Fall 2024
Throughout each quarter, we collect various accomplishments—from awards and appearances to publications and presentations and more—from Pritzker students to highlight and promote their outstanding work to the rest of the community.
Submit your own achievements for our next quarterly round up of student accomplishments through this page.
If you have an upcoming event, such as a media appearance or panel discussion, submit the information in advance so we might be able to help promote your participation in the event. You can also submit your peers' accomplishments, though we will seek their permission before publishing or promoting them.
Fall 2024 Student Accomplishments:
Alexis Cacioppo, MS3, won second place for original research at the poster competition for Resident/Fellow and Medical Student Members at the 2024 Illinois Psychiatric Society (IPS) Annual Meeting in October. She received the recognition for her project “Filipino mental health providers’ knowledge, attitudes, and practices on climate change and mental health,” which she conducted in collaboration with researchers at Harvard University and the University of the Philippines Manila.
David Deshpande, MS3, had paper accepted for publication in Academic Medicine titled “The Anatomy of Gratitude.” Pritzker students Ayse Musaogullaro, MS3, Nicholas LoRocco, MSTP, and Alexandra Diaz-Barbe, MS3, are co-authors on the paper. They were mentored on the project by Nicola Orlov, MD.
Reagan Dunham, MS1, was selected as a Social Mission Alliance Health Justice Fellow for the 2024-2025 academic year. The Health Justice Fellowship is a nine-month virtual program dedicated to nurturing the growth of trainees who show a commitment to advancing health justice in health professions training.
Felix Fernández-Penny, MS2, presented his project titled “The Influence of Patient Factors on the Minimal Clinically Important Difference for the SNOT-22 in Medically Treated Chronic Rhinosinusitis” at the 70th Annual Meeting of the American Rhinologic Society in September. He received a UChicago Health Delivery Science and Innovation Travel Grant for the conference and also presented the project at the HDSI Quality & Safety Symposium in October.
Symphony Fletcher, MS4, published a first-author commentary titled “Data Improvement: A Strategy to Improve Understanding of Violence Against Transgender Populations” in Public Health Reports, the official journal of the Office of the U.S. Surgeon General and the U.S. Public Health Service. Read the full paper here. Symphony also presented a project titled "Trends in Firearm Handling Among Adult Gun Owners in the United States: Results From a 2019 National Firearm Survey" at the 2024 National Research Conference for the Prevention of Firearm-Related Harms, based on her work with the Harvard Injury Control Research Center.
Jose Lara-Sanchez, MS2, was selected as a National Hispanic Latino Cardiovascular Collaborative (NHLCC) Scholar for the 2024-2025 program year.
Ayse Musaogullari, MS3, published a first-author paper in Trends in Cardiovascular Medicine titled “Space for Improvement: ZIP Codes Should Not Determine Cardiovascular Longevity, a Scoping Review.” She was mentored on the project by Amber Johnson, MD, MS, MBA. Read the full paper here.
Rimel Mwamba, MS4, published a first-author paper in the Journal of Hand Surgery titled “The Effect of Area-Level Deprivation on the Severity of Cubital Tunnel Syndrome on Presentation to a Hand Surgeon.” The paper originated in her Pritzker Summer Research Program project under the mentorship of Jeffrey Stepan, MD, MSc. Read the full paper here.
Evan Neczypor, MS4, won first place in the Northern Illinois American College of Physicians regional case competition for his presentation “A Curious Case of Hemolytic Anemia,” which detailed a case of an unusual presentation of spur cell anemia.
Alia Richardson, MS3, published a first-author paper in the Journal of Child and Adolescent Mental Health titled “Psychosocial predictors of adolescent depression and mental health referral in an urban mobile medical unit programme.” The paper originated from a Pritzker Summer Research Program project, under the mentorship of Anna Volerman, MD, and Icy Cade Bell, MD. Read more here.
Jasmine Rios, MS3, published a first-author paper in Maternal & Child Nutrition titled “Black Fathers' Views on Breastfeeding Facilitators, Barriers, and Support Services: Insights From a Qualitative Community-Based Participatory Research Study.” The project originated in her MPH program at Yale School of Public Health. Read the full paper here.
Sahil Sethi, MS2, had his Summer Research Program (SRP) project “Bankart Lesion Detection in MRI Using Artificial Intelligence and Neural Networks” accepted for e-poster presentation at the Arthroscopy Association of North America (AANA) Annual Meeting in May 2025. He will also present the project at the Society for Optics and Photonics (SPIE) Medical Imaging: Computer-Aided Diagnosis 2025 conference in February, with a peer-reviewed paper to be published in the conference proceedings. Sahil was mentored on the project by Lewis Shi, MD.
Mazuba Siamatu, MS3, received a Travel Grant Scholarship from the UChicago Center for Healthcare Delivery Science & Innovation (HDSI) to present his research “Association between frailty and healthcare costs among adults undergoing lung resection” at the 61st Annual Meeting of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons in January in Los Angeles. The project originated in the Pritzker Summer Research Program under the mentorship of Maria Lucia Madariaga, MD.
Medha Venigalla, MS2, was featured on the KevinMD podcast, discussing resident sleep deprivation and its impact on healthcare, which she wrote about in a September op-ed. Listen to the episode here.