Matthew Rysavy is a third-year medical student at the University of Iowa's Carver College of Medicine. He received a Bachelor's of Science in Biomedical Engineering from Saint Louis University in 2006. From 2006-2009, Matthew lived and worked in a rural village in central Mozambique, teaching biology at a government-run secondary school through the Peace Corps. He oversaw the school newspaper and art club and helped develop the curriculum for a national HIV education program, JOMA, which is now implemented in dozens of high schools across the country. Matthew is interested in health education and aspires to pursue a career that incorporates into his practice an interdisciplinary understanding of the social and cultural aspects of medicine.

Jennifer L. Weinberg is a MD/MBE dual degree candidate at the University of Pennsylvania. Her clinical and research interests include the applications of telemedicine in resource-limited settings, global health ethics and contributing to the evolution of the African Teledermatology Project. She has been fortunate to travel to Botswana, Thailand, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Turkey and Croatia to participate in international health outreach efforts and community service projects and has recently been awarded a Max Kade Fellowship from the American Austrian Foundation to study public health and comparative health policy in Austria. She has also served as the March 2010 theme editor for the AMA's Virtual Mentor Bioethics Journal, designing an issue dedicated to exploring ethical issues in global health. She hopes to integrate her interests in international health, bioethics and public health in her future career. She joined Global Pulse in 2009.

John F. Pearson is a third-year medical student at St. George's University and a Research Fellow with the Children's Hospital Informatics Program (CHIP) at the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences & Technology. John's goal is to bridge geospatial technologies with real-world clinical applications to improve the health of communities worldwide. With CHIP, he led and published the first US nationwide study linking air pollution to diabetes and reviewed the future research potential of electronic medical records. He recently worked with computer scientists at UCLA to use smart phones to conduct mobile surveys and track environmental exposures in southern California. During his basic sciences, he also led geo-clinical investigations for community outreach and public health management with a group of non-profit clinics in urban South Los Angeles. Prior to medical school, his work focused on environmental sustainability, geo-informatics, and urban planning, which he hopes to see incorporated into the medical profession. He graduated from the University of Massachusetts Boston with a dual degree in Biology and Earth & Geographic Science. He joined Global Pulse in 2010.

Justin Lockwood is a first-year medical student at Michigan State University (MSU), College of Human Medicine. In 2009, he graduated from MSU’s Lyman Briggs College with a BS in Human Biology and a specialization in Bioethics, Humanities, and Society. Justin worked as an Olin Health Advocate as an undergraduate, presenting sexual health-related programs throughout the community to increase awareness among students. In the summer of 2008, he spent two months studying medical ethics and Spanish in San Jose, Costa Rica. As a medical student, he is a member of the Leadership in Medicine for the Underserved and Vulnerable program, which focuses on affording healthcare to rural, urban, and international communities. Justin feels strongly that, through medical care, we can begin to correct the imbalances in opportunity that plague a large proportion of our society. He joined Global Pulse in 2010.

Aminata Cisse is a second year medical student at the State University of New York at Downstate Medical Center. Born and raised in Brooklyn, Aminata journeyed to Atlanta, Georgia to attend Spelman College, where in 2008 she obtained a degree in Sociology. Aminata's interest in the global community has sent her to India to conduct public health research and to Mozambique to work as a journalist for CARE International. As a medical student, Aminata is active in her community through on campus organizations like the Daniel Hale William Society. As the organization's Political Action Liaison, she mentors high school students interested in health professions, plans town hall meetings for the community to discuss pertinent health issues and most recently has helped to raise funds for the tragedy in Haiti. Aminata is interested in the social construct of beauty and the subsequent health issues that may manifest on the path to attaining “the ideal”. She joined Global Pulse in 2010.

Wilnise Jasmin is looking forward to starting her clinical years as a medical student at the American University of Antigua College of Medicine. She is a graduate of Barnard College, Columbia University where she studied Biology concentrating in plant science. She was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY and is interested in reducing health disparities found there. Wilnise has worked in several different healthcare settings, including hospitals, clinical laboratories, and marketing and sales for a health management system. She has served on several committees, including the Mentoring Minority Medical Students Advisory Committee in Mentoring in Medicine, Inc., and the steering committee for the Black Women's Health Symposium and is a former Health Equity Scholar. She joined Global Pulse in 2009.

Jordan Pyda is a third year medical student at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis, TN. He graduated from Vanderbilt University in 2006 with a Bachelor’s degree in French Literature and Molecular and Cellular Biology. Afterwards, he relocated to the Central Plateau of Haiti to volunteer with Zanmi Lasante (Partners In Health). As part of the nutrition team, he helped implement outpatient use of a fortified peanut-butter therapeutic food. During his three years in rural Haiti, Jordan’s engagement expanded to include teaching high school English and assisting visiting medical teams. He returns regularly to Haiti as part of his efforts to build a clinic in a remote area of Boucan Carre. In Memphis, he has served as AMSA Chapter president and is active in an inner-city revitalization project. Jordan hopes to bring together his interests in social justice, public health, and international health through a career in global surgery.

Rachel Steere is a second-year medical student at New York College of Osteopathic Medicine, NYIT. She received a BS in biomedical sciences from the University at Buffalo. She has experienced healthcare from several vantage points, from working in a pharmacy to research in microbiology laboratories. As a public health intern in the Erie County Vector Control Program, she worked in the field and in the lab to identify mosquitoes for West Nile Virus testing. At the University of Buffalo, she participated in research centered on the lifecycle of trypanosoma brucei, the parasite that causes African sleeping sickness, and for which there remains no effective treatment. The lab studies the unique regulation and structure of the parasite’s ATP synthase, which may lead to valuable interventions against the disease. Other research pursuits at the University of Rochester focused on the regulation of inflammation by epidermal growth factor receptor with a potential application in the development of novel anti-inflammatory therapies. Rachel plans to pursue a career that enables her to provide healthcare to the global community.

Julia Chang is a third-year medical student at the UCLA Geffen School of Medicine in Los Angeles, California. She is a graduate of Pomona College, where she first became interested in global health and involved in local organizations to support individuals affected by HIV/AIDS. Following graduation, she joined the Fulbright program in Taiwan and taught English at two aboriginal elementary schools on the rural northeastern coast of the island. In Los Angeles, she has been a Global Health Awareness Week coordinator, Medical Students in Aging Research (MSTAR) Program participant, and has played an active role in student efforts to develop global health curriculum at UCLA. Her current interests include community-based health education and chronic disease epidemiology.

Patrick W. Zimmerman is an MS-1 at A.T. Still University School of Osteopathic Medicine in Arizona. Patrick earned a Bachelor’s degree in Spanish and Latin American International Studies from the University of Utah in 2006. Patrick is a former substitute teacher, paramedic, surgical unit assistant, and wilderness medicine instructor. Patrick has conducted research in the areas of idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension, working to identify a phenotype for vasoreactive pulmonary arterial hypertension, as well as investigating cytoskeletal modulations in platelets and megakaryocytes with the Molecular Medicine Program at the University of Utah School of Medicine. Patrick is active on campus, participating in the wilderness medicine, emergency medicine and surgery clubs. Patrick is interested in trauma care and wilderness medicine and hopes to incorporate them into a career in academic medicine.

Abimbola Aderinto is currently a 4th year medical student at the University of Connecticut. Born and raised in Lagos, Nigeria, she graduated from Baylor University in 2008, with a bachelor of science in biochemistry. Her undergraduate thesis focused on the HIV/AIDS epidemic in South Africa given its unique social and political history. In 2009, she worked on assessing use of insecticide treated bed nets in villages in SW Uganda, particularly with women and children. In the summer of 2011, she was an intern at the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) in Geneva, focusing mostly on biomedical methods for HIV prevention. She also selected and edited scientific abstracts for issues of HIVThisWeek, a scientific blog from UNAIDS. She is interested in increasing accessibility and affordability of health care services in underserved areas, especially in sub-Saharan Africa.

Melissa Elafros, is a Fellow with the International Neurologic and Psychiatric Epidemiology Program (INPEP) and MD/PhD candidate in the Department of Epidemiology at Michigan State University (MSU). Raised in Michigan, she has been involved in a number of international exchanges that have shaped her education and career goals. In her work as an INPEP Fellow, she has trained Zambia research staff to conduct peer support groups and has provided research ethics training to health care personnel at Chikankata Mission in Mazabuka, Zambia. Additionally, she serves as a research assistant to the neurology expert group for the 2005 World Health Organization’s Global Burden of Disease Study. Her doctoral dissertation research focuses on seizure identification and treatment in HIV-positive individuals in Lusaka, Zambia. Prior to joining INPEP, she completed a Master of Arts in Bioethics, Humanities and Society at MSU during which she conducted focus groups to assess the health concerns and health care utilization patterns of Michigan’s Latino population.

Kyle Denison Martin is a third-year medical student at the Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine. In June 2010, Kyle founded the Cloud Forest Medical Clinic in Seguin, Haiti, where he helped to direct clinical and public health services until returning to the United States in the summer of 2011. During this period, Haiti was entrenched in the first waves of a deadly cholera epidemic. Kyle worked in collaboration with MSF (Doctors Without Borders) to establish a Cholera Treatment Unit near Seguin. He also played an integral role in the Haiti Epidemic Advisory System, a real-time biosurveillance system used to coordinate efforts of medical NGOs after the earthquake that struck Haiti in January 2010. His current efforts are designed toward creating a Community Health Workers training program for women in rural Haiti. His research interests involve models for chronic disease management in developing countries, empowering women to create healthier communities, and improving knowledge of public health and ethics among medical students. Kyle has attended Michigan State University since 2001, earning undergraduate degrees in English and Journalism (2006), a Masters in Bioethics, Humanities and Society (2008), and Masters in Public Health (2011).

Deepa Nanayakkara is a fourth year medical student at the University of Nevada School of Medicine. Upon completing her high school studies in Sri Lanka, Deepa migrated to the U.S. in 2000. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Biology from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2005 and a Master of Science in Human Nutrition, with an emphasis in Public Health, from Columbia University, Institute of Human Nutrition in 2008. Deepa conducted her Master’s thesis research project at SAATHII (Solidarity and Action Against The HIV Infection in India) in Hyderabad, India. She compared growth patterns between HIV-infected and age- and gender-matched HIV-affected children as well as evaluated changes in growth velocity after initiating antiretroviral therapy. In 2009, Deepa was chosen as a Duke University Global Health Fellow and participated in a global health internship at the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. She conducted a systematic review and a GRADE (Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation) analysis of the quality of evidence for vitamin A supplemental in children and adults, including pregnant women, infected with HIV. She will be participating in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Epidemiology Elective Program this spring.

Sarah Susanne Evans is a second-year medical student at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston. After graduating from Rice University with a Bachelor of Sciences in biochemistry and cell biology, she participated in a summer research program at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, studying the mechanisms of atherosclerosis and coronary artery disease. During her undergraduate years, Sarah helped to coordinate an alternative spring break trip to Guatemala; more recently, she traveled to Kenya on a medical mission trip. Sarah is active in many student organizations at her medical school, including Students Improving Global Health in Texas (SIGHT), Pediatric Student Association (PSA), Association of Internal Medicine Students (AIMS), Med Kids, and the Student Surgical Association (SSA). She will be traveling to Panama with her school’s global health organization in 2012. She hopes to incorporate global health and epidemiology into her career as a clinician. She currently serves as a Global Pulse Journal website administrator.