Student Speakers

Yousif Shwetar, MS3 (He/Him)
Role: Student Speaker
Research/Clinical Interests: Ophthalmology, Electrophysiology, Imaging, Psychosocial Testing
Hometown: Webster, NY
Undergraduate: University of Pittsburgh – Biomedical Engineering
Fun fact: Once rode my motorcycle 6,000 miles over ~3 weeks through highways, woods, and dirt trails with no itinerary.

Matthew Sutcliffe, PhD4 (He/Him/His)
Role: Student Speaker
Research/Clinical Interests: cancer bioinformatics, pediatrics heme/onc
Hometown: Cumberland, RI
Undergraduate: University of Virginia – Biomedical Engineering

Cambray Smith, PhD4 (She/Her)
Role: Student Speaker
Research/Clinical Interests: adolescent health, sexual and reproductive health, online health information, patient-clinician communication
Hometown: Wyoming, OH
Undergraduate: North Carolina State University – Nutrition Science
Fun Fact: I rollerbladed a half marathon when I lived in Minnesota.

Emily Kounlavong, PhD3 (She/Her)
Role: Student Speaker
Research/Clinical Interests: cancer biology
Hometown: Nashville, TN
Undergraduate: University of Tennessee – Chemistry

Tiger Zhang, PhD2 (He/Him)
Role: Student Speaker
Research/Clinical Interests: Protein Design, Internal Medicine
Hometown: McLean, Virginia
Undergraduate: Yale – Chemistry
Fun Fact: likes ice cream

Student Members

Kyle Pellegrino, PhD4 (He/Him)
Role: Session Boss, Co-Director
Research/Clinical Interests: Neurodegenerative Disease, Neuroinflammation, Ophthalmology
Hometown: New York, NY
Undergraduate: Cornell – Neurobiology and Behavior
Fun Fact: Cat dad of 3!

Rachelle Ambroise, PhD3 (She/Her/Hers)
Role: Co-Director
Research/Clinical Interests: Cardiac Reprogramming & Regenerative Medicine, Bioinformatics, Protein Design (Qian Lab)
Hometown: Connecticut
Undergraduate: Harvard College – Chemical & Physical Biology
Fun Fact: I have a background dabbling in orchestral percussion.

Monica Lyons, PhD4 (She/Her)
Role: Website Coordinator, On-Site Session Help
Research/Clinical Interests: Understanding how brain networks develop in health and disease (Cohen Lab)
Hometown: Concord, MA
Undergraduate: Tufts University – Cognitive & Brain Sciences, Biology
Fun Fact: I’m a certified rescue scuba diver!

Role: Flyer Design, Advertising, On-Site Session Help
Research/Clinical Interests: Identifying and characterizing antibodies to prevent and treat enterovirus infections
Hometown: Cary, NC
Undergraduate: NC State – Biomedical Engineering
Fun Fact: I play Gaelic football!

Nena Kotsalidis, MS2 (She/Her)
Role: Flyer Design, On-Site Session Help
Research/Clinical Interests: Cancer biology
Hometown: Boston, MA
Undergraduate: Wellesley College – Biochemistry
Fun Fact: I like cooking and baking

Hannah Phelps, MS2 (She/Her)
Role: Session Boss, Flyer Design, Website Coordinator, On-Site Session Help
Research/Clinical Interests: Neurodegeneration, substance use disorders
Hometown: Boca Raton, FL
Undergraduate: Biology – Florida Atlantic University
Fun Fact: I swam in the Great Barrier Reef last summer!

Sophie Wu, MS1 (She/Her/Hers)
Role: Session Boss, On-Site Session Help
Research/Clinical Interests: Oncology, Radiation Oncology, Brain Cancer, Cancer Therapeutics, DNA Damage Response
Hometown: Seattle, WA
Undergraduate: Duke University – Biomedical Engineering & Computer Science
Fun Fact: The first time I’ve ever been to the ER was in Germany after I fell down two flights of stairs.

Kylie Joyce, MS1 (She/Her)
Role: Advertising
Research/Clinical Interests: Alzheimer’s disease 
Hometown: Greensboro, NC
Undergraduate: UNC – Neuroscience
Fun Fact: I personally have a perfect record and shut out record against Duke women’s club soccer :).

Lucas Yang, MS1 (He/Him/His)
Role: On-Site Session Help
Research/Clinical Interests: Immunotherapeutics, Genetics, Cancer Biology
Hometown: Dublin, OH
Undergraduate: Yale – Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry
Fun Fact: One of my top priorities whenever I move is to start a fish tank!

Edgar Kong, MS1 (He/Him/His)
Role: Advertising, Website, On-Site Session Help
Research/Clinical Interests: Virology, Infectious Diseases
Hometown: Germantown, Maryland
Undergraduate: UNC – Biomedical Engineering
Fun Fact: I used to live down the street from where parts of the Blair Witch Project was filmed.

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