Spring 2025
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.
Spring 2025 Student Accomplishments:
Ceylon Auguste-Nelson, MS4, received the Bridge Builder Award from the University of Chicago Student Leader Awards program.
Alexis Cacioppo, MS4, presented two projects at the American Psychiatric Association Annual Meeting in Los Angeles. The first project, a poster titled “Filipino mental health professionals’ knowledge, attitudes, and practices on climate change and mental health,” was based on her time as a 2023-2024 Fulbright U.S. Student Program grantee. The second project, an on-stage poster presentation titled “Evaluating the impacts of newly implemented psychiatric services within a student-run shelter-based free clinic,” was based on her work within Pritzker’s Maria Shelter Free Clinic, and she was mentored on the project by Ash Ehsan, MD.
Samuel Chen, MS4, was awarded a 2025-2026 Chicago Area Schweitzer Fellowship to co-create trauma-focused programming by and for men returning from long-term incarceration in Chicago.
David Deshpande, MS4, published a reflective essay titled “The Anatomy of Gratitude” in Academic Medicine with co-authors Alexandra Diaz-Barbe, MS4, Alia Abiad, MS4, Aysenur Musaogullari, MS4, and Nicholas LoRocco, MSTP. David also published an essay titled “The Patch of Nothingness,” in Sensible Medicine.
Devon Dietrich, MS3, received the Best Oral Presentation Award at the 15th Annual University of Chicago Family Medicine Scholarship Day.
Reagan Dunham, MS2, was accepted to the American Association of University Women (AAUW) Selected Professions Fellowship Program.
Zhong Huang, MS4, received the President’s Volunteer Service Award from the University of Chicago Student Leader Awards program.
Daniel Johnson, MS4, published first-author papers “Changes in Physical and Mental Health After the End of SNAP Emergency Allotments” in JAMA, “Heart Failure Care and Outcomes After Private Equity Acquisition of US Hospitals” in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, “Hypertension, Diabetes, and High Cholesterol Awareness Among US Adults” in JAMA Cardiology, and “Prescription Drug Savings with the Expansion of the Out-of-Pocket Spending Cap to Adults with Private Insurance” in the Journal of General Internal Medicine. The research took place during his Sarnoff Fellowship at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
Lauren Kang, MS3, was appointed as one of the national Directors of Communication for Medical Students with Disability and Chronic Illness (MSDCI).
Ishaan Kumar, MS2, and Megan Teramoto, MS2, gave an oral presentation on the ethics of cadaver work for medical education at the Ninth Annual Medical School Ethics Conference hosted by the Albany Medical College. They were mentored on the project by Baddr Shakhsheer, MD.
Carlin Lockwood, MS4, published an op-ed on KevinMD titled “The silent toll of ICE raids on U.S. patient care.” Read the op-ed here.
Aysenur Musaogullari, MS4, published a first-author paper titled “Space for improvement: ZIP codes should not determine cardiovascular longevity, a scoping review” in Trends in Cardiovascular Medicine. Read the full paper here. She also presented a project titled “Impact of Patient Portal Use on Cardiovascular Health Outcomes: A Propensity Matched Study” at the Society of General Internal Medicine Annual Meeting in Hollywood, FL. She was mentored on both projects by Amber Johnson, MD, and the latter originated in the Pritzker Scholarship and Discovery program.
Dayna Pham, MS2, published an op-ed titled “The Impact of Step Therapy on Individuals with Psoriatic Disease in the USA: Patient and Provider Perspectives” in Dermatology and Therapy. Read the op-ed here. She also received the Arthritis Champions Scholarship, a national scholarship awarded annually by the Arthritis Foundation to deserving students with arthritis or a related rheumatic disease who impact the arthritis community, serving as positive role models and leaders, and live their best life, while empowering others to do the same.
Summer Reyes, MS2, presented her research "Linkage Between Environment and Asthma Management: Association of Neighborhood Socioeconomic Disadvantage and School Stock Albuterol Use in a State-wide Program” as an oral presentation at the annual Pediatric Academic Societies Conference in Honolulu, Hawaii. The project originated in the Pritzker Summer Research Program under the mentorship of Anna Volerman, MD.
Sahil Sethi, MS3, published a first-author paper titled “Toward non-invasive diagnosis of Bankart lesions with deep learning” in SPIE. He was mentored on the Pritzker Summer Research Program project by Nicholas Maassen, MD and Lewis Shi, MD. Read the full paper here.
Anna Thorndike, MD (’25), received the Humanitarian Award from the University of Chicago Student Leader Awards program.
Michael Wakeman, MS2, published a co-first-author paper titled “Acceptability of a smart lighter for tracking cigarette smoking: A focus group study” in Digital Health. The project was based on his gap year research at the National Institutes of Health. Read the full paper here.