GLOBAL SURGERY - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Director of Advocacy CHESA Leadership Committee
- Distinguished Professor
Adrian W Gelb is Distinguished Professor (Emeritus), Department of Anesthesiology & Perioperative Care, University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). He served as Professor & Chair of Anesthesia at Western University, Canada, before coming to UCSF as Vice Chair (2004 -2011). Dr Gelb has served as President of 4 organizations and other leadership roles in multiple national and international Anaesthesia Societies. As of 2022, he was President of the World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists (WFSA). Working with WHO and other global groups, he is a strong advocate for expansion of access to safe anesthesia. He is an active academic with > 300 publications (h-Index 62, citations 14,400) and has served on many international editorial boards. He is an accomplished communicator and has given over 350 invited lectures around the world. He has won awards for research, teaching and mentorship.
Alap Patel is an Integrated Plastic & Reconstructive Study Resident at UC San Francisco. He has interests in all aspects of Plastic Surgery, but is particularly interested in hand, aesthetic, and reconstructive surgery. He is currently completing a year-long research fellowship during which he is focusing on improving the care provided to unhoused patients in San Francisco who present with complex hand infections.
Job Titles:
- UCSF Medical Student Scholar 2017
Anne Mbiya, Mmed is a graduate of Makerere University Anesthesia and Critical Care Training Program and a member of the Association of Anesthesiologists of Uganda. She has interests in surgical site infection research, maternal and pediatric anesthesia. Dr. Mbiya currently works at Nakasero Hospital (Kampala, Uganda) where she is focused on building infrastructure, quality improvement projects and pathways for improving patient safety.
Ava Yap, MD, MHS, was born in Canada and spent her upbringing in Hong Kong before moving to the US for college. She previously had the privilege to work in a range of healthcare systems in Canada, Peru, Ecuador, Uganda and Malaysia, which fostered a dedicated interest in addressing the global health inequity witnessed during her travels. She completed her medical degree and her Master's in Health Sciences at Yale School of Medicine. At the time, she partnered with local pediatric surgical teams in Kampala, Uganda and charity KidsOR to conduct a cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) that demonstrated that implementation of a pediatric operating room in these limited-resource settings was very cost effective. She is now a general surgery resident at UCSF, conducting 2 years of dedicated research as a CHESA health equity fellow. She is currently mentored by the Director of the UCSF Center of Health Equity in Surgery and Anesthesia Dr. Doruk Ozgediz. She continues to collaborate with KidsOR and their partner sites to work towards narrowing the gap of unmet need in pediatric surgery in Sub-Saharan Africa and beyond. She hopes to bring her interest in economic impact analysis to these international partnerships, and inform the investment of pediatric surgical infrastructure and capital in low- and middle-income countries.
Job Titles:
- UCSF Anesthesia Resident Scholar 2021
Job Titles:
- Ethiopian - American Anesthesiologist
Beti is an Ethiopian-American anesthesiologist who completed anesthesia training at UC Davis as well as a Masters in Pharmacology prior to completing a CHESA Fellowship in 2019-20. Beti is passionate about mentorship, recruitment and retention of under-represented individuals in medicine. She is the founder of MuluMentor, a virtual mentorship platform for pre-medical students from under-represented and underprivileged background. She is also actively engaged in global efforts in merging education gaps in anesthesia and works with the World Federation Society of Anesthesia on 1. designing an international post anesthesia guideline 2. delivering safe anesthesia teaching to remote areas in East Africa. After completion of her Fellowship, Beti joined faculty at UCLA where she is leading creation of a global health equity program in the Department of Anesthesiology.
Job Titles:
- Visiting Scholar - Summer Intern 2020 ( Developing Health Equity Curriculum for Perioperative Discipline Trainees )
Job Titles:
- Clinical Instructor of Anesthesia at NYU
Bunmi Okunlola is a Clinical Instructor of Anesthesia at NYU and member of the UCSF Hypoxia Lab research team. After completing her medical training and anesthesia residency at Mount Sinai in New York, Bunmi joined the CHESA team in 2020 as a Global Health Equity Fellow. During her Fellowship year she was based at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, and her projects included development of a Health Equity Curriculum for residents in multiple perioperative departments. Bunmi also led a research project focusing on equity in pulse oximetry.
Caroline Q. Stephens, MD, MPH is a current general surgery resident at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). She obtained her B.A. in international affairs, with a concentration in global health from George Washington University. During this time, she traveled to Madagascar to study the intersections between the traditional and allopathic healthcare systems and spent time in Geneva, Switzerland studying global public health policy. She then went on to complete a M.D. and M.P.H. in epidemiology at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) focusing her master's work on the disparities in access to pediatric trauma care for rural patients. Her current work focus on improving trauma care for vulnerable patients in low-resource areas both at home and abroad. Locally, she seeks to address gaps in pediatric readiness at trauma hospitals and identify methods for strengthening pediatric trauma systems. She is also working with Dr. Ozgediz and Ugandan partners Dr. Namugga and Dr. Muwanguzi to implement standardize processes for the treatment and triage of trauma patients in District Hospitals.
Cecilia is an otolaryngologist and a lecturer at the Catholic University of Health and Allied Sciences in Tanzania. She is interested in health equity and global surgery training because she believes in gathering the skills and knowledge in research within global health to then share this information with colleagues and trainees to improve quality and patient care.
Erica complete anesthesia residency at UCSF and her MPH at Columbia University before completing her CHESA Fellowship in 2021-22. Her research interests include disparities in opioid prescribing patterns and disparities in organ transplantation. After fellowship, Erica joined faculty at UCSF where she remains active in CHESA and currently has NIH funding for her ongoing research.
Bunmi Okunlola is a Clinical Instructor of Anesthesia at NYU and member of the UCSF Hypoxia Lab research team. After completing her medical training and anesthesia residency at Mount Sinai in New York, Bunmi joined the CHESA team in 2020 as a Global Health Equity Fellow. During her Fellowship year she was based at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, and her projects included development of a Health Equity Curriculum for residents in multiple perioperative departments. Bunmi also led a research project focusing on equity in pulse oximetry.
Tyler Law joined the Department of Anesthesia as the first Global Health Anesthesia Fellow and as part of the HEAL Initiative Global Health Fellowship. Tyler completed a five-year residency in Anesthesiology at the University of Toronto, and holds an MSc in Health Policy, Planning and Finance from the London School of Economics and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He is interested in the interface between the surgical system and the rest of the health system, and how these interactions can be optimized. His experience in global health is an outgrowth of this interest, and he has published on knowledge translation in developing countries, as well as completed an internship at WHO in Geneva. During his Health Equity Fellowship he conducted workforce research to better understand factors driving workforce incentives. After CHESA Fellowship Tyler completed a Critical Care Fellowship and remains on faculty at UCSF.
Dr. Sendagire is a Lecturer in the Department of Anaesthesia and Critical Care, School of Medicine, Makerere University College of Health Sciences. He is a Cardiac Anesthesiologist and Intensivist at the Uganda Heart Institute. He has a keen interest in anesthesia and critical care training, academia, and research. He has published work in critical care medicine, safety in perioperative medicine, and simulation medical education. During the COVID-19 outbreak in Uganda, he has provided leadership in training and coordination of critical care staff in response to the surge in Uganda. He sits on the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Uganda's Case Management Pillar and majorly contributed to the development of the national COVID-19 critical care guidelines.
Dr Fiona Kabagenyi is a CHESA fellow 2023-2024 who graduated as an ENT from Makerere University Uganda in 2019. She completed subspecialty training as the 2nd Karl Storz Paediatric ENT fellow at University of Cape Town South Africa in 2020. She is the first Paediatric ENT in Uganda, and is a lecturer in Department of Ear Nose and Throat at Makerere University. She established the Paediatric ENT unit in the teaching hospital Mulago National Referral Hospital where she trains postgraduates. She also serves as the current General Secretary of the Otolaryngology Society of Uganda, is a member of PENTAFRICA and Global OHNs.
Bio
Dr. Abirami Muthumani is originally from Philadelphia, and now lives in New York City where she is a surgical research fellow in the Department of Abdominal Wall Surgery at Columbia University-New York Presbyterian Hospital. Her global surgery focus, under the mentorship of Dr. Russell Jennings and Dr. Doruk Ozgediz, concentrates on developing interventions aimed at reducing mortality rates and improving outcomes among pediatric surgical patients with congenital anomalies in low-resource settings globally. After graduating medical school, Abi obtained her MPH from The Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University. She is a team member of the nonprofit KidsOR and is currently working with KidsOR and the Ethiopian Ministry of Health to improve access to pediatric surgical services in Somali region of Ethiopia. She also works with Dr. Bayne, at CHESA, on projects aimed at forming bilateral minimally invasive surgical training programs with the team at Mulago Hospital, Uganda. In addition, she is part of a newly established team at Columbia's Surgery Department, focused on enhancing surgical equity within the Washington Heights community in NYC. Her long-term goal is to become a pediatric surgeon and serve with Médecins Sans Frontières, with a mission to provide pediatric surgical care in humanitarian settings.
Job Titles:
- CHESA Associate Director / Vice Chair for Health Equity and Academic Affairs, UCSF Department of Orthopedic Surgery / Professor, Orthopedic Surgery
Bio
Dr. Coleen Sabatini is dedicated to caring for children with musculoskeletal problems both domestically and abroad, and believes that all children should have access to high quality, safe, and affordable orthopaedic care. She is a pediatric orthopaedic surgeon based at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) Benioff Children's Hospital Oakland (BCHO) in Oakland, California. She serves as the Vice Chair of Health Equity and Academic Affairs for the UCSF Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and co-Director of the UCSF Center for Health Equity in Surgery and Anesthesia (CHESA). Her global surgery work is primarily based in Uganda, where she has been working since 2013 and is based on collaborative work to strengthen musculoskeletal care through education and research.
Job Titles:
- Associate Director, CHESA / Director of Research Assistant Professor, Urological Surgery, UCSF
Bio
Dr. David Bayne, MD, MPH studies the clinical, social and behavioral factors that contribute to kidney stone formation and influence treatment outcomes as UCSF Urology faculty. During medical school, he worked in Haiti and completed his residency in urology at UCSF. He completed a Masters in Public Health at UC Berkeley to better understand the social factors associated with the surgical outcomes that he noted during his early clinical years in Haiti and San Francisco.
Job Titles:
- Director, CHESA / Associate Professor, Pediatric Surgery, UCSF
Bio
Dr. Doruk Ozgediz, MD, MSc is Associate Professor of Surgery at UCSF, Director of the UCSF Center Health Equity in Surgery and Anesthesia and member of the leadership team of the Institute for Global Health Sciences. He trained in medicine at UCSF and completed a general surgery residency at UCSF before pursuing a pediatric surgery fellowship at the Hospital for Sick Children, University of Toronto. Dr. Ozgediz also completed a Master's of Science in Public Health in Developing Countries at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Dr. Ozgediz became involved in surgical collaborations in Uganda in 2003 and since then has been part of multiple collaborations to strengthen surgery and anesthesia care there and in the region, mostly through support of capacity-building initiatives.
Dr. Josephine Czechowicz, MD is a Pediatric Otolaryngologist at UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital and Assistant Professor of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery. Her global health work is focused on hearing outcomes, education and health equity. She has collaborated with partners in Peru, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Chile and Equatorial Guinea, as well as locally in Oakland. She represents the Department of Otolaryngology for the UCSF Center for Health Equity in Surgery and Anesthesia and is a Faculty Affiliate of the Institute for Global Health Sciences. She is the Otolaryngology representative on the American Academy of Pediatrics Section on International Child Health. She is also a member of the International Global Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Initiative.
Dr. Liana Valeanu is a cardiac anaesthesiologist and intensive care specialist working in Bucharest, Romania. Her main clinical practice interests are related to perioperative care, echocardiography and circulatory assisting devices. Apart from this, she also has a special interest in education through simulation, promoting patient safety and is involved in residents' training programmes.
Job Titles:
- CHESA Associate Director / Assistant Professor, General Surgery, UCSF
Bio
Dr. Marissa Boeck MD, MPH is an Assistant Professor in the Division of General Surgery and serves as an acute care surgeon at Parnassus and as an acute care and trauma surgeon and surgical critical care intensivist at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital (ZSFGH). She earned an MPH at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and completed a fellowship at the Brigham and Women's Center for Surgery and Public Health and Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine's Center for Global Health. Dr. Boeck's professional passions include global public health, especially as it relates to injury prevention (road traffic, gun violence), vulnerable populations, emergency response, and trauma and surgical system strengthening in low-resource settings. She also champions diversity in the surgical workforce and the power of social media in medicine.
Job Titles:
- CHESA Associate Director / Associate Professor of Anesthesia and Critical Care Medicine, UCSF
Bio
Dr. Michael Lipnick, MD is an anesthesiologist and intensivist at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and the Co-Director of the UCSF Center for Health Equity in Surgery and Anesthesia (CHESA)- formerly the Anesthesia Division of Global Health Equity.
Job Titles:
- Co - Lead, CHESA Research Working Group / Vice - Chair of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for the Department of Anesthesia & Perioperative Services
Bio
Dr. Odi Ehie, MD is a pediatric anesthesiologist whose interests include Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Global Health, as well as Education. A UCSF Teachers Scholar, she started a diversity curriculum for the surgery and anesthesia residents, and has held a teaching position as a UCSF Bridges coach over the past four years for the School of Medicine. She is the co-lead of the CHESA Research Working Group, a member of the Society of Pediatric Anesthesia Women's Empowerment and Leadership Initiative and serves as site co-director in Vietnam for the Health Volunteer Overseas / Society of Education in Anesthesia (SEA) Travel Fellowship; Designee Chair of the SEA Global Health Outreach Committee; on the SEA Diversity Task Force; on the ASA Committee for Professional Diversity; as Chair for the California Society of Anesthesiologists Committee of Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion. She was recently appointed Vice-Chair of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for the Department of Anesthesia & Perioperative Services.
Dr. Phyllis Kisa was born and raised in Uganda. She completed medical school at Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda. She then worked as an intern doctor and as a medical officer (general doctor) in the surgical department at St. Mary's Hospital Lacor, Uganda. Following this, she got her MMED in General surgery from Makerere University and Fellowship in General Surgery of the College of Surgeons of East, Central and Southern Africa. Soon after, started a pediatric surgical fellowship training with the College of Surgeon of East Central and Southern Africa (COSECSA), a hybrid training with part in Uganda and 18 months (2014-mid-2015) at BC children's hospital in Vancouver, Canada in pediatric general surgery and pediatric urology. She returned to BC Children's hospital in 2018 to complete a formal clinical fellowship in pediatric urology becoming their first clinical fellow. She returned home to Uganda where she is working as a pediatric surgeon and the first fellowship-trained pediatric urologist. She is a lecturer in pediatric surgery at Makerere University College of Health Sciences in Kampala, Uganda. She has a strong interest in research, particularly research into perioperative nutrition, which was the focus of her M. Med thesis research ("Nutritional Status and Short-Term Outcome Among Children Presenting with Surgical Conditions to Mulago Hospital") as well as other research to improve pediatric surgical care in Uganda. She organized a stakeholder meeting for Children's Surgery and Anesthesia in Uganda, collaborating with local and international partners and programs to coordinate and improve research and surgical capacity in Uganda.
Dr. Rebecca Silvers is a pediatric nurse practitioner and holds clinical positions in pediatric critical care and pediatric neurosurgery at our Benioff Children's Hospitals' Mission Bay and Oakland campuses. She is also an assistant clinical professor at the UCSF School of Nursing and teaches for the pediatric nurse practitioner program. Rebecca has also had a long-standing practice in global health focused on critical care, pediatrics, capacity building, implementation science, and education in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). She is currently the research lead for the Global Neurosurgery Consortium's nursing team and is working on various projects gathering insight into the nursing and APP peri-op and critical care workforce and looking at outcomes of critical care virtual simulation training. She has also recently launched the Center for Global Nursing at UCSF Institute of Global Health Sciences and is excited to continue working with CHESA as the Director of Education.
Job Titles:
- Pediatric Anesthesia Fellow
Dr. Ronald Bisegerwa is a Pediatric Anesthesia fellow under the WFSA PATA project at Mulago National Referral Hospital in Uganda. He is also the pioneer UCSF CHESA Lifebox joint fellow, working with the Open Oximetry team to enhance the safety and precision of pulse oximeters, particularly in people with darker skin tones. Dr. Bisegerwa is involved in redesigning the WFSA Anesthesia Capacity Assessment Tool with the support of a WFSA Grant. His passion for improving patient outcomes globally has driven him to enthusiastically engage in several collaborative research projects, adaptive leadership, and mentorship. Additionally, he is the Secretary-General elect for the Association of Anesthesiologists of Uganda.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor
- Surgeon
Dr. Samuel Negash is a general pediatric surgeon and assistant professor of surgery based in Ethiopia. He previously worked as a Lifebox fellow, engaging in different quality improvement projects on surgical safety. He has special interest in improving access to pediatric surgical service in low-income countries.
Job Titles:
- CHESA Leadership Committee Associate Professor - Makerere University
Bio
Dr. Tonny Stone Luggya is currently working as a Associate Professor in the Department of Department of Anesthesia and critical care, Makerere University , Uganada. His research interests includes Anesthesia and critical care. He is serving as an editorial member and reviewer of several international reputed journals. Dr. Tonny Stone Luggya is the member of many international affiliations. He has successfully completed his Administrative responsibilities. He has authored of many research articles/books related to Anesthesia and critical care.
Bio
Eden Belay Tilahun, MD, is a senior pediatrics surgery resident at Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa Ethiopia, and a CHESA fellow. She has nine years of experience as a clinician, academician and leader in a university hospital. Dr. Tilahun is passionate about Global surgery & research, access to pediatrics surgical service, girls education & women empowerment and human rights.
Job Titles:
- UCSF Medical Student Scholar 2017 ( Development of Anesthesia Facility Assessment Tool - Uganda )
Elliot completed anesthesiology training in Australia and an MPH at Columbia University before coming to UCSF for a global health equity fellowship. During his Fellowship year, Elliot completed projects on the global capnography gap as well as advocacy for and development of health equity curricula for anesthesia and surgery trainees. Elliot remains active in CHESA project collaboration and teaching with current trainees.
Emmanuel Bua is a registrar in surgery at Mbale Regional Referral Hospital in eastern Uganda and an honorary lecturer in Surgery at Busitema Univeresity Faculty of Health Sciences. He undertook a Master's degree in General Surgery from Mulago Hospital ( Makerere University). He is a board-certified member and fellow of the College of surgeons of East, Central and Southern Africa (COSECSA), and a global heath leadership fellow under the UCSF HEAL program. He is a passionate mentor and advocate for child health. He has worked with the underserved and impoverished communities of Uganda, Ethiopia, Zambia and Kenya where he has experienced first-hand the importance of the social determinants of health and the need for robust healthcare systems. He also had the opportunity to interact with patients in the USA and Netherlands which gave him a clear perspective of the healthcare systems in developed economies and the need for collaborations between local and international partners in addressing health care challenges in Africa. He is a strong advocate for global health equity.
Job Titles:
- Associate Director of Research CHESA Leadership Committee / Assistant Professor, Department of Anesthesia
Bio
Erica Langnas MD MPH is an assistant professor in the Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Care. A recent UCSF graduate, she completed her residency and a health equity fellowship at the Center for Health Equity in Surgery and Anesthesia (CHESA), now her clinical work is at San Francisco General Hospital. Erica received her medical degree at the University of Nebraska and her MPH at Columbia University. Her research focus is on opioid prescribing patterns in surgical patients and health equity in the perioperative period.
Job Titles:
- UCSF Anesthesia Resident Scholars 2020
Job Titles:
- Program Manager - CHESA Anesthesia
Bio
As a public health professional, Fekir worked in Southern Africa for several years leading research and implementation projects. She worked as a Strategic Information Fellow with CDC Mozambique analyzing programmatic data and supporting Implementing Partners develop data collection tools. Most recently, Fekir worked as the in-country lead for IGHS' portfolio of projects in Namibia conducting HIV research and launching national-level informatics projects. Fekir joined the CHESA team in 2022 is a Program Manager. In this role, she supports the Open Oximetry project (https://openoximetry.org), USAID-STAR COVID-19 Global Goods project (https://opencriticalcare.org) and the WHO Collaborating Center in Emergency, Critical and Operative Care.
Felix Oyania MBChB, MMed, is a pediatric surgery fellow at the College of Surgeons of East Central and Southern Africa, Mbarara University of Science and Technology, GloCal-UCSF fellow, 2021-22 and Global Health Equity Fellow in the UCSF - CHESA under the mentorship of Doruk Ozgediz, MD, MSc, FAAP, FACS and Director of CHESA. His research involves improving and advocating for pediatric surgical treatment and outcome for children in Uganda focusing on pediatric colorectal surgery - anorectal malformations and Hirschsprung's disease.
Godfrey Sama Philipo MD., MPH is a Research and Patient Outcomes Coordinator at the College of Surgeons of East Central and Southern Africa (COSECSA) at the ECSA Health Community. He received his Doctor of Medicine (MD) from Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS) in Tanzania and a Master in Public Health from the Southern Medical University (SMU) in China. He is currently taking a Master of Global Surgical Care (MGSC) degree at the University of British Columbia (UBC). He worked as a Clinical Research Coordinator for the MUHAS-ORCI-UCSF Cancer Collaboration, leading a number of multidisciplinary international collaborative cancer research projects. With this team of cancer researchers and providers from UCSF (GCP and CHESA) and MUHAS, he is working to implement a Surgical Skills Lab at MUHAS. He was a Co-coordinator of the International Federation of Medical Students Association (IFMSA) Global Surgery Small Working Group, and co-founded the International Students Surgical Network (InciSioN), a nonprofit organization currently representing over 5,000 students, trainees, and early career physicians around the world who are passionate about Global Surgery. He participated in number of global surgery research projects including the World Development Indicator (WDI) surgical data of 2016 on access to quality surgical care globally. He currently researches on Children Surgery in Tanzania with a team at Muhimbili National Hospital in collaboration with the Ministry of health and international partners. His interest is in Global Surgery research, training and advocacy, incorporating Participatory Approach and Implementation Science skills.
Gregory Leeb (MBBS, FANZCA) is an Australian-trained Anesthesiologist with a strong interest in global health equity and pediatric anesthesia. He has recently completed a fellowship in pediatric anesthesia at the Red Cross Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa. He is currently completing a Master's of Public Health to better understand the broader issues affecting access to equitable health care globally. He has assisted in developing community clinics and ongoing nurse education in Sierra Leone, and worked as a Medical Aero-Retrievalist in rural and remote Australia with Australia's First Nations communities. Greg entered the CHESA fellowship so he may continue to develop his understanding of global surgery and health equity, and further contribute to this field in a meaningful way.
Hannah Decker is a general surgery resident at UCSF interested in understanding barriers in access to high-quality surgical care in vulnerable populations. She is currently exploring the ways that housing impacts surgical outcomes as a National Clinician Scholar, a two year fellowship in health services research.
Job Titles:
- Jordanian Anesthesiologist
Isam Khair Al-Deen Bsisu is a Jordanian anesthesiologist dedicated to the fields of medicine and medical ethics. With a wealth of experience, including his role as a resident physician at Jordan University Hospital, the academic teaching hospital of the University of Jordan, and his extensive educational background, Isam has made significant contributions to the medical field. He has recently finished his residency training in June, 2023. He is currently pursuing a Perioperative Health Equity Fellowship at the UCSF Center for Health Equity in Surgery and Anesthesia. Isam's commitment to humanitarian work is evident through his volunteer service and publications, demonstrating his passion for improving healthcare worldwide.
Job Titles:
- UCSF Medical Student Scholar 2019 ( Developing Health Equity Curriculum for Anesthesia Trainees )
Job Titles:
- UCSF Anesthesia Resident Scholars 2018
Job Titles:
- UCSF Anesthesia Resident Scholars 2017
Job Titles:
- UCSF Anesthesia Resident Scholar 2021
John Baptist Ssenyondwa is a general surgeon from Uganda; trained at Makerere University College of Health Sciences. He is a CHESA fellow pursuing a career in global surgery with the aim of improving surgical services in Africa. A strong advocate for equity in health, surgical research, innovations and collaborations. He is interested in practicing surgery to improve life without any discriminations, training more surgeons to meet the surgical needs of Uganda and in conducting research to answer some of science's complex questions. He is particularly interested in surgical oncology. Current projects include developing a digital surgical training platform in Uganda, fostering collaborations between Uganda and international training institutions and a recent publication in the role of fibrinogen in traumatic brain injury. He currently works with the Children's surgical hospital in Uganda and is a member of the Association of Surgeons of Uganda.
Job Titles:
- Associate Director of Advocacy CHESA Leadership Committee / Assistant Professor, Surgery
Bio
In research, Rose focuses on the performance of health care systems for patients having surgery. Taking a broad view of health services, he studies the effects of hospital protocols, the dissemination of new technologies, and the effects of health care policy on patient care. His research has received funding from the National Institutes of Health and includes data from patients in numerous countries. He has authored more than 50 scientific manuscripts, and his findings have been featured in landmark initiatives from the Lancet, World Bank and World Health Organization. https://www.ucsfhealth.org/providers/dr-john-rose
Job Titles:
- UCSF Anesthesia Resident Scholars 2020
Job Titles:
- UCSF Anesthesia Resident Scholars 2020
Dr. Jacobson is committed to improving surgical education in other parts of the world. In addition to co-directing the CHESA fellowship, she currently works with ENT training programs in Tanzania and Cambodia. Her academic interests include capacity building in global surgery, pediatric airway safety, physician wellness and multidisciplinary team models of care.
Job Titles:
- Clinical Research Coordinator
Bio
Lily Ortiz (she/her) is a recent graduate from the UCSF Global Health master's program. For her master's capstone project, she analyzed data from snakebite patients treated at private hospitals in Tamil Nadu, India to assess the accuracy of coagulation parameters in diagnosing venomous snakebites. During her time as a graduate student, Lily worked as the Administrative Assistant for CHESA and supported the OpenCriticalCare and OpenOximetry projects. Starting in August, she will be continuing her work with CHESA and joining the EquiOx Study and Hypoxia Lab as a Clinical Research Coordinator. In her new role, she will oversee data collection and data management for these studies as well as support the management of the Open Oximetry website.
Job Titles:
- Visiting Scholar - Summer Intern 2019 ( Improving Periop Informed Consent for Non - English Speaking Patients )
Martha is a general surgeon working with Mulago Hospital and a finalist student of urology fellowship with College of Surgeons of Eastern, Central and Southern Africa (COSECSA). She has a special interest in global surgery as it is a means of improving surgical outcomes in LMICs, and a way of sharing knowledge between people working in different settings globally. Martha's contribution so far has been in the space of trauma management in Uganda. She has contributed to the development and instructing of a context appropriate trauma course in Uganda. Over 1000 health workers in Uganda have benefitted from this training.
Mary Fakunle is a 5th year urology resident at UCSF, in her dedicated research year. She received her MD from New Jersey Medical School. This year, she is working on a number projects focused on prostate cancer in African American men. She entered the CHESA fellowship to expand her views of access to urological care worldwide, and hopes to contribute to improving access to urology services by the end of the year.
Job Titles:
- Anesthesiologist at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital
Job Titles:
- UCSF Anesthesia Resident Scholars 2017
Mignote Yilma is a general surgery resident in her dedicated research years at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). She was selected to join the prestigious National Clinical Scholars Program (NCSP) at UCSF and is working towards a Master's in Clinical Research with a focus in implementation science. Mignote was also selected in the inaugural Health Equity Fellowship at Health Affairs. Mignote's current research focuses on assessing the early barriers to liver and kidney transplantation, assessing the impact of individual and community-level social determinants of health. She is using her findings to help develop a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Transplant Dashboard. She completed her BA in Human Biology at Stanford University, and her M.D. at Charles R. Drew/UCLA.
Nathan Brand M.D MSc is currently a general surgery resident at UCSF. He obtained his B.A at Colorado College where he majored in philosophy. Following his graduation he worked for the NIH as a Cancer Research Training Award Fellow in the Laboratory for Translation Genomics. He then traveled to Malawi and Uganda where he spent a year volunteering in a rural clinic and working for the University of Minnesota researching pediatric severe malaria. Dr. Brand attended medical school at Columbia University where he obtained both a M.D and a MSc in global health. During this time he also worked for the Center for Global Health at the US National Cancer Institute and spent a year working as the Cancer Control Consultant to Kenya. During his time at UCSF, Dr. Brand has focused his research on both global health and surgical oncology. He is currently in the lab working for Dr. David Jablons on identifying novel therapeutics for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. His work is supported by both the Surgical Oncology T32 and the Thoracic Surgery Society's Resident Research Award.
Job Titles:
- Deputy Director
- Deputy Director at CHESA
Bio
Patti Orozco is Deputy Director at CHESA. She brings more than 10 years of experience in international development supporting the strategic growth of programs and partnerships in over 10 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the Middle East. Prior to joining UCSF, Patti was Senior Business Development Specialist for Catholic Relief Services based in Lusaka, where she led resource mobilization and new program development for the Zambia and Mozambique portfolios spanning health, food security and humanitarian sectors. Previously, she served as a Peace Corps health volunteer in Mozambique. Patti holds a bachelor's degree in Sociology from Columbia University and MPA from the University of Washington.
Paul Park is a fourth-year medical student at UCSF. He became interested in addressing health disparities as an undergraduate studying public health at UC Berkeley. His past experiences include working with the homeless population in the Bay Area, conducting a clean drinking water research project in Tanzania, and partaking in clinical research in TB, HIV and malaria. He became interested in surgery after his third-year clerkship at the San Francisco General Hospital and co-founded the GSSA chapter at UCSF as a way to incorporate his global health background into this new career interest. Since then, he has been working with the Center for Health Equity in Surgery and Anesthesia at UCSF on local and global surgery projects and took a research gap year to work with a non-profit organization called KidsOR to help build data collection and research capacity at partner hospitals in low- and middle-income countries.
Job Titles:
- UCSF Medical Student Scholar 2019 ( Developing Health Equity Curriculum for Anesthesia Trainees )
Saad was born in Lahore, Pakistan and just a few months later his family started their decades long journey across continents for his father's work assignments. Growing up in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Italy, Holland, and Canada, Saad moved to the United States as a sophomore in high school. During his time in America, he has lived in Boston, New York City, Detroit, and now Austin, TX. All of these moves, and each seemingly more than the last, have continued to shape Saad's perspective on the world in which we live. Although he studied philosophy in college and later even had a brief stint in the fashion industry, it was a documentary film about the work of Doctors Without Borders that first inspired Saad to pursue a career in medicine. Since that initial screening, each chapter of his life has brought with it more insight into the world of global health. Over the last five years, while training as a general surgery resident, he grew to appreciate the role that surgeons can play in ensuring global health equity. Today, he is excited to embark on his own journey by committing to a career focused on safely delivering essential surgical care globally through the lens of design thinking.
Job Titles:
- UCSF Medical Student Scholar 2017 ( Development of Anesthesia Facility Assessment Tool - Uganda )
Job Titles:
- UCSF Anesthesia Resident Scholars 2020
Temesgen is currently practicing surgery in resource-limited areas, and is a witness to the wide service gap in meeting the surgical load. He is a surgeon hoping to improve the service delivery gap in LMICs. His training in global surgery and equity education will offer him the necessary knowledge and experience to implement these changes. Prior to the fellowship, he obtained his MD from Jimma University in Ethiopia and continued to complete a specialty certificate in general surgery from St. Paul Hospital Millennium Medical College (SPHMMC). Temesgen is also an assistant professor and a general surgeon consultant.
Job Titles:
- UCSF Anesthesia Resident Scholar 2021
Treasure Ibingira is trained as a general surgeon with a laparoscopic and endoscopic focus. He is passionate about research, trauma surgery, and colorectal surgery. Treasure believes every individual regardless of status is deserving of adequate and appropriate health care. Being a part of the global surgery network, he is equipped with knowledge and skills to help those that are less privileged within his setting. By adapting and tailoring creative solutions and ideas generated from the numerous networks the global surgery platform has to offer, he shares experiences/ideas that might be beneficial to other platforms. Inability to access quality health care and surgical services is a major problem in Uganda and other low income countries. Through research, he will identify pitfalls and create solutions that can bridge gaps in service delivery or access, for the benefit of all.
Job Titles:
- Visiting Scholar - Summer Intern 2019 ( Improving Periop Informed Consent for Non - English Speaking Patients )
Violet is a third year general surgery resident at Tenwek Hospital under the PanAfrican College of Christian Surgeons (PAACS) and College of Surgeons of Eastern, Central and Southern Africa (COSECSA) programs. Training in a resource-limited centre has helped her appreciate health equity in both access to the centre and availability of resources. One of the tools that has facilitated the percolation of both infrastructure and human resources for health has been the data generated showing the need and impact of these resources therein. Violet is encouraged to delve into matters health equity and global surgery as it is a core aspect of her training.
Job Titles:
- Program Coordinator
- Program Coordinator at CHESA
Bio
Zayna Tommalieh is a Program Coordinator at CHESA. She holds a BA in Anthropology from UC Berkeley and MS in Global Health from UCSF. As a graduate student, she supported the Department of Anesthesia and CHESA's implementation of the USAID OpenCriticalCare project. Zayna's capstone project focused on researching policies in California incarceration centers aimed at preventing the spread of infectious disease at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Post-graduation, she worked for Color Health as a COVID-19 Testing Specialist and Vaccine Coordinator where she traveled across the state of California to support efforts to reduce vaccine hesitancy and barriers to health care access for rural and underserved populations.