Student Advocacy

About the Program

Student Advisory Board

Jake Imber, University of Kansas Medical Center
Jake was born and raised in Lawrence, KS, the heart of Jayhawk country. After receiving his BS in Chemical Engineering in 2004, he joined the US Peace Corps and spent three years living in and traveling around Southern Africa. Currently in his third year of medical school at the University of Kansas, Jake has spent time interning with PHR's Health Action AIDS campaign and was the founder of his school's PHR student chapter. Jake hopes to become a primary care physician with a focus on international efforts to provide basic medical care to the underserved around the world.

Ali Khan, Virginia Commonwealth University
Ali is a native of the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area, where his childhood consisted of rooting for the Redskins, Bullets/Wizards, Capitals, United, Baltimore Orioles and (a recent development) the Nationals – which he asserts is the root of his high tolerance for pain and general sorrow.  Currently Ali is a second year student at Virginia Commonwealth University 's Medical College. One day he hopes to work at the intersection of medicine and public policy, with an emphasis on public health systems and health economics, bettering the lives of both his individual patients and society as a whole.

Saranya Kurapati, Loyola University Stritch School of Medicine
Saranya is the former National Student Program Coordinator and Health Action AIDS Student Program Associate for Physicians for Human Rights.  In this capacity, she organized health professional students in over 70 chapters nationwide to advance health and human rights advocacy on their campuses and further PHR's campaign efforts to improve US and global HIV/AIDS policies.  She is a graduate of Carleton College.  During her time at Carleton, she served as the Midwestern Regional Coordinator for Amnesty International's Global AIDS Week of Action as well as president of the Carleton Chapter of AI.  Currently she is a second year student at Loyola Stritch School of Medicine in Chicago.

Aliza Norwood, University of Texas School of Medicine at San Antonio
Originally from Austin, TX, Aliza attended Pomona College in California, where she majored in Neuroscience and played varsity soccer. After graduating, she worked as a research assistant at the Institute of Medicine, volunteered as a prenatal counselor at the Washington Free Clinic in DC, and coached girls' soccer at public schools in Brooklyn and NYC. She is currently entering her third year of medical school at the University of TX SoM in San Antonio, where she founded a PHR Chapter and co-founded the Preventive Medicine Interest Group. Along with soccer and boogie-boarding, her interests include expanding healthcare access for all people, self-esteem and education programs for young women, and community-based diabetes prevention programs.

Sujal Parikh, University of Michigan Medical School
Sujal Parikh is a third year medical student at the University of Michigan Medical School. He was born and raised in Dallas, TX and is a 2006 graduate of the University of California, Berkeley with a degree in Public Health and Neurobiology. His research and advocacy focus on health and human rights, access to medicines, medical education, and infectious disease issues in the US, Sub-Saharan Africa, and India. He hopes to pursue a career that spans education, research, advocacy, and clinical practice.

Katie Ratzan, Dartmouth Medical School
Currently a medical student at Dartmouth, Katie initially studied history & French in college. After graduation, she completed a post-baccalaureate program while spending her summers in southeastern Uganda working on clean water initiatives. Katie spent one year in Boston working on a hunger screening & outreach program for Massachusetts General Hospital and is now starting to implement a similar program in rural New Hampshire. When no one is looking, Katie likes eating a pint of ice cream while watching either "The Family Guy" or "Arrested Development."

Sohil Sud, Tufts University School of Medicine
After graduating from Brown University with a BA in International Relations in 2003, Sohil went to work for the Advisory Board Company in Washington, DC.  There he conducted primary research, published reports, and developed teaching plans that addressed the strategic needs of hospitals and other health care institutions across the nation.  In 2005, Sohil entered a joint-degree MD/MA program at Tufts University between the School of Medicine and The Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy – he is currently a second-year medical student in this program.  Although still undecided about a medical specialty, his career aspirations include a desire to address inequities related to health and human rights through clinical and political means.