Class of 2027
Stephen Bruno, MD
Saint Louis University School of Medicine: Stephen was born and raised in Newtown, Connecticut. He is a proud graduate of Newtown High School and Stony Brook University on Long Island, where he graduated with a B.S. in Biology and a minor in English studies. During his time at Stony Brook, he volunteered as both a camp counselor and fundraising coordinator for a national non-profit called Camp Kesem that supports children who are affected by a parent's cancer. Stephen was also involved avidly in research. His projects ranged from optimizing team-based pedagogical strategies in higher education, to neuroplasticity in gustatory circuits of rat models. His interest in education began after working as a College Reading & Learning Association (CRLA) certified tutor for both biology and organic chemistry courses. After graduation, he attended Saint Louis University School of Medicine. During medical school, he continued his passion for teaching by volunteering as a Students and Teachers as Research Scientists (STARS) mentor for high school students interested in becoming successful data-driven researchers, in addition to tutoring third-year medical students studying for the pediatric NBME shelf exam. Stephen’s love for family medicine grew while volunteering at a nonprofit clinic called Casa de Salud, which delivers high quality health services to uninsured Spanish-speaking patients, with a focus on immigrants and refugees in the St. Louis metro area. Stephen has a special interest in addiction medicine and homeless healthcare. He worked with Assisted Recovery Centers of America (ARCA) to review their newest Housing First model linked with recovery housing. He is excited to begin training at Montefiore and serve the Bronx by fostering equitable, evidence-based medicine. During his free time, Stephen enjoys powerlifting, book clubs, and playing board games with friends.
Davis Christianson, MD
Thomas Jefferson Sidney Kimmel Medical College: Davis was born and raised in Madison Wisconsin where he grew up with four sisters. In his hometown, he spent time learning about the dying process with Agrace hospice as a volunteer. He then moved to the east coast and graduated from the university of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia with a degree in Neuroscience. After college, he spent a gap year serving in Americorps working in a North Philadelphia substance use disorder clinic connecting patients to social benefits and job opportunities. He continued this interest in medical school at Sidney Kimmel Medical College by researching the peer support services at Jefferson’s emergency department in center city Philadelphia. He wanted to study how health systems could leverage peer experience to help connect a vulnerable population to care suited to their needs. During his time in medical school, Davis loved learning more about the various communities and people in Philadelphia. He connected with patients from different backgrounds and communities and enjoyed learning about their story. He is excited to continue his education of building trust and relationships with people and communities in the Bronx. He’s happy to be near his sister and his one-year-old nephew who live in the city so he can be the fun, silly uncle.
Renee Jozanovic, MD
Frank H Netter MD School of Medicine at Quinnipiac University: Renee grew up in Bergen County, New Jersey, just over the George Washington Bridge. After graduating from the Academy of the Holy Angels, she went up to Boston, Massachusetts for her undergraduate studies at Northeastern University. During those years, she completed internships in clinical and academic medical research at the Child Mind Institute in Manhattan and at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, respectively. It was in these roles that Renee was first able to explore her interests in medicine. After graduating with a B.S. in Behavioral Neuroscience, she returned to New Jersey to work as an Emergency Department scribe and Emergency Medical Technician, where she solidified her desire to pursue medicine and her love of people. Renee attended Frank H. Netter MD School of Medicine at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut where she engaged in multiple wellness initiatives with the hopes of creating community amongst students who were beginning their medical education during the COVID-19 pandemic. These initiatives included spearheading the Wellness Committee, serving as her class’ Peer Advocate, and becoming president of the Gold Humanism Honor Society. Renee is so excited to join Montefiore’s Department of Family and Social Medicine.
Destiney Kirbey, MD, MPH
Albert Einstein College of Medicine: Destiney grew up in the Bronx and attended the Arizona State University with a B.S. in biological sciences and statistics. Upon completion of undergrad, Destiney entered the Albert Einstein College of Medicine for medical school in a combined MD-MPH program. She was involved in many activities during medical school, including but not limited to advocacy for reproductive health, mentoring pre-med students through the MonteHOP program, advocacy for the Einstein curriculum, and leadership roles in promoting community service and service-learning opportunities. Destiney pursued an MPH at CUNY between her 3rd and 4th year of medical school, concentrating on her public health training in health policy and administration to further her goals of working towards health equity both through advocacy for structural change and direct care to the local community. In her free time, she is an avid runner and practices creative writing, having taken a narrative medicine course during her time at Einstein.
Michael Dionicio Layana Teran, MD
Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School-Piscataway: Michael graduated from Rutgers University in his home state of New Jersey with a B.A. degree in Biological Sciences from the School of Arts and Sciences. During his time in undergraduate, he participated in AVID program, a mentoring and tutoring program designed to help students in high school; encouraging them to take more challenging classes as well as exposing them to college students pursuing careers in sciences. He also volunteered at the Livingston writing center, helping international students revise their expository paper and improve their writing. During medical school, he continued pursuing his passion for teaching by becoming a private family tutor and working for afterschool enrichment programs such as AGradeAhead, which provides supplemental learning opportunities for students ranging from 1st grade to High school. During his time away from medical school, he worked as an instructor for Seton Hall MCAT preparatory course, which prepares undergraduates for the MCAT. In his free time, Michael enjoys training and playing with his dog Shadow, whom he adopted in his 2nd year of medical school, as well as weightlifting, swimming, playing guitar, and playing video games with his friends.
Raneem Mokatrin, MD
University of California San Diego School of Medicine: Raneem is a second-generation Palestinian American born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. She double majored in Neuroscience and Gender Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, where she decided to combine her passions by pursuing a career in medicine. She went on to attend medical school at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), and was quickly drawn toward Family Medicine for its unique ability to fill gaps in care, advocate for the medically underserved, and care for patients and multigenerational families across their lifetimes. During medical school, Raneem organized health equity Journal Clubs and Advocacy Labs and created mandatory training on gender affirming care. She also took on a leadership role at the UCSD Student-Run Free Clinic and conducted research on the effects of religious fasting on blood pressure in Muslim refugees. In her time at UCSD, Raneem was honored to receive a Sanford Scholars Award by the Sanford Institute for Empathy and Compassion, as well as a Reithmayer Award by the San Diego Academy of Family Physicians. Raneem is thrilled to continue her career at the Montefiore Department of Family and Social Medicine and feels privileged to serve and learn from the Bronx community. Her clinical interests are broad and include reproductive health, addiction medicine, adolescent medicine, refugee/immigrant health, and health equity. In her cherished free time, Raneem likes surrounding herself with loved ones, going on aimless walks, baking exotic vegan cakes, and enjoying the city.
Shusmita (Riya) Roy, MD
Albert Einstein College of Medicine: Riya was born and raised in Queens, NYC. She has been passionate about serving and empowering underserved communities since high school. During her time at Brooklyn Technical High School, she was very active in KEY club. She graduated from Cornell University’s College of Human Ecology with a B.S. degree with high distinction. During her time at Cornell, she served as a service team leader and partnered with non-profit organizations such as Second Wind Cottages, Ithaca Rescue Mission, Community Faith Partners, and Habitat for Humanity to organize frequent service events for students. For Cornell’s Prefreshman Summer Program (PSP), she worked with prefreshmen from disadvantaged backgrounds for two summers to help them through obstacles to reach their full potential in Chemistry and as students. She served as an executive board member of peer mentorship program committee, secretary, and then vice president for Cornell Undergraduate Research Board (CURB) to help students develop their undergraduate research career. Under Dr. Angela McCleary-Wheeler, PhD., for two years, she examined the effects of epigenetic enzyme inhibitors on known canine and human lymphoma cell lines and of Hedgehog signaling in feline oral squamous cell carcinoma. At Albert Einstein College of Medicine, she continued teaching, doing research, and serving communities by being an E-board member of Einstein’s Food Justice and Medicine (FJAM) and Homeless Outreach Program at Einstein (HOPE), a patient advocate for ECHO, a teaching assistant for the Introduction to Clinical Medicine course, and a mentor for first and second year students through Einstein Senior Leaders in Advocacy and Community Service (E-SLACS). Under Dr. Denisa E. Ferastraoaru, MD, she investigated the demographic, clinical, and laboratory characteristics of adult individuals with IgE deficiency and presented the research at the 2022 AAAAI annual meeting in Phoenix, Arizona. Riya is excited to be training in Family Medicine and continuing to serve and empower communities in the Bronx!
Tiffany Shu, MD, Chicago
Medical School at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science: Tiffany was born and raised in Chelmsford, Massachusetts and earned her bachelor’s degree in biology from Boston College. During her gap years before medical school, she was a medical scribe at Beth Israel Lahey Hospital, a receptionist for her family’s general dentistry practice, and a clinical research assistant at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center working with otolaryngologists to identify correlations between vertigo, dizziness, and varying kinds of headaches. At Rosalind Franklin University, Tiffany stepped into her role as the Executive Officer of Public Relations for the student-led volunteer free clinic known as the Interprofessional Community Clinic. She reimagined the role of social media by using it to disseminate patient education, virtually fundraising $40,000 for the clinic, and collaborating with government and local organizations such as the Lake County Health Department, YWCA Chicago, Mano a Mano, North Chicago Think Tank, and North Chicago Public Library. Tiffany is passionate about producing aesthetically pleasing content that resonates with her patient population and has created medical educational content related to diabetes management, asthma, hypertension, high cholesterol, nutrition, chronic pain, pelvic pain, common skin conditions, the COVID-19 vaccine, and many more! In addition to connecting through art, Tiffany enjoys learning new languages and cultures in her free time! She is excited for the opportunity to train under the Department of Family and Social Medicine to better understand and serve the Bronx community in the best way that she can!
Sumayya Vawda, MD
Northeast Ohio Medical University: Sumayya graduated from New York University Tandon School of Engineering with an Honors B.Sc. degree in Biomedical Science. During her time there, she worked considerably in research focusing on two major projects: the development of biosynthesized materials for drug delivery and cancer theranostics at NYU and the optimization and characterization of novel, soft stents for endovascular treatment and therapy at Weill Cornell COM. Her years working in research resulted in many presentations which were well received by the scientific community and culminated in a publication in a notable scientific journal, Advanced Functional Materials’. Sumayya also spent time in Honduras and Nicaragua through Global Medical Brigades where she worked alongside local communities and staff to implement sustainable health systems. She worked in under-resourced communities and created mobile clinics providing patient consultations and leading health education workshops. Note, she also worked as a research intern at Ark Media preparing research briefs for producers and story editors to create content for scientific documentaries, the most popular of which is ‘The Gene’ by Siddhartha Mukherjee. Some of her notable accomplishments in undergrad include being a recipient of the Founder’s Day Award for achieving a place in the highest bracket of scholastic preferment recognized by the university, being a 2016 Thompson Bartlett Fellow for her distinguished research project and receiving the President’s Service Award for the promotion of learning, leadership and quality of student life at NYU. In medical school, Sumayya served on the American Academy of Family of Physicians working on the Commission on Continuing Professional Development to directly support the Academy’s strategic objective on clinical expertise and guide the credit system and the provision of continuing medical education. She also worked with the Ohio Academy of Family Physicians on their public policy committee advocating health care reform and worked with lobbyists on state legislative agenda that focuses on minimizing administrative reporting burdens and requirements that interfere with the practice of medicine. She spearheaded a health systems and community policy brief to help achieve affordable, high-quality healthcare for all Ohioans by dismantling racist policies, practices, and guidelines to ensure equitable access to all. Coming from a first generation, immigrant family, Sumayya credits her mentors in medicine greatly for helping her on the road to becoming a physician and the desire to be a mentor for other young women led her to being a part of Girls Go Med- an organization that focuses on exposure and encouragement as keys to instilling the drive to pursue a career in medicine. During her free time, Sumayya enjoys baking, spending time with family and friends and traveling. Sumayya is excited to return home and is honored to be training with the Department of Family and Social Medicine and serve the same community that raised her.
Juliann Wang, MD
University of Alabama Heersink School of Medicine: Juliann was born and raised in Sacramento, California. She graduated from the University of California, Davis with a major in Global Disease Biology. During her time at UC Davis, she spent 3 years volunteering as a patient advocate and undergraduate co director for the Paul Hom Asian Clinic, one of the many student-run clinics at her university. After graduating college, Juliann spent 2 years travelling and worked as a medical scribe and school aide for students with special education needs. She then moved to Birmingham, Alabama where she pursued an MD/MPH dual degree. During medical school, she partnered with community organizations to bring medical services to individuals experiencing homelessness. She also contributed to the organization and implementation of initiatives around Alabama to eliminate cervical cancer as a public health problem in the state and conducted research to eliminate barriers to care for individuals living with HIV. She served as a leader and mentor through her roles asaculty, residents, an ambassador, APAMSA vice president, and clinical scholar teaching associate. Juliann is excited to learn from the faculty, residents, and patients of the Bronx to address the health inequities of the community