Katayoun is a Global Surgery Research Fellow at the Sadanah Trauma and Surgical Initiative, and is concurrently completing her Master of Public Health at St. George’s University. She was born and raised in Iran, and moved to the United States where she completed her Undergraduate and Master of Science in Tissue Engineering at Arizona State University. Katayoun attended medical school at St. George’s University School of Medicine in Grenada West Indies, where she co-founded and became the first Chair of InciSioN Grenada.
She co-led a large-scale advocacy effort with the Ministry of Health Grenada and Grenada General Hospital to deliver medical devices and supplies to furnish an operating room and intensive care unit. She led InciSioN’s Research Team from 2017 to 2020 and created InciSioN’s research infrastructure, re-established the online Twitter-based Global Surgery Journal Club, and planned the first-ever student and trainee led Global Surgery Session at the American College of Surgeons Clinical Congress in 2019 held in San Francisco, California. Katayoun served as InciSioN Co-Chair in 2020 leading the organization through the pandemic, resulting in one of the most successful years of InciSioN yet
Joffre Guzman Laguna is an M.D. from Universidad El Bosque in Bogotá, Colombia. Born in Caracas, Venezuela, he moved to San Antonio, TX, where he attended Douglas MacArthur High School and was an honors graduate at 15 years of age. Since early on in his career, he has been involved in several contributions to the medical literature as both an author and illustrator, starting in the Neurosciences Institute at Universidad El Bosque. His more recent projects have been developed with the Innovation Research Group at the Central Military Hospital of Bogotá, where he’s worked closely with biomedical engineers and physical therapists to develop medical devices, which are now close to starting clinical trials.
Joffre carried out his medical internship at the Central Military Hospital of Bogotá, embarking on special rotations in Clinical Research and Surgical Oncology, and, at its end, being awarded the Certificate to the Best Intern of the year 2020. Joffre also took on the role of co-chair of InciSioN Colombia during 2020 and was a major player in the organization of IGSS 2020. Joffre hopes to one day become a thoracic surgeon and continue to apply the concepts of global surgery, held to a greater standard of social responsibility.
Gloria is a 6th-year medical student at the University of Nairobi, Kenya. She is passionate about Global Health, research and healthcare diplomacy. Gloria is currently a junior editor at the Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology of East and Central Africa and the finance chair for the Sub-regional Training Program (2022) in Kenya by Medical Students Association of Kenya. She has served as the Secretary External Affairs for MSAKE (2019-2020) and has been part of a number of national and international medical organizations championing universal health coverage, healthcare equity and medical education. Her journey with Global Surgery began in 2019. She joined InciSioN International Team, Advocacy sub-team in 2021, and is now serving as the Advocacy Director. Gloria is a multi-talented medic, having played violin professionally with 3 national orchestras in the past 8 years. She hopes to continue championing healthcare equity especially in LMICs.
Eshwar Rajesh is pursuing MBBS from Madras Medical College, Chennai, India. He has an exemplary academic record and impressive extracurricular talents. He is a national level swimmer and a skydiver, winner of various quizzes and seminars in national and international level competitions. He was listed in the Limca Book of Records for scuba diving. He speaks 7 languages and is a certified Pianist. He is an aspiring global health practitioner and a passionate youth advocate.
Mr. Lucas Loiola Ponte Albuquerque Ribeiro is a 6th year medical student from Universidade de Fortaleza – Unifor, Brazil. Currently enrolled as Technology team at the Youth Delegate Program of UNITE 2030, aiming to develop meaningful youth engagement & sustainable development; National Assistant on External Affairs for IFMSA Brazil, an National Member Organization of the International Federation of Medical Students Associations (IFMSA), being editor in chief for the Brazilian Medical Students (BMS) an open access international youth lead journal; and OHMO Research Team.
He is the Undergraduate Regional Coordinator for Brazilian Association for Medical Education (ABEM) in Northeast 2 region. Academic member for the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), American College of Surgeons (ACS), and American Urology Association (AUA); Young Leaders for America’s Initiative (YLAI); and editor for 3 journals of the EC group. His interests include sustainable development, medical education, global surgery, global health and research; with a focus on empowerment of young leadership, advocacy and policy making. He believes social medias are some of the most powerful tools to increase health awareness and SDGs for the future and present.
Shah Nur is an aspiring trauma/orthopaedic surgeon who graduated from medical school in December 2020. He was born and raised in Nairobi, Kenya. He has led the Students’ Surgical Forum in Kenya since July 2019 where he oversaw its expansion to a nationwide organisation from a university based club. He is passionate about improving the quality of surgical care in LMICs and has led in the training and organisation of basic surgical skills training for over 600 medical students in Kenya.
He is also deeply interested in improving the mental health of doctors, and has led the largest study in Kenya looking at mental health among doctors in the country. Following the results of the study completed in 2020 he is in the process of establishing a program to reduce mental distress among doctors. He also assisted with the creation and design of Kenya’s largest registry for cardiovascular disease. His recent work has involved systematic reviews and the use of AI in LMIC healthcare systems. His current research interests focus on improving outcomes and access to affordable care for trauma/orthopaedic patients in LMICs
Makinah Haq is a medical student at King’s College London,currently pursuing an intercalated degree in Biomedical Engineering at Imperial College London.
She was a Class of 2019 Campus Director and Millennium Fellow, a programme run jointly by the Millennium Campus Network and United Nations Academic Impact in which she developed her initial interests in the area of global equity and ethics by implementing a social impact project that focused on soft skills development.
From joining the 2020 InciSioN International/Education Team,Makinah is now the 2021 Vice President of Internal Affairs and hopes to expand the organisational development of InciSioN to continuously empower students, trainees and early career physicians within Global Surgery.
Makinah is also part of the EANS Diversity in Neurosurgery Task Force, the EANS CSF Task Force and the WFNS Global Neurosurgery Committee.
Her interests lie in Global Neurosurgery, Medical Education and Healthcare Equity.
Mashkur Isa is a Master of Public Health student at the University of Sheffield and an Erasmus Mundus Scholar. He is passionate about global health, medical education and the SDGs which have seen him take roles in several local, national and international organisations. Mashkur joined the InciSioN International Team in 2019 as a member of the Education team, moving on to the Research team in 2020 and has now expanded his responsibilities within the organisation by assuming the role of Vice President of External Affairs. He hopes to drive collaborations and expand partnerships with other organisations such as IFMSA, to name a few.
Rina is a final year medical student at the University of Prishtina “Hasan Prishtina”, Kosova. She was the Head of The Global Surgery Organization of Kosova (GSOK)-Students’ Committee. GSOK has organized a great number of activities (trainings, workshops, competitions, Winter School) where Global Surgery was promoted, knowledge and skills of medical students, newly graduates and residents were expanded. She has been part of a number of other national and international organizations with a focus on education and research since 2018. Her journey with Global Surgery started in 2019. In early 2020 she became part of the Research Subteam at InciSioN and expanded her responsibilities within the organization by assuming the role of the VPNWG.
Virginia is a medical student at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Texas. She is passionate about global health, community health, innovative delivery of high-quality, high-value healthcare and distributive justice. She serves as an advisor to her medical school’s chapter of the Global Surgery Student Alliance, leads a curriculum reform committee working to bring discussions about social determinants of health & health equity onto the main stage of medical education, and has long been involved in advocating for underserved and immigrant patients, spearheading various quality improvement projects as a manager in the local student-run free clinics. As a child of immigrants herself, she believes that the global is local and the local is global. She is excited to work with and support her colleagues in medicine in furthering access to healthcare and medical education around the world.
Advocacy Team
Dagmawit Workagegnehu – Ethiopia
Mathilde Billau – Canada
Gloria Kabare – Kenya
Ann Kima – Kenya
Letícia Nunes Campos – Brazil
Davina Daudu – Australia
Mauli Mehta – India
Syeda Akila Ali – USA
Abhishekh Srinivas – Australia
Dorothée Sartorius – Germany
Sarah Honjo – Japan
Queenie Wong – Hong Kong SAR,China
Education Team
Ahmadreza Abbaslou – Iran
Negin Jarrah – Iran
Tanaz Vaghaiwalla – USA
Andjela Djurovic – Serbia
Alejandro Munoz-Valencia – USA
Zainab Bazeer – UK
Vasundhara Mathur – India
Eshwar Rajesh – India
Lilian Kitonga – Kenya
Edina Kovač – Bosnia & Herzegovina
Dawn Poh – Malaysia
Moniba Korch – Morocco
Research Team
Sayed Shah Nur Shah – Kenya
Yvan Zolo – Cameroon
Kashish Malhotra – India
Angela Yabrude – Brazil
Dylan Goh – UK
Halimah Khalil – UK
Irena Zivkovic – Canada
William Xochitun Gopar Franco – Mexico
Samuel Mesfin – Ethiopia
Kevouy Reid – Jamaica
Yuki Julius Ng – Malaysia
Joana Beltano – Poland/Canada
Hamaiyal Sana – Pakistan
Public Relations Team
Lucas Loiola Ponte Albuquerque Ribeiro – Brazil
Jessica Lu – Australia
Pavanraj Chana – Kenya
Marcella Mota Constante – Brazil
Elliott Taylor – UK
Jessica Mosello – Brazil
Bolaji Abimbola – Nigeria
Martina Steinmaurer – Germany
Aime Claude Ndayisaba – Burundi
Finance Team
Virginia Wang – USA
Devarsh Shah – India
Dhrumil Patil – India
Vedant Shukla – India
Internal Affairs Team
Makinah Haq – UK
Habab Iraqi – Sudan
Poorvaprabha Patil – India
Melissa Macedo – Brazil
Hannah Suh – UK
Pinky Jha – Nepal
National Working Groups Team
Rina Mehmeti – Kosovo
Hung Wei Pin – Malaysia
Tiffany Camilla Laker – Grenada