Medical Student Michelle Tran, Whose Non-Profit Combats Anti-Asian Hate, Is Featured on NBC Special

Dec 13, 2021 | Community, Engagement, Featured, School

Michelle Tran and her friend Howard Chen donate a personal safety alarm to a senior in Manhattan’s Chinatown in April 2021.

When Michelle Tran is not pursing her MD/PhD degree with a specialization in cancer immunology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, she is busy helping Asian Americans protect themselves against hate crimes through Soar Over Hate, the non-profit she created last March.

Soar Over Hate has since raised more than $100,000 and distributed more than 24,000 protective noise-making devices primarily to elderly and vulnerable Asian Americans in New York City and San Francisco—as well as to the Mount Sinai Health System’s essential health care workers who commute to work. Her organization has established a need-based college scholarship fund for local high school students, arranged community health fairs in Manhattan’s Chinatown, and offers free, culturally competent mental-health therapy—either remote or in-person—in several languages, including Mandarin, Cantonese, and Korean, to victims of anti-Asian hate crimes.

Mount Sinai medical students volunteered with Soar Over Hate to distribute 1,000 personal safety devices, whistles, and booklets about reporting hate incidents to elderly in Manhattan’s Chinatown in April 2021. In addition to Michelle Tran, student volunteers included: Alyce Kuo, Serena Zheng, Axel Epié, Fred Kwon, Rachel Levantovsky, and Matthew Lin.

Recently, Ms. Tran was among 10 “fearless change makers” who were named 2021 L’Oréal Paris Women of Worth by the popular beauty brand. L’Oréal Paris USA donated $20,000 to Soar Over Hate and, in November, flew Ms. Tran and the nine other Women of Worth award recipients to Paris for a special ceremony. On Thursday, December 16, at 8 pm, the women and their non-profit work will be featured on an NBC special hosted by L’Oréal Paris and including guest appearances by Helen Mirren, Camila Cabello, Gemma Chan, and Eva Longoria. One of this year’s awardees will receive an additional $25,000 for their philanthropy.

“Asian hate, unfortunately, does exist,” says Ms. Tran. “I felt very disheartened by what was going on in my backyard and with the people around me who were being harassed, and attacked, and physically hurt, and I wanted to do something. A colleague of mine was attacked on his way to work and he still avoids the subway. The long-term impact of these incidents leaves a mental scar. So we’re helping to address the healing of the community, and we’re empowering youth with scholarships.”

In the fall, Soar Over Hate provided six low-income high-school seniors in New York City with scholarships of between $500 and $1,000, based on their essays about addressing anti-Asian hate.

Initially, Ms. Tran started her charity as a GoFundMe page with the help of teenager Tiffany Yuen. Ms. Tran is Ms. Yuen’s mentor through the organization, Apex for Youth, which partners Asian American professionals with low-income youth. The money they raised was used to purchase personal safety alarms and whistles for the elderly and supported several community events that featured self-defense classes and health screenings.

Michelle Tran in Chinatown

But Ms. Tran soon realized she could continue to pursue her two “passions” of growing her charity and focusing on her MD/PhD studies by combining efforts with her friend Kenji Jones, who ran a similar Asian American grassroots effort. That is when they developed the current line-up of services for Soar Over Hate. This fall, she was thrilled to learn that she had received a L’Oréal Paris Women of Worth award.

Ms. Tran also credits her mentors at Mount Sinai with providing support for her advocacy work. She works in the lab of Nina Bhardwaj, MD, PhD, Director of Immunotherapy and Co-Director of Cancer Immunology, who serves as her Principal Investigator. Ms. Tran is a co-President of the Asian Pacific American Medical Student Association at Mount Sinai, supervised by Nolan Kagetsu, MD, Clinical Professor of Radiology, and Ann-Gel Palermo, DrPH, MPH, Senior Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. She is also a student representative on Mount Sinai’s Committee on Anti-Asian Bias and Racism, which is led by Amanda J. Rhee, MD, Associate Professor of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine, and James C. Tsai, MD, MBA, President of the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai, and Chair of Ophthalmology at the Mount Sinai Health System.

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A Generous Multimillion-Dollar Gift Advances Medical Education at Mount Sinai

Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | Featured, School

Peter W. May and his wife, Leni

Peter W. May and his wife, Leni, have made a generous multimillion-dollar gift in support of medical education at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Steadfast champions of Mount Sinai and the future of medical education, the Mays have had a long, illustrious history of philanthropic support across numerous areas of the Health System. This commitment is the latest example of their tremendous generosity and will be recognized with the naming of the Leni and Peter W. May Department of Medical Education at Mount Sinai.

The Mays are strong advocates in bolstering the culture of innovation, service, and groundbreaking science and medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine.  Their gift will be instrumental in ensuring the School continues to provide a strong foundation to prepare physicians to advance medical care and research that will ultimately result in equitable health care and better outcomes for the diverse communities Mount Sinai serves.

“Leni and Peter have always recognized the uniqueness of our medical school, its values rooted in justice and care for the underserved, and the rigorous training we put our medical students through to ensure they are well positioned to pursue their professional ambitions,” says David Muller, MD, Dean for Medical Education and the Marietta and Charles C. Morchand Chair for Medical Education at Mount Sinai.  “We are grateful for the role this gift will play in building upon our continued success at the Icahn School of Medicine.”

During his tenure as Chairman of the Mount Boards of Trustees, Mr. May helped drive Mount Sinai’s transformation into one of the top health systems in the world, and he continues his visionary leadership as Chairman Emeritus. The May family’s tireless support of Mount Sinai was previously recognized with the naming of the May Center for Mount Sinai Doctors on East 98th Street and the Leni and Peter W. May Department of Orthopaedic Surgery. They remain committed as ever to supporting the ever-growing needs of Icahn Mount Sinai as it continues to prepare the most promising students to improve the health of communities locally and globally and to shape the future of science and medicine.

“Leni and I are happy to support the next generation of medical leaders,” says Mr. May who now serves as Chairman Emeritus of the Boards of Trustees at Mount Sinai.  “The Icahn School of Medicine provides students with an extraordinary education in a translational context, and we are proud to be a part of that.”

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Mount Sinai’s Master’s Commencement—Celebrating Resilience and Achievement

Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | Featured, School

Neha B. Pannuri, MPH, one of 147 candidates receiving a degree from Mount Sinai

The Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai conferred 147 master’s degrees in eight programs during a recent ceremony, an interactive virtual event that recapped a year of great challenges and extraordinary achievement. In 2020, the Graduate School added a ninth master’s program, in epidemiology, which will graduate its first cohort in 2022.

Pediatrician, scientist, and activist Mona Hanna-Attisha, MD, MPH, Founder and Director of the Michigan State University-Hurley Children’s Hospital Pediatric Public Health Initiative, received an honorary Doctor of Science degree for playing a pivotal role in helping to uncover the Flint, Michigan, water crisis. Dr. Hanna-Attisha also delivered the commencement address.

Marta Filizola, PhD

Graduate School Dean Marta Filizola, PhD, greeted the graduates and guests, saying, “This pandemic is the latest we have seen, but it is not the first,” and recounting “some of the things that really are unprecedented about our times.” Dr. Filizola is also the Sharon & Frederick A. Klingenstein/Nathan G. Kase, MD Professor of Pharmacological Sciences, and Professor of Neuroscience.

“The world is undeniably more complex today than ever before—interactions of people and nature with sophisticated technologies and human-made systems, taking place in a world of unprecedented population size and unprecedented levels of interdependence,” she said. “This is the reality that presents us with immense challenges.”

Yet, she continued, “What is also unprecedented is the extent of the cooperation, compassion, and teamwork we must bring to bear on these challenges. The breadth of professional training and expertise the world calls for is the reason our graduates today represent such a diversity of degree programs, training areas, and specialty tracks.”

Eric J. Nestler, MD, PhD

Presiding over the ceremony was Eric J. Nestler, MD, PhD, Director of The Friedman Brain Institute, Dean for Academic and Scientific Affairs, and Nash Family Professor of Neuroscience. “The fact that you are all here today is testimony to your fortitude and impressive resilience. Today’s master’s graduates exemplify the full range of expertise that our society has needed to combat and overcome the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said. “We are very proud of your inspiring accomplishments at Mount Sinai, and look forward to all the good that you will do as you embark on your exciting careers.”

Dr. Hanna-Attisha gave a heartfelt speech that drew on her own experience in public health, and she exhorted the graduates to be fearless leaders.

“We need tough graduates like you,” she told them. “Fueled by the power of this place, the engine of knowledge and innovation, you are the light that will illuminate some of our hardest and greatest challenges. You, and especially the field of science, will be on the front lines of some of the most important battlegrounds of society today.”

Mona Hanna-Attisha, MD, MPH

“My story, the Flint, Michigan, story, is a story not unlike our current crisis, about failing to respect science and public health, and failing to protect the most vulnerable among us,” she said. “Remember—somewhere, somehow, sometime in your life—you will have to make a choice. The issue may not be as momentous as a poisoning of a town, but there are Flints everywhere, there are injustices everywhere, there are places and people that will need you to open your eyes and take action and to do the hard things. I urge you to keep your eyes open, to stay vigilant, to remain curious, to take action, to keep doing the hard things for the right reasons.”

Student speaker Meghan Smith, who received a Master of Public Health, spoke of the perseverance and compassion of this unique graduating class, and the hope that they represent.

“At the onset of the pandemic, and this very dark period of time, many people were at a paralyzing low. Incredibly, the students channeled all of these emotions and possessed the strength to step up,” she said, citing the medical- and graduate-student COVID-19 workforce, and other efforts around New York City to support clinical and research efforts. “At one point, it seemed like every student I knew, across all programs, was doing something to help the devastation this nation had witnessed.”

Meghan Smith, MPH

And, as the “country began to recognize the racism and oppression that has existed as part of our society for hundreds of years,” she continued, “powerful social justice movements inspired all of us to make our voices heard.”

With robust optimism, Ms. Smith concluded: “As we embark on our journeys, not knowing what challenges we may face, I know we will all continue to be the people who are willing to step up.”

Why a master’s degree? Read more about the experiences and aspirations of our outstanding graduates and students.

Tina Aswani Omprakash: A Journey From Inflammatory Bowel Disease Patient, to Patient Advocate, to Master of Public Health Student

Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | Featured, School

Tina Aswani Omprakash

When Crohn’s disease forced Tina Aswani Omprakash to leave a career on Wall Street, she began looking for a way to rebuild her life. Having navigated the surgeries, the health disparities, and the South Asian cultural stigmas—shame and taboo—associated with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) for more than a decade, Ms. Aswani Omprakash knew she had insights on IBD that could be beneficial for people of color facing the same challenges.

That revelation led her to the Master of Public Health (MPH) degree program at the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

“I chose the program in part because I had heard Mount Sinai was accommodating of students with disabilities, and that was important to me in rebuilding my career and self-worth,” she explains.

 

 

“I gained a knowledge base that expanded my understanding of the disease and gave me insights to approach public health not just from my own personal experience, but from a broader health care perspective.”

A long-time patient advocate and public speaker who has presented at many domestic and international gastroenterology conferences, Ms. Aswani Omprakash is pursuing the General Public Health track to better understand the needs of different patient populations and develop her research skills. In 2020, she conducted a qualitative study, sponsored by the biotechnology company Genentech, on the unmet needs among diverse patients living with IBD. Her abstract was published in Inflammatory Bowel Diseases and presented at the 2021 Crohn’s and Colitis Congress.

“This was a groundbreaking study in that it was the first patient advocate-led study in the IBD space. I hand-picked and recruited patients of various races, ethnicities, genders, age groups, sexual orientations, and geographical locations via my social media presence,” Ms. Aswani Omprakash says. “Although the conclusions we came to were expected, the study helped to legitimize the needs and concerns of patients—such as more access to mental health care, improved access to specialists who understand the complexities of the disease, and better medications that target the disease in different communities.”

For her MPH Applied Practice Experience, Ms. Aswani Omprakash worked with the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust on two projects: a guidebook for caregivers of children and adolescents with Crohn’s disease, created with the National Alliance of Caregiving, and a series of web pages detailing surgical treatment options, which she developed with the United Ostomy Associations of America. “These resources are designed to fill an information gap among health care providers and patients living with IBD, and to change perceptions of surgery as a last resort,” Ms. Aswani Omprakash says. “The fact that they are written by a patient who is earning an MPH further enhances the content.”

Nils Hennig, MD, PhD, MPH, Director of Mount Sinai’s Graduate Program in Public Health says: “Tina Aswani Omprakash is a great example of our patient-focused approach to public health. Proximity to the populations we serve is fundamental. The study of Public Health at Mount Sinai goes beyond mere analysis and repair: it offers choices, it provides a human touch, and it may ultimately help reestablish human dignity.”

Ms. Aswani Omprakash has been completing the program one course at a time and will graduate in December 2022. “This has been an incredible experience,” she says. “I gained a knowledge base that expanded my understanding of the disease and gave me insights to approach public health not just from my own personal experience, but from a broader health care perspective.”

To learn more about Ms. Aswani Omprakash’s patient advocacy journey, go to her blog at ownyourcrohns.com.

 

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A Robust Immunotherapy Program and a Highly Collaborative Environment for Research Draws Matthew Brown, MSCR, to the Master of Science in Clinical Research Program

Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | School

Matthew Brown

Matthew Brown was spending his first year of college studying cell biology and neuroscience and exploring the full breadth of academic opportunities when his grandfather passed away from an aggressive form of lung cancer.

“That drove me toward the field of cancer biology and immunotherapy,” Mr. Brown says. “I became interested in the potential of translational studies to improve patient treatment.”

It was an interest that led Mr. Brown to the Master of Science in Clinical Research program at the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

He knew that Mount Sinai had a robust immunotherapy program and was a highly collaborative environment for research—not just internally but with other academic institutions and organizations across New York City.

 

“The potential to have a significant impact in improving patient outcomes and expanding the range of therapeutic options available to patients is what excites me.”

Once enrolled, he was drawn to the lab of Nina Bhardwaj, MD, PhD, who has made seminal contributions to human dendritic cell biology, studying their crucial function as sentinels of the immune system and their application in vaccine design. Mr. Brown planned to conduct research evaluating adaptive immune responses to new tumor antigens until the COVID-19 pandemic became New York City’s—and the world’s—most significant public health threat.

Mr. Brown quickly shifted his research focus to explore adaptive immune responses in the context of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Specifically, his research is primarily focused on viral epitopes, the part of the antigen that is recognized by T cell and B cell receptors following exposure to SARS-CoV-2 and how this viral recognition is replicated in the context of vaccination.

“In doing these high-sensitivity mapping studies, we began to identify the shared and highly dominant epitopes that may provide the foundation for monitoring people after exposure and vaccination to assess their immunity and how that is sustained,” says Mr. Brown. “These mapping studies also allowed us to consider the impact of SARS-CoV-2 variants on immune recognition and identify potential targets for next-generation coronavirus vaccines.”

Mr. Brown, who graduated from the Clinical Research program in 2021, envisions using the same tools to identify shared and highly dominant epitopes on tumor antigens to enhance vaccine design in the context of cancer immunotherapy. He is now enrolled in the PhD in Biomedical Sciences Program at the Graduate School to continue his translational immunology training.

“My ultimate goal is to start my own lab to conduct translational research on therapeutics and vaccines in the context of cancer,” he says. “The potential to have a significant impact in improving patient outcomes and expanding the range of therapeutic options available to patients is what excites me.”

 

 

Rosemary Espinal, BSN, RN: An ICU Nurse Enrolls in the Master of Science in Health Care Delivery Leadership Program To Bring New Perspectives to Patient Quality and Safety

Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | School

Rosemary Espinal, BSN, RN

After years dedicated to raising her family and working 12-hour nursing shifts, Rosemary Espinal, BSN, RN, decided that January 2020 was the right time to return to school and take her health care career to the next level.

She enrolled in the Master of Science in Health Care Delivery Leadership program at Mount Sinai’s Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, excited at the opportunity to drive innovation, address challenges, and elevate patient care. But then, the COVID-19 pandemic hit New York City.

Faced with the unknowns and the risk of exposing her family to the disease, Ms. Espinal, a cardiac intensive care unit (CICU) nurse at The Mount Sinai Hospital, initially thought of leaving both the program and her position—but she stayed. As she continued her studies, and as the CICU was converted to a COVID-19 ICU, she was able to identify real-time opportunities to maintain a cohesive staffing structure for her team and improve delivery of care by applying what she had learned through the program.

“I want to use what I have learned to provide excellent care from a new perspective, address the disparities my mother faced as a non-English-speaking immigrant, and guide the next generation of nurses to high standards of quality and safety for our patients.”

For her capstone project, Ms. Espinal undertook a quality improvement initiative to prevent hospital-acquired pressure injuries—using wound care champions to assess patient risk, incorporating injury prevention into her nursing unit’s daily huddles, and creating innovative applications of dressing foams and padding—with considerable success. She estimates there has been a 10 percent decrease in hospital-acquired pressure injuries. In November 2021, she started a new position as a quality manager for Mount Sinai’s Institute for Critical Care Medicine.

Ms. Espinal plans to receive her degree in spring 2022, a milestone achievement: she will be the first person in her immediate family to earn both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree. Her goal is to explore positions in quality management or risk management.

“I want to use what I have learned to provide excellent care from a new perspective, address the disparities my mother faced as a non-English-speaking immigrant, and guide the next generation of nurses to high standards of quality and safety for our patients,” she says. “But I also hope that my daughters will see that it is possible to excel as Hispanic women and to make a difference no matter what life throws your way.”

Brian J. Nickerson, PhD, JD, Senior Associate Dean for Masters Programs, says: “Rosemary’s story is an inspiring illustration of the kind of resilience, determination, and creativity prevalent in great leaders. We are truly fortunate to have her as student in our Leadership Program and proud to know she represents excellence in patient care.”

 

 

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