Alana Benjamin, MD, a 2006 Pisacano Scholar, graduated from the University of New Mexico School of Medicine (UNM) and is currently a 3rd-year resident in Santa Rosa, CA. She graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in Molecular Biology from Princeton University.  Alana was a National Merit Scholar and the recipient of the J. Robert Oppenheimer Memorial Scholarship, awarded for demonstrating exceptional promise of future contributions to society.  Upon graduation, Alana was inducted into the Sigma Xi Honor Society for scientific research.  At Princeton, Alana was also a leader in Outdoor Action- leading orientation backpacking trips for incoming freshmen, developing a curriculum and teaching wilderness first aid courses, and leading outdoor training trips for upcoming leaders.  For her commitment to the organization, she was named a Princeton Outdoor Action Leader of the Year in 2002.  After graduating from Princeton, Alana and her brother bicycled from Seattle to Boston while raising funds for the Kids Fund at Boston Medical Center.  She and her brother together raised over $14,000 for this charity fund.

 Alana has continued her academic excellence and community service throughout medical school as well.  She served as the 2005-2006 Regional Associate Trustee for the western region of the American Medical Student Association (AMSA).  In this role, she led a regional project involving resident education on evidence-based medicine and the interactions between the pharmaceutical industry and the medical profession.  She has also led several projects with her local AMSA chapter, often collaborating with community groups to advocate for increasing healthcare access for all New Mexicans.  In addition, she is the president of the UNM Family Medicine Interest Group and serves as the liaison to the New Mexico chapter of the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP).  Alana also led the core group of officers for Students Reaching Out to the Community's Homeless (SRCH).  In this role, she arranged student-run clinics at the Albuquerque Healthcare for the Homeless Clinic, coordinated vaccination outreach clinics, and started a new student homeless outreach van program in conjunction with a local non-profit homeless advocacy organization.  For her academic achievement and community involvement in medical school, Alana was elected to Alpha Omega Alpha and awarded a Khatali Alumni Association scholarship.

 Upon completion of residency, Alana plans to pursue a Masters in Public Health and hopes to continue serving as a public health advocate.  She looks forward to a career caring for diverse, underserved patient populations.

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Parker Duncan, a 2008 Pisacano Scholar, is a 4th-year medical student at the University of California--Irvine School of Medicine (UCI). 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 has 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 is a member of the Board of Directors for the California Physicians Alliance (CAPA); he and his co-creator for Lobby Day are 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 has also been a member of the Latino Medical Student Association (LMSA) for the last three years, 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, a 2009 Pisacano Scholar, is a 4th-year medical student at the University of Kansas School of Medicine. 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 has continued to receive numerous awards and has 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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Elizabeth Brightstar Enschede, MD, a 2006 Pisacano Scholar, graduated from Weill Medical College of Cornell University and is currently a 2nd-year resident in New York City. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish from Sarah Lawrence College. As the recipient of the Henry C. Lord Scholarship, Elizabeth was awarded a four-year college scholarship for academically accomplished students from Peterborough, New Hampshire. During her junior year, she spent a year in Costa Rica learning Spanish and teaching English to high school and elementary school students.

After graduating from Sarah Lawrence, Elizabeth served as a leadership educator for Global Kids, Inc. for almost three years. Global Kids is a non-profit organization that provides underprivileged teens with leadership skills to confront issues faced in their neighborhoods. As part of this program, she helped bring a group from Global Kids to the town of Varazdin, Croatia to work with Serbian refugee teens from the camp in the area. Along with some local teens, this group led workshops based on training from their model used in New York City. Prior to entering medical school, Elizabeth attended City College of New York while also working. In addition, she volunteered in the emergency room of a local hospital.

Elizabeth has continued her community service and leadership throughout medical school. She established a chapter of Physicians for a National Healthcare Program (PNHP) on her campus to promote dialogue and provide information regarding the merits of a single payer universal healthcare program. She also volunteers with Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) student group and serves as an educator with the AIDS Teaching Program, conducting workshops to teach high school students about AIDS/HIV and common STD's. Last year Elizabeth presented research on HIV/AIDS Care and Prevention in the Cuban Health Care System, which she had completed during a summer in Cuba two years ago with the MEDICC program.

Elizabeth plans to stay in Brooklyn following medical school and residency, where she can serve the many large communities with inadequate health resources. She also intends to continue her involvement with PNHP. Elizabeth envisions participating in research and teaching that will promote a better understanding of inequities in care and will promote health as a human right.

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Pamela Ferry, a 2009 Pisacano Scholar, is a 4th-year medical student at Baylor College of Medicine. 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 is currently the assistant director for the Center for Educational Outreach and assistant professor of Allied Health Sciences. At Baylor, she oversees 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 has 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, for the last 10 years Pamela has served as a team leader on annual mission trips to Montero, Bolivia. She organizes, leads and translates for a team of medical professionals and volunteers who provide care to indigent families and a girls' orphanage. Last year, Pamela also participated in a medical mission trip to Riombamba, Ecuador. Most recently, 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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Rachel Summer Claire Friedman , MD, a 2007 Pisacano Scholar, graduated from Yale School of Medicine and is currently a 2nd-year resident In Santa Rosa, CA. She graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard University with a Bachelor of Arts in History of Science.  She was also elected to Phi Beta Kappa.  In addition, Rachel received a University Health Services Acknowledgement, awarded for co-founding and directing the Harvard Community Health Initiative, a peer educational program.  She also planned the first Harvard-MIT Conference on Alternative Medicine during her freshman year, and for three years tutored 1st and 2nd grade students in nearby public schools with the Harvard HAND AmericaReads Program.

Following graduation, Rachel worked for two years as a founding faculty member of the American Hebrew Academy, a Jewish boarding school in North Carolina.  As assistant dean of student life, she created weekly Jewish and social programming for 75 high school students.  Rachel founded and directed the a cappella group, running club, student/faculty book club, and a healthy living club. 

Rachel has continued her academic excellence and community involvement throughout medical school as well.  Earlier this year, she was selected by the medical school deans as one of two medical student representatives for the Yale delegation trip to China, which was organized at the invitation of the Chinese Government and President Hu Jintao.  During her second year of medical school, Rachel was one of eight medical students selected nationally to participate in an eight-week internship with the American Society for Clinical Nutrition. She has taught Dr. David L. Katz's Nutrition Detectives curriculum to over 600 schoolchildren in Connecticut, and is the founder of the Yale Nutrition Detectives program.  She is also the co-author on Dr. Katz's upcoming 2nd edition of his textbook Nutrition in Clinical Practice.

As the national student director of the AMSA Foundation EDCAM Project Grant, Rachel planned the 3rd Annual Complementary and Alternative Medicine Leadership Training Program for medical students.  Rachel has also been instrumental in the establishment of an interdisciplinary center for integrative medicine at Yale,. This past year, she received a research fellowship and also completed the requirements for a Masters degree in health science.

Following residency, Rachel envisions developing a holistic family practice that utilizes creativity and innovation to provide maximum support and care for patients both during and beyond office visits. Some of her ideas include group visits, yoga and cooking classes, mind-body training, and providing healthy food samples and sample workouts for her patients.

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Derek Jackson, MD, a 2007 Pisacano Scholar, graduated from the University of Washington School of Medicine (UW) and is currently a 2nd-year resident in Boise, ID. Derek graduated with honors from Stanford University with a Bachelor of Arts in Latin American Studies.  Derek received the Creativity in Latin American Studies Award his senior year, which is given to the graduating student exhibiting the most innovative approach to his/her education with respect to course work, research and study abroad.  Derek's passion for the Latino community began as a child when he worked alongside immigrant workers on his parent's dairy farm in southern Idaho.  Since that time Derek has served in many capacities in the Latino community.  He spent two months in Peru and another two months in Mexico teaching English to Spanish-speaking natives.  He also completed an internship at a hospital in Peru and then served as a volunteer migrant outreach care coordinator in rural Idaho during a year away from his undergraduate education.

As a medical student, Derek has continued his involvement with the Latino community.  During his first year of medical school, he began the implementation of a project that would provide information to Latino men in Idaho about sexual safety and would assess which risk-taking practices needed to be addressed by local outreach programs. He has since presented his results to fellow students at UW, at the Western Student Medical Research Forum Conference in 2006, and to physicians and social workers in Idaho. He is now preparing to submit his research for publication. During his second year of medical school, Derek completed a clerkship at a hospital in Guanajuato, Mexico.  He was the first student sent by the University of Washington to what is now an established program between the state of Guanajuato's medical school and the UW School of Medicine. 

Upon completion of residency, Derek would like to return to Idaho and hopes to serve the diverse group of immigrants and rural populations in his home state.  He doesn't see his future in medicine as a job or career, but as a lifestyle choice based on passion and the opportunity to leave things better than he has found them.

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Lara Jirmanus, a 2008 Pisacano Scholar, is a 4^th-year medical student at the University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMass). 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 has continued to excel 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 presently serves 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 recently 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 volunteers 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." The course is now in its 2^nd year with over 20 students enrolled.

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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Anne Kolan, MD, a 2008 Pisacano Scholar, graduated from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health and is currently a 1st-year resident in Madison, WI. 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. 

Anne has continued her academic excellence and dedication to community service throughout medical school.  She 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 has been a leader in the Healer's Art elective, securing funding, organizing publicity, and facilitating small group discussions on compassion in healing.  She also volunteers 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. 

Upon completion of residency, Anne plans to pursue further training in the field of integrative medicine.  She is excited to begin developing her own patient-doctor relationships, while promoting health and wellness through a sustainable and interdisciplinary health care approach. 

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Brian "Yoshi" Laing, MD, a 2007 Pisacano Scholar, graduated from the University of California--San Francisco School of Medicine (UCSF) and is currently a 2nd-year resident in San Francisco, CA. Yoshi graduated with honors from Stanford University with a Bachelor of Science in Biological Sciences.  He also received a number of awards and scholarships, including the Stanford Asian American Community Award/Scholarship for Community Building.  Yoshi also led 12 participants in a winter course on health policy and disparities in health care.  They traveled to the California State capitol and to healthcare sites in the rural central valley. 

As a medical student, Yoshi has continued his academic excellence and community service.  He volunteered for two years with the student homeless clinic, performing histories and physical exams.  For the past year, Yoshi has served as a clinical volunteer with the Mission Neighborhood Health Center, which mainly serves recent Latino immigrants.  Yoshi has also served as student chair of UCSF's Family Medicine Interest Group and as coordinator for a Social Activism elective and a Health Policy elective.  He helped found the UCSF Health Disparities Working Group to develop medical school curricula on health disparities and presented a poster on the working group at several conferences. During his second year, Yoshi was co-president of UCSF's American Medical Student Association chapter, which hosted the annual West coast conference.. In his second year he also volunteered as a student coordinator for Physicians for a Democratic Majority, a committee dedicated to campaign for candidates who will work toward universal health care.

Yoshi is currently spending a year on staff with the UCSF Center for Excellence in Primary Care (CEPC), working on primary care redesign and health policy.  Yoshi was selected as the sole medical student presenter at the CEPC's inaugural conference last year.  He also serves as a reviewer for Primary Care E-Letter, a publication of the CEPC. Earlier this year, Yoshi spent a month interning at the Graham Center in Washington, DC studying the politics of physician payment policy.

After learning Kenpo Karate and Tae Know Do as a child, several years ago Yoshi began learning Capoeira, a dance-like Afro-Brazilian martial art.  He founded the Stanford Capoeira Group and continues to train and perform with Capoeira USA in San Francisco. He also enjoys playing the saxophone and has performed at several school functions along with three fellow classmates.  Following residency, Yoshi hopes to serve as both a clinician and healthcare advocate for underserved populations.

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Anthony Lim, a 2009 Pisacano Scholar, is a 4th-year medical student at Boston University School of Medicine (BU). 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 also the recipient of an AmeriCorps educational award for one year of public service within an underserved community. During this 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 has continued his commitment to service. Anthony 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 is currently participating in the selection process for this year's Schweitzer Fellows. Anthony also co-founded and co-led BU's Christian Medical and Dental Association (CMDA). The organization has grown from 10 to over 50 student members since its inception. Anthony was recently 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 participates 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 two-year old 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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Steven Lin, a 2009 Pisacano Scholar, is a fourth-year medical student at Stanford School of Medicine. 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."

Next, Steven 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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Karl Metzger, a 2009 Pisacano Scholar, is a 4th-year medical student at the University of Kansas School of Medicine. 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. As a medical student, Karl has continued his leadership and academic excellence. During his first two years of medical school, he 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 has also volunteered with the JayDoc student-run free clinic since his first year of 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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Amy McIntyre , MD, MPH, a 2007 Pisacano Scholar, graduated from the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and is currently a 1st-year resident in Boise, ID. 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 has continued her academic excellence and community involvement throughout medical school.  She has 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 has volunteered with a community health clinic performing screening and physicals for homeless patients, and more recently with a health center performing community diabetes screenings.  She has spent two summers interning with the Rhode Island SEARCH Program (Student Experiences & Rotations in Community Health) of the National Health Service Corps. Since beginning medical school, Amy has also been 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 currently serves as the National Family Medicine Interest Group (FMIG) Coordinator for the AAFP and the Student Liaison to the RIAFP Executive Board. Just recently, 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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Terri Nordin , MD, a 2006 Pisacano Scholar, graduated from the University of Iowa (Iowa), Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine and is currently a 3rd-year resident in New Brunswick, NJ. She graduated with honors and distinction with a Bachelor of Science in Family and Consumer Science Studies from Iowa State University.  A member of the Dean's List every semester, Terri was inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa National Honor Society and the Kappa Omicron Nu Family and Consumer Sciences Honor Society, and was in the top 2% of her graduating class.  As an undergraduate, Terri worked with a number of organizations, including many years of involvement with 4-H.  She also volunteered with St. Jude Hospital and as a counselor to high school students with the Get-a-Grip Conference, a program to help teens develop strategies for avoiding drugs and alcohol. 

 As a medical student, Terri has continued her community involvement and academic excellence.  She has received numerous awards and scholarships, including the Distinguished Medical Student Leadership Award last year.  This is an award given to medical students based on their continued involvement and leadership within their own learning community and the Carver College of Medicine. Last year she was also awarded the Doris Duke Clinical Research Fellowship.  The competitive, yearlong research fellowship is awarded by only 10 medical schools.  As a part of this fellowship, Terri was able to present numerous posters, winning first place for two of them. Most recently, she was inducted into the Gold Humanism Honor Society.  Terri was also recently elected as the Student Representative on the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine Board of Directors. In addition, she serves at co-president of Iowa's Family Medicine Interest Group after recently serving as co-chair of community service.  She has also been involved with the Boulware Learning Community, serving as the mayor as well as the representative to the Medical Student Council during her sophomore year.  Terri also serves on the Counseling Center Student Advisory Board. 

 Terri sees her future career in family medicine as an academician, providing personal, comprehensive and cooperative care to all of her patients. She also hopes to pass on her passion for family medicine and her mission to improve the quality of life for individuals and families to medical students and residents through direct teaching and mentorship.

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David O'Gurek, MD, a 2007 Pisacano Scholar, graduated from Penn State College of Medicine and is currently a 2nd-year resident in Lancaster, PA. He graduated summa cum laude from St. Joseph's University (Philadelphia, PA) with a Bachelor of Science in Biology.  He was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa as a junior and was a member of the Dean's list all four years at St. Joseph's.  David was also a member of Alpha Epsilon Delta, a National Pre-Medical Honor Society, Alpha Sigma Nu, a National Jesuit Honor Society, and Sigma Xi, a National Scientific Research Honor Society.  As an undergraduate, David gained a great deal of experience in the medical field--shadowing in a private practice, volunteering in an emergency room, spending a summer doing research as part of an ongoing three-year project, and working as a laboratory teacher's assistant for biology, genetics, histology and physiology courses.  David has also been actively involved in community service through campus ministry at St. Joseph's and as a dedicated volunteer since childhood at his hometown church and in his local community. 

As a medical student David has continued his academic excellence, receiving a number of scholarships and awards.  Last year he was recognized by the Pathology Honor Society, a medical student society honoring only the highest-achieving medical students.  David has volunteered with the Penn State College of Medicine Family Practice Interest Group (FPIG) in various roles since his first year of medical school.  He recently served with the Advance Directive Project, a project that had been inactive for quite some time due to lack of student interest.  As a result of David's efforts and leadership, the FPIG Board was able to reach 100 members of the local community through several seminars informing them of the importance of planning end-of-life care.  David has also volunteered his time at the Bethesda Mission/LionCare Clinic, a student-run free clinic in downtown Harrisburg that serves the homeless and uninsured.  In addition, David is a member of the Government and Legal Affairs Commission of the Pennsylvania Academy of Family Physicians, a member of the Catholic Medical Organization with his school, and a member of the Rural and Underserved Medicine Group. 

David plans to return to his hometown, Summit Hill, a close-knit community in the mountains of Pennsylvania, to practice.  He also hopes to remain actively involved both at the state and national level, serve as preceptor and mentor to medical students, and perhaps become more actively involved in academic medicine. 

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Lars Peterson, MD, PhD, a 2008 Pisacano Scholar, graduated from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH and is currently a 1st-year resident in Charleston, SC. 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 has 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 3^rd- and 4^th- 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 has 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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Suzanne Powell, MD, a 2006 Pisacano Scholar, graduated from the University of Washington (UW) School of Medicine and is currently a 3rd-year resident in Klamath Falls, OR. Suzanne also completed her undergraduate studies at UW graduating with a double major in Biology and Women Studies.  As an undergraduate at UW, Suzanne was consistently a member of the Dean's List and was inducted into the Golden Key Honor Society.  She was also awarded a Harry S. Truman scholarship based on her leadership potential and commitment to a career in public service.  During her junior year, she was named The BACCHUS/GAMMA UW Peer Educator of the Year for her many years of volunteer work as a peer health educator. She also volunteered with the UW Committee Organizing Rape Education and the Multifaith AIDS Project of Seattle. During her senior year, Suzanne was one of two students to receive the UW Hall of Fame Student Activities Award based on her campus and community activities.

 Prior to beginning medical school, Suzanne worked for two years at a Truman Fellow in the Office of Rural Health Policy in the Department of Health and Human Services. In this position, she assisted with the Secretary's Task Force on Rural Health and Human Services, in addition to the rural health research program and coordinating women's health projects for the office.

 Suzanne has continued her academic excellence and community service throughout medical school. She has received a number of scholarships and awards, including the Seattle Pride Foundation Robert Browning Scholarship, awarded for demonstrated commitment to human and civil rights for all people. She has also been an active member and co-leader of UW's Family Medicine Interest Group and volunteered with the Verbena Transgender and Rainbow Women's Health Fair.  This organization provides health care and education to sexual minority women in Washington State.  Suzanne is also involved with Medical Students for Choice and served on the Board of Directors last year.   

Suzanne hopes to practice full-scope family medicine in a small community and to be involved in shaping health policy and working to ensure health care for all.

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Olga Valdman, MD, a 2008 Pisacano Scholar, graduated from the University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMass) and is currently a 1st-year resident in Boston, MA. 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. 

At UMass, Olga has continued her academic success and community service.  As co-president of the Student National Medical Association (SNMA), she 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 continues to co-lead the program, which now serves 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 is now 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 is working 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 has received a scholarship, multiple grants and travel awards to help fund her ongoing 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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Thayer White , MD, a 2006 Pisacano Scholar, graduated from the University of North Carolina (UNC) School of Medicine at Chapel Hill and is currently a 3rd-year resident in Portland, OR.  Thayer also completed his undergraduate studies at UNC, graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Biology.  He was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa and the Golden Key Honor Society based on his academic merit in undergraduate studies.  In addition, Thayer received a Morehead Medical Scholarship and a William T. Turlington, MD Scholarship, both four-year scholarships awarded to incoming medical students based on the strength of the student's overall application.  While in college, Thayer volunteered as an EMT, where he was able to provide medical care to severely ill or injured patients, but also learned the frustration of problems with poverty, drug abuse and violence.

 Thayer has continued his academic excellence and community service throughout medical school.  He was an active volunteer with Habitat for Humanity and Health for Habitat during his undergraduate years as well as medical school.  He also recently served as the Vice President of Community Outreach for UNC's Family Medicine Interest Group and has been actively involved with the Student Health Action Coalition (SHAC) Community Clinic for the last four years.  SHAC is the oldest student-run clinic in the country, providing care for underserved populations.  Thayer was recently named a Distinguished Medical Scholar, an award given to up to four UNC medical students each year during their third year.  As part of this program, he has spent the past year participating in a research project in the Department of Family Medicine which focuses on improving health behaviors in primary care.  In addition, he has been a part of several other projects allowing him to interact with family physicians and family medicine organizations on a state and national level.

Thayer sees his future career as involving both direct patient care and work to improve the way primary care is delivered in this country.  He also hopes to teach and to continue his research. 

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