Dr. Connie Tran is a proud first-generation Vietnamese American and the first and only in her family to pursue a career in medicine. As an Associate Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology at Baylor College of Medicine, she brings both clinical excellence and a deep commitment to mentorship and advocacy. Dr. Tran believes in supporting the next generation of learners and has been involved in multiple organizations to showcase medicine, especially anesthesiology to under representative students. She serves as Advisor and Director of the Yellow Squad within Baylor’s Learning Community, where she provides guidance, encouragement, and holistic support to medical students throughout their journey.

Outside the operating room and classroom, Dr. Tran enjoys experimenting with new recipes and sharing her culinary creations with her family, residents, and students.

Stephen Chao, MD, MPH (pronouns: he/him/his) is a family physician who practices in the underserved safety-net/community health setting in Houston, Texas. He is the medical director of the Squatty Lyons Health Center in Humble, Texas, one of the twelve Community Health Centers that are part of Harris Health System — the county clinic and hospital network which serves approximately one million under-insured and uninsured people in Harris County, the third most-populous county in the United States. Dr. Chao is an Assistant Professor of Family and Community Medicine at the McGovern Medical School, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. He previously was a staff physician at Legacy Community Health Services, a federally qualified health center in Houston, Texas, and was previously on the faculty at Baylor College of Medicine as well. 

Born and raised in Houston, he attended Rice University, graduating with degrees in Biochemistry and Health Policy. He received his medical degree from the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and also completed his family medicine residency training at UT Health San Antonio. During medical school, he interned with the Asian and Pacific Islander American Health Forum and also served as the National Executive Vice-President of the Asian Pacific American Medical Student Association. 

Upon returning to his hometown of Houston, Dr. Chao became involved in the Chinese American Doctors Association of Houston and was elected president of the Association from 2016-2017. He also was involved with the national civil rights organization, OCA-Asian Pacific American Advocates, serving on the Greater Houston chapter board for more than ten years. His interests include care for immigrant and refugee populations, community health, and public policy. Dr. Chao also recently served on the national board of Physicians for a National Health Program. He believes in providing health care for all.

N. Thao Galvan MD, MPH, FACS is an abdominal transplant surgeon specializing in liver and kidney transplantations for children and adults.  Her focus has evolved to translational science and policy, concentrated on a) biofabrication for end-organ disease, b) clinical outcomes and surgical technique, and c) transplant policy and ethics. She has published over 100 manuscripts on these topics and has received grants from the Southwest Pediatric Device Consortium on biofabrication research, and the ASTS-Natera SERD grant on psychosocial determinants of health and quality of life in pediatric liver transplant patients.  She serves as a Health Policy Scholar at the Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy at Baylor College of Medicine since 2019 and on the Ethics Committee of the American Society of Transplant Surgeons (2020-2026).  She has been awarded the James IV Traveling Fellow Scholarship and will be inducted into the ACS Master Surgeon Educator (associate) this year.

Mabel Perez-Oquendo, PhD, is the Director of the Student Opportunities for Advancement in Research (SOAR) Office and Assistant Professor in the Huffington Department of Education, Innovation & Technology at Baylor College of Medicine. She holds a PhD in Genetics and Epigenetics and completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship in Academic Administration at MD Anderson Cancer Center. She leads a comprehensive research support program for over 800 medical students across Houston and Temple campuses. Her scholarship centers on mentorship, faculty engagement, and educational programs, with a focus on creating sustainable models for student research success.

Eric R. Gross MD, PhD, FASA is a physician-scientist and practicing anesthesiologist within the Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative, and Pain Medicine at Stanford University. He runs a NIH-funded research laboratory studying how alcohol metabolism impacts anesthesiology and in general human health. He is a member of the Stanford Cardiovascular Institute, Neuroscience Institute, and Center for Asian Research and Education (CARE). Dr. Gross is also the section editor for basic science for the journal Anesthesia & Analgesia and the editorial fellowship director for the Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics. Today, Dr. Gross will discuss the health implications of alcohol flushing. 

His research laboratory focuses on the impact of genetic variants on perioperative organ injury. Taking a translational approach, the lab primarily investigates cardiovascular injury, with a current emphasis on aldehydes and the genetic variant responsible for inefficient aldehyde metabolism. One common phenomenon related to this research is alcohol-induced facial flushing, where individuals experience redness and an increased heart rate after drinking. This flushing is linked to a genetic variant that leads to the accumulation of acetaldehyde, a harmful intermediate from alcohol metabolism

Anoop Agrawal, M.D. is an associate professor at Baylor College of Medicine. He has served as Program Director for the combined internal medicine and pediatrics residency program since 2013. He also serves as faculty advisor for the Graduate Medical Education Resident Council. His passion is in faculty development and the integration of technology into medical education. He was selected as an Apple Distinguished Educator in 2015 for his innovations in developing best practices for utilizing mobile tablets in bedside teaching. His current interests have focused on implementing and advancing generative artificial intelligence in medical education. He has been invited to share his work at numerous international, national and regional meetings including the International Association for Health Professions Education, ACGME, AAMC, Society of Hospital Medicine and many others. 

Dr. Agrawal received his medical degree from the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine and completed his medical residency in the combined internal medicine and pediatrics program at Baylor College of Medicine.

Dr. Galant Chan is a Program Director of Medical Education and Assistant Professor of Medicine-Infectious Diseases at Baylor College of Medicine. She earned her AB from Harvard College and MD from Baylor College of Medicine, followed by an internal medicine residency at Columbia University/NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and a fellowship in infectious diseases at the University of Washington Medical Center. Her professional interests include HIV prevention and treatment, transplant infectious diseases, and advancing medical education.

Dr. Kei Takigawa is currently the chief resident at Baylor College of Medicine’s Internal Medicine-Pediatrics program. He got his Bachelor’s degree in Economics at the University of Pennsylvania followed by his M.D. at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso Paul L. Foster School of Medicine.  His current interest lies in transition of care in chronic GI conditions and is planning on pursuing a fellowship in adult gastroenterology this fall. Given his Japanese heritage and growing up in El Paso, TX, he enjoys working with immigrant communities and was therefore drawn to Baylor as his Spanish has been useful in providing care, especially within the Harris Health System. 

Dae Gun Chung Kim was born and raised in a missionary Korean family in Bolivia, South America. He came to the USA at the age of 14. He got my Bachelors or Science Cornell University. He went to Medical College of Georgia for my MD degree, and now I am studying at Baylor College of Medicine, doing Psychiatry residency, with focus on Child Psychiatry. His interests are developing a more specific test for ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences), and the intersection between religion and mental health.

The BCM Simulation Society is an organization dedicated to running simulated emergency cases in preparation for regional and national sim competitions (last year we competed at nationals in DC and got third place!) and to help supplement the BCM curriculum with hands-on learning opportunities. The skills learned in these simulations help build skills with assessing and stabilizing patients, deciding on interventions and testing, and forming a differential. Students build confidence with handling emergency situations and making real-time care decisions in an environment that mimics the feeling and challenges of the clinical setting.

The Rice Asian Diasporic and Asian American Research (RADAAR) Collective carves out a space that facilitates interdisciplinary study, scholarly exchange, and community partnerships at and beyond Rice on issues, experiences, and histories of racialized Asian/diasporic populations. By “diasporic,” we purposefully recognize the tension inherent in the term “Asian American” that so often essentializes and homogenizes diverse groups of people, despite its roots of political solidarity. Transnational and transhistorical in scope, RADAAR centers the voices of people and movements situated in realities of white supremacy, capitalism, imperialism, and extraction.

Soyoon Lee is a graduate student in the Sociology program at Rice University. She was born and raised in South Korea and explored interdisciplinary fields in Korean academia, including Philosophy, Sociology, and Women’s Studies. Her research interests are family sociology, gender, health & medicine, and qualitative methods. She is currently working on her thesis project on Filipino immigrants in Houston, focusing on how Filipina healthcare workers understand the meaning of nursing and caregiving work.

Zainab Abdali (she/her) is a PhD candidate in English at Rice University. Zainab researches contemporary South Asian and Arab art and literature, exploring how artists, musicians, writers, and filmmakers articulate anti-war resistance and solidarity through their work. Zainab is a co-founder of the Rice Asian Diasporic and Asian American Research Collective (RADAAR), which serves as a hub for research, community-building, and advocacy work around Asian and Asian American Studies in Houston and in Texas.

Jasmin Lee (she/her) is a PhD candidate in Sociology at Rice University. Her research interests fall at the intersection of education justice, race/racism, and social movements. Jasmin has been involved with RADAAR since 2022, having joined because she’s committed to carving out space for Asian diasporic histories and experiences within higher education institutions.

V Lundquist works on novels produced under conditions of authoritarianism, contemporary transphobia, and social reproduction. Her dissertation investigates anglophone novels and the mediation of rising fascism through the figural trans person, with an emphasis on the production of space. V’s other work concerns comparative Asian totalitarianisms, with a particular focus on the literature of North Korea, North Korean defectors, and unconverted long term prisoners.

Karen Siu (she/her/hers) is a PhD candidate in English at Rice University. She is a scholar, teacher, and advocate specializing in Asian American literature, art, and history. As a child and grandchild of Vietnamese refugees, her work is personal and political, intertwining oral histories and creative nonfiction in her writing, research, and teaching. She co-founded the Rice Asian Diasporic and Asian American Research Collective (RADAAR), a space for advocacy, scholarly exchange, and community partnerships in order to raise consciousness about Asian American Studies and Asian American political organizing in Texas.

Shawn Lim

Region IX Director

University of Texas Medical Branch

Danika Ng

Region IV Director

Campbell University School of Osteopathic Medicine

Aliza Ali

Region IX Director

University of The Incarnate Word School of Osteopathic Medicine

Diane Janelle Camonayan

Region IV Director

Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine

Francis Khuong

Region IX Director

Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center

Helen Heo

Region IV Director

Duke University School of Medicine

Samuel Li

President

Baylor College of Medicine

Michael Xie

President

Baylor College of Medicine

Sonia He

Vice-President

Baylor College of Medicine

Grace Zhou

Vice-President

Baylor College of Medicine

Eric Shin

Treasurer

Baylor College of Medicine

Stephanie Zhang

Treasurer

Baylor College of Medicine

Sarah Zhang

Service Chair

Baylor College of Medicine

Audrey Nguyen

Social Chair

Baylor College of Medicine

Rachael Johnson

Class Representative

Baylor College of Medicine