Global Health Innovation & Leadership Fellowship

Sevgi Sipahi

Sevgi Sipahi, MD is an Obstetrician-Gynecologist who completed her medical training at Chicago Medical School and her residency at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, IL. Prior to joining the Global Health Innovation Laboratory Sevgi has worked in Uganda and Tanzania where she has focused on medical education and developing international global health rotations for medical students and resident physicians. She is currently working on the Global Health Innovation Laboratory's Postpartum Hemorrhage bundle in Kenya. Sevgi lives in Chicago and splits her time working clinically with the Advocate Medical Group at Lutheran General Hospital and working in Boston with the Mass General Global Health Innovation Laboratory while pursuing her MPH in Clinical Effectiveness through the Harvard T.H Chan School of Public Health.

Margaret Sheehy

Margaret (Maggie) Sheehy MD, MSc, prior to coming to MGH, has been focusing on sustainable and culturally sensitive EM development via medical education utilizing innovative technologies and resources. She has worked in Kisumu, Kenya to help develop an Emergency Medicine curriculum for the new medical students at Maseno University. She was the Essentials of Emergency Medicine fellow 2015 and serves as the COO of the Academic Life in Emergency Medicine (ALiEM.com) virtual Chief Resident Incubator. During the fellowship she will be getting his MPH from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and work clinically at MGH Emergency Department.

Mark Stoltenberg

Mark Stoltenberg MD, MA is a palliative care and family medicine physician who currently practices within the Division of Palliative Care at Massachusetts General Hospital. Mark has participated in global health projects around the world, including a year-long fellowship in Bolivia, an on-going longitudinal project focused on palliative home care in Belize, as well as multiple shorter term projects in Guatemala, Peru, Colombia and Vietnam. During the fellowship he will also be getting his MPH from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and working clinically at MGH.

Revathi Ravi

Revathi Ravi MD, completed her combined Internal-Medicine and Pediatrics Residency from the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and Nationwide Children's Hospital in June 2016. In addition to being our Fellow she also serves as an Attending in Hospital Medicine in the Department of Internal Medicine at MGH. While she is not working clinically, she will be working on completing her MPH at the Harvard T. Chan School of Public Health. Her focus is in health-systems strengthening focused on the individual experience in global and under-served settings and people living with HIV/AIDS.

Oluwakemi Adegoke

Oluwakemi (Kemi) Adegoke MD, is a recent graduate from the department of OBGYN at Stamford Hospital - Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons.  She recently presented her research regarding perioperative morbidity between transvaginal and supracervical hysterectomies in the setting of robotic-assisted sacrocolpopexies at the American Congress of Obstetrics and Gynecology Annual Clinical and Scientific meeting. She hopes that a her global health fellowship will not only allow her to continue educating patients about reproductive health, family planning, STIs, but will also segue into a career involving public policy. Kemi will be working clinically at St. Peters Hospital in Olympia, WA and will also be completing her MPH at the Harvard T. Chan School of Public Health.

Jennifer Makin

Jennifer Makin MD, was born and raised in Buffalo, NY. She completed her OB/GYN residency at Upstate Medical University in June 2016, where she will be continuing part time clinical work. She is also an adjunct faculty in the NYS Breast Feeding Quality Improvement in Hospitals project. Jennifer has a strong interest in gynecologic oncology in the developing world. During her fellowship, she will also complete her MPH at the Harvard T. Chan school of Public Health. Her hobbies include hiking and camping.

Vishaka Raguveer, MD

Vishaka Raguveer, MD is a family medicine fellow (2017-2019) who completed her medical training from Ross University School of Medicine and her residency at St. Francis Hospital in Wilmington, DE. She completed her Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in Public Health. Her previous volunteer experiences include mission trips to India, Dominica, Kenya and Peru; she was also highly involved in setting up the global health track at her residency program. Vishaka is currently pursuing her MPH in Clinical Effectiveness through the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Ayesha Venkateswaran, MD

Dr. Ayesha Venkateswaran joins MGH’s Global Health Innovation Laboratory and Human Rights Fellowship with a blend of academic education and professional training in international law and medicine. Born in Washington, DC, she completed her undergraduate degree in law at the University of Oxford and Master of Laws at the University of London. Embarking on her journey integrating law and medicine, Ayesha was awarded a scholarship for her medical degree from the Medical School for International Health, a collaboration between Ben-Gurion University in Israel and Columbia University Medical Center. She is currently completing residency in family and community medicine in Yuma, Arizona. Through her volunteer activities and work assignments, she has travelled to, lived and worked in, among others, England, France, Austria, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Russia, China, Thailand, Israel, the Palestinian Territories, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Uganda, Haiti, Mexico and the USA. To further her education in global health and public policy, she hopes to pursue an MPH at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Ayesha’s goal is to effectively address medical and legal challenges and socio-economic inequities facing the most vulnerable populations around the world, through implementation of innovative, sustainable and culturally respectful health care models.

Karla Fredricks

Karla Fredricks, MD is a pediatrician who joined the Global Health Innovation Laboratory and Human Rights as a fellow in 2015. She is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine and the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia residency program. After completing her training, Karla worked as a general pediatrician in community health centers in Baltimore and Washington, DC, eventually becoming medical director of a small clinic in suburban Maryland. Her career has mainly focused on immigrant/refugee health and care for underserved populations both domestically and internationally, including work in South Africa, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Belize, Cambodia, Haiti and two missions with Doctors Without Borders in Ethiopia and South Sudan. Through the Global Health Leadership Fellowship, she is planning to integrate formal study in public health, research and clinical experience in Kenya in order to help strengthen existing medical systems in the developing world in a self-sustaining, effective manner that improves health outcomes. 

Hijab Zubairi

Hijab Zubairi, MD was born in Karachi, Pakistan and grew up in southern California.  She completed her undergraduate degree at the University of California, Berkeley in Biology and Religious Studies and received her medical education at the University of Vermont College of Medicine.   She has recently completed training in Internal Medicine/Pediatrics from Tufts University/Baystate Medical Center where she was chief resident.  She has had an interest in global health throughout her career and has worked in South Africa, Kashmir, Peru, and Liberia. She is currently pursuing an MPH at the Harvard School of Public Health.  Her clinical interests include providing care in resource limited areas, tropical medicine and infectious diseases, refugee health, patient advocacy, and medical education and advancement. 

Priyanka Tulshian

Priyanka Tulshian, MD is a recent graduate from Boston Medical Center Family Medicine Program.  She is currently doing her clinical work at Contra Costa Regional Medical Center.  She is excited to be an integral part in the development and advancement of the Family Medicine Residency Program in Sagam. 

Leeya F. Pinder

Dr. Leeya F. Pinder, MD, FACOG is a board certified ObGyn who joined Boston Medical Center and Massachusetts General Hospital as a Global Women’s Health Fellow in July 2014. Dr. Pinder is originally from Queens, NY, and spent her later formative years in Charleston, SC.  Upon completion of her degree, she further trained in Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Cincinnati. In 2009, Dr. Pinder joined a private practice group in Charlotte, NC, and despite having a very busy practice, she made time for educating the community and actively participating in community service projects. She recognized the need for better access to healthcare on a global scale and traveled to Uganda to provide care to women in small communities and to educate their leaders on safe birthing practices. Her long-range career interests are focused on finding ways to radically reduce the burden of women’s cancers (breast and cervix) globally, through the creation and implement of high impact programs to prevent and treat these diseases. This passion prompted her to further her training as a Global Women’s Health Fellow with Boston Medical Center and Massachusetts General Hospital.

Svjetlana Lozo

Svjetlana Lozo, MD, has been a fellow in the Global Health Innovation Laboratory and Human Rights since August 2013. Born and raised in Bosnia and Herzegovina, she completed her undergraduate studies at Drexel University in Philadelphia and attended St. George’s School of Medicine in Grenada, West Indies. She completed her residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Maimonides Medical Center in June of 2013. During her residency Svjetlana has traveled to Eritrea, Tanzania, Nicaragua, Mexico, Jamaica and Haiti learning more about discrepancies in women’s health care around the world.  During that time, she also held position of NYC Regional Vice present at Committee of Interns and Residents. Her medical interests include obstetrical fistula and its social implications, female pelvic organ prolapse and incontinence in resource poor setting, prevention of cervical cancer and reproductive health education. She is dedicated to addressing health care needs in the developing world though teaching of medical providers and establishing sustainable health care systems.

Michele Montandon

Michele Montandon has been a fellow in the Global Health Innovation Laboratory and Human Rights since August 2011.  She has her Medical Degree from the University of California-San Francisco, with an Area of Concentration in Global Health.   She completed residency training in Family Medicine at the Contra Costa Regional Medical Center.  During her training, she volunteered clinically and conducted HIV research in Kenya and Uganda.  After residency, she worked with Médecins Sans Frontières MSF (Doctors without Borders) in Lagos, Nigeria.  Her interests internationally include medical education and building human resources for health, particularly the training of highly skilled general practitioners and physician leaders for work in rural, physician-poor areas.  Through the fellowship, she has been involved in medical education programs in Juba, South Sudan and western Kenya.

Melody Eckardt, MD, MPH

Melody Eckardt has been a fellow in the Global Health Innovation Laboratory and Human Rights since 2009. She is also faculty at Boston Medical Center where she is an attending physician in obstetrics and gynecology and is the care provider in charge of development for the Women’s Refugee Center at Boston Medical Center. She has her MPH from Harvard School of Public Health and her Medical Degree from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Her interests internationally include refugee health, maternal ultrasound in resource poor settings, and antenatal and emergency obstetrical care to decrease maternal morbidity and mortality in the developing world. Dr. Eckardt has previously worked in Nepal, Southern Sudan, India, Pakistan and Romania. She was also an ob/gyn in a group practice for 7 years at South Shore Hospital.

Maya Fehling, MD

Maya Fehling has been a fellow in the Global Health Innovation Laboratory and Human Rights since June 2010. Trained in pediatrics, Dr. Fehling studied in Germany and worked in Switzerland and France. She is particularly interested in child health in developing countries, with a focus on emergency and newborn care and nutrition. Dr. Fehling has worked for several NGOs, including Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders) in countries like Ecuador, Ghana, Nigeria, Cape Verde and Uganda. Dr. Fehling has contributed to Global Health Innovation Laboratory efforts in Uganda and Southern Sudan.

Keri Cohn, MD

Dr. Keri Cohn has been a fellow in the Global Health Innovation Laboratory and Human Rights since 2010. After completing her residency at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Dr. Cohn worked with Médecins Sans Frontières as the chief expatriate physician in the northern rebel region of the Cote d’Ivoire. She received her Diploma of Tropical Medicine at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and then completed a 5 year intensive fellowship combining Pediatric Infectious Diseases and Pediatric Emergency Medicine at Children’s Hospital Boston. She is an instructor at Harvard Medical School and was awarded the 2010 Pediatric Infectious Disease Society Burtis Burr Breese Award for her tuberculosis research in Haitian migrant children living in the Dominican Republic. Dr. Cohn has been involved with the Global Health Innovation Laboratory's work in Liberia and Uganda, and helped shape the Initiative to End Child Malnutrition.

Wendy Macias Konstantopolous, MD, MPH

Wendy Macias Konstantopolous is an emergency physician at MGH. Dr. Macias Konstantopoulos was a Global Health Leadership Fellow from 2007-2009, during which time she completed an MPH at Harvard School of Public Health, represented the Global Health Innovation Laboratory at the UN's 2008 Global Forum Against Human Trafficking and undertook research for the Global Health Innovation Laboratory's Initiative to End Slavery. She is currently faculty at the Global Health Innovation Laboratory, assisting in the design of Phase Two of the Global Health Innovation Laboratory's trafficking work. Dr. Macias Konstantopoulos has also worked with the International Organization on Migration Counter-Trafficking Unit in Indonesia.

Brett Nelson, MD, MPH, DTM&H

Brett Nelson was a pediatric Global Health Leadership Fellow at the Global Health Innovation Laboratory from 2008-2009. In his capacity as fellow, he led efforts in developing pediatric and newborn care and training in Monrovia, Liberia. Dr. Nelson's training includes MD and MPH degrees from Johns Hopkins, with MPH concentrations in humanitarian assistance and human rights, and advanced diploma training in tropical medicine at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Dr. Nelson has been involved in pediatric care, academic research and consultancy in a dozen conflict-affected areas while working for a variety of international organizations.

Jacob Chapman, MD, MPH

Jacob Chapman completed his residency at the Harvard Affiliated Emergency Medicine Residency (HAEMR) in June 2008. He is an emergency physician at MGH. He received his MPH from the Harvard School of Public Health in June 2009. His previous international work has focused on capacity-building and development. He has worked with Partners in Health on a number of projects in Chiapas, Mexico. Most recently, he completed a health needs assessment in Liberia, in conjunction with the Liberian Ministry of Health, and he has also worked on the Maternal and Infant Health Initiative in Zambia. Currently, Jacob's focus is to help develop a world-leading emergency care training program, by and for, Caribbean health care providers.

Leah Miller

Leah Miller is a native of rural Nebraska and attended medical school at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. While in medical school she traveled throughout Mexico, Ecuador and Peru and developed an interest in global health - especially in family planning and prevention and treatment of cervical cancer. She did her OBGYN residency at the University of Texas Southwestern in Austin and is now sharing a position with co-fellow Svjetlana as the OBGYN attending for St. Peter Family Medicine Residency Program in Olympia, Washington, part of the University of Washington system. As a fellow Leah plans to focus on expanding education on family planning and gender based violence in Western Kenya and developing a program for the screening and treatment of cervical dysplasia and cancer at Sagam Community Hospital.

Vikram Palanivel

Vikram Palanivel, MD, is an internist who calls Philadelphia home and did not stray far for medical school at the University of Pennsylvania.  While at Penn he also obtained his PhD in immunology and hopes to use his research background to improve the management of chronic, non-communicable diseases in resource poor areas.  After finishing his residency in Internal Medicine at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, Weill Cornell Medical Center, he stayed on at that institution as an academic hospitalist.  His medical experiences in India, Botswana, Haiti, Tanzania and Kenya have reinforced his longstanding interest in global health equity.  His interests include international cardiology specifically heart failure in sub-Saharan Africa and the increasing prevalence of cardiovascular disease in the developing world as well as medical education.

Jeff Pierce

Jeff Pierce, MD, is a family physician based in northern California. A native of South Texas, Pierce completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Texas–Pan American and his medical degree at Baylor College of Medicine. After completing his training at the Santa Rosa Family Medicine residency in 2007, he worked in Lesotho for a year as part of the Baylor College of Medicine Pediatric AIDS Corps. Since then he has divided his time between working in northern California and working as the Director of Education for World Altering Medicine, an NGO mainly focused on helping a community in central Malawi. In addition to his experience in southern Africa, Pierce has worked in Kenya, South Sudan, Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Peru, and the Philippines. His medical interests include high risk obstetrics, HIV, and tropical medicine, and he is dedicated to addressing health care needs in the developing world primarily through　the teaching of medical practitioners.

Kathleen O'Brien

Kathleen O'Brien, MD is an Emergency Medicine trained physician from Arizona who comes to Boston to further pursue her goal of bringing point of care ultrasound to resource poor areas, specifically in the developing world. She finished residency in emergency medicine at University of Arizona in 2009, then worked in a busy community ED in Flagstaff, AZ serving primarily the Navajo nation for 3 years before returning to University of Arizona for a fellowship in Emergency Ultrasound in 2012. Kathleen has spent time pursuing a variety of medical projects in Nicaragua, Honduras, Haiti, Argentina, India, Nepal (three times), Rwanda, and has traveled the world extensively for pleasure. Professional interests include Mexican/US border medicine and ultrasound in resource poor areas. Personal interests are many and include rock, ice, and alpine climbing, trail running, anusara yoga, and remote road trips out west on her Enduro motorcycle.

Paula Roy-Burman

Paula Roy-Burman, MD completed her undergraduate studies at the University of California at Berkeley and obtained her medical degree from the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California with an emphasis on community health. She completed residency in Internal Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College, where she is currently an attending in the Division of Hospital Medicine.　Roy-Burman’s academic interests include medical education, healthcare delivery in resource limited environments and transitions of care. In addition to her work in western Kenya, she has had experience in Honduras, Senegal, Thailand and Tanzania in both clinical and educational capacities, with focuses on resource limitations, crossing cultural barriers, refugee health and training of medical professionals, respectively.

Debora Chan

An OB/GYN by training, Debora Chan comes into the fellowship midcareer, having worked in the military, Indian Health Services, Public Health in Tasmania, a short stint with MSF in South Sudan and Mao Tao Burmese Refugee Clinic in Thailand, and private practice.  The severe disparities between the concerns of underserved and resource poor populations and that of her stateside private practice patients, and the recognition that aid, relief, and development efforts can have highly complex consequences encouraged her to pursue additional training to better prepare for work in global health. Particular areas of interest include field expedient health care delivery encompassing local innovation for health care solutions, and local development of quality healthcare education and capacity building.