team, where he had the opportunity to learn firsthand about the benefits and challenges of implementing a solid data collection system. He worked with PIH clinical teams to develop and refine forms for tracking PMTCT (Prevent of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV), HIV and TB patient data in Rwanda and other sites.

"Coming to such a renowned organization like Partners In Health, I was initially hesitant of how much I could contribute without a solid health background," reflected Brent. "But I quickly learned that the work that goes on at PIH is not just the work of experienced doctors and wealthy philanthropists (though they are, without question, crucial elements of the PIH mission). For my work with the EMR team, I relied heavily on my graphic design background, and I regularly found myself in the company of highly trained administrators, accountants, engineers, programmers, web designers, writers, and historians, all making valid and critical contributions to the organization."

Sarah Kleinman
As an undergraduate at Stanford University majoring in History, Sarah Kleinman, is focusing her coursework and research on the ways in which societies come to define and treat differently various groups of people over time. While interning at Partners In Health, she was involved in a number of projects, but focused her energy on creating a visual representation of a study pertaining to psychosocial health outcomes for Haitian immigrant youth, which will be presented at an American Public Health Association conference in November. She also helped to analyze data from two recent studies (on preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV and psychosocial impact of HIV/AIDS in Haiti).

"The experience has been both rewarding and highly educational," she writes. "Every day, I am increasingly inspired by the incredible leaders and scholars who have dedicated their lives to creating a preferential option for the poor ("o for the p") through PIH." Sarah spent the Fall in Tanzania with an NGO called "Students for International Change" to teach about HIV/AIDS and public health in villages outside of Arusha. Afterwards, she will finish her M.A. in Sociology (concentration in Comparative Politics and Social Change) at Stanford.

Peter Luckow
A pre-med student at Northwestern University, Peter Luckow spent the summer researching foundations and corporate giving programs as the Development Research Intern. He also wrote a small grant proposal for PIH's education programs in Haiti. He plans to take the academic year off to work full-time for GlobeMed, a nonprofit organization composed of campus groups across the country that is mobilizing university students in a movement to improve global health.

Christopher Miller
Upon graduation from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Chris Miller was assigned to serve as a community health worker with the Peace Corps in Turkmenistan. This summer, he worked with Dr. Arachu Castro to assess access for women in Latin America and the Caribbean to HIV and STI diagnostic testing and treatment. He focused on conducting a literature review of articles related to programs for preventing mother-to-child transmission of the HIV virus, diagnostic testing methods, and prenatal care guidelines. He started his second year at Harvard Medical School after the summer.

Megan Toups
As the intern for PIH's communications department, Megan Toups wrote articles for the website and print newsletter on a variety of topics-including current research going on at PIH and exciting new project developments-as well as helped with some editing assignments. Before interning at PIH she completed a biology degree at the University of Chicago, worked as a lab research technician, and had done volunteer work for WE-ACTx, an organization working with HIV/AIDS patients in Rwanda. Currently she works as a research technician in a biology laboratory at the University of Chicago and is working on combining her various interests in medicine, science, global health, theology, and writing.

Joan VanWassenhove
Joan VanWassenhove focused her internship on efforts to help frame PIH policy on food aid and healthcare. She helped to plan an October conference on the topic, and wrote background documents for a report on food. She is currently pursuing a dual Masters in International Affairs and Public Health at Columbia University. She is focused on issues related to food security and health in the developing world, most particularly Sub-Saharan Africa, and got a taste for international work as a Water Sanitation Extension Agent with the Peace Corps in Mali, West Africa.