SOURCE Student Governing Board

Students from each of the three health professional schools (Bloomberg School of Public Health, Nursing, and Medicine) serve on SOURCE's Governing Board.

Students give vital feedback regarding meetings, activities and events that SOURCE sponsors and co-sponsors. SOURCE's Student Governing Board works to increase the visibility of community engagement and service-learning on the health professional campus by encouraging other students to utilize SOURCE and its resources, as well as to spread the word regarding various service-based student groups in East Baltimore.

During open application periods, those interested in applying to the SOURCE Student Governing Board should:

• First, review the Roles of SOURCE Student Governing Board Members (in pdf format)
• Then, apply via our online form

2022-2023 SOURCE Student Governing Board

Meet our team of students from the Schools of Public Health, Nursing and Medicine who are currently serving as representatives on SOURCE's Student Governing Board during the 2022-2023 academic year!

• Bloomberg School of Public Health Representatives

• School of Nursing Representatives

• School of Medicine Representatives

BSPH Representatives

Melanie Bolden

Hi everyone! My name is Melanie Bolden, and I am a DrPH student in the Environmental Health track and work as a Risk Manager with the EPA. I am originally from New Orleans, Louisiana, born and raised. After Hurricane Katrina, my family and I were relocated to Arkansas, where I finished high school and earned a BS in Biology from the University of Arkansas (Woo Pig Sooie!). I then had the wonderful opportunity to participate in the Master's International program, which allowed participants to combined Peace Corps service with a master's degree program. I served as a Community Health Specialist in Mozambique and completed my MPH at SUNY-Albany in 2016. I am very excited to support the 2021-2022 Baltimore Community Practicum course as a Teaching Assistant. 

Danny Chhan

Hi all! My name is Dany Chhan (“Dah-nee Chan”) and I am a full-time MPH student at the Bloomberg School of Public Health. I was born in Cambodia and immigrated to the U.S. when I was 11 years old. The duality of being from a different culture and being an immigrant in the U.S. has allowed me to gain a well-rounded perspective and the ability to connect with different types of people. After my undergrad, I served in the Peace Corps as a community health volunteer in Sierra Leone and my work was focused on malaria, WaSH, and nutrition. Prior to coming to Hopkins, my early-career experience has been in global health and non-profit management. 

Relationship building and community engagement are some of the most important values I hold. I was a part of the Girls Inc. after-school program when I first moved to U.S.; the program enabled me to meet other girls around my age and start building my own community. As a high school student, I became a reading partner volunteer for the organization’s literacy program. When living in Washington, DC I was a part of my ward's mutual aid effort and got to see how grassroots community organizing is done. I am excited to join the SOURCE Student Governing Board and look forward to being a part of the community partnership building process. 

Nicole Fortune Hernandez

Nicole Fortune is currently a second-year student in the MSPH program with a focus on health policy and management. She recently earned her BS in Public Health Science from the University of Maryland, College Park. Nicole is passionate about community service and developing relationships with peers and community partners to encourage service throughout the city of Baltimore. As a student, she looks forward to learning more about volunteer work and the community partners that have maintained a partnership with SOURCE. As a first-generation immigrant, and native Spanish speaker, Nicole intends to delve deeper into community service opportunities that promote health equity among members of the community that are particularly vulnerable to health disparities and inadequate access to services. 

Caitlin Jackson 

Hello! My name is Caitlin Jackson (she/her) and I am a full time MPH student at the Bloomberg School of Public Health. I am concentrating in Humanitarian Health with a focus on refugees and people experiencing displacement.  I relocated to Baltimore from my home state of Michigan, where I earned a BA in Social Work. I spent the last 5 years working at non-profit refugee resettlement agency, where I focused on healthcare access for primarily Congolese and Afghan refugees. My time working alongside these communities to create welcoming spaces for health to thrive inspired me to pursue an MPH. 

I am honored to have been welcomed into many communities around the world, including Baltimore. I am excited to join the SOURCE Student Governing Board as a representative of the MPH class of 2023. I hope to further explore the richness that comes from being engaged in the community through mutual partnerships and shared vision of a thriving and just space to call home. 

Sofia Osio Smith

Hi everyone! My name is Sofia Osio. I am an MSPH student in the Department of Health, Behavior, and Society at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and I am excited to be part of the SOURCE Student Governing Board. My program’s concentration of study is Health Education and Health Communications. My topics of interest include health disparities among various minority populations, but I am more specifically interested in women’s health and sexual health in low-income communities around the world. I plan help reduce these health disparities in the future in a hands-on approach that would involve education, outreach, and advocacy in the community. 

Before I got to Hopkins, I graduated from the University of Miami with a major in Communication Studies and double minors in Public Health and International Studies. I have previous work experience with multiple nonprofit organizations that focused on health and human rights issues. As part of their communications departments, I completed tasks that included outreach, collaboration with community partners, and creating educational content for the community. In addition, I have also worked as a student research intern in the Sexual Health Dissemination Lab at the University of Miami where our main goal was to use social planforms as an intervention method to educate the community on sexual health. As this is my first year in Baltimore, I can't wait to get involved with the community through SOURCE and its amazing opportunities and programs. I look forward to working with other people who share my passions and hopefully learn something new every day on how we can better serve our community. 

Sunny Roy

Hi! My name is Sunny Roy and I am in the first year of the MPH/MBA program here at Hopkins. I moved from NYC where I worked in life sciences consulting. I am originally from Cleveland, Ohio but went to Philadelphia for my undergrad where I studied public health.  

I am so excited to work with the SOURCE team to engage with the broader Baltimore community and gain real-life skills working with important community-based organizations doing great work! I love to discover new restaurants, play with any dogs, read, and dance in my free time. If you have any restaurant or book recommendations, hit me up! 

Sheila Shaheed

Hello everyone! My name is Sheila Shaheed, and I am so grateful to have been given the opportunity to serve on the SOURCE Governing Board. I am currently an MSPH student. Previously, I received my B.S. in Biology from Howard University. While attending HU, I served in leadership roles related to community engagement where I worked with my peers to create volunteer opportunities for the Howard University community. I also participated in HU Alternative Spring Break as a Team Leader where I helped to organize volunteer trips to various low-and-middle income communities. 

Growing up in South Baltimore, I understand all too well the issues that are heavily impacting our residents. Thankfully, I also know the benefits of having a close-knit, positive community that is willing and able to help. I am excited to continue extending this sense of positive community to the rest of my city-- I feel very passionately about uplifting Baltimore by directly offering support to residents and aim to use this platform to help better the relationship between JHU and the greater Baltimore community through strategic partnerships with community- based organizations that are helping to promote our values of health and social justice. I am especially interested in research regarding mass incarceration and the impacts of heavy policing on communities. 

Gloria Sun

Gloria Sun (they/them) received their Bachelor of Arts in Architecture from Wellesley College in 2019. As a student, they studied pre-medicine and developed awareness of psychosocial issues in gender and racial minorities. They have experience with facilitating DEI conversations and peer support groups, and they have participated in community roles, such as mutual aid and relational organizing. After working in inpatient mental health as a professional, Gloria transitioned into public health as an AmeriCorps VISTA, and gained experience working on open data within local government. They are currently pursuing the dual MPH MBA program at Johns Hopkins University, and they plan to use their degree to support the mental health of historically underrepresented groups in the United States. 

Michelle Yao

Hello everyone! My name is Michelle Yao, my pronouns are she/her, and I am a full-time Master of Bioethics (MBE) student. Originally from Sarnia—a small Canadian town just north of Port Huron—I recently obtained a Bachelor of Health Sciences from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. 

Having greatly benefitted from community resources both formal and informal while growing up, I tried to find different ways to get involved myself throughout high school. I eventually found a niche with graphic design and multimedia communications, which were useful, unique channels for supporting the causes that I cared about, whether that was looking at youth mental wellness or promoting inter-minority alliances and solidarity in a region prone to passive assimilation. 

During the last three years of my undergraduate studies, I acted as an executive for SHEC, our university’s health advocacy, resource provision, and peer support service. I also helped lead initiatives that married the arts and activism under our campus community’s creative arts publication. In the summers between school years, I continued to work with different child and youth-centered services throughout Sarnia. 

While it is daunting now to be so far from home, I am thrilled to become an active part of the Baltimore community. I am especially excited to put my background in bioethics and advocacy to practical, powerful uses that will hopefully reach far beyond papers, pedagogy, and performance to create resonating connections and change. 

Lily Zandi

Hello Everyone, my name is Lily Zandi and I am a full-time MHS student in the department of biochemistry and molecular biology. My undergraduate degree in health and societies at the University of Pennsylvania inspired me to become a physician who considers both the pathophysiology and social determinants of illnesses. 

While living in a rural village in Argentina, I developed a passion for the Latin American culture and the issues affecting Spanish-speaking communities. Upon returning to the US, I volunteered at nonprofits that address the diverse medical, legal, and social needs of these populations. I have also spent a significant amount of time volunteering at free health clinics in both DC and Philadelphia where I have worked to connect the underserved with the necessary medical and non-medical resources. 

I also served as the site coordinator for an after-school program at an elementary school in West Philadelphia that taught students how to cook healthy recipes. I look forward to continuing this type of work as a JHU heat volunteer where I will educate K-7 students across the nation and globally about the biological underpinnings of and how to prevent the spread of COVID-19. 

I believe that community engagement is an integral component of a well-rounded and meaningful education. As a member of the SOURCE governing board, I look forward to assisting my classmates as they seek opportunities that will allow them to leverage their skills and interests in way that serves the Baltimore community. 

SON Representatives

Kara Anderson

I received a BA in Sociology, minored in Phycology and out of college I began a career in Social work. It only took me a few years to realized Social Work wasn’t my thing, but I did fine purpose and fulfillment in working with others. I have spent the last 15 years in the health and fitness Industry as a Manager at GNC and a personal trainer. The skills I learned in leadership, management, employee training and in education others about nutrient and health are skills that I will bring to the Student Governing Board. These experiences will also allow me to fulfill the roles and responsibilities as a board member. 

A strength of mine is curiosity. One of my favorite saying is from the movie Yental (don’t judge me, lol) “The more I learn the more I realize the less I know”. Leaning about other and what makes them tick is something that I have always loved, I guess that explains my degree in Sociology. I also enjoy working with people and helping them identify what their goals are and finding ways for them to work towards and accomplish their goals. 

Within the community I have volunteered on a Women’s Crisis Hotline, with the organization Water1st, who helps put wells in underdeveloped countries so girls can attend school instead of walking 5 miles a day carrying water back to their homes and, I have volunteered at Seattle Children’s Hospital in Washington. I enjoy working with and learning from others who are different from me. 

Savannah Boyd

Hi all! My name is Savannah Boyd, and I am an MSN student. I grew up in San Diego, CA, and then moved to Northern California to attend UC Davis for my undergraduate degree (go Ags!). I studied Nutrition Science there, which gave me the incredible opportunity to engage in Nutrition-related research with a community of mothers and infants living in Rwanda, Africa. This experience, though remote, gave me my first taste of public healthand community research, which I fell in love with. Working with this community also confirmedmy interest in working with this population (women and infants) as a Women's Health Nurse Practitioner/Certified Nurse Midwife one day. 

Coral Estefania Alonso Garcia

Hi everyone! My name is Coral Estefania Alonso Garcia and I am a nursing student at Hopkins. I am originally from Mexico City, Mexico. I have been a student-athlete my whole life. I was part of the Mexican Junior National Team for the sport of synchronized swimming. I got to represent my country at world championships, Pan- American and Centro-American games. I came to the United States with a scholarship to compete for Lindenwood University, and we won4 times the US National Championship. At Lindenwood University I studied a BA in international business and a master's in business administration (MBA). I volunteered at the International Institute of St Louis, tutored non-literate refugees and fellow immigrants in American Civics, History and English. I also worked as a social worker in Fort Collins CO. helping Latinx immigrants to deal with the healthcare, immigration, and the legal system of the US. 

As an immigrant in the US, I have seen and experienced the enormous disparities that are still present in the healthcare system. I want to bring that to light and work towards a more equitable and fair society. I am more than thrilled to be a member of the SOURCE Governing Board and work with the organizations of Baltimore that are working towards a more inclusive society. Ultimately, I am driven by the belief that quality healthcare is an indisputable human right, and it is our responsibility as future medical professionals to work towards seeing that right realized. 

Dawnyshia Griffin

My name is Dawnyshia Griffin. I am a student in the Master of Science in Nursing Entry Into Practice program. I decided to become a nurse because I viewed nursing as a concrete and linear career path that would enable me to advance social progress. My undergraduate degree was in International Relations which I originally selected so that I could better understand the world in an effort to remedy social ails and injustices. I ended up in nursing because I wanted my professional life to consist of both direct patient care and community- level interventions. I found the wide scope and versatility of the nursing profession to be particularly empowering. I am particularly interested in mental wellness, addiction management, and effective interventions for coping with trauma and chronic mood instability. I plan to contribute to health promotion efforts as well as community-level interventions in order to improve accessibility and affordability in healthcare. In my free time I enjoy rugby, kayaking, crime dramas, and eating seafood.

Carmen Mei

Hello! My name is Carmen, and I am an MSN student. I was born and raised in San Francisco, CA and remained in California to pursue degrees in molecular, cell, and developmental (MCD) biology and psychology. 

During my undergraduate career, I worked at the Learning Support Services center, both as an administrative assistant where I connected historically disadvantaged students to campus educational resources, and as a tutor in which I was able to engage active learning strategies to reinforce learning material to students with varying learning preferences. As someone who struggled with food insecurity throughout college, I also became involved with my university's food pantry where I was able to serve my community with free and fresh produce. Here, I developed a standing passion for addressing food insecurity among college students and residents of the community at large. 

Through my involvement in SOURCE, I hope to continue my work in connecting students to community resources and service opportunities within the Baltimore community in efforts to reduce the many inequities we see in the world. Whether it may be partnering with a local public school to offer tutoring and mentorship to its students or working with food vendors in addressing food insecurity (or something else entirely!), there are many paths to become involved with community-based organizations. Needless to say, I am excited to work with SOURCE in fostering meaningful relationships between the Hopkins community and partner organizations throughout Baltimore! 

Caitlin Morrissey

I am an MEN student at the School of Nursing and am currently Program Assistant for the Community Outreach Program. I graduated in 2020 from Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, P.A. where I studied Public Health.  

Last year, I worked with Jubilee Arts through the COP program. In my role, I helped the administrators at Jubilee perform outreach to boost enrollment for art classes, and remind participants of class times before class started. I also was able to sit in on some classes and take attendance and help the teachers conduct class. I really enjoyed my experience with Jubilee and being able to work with people of all different ages on something so fun and light-hearted.  

I am looking forward to continuing with work with SOURCE and in the city of Baltimore! 

Katie Nelson

My name is Katie Nelson, and I am a hospice nurse and PhD candidate in the School of Nursing. I previously received my MSN from the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing in 2017. I grew up in Minnesota and finished my undergraduate degree at the University of Minnesota in 2015. 

Community engagement has always been very important to me, as I feel it helps me to feel truly present wherever my two feet are planted in the universe. I have always been especially passionate about supporting older adults, so I volunteered at several nursing homes back home from middle school through college – hosting different activities, painting fingernails, having coffee chats, etc. I came across hospice while in high school, and served as aNo One Dies Alone volunteer, providing a presence for people who are without family/loved ones at the very end of life. I became connected with SOURCE right after moving to Baltimore in 2015, participating in many of the year-round volunteer opportunities that SOURCE offers for students. The tri-school days of service, various lunch seminars, and Baltimore Week activities all helped me learn so much about the history of our city, and the breadth of work that’s being done by so many of our wonderful community-based organizations. 

There is nothing better than being engaged with community partners and encouraging students to be engaged in the greater Baltimore community, too. SOURCE provides brilliant opportunities for both students and community members to learn and grow together, and I’m super thankful to be a part of it as a member of the Student Governing Board. 

Keanna Qarooni

Hello! My name is Keanna Qarooni. I am a first-year student seeking a master’s in nursing. I was born in Hershey PA, the sweetest place on earth, and grew up just outside Harrisburg PA. I am Persian and have a large family spread all over the world which has allowed me to visit over 20 countries. After high school, I began my studies at Penn State. I earned a degree in Humanities allowing me to become well-versed in social studies and cultural studies. While there, I spent a lot of time volunteering for different causes I feel passionate about such as homelessness and immigration. Having learned Farsi while growing up, I was able to manage a project at a non-profit relocating Afghan refugee to the US. We assisted them with housing, schooling, learning English, receiving medical aid, and many more aspects of life in America. Now that I am a part of SOURCE, I am hoping to further my ability to help those in need. 

SOM Representatives

Melanie Alfonso Horowitz

Hello! My name is Melanie and I am a first-year medical student at Hopkins. I am originally from Fort Lauderdale, Florida but have been in Baltimore for a while because I went Hopkins for undergrad. Here, I studied biophysics, chemistry, and environmental studies. I loved exploring the city during my undergraduate years and that was a big motivator to stay another four years. In college, I volunteered as a Spanish translator and Medicaid counselor at Shepherd’s Clinic, a clinic for uninsured patients, and began my own club to promote women’s reproductive health autonomy. I was also very active in environmentalism and hope to continue that passion with my time in medical school! My other interests included lifting, hiking, and drinking coffee.  

I am thrilled to be part of SOURCE and maintain a strong relationship with Baltimore. I can’t wait to serve as a representative and share what makes this city great to my peers and others in the Hopkins community. Baltimore has given me a lot during the years I’ve lived here and I’m very excited to be able to have a say in helping the community! 

Aaron Bao

Hi, everyone! My name is Aaron Bao, a first-year medical student at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. I was born and raised in Los Angeles, and I attended Washington University in St. Louis for college. At WashU, I was a apart of Medicine and Society, a 4-year anthropology program focusing on culture, healthcare, and policy. Shaped by my coursework, I turned to medicine to explore and advocate equity, where access can often be the differentiating factor between well-being and illness. Through this, I performed fieldwork studying the healthcare perspectives of Chinese immigrants, shaping an interest in the sociocultural perspectives of medicine.  

Drawing on the core tenets of SOURCE – reciprocity, justice, service, and collaboration, I’m excited by not only the privilege to enact tangible impact within a historied local community, but also the opportunity to create this change by bridging different worldviews, upbringings, and perspectives. 

Eojin Choi

My name is Jin Choi, and I am a second-year medical student here at Hopkins. I was born in Korea and raised in Southern California, though my family currently lives in Boston. 

After high school, I moved to Providence to attend Brown University, where I studied neuroscience and STS (Science, Technology, and Society). In college, I worked as a hospice volunteer and became involved with various programs at the Swearer Center for Public Service, including the Social Innovation Fellowship and the Student Advisory Committee. After doing research in Poland for my first gap year, I returned to Providence and worked as a Social Medicine VISTA at the Rhode Island Hospital Center for Primary Care. In this position, I worked closely with community health workers to address patients’ social and structural determinants of health, especially related to housing, transportation, and incarceration. 

While I am still relatively new to Baltimore, I’ve enjoyed living here so far and hope to get to know some of the communities here better through SOURCE. I’m grateful for the opportunity to join the SOURCE Student Governing Board and look forward to working with everyone to help strengthen community partnerships and address health disparities in Baltimore. 

Nic Heckenlaible

Hello! My name is Nic Heckenlaible, and I’m a third-year student in the School of Medicine! I grew up in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and moved to Omaha, Nebraska to study chemistry and computer science at Creighton University. All along the way I’ve made it a mission to keep a foot anchored in my community, as far back as co- founding an environmental outreach student organization in high school or as recent as my work with the ViSION program to bring free vision screenings to the East Baltimore community. Living and learning in the distant Midwest was a profound experience interfacing with populations often ignored by our national consciousness, and having that foundation motivates me to seek out and empower those facing challenges whose voices are yet unheard. I particularly enjoy focusing on environmental challenges for their dual impact as a determinant of individual health and as a danger to our global community. 

I’m a big believer in leverage, which is to say that I feel the importance of identifying the best ways to enact change with interventions in the right place and the right time—whether targeted directly at the problems we face or sometimes much farther upstream. Baltimore is a complex and beautiful city, full to the brim with spirit and challenges, and I couldn’t be more excited to be living here and contributing in the ways I can. I can’t wait to help SOURCE leverage the resources of the School of Medicine and more to uplift sustainable health solutions from within the community we share. 

Hyonoo Joo

Hi everyone! My name is Hyonoo Joo, and I’m a second-year medical student. I grew up in Boise, Idaho and attended the University of Utah where I studied biomedical engineering. At my college’s community engagement center (the Bennion Center), I served as the head of Community Outreach and as a Student Board Representative. Throughout my time in college, I spearheaded several different programs which focused on mentoring first-year students on leadership skills and community engagement. As a Bennion Center student board member, I worked alongside students, staff, faculty, and community partners to outline the direction and mission of our center’s programming. In particular, we worked to expand the diversity of our programs, foster a more inclusive environment, and increase opportunities for nontraditional students. I also volunteered with underserved populations in a clinical setting, which has motivated me to learn more about healthcare disparities and work towards addressing social determinants of health. 

I am very excited to be a part of the SOURCE Student Governing Board. My community engagement experiences were a cornerstone of my undergraduate education, and I hope SOURCE will similarly be a foundational part of my medical education. I can’t wait to learn from others within SOURCE and from the greater Baltimore communities that we work with! 

Erica Lin

Hello! My name is Erica Lin, and I am a first-year medical student. I am from San José, California, studied Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology at Yale, and am excited to get to know East Baltimore as home. I first became interested in community-organizing through advocating for social support resources for unhoused youth as San José’s Citywide Youth Commissioner and building sustainable community-academic partnerships on the board of Yale’s Dwight Hall center for social justice. My passion for social-health justice was further shaped by my work throughout the COVID pandemic as the Social Services Co-Director of a free clinic in New Haven that cares for uninsured, primarily undocumented community members. Alongside the privilege of hearing and caring for patients’ worries about food, rent, mental health, and more, I also experienced the strength of grassroots community-building, as I spearheaded collaborations with community partners to deliver free groceries to quarantining patients, crowdfund/distribute over $100,000 in grassroots rent assistance, and advocate for rights to COVID care for undocumented folx.  

I believe that sociocultural wellbeing outside of the clinic is fundamental to health — and that, to achieve health equity, it is also fundamental for (future) healthcare providers to work outside the clinic and alongside community members to advocate for social change. I also believe this must be done with respect, intentionality, care for community priorities, and reflective acknowledgment of oppressive histories and inequitable infrastructures. Thus, I am incredibly humbled to learn from and work alongside our East Baltimore neighbors and CBOs dedicated to strengthening our vibrant community, and I look forward to sharing these conversations with my classmates through SOURCE! 

Saket Myneni

Hi! My name is Saket Myneni, and I am a second-year medical student at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine! I am originally from Austin, Texas but moved to study biology and psychology at Stanford University. I am excited to be serving on the SOURCE student governing board and continuing efforts to build meaningful partnerships with the East Baltimore community. Both cities I have lived in experienced many of the same challenges growing cities around the country face, as development displaces existing communities and uniquely impacts underserved communities. I strongly believe addressing roots of inequity with a sustainable approach is an important and necessary step in any effort to addressing structural harm. With this mindset, I have volunteered with a variety of programs throughout college aimed at addressing these barriers by developing partnerships with existing support programs in my communities and utilizing their strengths. I am excited to explore Baltimore, my new home, and to do my part to build relationships with community-based organizations to create new interventions that capitalize on Baltimore’s drive and unique identity and empower any efforts to improving the health and well-being of our community. I am grateful for the opportunities SOURCE provides to build these connections and looking forward to everything we can accomplish! 

Elizabeth Schlant

Hi everyone, I’m Liz Schlant. I’m a third-year medical student from Buffalo, New York. While in Buffalo, I volunteered at two clinics that provided care for underserved populations, specifically those who are homeless, uninsured or recently released from incarceration. I interned with a think tank that lobbied for legislative and policy changes to alleviate systemic disparities in realms such as poverty, housing, education and the criminal justice system. I engaged in local politics by interning for a Congressman and canvassing for a State Senate candidate. I was also lucky enough to gain public and global health experience with the Community for Global Health Equity as well as through research experiences with the Comprehensive Rural Health Project in Jamkhed, India and the Appropriate Technology Center in Kampala, Uganda. I am thrilled to be able to continue my community involvement through SOURCE and its partner organizations. 

I am very passionate about promoting collaboration and communication to leverage the resources of Hopkins to most effectively serve the surrounding community. I am so excited to be able to learn from those involved with SOURCE about Baltimore and the work everyone has been doing to promote health and justice, and I hope to be able to contribute to these missions. 

Rachel Strodel

Hi everyone! My name is Rachel Strodel and I’m a fourth-year medical student at Hopkins. I am originally from outside Boston, MA, and went to Yale for college where I studied Biology and Global Health. 

Throughout my undergraduate career, I volunteered at a free clinic serving New Haven residents without health insurance from a predominantly Latinx immigrant community. This experience led to a community-based research project assessing barriers and facilitators of diabetes prevention in this neighborhood. During this time. I also volunteered with New Haven Farms, an organization that offers nutrition education, gardening skills, and produce to community members and families through seven urban farms. My interest in the intersection of food security and chronic disease prevention led me to spend a year-long fellowship in New Mexico working with the Navajo Nation. There, I collaborated with Head Start preschools and community health workers to improve nutrition education and improve access to fruits and vegetables by allowing healthcare providers to “prescribe” produce to patients at risk for diabetes. As a newcomer to Baltimore, I have loved getting to know my neighbors by volunteering at the produce market at the Commodore John Rogers school! 

I am thrilled to be a member of the SOURCE Student Governing Board and learn from the organizations in Baltimore that are working toward a better future for our communities. I believe that the reciprocity and mutual respect are vital to addressing health inequities and bridging historic divides, and I am excited to share this passion with my classmates through SOURCE! 

Siddarth Venkatraman

My name is Siddharth and I am a third-year medical student. I was born and raised in San Jose, California, studied biochemistry and philosophy at Creighton University, and am very excited to call Hopkins and East Baltimore my new home! Throughout my life, I have engaged in service and advocacy initiatives ranging from working as a Youth Commissioner for the San Jose City Government to teaching senior citizens how to play the violin, but my main focus has been improving housing infrastructure/accessibility. I worked extensively with Habitat for Humanity to build houses in San Jose and Omaha, provide financial planning and education to families, and advocate on Capitol Hill for affordable housing legislation. 

I am drawn to service because it allows me to work with like-minded people while developing intimate relationships with my community and the individuals that I serve. After seeing the many systemic disparities in San Jose, Omaha, and Baltimore, it has become clear to me that the practice and progression of medicine is inextricably tied to issues of social justice and service. Now that I am here in Baltimore, I want to help build my new community into a stronger, safer, and more equitable home for all people. I am so excited to work with SOURCE to develop and promote service and advocacy opportunities within East Baltimore, galvanize students to become more active stewards of their own community, and use my platform to improve health and housing disparities in a tangible and sustainable way. 

Amy Xu

Hi everyone! My name is Amy Xu, and I am a fourth-year medical student here at Hopkins. I grew up in southern California and attended Stanford University for undergrad, where I studied human biology - an interdisciplinary major combining the biological and psychosocial sciences. This multi-dimensional lens cultivated an interest in comprehensive healthcare and led to my spending a year in rural Alabama at a community health non-profit after graduation. I led activities for seniors at a community center, staffed an assisted living home for women with mental illnesses, taught at-risk youth, interviewed patients within a rural clinic, worked on an organic farm, and helped disadvantaged individuals navigate healthcare and social services after forming deep relationships. I truly saw how seemingly disparate aspects of a community can come together to generate influence on an individual level. 

My experience in Alabama led me to SOURCE. I have come to deeply understand the impact of healthcare disparities and the role we can play in their reduction as well as the importance of forming connections with the surrounding community. For this reason, I am incredibly honored and excited to serve on the SOURCE Student Governing Board and look forward to working for our Baltimore. 

Andrew Zale

Hello! My name is Andrew Zale, and I am a fourth-year medical school student. Raised in Westfield, New Jersey, I attended the University of Pittsburgh for my undergraduate education, where I forged my passion for community engagement. In Pittsburgh, I mentored underprivileged youth at the Pittsburgh Science and Technology Academy in both academics and athletics. I also helped start an annual Holocaust Survivor Speaker series to educate community members about the Holocaust and archive the stories of survivors. These experiences culminated in an opportunity to help start a data science firm that focused on the needs of non-profit organizations during my senior year. 

Now in Baltimore, I am thrilled to have the opportunity to work with community leaders and link the Johns Hopkins community to greater Baltimore. I am particularly excited to work with organizations that seek to empower children and women, solve the opioid crisis, delve into rectifying health inequities, and make structural community changes to improve the daily lives of Baltimore residents. I am ready to work with these communities to promote their flourishing alongside my peers and neighbors. 

I have loved my time living in East Baltimore thus far, and I am hopeful that my time on the SOURCE Governing Board supports ongoing work in the community. I wish to build upon the reciprocal relationship between Johns Hopkins and the Baltimore community mediated by SOURCE, while energizing those around me!