Allana Krolikowski, a 2010 Pisacano Scholar, graduated from the University at Buffalo (UB) and is currently a 1st-year resident in Lawrence, Massachusetts. She graduated summa cum laude from UB with a Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Sciences and a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish. She was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa and Sigma Delta Pi Spanish National Honor Society during her junior year. Among numerous other awards and scholarships, Allana was also named the Outstanding Senior in Biomedical Sciences, presented to one student in each degree program at graduation. Allana volunteered for three years as a student recruiter with the UB Office of Undergraduate Admissions and also worked as a tour guide for a semester. While studying abroad during her senior year, she interned for two months at a hospital in Cuernavaca, Mexico, where she aided in and observed procedures in the emergency department and assisted in surgeries. Upon graduation, she spent another month as a volunteer, staffing and organizing a medical clinic for the disadvantaged, indigenous population in Palenque, Mexico.

While at the University of Buffalo, Allana began her involvement with a Malaria Program in Nyamuswa, Tanzania as a volunteer, distributing mosquito nets and assisting with community education on malaria. Allana, her husband and her brother all lived with a local family during their time there. After returning home, Allana began serving as co-coordinator of the Malaria Program. She decided to take a year off to re-evaluate her future career plans. During her year off from school, Allana began working in the front office of a family practice office, which serves a diverse urban underserved population, including a large population of refugees.

After returning to medical school, Allana conducted a chart review over a 6-month period of patients with Hepatitis B followed by the practice and later presented her results to the providers. This has led the Burmese community in Buffalo to desire further education on this infection. Due to some organizational issues that led to the loss of non-profit status for the Malaria Program, Allana and a physician from England are forming a new organization in order to continue both the work of the program and the formation of a new medical clinic in Nyamuswa. As an advocate for health care reform, Allana has given several presentations, encouraging medical students to become more involved in learning about health policy and advocacy. Additionally, she has provided listener commentary on a local radio station, lobbied her congressmen at the national level, and participated in rallies for health care reform. For her academic achievement and community involvement in medical school, Allana was inducted into Alpha Omega Alpha and the Gold Humanism Honor Society.

As a family physician, Allana looks forward to providing culturally competent, full-spectrum care in underserved communities in the U.S., Africa, and Latin America. She plans to continue her advocacy for health care reform and continue pursuing her interest in languages.

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Parker Duncan, MD, a 2008 Pisacano Scholar, graduated from the University of California--Irvine School of Medicine (UCI) and is currently a 2nd-year resident in Santa Rosa, California. Parker graduated from Duke University with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science on a Naval ROTC scholarship. He subsequently served four years as a junior officer on the USS Nimitz (CVN-68). He was awarded the "Top Snipe" Award from the Naval Engineers' School, United States Army. This award is given to the Valedictorian of the class based on a combination of academic and leadership qualities. Parker just recently completed his MPH at California State University.

Prior to medical school, Parker worked for six years as a counselor and a manager/director in community mental health in San Francisco. He then spent a month in Quito, Ecuador with the Child Family Health International program to gain clinical experience. He returned to Quito the next summer and worked with the in-country program directors and as coordinator and cultural translator for the student participants.

As a medical student, Parker received a number of awards, including the Service Award from the Associated Medical Students Government. Only two students received this award in recognition of service to the entire student body at UC-Irvine. He was also inducted into the Gold Humanism and Honor Society. While attending his first AMSA Conference, Parker learned of SB 840, or the California Health Insurance Reliability Act. Soon after Parker became co-president of the AMSA Chapter at UCI, organizing the school's first meeting and election of officers for the first time. Parker co-created and organized Lobby Day with a UCSF medical student, which included a rally and legislative visits in support of SB 840. Since then Parker has given numerous talks to medical students and pre-med students at UCI as well as other medical schools and undergraduate campuses.

Parker was a member of the Board of Directors for the California Physicians Alliance (CAPA); he and his co-creator for Lobby Day were the first ever student board members. He and his UCSF counterpart served as co-coordinators for Lobby Day 2008, which had almost three times the number of attendees as the year before. Parker was also a member of the Latino Medical Student Association (LMSA), educating and encouraging LMSA regarding health care legislation. Parker's vision of his future career in family medicine involves a comprehensive, integrative health outpatient clinic--a full-service, outpatient center that supports proactive health and health living. He also envisions partner clinics in Mexico or other Latin American countries. Finally, Parker's vision includes a commitment of involvement in improving his local community.

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Bethany Enoch, MD, a 2009 Pisacano Scholar, graduated from the University of Kansas School of Medicine and is currently a 2nd-year resident in Kansas City, Kansas. She graduated summa cum laude from MidAmerica Nazarene University with a Bachelor of Arts in Biology and Music Performance. As an undergraduate, Bethany received a number of honors and awards, including the President’s Award, a half-tuition scholarship based on ACT scores. She also received the Phyllis M. Crocker Memorial Scholarship, awarded annually to outstanding music major students at MidAmerica Nazarene. In addition, she was chosen twice as a performer in Honor’s Recital at the school, a recital highlighting the best musical performances each semester.

As a medical student, Bethany received numerous awards and achieved significant leadership positions. At Kansas, she served as the president of the Family Medicine Interest Group and the vice president of the Kansas Alpha Omega Alpha chapter. Bethany also served as a student representative to the Kansas Academy of Family Physicians Board of Directors, and at the national level was elected as the student chair of the American Academy of Family Physicians’ National Conference of the Family Medicine Residents and Students. She previously served as a student representative to the Commission on Practice and Enhancement. Bethany has also volunteered with JayDoc, a student-run free clinic, since beginning medical school.

After moving to Kenya at the age of 10 with her parents who became missionaries, and witnessing the disadvantages that so much of the world endures, Bethany decided in 6th grade that she wanted to become a doctor. At a very young age, she served children of AIDS victims who were living in orphanages and delivered food and blankets to victims of tribal violence near her school. Bethany is confident that her experience as a child is what led her to medical school. As a doctor, Bethany plans to provide full-spectrum care from delivering babies to providing end-of-life care. She plans to be active in her community and work for her patients by helping to implement healthy measures in the community.

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Jessica Johnson, a 2011 Pisacano Scholar, is a 4th-year medical student at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine (UConn), where she is also currently completing her Masters in Public Health. She graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) with a Bachelor of Arts in French and was a Dean's List recipient and a member of Phi Sigma Pi National Honor Fraternity.

Prior to medical school, Jessica worked for a few years as a risk analyst for an insurance broker and a risk advising company. While finding this to be a valuable experience, Jessica missed working with people and communities in a meaningful way, and it was during this time that she rekindled an earlier interest in medicine. She then worked as an emergency medical technician for two years before entering medical school. During her first year of medical school, Jessica was accepted into the Urban Service Track (UST), a university-wide interdisciplinary program in medicine, nursing, pharmacy, and dentistry preparing students for service to urban vulnerable populations. Jessica was among the first to receive the UST Leadership Award, given for leadership and community service within the Urban Service Track Program. She was recently asked to serve as a student mentor in the program.

In the summer and fall following her first year in medical school, Jessica co-organized the annual UConn Migrant Farm Workers Clinic. The mobile free clinic visits farm worker barracks across the state to provide primary care and referrals to community health centers when needed. She worked with two other medical students and staff to coordinate the program. Over the season, they served over 1250 patients. Also during her first year of medical school, Jessica re-started the school's Family Medicine Interest Group, which is now thriving. Jessica has volunteered with South Park Inn Clinic, a student-run free clinic, since beginning medical school, and has sat on the board for three years. She was inducted into the Gold Humanism Honor Society in 2010. Last year, Jessica spent a year as a health policy intern with the Primary Care Coalition of Connecticut while completing MPH coursework. She assisted in facilitating strategic planning for a coalition of 17 primary care provider groups and relevant stakeholders and provided policy analysis and testimony during the legislative session. Jessica has also served as the student member on the Board of the Connecticut Academy of Family Physicians, FMIG Regional Coordinator, Student Delegate to the AAFP Congress of Delegates, and student representative to the Primary Care Coalition of Connecticut. Most recently, she was nominated as the Student Member of the Board of Directors of the AAFP.

In her future career as a family physician, Jessica looks forward to providing full-spectrum care in diverse communities and to implementing creative approaches to health promotion and social justice. She plans to combine her clinical practice with teaching of medical students and residents and with continued advocacy for patients, communities, and system-wide health care reform.

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Alexandra Hunt, a 2011 Pisacano Scholar, is a 4th-year medical student at the University of Washington School of Medicine. She graduated with Honors from the University of California Santa Cruz with a Bachelor's degree in Art. Alexandra was team captain of the UC Santa Cruz Women's soccer team and named NCAA All-Western Region Women's Soccer Player of the Year during her junior year. That same year, the team also advanced to the NCAA National Championship for the first time in the team's history and then again the following year.

Prior to entering medical school, Alexandra worked for a couple years as an office assistant and facilities coordinator for a church in Santa Cruz. During this time, she also coached women's and girls' soccer teams in the area. She later worked for one year as a health educator and volunteer assistant at a rural health clinic in El Salvador. Alexandra points to this experience as a turning point in her life when she decided to actively pursue her lifelong dream of becoming a physician. Following her time in El Salvador, while pursuing medical school prerequisite courses, Alexandra worked as a comprehensive perinatal health worker for the Comprehensive Perinatal Support Program of California. During this time, she also volunteered with the Burn Intensive Care Unit of a local hospital- an experience that she describes as crystallizing her commitment to community education and burn prevention that can be effectively carried out as a family physician and community leader.

Alexandra is a Board member and volunteer for the Children's Health International Medical Project of Seattle. She served as a translator and Cultural Ambassador for June Medical Team trips to rural El Salvador on three separate occasions. She is also the coordinator and a volunteer with the Perinatal Care Project. This project pairs a medical student with a young, single woman who is a participant in the program. The student attends prenatal appointments, labor and delivery, and postpartum check-ups alongside the participants. Alexandra has been involved in and a leader with UW's Family Medicine Interest Group (FMIG) for the last two years, helping organize and implement multiple FMIG events.

Alexandra has continued her community service throughout medical school. She has volunteered with the free sports medicine clinic, the Latina Health Fair, the Aloha Inn Clinic and currently with the Dermatology Clinic for Homeless Men and Women and the Casa Latina Clinic. Alexandra is also currently a member of the Latino Medical Student Association and UW's Global Health Pathway and Hispanic Health Pathway. She is the recent recipient of the SPARX/CHAP Exceptional Participation Award, which is given to those students who demonstrate a major commitment to the program by their volunteer service.

Alexandra remains passionate about pursuing a career in Family Medicine within the setting of a rural-designated area in need of primary care providers where she can come alongside the community in order to empower its members to reach their health advancement goals.

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Nathan Kittle, a 2011 Pisacano Scholar, is a 4th-year medical student at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine, where he is also earning his master's in bioethics and health policy. He graduated from Creighton University with a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology. Nathan has been actively involved in community service both nationally and locally. During college, he participated in and led numerous service trips to poverty stricken areas in the United States. Nathan also served as a resident advisor his last two years at Creighton and as an intramural sports supervisor and referee for three years.

After graduating from Creighton, Nathan spent a year as a full-time volunteer with Amate House, a young adult volunteer program inspired by the social mission of the Catholic Church, which is dedicated to service and committed to building a more just and loving society. With the Amate House program, Nathan worked as a case manager at the Marjorie Kovler Center for the Treatment of Survivors of Torture- an experience that he says taught him lessons he could not have learned any other way and which still inspire his current life and will continue to shape his future.

As a medical student, Nathan has continued his academic achievement and commitment to service. He has received a number of scholarships, including an Albert Schweitzer Fellowship. Additionally, Nathan was chosen for a Dean's Development Award to complete his master's degree at Loyola. Nathan was also recently selected as one of only a few students to represent the Loyola school of medicine in a leadership development program put in place to help discover ways the health system can better serve patients, improve clinical service, and enhance medical education.

As a Loyola Global Health Fellow, Nathan recently began a fellowship in Palacios, Bolivia. This one-year fellowship is part of a four-year longitudinal Global Health Scholars program at Loyola and will focus on health care delivery in resource-poor settings. He will work closely with the local Bolivian staff and community health workers to develop community based projects for the surrounding communities of Palacios.

Nathan is also a member of the Center for Service and Global Health (CSGH) Student Advisory Board. The goal of the CSGH is to bring Loyola's many service projects and international projects under one umbrella, allowing students to collaborate with each other and faculty to expand their outreach. His most important activity he led as part of the CSGH was organizing Loyola's first annual "Mission in Action: Loyola Day of Service." This project introduces students to the community they will call home for the next four years and gives them the opportunity to volunteer in different areas, ranging from collecting trash on a local prairie path to working with the local Fine Arts Association.

In his future career as a family physician, Nathan hopes to continue working among underserved communities both locally and abroad. He specifically has a heart for working with refugee communities and hopes to work to improve their care and bring attention to their struggles by remaining involved in academic medicine and policy work.

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Lara Jirmanus, MD, a 2008 Pisacano Scholar, graduated from the University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMass) and is currently a 2nd-year resident in Boston, Massachusetts. Lara graduated cum laude from Harvard University with a Bachelor of Arts in Biophysics. She was awarded the Harvard College Scholarship for Academic Achievement each of her four years there.

After college, Lara worked as a community organizer, building community coalitions in support of local labor campaigns, immigrant rights and universal healthcare. She also interned for a summer with the HIV/AIDS Department of the World Health Organization, and interned two consecutive summers with the Women's Humanitarian Organization in Beirut, Lebanon. In Beirut, Lara volunteered with a family doctor in a local medical clinic in a refugee camp.

As a medical student, Lara excelled academically and in leadership. She helped organize relief efforts for Hurricane Katrina at UMass, planning a talent show and art auctions to raise money for hurricane victims. She served as student coordinator of the UMass Chapter of Universities Allied for Essential Medicines, a national network of students working to ensure that the discoveries of university researchers are affordable and accessible in developing countries. Lara also served on the national coordinating committee, helping to plan the national conference in Cambridge, MA. In recognition of her leadership efforts, Lara's classmates awarded her with the Student Body Committee Leadership Award. She also volunteered with Physicians for Human Rights at UMass and the Worcester Immigrants Rights Coalition, and she is a founding member of the Central Massachusetts Coalition for Middle East Peace.

Lara has also worked with several community organizations, including the Worcester Immigrant Rights Coalition, Women Together, and the African Health Committee. As an Albert Schweitzer Fellow during 2006-07, Lara collaborated with a community health center in Worcester, MA to organize focus groups to assess obstacles to health care and to ensure solutions based on the findings that would guide future health policy. Lara's experience working with the community health center inspired her, along with three fellow classmates, to develop and coordinate an optional elective course for medical students called, "The Bigger Picture: Health Issues Affecting the Community of Worcester." In her future career as a family physician, Lara states that she looks forward to caring for diverse individuals and their families in underserved communities, and continuing her work in community health centers, building relationships with local organizations and working together to develop health interventions.

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Pamela Ferry, MD, a 2009 Pisacano Scholar, graduated from Baylor College of Medicine and is currently a 2nd-year resident in Wichita, Kansas. A National Merit Scholar, she graduated from Stanford University with a Bachelor of Arts in Human Biology. She also received a Master of Health Science with a major in International Health from Johns Hopkins University. As a Liberty Hyde Bailey fellow at Cornell University, Pamela completed doctoral coursework for her PhD before deciding to pursue her medical degree.

From 1992-1996, Pamela served as a missionary with the Mennonite Central Committee in Yapacani, Bolivia working as a regional coordinator and health educator. During her four years there, she coordinated health promotion activities, including community health and nutrition education; training of community health promoters; water and sanitation projects; immunization campaigns; and agriculture and animal husbandry projects to improve economic and nutritional status. After returning from Bolivia, Pamela joined Baylor, where she was the assistant director for the Center for Educational Outreach and an assistant professor of Allied Health Sciences. At Baylor, she oversaw programs to increase access to medical careers for underrepresented college students, including enrichment experiences, mentoring and educational research. Pamela was instrumental in the development of the Texas Joint Admission Medical Program (JAMP), which is now a well established state-wide program available to economically disadvantaged students.

During a brief hiatus from Baylor, Pamela spent two years directing a community-based breast-cancer project for uninsured women. She also volunteered with a number of organizations, including the Texas Children's Hospital and a teen girls' discipleship group at her local church. In addition, Pamela served for over ten years as a team leader on annual mission trips to Montero, Bolivia. She organized, led and translated for a team of medical professionals and volunteers who provided care to indigent families and a girls' orphanage. Recently, Pamela also participated in a medical mission trip to Riombamba, Ecuador. Pamela received the DeBakey Scholar award from Baylor, which is awarded each year to a 4th-year medical student in honor of Dr. Michael E. DeBakey. Pamela's professional goals include a commitment to advocacy and involvement in research on underserved care, international medical and public health work, and a PCMH-model medical practice in an underserved population.

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Anne Kolan, MD, a 2008 Pisacano Scholar, graduated from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health and is currently a 3rd-year resident in Madison, Wisconsin. She graduated with distinction from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, receiving her Bachelor of Science in Biology with a focus in Environmental Studies. During her undergraduate training, Anne was the recipient of the F. Chandler Young Travel Award to pursue her study of the Spanish language in Valparaiso, Chile. While abroad, she volunteered with the organization Dame la Mano, tutoring in the local elementary schools and providing support at an adolescent girls' home. Anne was inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa National Honor Society for her academic achievements.

Following graduation, Anne was selected to participate in the Americorps National Civilian Community Corps based in Charleston, South Carolina. She spent the year traveling with a team throughout the southeast region, completing community service projects including disaster relief, trail building and maintenance, tutoring and mentoring, and house building with Habitat for Humanity.

As a medical student, Anne received both the Lora L. Marshall and the Marvin E. Watts Scholarships for academic achievement, in addition to the University League Scholarship for her leadership. As the recipient of a clinical research apprenticeship, Anne worked closely with a family physician to explore the unique benefits and challenges of women family physicians in dual-physician relationships and to identify the strategies employed by these women to fulfill their personal and professional responsibilities. While serving as co-president of the Integrative Medicine Interest Group, she helped organize the first Integrative Wellness Fair, an interdisciplinary event for all health professional students to promote awareness of complementary and alternative medicine. She was a leader in the Healer's Art elective, securing funding, organizing publicity, and facilitating small group discussions on compassion in healing. She also volunteered at the MEDIC clinics, providing free primary health care services to underserved community members. For her demonstrated kindness and professionalism, Anne was selected by her classmates to join the Gold Humanism Honor Society. Secondary to her own pursuit of balance and wellness, Anne serves as a member of Advocacy and Intervention for Medical Students, an organization that promotes self-care while providing education, support, and advocacy for medical students. She leads by example as a dedicated distance runner, completing both the Chicago and Boston Marathons during her second year of medical school.

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Rebecca Mitchell Coelius, a 2011 Pisacano Scholar, is a 4th-year medical student at the University of California - San Francisco School of Medicine. She graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities with a Bachelor of Arts in Biology, Society and the Environment. Rebecca received numerous awards as an undergraduate, including the Harry Truman Scholarship for Public Service, the USA Today All-USA Academic First Team Award, the Glamour Top Ten College Women Award, and the University of Minnesota AI Johnson Scholarship for Public Service, which supported maternal health research in Egypt.

Rebecca volunteered profusely as an undergraduate, including a summer at an orphanage in Kenya. She was inspired by community efforts towards seemingly intractable development challenges and founded the international non-profit SpanAfrica, which has partnered with over fifty organizations across Kenya, Zambia and Ghana in support of local approaches to health, microfinance, sustainable agriculture, and education. She remains directly involved and is a Board member and the Director of Volunteer Operations. After completing her undergraduate work, Rebecca was a Fulbright Scholar in India. She traveled across the subcontinent researching how US humanitarian aid policy was impacting women's reproductive health and HIV/AIDS projects at the local level.

While at UCSF, Rebecca was awarded the Dean's Research Fellowship for research on patient attitudes about the potential of computer-assisted health care to improve quality in primary and acute care clinics. She remains dedicated to exploring how technology can enhance patient care, especially for preventative medicine, health education, and the management of chronic disease.

Rebecca has also served as the American Medical Student Association's National PharmFree Director of Access to Medicines, and was one of the leaders in a national campaign to consider access and affordability in federal patent policy for biological medicines. She is also involved with Universities Allied for Essential Medicine in support of access to medicines and awareness around conflicts of interest between the pharmaceutical and health industry. Rebecca has also been a student representative on the American College of Physician's California Health and Public Policy Committee, a student coordinator for the UCSF Bioethics and Health Policy Electives, and a representative to the school of medicine student government. She was also an editor of the web-based Global Pulse Journal. This year she is working with the San Francisco General Hospital Center for Excellence in Primary Care to support the transformation of a local community health center into a model for innovation in primary care provision.

Rebecca plans to practice full spectrum Family Medicine. She also looks forward to being involved in innovations in the organization, delivery, and financing of primary care.

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Anthony Lim, MD, a 2009 Pisacano Scholar, graduated from Boston University School of Medicine (BU) and is currently a 2nd-year resident in Santa Rosa, California. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa and with distinction from Stanford University with a Bachelor of Arts in Human Biology. After graduation, he spent a year in Taiwan and China, fulfilling a lifelong dream to learn Mandarin. Upon returning to the U.S., Anthony gained a year of valuable business experience working at a management consulting firm. He subsequently attended Harvard Law School, graduating with Cum Laude Honors. While at Harvard, he obtained certification as a mediator under Massachusetts law and worked as a mediator for the Harvard Mediation Program. He also worked as a summer law clerk at the San Diego Public Defender's office, and as an intern with Health Law Advocates, where he provided legal counsel to low-income residents in Massachusetts who had been denied medically necessary services for insurance reasons.

Anthony was the recipient of an AmeriCorps educational award for one year of public service within an underserved community. During that time, he taught math at a tuition-free middle school for children from economically disadvantaged families. Prior to attending medical school, Anthony spent a year as a clinical research assistant at the Joslin Diabetes Center, working on a nationwide NIH study examining treatment options for type 2 diabetes in adolescents.

As a medical student at BU, Anthony continued his commitment to service. He was awarded a 2007-2008 Albert Schweitzer Fellowship. During his fellowship, he organized and led weekly therapeutic sessions for homeless individuals recovering from illness, and he co-organized and moderated a homeless symposium. He later participated in the selection process for Schweitzer Fellows. Anthony also co-founded and co-led BU's Christian Medical and Dental Association (CMDA). The organization grew from 10 to over 50 student members during his time of leadership. Anthony was inducted into the Gold Humanism and Honor Society, which honors medical students for "demonstrating excellence in clinical care, leadership, compassion, and dedication to service." In addition, Anthony participated in BU's Family Medicine Student Track, regularly participating in family medicine and primary care events, workshops, and meetings. Outside of school, Anthony enjoys hiking, bicycling, and spending time with his wife, Jean, and their son, Joshua.

As a family physician, Anthony looks forward to a career that combines patient care, clinical teaching, and working with the underserved. He intends to work relentlessly at the individual, community, and policy-wide level toward building healthier communities.

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Amy McIntyre, MD, a 2007 Pisacano Scholar, graduated from the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and is currently a 3rd-year resident in Boise, Idaho. She received her MPH from the Harvard School of Public Health after completing a 9-month program in the Family and Community Health Track. Amy graduated Summa Cum Laude from Providence College with a Bachelor of Arts in Chemistry and Biology. She received a number of scholarships at Providence, including the Presidential Scholarship, a full-tuition merit scholarship, and was a member of Alpha Epsilon Delta, a National Pre-Medical Honor Society. Amy was also involved in many community service activities. She volunteered with Habitat for Humanity and worked with homeless individuals through the social services office at Amos House. Amy worked for two years as a research assistant with the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Providence and ultimately made a poster presentation at the 2003 National Meeting of the American Chemical Society.

Amy received several awards and scholarships including a National Health Service Corps Scholarship. She also received a scholarship from the Betty Ford Summer Institute for Medical Students to observe its inpatient program and to attend educational workshops. Amy volunteered with a community health clinic performing screening and physicals for homeless patients, and later with a health center performing community diabetes screenings. She spent two summers interning with the Rhode Island SEARCH Program (Student Experiences & Rotations in Community Health) of the National Health Service Corps. In medical school, Amy was also involved with and held many positions with the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), the Rhode Island Academy of Family Physicians (RIAFP) and the American Medical Student Association. She served as the National Family Medicine Interest Group (FMIG) Coordinator for the AAFP and the Student Liaison to the RIAFP Executive Board. Amy was elected as the 2008 Student Chair of the AAFP's National Conference.

Amy envisions herself practicing the full scope of Family Medicine in a community health center, where she will be able to practice community-oriented primary care. She hopes to engage the community and facilitate its involvement in improving health delivery and outcomes, and to address the biological, social and psychological factors that create health disparities for individual patients and the population as a whole.

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Steven Lin, MD, a 2009 Pisacano Scholar, graduated from Stanford School of Medicine and is currently a 2nd-year resident in San Jose, California. He graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Duke University with a Bachelor of Science in Biology. His work on eliminating health inequities nationally made him the American Red Cross "Person of the Year" at Duke, where he was also elected chapter president. He received three major fellowships, including a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Award, for his research on creating cancer vaccines. For his academic and humanitarian accomplishments, he was named a national semifinalist for the Rhodes Scholarship.

At Stanford, Steven joined the Asian Liver Center, the first non-profit organization in the country that addresses the disproportionate burden of hepatitis B and liver cancer in Asians. While spearheading outreach and educational projects both domestically and internationally in China, he conducted one of the largest epidemiological studies of hepatitis B in Asian Americans, which won honors from the American College of Preventive Medicine and became a landmark paper in Hepatology. He was also a key contributor to the Asian Liver Center's "Physician's Guide to Hepatitis B" – an evidence-based practice guideline funded by the CDC, now used by health departments across the country to educate their doctors and serve their communities. Later, he joined the Steering Committee for San Francisco Hep B Free, a citywide campaign to turn San Francisco into the first hepatitis B-free city in the nation. Working with the Department of Public Health and the California State Assembly, he helped create public and provider awareness about the importance of routine hepatitis B testing and vaccination, and ensure access to treatment for chronically infected individuals, especially for those who are unable to pay. During this time, he gave over a dozen presentations at major national conferences, rallying support for what the media called the "largest, most intensive healthcare campaign for Asian and Pacific Islanders in America."

Steven also received the Albert Schweitzer Fellowship to start a free clinic for underserved Asians at risk for hepatitis B and liver cancer. In one year, the clinic served over five hundred uninsured immigrants with no access to care, and identified nearly one hundred individuals with chronic hepatitis B or liver cancer. His clinic attracted national media attention and was inducted into the National Task Force on Hepatitis B. In recognition of his work, Steven was awarded the American Academy of Family Physicians' Student Community Outreach Award.

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Benjamin Preyss, a 2011 Pisacano Scholar, is a 4th-year medical student at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine, where he is pursuing a joint MD/MBA degree. He graduated with honors from The University of Chicago with a Bachelor of Arts in Human Development. He was a multiple Dean's List recipient and awarded Distinct Honors in Human Development by the University of Chicago Committee for Human Development for the presentation of his senior thesis. Benjamin was also captain of the men's varsity soccer team, receiving many accolades including First Team All-American. In addition, Benjamin worked as campus manager for Teach For America during the last two years of college and traveled to the indigenous villages of the Oaxaca Valley in Mexico as a student leader on multiple short-term medical mission trips.

Prior to medical school, Benjamin worked as a research consultant with one of the nation's leading research and consulting firms addressing the organization and financing of health care for vulnerable populations. It was through this experience that Benjamin began to understand how he could impact health services for medically vulnerable populations and stirred his desire to become a physician leader.

Since entering medical school, Benjamin has continued his community service and has received a number of awards, including the Albert Schweitzer Fellowship. As a Schweitzer Fellow, he worked to create and implement a health and wellness curriculum for Urban Initiatives – an extracurricular program working with over 500 elementary students in some of Chicago's most underserved communities. Benjamin also recently began serving as a principal mentor to formerly homeless adolescents and young adults as part of a mentoring pilot program with Schweitzer Fellows For Life. During this time, he will offer advice and life skills to his mentees as they prepare to leave transitional housing and ultimately live independently.

Benjamin is also a member of UIC's Urban Medicine (UMed) program, a unique 4-year medical school curriculum preparing physician-leaders to serve urban communities. Most recently, he was recently inducted into UIC's chapter of the Gold Humanism Honor Society, a national organization recognizing outstanding humanistic character and performance by medical students.

While completing his MBA curriculum, Benjamin was awarded the Grand Prize at UIC's campus-wide business competition for leading a management team in the creation of a business plan to establish a new faith-based community health center in Chicago's Humboldt Park community. In his role as Executive Director, Benjamin oversaw all of the original operational and strategic planning as well as seed-stage fundraising.

Benjamin plans to continue this type of work after residency. He envisions combining his skills as an administrative leader and a family physician to provide accessible, high quality, and comprehensive care to those communities and patients who remain most in need.

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Matthew Malek, a 2010 Pisacano Scholar, graduated from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry and is currently a 1st-year resident in Boston, Massachusetts. He graduated summa cum laude from Middlebury College (Middlebury, VT) with a Bachelor of Arts in Neuroscience. As an undergraduate, Matthew volunteered as an emergency medical technician and ran intercollegiate track and field, twice garnering New England Small College Athletic Conference All-Academic Honors. During his senior year, he spent time at the Mother Teresa Home for Sick and Dying Destitutes in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, assisting with clinic responsibilities and performing hygiene and comfort measures for end-of-life patients. For his academic achievements, he was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa.

As a medical student, Matthew spent two months in Riobamba, Ecuador, performing the baseline research for a water treatment program in an indigenous community. After winning the Offices for Medical Education International Medicine Fellowship, Matthew spent a year-out living and working in the rural community of San Jose, Honduras, where he served as the field director for the community development project of Shoulder to Shoulder and the University of Rochester Department of Family Medicine. In this context, he directed programs that built latrines, ventilated cookstoves and piped water systems, coordinated a scholarship program and a microfinance initiative, and began a tilapia fish farm project. He also expanded the subsidized sale of in-home ceramic water filters and conducted a randomized controlled trial evaluating the best way to promote their sustained usage. Matthew has presented his research nationally and has spoken on the topic of sustainable community development in various venues. He also co-founded San Jose Partners, a student group devoted to supporting the aforementioned project in San Jose. At sanjosepartners.org, he created an online "Alternative Giving Store" that has raised several thousand dollars to date. Matthew has received the Dr. Marvin J. Hoffman Award for International Medicine and the Family Medicine Global Health Award for his work.

At Rochester, Matthew served as the co-leader of the Physicians for Human Rights student chapter. As president of the local American Medical Student Association chapter, he coordinated National Primary Care Week and increased membership more than fourfold. Matthew also volunteered with numerous local community service projects, including the Health and Wellness Action Committee of the Rochester Children's Zone, Rochester Youth in Motion, and Students of Rochester outreach.

In his future career as a family physician, Matthew hopes to increase the presence of family medicine within the global health and development community. He plans to spend a significant portion of his career abroad, splitting his time between direct patient care, teaching, and overseeing public health and development projects.

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Karl Metzger, MD, a 2009 Pisacano Scholar, graduated from the University of Kansas School of Medicine and is currently a 2nd-year resident in Tampa, Florida. He graduated from the University of Nebraska – Lincoln with a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering. While attending night school to obtain his undergraduate degree, Karl also began his 20-year career in the engineering field. During his engineering career, he put close to two dozen products on the market and earned two separate patents. During this time, he also joined the US Marine Corps and continued to serve six years in the reserves. He was awarded the Meritorious Mast for Leadership for outstanding leadership as a Programming Team Leader. Karl's management experience in his engineering career subsequently led to a new career as the business manager of large health club. Here, Karl discovered his passion for helping others, which subsequently ignited his desire to enter medical school.

During his first two years of medical school, Karl participated in the Kansas University Medical Center International Outreach's (KUMCIO) medical mission trip to Belize. He served as the assistant to the trip leader his first year, and as the trip leader for both trips the following year. He described his experience on these trips as not only enriching and rewarding, but also as one which anchored his commitment to Family Medicine. Karl also served as the project director for the KUMC Community Health Project, which places 2nd-year medical students in community safety net clinics. He co-managed the placements of the students and monitored their experiences with the community organizations. In addition, Karl also volunteered with the JayDoc student-run free clinic throughout medical school. Karl describes himself by the priorities in his life. First is his deep sense of spirituality which gives him the strength and peace to be effective in the rest of his life; next is his commitment as a husband, a father, and a son; following that is his dedication to becoming a physician; and lastly are his own interests such as martial arts and Ironman triathlete events.

After residency, Karl envisions his future career in an integrated practice that offers a variety of services in both conventional and complementary medicine as well as small groups, social/community support, psychiatry, counseling, exercise, and nutrition. He also plans to volunteer for the underserved both nationally and internationally.

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Lars Peterson, PhD, MD, a 2008 Pisacano Scholar, graduated from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH and is currently a 3rd-year resident in Charleston, South Carolina. Lars earned bachelor's degrees in both biology and anthropology from the University of Utah. While enrolled at Utah, Lars was involved with the Student Health Advisory Committee and served as the associate editor for Utah's Health, a student run journal which published data on and original research about the health of Utahans.

In 2002 Lars left Utah to enroll in a dual MD/PhD program in health services research at Case Western. During the first two years of medical school, Lars was selected to join the Primary Care Track, a program to foster leadership and advanced clinical skills in primary care. He also was selected to participate in a medical education curriculum development program. Lars served in multiple leadership roles in family medicine at the local, state, and national levels. He was a co-leader of his Family Medicine Interest Group (FMIG) for 3 years, and his work on implementing a journal club and a program for 3rd- and 4th- year students helped his FMIG earn its first ever Program of Excellence award from the AAFP. At the state level Lars served for 2 years as the chair of the Student Affairs Committee and also as the student representative on the Board of Directors of the Ohio Academy of Family Physicians. He also served on the AAFP commissions on science and practice enhancement.

Lars' research focused on how community-level characteristics affect both health status and access to health care and whether this relationship varies by rural/urban status. He has three first author peer-reviewed manuscripts and has made numerous oral and poster presentations. His commitment to rural health, rural health research, and involvement with the Ohio Rural Health Scholars program earned him the Student Leadership Award from the National Rural Health Association. Lars envisions a career of patient care and research that seeks to validate the value of family medicine to both the health of individuals and the health care system and also to understand community-level effects on access to health care and health status.

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Alicia Overstreet Galeano, a 2010 Pisacano Scholar, graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is currently a 1st-year resident in Portland, Oregon. She graduated from Duke University with a Bachelor of Science in Biology. She received a four-year Angier B. Duke Memorial Scholarship and was selected as a Coca Cola National Scholar. As an undergraduate, Alicia was awarded a Minority International Research Training grant to work in Moshi, Tanzania where she helped implement a project to assess a clinical case definition of HIV/AIDS. She later joined the Division of Dermatology as a laboratory technician, where she continued to work for seven years following graduation. Alicia was also involved with the Alpha Phi Omega community service fraternity in numerous roles.

After graduating from Duke, in addition to working with the Division of Dermatology, Alicia also worked for 8 years as a research associate and data manager in the Children's Environmental Health Initiative (CEHI) at the Duke University Nicholas School of Environment. With CEHI, Alicia worked with interdisciplinary teams on projects focused on utilizing advanced technologies to help shift public health efforts from mitigation to prevention by applying spatial analytic techniques. During this time, Alicia also assisted with curriculum development and planning for a course at the Duke University Schools of Medicine and Nursing working with medical Spanish and cross cultural communication. She also served as a staff member for the course's yearly, 10-day outreach trips to communities in Honduras.

Alicia was selected as one of twenty North Carolina medical school students for the Board of Governors Medical Scholarship, a full tuition scholarship and stipend awarded to students who are academically qualified, financially worthy and who hold a promising future as a successful physician in North Carolina. She was also inducted into the John B. Graham Student Research Society as a first year student and the Eugene S. Mayer Community Service Honor Society during her second year and later served as an advisory board member. Alicia is a founding member of the Collaborative Sahsa Health Initiative, which is an interdisciplinary program that utilizes a geographic surveillance system to assess the household health care needs in the Sahsa community for the Región Autonama del Atlantico Norte (RAAN) in Nicaragua. In addition, Alicia served as an interpreter and member of medical teams with the Student Health Action Coalition (SHAC), a free student-run clinic for the Chapel Hill-Carrboro community.

Alicia plans to combine practice in a community health center setting with a career in academic Family Medicine to advance research aimed at improving the delivery of preventive care and promoting the uniquely comprehensive nature of Family Medicine.

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Olga Valdman, MD, a 2008 Pisacano Scholar, graduated from the University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMass) and is currently a 3rd-year resident in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Olga graduated cum laude from Barnard College, Columbia University with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology.

Olga participated in a number of research projects as an undergraduate, including research for her Senior Thesis, an experiment that she designed and implemented. Olga received a Travel Award from the International Society of Developmental Psychobiology to its annual conference, where she presented a poster on her research.

As co-president of the Student National Medical Association (SNMA), Olga received the Unipartnership Award for a tutoring program for African children that she led in establishing at UMass. This program partners with a community organization to provide tutoring for children who are recent refugees from various African countries and are significantly behind in school. Olga later co-founded a non-profit organization called African Community Education program. This program's mission is to bring the community together and start a Saturday school for the children where African adults serve as teachers, tutors and volunteers, working alongside non-African teachers and tutors in Worcester. Olga co-led the program, which then served 60 children from a number of different African countries and recently received funding from the Massachusetts Department of Education.

As president of the International Health Interest Group (IHIG) during her second year of medical school, Olga developed and organized an international service project in La Romana, Dominican Republic. This service project became an annual spring break trip for dozens of medical students, nursing students and faculty. They offer care to the most medically underserved population, working under the supervision of Dominican and American physicians of many medical specialties.

After setting up the clinical program for UMass teams, Olga became interested in long-term projects to benefit the community. She took an extra year of medical school to develop a portable paper medical record-keeping system for each patient of the bateyes--villages on sugarcane plantations. She worked closely with all hospitals of La Romana as well as the regional office of the Ministry of Health while conducting a one-year pilot study on sustainability and utility of this system. Olga received a scholarship, multiple grants and travel awards to help fund her work in La Romana.

Olga's experiences with so many diverse people and cultures have humbled her and taught her to see each person first and foremost as an individual. As a Family Physician, Olga hopes to be able to provide the best quality care to patients from all over the world.

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Rohan Radhakrishna, a 2010 Pisacano Scholar, graduated from the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) and is currently a 1st-year resident in Martinez, California. He recently completed his MS and MPH at the University of California Berkeley focusing on research methodology, human rights, and leadership. Rohan graduated from Stanford University with a Bachelor of Science in Human Biology and honors in a Latin American Studies minor. His honors thesis evaluated an integrative hospital in rural Chile amongst the Mapuche indigenous population. As a Fulbright Scholar in Ecuador, he spent two years continuing research on indigenous health initiatives, conducting social justice "Reality Tours" for Global Exchange, and training promotores -village health workers. He then worked as the Assistant to the United Nations Liaison for Médecins Sans Frontières-Doctors Without Borders in New York City before graduate school.

Rohan spent a gap year in India as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar, where he focused on health journalism and storytelling for advocacy. He also completed mini-rotations, took classes in Tropical Medicine, and initiated community translational research projects. As a medical and public health student, Rohan co-founded his school's STAND (Students Taking Action Now Darfur) group and helped coordinate the free "Suitcase Clinic" for the underserved. He also organized students to advocate for universal health care in California through teach-ins and Lobby Days in Sacramento. At the national level, he served as the Health and Human Rights Coordinator for the American Medical Students Association (AMSA) and organized the Global Health Leadership Institute in Washington, DC. He was also an AMSA co-editor of the open-access international health journal Global Pulse. For his MPH, Rohan spent two summers in Northern Uganda as a Human Rights Fellow researching the health effects of forced displacement amongst war-affected youth. His project won the Lancet Outstanding Global Health Research Award in addition to several poster prizes. He also worked as a humanitarian health consultant for UNICEF and the Norwegian Refugee Council addressing issues of shelter, child protection, and population movement.

In his spare time, Rohan practices meditation daily and enjoys nature, cooking, and dancing with friends. His vision of his future career involves grappling with health policy issues and innovating community based care models that empower patients to be proactive and preventive in their health care. Rohan also hopes to promote family medicine doctors as leaders in global health, where he sees a desperate need for their skills and perspectives. He foresees a dynamic career as a healer, advocate, teacher, and policymaker.

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Mark Stoltenberg, a 2010 Pisacano Scholar, is a 4th-year medical student at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine, where he is also earning his master's in bioethics and health policy. He graduated from Duke University with a Bachelor of Arts in Religion. Mark has been actively involved in community service both nationally and locally. From the age of 13 through college, he volunteered at a children's hospital. During his senior year, he participated in service trips to Salem, West Virginia and Managua, Nicaragua, both poverty stricken areas. An experienced soccer player himself, Mark also served as the head coach for a youth soccer team each summer during college.

As a medical student, Mark has continued his academic achievement and commitment to service. He has received a number of scholarships, including an Albert Schweitzer Fellowship. Additionally, Mark was chosen for a Dean's scholarship to complete his master's degree at Loyola. During his first two years of medical school, Mark created a family advocacy program that connects local underserved families with medical students through a new service-learning curriculum. In addition, Mark and a few of his classmates chose to move into the underserved community in which the families reside. Along with two other classmates, Mark also developed a survey-based research study in conjunction with the department of preventive medicine to better assess the community of Maywood. Mark will conduct focus groups, and paired with the survey results, hopes to give the department a better understanding of the local community that will more accurately direct future projects and initiatives. In addition to these service endeavors, Mark's interest in ethics and the humanities led him to teach a course as an undergrad on the overlaps between religion and medicine, and also start a social-justice publication while in medical school.

Mark recently completed a year-long fellowship, a project which he designed for himself. This fellowship allowed Mark to commit a year to act as the medical coordinator for a 13-village clinic system in rural Bolivia which was started by a Loyola attending physician and her husband nine years ago. During his year there, Mark coordinated the public health projects conducted by the clinic, fostering communication between the clinic and the 13 villages it serves, and also assisted in patient care alongside visiting attending physicians. Mark plans to make this position a permanent Global Health Fellowship where one student between their 3rd- and 4th- years of medical school will hold the position on an annual basis in order to provide the clinic with consistent, continuing support.

Following residency, Mark plans to remain in academic medicine and continue working with the various projects and communities he has connected with while in medical school. He hopes this will include teaching students, caring for the urban underserved, and writing within the field of bioethics while still finding a month or two every year to continue his work in Bolivia.

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