Medical Student Scholars

Chloe grew up in Albuquerque, NM. She graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University in 2011 with a BA in Religion and Creative Writing. After graduation, Chloe spent two years in Indonesia as a Princeton in Asia Fellow at an NGO that fosters peacebuilding in post-conflict communities. In 2013, she returned to New Mexico, where she spent three years working directly with adolescents in schools as a Planned Parenthood sexual health educator and program manager. She completed post-baccalaureate coursework at Bryn Mawr College in 2017. While applying to medical school, she worked as a Medical Assistant at a federally qualified health center in New Mexico.

In medical school, Chloe serves on the board of Chicago Street Medicine, which provides outreach to the Southside’s unsheltered homeless community. She is the Curriculum Director for SHARE, which trains medical students to teach sex ed to adolescents at Woodlawn Charter School. She assisted with writing and research for the Winter 2019 Regenstein Library Special Collections exhibition, The Fetus in Utero. In Summer 2019, she returned home to New Mexico to research pregnant women with opioid use disorder and to study the association between different addiction treatment models, prenatal care access and neonatal health outcomes.

Zharia Crisp graduated from the University of Maryland in 2021 with a B.S. in Biological Sciences and a B.S. in Psychology. She first became interested in research while studying unethical behavior and cheating in her undergraduate Motivated Cognition lab. Following graduation, she worked in medical optometry while conducting research on antiracism in medical education with the National Anti-Racism in Medicine Curriculum Coalition (NAMCC). With the NAMCC, Zharia studied a piloted Georgetown SOM course on anti-Black racism in clinical settings that was presented at the APA 2022 Mental Health Conference.

At Pritzker, Zharia was elected by her class as a Wellness representative. She serves as an Internal Affairs liaison for the Student National Medical Association (SNMA) and as one of the i2i (Identity and Inclusion) representatives for the Wellness Committee. Zharia is also an Education and Outreach Coordinator for the Washington Park Free Clinic as well as a leader of the Psychiatry Interest Group. Zharia is excited to explore psychiatry and pediatrics, with a particular interest in the mental health of underserved and minority populations.

Nicole Dussault graduated summa cum laude and with honors in Economics from Columbia University, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. As an undergraduate, Nicole volunteered as an Emergency Department patient advocate for survivors of sexual assault. After graduation, she conducted healthcare economics research at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Her work on the financial impact of the Affordable Care Act was featured in Liberty Street Economics.

At Pritzker, Nicole is a Quality Improvement Coordinator for the Maria Shelter Clinic, a founding member of Pritzker TECH, and a part of the University’s Hotspotting team. Nicole and fellow medical students also spearheaded a project to improve patient care for survivors of sexual assault in the University of Chicago ED, working with Drs. Keme Carter and Sonia Oyola. Under Dr. Matthew Churpek, she is also developing a machine learning algorithm to identify infection in hospitalized patients.

Dr. Dussault is currently an internal medicine resident at Duke Health.

Jacob A. Fries is 2021 cum laude graduate of the University of Notre Dame, where he received a B.S. in Environmental Sciences with a supplemental major in Latinx Studies. He spent his first gap year as a Health Corps Fellow through the Washington AIDS Partnership in Washington DC, where he worked in HIV prevention, sexual health education, and human-centered design initiatives at the Latin American Youth Center. Jacob then came to Chicago where he worked as a clinical research coordinator at Northwestern Medicine, primarily focusing on the national REACH palliative care study. At Pritzker, Jacob serves as a co-leader of the Geriatrics Interest Group, is a member of LMSA and serves as the LMSA Admissions Liaisons, and is the Faculty Recruitment Coordinator at CommunityHealth Clinic. He is also involved in research with Dr. Harita Shah looking at HIV prevalence and PrEP utilization in Latinx populations across Cook County, IL. Jacob is looking forward to using his time in medical school to further understand the impacts of community-based health interventions and engage with issues surrounding end-of-life care and shared decision making.

(1988-2021)

Brooke Gabster graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University in 2011 with an A.B. from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. Before medical school, Brooke worked for Deloitte Consulting LLP, where she helped the Military Health System design innovative programs to reduce tobacco use and obesity, and guided Navy Medicine’s implementation and evaluation of a patient-centered medical home model of care at over one hundred clinics. In addition to her domestic health experience, Brooke has worked on global health projects in Germany, Thailand, and South Africa.

At the Pritzker School of Medicine, Brooke is the co-director of the Maria Shelter Clinic, a free clinic in a homeless shelter in Englewood. She also helps evaluate and improve the medical school curriculum as a member of the Pre-Clinical Curriculum Review Committee. Additionally, under the mentorship of Dr. David Meltzer, Brooke is conducting research about how a new model of care designed to increase physician-patient continuity might improve discussions about end-of-life care: her project titled “The Impact of the Comprehensive Care Physician Program on Advance Care Planning” earned Honorable Mention for Excellence in the Pritzker Summer Research Program.

Dr. Gabster is an Internal Medicine Resident at Stanford University in Stanford, CA.

Sean Gaffney graduated magna cum laude from the University of Notre Dame in 2009 with a BA in Philosophy and Economics. Following graduation, Sean taught for two years at a high school in the Rio Grande Valley while completing a M.Ed. through Notre Dame’s ACE program.

As a medical student, Sean is the co-coordinator of CommunityHealth Clinic, a free clinic on Chicago’s west side. He also serves as a member of the Pre-Clinical Curriculum Review Committee, charged with reviewing the first two years of medical school curriculum.

Under the mentorship of Drs. Vineet Arora and Jeanne Farnan, Sean completed a research project titled “Transitions of Care and Transitioning to Training: Teaching and Assessing a Core Entrustable Professional Activity for Entering Residency,” which earned Honorable Mention for Excellence in the Pritzker Summer Research Program.

Dr. Gaffney is a Medicine Resident at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, NC.

Laura Glick graduated from Tufts University with a B.A. in Psychology and Community Health. At Tufts, Laura was honored with the prestigious Presidential Award for Citizenship and Public Service. Laura conducted clinical and translational research at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Under the mentorship of Dr. David Rubin, a Bucksbaum Institute Master Clinician, Laura has conducted research on Crohn’s disease, earning the Joseph B. Kirsner Research Award for Excellence in the Pritzker Summer Research Forum. Additionally, she is working with Dr. Vineet Arora to improve verbal handoffs in the hospital setting. As a medical student, Laura serves as the co-director of the Washington Park Pediatric Free Clinic, an executive board member of the Health Professions Recruitment and Exposure Program, a leadership council member of Peer Health Exchange, and as a member of the Adolescent Substance Abuse Program.

Dr. Glick is a Hospital Resident at the Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, CT.

Alvin Gordián-Arroyo graduated from Harvard University in 2017 with a Bachelor of Arts in Human Evolutionary Biology while completing a secondary field in Global Health and Health Policy. He continued his studies at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, where he received a Master of Public Health in Sociomedical Sciences in 2019 with a certificate in Sexuality, Sexual and Reproductive Health. His research focused on highlighting disparities among people living with HIV (PLWH) and evaluating the efficacy of technology-based solutions for improving health outcomes among PLWH and sexual minority adolescents at higher risk for HIV transmission.

At Pritzker, Alvin serves as co-chair of the Emergency Medicine Interest Group and class representative for the Identity and Inclusion (i2i) Steering Committee. He is also a volunteer at the free CommunityHealth Clinic and is a mentor with the Health Professions Recruitment and Exposure Program (HPREP).

Reem Hamoda graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in 2016 with a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology and Community Health Assessment; she continued her studies at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University, where she received a Master of Public Health in Epidemiology in 2018. Reem is passionate about improving access to and reducing racial/ethnic and socioeconomic disparities in healthcare for chronic disease patients. Her previous volunteering work includes management of a free clinic social services program in Pittsburgh and designing and implementing a quality improvement initiative aimed to improve interpreter services at an Atlanta refugee clinic. As a graduate student and junior epidemiologist, Reem contributed to numerous research and quality improvement projects related to improving access to transplantation for end-stage renal disease patients.

At Pritzker, Reem served as the referrals coordinator for Washington Park Free Clinic, admissions liaison for the Student National Medical Association (SNMA), and mentor for the HPREP program. Under the mentorship of Dr. Milda Saunders, Reem currently conducts epidemiological research elucidating racial/ethnic and gender-specific disparities in placement on the deceased donor waiting list for renal transplantation.

Robert Hight graduated from Emory University with a BS in Biology and a minor in Japanese. He also received his MS in Cellular and Molecular Biology from Tulane University. He was the recipient of both the Gates Millennium Scholarship and the Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship which were merit-based awards that covered all of the expenses for both his undergraduate and graduate school degrees. Additionally, he helped co-found an organization, while at Emory, which was dedicated to providing first aid/medical supplies for low-income elementary and middle schools in the Atlanta area.

As a medical student, Robert serves as the Treasurer for Dean’s Council and as a mentorship/community service co-chair for the Student National Medical Association (SNMA). Under the mentorship of Dr. Daniel Golden, Robert worked on a research project which sought to examine the dynamic of the doctor-patient relationship in the context of the Electronic Health Records (EHR) system among radiation-oncology physicians as well as work-life balance among those physicians.