Current Residents

Alaina Aristide (She/her/hers)
Birthplace: Oak Bluffs, Massachusetts
Undergrad: Wesleyan University
Medical School: Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Languages: English, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese

Alaina was born and raised on Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. Throughout high school, she worked as a personal care attendant and it was this work that first piqued her interest in medicine. Alaina completed her undergraduate degree in Spanish Language and Literature at Wesleyan University and attended the Mount Sinai School of Medicine through the Humanities and Medicine Early Acceptance Program. Between college and medical school, Alaina received a Fulbright teaching grant to travel to Argentina, where she assisted in English language classes and worked with nurse midwives. During medical school, Alaina was able to pursue her interests in women’s health, family planning, social justice, anti-racism work, harm reduction and global health, spending a year in Nicaragua researching the chronic kidney disease epidemic known as Mesoamerican Nephropathy. Alaina was drawn to GLFHC for its comprehensive four-year curriculum, full-spectrum training and commitment to the Lawrence community. Outside of medicine, she enjoys playing soccer and attempting to garden.

Corinne Gibbons (She/her/hers)
Birthplace: Westport, MA
Undergraduate: University of Massachusetts  – Nutrition – BS
Graduate School: Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health – MPH in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Medical School: University of Massachusetts Medical School
Languages: Spanish

Corinne hails from Westport, MA, a wicked awesome seaside town that is located, geographically speaking, in the axilla of the state. She attended the University of Massachusetts for college and majored in Nutrition and minored in Spanish. During this time, she developed a passion for preventive medicine and working with vulnerable populations through mentoring in the Big Brothers Big Sisters Program and working with homeless women veterans. Corinne then moved an hour east to attend UMass Medical School and quickly fell in love with Worcester’s diverse and vibrant community. While in central MA, Corinne taught health education to homeless teen mothers and volunteered at the Community Harvest Project, a local farm that donates all of its produce to those experiencing hunger. She took a one-year hiatus during medical school to earn an MPH focused on community program planning and evaluation. Corinne is thrilled to continue her medical training at Lawrence FMR, a place where language, culture, community and medicine are well aligned. Outside of medicine, Corinne loves enjoying the New England seasons (through running, skiing, boating and fishing), spending time with her husband and dog, planting/gardening and reading.

Miguel Joaquin (He/him/his)
Birthplace: Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
Undergrad: Michigan State University – Biomedical Laboratory Science – BA
Medical School: Michigan State University College of Human Medicine
Languages: Spanish

Miguel was born in Santo Domingo and immigrated to the United States with his mother, father, and older brother at the tender age of 4 years. He grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan and graduated from Michigan State University (GO GREEN!) with a degree in Biomedical Laboratory Science. He continued as a Spartan at Michigan State University College of Human Medicine where he was thrilled to be a part of the college’s commitment to serving vulnerable populations and their emphasis on primary care. He served as president of the Student National Medical Association where becoming a clinically excellent and culturally competent and caring physician was a point of emphasis. Miguel has always had a passion for serving the underserved, especially in urban communities. During his time as President of SNMA he developed the educational curriculum for an established Reach Out to Youth (ROTY) program where children ages 6-12 from low income schools around Grand Rapids spent the day at his medical school being exposed to science and medicine. Miguel also led and participated in international medical trips to Peru and Nicaragua during his time in medical school. This encouraged his interest in global health and the importance of continuing health initiatives that are sustainable and locally driven. He is thrilled to be training at Greater Lawrence Family Medicine Residency and considers it his dream program. Their commitment to serving the community and caring for the underserved, along with providing full-spectrum training, will be an invaluable asset for his future patients. Miguel’s number one passion is dancing and breaking it down on the dance floor. He has a special affinity for salsa, merengue, and bachata.

Denise Lobo (She/her/hers)
Hometown: Niskayuna, NY
Undergrad: SUNY Binghamton
Medical School: University of Florida College of Medicine
Languages: Intermediate Spanish

After spending her childhood in cold upstate New York, Denise escaped to Florida for four years, but realized she had left her heart in the northeast and is so excited to be back! Originally from Pakistan, trips back to her birth-country exposed her to the disparities in the world and inspired her to pursue a career working with underserved populations. During college she had the opportunity to study abroad in Madagascar where she fell in love with the country and its beautiful people. While conducting a study on childhood malnutrition there, she discovered her calling was medicine. During medical school, Denise has continued her pursuit of global medicine, including leading a medical brigade in Ecuador and participating in brigades in Guatemala and Haiti. Through these experiences Denise realized her passion for serving immigrant populations and desire to become proficient in Spanish. Finding her values greatly aligned with the mission at Greater Lawrence, she knew this residency program was the right one for her. Outside of the hospital Denise enjoys planning her next trip, struggling up mountains, naptime, nomming on pizza, and dabbling in the arts.

Patrick O’Neil (He/him/his)
Birthplace: Malden, MA
Undergrad: College of the Holy Cross – Biology – BA
Medical School: University of Maryland School of Medicine
Languages: Basic Spanish

Pat was born in Malden, MA and grew up in nearby Haverhill, MA (hi Mom & Dad!) and attended Central Catholic High School in Lawrence. His interest in medicine was initially sparked while in high school by the television show House, although he often left that tidbit of information out during his medical school and residency interviews. He ventured to the heart of Massachusetts – Worcester – to obtain his undergraduate degree in Biology at the College of the Holy Cross. While at Holy Cross, he was immersed in the Jesuit values of service and compassion while playing a little Ultimate Frisbee on the side. He was inspired by his coursework and fellow idealistic classmates to do a year of postgraduate service, and moved to Baltimore in September 2013 to live and work in West Baltimore with the organization Bon Secours Volunteer Ministry. He served as a Patient Liaison in the Emergency Department at Bon Secours Hospital in West Baltimore, where he practiced the ministry of presence with his patients and lived in an intentional community with four other individuals. He remained at Bon Secours Hospital for an additional year as a community health worker, a role which provided him with the opportunity to venture out into the community and see firsthand the structural violence his patients were dealing with in their everyday lives. These two opportunities at Bon Secours Hospital provided a foundation in community medicine that he continues to be heavily influenced by to this day. This concept of community medicine is what Pat appreciates most about GLFHC. He then attended medical school at the University of Maryland in Baltimore. Pat is thrilled to be back in MA with his wife, Sydney, a California native (TBD on whether she will survive MA winters), and their shepherd mix, Alice. He loves running, Boston sports teams, Spike Ball, Wiffle Ball, a good nonfiction book, and burritos.

Patrick Salemme (He/him/his)
Hometown:  Jamestown, NY
Undergrad:  University of Notre Dame
Medical School:  Jacobs School of Medicine at the University of Buffalo
Languages: Spanish

Patrick was born in Jamestown, NY (home of the National Comedy Center) where he was raised by a loving family who taught him the importance of caring for others.  He attended the University of Notre Dame where he studied Anthropology and spent time in both Mexico and Peru learning about their culture and healthcare systems, which fostered his interest to go into medicine.  After college, he spent a year working for Partners in Health in Mexico, helping to establish and support clinics in rural Chiapas.  Once he returned to the US, he started medical school at the Jacobs School of Medicine at the University at Buffalo.  During his time there, he helped to manage the student run free medical clinic, led a brigade to Honduras, helped instruct underclassmen in clinical skills, ran a Ragnar Relay, and ate an embarrassing amount of the Original Chicken Wings.  During his free time, he can be found running, drinking a few pots of coffee, cuddling with his cat, traveling the world, frequenting McDonald’s where he worked for four years, and making long drives to visit friends and family.  He is beyond ecstatic to begin working at GLFHC because of its strong spirit of social justice, commitment to the community, and the ability to pursue individual interests within the field, such as HIV medicine.

Katy Sausen, MD (She/her/hers)
Hometown: Allentown, PA
Undergraduate: University of Notre Dame – Biochemistry – BS
Medical School: Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
Languages: Spanish

Katy grew up in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and went to Notre Dame for college, where she majored in biochemistry and minored in Latin American Studies. While she did not love Notre Dame winters, she did love being surrounded by students passionate about the intersection of faith and social justice, and even came to love watching football (or, at least, socializing during football games). During her junior year, she studied abroad in Puebla, Mexico, where she ate a lot of pan dulce and panqueques con leche condensada. The following summer, she worked at a justice-oriented church in Camden, NJ, where she learned about the power of community engagement and grassroots organizing to transform a city. Upon graduation, Katy went straight to medical school at Vanderbilt, where was an active volunteer at their student-run free clinic, worked as a student hotspotter to support socially complex patients, and advocated for primary and underserved care through Vanderbilt’s FMIG and Social Mission Committee. Katy is thrilled to be joining GLFHC for residency, which she believes merges unparalleled clinical training opportunities with innovative community engagement to transform the health of the community. In her free time, Katy enjoys spending time with her husband (Chris), any form of outdoor recreation (hiking, camping, backpacking, rock climbing), running for long periods of time, and eating dessert. She is hoping to improve her skiing while in New England so that she doesn’t spend the majority of her time sitting in the snow after falling yet again.

Angela Sterling, MD (She/her/hers)
Hometown: Kissimmee, FL
Undergraduate: University of South Florida- Biomedical Sciences (B.S.)
Medical School: University of Central Florida College of Medicine
Languages: Spanish

Angela grew up in Kissimmee, FL 15 minutes from the “Happiest Place on Earth”. As a daughter of Dominican Immigrants and the youngest of 5 she was fortunate enough to grow up in a predominately Hispanic community where she learned early the intricacies of being multicultural.  When she was 12 her family started a Christian international non-for profit organization which sparked in her a deep love for service. This passion for serving others and global citizenship continued throughout her undergraduate studies where she spent most of her days volunteering, conducting water quality research, and planning mission trips to remote areas in Latin America. In Medical School Angela was afforded the opportunity to direct and organize a global health conference, help found a free clinic for migrant farmworkers, and travel to Panama, Peru, and the Dominican Republic for medical mission work. She was attracted to Greater Lawrence because of the vibrant community it serves, the culture of advocacy, and the ability to train in full-spectrum Family Medicine. She hopes to one day be the kind of doctor who can provide full-scope quality medicine regardless of where she is in the world.  In her spare time, Angela enjoys travelling and experiencing new cultures, reading, spending time with her loved ones, salsa dancing, and playing tag with her dog Atlas.

Thu “Tina” Tran, MD (She/her/hers)
Hometown: North Richland Hills, TX
Undergraduate: Stanford University – Human Biology – BA
Medical School: University of Texas Southwestern
Languages: Vietnamese, Basic Spanish

Tina was born in Vietnam and immigrated over to the US with her family when she was three but considers herself a Texan at heart. She traveled west to California for college where she helped start a student-run women’s homeless shelter, worked as a Vietnamese interpreter in a free clinic, and dabbled in audio editing with the Stanford Storytelling Project. After undergraduate, Tina was fortunate enough to participate in the Emerson National Hunger Fellowship, a social justice program focused on domestic anti-hunger, anti-poverty initiatives through an anti-racism lens. Through the program, she spent six months in Pittsburgh working as a community organizer with FQHCs on food insecurity screenings and six months as a child nutrition policy analyst in Washington DC. She continued to nurture these passions in medical school as a student manager at a free clinic, Albert Schweitzer Fellow with a women and children’s shelter in Dallas, and a researcher on foster/kinship caregiver burden and trauma-informed care. Tina is ecstatic to be joining the Lawrence family, a program that is committed to excellence in family medicine and intentional community engagement. She is also looking forward to improving her Spanish! In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her fiancé, family and friends, exploring the New England trails and beaches, attempting to cook her mom’s Vietnamese dishes, being involved in a local church, scouring the area for the best boba shops, and finding ways to survive the New England winters.

Rebecca Weiner (She/her/hers)
Birthplace: West Orange, NJ
Undergrad: Rutgers University – Political Science – BA
Medical School: Rutgers New Jersey Medical School
Language: Spanish – un poquito

Rebecca Weiner was born and raised in New Jersey where she studied Political Science at Rutgers University.  After graduating she studied culinary arts and worked in NYC as a pastry cook.  Many adventures and a career change later, she wound up in Florida working as a veterinary technician.  While being surrounded by dogs and cats was a dream, the veterinary field inspired her love for medicine in general.  After completing premedical studies at Columbia University and 2 AmeriCorps terms of service, she came back home to Rutgers to study medicine in Newark, NJ.  Her journey inspired a love for population health, working with high emergency department utilizers, and family medicine above all else.  She was most drawn to Lawrence for its passion for serving the diverse needs of the local community.  Outside of work, she loves to read, cook, cycle, facetime with family across the country and dreams of learning to become a better sailor and skydiver.

Beverly Williams, MD (She/her/hers)
Hometown: Abiquiu, New Mexico
Undergraduate: University of New Mexico: Biology
Medical School: University of New Mexico
Languages: English, Spanish

Beverly was born in Los Alamos, New Mexico and grew up in a small village in northern New Mexico called Abiquiu (also the home of the famous artist Georgia O’Keeffe). She attended the University of New Mexico where she received her Bachelor’s Degree in Biology. She then ventured on to medical school at the University of New Mexico and became involved in a Rural, Urban and Underserved program that allowed her to rotate through various communities throughout the state and see, firsthand, what rural and underserved medicine truly looks like. This inspired her to get involved with other underserved populations, where she found her niche volunteering at a local non-profit organization called Street Safe. This non-profit helps women on the street that are victims of sex trafficking or experiencing homelessness. Volunteering at this organization sparked a passion for women’s health, where Beverly ultimately advocated for a reformed History and Physical that is inclusive of this population and ensures they receive the medical care that they deserve. This curriculum was accepted to be presented nationally and internationally, including at the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine. The strong emphasis of culture, language, and diversity is what drew her to Greater Lawrence to be her home away from home.

Outside of medicine, Beverly enjoys her love for candling—using her creativity to hand craft candles of various sizes, shapes, colors, and scents. She also enjoys being outside in nature and can be found either hiking, camping, or kayaking. Although she will miss the red and green chile of NM, she is excited to try fresh seafood and other cultural pearls in the community!

Alejandra “Ale” Vélez Alicea (She/her/ella)
Hometown: San Juan, PR
Undergrad: Boston University – Human Physiology, BS
Med School: Tufts University School of Medicine
Languages: Spanish, Basic Portuguese, Basic French

Ale was born and raised in San Juan, PR, where most of her family still lives today. She is immensely proud of her three siblings, who are scattered in different places, and misses them every day. Ale moved to Boston for college after graduating high school in PR. She started working as a Spanish medical interpreter at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center as her work-study job during college. Through her work as an interpreter, Ale became passionate about cultural humility in medicine, as well as the importance of effective communication, trauma-informed care, and mutual respect in all medical encounters. Ale also became interested in better serving vulnerable groups in medicine, with particular interest in serving immigrant and Latinx communities. As a medical student at Tufts, Ale was part of the Sam W. Ho Health Justice Scholars Program (HJSP), where she received mentorship from clinicians dedicated to uplifting their communities, furthering social justice in medicine and addressing health disparities. Along with two fellow HJSP scholars, Ale started a social support and health education group for Latinx and immigrant women called “Entre Mujeres,” in partnership with community-based non-profit organization La Alianza Hispana in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, MA. Ale remains very interested in the role of groups in helping to empower communities and promote health among its members. Ale is also interested in learning to practice full-spectrum family medicine, including women’s health, reproductive health, transgender patient care, substance use disorder treatment, and other areas. Outside of work, Ale likes to spend time with her husband Diego, and their two rescue dogs, Lula and Mabí. Ale also enjoys collecting houseplants, reading, and catching up with her family in her spare time.

Lauren Barr (She/her/hers)
Hometown: Jacksonville, FL
Undergrad: Auburn University – Biomedical Sciences, BS; Spanish, BA
Medical School: Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
Languages: Spanish

Lauren grew up in Jacksonville, Florida. She attended Auburn University, where she ran track and cross country while studying Spanish and biomedical sciences. After graduation, she moved to Chicago for a year of service through the program Amate House. There, she lived in intentional community with eight other volunteers, worked with Spanish-speaking senior citizens through the nonprofit Little Brothers, Friends of the Elderly, and participated in Amate’s social justice education curriculum. These experiences motivated her to pursue a career centered on providing primary care and partnering with communities to address health inequities. Lauren then moved to Nashville for medical school at Vanderbilt. At the student-run free clinic, through various roles including patient health educator and executive co-director, she discovered her love of continuity with patients, motivational interviewing, and chronic disease management. Her path to family medicine was rounded out by experiences directing the student hotspotting program, serving on the board of the TNAFP, and researching community-based interventions to prevent child obesity in low-income families. Lauren chose Lawrence for countless reasons (and despite her fear of winter!), but particularly for the commitment to the community, the innovative four-year curriculum, and the passion of the residents. She is thrilled to be here and to learn from her new community.

Alicia Fraser (She/her/hers)
Hometown: Rowley, MA
Undergrad: Salem State University
Medical School: University of Massachusetts Medical School
Languages: Basic French, Basic Spanish

Alicia spent most of her life on the North Shore of Massachusetts, growing up in Rowley, MA and attending college at Salem State University.  She is not someone who knew she wanted to be a doctor as a child, but realized during her first semester as a biology major that human physiology and pathophysiology made her excited to get up and go to class.  She left college with the intent of becoming a clinical geneticist but spent the next several years working various jobs in substance abuse, sleep and circadian rhythm research, and dermatology, and finding herself unexpectedly interested in everything (a true FM doc in the making).  During her working years she followed a lifelong passion for public health and completed an MPH from the University of New England.  She married her college sweetheart and had a super cool kid named Cooper.  When she finally started medical school at UMass she no longer knew what she wanted to do, but was certain she would NOT want to pursue OB/GYN, GI, or anything primary care.  Living in Worcester, she quickly fell in love and discovered a passion for community work serving on the executive board for the Worcester Free Clinic Coalition, and teaching parenting and life skills with local shelters for at-risk young mothers.  Within weeks of starting medical school she found her true calling was maternal and child health, and spent the majority of the next 3 years thinking she would become an OB/GYN. She’s not sure when the lightbulb moment happened, but she one day realized that she was destined for primary care and had always been meant to find family medicine (even GI has grown on her).  Once she started researching programs, she discovered that the Lawrence Family Medicine Residency was everything she didn’t even know she needed, and was ecstatic to find a program that would allow her to receive excellent training in every area of her interest.  She is so excited to begin this journey with a fantastic class of like-minded individuals, and can’t wait to see what the next four years have in store.

Jack Gordon (He/him/his)
Hometown: Long Beach, CA
Undergrad: University of California at Berkeley
Medical School: University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry
Languages: Spanish, Basic French

Jack grew up in Long Beach, California, where he spent time at the beach as often as possible. He went to college at UC Berkeley, and attended medical school at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. In between college and medical school Jack bounced around working as a teacher, working construction, playing music in a band, and working in farmer’s markets. He is happy to be continuing his journey here in the lively city of Lawrence, close to the Atlantic coast beaches. Jack looks forward to serving Lawrence as a physician and community member. Hechose a career in primary care because he believes it is the best way for him to use his scientific education to join the struggle against societal injustice, racism, wealth disparities, and the degradation of the environment. Physicians have a unique opportunity to work directly with people affected by these issues, and to amplify their voices when advocating for change. Within medicine, he has researched better ways to deliver medical interventions to the homeless population in Rochester, NY as well as the history of mental health care in the United States. Jack is also interested in clinical research in environmental medicine. Outside of medicine he enjoys playing music, hiking, biking, baking bread, growing plants in the garden, and long walks on the beach (of course).

Rayyan Kamal (He/him/his/el)
Hometown: Lawrence, KS
Undergrad: University of Kansas – Mathematics
Medical School: University of Kansas School of Medicine
Languages: English, Basic Bangla, Intermediate Spanish

With roots cultivated in Lawrence, Kansas, Rayyan hadn’t initially sought to become a doctor. He found the most joy in simply communing with others. In Kansas, Rayyan supported local projects aimed at food security and social justice through living in intentional and cooperative housing. There, he discovered that to be truly in a community, he needed to be with those who are the most marginalized. Communing with others means to take on their struggles not from a place of charity, but horizontally, using privilege to take on the systemic oppressions and inequalities they experience, as family. This intention inspired the idea of pursuing medicine as a vocation. During his time at the University of Kansas School of Medicine, he put his heart into providing medical care to the homeless, communing with folks through Catholic Workers, leading a women’s free clinic for obstetric care, and developing projects aimed toward combating implicit bias and systemic racism. Upon arriving in Lawrence, Massachusetts, he is excited about the culture of radical justice, kindness, and community present among the faculty, residents, and patients. He and his partner, who is studying to be an emergency medicine doctor, dream of creating a free clinic/community center like the Catholic Worker model with extensive resources for medical care. Outside of medicine, Rayyan loves sharing his passions for improvised music, mainly piano and saxophone, bicycling, mathematics, and cooking with others. If you can’t find him, he is probably cooking food with other pursuers of justice or outside playing some Mardi Gras music with folks in the neighborhood. Laissez les bons temps rouler!

Taylor Lautzenhiser (She/her/hers)
Hometown: Indianapolis, IN
Undergrad: Indiana University – Biotechnology
Medical School: Tufts University School of Medicine
Languages: English, Basic Spanish

Taylor grew up in Indianapolis, IN where her initial interest in the world of medicine was sparked by reading memoirs of people facing medical challenges. She was drawn in by the patient’s stories, their resilience, and the opportunity that physicians have to provide compassion and care during the ups and downs of a person’s life. Taylor attended Indiana University where she studied Biotechnology. Following her undergraduate studies, she moved to Chicago, IL, working as a research assistant at Northwestern University’s Comprehensive Transplant Center, and then obtaining a MA in Medical Sciences from Loyola University Chicago. Taylor then left the Midwest for the East Coast to attend medical school at Tufts University School of Medicine. During her time at Tufts, she developed her interests in mentoring, medical education, and women’s health. She taught as a summer instructor for a Tufts program designed to introduce high school students from underrepresented and disadvantaged backgrounds to the healthcare field, co-led a mindfulness and peer support group for first-year medical students, participated in advocacy events with MSFC, and served on the TUSM curriculum committee. Through clinical experiences with underserved populations and volunteering at the student-run free clinic, Taylor saw the powerful impact that physicians can have when they work with the community they serve. Taylor was drawn to GLFHC because of the full spectrum training, the opportunity to learn Spanish, and the commitment to meeting the needs of their community through compassionate and innovative care. In her free time, Taylor enjoys dancing, hiking, cooking and crochet.

TlalliAztlan (Tlalli) Moya-Smith (She/her/hers/ella)
Hometown: Oakland, CA
Undergrad: Yale University — Molecular, Cellular, Developmental Biology, BS
Medical School: Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth
Languages: Spanish, learning French

Tlalli was raised on the “best coast” in Oakland, California, and tends toward the stereotype of a crunchy-granola Northern Californian who loves avocados. Growing up in an Indigenous-Mexican-American family, Tlalli developed a deep appreciation for multiculturalism. With familial roots in the farm workers’ movement and exposure to the injustice of socioeconomic inequality at a young age, her passion for fighting for the rights of marginalized communities blossomed. Tlalli transitioned to the east coast when she attended Yale University, where she engaged with her community through free clinics and homeless shelter outreach and was exposed to global health disparities in rural Argentina and Peru. At Dartmouth Medical School, Tlalli led Project Salud, a student-run organization providing healthcare to farmworkers, and helped promote Latinx health as the president of Dartmouth’s Latino Medical Student Association. In solidarity with Native communities across the globe, she planned Indigenous Peoples’ Day celebrations at her medical school and led a trip to the White Earth Reservation, and has had the privilege of learning from Indigenous communities in the US, Australia, Greenland, and Bolivia. For her dedication to leadership and serving communities, Tlalli was awarded the Dartmouth Diversity Visionary Award and the Radebaugh Community Service Award. Drawn to Lawrence’s commitment to becoming a part of and taking care of its beautiful community, Tlalli is excited to learn the type of full-spectrum family medicine that will enable her to fit the needs of her community. In her free time, Tlalli can be found traipsing through the wilderness, nerding out about, well, nerdy things, trying to bake something with leftovers in her fridge, exploring new cities, and dancing.

Lydia Rex (She/her/hers)
Hometowns: Houston, TX and Manchester, England, UK
Undergrad: Wesleyan University – Italian and Biology, BA
Medical School: Tufts University School of Medicine
Languages: Conversational Italian, Basic Spanish, Basic French

Lydia spent the first 10 years of her life in Houston, Texas where she developed a love of Tex-Mex food, humidity, and SPF 100. She and her family then uprooted to Manchester, England for eight years where she and her sister were the only Americans in their traditional British school (their accents got really strange during that time). Living in England allowed for extensive travel and she developed a love for learning about all the incredible and diverse cultures of the world. She then moved back to the U.S. to attend Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT where she majored in Italian Studies and Biology and did a semester abroad in Bologna, Italy. After graduation, she moved to Boston to work as a Clinical Research Coordinator at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (where she met her partner, Chris!). She also spent her time volunteering as an abortion doula for the Boston Doula Project. Attending Tufts University School of Medicine was the culmination of a life-long dream to become a physician; at Tufts, she led meditations as part of the Mindfulness Group, as well as volunteering as a Sexual and Reproductive Health Counselor at The Sharewood Project. Throughout medical school, she continued to develop a passion for women’s health, reproductive justice, transgender medicine, behavioral health, and caring for underserved communities. She feels extremely lucky to be in Lawrence and looks forward to receiving full-spectrum training while learning Spanish and providing culturally-appropriate care. In her spare time she loves baking various delicious desserts, reading, practicing yoga, and staying in touch with her friends who live across the world.

Claire Trachtman (She/her/hers)
Hometowns: Valparaiso, IN and Chicago, IL
Undergrad: Hamilton College
Medical School: Frank H. Netter MD School of Medicine at Quinnipiac University
Languages: French, Basic Spanish

Claire grew up exploring Chicago with her dad and the neighboring Indiana farmland with her mom and older brothers (perhaps explaining her earliest interest in medicine, wanting to be a “horse doctor,” when she was three). She ventured east to attend Hamilton College in upstate New York where she fostered her love of science through the study of biology and her interests in language and culture in her French minor. She furthered her scientific – and cultural – training after college, spending two years doing basic research in immunology and reproduction at Massachusetts General Hospital in a lab with members from over a dozen countries. Claire pursued her medical education at Quinnipiac University, where her inclination toward primary care blossomed into a passion for the variety of work and deep physician-patient relationships in family medicine. She realized the reward in caring for marginalized populations when providing foot care for people experiencing homelessness during her first year, leading her to found an interest group providing foot care and social work street outreach for homeless people in Rhode Island. Claire has been dreaming of combining all of her interests – and learning Spanish! – at GLFHC since the early days of medical school. Outside of medicine, Claire loves baking and running (partially so she can eat more of her baked treats), as well as birding in the wilderness of New England. She and her husband Ben also enjoy watching Eagles football games with a homebrew in hand and their cat Humboldt snuggled between them. 

Gabby Velásquez (She/her/ella)
Hometown: Essex Junction, VT
Undergrad: Boston University
Grad: Boston University (MS, MPH)
Medical School: New York Medical College
Languages: Spanish, Conversational French

Growing up in Vermont, a child of Ecuadorian immigrants and whose relatives mostly settled in the Bronx, Gabby had a very dichotomous upbringing and early on made the realization that where you lived and what you looked like influenced your life trajectory more than it should.  This lived experience and observation of the stark disparities and injustices many communities faced—especially communities of color, informed her experiences during and after college. This included being a medical Spanish interpreter during college, and then working full-time as a program coordinator for a healthcare pipeline program for Boston youth based out of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, after college. It was through that first job out of college that she learned more about community health and realized that these observations she had made growing up could be NAMED and that they were very much rooted in public health. After working with that pipeline program for 4 years, Gabby decided that she wanted to become a physician and that her career would land in the intersection between public health and medicine (hello, Family Medicine!). She went on to obtain her MS/MPH in 2016 before matriculating into medical school. Gabby fell in love with GLFHC early on in her medical school career because it combined all of her interests: a commitment to social justice, a diverse and Spanish-speaking patient population and innovative and excellent training based out of a FQHC (a setting Gabby has always known she wants to practice in). She did a sub-I there during her 4th year of medical school and was impressed by how supportive the learning environment was and how remarkable and dedicated the faculty and residents were. Gabby cannot wait learn alongside passionate and social justice-oriented individuals and become the family physician and community advocate she’s always wanted to be. In her free time Gabby enjoys being outdoors (it’s the Vermonter in her): hiking and swimming in the summer/fall and skiing in the winter, doing yoga, watching TV with her forever fiancé, Matt (here’s hoping they can “someday” have their dream wedding), and most importantly, eating good food and drinking good craft beer.

Ina Bodinaku, MD (she/her/hers)
Hometown: Peabody, MA
Undergrad: Tufts University – Biology and Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies
Med School: Tufts University School of Medicine
Languages: Intermediate Spanish, Albanian

Ina was born in Tirana, Albania and grew up in her father’s childhood home amidst extended family and multiple cousins she considers as siblings. She developed a love for this first hometown, an urban city nestled between the mountains where hospitality for guests, frequent coffee breaks and walking everywhere are undisputable ways of life. At age 7, Ina moved to the United States with her parents to start a new life in Peabody, MA. Ina considers this city as her second hometown, where she spent the second half of her childhood and adolescent years, later commuting to Medford, MA for her undergraduate studies at Tufts University. As a premedical student, she only planned on majoring in Biology until she discovered another major that spoke equally to her passions. Through her Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies, Ina gained a strong foundation in understanding how intersecting social identities impact a person’s lived experiences, including those with the healthcare system. Growing up in Albania, a country with universal healthcare, she saw how this system failed to meet the needs of all people and noticed how social influences of health often served as barriers to adequate access to care. Ina dreamed of one day becoming a physician because she believes that physicians can serve as powerful agents for change in their communities by advocating for their patients. She was fortunate to continue her journey at the Tufts University School of Medicine. During medical school, Ina volunteered at Rosie’s Place as an English as a Second Language teacher leading classes for women from various educational and cultural backgrounds struggling with homelessness. As an avid believer in physician wellness, she hosted meditation sessions as part of the Mindfulness Group for Tufts medical students. Although parts of her studies were interrupted by COVID, Ina managed to stay involved with her community by co-leading student efforts to collect PPE donations for Tufts Medical Center and by conducting telephone calls to check in on elderly patients at a local Family Practice Group. She is excited and feels extremely fortunate to continue her journey as a now Triple Tufts Jumbo with this next chapter at the Lawrence Family Medicine Residency. Ina chose Lawrence because of the residency’s commitment to the community and most looks forward to learning from her patients. Ina is passionate about training in full-spectrum Family Medicine, Maternal and Child Health, Women’s Health, Global Health, caring for the underserved and learning to provide culturally sensitive care. In her spare time, Ina loves traveling with family and friends, tending to houseplants, painting/photography/crafting, being outdoors (mainly in the summer) and listening to Jesse sing in Spanish!

Jesse Feierabend-Peters, MD (he/him/his)
Hometown: Martinez, CA
Undergrad: Stanford University – Anthropology
Med School: University of Massachusetts Medical School
Languages: Intermediate Spanish, Basic French

Jesse was born in San Francisco, CA and raised in Albany and Martinez, CA. From a young age, he has had the privilege of learning his family’s stories of strength and resilience in the face of adversity and oppression. Jesse’s interest in health equity and community advocacy stems from his knowledge of these family narratives of illness, incarceration, and of fleeing racial and political persecution. Hoping to better understand systemic oppression and his own lived experiences as a multi-racial Black man, he studied anthropology at Stanford University. While there, he sang in an R&B acapella group, began learning Spanish, was a public health volunteer in Oaxaca, Mexico, and helped establish an English immersion program at a school in East Palo Alto, CA. After college, he worked as a personal trainer, volunteered in patient escort at MGH, and wrote a textbook chapter about social theory and global health for a course at MIT. These experiences, coupled with his desire to partner with patients and learn more about the interplay of social determinants of health and disease processes, led him to pursue Family Medicine.

In medical school, Jesse worked on multiple projects to support individuals impacted by the criminal justice system, both behind the walls of the prison and out in the community—this included an opportunity to present his work on reentry at the Academic and Health Policy Conference on Criminal Justice Health. He also partnered with local and national organizations to host health fairs and educational workshops in Worcester, MA and he spearheaded a program to support hospitalized patients experiencing loneliness during the COVID pandemic. These experiences deepened his understanding of the ways that structural inequities and racism impact health and reaffirmed his desire to practice full-spectrum family medicine—which he believes is intrinsically a way to begin addressing health inequities.

He is delighted to train at GLFHC because of the program’s commitment to the community it serves and the willingness of program leaders to challenge the status quo to provide quality care to patients and exceptional training to residents. Outside of medicine, he enjoys spending time with his spouse, visiting his family in California, reading fantasy novels, singing, freestyle rapping, lifting weights, and eating spicy food. With Juliette’s help, he hopes to find and eat the best tacos in New England!

Juliette Kassas, DO MPH (she/her)
Hometown: Salem, NH
Undergrad: Northeastern University — Biochemistry
MPH: Dartmouth College
Medical School: University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine
Languages: English, Intermediate Spanish, Basic Arabic

Juliette grew up in Salem, NH. Her father is an immigrant from Lebanon and her mother is a Merrimack Valley native. She was first introduced to patient care through a high school volunteer position at Lawrence General Hospital, and she is so excited to return 12 years later! During her undergraduate years at Northeastern University, Juliette developed interests in point-of-care medical devices, cost-effective healthcare, medical research, and public health. She then worked for OPKO Diagnostics, LLC in Woburn, MA and was involved in the development and FDA approval of the company’s flagship point-of-care medical device. Prior to beginning medical school, she also earned her Master of Public Health Degree at Dartmouth College with a concentration in Health Policy in Clinical Practice. While working and completing her Master’s Degree, she cultivated a love for distance running. Within this span of 2.5 years, she ran 6 marathons including World Majors: New York (X2), Chicago, and Boston.  At the University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine, Juliette completed her clinical rotations in her home state of New Hampshire — the third-most afflicted state in the US by opioid-involved overdose deaths in 2018. She frequently encountered patients with substance use disorder and broadened her understanding of the disease through participation in the Summer Institute for Medical Students (SIMS) immersion program sponsored by the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation. During her medical school rotation in Lawrence, she was drawn to the holistic care and attention given to each patient despite being an underserved area. As an osteopathic physician, Juliette is excited to incorporate OMM into her practice of full-spectrum Family Medicine. She is also looking forward to learning more about Sports Medicine, Addiction Medicine, and Health Policy. In her spare time, she continues to run and also enjoys hosting parties, spending time with family, trying new restaurants with her partner Elie, and being outdoors with Margot and her dog!

Margot Mellette, MD (she/her)
Hometown: Williamsburg, Virginia
Undergraduate: Yale University – History
Medical School: University of Virginia
Languages: Intermediate Spanish

Margot was born and raised in the historic triangle of southeastern Virginia. She attended Yale University where she focused her studies on the history of public health. During college, she worked in a shelter supporting individuals who had experienced intimate partner violence and organized community health education classes on consent and reproductive health. These interests eventually led her to Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program, where she spent a formative year providing medical case management at a women’s emergency shelter. It was during this time in Boston at a community health center advocacy day where she first learned of GLFHC, planting a seed that stayed with her when she returned to Virginia for medical school. While at UVA, Margot led several community health and free clinic initiatives focused on expanding access to primary care, particularly for individuals experiencing homelessness. She also organized curricular reform initiatives focused on improving training in LGBTQ+ health care and decreasing racial bias in the medical school curriculum. Margot was drawn to GLFHC for countless reasons, including its exceptional commitment to the Lawrence community and the opportunity to train at an innovative teaching community health center. She is so excited to learn from this inspiring community over the next four years. Outside of medicine, Margot loves being outdoors with her spouse and her dog, bringing up her dog in nearly every conversation, trying out new vegetarian food, and marveling at Alma’s excellent sense of humor.

Alma Onate Munoz, MD (she/her)
Hometown: Cincinnati, OH
Undergraduate: Northern Kentucky University — Chemistry
Medical School: Harvard Medical School
Languages: Spanish

Alma was born and raised in Jalisco, Mexico and at the age of eight, she moved with her family to what she now considers home—Cincinnati, Ohio. Growing up as a first-generation immigrant, she quickly discovered the importance and the power of storytelling in personal and public advocacy and was a part of local activism projects throughout high school and college. She attended Northern Kentucky University where she identified her love for teaching and spent much of her time teaching and tutoring middle school, high school, and college students in both formal and informal settings. During medical school, she volunteered at student-run clinics throughout Boston, where she witnessed firsthand the effects of social determinants of health on immigrants, incarcerated men, and underserved communities. This experience reaffirmed her commitment to learn about and address social determinants of health at every level. As a starting off point, she started a student-run group to support first-generation/low income students succeed in medical school and beyond through sharing of experiences, advice, and resources. She took an extra year during medical school to work with OPENPediatrics, an online educational forum for healthcare professionals, where she worked on creating an animated pediatrics curriculum for medical students and helped conduct research on best practices for curriculum delivery. Alma was drawn to GLFHC for its commitment to serving its community and the full spectrum training that she hopes to use as a tool of social justice for her patients. She hopes to combine her love of teaching, storytelling, and primary care to grow as a clinician and an advocate for her patients and their community. Outside of medicine, Alma loves spending time with her spouse and her two cats, Luna and Oreo, visiting her family in Ohio and spending time with her nieces and nephews, watching The Office (and other comedy shows), going to new coffee shops with Hannah, and going salsa/bachata dancing.

Hannah Pearson, MD (she/her)
Hometown: Hopkins, MN
Undergraduate: University of Wisconsin – Madison
Medical School: University of Minnesota – Twin Cities
Languages: Basic Spanish

Hannah grew up in Hopkins, MN. She was part of the first generation in her family to pursue higher education and attended the University of Wisconsin – Madison. While attending Madison, she studied biology, global health and gender and women’s studies. During that time, Hannah learned about the many disparities that face our society and grew a passion for social justice, antiracism and feminism. Combining her passion for social justice and science, Hannah returned home to attend the University of Minnesota Medical School. Hannah had the opportunity to work and learn from the urban underserved population in Minneapolis as well as the rural underserved population in Staples, MN (No, not the Staples Store). Hannah witnessed the strength of Family Medicine by performing research assessing the perinatal needs of a predominantly Somali urban community and providing perinatal care for a rural Amish community. Her rural rotation ended early due to COVID-19 and Hannah found herself back in Minneapolis. Not long after her return, her community was, once again, forced to confront the racist systems that exist in the city after the murder of George Floyd. As part of a hurt and outraged community, she protested and helped a local Family Medicine clinic that was damaged during the protests. She is excited and humbled to be a part of the Greater Lawrence Family Medicine program. She is inspired that the program was founded to help meet the needs of the Latinx community in Lawrence and that their relationship with the community remains central to the program. LFMR recognizes the importance of full-spectrum family medicine when caring for underserved communities and prepares its residents to meet those needs. Furthermore, LFMR trains its residents to address the inherently biased systems our patients and our health care workers face. Hannah is excited to start residency at Lawrence and during her free time she enjoys going to coffee shops, going to new restaurants with Tala, hiking, camping, skiing, seeing live music and playing volleyball with her friends and fiancé.

Tala Radejko, MD MSc (she/her)
Hometown: Washington DC;  London, UK
Undergraduate: University of Chicago – Comparative Literature
Graduate: Imperial College London – Epidemiology
Medical School: Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth
Languages: Norwegian (at home), intermediate Spanish, intermediate French, basic Arabic

Tala was born in Washington DC but grew up moving between the United States, Ukraine, and United Kingdom in a Palestinian-Norwegian family. They instilled in her a love of languages, books, and food, and their experiences of exile and immigration inspired her interest in medicine as a tool for tackling systemic injustice. At the University of Chicago, she studied postcolonial literature in the Middle East, worked in clinical research, and was involved in several advocacy groups on campus who taught her about the power of grassroots organizing. A longstanding interest in public health and reproductive health led her to complete a graduate degree in epidemiology. Although she thought about a PhD and remains interested in research, she missed hearing patients’ stories and knew she wanted to be on the clinical side of addressing public health challenges.  In medical school, she learned more about rural medicine and harm reduction, and she worked with classmates on projects such as setting up HIV/HCV testing alongside a needle exchange. She was ultimately drawn toward family medicine after realizing she could combine her varied clinical interests – including nutrition, addiction medicine, HIV/HCV medicine, and climate change and health – with her desire to provide comprehensive reproductive and obstetrical care. Lawrence stood out to Tala because of its deep commitment to its community and to training physicians capable of providing innovative, compassionate, and culturally sensitive care. Outside of medicine she enjoys reading, cooking, vegetable gardening, and game nights with Julie.

Julie Scott, MD MPH (she/her)
Hometown: Rocklin, CA
Undergraduate: Pepperdine University — Malibu, CA — Hispanic Studies/ Spanish
Graduate: University of Florida College of Public Health and Health Professions – MPH in Public Health Practice
Medical School: University of Florida College of Medicine
Languages: Learning Spanish

Julie is originally from the Philippines, where her parents dedicated their careers to community partnership and leadership development. After spending the majority of her childhood in the Philippines, Julie’s family relocated to California, where Julie calls her second home. After surviving culture shock and high school, she studied Spanish at University and was able to nurture her love of experiencing and learning about cultures outside of her own by completing a yearlong immersive experience in Argentina. She hopes to return soon to cook and enjoy maté with her Argentine family. After college, Julie decided to change coasts (though West Coast is still the best coast) and chase a new adventure while completing her medical degree in sunny Florida. Her passion for medicine, particularly family medicine, and community health was first realized through the transformative experiences she had when assisting doctors and dentists in caring for the vulnerable and marginalized communities in the Philippines. This passion was later developed throughout undergrad where Julie was able to teach Saturday Science School in Compton when school funding for math and sciences dramatically decreased. Her love for family medicine continued to grow in Florida where she joined the leadership team for managing and expanding their weekly free, student-run clinics to better meet community needs. She continued her pursuit of experiencing new cultures by participating and organizing a yearly medical brigade to Nicaragua. Finding that she desired more education on preventive and community health, she interrupted her medical training to obtain a master’s degree in Public Health to round out her undergraduate medical training. During this year, Julie was able to practice her newfound skills as an employee of the Florida Department of Public Health doing COVID-19 case investigation, management and contact tracing. Julie is excited to continue her graduate medical training at a place where the mission and actions of the residency and clinic greatly align with her values and heart. She is thrilled to grow in both her medical and Spanish-speaking skills, and to one-day practice full-spectrum primary care in the communities that most need it. Outside of medicine, Julie enjoys exploring outdoors with her husband and dog (hiking, kayaking, fishing and swimming), spoiling her friends and family with baked goods, stealing recipes from Rachel, and hosting game nights.

Rachel Weinstock, MD (she/her)
Hometown: Doylestown, PA; Westford, MA
Undergrad: Tufts University–Anthropology and Community Health
Med School: Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Languages: Spanish

Rachel was born near Philadelphia and moved to the Boston area when she was eleven. She attended Tufts University, where her two passions were improv comedy and global health equity work. Through studying abroad in Chile, conducting community-based participatory research with the Dominican community in Boston, and majoring in Anthropology, she became interested in providing care across cultural and linguistic boundaries. She also fostered a desire to learn about, and push back against systemic barriers that block access to quality care for marginalized groups. Upon graduating, she moved to Salcedo, Dominican Republic to work as an assistant science teacher and health educator at a high school, the Liceo Científico Dr. Miguel Canela Lázaro. She gained an appreciation for the art of teaching, and the way education can empower people, as well as a deep regard and gratefulness for her host community. Working at a community-based organization such as the Liceo sparked an interest in working in primary care, where she could work with patients on their own terms, and strive to address issues beyond their physical health. While in medical school in the Bronx, Rachel focused on taking action to support her values. As an on-campus leader for Medical Students for Choice, she educated herself about reproductive justice and volunteered as an abortion clinic escort. She joined AIRE, Advocacy for Immigrant and Rights and Equity, where she contributed to curriculum development around caring for undocumented patients. She returned to Chile to conduct qualitative research on the HPV vaccine and sexual education. As COVID hit New York, she led the medical school volunteering response, organizing over 20 support projects and coordinating with a network of medical schools across NYC. These experiences redoubled her commitment to using her skills to build a more socially just world. Rachel enjoys baking and collecting cookbooks, learning new languages, reflective writing, and spending time with her partner, friends and family. She loves going out to eat and looks forward to showing Jessica around her home state for old and new spots to grab a bite.

Jessica Williams, MD, MPH (she/her/hers)
Hometown: Amarillo, TX
Undergrad: Rice University – Houston, TX – Bioengineering
Graduate School: The School of Public Health at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston – MPH
Medical School: McGovern Medical School at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
Languages: English, Basic Spanish, Basic French, Basic Q’eqchi

Jessica was born and raised in Amarillo, TX. She studied Bioengineering at Rice University in Houston, where she became involved in the Global Health Technologies program, which was dedicated to developing medical technology appropriate for low-resource areas. After graduating from college, she joined the Peace Corps and served as a Community Health Educator in Belize for two years. During this time, she worked closely with two Community Health Workers in a rural Mayan village and truly came to understand the impact that primary care providers can have on the health of entire communities, particularly those in rural areas. When Jessica moved back to Texas, she knew she wanted to go to medical school to become a full-spectrum primary care provider. She attended McGovern Medical School and the School of Public Health at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston and completed a combined MD/MPH degree. In addition to being passionate about full-spectrum primary care, Jessica is eager to learn more about reproductive health care, gender-affirming care, and HIV medicine. She is thrilled to join the residency at Greater Lawrence because of the commitment to social justice and commitment to the Lawrence community. Outside of medicine, Jessica and her partner, Stacey, have been enjoying discovering everything that Massachusetts has to offer, including hiking trails and many different types of ice cream. She loves running with her dog, knitting, and baking. She is definitely going to be asking Ina for help to pick out some plants for her new apartment!