Family Medicine: First Year Residents

Soon after she immigrated to the U.S. from South Korea at age 13, Jean was hospitalized for one month. Uninsured at the time, the resulting hospital bills financially decimated her family. Over the ensuing years of financial struggles and food insecurity, Jean earned her GED and worked as a Patient Care Technician, Surgical Technician, and Korean interpreter to save money for college. As a PCT, she witnessed many patients suffering from avoidable chronic diseases due to lack of access to healthcare. Recalling how powerless she felt when she was sick and uninsured, Jean resolved to dedicate her career to helping others who face the struggles she had faced.

Jean eventually enrolled in the University of Arizona in 2009. At UA, she worked as a Research Specialist in the Department of Public Health, conducting statistical analyses and writing manuscripts. Jean’s research helped secure a 4 million dollar grant from the CDC to develop evidence-based public health interventions for an underserved rural community in Arizona. She also co-chaired the 2014 University of Arizona Social Justice Symposium, a health policy-themed conference focused on broadening access to healthcare.

After graduating from UA, Jean was selected to be a Fall 2014 White House intern. At the White House, she helped develop outreach and implementation strategies for the Affordable Care Act, and identified and proposed grant allocations for health promotion and disease prevention programs. Jean also organized and moderated policy discussions between White House interns and staff that spanned topics ranging from health care reform to anti-poverty policy.

In her first year at the University of Washington School of Medicine, Jean testified before the Washington State House of Representatives in support of a Senate pathway bill to universal healthcare in the state, which resulted in a revised version of the bill getting passed into law. She continued publishing research during her time at UW, while also sampling the Seattle-area cuisine, spending time with her friends and her partner, and taking her beloved chihuahua-terrier mix, Bin, to the park whenever possible.

Jean is beyond thrilled to be joining her dream program at Tufts FMR at CHA. She is especially excited to learn more about community medicine, trauma-informed care, immigrant health, and lifestyle medicine. Outside of work, Jean enjoys watching Korean TV shows, discovering new bakeries, and spoiling Bin by baking him treats and giving him lots of cuddles.

Pronouns: She/Her/Hers

Laura is originally from Boston, MA, and grew up exploring the city’s many parks and museums. She received her undergraduate degree from New York University, where she majored in Medical Anthropology. During her time in NYC, Laura followed her growing interest in healthcare and became a full-spectrum doula, providing support to pregnant people as well as training new doulas.

Laura completed her medical education at the University of California San Francisco. Through Medical Scientist Training Program, she also earned a PhD in Medical Anthropology. Her research focuses on LGBTQ+ health and health activism. During this time, Laura led UCSF’s chapter of Medical Students for Choice and advocated for increased reproductive justice training. She also volunteered at St. James Infirmary, an occupational health clinic for sex workers. In addition, Laura served as a leader of the Structural Competency Working Group, which designs and facilitates trainings on health equity.

Laura is thrilled to continue her training as a family medicine resident at Tufts/Cambridge Health Alliance! Her clinical interests include LGBTQ+ health, reproductive and sexual health, addiction medicine, pregnancy and postpartum care, and medical education.

Outside of work, Laura can be found relaxing at home with her spouse, kid, and two rescue cats. She enjoys reading science fiction, riding her bike, and going out dancing.

Pronouns: She/Her/Hers

Cole grew up outside Washington, DC and spent his free time playing competitive soccer, backpacking, going on SCUBA diving trips, and trying to memorize field guides of Caribbean marine life. He attended Swarthmore College and – motivated by his love of science and living things – majored in biology and mathematics. While in college, Cole worked on improving student life as a member of the Student Government Organization and developed a passion for public health through summer internships at the National Cancer Institute and Baltimore City Health Department. He also lived out a boyhood dream by spending a winter as a ski instructor in Montana during a gap-year between his sophomore and junior years.

After college, Cole moved to Lima, Peru where he worked with Socios en Salud/Partners in Health as a research volunteer on a quality improvement project at one of the city’s safety net hospitals. He returned to the US for a one-year post-baccalaureate research fellowship in genetic epidemiology at the National Cancer Institute before matriculating into the MD/MPH program at Tufts University School of Medicine.

In medical school, Cole further explored his public health interests with research on barriers to peri-conceptional folic acid supplementation and an MPH practicum at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health’s Bureau of Environmental Health. In his practicum he developed an online training module on the health impacts of climate change for clinicians across disciplines. He also put his love for teaching into practice as an instructor in medical Spanish for the Tufts Language Club and facilitator for first-year medical students in the Problem-Based Learning course. Cole was drawn to family medicine during his clinical rotations by the specialty’s broad scope of practice and the unique role primary care providers play in helping their patients navigate the complexities and inequities of the American healthcare system.

Cole is thrilled to join the Tufts FMR at CHA! He is excited to train alongside people who share his mission to promote health equity and approach medical problems with a population health lens. His interests include all things preventive medicine, environmental and occupational health, maternal and reproductive health, adolescent medicine, mental health, and point-of-care ultrasound.

Outside of work, Cole can typically be found rock climbing or backcountry skiing, birdwatching, playing guitar, reading, doing a crossword, or at pub trivia.

Pronouns: He/Him/His

Xander came into existence in the wintry wonderland of Minnesota (but in July so it pretty much looked like everywhere else at the time). They grew up befriending deer in riverside forests and swimming in Minnesota's many lakes, developing a love for life and all things living.

They attended Washington University in St. Louis where they studied biology, Spanish, and psychology, opening their eyes to the ways that the biological, the political/cultural, and the mental all work in concert to produce human experience. Their work with community clinic Casa De Salud (which provides free/low-cost medical services to immigrants in St. Louis) reinforced a similar concept that health is so much more than the wellbeing of organs and cells; it’s rather the wellbeing of people. It was palpably obvious while working at Casa De Salud that the U.S. healthcare system was built for the privileged few, and the energy of those working to change that played a large role in their motivation to pursue medicine at Columbia University.

While at Columbia, Xander was a founding member of Columbia Students for Intersex Justice, a group of friends and peers committed to ending the practice of medically unnecessary and non-consensual "normalizing" surgeries on intersex youths at Columbia’s New York Presbyterian Hospital and beyond. As a member of Q Clinic, Columbia’s queer student run clinic, they deepened their capacity for reimagining care and helped lead initiatives to decarcerate care and incorporate voter registration in the clinic. Following their interest in medical education, they also developed an options counseling and abortion educational session after noting that it was a gap in the current curriculum. Xander is grateful for the opportunity to continue honing their practice of medicine at Tufts CHA and are particularly excited to dive into their interests of reproductive justice, organizing healthcare workers, sexual health, queer/trans health, integrative medicine, and end-of-life care.

Xander derives great joy from dancing both solo and with others, having most experience with Bollywood Fusion but recently exploring heels dance with friends as part of med school dance group Meals on Heels (still hopefully awaiting sponsorship offer from Meals on Wheels^TM). Other interests include storytelling (mostly through TTRPGs like Dungeons and Dragons), being in nature, and baking ambitious and moderately well-executed pastries and breads.

Pronouns: They/them

Gaby was born and raised in Norfolk, Virginia. Throughout childhood, she fostered a love of science, eventually going on to obtain her bachelor’s degree in biology with a minor in psychology at American University in Washington, DC.

After graduating college, she worked in several different positions within healthcare in Virginia and Boston, trying to find her niche. Gaby finally found where she fit best when scribing in a sports medicine clinic. She admired how the physicians partnered with their patients in their treatment and also showed up for their communities by being a constant presence at games.

Inspired by her experiences in healthcare, Gaby attended medical school at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine in Richmond, Virginia where she was a proud scholar in the Family Medicine Scholars Training and Admission Track (fmSTAT), a program for students committed to family medicine. She also spent time with a local community harm reduction program, taught a health course in a jail-based drug use recovery program, and helped out on the sidelines at high school athletic games.

She is thrilled to be returning to Boston to join the Tufts at Cambridge Health Alliance Family Medicine Residency, a program that shares her values of community advocacy and health equity. She looks forward to exploring her interests in addiction medicine, gender-affirming care, weight-inclusive care, and sports medicine as well as deepening her connection to the wider Boston community.

In her free time, Gaby enjoys reading, photography, watching soccer and pro wrestling, hiking, and finding lighthouses to explore.

Pronouns: She/Her/Hers or They/Them/Theirs

Mia grew up in southeastern Wisconsin after immigrating from Albania when she was 2
years old. She completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Wisconsin
Madison where she completed a double major in Neurobiology and Spanish. Utilizing
her Spanish, she volunteered as a Resource Navigator at an FQHC in Madison where she
first perceived the importance of physicians knowing the resources in their community
that could help patients address social determinants of health outside of the clinic walls.
After graduation, she worked as a lab manager for the Educational Neuroscience Lab in
Madison, helping coordinate an NIH-funded study that investigated the acquisition of
math knowledge in 400 child participants using fMRI data.

She stuck around at UW Madison for medical school where she spent her family medicine clerkship at Wisconsin’s largest free clinic in Milwaukee, serving mostly Spanish-speaking and refugee patients. Here, she again witnessed the fundamental role
that physicians can play in advocating for and with their patients and engaging with their community. She was also a chapter leader of Medical Students for Choice which helped fuel her love for reproductive justice.

Mia was most drawn to Tufts because of the clear culture of support she felt from both the residents and faculty, the commitment to community engagement and social justice, and the numerous opportunities to strengthen her knowledge of reproductive and sexual health.

In her free time, Mia is most likely playing with her dog Nix, finding a new video game or board game to dive into, or binging a new TV show with her partner. She is a huge Milwaukee Bucks fan and will still be cheering them on in Massachusetts, even if it’s from the TD Garden. Whenever she has the opportunity, she and her partner are hosting one of their “Family Dinner Nights”, where they bring over friends and enjoy a delicious meal celebrating the cuisine of countries all over the world!

Pronouns: she/her/hers

Aisha Townes grew up in Lexington, MA, the home of the American Revolution. Influenced by the historical town, she loves a good period costume or show. She grew up climbing trees, playing piano, and reading books.

Aisha attended Harvard University, where she majored in Molecular and Cellular Biology. During college, she also pursued environmental studies and was able to travel to India and Portugal among other countries for research. After graduation, she worked in a genomic research lab studying melanoma. She then went to Boston University School of Public Health and completed an MS/MPH in maternal and child health. During her graduate studies, she was able to research determinants of adolescent pregnancy in rural Nicaragua, where she improved her Spanish language skills. Throughout college and graduate school she enjoyed playing Brazilian capoeira.

Aisha then attended University at Buffalo Jacobs School of Medicine. She participated in street medicine outreach to the local housing insecure population. She taught yoga part time, finding ways to integrate safe movement in to her family medicine continuity clinic.

Aisha is enthusiastic to join Tufts FMR residency program. She loves the Malden and Boston community. She is excited to practice comprehensive women’s health care, gender equity, continue building relationships with diverse communities. On the weekends, you can catch Aisha in a yoga class, running outside, or enjoying time with family.

Pronouns: She/Her/Hers

Emily grew up in Winchester, Massachusetts, where she developed a passion for activism at a young age. As a high schooler in the 2000s, she was an active member of her school’s gay-straight alliance, running educational programs for other students and fighting to keep same-sex marriage legal in Massachusetts. She completed her undergraduate education at Harvard University, studying biology and chemistry, doing research on the chemical origins of life, and leading several progressive Jewish campus organizations. As a senior, she co-founded Open Hillel/Judaism on our own Terms, an organization devoted to building progressive, inclusive, democratically-run Jewish student organizations on college campuses across the United States.

After college, she joined Avodah: The Jewish Service Corps, during which time she developed a love of communal living and collective decision-making. She worked as a paralegal at the New York Legal Assistance Group, fighting for the rights of people with disabilities and caregivers to access Medicare and Medicaid benefits and live independently in their homes. She then returned to Harvard to complete her MD/PhD in social epidemiology, where she studied the ways in which social structures and policies shape population health and can create or reduce health inequities. During this time, she developed a love of primary care and family medicine, particularly providing accessible full-spectrum care, understanding patients as full human beings, and building long-term relationships with patients, families, and communities.

Emily is thrilled to be continuing her training in family medicine at Cambridge Health Alliance. She is passionate about providing humane, relationship-based, empowering health care across the entire lifespan, particularly reproductive health care and end-of-life care. She seeks to use her research skills in social epidemiology to serve the needs of the community, particularly to fight health inequities. Outside of work, she lives with her wife, housemates, and two cats in a communal home in Jamaica Plain, and loves to play guitar, walk outside, and drink tea.

Pronouns: She/Her/Hers