region4

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

Sandra L. Wong, MD, MS, an accomplished surgical oncologist and health services researcher who joined Emory School of Medicine as Dean in March 2024. She also serves as the chief academic officer for Emory Healthcare.

Dr. Wong is a surgical oncologist specializing in the management of soft tissue sarcomas, melanoma and non- melanoma skin cancers. She is among the most widely recognized health services researchers in academic surgery, with an extensive record of research funding and more than 250 peer-reviewed studies to her credit. She has held leadership positions in several prominent professional organizations including the Society of Surgical Oncology, the Society of University Surgeons, and the Society of Surgical Chairs. Wong has been honored with numerous medical student and resident teaching awards.

She completed her bachelor’s degree at the University of California Berkeley. After receiving an MD from Northwestern University Medical School, she completed a surgical residency at the University of Louisville School of Medicine and a surgical oncology fellowship at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

Wong spent a decade at the University of Michigan where she was an instrumental leader as a vice chair of academic affairs and an associate chief of staff. As chair of the Department of Surgery at the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center and the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, she was responsible for overseeing all aspects of research, education and clinical operations. During her tenure at Dartmouth, she co-founded the federally-funded Center for Rural Health Care Delivery Science, which provides infrastructure to train junior investigators who focus on solving challenges associated with the provision of equitable health care.

Amy Y. Chen, MD, MPH, MBA, FACS is the Willard and Lillian Hackerman Professor and the Inaugural Vice Chair for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion of the Department of Otolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery at The Emory University School of Medicine.   She serves as the Director of Head and Neck Endocrine Surgery and was the Program Director for the Head and Neck Surgery Fellowship.   Her expertise is in thyroid and parathyroid surgery.  She has also served as Director of Health Services Research in the Department of Surveillance and Health Policy Research of the American Cancer Society.  She serves on the Board of the American Thyroid Association, Asian Pacific Institute on Gender Based Violence, and the Partnership for Southern Equity.

Dr. Chen has been instrumental in developing a team approach to patient care.  She developed and currently leads the multidisciplinary thyroid and head and neck tumor conferences.  Her primary focus of research is in measuring outcomes of oncology treatment as well as measuring determinants of successful outcomes of care.  Dr. Chen’s research agenda is to create a multi-disciplinary, multi-site center dedicated to health services research, outcomes, and quality of care.  Her secondary focus of research is directed toward translational research of head and neck and thyroid malignancies.  She is also an implicit bias facilitator and a diversity, equity and inclusion champion.  

Dr. Chen joined the Emory faculty in 2001 after a fellowship in Head and Neck Oncologic Surgery at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.  Prior to that fellowship she was a resident in Otolaryngology and General Surgery at Baylor College of Medicine, also in Houston.

She is board certified by the American Board of Otolaryngology and holds a Master of Public Health degree from the University of Texas School of Public Health.  She also recently completed her Master of Business Administration at Goizueta Business School at Emory.   Dr. Chen has received numerous awards and honors, among them the Helen F. Krause, MD Trailblazer Award, Emory Eminent Physician Award, the Margaret Butler Award for Outstanding Mentor of Women Head and Neck Surgeons, Emory School of Medicine Excellence in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Award, Top Atlanta Doctor, Gussack Memorial Award for Teaching, Percy Memorial Research Award, the Rande Lazar Health Services Research Award, the American Head and Neck Society Scholarship Award, and The Women’s Fund for Health, Education and Research Grant.  She is married and birthed two daughters.  She misses her recently deceased rescue yellow Labrador retriever.  

In January 2025, she will be moving to City of Hope Cancer Center in Newnan, GA as Chief of Surgery and Director of Thyroid Oncology.   

​​Bill Eley is a native of Georgia who received his Bachelor of Arts in chemistry, Doctor of Medicine, and Master of Public Health from Emory University. He holds faculty appointments of Professor in the Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology and Associate Professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the Rollins School of Public Health. A Board-certified medical oncologist, he has practiced oncology within Emory Healthcare and at Grady Memorial Hospital.

Dr. Eley was initially appointed in the Rollins School of Public Health (RSPH) where he investigated disparities in cancer survival.  He has taught medical students clinical epidemiology and served on the Admissions committee at the Emory University School of Medicine (SOM).  In 2000 he became Associate Dean and Director of Admissions in School of Medicine and in 2004, he was appointed Executive Associate Dean for Medical Education and Student Affairs.  In his current role he oversees the six degree programs within the School of Medicine and the Graduate Medical Education programs and is overseeing the Medical Education Curriculum Transformation Initiative.

Dr. Eley is committed to the spread of compassion – compassion for others and self, as embodied by the Cognitive Based Compassion Training (CBCT) course developed at Emory.  He is privileged to teach CBCT within the School of Medicine and is interesting in incorporating compassion training in the field of medicine.

Dr. Reena Hemrajani completed medical school at Florida State University and internal medicine residency, followed by chief residency at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). She subsequently served as an academic hospitalist and in residency education leadership at George Washington University and VCU. In 2017, Dr. Hemrajani moved to Atlanta to be an academic hospitalist in the inaugural Hospital Medicine Program at Grady Memorial Hospital. At Emory, she has held roles as the Associate Division Director for Faculty Development in Hospital Medicine and Associate Program Director for the residency. In 2022, she stepped into the role of the Internal Medicine Residency Program Director at Emory and values her role in supporting residents to achieve their goals. In her free time, she is an avid city walker in the vibrant neighborhoods of Atlanta, enjoys trying out new local restaurants, and takes advantage of opportunities for travel.

Emily Herndon is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Family & Preventive Medicine at Emory and currently serves as a Staff Physician at Emory Student Health. She, along with a registered dietician and chef, teaches a second-year elective on Culinary Medicine. She is a graduate of Emory School of Medicine, a past Small Group Advisor and Clerkship Director, and practicing community physician for over 20 years.  Much of her clinical experience was working at a Grady Neighborhood Center that served many immigrants and people from a wide variety of cultures. She enjoys traveling, cooking, dancing and yoga. 

Contact Information:  eherndo@emory.edu

Dr. Wei Huang is an Associate Professor of Rehabilitation Medicine at Emory University School of Medicine. She received her medical degree in Shanghai, PhD in Neuroscience/Psychology at Vanderbilt University, and residency training at UNC Chapel Hill. Besides being a Board-certified physiatrist, Dr. Huang is also certified in Integrative Holistic Medicine and is a certified acupuncturist in Georgia. She is the founding physician of the first acupuncture clinic and the first integrative medicine clinic at the Atlanta VA Medical Center, and often acts as a consultant to regional medical centers about acupuncture services. She is currently co-Medical Director of Emory Acupuncture Service. Dr. Huang serves on the Editorial Board of the American Journal of PMR. Her own research and publications have been in sleep, pain, traumatic brain injury, and geriatric medicine; but her long-standing passion is to integrate the best of world’s traditional medicines with Western Medicine in clinical practice.

Dr. Abhi Kole received his MD from Emory and PhD in Immunology from the University of Oxford. He is a graduate of the Internal Medicine residency program at Emory and was subsequently a fellow with the HEAL Initiative (Health Equity, Action, and Leadership) through UCSF and spent two years in India with this program. He returned to Grady as a hospitalist in 2020. He also teaches the Community Learning and Social Medicine course for first-year medical students. His areas of interest are in addressing structural causes of inequity in our healthcare system. 

Contact Information: akole@emory.edu

Dr. Gerald Lee, MD is an associate professor of pediatrics and medicine at Emory University School of Medicine. He is an allergist/immunologist at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and Grady Memorial Hospital. He completed his Internal Medicine/Pediatrics residency at Saint Vincent’s Hospital in New York City and an Allergy/Immunology fellowship at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.  He is the director of the Emory allergy/immunology fellowship and the preclinical immunology thread for the medical school. His academic interests are medical education, quality improvement in allergy/immunology, and hosting the AllergyTalk podcast.  

Dr. Sanders has served as Emory Pediatrics Residency Program Director since 2021. She works as a hospitalist for Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at both the Hughes Spalding and Arthur M Blank campuses. She has a strong interest in curriculum development, particularly in improving mental health care education for pediatric residents and fellows. In her spare time she loves reading, gardening, and building Lego.

Dr. Wu was born in Los Angeles, CA but moved to Houston, Texas at a young age. She then spent the next twenty-years in the Lone Star state, where she acquired her love for country music, football, and BBQ (mostly the sides!). She attended The University of Texas-Austin (Hook ‘em!) and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Biochemistry with a minor in Business Administration. After doing a year of research at MD Anderson, Jessica attended The University of Texas Medical Branch – Galveston for medical school.

At this time, Jessica decided it was time to explore places outside of Texas. She left the great state of Texas and moved back to Los Angeles for her General Surgery training at USC. During her residency at USC, Jessica developed an interest in hernia surgery and bariatric surgery. Her research focused on optimizing hernia surgery and bariatric surgery outcomes at a safety-net hospital. Given such interest, Jessica is currently pursuing a MIS fellowship at Emory University with hopes of becoming a future hernia, foregut, and bariatric surgeon.

Ju Zhang is a postdoctoral fellow in bioethics at the Emory University Center for Ethics. She received her Ph.D. in philosophy from The University of Texas at Austin in 2022. Her current research focuses on developing and defending a trust-oriented model of the patient-physician relationship. Her goal is to promote reasonable patient-physician trust by modifying relevant concepts such as patient autonomy, informed consent, and justified intervention in light of her model. She intends to extend her research on patient-physician trust to nonexpert-expert trust in general and to trust between a relatively disadvantaged individual/group and a relatively advantaged individual/group. She is also interested in studying trust and cooperation among communities, societies, and nations, believing that reasonable trust is key in tackling global issues such as climate change and pandemics.

Email: ju.zhang@emory.edu

Christopher Doan is a an MS4 from UTMB Galveston and has recently been recognized as a member of the GHHS and AOA. He grew up in the Dallas metroplex and attended UT Dallas for his undergraduate degree. He is currently one of the National APAMSA Hepatitis Initiative Directors and has research interests in AANHPI disaggregation of cancer data, cancer screenings, and medical humanities. Previously, he also served as a local chapter president and was one of the founding members of the Hepatitis B screening initiative with outreach to Asian immigrant fishermen working in the Galveston port.

Amelia Huynh

Membership Co-VP
Pacific Northwest University
of Health Sciences

Paul Tominez

Membership Co-VP
University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine

James Chen

Region IX RD
University of Texas Medical Branch – John Sealy School of Medicine

Daiana Takashima

Region IV RD
Emory University School of Medicine

Jerry Liu

Region IX RD
Texas A&M School of Medicine

Yuna Seo

Region IV RD
Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine (North Georgia)

Francis Khuong

Region IX RD
Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center

Neil Vuppala

Region IV RD
Alabama College of Osteopathic Medicine

Brandon Lee

Emory University School of Medicine

Janet Mao

Emory University School of Medicine

Katherine Tong

Emory University School of Medicine

John Choi

Emory University School of Medicine

Hithardhi Duggireddy

Emory University School of Medicine

Max Su

Emory University School of Medicine

Margaret Lim

Emory University School of Medicine

Akshay Nair

Emory University School of Medicine

Dr. Yen-Han Lee (PH.D., MPH) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Sciences at the University of Central Florida. With a dedication to research and advancing public health, Dr. Lee has significantly contributed toward advancing our understanding of the field. Earlier in his career, Dr. Lee’s research focused on health policy evaluation and access to healthcare services. Dr. Lee’s current work revolves around using large secondary datasets to explore the social behavioral aspect of public health. Specifically, his interests are in substance use behaviors and lifestyle factors associated with chronic conditions commonly found in older adults (e.g. cognitive impairment, sleep-related issues, and obesity).

Dr. Lee also serves as an Editorial Board Member for the Journal of Ethnicity in Substance Abuse and as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Substance Use.

Dr. Anna Varlamov (MD) was born and raised in the Soviet Union. She immigrated to Okeechobee, Florida with her family at a young age and attended the University of Florida from 1998-2002. She earned her degrees in Microbiology and Russian at the University of Florida and completed her Obstetrics and Gynecology residency at Danbury Hospital. Later on, Dr. Varlamov became an assistant professor at Albany Medical College in upstate New York, where she developed her passion for teaching. In 2015, she joined Winnie Palmer Hospital in Orlando, and in 2021, she came onboard at UCF College of Medicine.

Dr. Varlamov is actively involved in healthcare in Florida, serving as a delegate to the Florida Medical Association and contributing to initiatives like FPQC. She holds significant roles within the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) for Florida. Currently, she is a faculty member at the UCF/HCA GME Consortium in Gainesville, focusing on Obstetrics and Gynecology residency. She is married to a vascular surgeon and is a mother of four.

Crystal Choi

Membership Co-Vice President
SUNY Downstate Medical School

Daiana Takashima

Region IV Director
Emory University College of Medicine

Wendy Yang

Region IV Director
University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville

Neil Vuppala

Region IV Director
Alabama College of Osteopathic Medicine

Michael Hsieh

General Chair
University of Central Florida College of Medicine

Brandon Molligoda

Program Director
University of Central Florida College of Medicine

Shiyu Jing

Community Outreach Director
University of Central Florida College of Medicine

Kevin Reyes

Design Chair
University of Central Florida College of Medicine