Our Team
Beier Nelson, Co-Founder and Executive Director
Beier Nelson is an undergraduate student at Harvard College from Philadelphia, PA studying Molecular & Cellular Biology and Government. He is passionate about the intersection between the the science behind human health and disease as well as the social determinants of health, specifically the barriers preventing communities from accessing the care they need.
Aditya Tummala, Co-Founder and Executive Director
Aditya Tummala is an undergraduate student at Harvard College from Brookings, SD studying Biomedical Engineering. He is passionate about socioeconomic disparities as a barrier to health care in rural and marginalized communities, looking towards biomedical and sociological innovation as a tool for dismantling these barriers.
Olivia Foster, Media Director
Olivia Foster is an undergraduate student at the University of Texas at Dallas from Brookings, SD, double majoring in Global Business and Marketing with a minor in Spanish. She sees the necessity of intercultural communication, especially in regard to equitable healthcare access, and looks forward to helping create tools to deconstruct these obstacles.
Dr. Zara Latif, MD, Physician Director
Dr. Latif is a Cardiology fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Latif is a native Arabic speaker with a strong passion for studying disparities facing limited English proficiency patients in our healthcare system. Her research is focused on enhancing cardiovascular care to limited English speakers by integrating interpreters into the care team and highlighting the degree of disparities facing this patient population. Dr. Latif has also designed and led several workshops for internal medicine residents and interpreters to enhance communication.
Project Leads
Sneha Chandrashekar, University of Pennsylvania
Sneha Chandrashekar is an undergraduate student at the University of Pennsylvania from Madison, Wisconsin, studying Neuroscience. She is passionate about reducing barriers to healthcare access and is motivated to improve health education, particularly for underserved communities, to ensure all individuals receive the resources and knowledge they need.
Manushree Desai, Silver Creek HS (CA)
Manushree Desai is a high school student at Silver Creek High School in San Jose, California. She is a state Liaison Coordinator for the American Red Cross, and a founding officer of HOSA (Health Occupations Students of America). With an interest in medicine, she is passionate about giving those with health disparities a voice, and is dedicated to community service, student advocacy, and STEM education.
Dana Garibaldi, Harvard University
Dana Garibaldi is an undergraduate student at Harvard College from McAllen, Texas studying Human Developmental and Regenerative Biology & History of Science. She is passionate about breaking down the barriers that minority populations face in healthcare, and is motivated to create resources that help these communities access the services they need.
Lindsey Hayward, Brown University
Lindsey Hayward is an undergraduate at Brown University from the countryside outside of Philadelphia, PA studying Neuroscience on the pre-med track. She is passionate about helping patients reclaim their medical journey via education, resource creation, and advocacy.
Christine Lee, Harvard University
Christine Lee is a recent graduate from Harvard College, where she studied Chemistry and Computer Science with a minor in Music. She is passionate about reducing health disparities for immigrant and marginalized communities and is excited to join the Health Fluency Project to improve access to resources and advocate for equitable healthcare in underserved populations.
Erica Lin, Harvard University
Erica Lin is an undergraduate at Harvard College from Broadalbin, NY studying Neuroscience (Mind, Brain, and Behavior) with a secondary in Global Health and Health Policies. She is passionate about barriers to healthcare, specifically for those in rural areas and non-native English speakers.
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Natasha Kulviwat, Harvard University
Natasha Kulviwat is an undergraduate student at Harvard College from Long Island, NY studying Neuroscience on the Mind, Brain, and Behavior track. She is passionate about healthcare inclusivity and is excited to join the Health Fluency Project to ensure quality healthcare accessibility to all communities.
Vishnu Kumar, Case Western Reserve University
Vishnu Kumar is an undergraduate student at Case Western Reserve University from Overland Park, Kansas, studying Nutritional Biochemistry and Metabolism. She is on the pre-dental track, and understands the importance of optimizing patient care and is committed to supporting disadvantaged individuals in healthcare. She firmly believes that implementing initiatives to increase health literacy is a big step in the right direction.
Zain Memon, Harvard University
Zain Memon is an undergraduate student at Harvard College and intends to study Human Developmental and Regenerative Biology. He is passionate about fostering a more equitable, trauma-informed, and culturally competent healthcare system to better serve disadvantaged communities.
Sitara Mitragotri, Harvard University
Sitara Mitragotri is an undergraduate student at Harvard College and intends to study Cognitive Neuroscience and Evolutionary Psychology with a Secondary in Global Health and Health Policy. She is passionate about health literacy and hopes to work toward achieving more equitable healthcare during her time at Harvard and beyond as a physician.
Tia Patel, Harvard University
Tia Patel is an undergraduate student at Harvard College from Boston, MA studying Human Developmental & Regenerative Biology and Global Health, Health Policy. She is passionate about advocating against health-based stigmas as well as working to break down systemic barriers in medicine.
Nikki Pillai, Case Western Reserve University
Nikki Pillai is an undergraduate student at Case Western Reserve University from the Washington D.C. area, studying Biology and Public Health. She is passionate about working towards eliminating health disparities and aims to make a positive impact on the Cleveland community. Nikki is particularly interested in the intersection of health and law, with an emphasis on improving maternal health and mitigating language barriers in healthcare.
Volunteers
Rebecca Altholz, Tufts University
Rebecca Altholz is an undergraduate student at Tufts University from New York City studying Clinical Psychology and Community Health. She is passionate about de-stigmatizing mental health and bettering health institutions across the US and in her own community.
Abi Bayog, Tufts University
Abi Bayog (she/her) is a student at Tufts University studying Biology and Civic Studies. She is on the Pre-PA track and passionate about how to make the medical field more inclusive and socially just, particularly surrounding inclusive care for BIPOC and around mental health.
Olivia Ferri, Tufts University
Olivia Ferri is an undergraduate student at Tufts University from north of Boston studying Community Health and Political Science. She is interested in furthering health equity through the intersection of public health and law and creating a more just healthcare system.
Michelle Li, Tufts University
Michelle Li is an undergraduate student at Tufts University from Newton, MA studying Biomedical Engineering. She is especially interested in reducing barriers in access to healthcare and is looking forward to supporting local communities when working towards improving health literacy.
Advisory Board
Aswita Tan-McGrory, MBA, MSPH
Aswita Tan-McGrory serves the Director of the Disparities Solutions Center as well as the Director of Equity in Care Implementation at Massachusetts General Hospital. Her work focuses on addressing racial and ethnic disparities in healthcare as well as providing operational and implementational leadership for assuring equity in access to and delivery of clinical care.
Dr. Gezzer Ortega, MD, MPH, Brigham and Women's Hospital
Dr. Ortega is an Assistant Professor of Surgery and Lead Faculty for Research and Innovation for Equitable Surgical Care at the Center for Surgery and Public Health at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. Born in a low-income Brooklyn neighborhood to immigrant parents from the Dominican Republic, Dr. Ortega’s work centers on improving surgical care for low-income and historically underserved populations and promoting language-concordant care for patients with limited English proficiency.
Dr. Pracha Eamranond, MD, MPH, Brigham and Women's Hospital
Dr. Eamranond is an internal medicine physician at the Brigham and Women's Hospital and teaches the Social Medicine and Practice of Medicine courses at Harvard Medical School. As Chief Medical Officer for a multitude of healthcare provider organizations, he cares for patients with complex psychosocial and medical issues within the prison and Mass General Brigham healthcare systems. Regularly spearheading international endeavors for improving healthcare in underprivileged communities locally and across Asia, Africa, and South America, he has significantly improved outcomes for the health of disadvantaged populations.
Dr. Kori Zachrison, MD, MSc, Massachusetts General Hospital
Dr. Zachrison is an Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School and Chief of the Division of Health Services Research in the MGB Department of Emergency Medicine. Dr. Zachrison’s academic focus is on improving access to and delivery of telemedicine and stroke systems of care. She is the Co-Principle Investigator of a national stroke quality improvement initiative through the American College of Emergency Physicians Emergency Quality Network (E-QUAL).
Dr. Daniel Palazuelos, MD, MPH, Brigham and Women's Hospital
Dr. Palazuelos is the Assistant Director of the Hiatt Global Health Equity Residency in the Division of Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women's Hospital and teaches global health at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Palazuelos is also the Co-founder and Chief Strategist of Compañeros En Salud, the Partners in Health sister-project in Mexico. Dr. Palazuelos has and continues to dedicate his work to global health advocacy through direct patient care as well as the training of future global health clinicians.
Dr. Qi Tan, MD, PhD, Harvard Medical School
Dr. Tan is a Research Fellow at Harvard Medical School studying the human and microbial determinants of poor treatment outcomes of Tuberculosis and evaluating tools to improve these outcomes. Prior to arriving to HMS, Dr. Tan led the impatient pulmonary care team and trained resident physicians at Jiangsu Province Hospital, one of the best hospitals in China. Passionate about improving language access to health, Dr. Tan is heavily involved in The Health Fluency Project's efforts to support the Mandarin-speaking population in Boston.
Dr. Wudeneh Mulugeta, MD, MPH, FACP, Cambridge Health Alliance
Dr. Mulugeta is an academic physician triple board-certified in Internal Medicine, Preventive Medicine, and Obesity Medicine. He is a faculty at Harvard Medical School and volunteer affiliate/ visiting Assistant Professor at St. Paul Medical College. He has extensive clinical and public health experience as well as a wide range of research interests and expertise in obesity, medical education, patient safety, quality improvement and global health. He has authored several scientific publications on obesity and chronic diseases and presented his work at national and international conferences. . He is a fellow of the American College of Preventive Medicine and the American College of Physicians.
Dr. Sarrah Shahawy, MD, MPH, OB-GYN, Harvard Medical School
Dr. Sarrah Shahawy, an OBGYN clinician and Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center researcher, and educator, specializes in sexual and reproductive health research, with a focus on migrant women. Her work spans community-based research with immigrant and refugee groups in the US and also addresses global health issues in the Middle East North African region. Through her research, community health, and global health work, she has developed expertise in Muslim women’s health by working with Muslim populations both in the US and abroad and is passionate about improving obstetric and gynecologic care as well as research to better holistically serve her Muslim and underrepresented patients in her community and beyond.