Trainees

Lauren Agoubi is a second-year resident in General Surgery at the University of  Washington. She received a B.A. in Chemistry at Williams College with minors in Africana Studies and French Language. Following this, she completed a combined research year and master's degree in Ireland, studying the relationship between advocacy, policy-making, and women's health outcomes. Her current interests include systems-based improvements in health policy and population health.

Kevin is a PGY4 general surgery resident who attended medical school at Northwestern's Feinberg School of Medicine, and undergrad at Vanderbilt University. Clinically, he is most interested in Trauma & Critical Care, and he has prior research experience in trauma system development in LMICs. Kevin is currently partially funded through the H&H Lee Surgical Research Scholars Program for his work evaluating a hospital based violence intervention program in San Salvador, El Salvador.

Mariah is a resident physician in General Surgery at UCLA. She is completing a Masters in Health Policy and Management at UCLA Fielding School of Public Health and is a research fellow with the UCLA National Clinical Scholars Program. She is interested in using partnerships and improvement science to co-create novel solutions to heath disparities. Under Dr. Sha’Shonda Revels, they are interviewing patients in our safety-net system about lung cancer screening to design solutions.

William is a Cameroonian physician who received his medical degree from the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Buea.  He is currently working as a general practitioner and HIV coordinator for the Mount Mary Hospital in Buea. His research interests include surgical oncology and causes of limb amputations in conflict areas.

Caitlin Collins is a general surgery resident at the University of California, San Francisco. In 2019, she completed a master's in Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley with a focus on Interdisciplinary Studies and Global Health. Her research has focused on alternative payment models, health equity, and quality improvement within surgical populations. She has worked on quality improvement initiatives for trauma care in Cameroon.

Lauren is a General Surgery resident at UCSF and is completing a PhD in Biostatistics at UC Berkeley during her residency research years. She is interested in developing novel machine learning algorithms to help guide surgical systems development and improve health equity in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). She is currently working on a statistical algorithm to define population-targeted breast cancer risk prediction models for ethnic groups with limited data.

Razmik  is  a fourth-year general surgery resident at UCLA. He is interested in surgical oncology, and currently works on multiple basic science and clinical projects that focus on pancreatic cancer. Razmik also works under Dr. Shant Shekherdimian's mentorship on several public health projects in Armenia. The main one focuses on exploring the attitudes and beliefs about breast cancer and its screening among women residing in Armenia.

Amanda (she/her/hers) is a resident physician in General Surgery at UCLA. She was born and raised in Miami, FL and is a proud dual-citizen of the United States and Mexico. Her academic interests include health equity, global surgery, implementation science, surgical simulation, and point-of-care ultrasound. Her interest in global surgery is guided by the knowledge that no community has a monopoly on talent and rooted in the desire to build ethical, mutual partnerships across cultures. 

Susana is a medical doctor who received her degree from the University of Buea, Cameroon in 2017. Susana’s prior research experience includes a community-based survey assessing the prevalence, care-seeking practices, and economic impact of visual impairment in the Southwest region of Cameroon. She aspires to become an ophthalmologist and has an interest in clinical research. Susana is currently working her path to securing residency in her dream specialty.

Ahmed is a Cameroonian-trained physician who graduated from the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Buea. He works as a medical officer and occupational health physician at the Daniel Muna Memorial Clinic in Douala. He is interested in clinical research in surgery and aims to specialize in orthopedic surgery. In 2017 he was involved in a large-scale survey of Southwest Cameroon where he collected data on the prevalence and care-seeking behaviors of persons with limb injuries.

Obieze graduated from the University of Nigeria College of Medicine,  practiced medicine for 5 years in Africa and Asia and then acquired a masters degree in global health sciences from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) in 2015. Thereafter, he was a global surgery fellow at UCSF until 2018 when he commenced surgery residency at Maine Medical Center, Portland, ME.

Eunice is a Cameroonian-trained physician who received her medical degree from the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Buea. She is currently practicing at the hemodialysis unit of the Buea Regional Hospital Annex in Buea, Cameroon. Eunice previously worked as a research assistant on a community-based study of injury in the Southwest region of Cameroon. She has prepared a manuscript on the patterns, care-seeking behaviors, and impact of home injury in the Southwest region.

Jordan is a general surgery resident at UCLA. He attended medical school at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine where he developed a passion for social justice and health policy. As a trainee in PASE, Jordan will work to measure and address the disparities that providers’ implicit biases introduce into patient care, particularly within trauma surgery. He hopes his work translates into equitable care for our healthcare system’s most disadvantaged and vulnerable patients.

Born in Portland, Oregon, Rivfka Shenoy completed her BA at Washington University in St. Louis and then graduated with an MD from New York University School of Medicine before starting general surgery residency at UCLA. Her research focuses on using large databases to understand healthcare disparities, specifically in the fields of gallbladder disease and postoperative opioid prescribing and whether standardization of surgical treatment processes can prevent such inequities.

Maddy is a second year orthopaedic surgery resident at the Loyola University Medical Center. From 2010-2012, she served in Peace Corps Senegal as an environmental health volunteer where she developed an interest in health disparities and barriers to healthcare access. She attended medical school at the University of California, San Francisco, and has since been involved in analyzing population-level data on limb injuries in Cameroon.

Haley is a UCLA General Surgery resident entering PGY-3. She is from Seattle, WA, but spent a decade on the east coast, earning her BA at Penn, MPH at Boston University, and MD at Mount Sinai. While pursuing her MPH in global health, she taught ESL to immigrants, pursued research on kidney injury in Cambodia, and was inducted into the Delta Omega Public Health Honor Society. In medical school, she ran the East Harlem Health Outreach Partnership to provide healthcare to undocumented New Yorkers.

Emerson received his medical degree from the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Buea, Cameroon. He is currently working as a site manager, physician and regional focal person for the Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV (PMTCT) with the PEPFAR/CDC funded HIV Free Projects in Cameroon. Emerson is passionate about public health research and was previously involved in a  community-based survey of injury in the Southwest region of Cameroon.

Mark is a Resident Physician in General Surgery at UCLA. He is from San Jose, CA and completed his medical degree at Harvard Medical School. Mark has over a decade of experience working in primary medical and dental care in the Dominican Republic. His past research includes implementing an insulin delivery system using community health workers to provide comprehensive diabetic care for patients with insulin-dependent diabetes.

Dennis is a third-year resident in General Surgery at the University of California, Los Angeles. He graduated cum laude with a bachelor's degree in History of Art and Architecture from Harvard University in 2012. He then spent a year in Johannesburg, South Africa, founding the African Sports & Scholastic Initiative for Students in Townships, a non-profit tutoring organization for local youth. He went on to attend medical school at the University of California, San Francisco.

Baba Adejuyigbe is a third-year medical student at The David Geffen School of Medicine (DGSOM) at UCLA. Prior to medical school, he completed his BS in Human Biology, Health and Society with minors in Business and Inequality Studies at Cornell University and was also a member of the Varsity Football Team. After graduating from Cornell, he worked as a public health fellow at The Skorton Center for Health Initiatives and as the co-curricular program assistant for The Intergroup Dialogue Project.

Andrea graduated from the University of California, Davis with a BS in cell biology from the University Honors Program. She is currently a medical student at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. Her interests lie in pioneering health disparities research affecting vulnerable communities using human centered design and quality improvement methods to create a meaningful impact. She is passionate about teaching and advocating for equal access to higher education among disadvantaged youth.

Born in Iraq and raised in San Diego California, Nameer completed a Bachelor's of Science degree in Human Biology from UCSD before going to St. George's University School Medicine to obtain his Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) degree. Nameer is currently doing research at CORE Lab, which is part of UCLA School of Medicine's Department of Cardiac Surgery. His research focuses on cardiovascular disease outcomes.

Akshayaa K. Chittibabu is a first-year medical student at UCLA in the Global Health Equity Pathway. Her clinical and research interests are in trauma and critical care, injury prevention, culturally competent care, and alleviating racial health disparities. Prior to medical school, Akshayaa earned a Master of Science in City Design and Social Science at the London School of Economics and Political Science and a second Master of Science in Comparative Social Policy at the University of Oxford.

Troy Coaston is a medical student at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA in the Charles R. Drew/UCLA PRIME-LA program. Troy attended Tulane University for his undergraduate education where he majored in Cell and Molecular Biology and obtained a minor in public health. His current work is focused on healthcare disparities among cancer patients.

Matt is a third-year medical student at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. He graduated from Penn State University Schreyer Honors College with a degree in biochemistry and molecular biology and worked in education prior to medical school. Matt became interested in global surgery and health equity in college after working on several global research projects and regional public health initiatives. He works on several projects with the Cameroon Trauma Registry.

Ami Hayashi is a medical student at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. She graduated from Stanford University with a degree in Biology. Her academic interests include global health, surgery, and health equity. Ami’s research interest in global surgery began in undergraduate as a Freeman Spogli Institute Global Policy Intern with the Stanford Rural Education Action Project working in rural Gansu, China on projects related to cataract surgery and the socioeconomic impact.

Jo is a second-year medical student currently in the Global Health Pathway at UCLA. She has interests in global health, surgery, and health technology, and rich experiences in community health delivery and research. She is excited to work with PASE to learn more about global surgery and contribute to research in healthcare delivery in Cameroon.

Russyan (he/him/siya) is a medical student at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. Growing up in the Philippines, he witnessed health inequities firsthand, undergirding his social mission within surgery and medicine at large. He was a Gates Millennium Scholar at Brown University, where he graduated with honors in Biology and a minor in Theater Arts and Performance Studies. As a medical student, he spearheaded the creation of an Antiracism in Medicine curriculum series.

McKayla Poppens is a current medical student in the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA—Charles R. Drew University Medical Education Program and member of the Global Health Equity Pathway. Her academic interests include local and global health disparities research as well as community education. In 2022, she was awarded an Albert Schweitzer Fellowship to design and implement a medical education curriculum for high school students in South Los Angeles.

Shannon Richardson is a second-year medical student at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. She earned her BS in Human Biology with a minor in Human Rights and her MS in Epidemiology and Clinical Research from Stanford University. With extensive experience volunteering in underserved communities prior to medical school, she has since focused her research on health equity. Her primary interest is to mitigate the global burden of surgical diseases through community-based research.

Savannah Starr is a current fourth year medical student at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. She is from southern California and received her degree in Microbiology from UC Santa Barbara. Savannah plans to pursue a career that would allow her to tackle disparities both local and abroad, through involvement with the Mobile Clinic Project and the Global Health and Equity Pathway. She was a first-generation college student who developed a passion for medicine and education.

Patrick Sur, MPH, is a third-year MD candidate at the University of California Riverside School of Medicine, currently exploring patterns of traumatic injury within a regional referral hospital in Eastern Uganda. He worked prior as a research fellow at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) on the Global Burden of Disease Study. Patrick plans to pursue a career as both a trauma surgeon and researcher working toward a more equitable provision of surgical resources worldwide.

Kimberly Vasquez-Cid is an undergraduate student at UCLA with a major in Human Biology and Society BS. Kimberly, as a Latina student interested in pursuing a career in medicine, is interested in understanding the factors that are causing the unavailability of healthcare and the wider social inequalities that have pervaded in the Latino community. She writes and publishes articles on the intersectionality of asthma, COVID-19, and diabetes through patient outreach and health education workshops.

Joseph Wertz is a current medical student at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He graduated from Harvard University with a degree in applied mathematics. Prior to medical school, Joseph was a research assistant studying firearm ownership and firearm-related violence at the Harvard Injury Control Research Center at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He has combined his interests in statistics, public health, and medicine to co-author papers on various topics.

Serge Ngekeng has a PhD in public health from the Department of Public Health and Hygiene, University of Buea, where he currently serves as an associate lecturer. He is passionate about the improvement of health care delivery systems in Cameroon and Africa as a whole. As a STREaM fellow he is excited to participate in research and interventions that will reduce the burden of trauma in Cameroon.
 

Dr. Tanue is an Assistant Lecturer in the Department of Public Health and Hygiene at the Faculty of Health Sciences in the University of Buea. He possesses over ten years of research experience in the fields of public health, data analysis, and implementation science. He has successfully managed several research projects for a wide range of agencies and has held research and statistical consultancy positions for international NGOs.
 

Christelle D. Nyoumbi is an Applied Mathematician with research interests in the Development and Analysis of numerical methods for degenerated Partial Differential Equations, Probability, Statistics, optimization and Epidemiology. She holds a PhD  in Probability/Statistics from the Institute of Mathematics and Physical Sciences, Benin  and  a Masters in research in the same field from the same institute. She is also an Alumni of AIMS-Senegal. She is a D-SINE Fellow.
 

Dr. Kibu Odette Dzemo is a Post-doctoral Fellow for the D-SINE Africa project hosted at the University of Buea, to support research activities of the Project 2 – Trauma Outcome Prediction. She is a Public Health Epidemiologist and works as an Assistant Lecturer at the Department of Health Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Buea, Cameroon. Before joining the University, she served as the Coordinator of the Nkafu Policy Institute, a Think Tank.
 

Ngu Claudia is a Doctoral STREaM fellow pursuing a PhD in Public Health at the Department of Public Health and Hygiene, University of Buea-Cameroon. She has a Professional Masters in Public Health and Hygiene. In early 2022, she worked on a WHO funded research project on mental health. As a STREaM fellow she is excited to participate in research and interventions that will reduce the burden of trauma and injury in Cameroon and become an astute researcher. 
 

Dr Chanceline Bilounga Ndongo, is a medical public health and occupational specialist. She received her Doctor of Medicine and her Public Health postgraduate at the Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University of Yaoundé and Medical Occupation Health postgraduate from the University of Cheikh Anta Diop in Dakar. She is interested in occupational health trauma for her STREaM fellowship and will work to improve management and policies of a work-related trauma.
 

Ukah is a STREaM PhD fellow in the Department of Public Health and Hygiene of the University of Buea. He holds an MPH and a BSc Biochemistry degree from the University of Buea. Ukah is a CGCE A/L Chemistry examiner and has over 5 years of teaching experience and is also a quantitative data analyst. His research interests are in traumatic injury prevention and control and the use of mathematical and statistical models to predict injury outcomes.
 

Vanessa is a Medical Doctor from the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Buea, Cameroon. She was awarded grants from the Pears Foundation Israel and McGill Global Child Health Program for pilot studies. She serves Cameroon’s Ministry of Health under the District Health Services in Limbe. Her interests include health systems strengthening via implementation research, healthy public policy, and community-oriented primary care to ensure equity in access to healthcare services.
 

Megietoh Anuahetseh is currently a student in MPH Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Buea. she Graduated from the same faculty with a bachelor’s degree in nursing science. She is a clinical nurse at Solidarity Health foundation Buea and a home care nurse at Klarah Cameroon. She is passionate about nursing, research and aims to be a leading nurse researcher.
 

Maffo Christelle Joviale is a physician who obtained her Doctor of Medicine degree at the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Buea. She presently working as a general practitioner at the Limbe Regional Hospital and is an MPH STREaM fellow. She is interested in Injury outcome and medical imaging.
 

Frida is an MPH student at the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Buea-Cameroon. She is a Cameroonian physician who received her medical degree from the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Buea. She is currently working as a general practitioner, HIV coordinator and Medical Adviser at the Kumba-town. Her research interests include neurotrauma and injury epidemiology in conflict affected areas.
 

Bechem holds a BSc. in Sociology and Anthropology from the University of Buea-Cameroon and a Post Graduate Diploma in Education/Philosophy from the Higher Teachers Training College of the University of Bamenda. She is passionate about coaching to create positive behavioral change regarding public health concerns. Bechem is excited to work with the STREaM Cameroon program to learn more about the burden of injury and contribute to its prevention and control in Cameroon.