The Pisacano Leadership Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the American Board of Family Medicine, recently selected its 2016 Pisacano Scholars. These 5 medical students follow in the footsteps of 103 scholar alumni who are practicing physicians and 20 current scholars who are enrolled in medical schools or family medicine residency programs across the country. The Pisacano Leadership Foundation was created in 1990 by the American Board of Family Medicine in tribute to its founder and first executive director, Nicholas J. Pisacano, MD (1924 to 1990). Each Pisacano Scholar has demonstrated the highest level of leadership, academic achievement, communication skills, community service, and character and integrity.
Crister Brady is currently completing his Master of Public Health at the University of California–Berkeley. Next year he will begin his fourth year of medical school at the University of California–Davis (UC Davis) School of Medicine. Crister graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) as a Morehead-Cain Scholar with degrees in Latin American Studies and Portuguese.
Crister's roots in health care first began in his teen years. Since 2003, Crister has coordinated over a dozen international fundraising journeys with groups of U.S. students in support of Salud Rio Beni, a health project in the Amazon region of Bolivia. In this role, he worked alongside Bolivian medical staff and community health promoters to provide primary care services to remote communities.
Crister has continued to explore community-based health programs and use his language skills to work across diverse cultures. During his time at UNC, he had the opportunity to conduct health systems research in Cape Verde and the Azores Islands, as well as learn from community-based health initiatives in Mozambique and Brazil. While on campus, Crister spent time learning from cafeteria workers while providing English language classes as well as volunteering at a local food rescue program.
After graduating from UNC, Crister spent time in Bolivia and Peru as an instructor with an experiential education program where he facilitated service-learning projects and led wilderness expeditions. On returning to the United States, he worked as the program coordinator for Doctors Without Walls, a volunteer with a street medicine program in his hometown of Santa Barbara, California and then as a patient care manager at Piedmont Health, a federally qualified health center in Carrboro, North Carolina.
At UC Davis School of Medicine, Crister has received significant clinical training in rural communities as a scholar in the Rural Program in Medical Education. His research during medical school has focused on exploring networks of care in local communities of people experiencing homelessness. Through this work, based primarily in qualitative research and oral history, Crister has brought together fellow students, university leadership, and community members and agencies to start a discussion around street medicine in Sacramento. He has presented his oral history work at the Society for Teachers in Family Medicine's Medical Student Education conference and the International Street Medicine Symposium. Crister has been named to the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society and the Gold Humanism Honors Society. He serves on the UC Davis Family Medicine Department's Community Engagement Council and has been an officer with the Family Medicine Interest Group since his first year of medical school.
Crister plans to continue his training in full-spectrum family medicine while exploring ways to both listen to and enact health solutions in collaboration with people from all backgrounds. He envisions a career involving home visits with families and neighborhood-based health teams, where health care is better embedded in the everyday context of our communities.
Elise Duwe is a fourth-year medical student at the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Urbana-Champaign. Earlier this year Elise completed a PhD in Sociology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her research helped to understand chronic pain from a socio-psychobiological perspective in which pain is described as particular, subjective, inherited, and invisible on a spectrum of experience from synapses to populations. Elise has made numerous presentations on her research at national and international conferences and published multiple articles in peer-reviewed journals.
Elise graduated from the College of Wooster with a Bachelor of Science degree in both Religious Studies and Biochemistry/Molecular Biology, being recognized for superior performance by faculty with the Leslie Gordon Tait scholarship in Religion and the John W. Chittum Prize in Organic Chemistry. On graduation she was awarded the Jonas Notestein Prize for highest academic achievement in her class of 2009. She was selected for membership in Phi β Kappa honor society her junior year, receiving the Phi β Kappa Prize for leadership and community service. During her 4 years at Wooster, Elise founded an intentional living house, served as a peer tutor, played oboe in the orchestra, marched the drum line in the Scot Marching Band, and participated in Worthy Questions, a community of persons interested in engaging the “questions worthy of the person you can become.”
Elise began medical school at Indiana University School of Medicine. After a summer working with an alumna of the Medical Scholars (MD/PhD) Program of the University of Illinois, she was inspired to pursue a similar career path with indigenous communities. Elise was a founding member of Global Health Initiative (GHI), a student organization with the mission of catalyzing cross-campus, interdisciplinary partnerships focused on global health. She participated in GHI's initial trip to Ghana and a subsequent trip to explore collaboration with Njala University in Sierra Leone. She received the Patricia J. and Charles C. O'Morchoe Fellowship in Leadership Skills both as an individual and team member, funding travel to Hawaii to study Native Hawaiian healing practices and to Ghana as part of GHI. Elise has served as the codirector of the Hermes Clinic, a student-run free clinic serving spouses, children, and parents of students and visiting scholars from China, Brazil, and India. She established a series of health workshops called What Makes You Tick for men at Danville Correctional Center through the Education Justice Project (EJP). In addition to EJP, Elise works on the committee that publishes a guide for reentry into society after incarceration in the state of Illinois. Elise was honored by 1 of her patients who nominated her for the Alan E. Crandall Award for Compassionate Care in Medicine, presented to a medical student or resident who demonstrates extraordinary potential to provide compassionate health care.
Elise's studies, in addition to her immersion as part of a Family Medicine family since birth, have led her to envision a radical person-centered approach to caring for those at the margins and most affected by grief, pain, and suffering.
Brandon Hidaka is a fourth-year medical student at the University of Kansas School of Medicine (kU), where he also received his PhD in Medical Nutrition Science last year. He graduated from the University of Kansas (Lawrence) with a Bachelor of Arts in Biochemistry and Psychology.
As an undergraduate, Brandon received a number of awards, including the Campanile Award, a peer-selected honor given to the graduating senior who most exemplifies leadership, respect, and strength of character. In college Brandon worked as a peer tutor of chemistry, physics, and biology for low-income students. He also taught yoga weekly to a wide range of people, including peers at the school's yoga club and fitness center, and men and women in the local county jail. He founded kU's Yoga Club in 2007 to provide the only free weekly yoga class in Lawrence. After volunteering for 2 families in Dallas during an alternative spring break trip, Brandon, along with a fellow undergraduate, started a new campus group: Students for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Activism. The group connected with families through the local chapter of the Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Association and coordinated student volunteers to help with chores, errands, and caregiver relief.
It was as an undergraduate that Brandon learned of the healing power of lifestyle change through his research of depression with Dr. Stephen Ilardi in the Department of Clinical Psychology. His passion for promoting healthy living continued in medical school, where he volunteered at school health fairs, a health-oriented after-school program in a nearby low-income neighborhood, and as a group leader for children participating in an 8-week, family-based obesity intervention program. As a second-year medical student, Brandon helped direct Jaydoc Diabetes Night, a bimonthly free clinic that was run by medical students for indigent patients. That year, he also worked toward better diversity and inclusion as president of the LGBT & Allies campus group. Later as a graduate student, he led another campus group, Food is Medicine. In that role, Brandon launched a community-supported agriculture program at the medical center with a fellow graduate student. The pair connected 170 students, faculty, and staff (and their families) to local farmers with a weekly delivery of fresh, seasonal groceries. Brandon's dissertation focused on how diet influences breast cancer risk to empower women with accurate information. During his extended tenure as a student at the medical center, Brandon served many roles in the campus student governing body, including chairperson.
Brandon is thrilled for a front-row seat on humanity in Family Medicine. He is passionate about prevention and public health. He envisions a career in an academic health system, stewarding the health of families, applying statistics to real problems, teaching the next generation of health professionals, and making healthful decisions more convenient and accessible. As a healing ambassador of science, Brandon looks forward to working toward an inclusive culture of health.
Brianne Huffstetler Rowan is a fourth-year medical student at the University of Washington School of Medicine (UW). Brianne graduated from Juniata College with a Bachelor of Science degree in Global Health and French. She also recently completed her Master of Public Health (MPH) at UW's School of Public Health as part of a National Institutes of Health–sponsored Pre-Doctoral Multidisciplinary Clinical Research Fellowship.
At Juniata College, Brianne was a 2-time recipient of the Community Contribution Award, which recognizes students for outstanding service to the local community, and was 1 of 2 students to receive the Clarence R. Pentz Pre-Medicine Humanitarianism Scholarship during her junior year. Throughout college Brianne participated in the Bonner Leaders Program, a nationwide program in which a select group of students commit to weekly meaningful service and participate in leadership and service trainings. In this role, she completed 2 years of part-time AmeriCorps service and volunteered for 3 years as a gymnastics coach at a local community youth center. She also served as the president for the Juniata College Habitat for Humanity chapter, colead for several Relay for Life teams, and the volunteer coordinator for the Pennsylvania Special Olympics. Brianne was also part of the Juniata College Dance Ensemble and played violin in the Juniata College Orchestra.
In medical school, Brianne was named to both the Alpha Omega Alpha and Gold Humanism Honor Societies during her junior year and currently serves as secretary and Secretary General (president) for these UW chapters, respectively. She has been awarded the University of Washington's School of Medicine Distinction in Service Award yearly for 4 years. Brianne has served with several free clinics in Seattle, Habitat for Humanity and Girls on the Run. She volunteers with the ROOTS young adult homeless shelter and has served for 2 years as the volunteer coordinator for UW student teams serving weekly breakfasts at the shelter. Brianne has also been an integral part of UW's Family Medicine Interest Group, and has served for 3 years as the cochair of Tar Wars, an American Academy of Family Physicians tobacco and smoking prevention program for fourth and fifth grade students. The program now reaches over 300 students yearly and was ranked second place nationally in 2014 and third place nationally in 2016.
As part of her MPH program, Brianne spent a summer in Vietnam working with Vietnamese medical students to develop peer-to-peer support groups to promote appropriate infant and young child feeding practices in rural areas. Her MPH thesis research focused on workforce needs in antenatal care clinics in Côte d'Ivoire. Brianne spent 6 of the last 9 summers in a rural village in Northern Thailand volunteering with The Expedition Club, an organization that brings American and Thai youth together for cross-cultural community building and English language instruction and learning. She continues to serve as a board member and plans to return to the same village this spring.
Brianne is excited for the next stage of her journey in family medicine and for the opportunities to build compassionate, longitudinal relationships with patients and families. She hopes to dedicate her life to creating, improving, and providing comprehensive primary care programs with strong maternal-child health services in rural areas throughout the world.
Darrin Nichols is a fourth-year medical student at West Virginia University (WVU) School of Medicine. Darrin graduated summa cum laude from WVU with a Bachelor of Arts in Biology.
As an undergraduate student at WVU, Darrin was accepted into the WVU Honors College. As a WVU Honors Scholar he completed an honors thesis in Biology, examining the inflammatory relationship between asthma, obesity, and insulin resistance in children. As a senior, Darrin was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society and was a recipient of the West Virginia University Foundation Outstanding Senior Award, an award given to students for their academic achievement, community service, research, and leadership skills. Darrin continues to volunteer alongside his family with a local youth basketball league as a volunteer coach, referee, statistician and administrative assistant, which he has done since middle school. He also served as a resident assistant at WVU and was recognized each year as the Resident Assistant of the Year for his dormitory.
Since beginning medical school, Darrin has continued to win awards and accolades. In 2014, 2015, and 2016 he was the recipient of the West Virginia University Institute for Community and Rural Health Scholarship, which recognizes students who are dedicated to becoming primary care providers in rural or underserved areas of West Virginia. Earlier this year he was elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society and the Gold Humanism Honor Society. Darrin has been involved in a number of research projects, including ongoing current research focusing on diabetes education in underserved populations. He has designed an educational workbook that participants will follow throughout the course of a program developed with other WVU medical students and volunteers. He has served as President of Stepping Stones and Student Coordinator of MUSHROOM, programs at WVU that involve medical students and local physicians conducting street rounds to provide basic necessities and medical care to the unsheltered populations of Martinsburg, WV and Morgantown, WV, respectively. Darrin is also the medical student coordinator of the Prevention of the Abuse of Substances in Students Program for his local high school, a program he designed and obtained grant funding for with the collaboration of a local rural physician. Darrin was recently awarded the 2016 WVU School of Medicine–Eastern Division Community Health Outreach Award. He has also been named a Rural Scholar in the Department of Family Medicine at WVU School of Medicine–Charleston Division, a designation given to students dedicated to becoming family physicians and provides acceptance into the Charleston Area Medical Center Family Medicine residency program.
After residency, Darrin hopes to return to his hometown in West Virginia to practice as a family physician and to continue to provide education to students interested in Family Medicine, just as his mentors have done for him.
Notes
Conflict of interest: The author is the communications editor for the ABFM.
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