Year of Matriculation
2022
2021
Beau Blass
I grew up in a very small town in New Hampshire called Grantham. I did classical ballet growing up and continued throughout high school and college at the University of Richmond. I graduated from UR in 2019 with a degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and minors in Healthcare Studies and Dance. Following graduation I did my gap year in Pittsburgh working as a patient care navigator at the Birmingham Free Clinic through an AmeriCorps program called National Health Corps. The clinic itself was amazing and the people I worked with were even better. They were so inspiring and through this experience is when I really started to get excited about the impact that physicians could have on individuals that have been marginalized by the healthcare system and other intersecting systems. It’s also when I realized that primary care physicians in particular are in the privileged position of bearing witness to these stories and having the opportunity to positively change the systems that have caused so much harm and oppression. At Duke, in addition to PCLT, I’m very involved in WellNest Housing Support program, which is a branch of Root Causes. In my first year I also participated in the Duke HealthCARES program, Holton clinic, the Moral Movements in Medicine Elective, Cancer Care Experience, Duke WC4BL, the SLW music video, and SFS. Clinically I’m interested in family medicine, internal medicine, and psychiatry or some combination of those specialties. I’m passionate about social policy and health equity especially for the houseless population and the incarcerated population or those who have recently been in contact with the criminal legal system. I can be reached at madeline.brown@duke.edu if you have questions regarding the PCLT program
Hi! My name is Allison and I’m an MS2 in PCLT. I’m originally from Los Angeles, CA and graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in 2019 with a degree in Psychology. After graduation, I completed the Master of Biomedical Sciences program at Duke and then worked as a medical assistant with Duke Primary Care. My clinical interests currently include pediatrics, psychiatry, and family medicine; and I’m involved with Root Causes and the Sanford World Food Policy Center. In my spare time, I enjoy playing tennis and pickleball with friends, hanging out at coffee shops, and lounging around in my hammock!
My name is Nicholas and I'm a MS2 in PCLT! I'm from Shelby, NC and graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill in 2017. After graduation, I served as a Princeton in Africa Fellow working with the Baylor International Pediatric AIDS Initiative (BIPAI) in Gaborone, Botswana. There, I developed and executed psychosocial support programming for 2,000+ patients at the country's largest pediatric HIV clinic. I later returned to the US to complete the Master of Biomedical Sciences (MBS) program at Duke where my research focused on health disparities among transgender and gender diverse youth. Following MBS, I worked in HIV prevention clinical research supporting a NIH/DAIDS-funded study aimed at reducing HIV rates among Black MSM in the American South. My research and clinical interests center around health equity, with particular passions for working with LGBTQ-identified, adolescent, and unhoused populations. Moving forward, I'm interested in Psychiatry, Family Medicine, and exploring opportunities to utilize digital health technologies to increase access to equitable care.
I am a first-generation American, born and raised in Colorado. I am the youngest of four children born to my immigrant parents, both from the small Caribbean island of Grenada. Growing up in Colorado as a minority, I was embedded in a culture that valued wellness: spending time outdoors and being active. However, I also grew to notice that others who looked like me were often absent from the spaces that promoted healthy lifestyles. As I noticed how being considered “other” took a toll on me, I grew curious about how it impacted the health of other vulnerable communities. I am passionate about working alongside underserved communities to prevent disease and to promote wellness. From addressing malnutrition in Cotacachi, Ecuador to studying diabetes risk in St. Kitts and Nevis and developing an HIV and hepatitis C prevention program in Daytona Beach, Florida, I've worked in many different health systems and have seen the best outcomes when people are regarded as experts on their lived experience. Medicine is the avenue through which I pursue social justice with and for individuals experiencing homelessness, immigrants, Black and Hispanic populations, and others who often experience worse health outcomes. Duke PCLT enables me to explore my broad interests while developing my leadership skills to be able to enact change that prioritizes the most vulnerable.
I am a 2nd year medical student in the Primary Care Leadership Track. I graduated in 2019 with an undergraduate degree is in Anthropology and Global Health & Health Policy major, and before matriculating at Duke I worked for two years in Washington D.C. at an HIV/AIDS community health facility. My clinical interests include pediatrics, adolescent psychiatry, and family medicine, and at Duke, I have been involved with Wellnest (Root Causes), the Holton Clinic, the SCOPES art exhibition, and Student Faculty Show. Outside of school, I love running, finding new ice cream places in Durham, and occasionally being dragged to yoga by my roommate (once in a blue moon)
2020
Hi, my name is Olanrewaju “Lanre” Adisa. I was born in Ibadan, Nigeria. My family immigrated to the US and I was raised in Oviedo, Florida, a town right outside of Orlando. I first moved to Durham in 2013 and studied Chemistry and Global Health as a Duke undergraduate and practice player for the Duke Women’s Basketball team. Following graduation, I stuck around and worked as a public health analyst for a non-profit research institute here in the research triangle. I joined the PCLT program after meeting compassionate students, staff, and faculty who value community and preventative health in Durham and beyond. I have interests in Pediatrics, Psychiatry, and Emergency Medicine. This year, I’ll be doing community-engaged pediatric sickle cell research and advocating for students as a representative on the Committee for Appropriate Treatment of Learners (CATL).
Hi, my name is Maggie and I am a rising MS3 originally from Honolulu, HI. I am still undecided on specialty but am thinking about either primary pediatrics or rural surgery (feel free to ask me about either). In my spare time I run a community garden in Durham, go camping with some of my DukeMed classmates, and play with my two kitties, Oyster and Shrimp.
Dana Rubenstein
Nicole Schindler
I am a 2nd year medical student in the Primary Care Leadership Track. I graduated in 2019 with an undergraduate degree is in Anthropology and Global Health & Health Policy major, and before matriculating at Duke I worked for two years in Washington D.C. at an HIV/AIDS community health facility. My clinical interests include pediatrics, adolescent psychiatry, and family medicine, and at Duke, I have been involved with Wellnest (Root Causes), the Holton Clinic, the SCOPES art exhibition, and Student Faculty Show. Outside of school, I love running, finding new ice cream places in Durham, and occasionally being dragged to yoga by my roommate (once in a blue moon).
2019
Tamar Chukrun: Tamar Chukrun is a third-year medical student at Duke University School of Medicine in the Primary Care Leadership Track and second-year MBA student at the Duke Fuqua School of Business. Her primary interests lie in housing and health, psychiatry integration into primary care, payment innovation, and social drivers of health (SDOH) payment models. In 2019, she founded the WellNest Housing Support Program, which supports community members transitioning out of homelessness by providing furniture, hands-on moving support, and social support in the peri-move-in period. She was awarded the A. C. Reid Schweitzer Fellowship for her work and has served as the program director for WellNest since 2021.
Chukrun is also the current president of Root Causes, an innovation hub for student-led programs addressing SDOH. Root Causes supports multiple programs in the Durham, North Carolina, community, including WellNest, community gardening initiatives, and at-home produce delivery to food insecure patients referred by health care providers.
Prior to medical school, Chukrun worked as a housing specialist at Community Empowerment Fund, where she supported local community members in their searches for and transitions into stable housing.
Katha Desai
I am originally from Columbus, Ohio and graduated from the University of Notre Dame, where I was a varsity rower, in 2019 with a degree in Neuroscience and a minor in Poverty Studies. At Duke, I have been part of the Curriculum Innovations Initiative and the Quality Improvement Scholars program in addition to working with the Benefits Enrollment Center to help community members access healthcare resources. I am interested in systems-level healthcare reform to increase access to and equity in care. To this end, I took a year away from medical school to obtain my Masters in Evidence-Based Social Intervention and Policy Evaluation at the University of Oxford in 2022, where I studied the impact of Medicaid expansion on child health outcomes. I hope to train in Med-Peds and am very grateful to be part of PCLT!
Kelly Goo
Bridget Kiely
Joanna Krupp
Hello! My name is Jack and I’m a fourth year student here at Duke. I am originally from a small town in Minnesota and attended the University of Minnesota for college before moving to North Carolina in 2019. I will be applying in to family medicine and am so excited for a career in primary care! Please feel free to reach out to discuss anything related to PCLT, rural health, or local BBQ restaurants.
Kira Panzer
2018
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2010 Our second group of Pioneers
2009 Our Pioneers
