Team Bio

We are a team of medical students at Yale University interested in public health and health disparities, and we are very fortunate to be supported by faculty at the Schools of Medicine, Nursing, Public Health, and Law, as well as our partner lab, who have a range of backgrounds and expertise relating to migrants, stress, hair cortisol, and epidemiological research. We have the experience, the drive, and the plan we need to complete this project. Now all we need is you!

Dennis Wang

I am currently a medical student at Yale University. Previously, I worked in Northwest China on a cohort of miners and metalworkers, examining the impact of environmental and occupational exposures, as well as historical factors, on women's reproductive health, funded by a Fulbright grant. I have also worked on TB at the World Health Organization and HIV at the Chinese Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. I earned my BS in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry as well as Global Affairs at Yale University, and my MPH in the Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases at the Yale School of Public Health. Over the course of exploring my interest in global health, at the special intersection of scientific research and international relations, as well as my own roots, I have come to realize two things: 1) That I share some part of my immigrant experience with migrants and minorities everywhere, and 2) that I have been incredibly fortunate compared to the vast majority of those migrants and minorities in terms of the support and opportunities I have been afforded. Now, I am particularly interested in learning about the special medical and legal challenges facing refugee and migrant populations, and doing what I can to improve the social and political dimensions surrounding the immigrant experience.

Kimberly Ona Ayala

I am currently a medical student at Yale University. I was born in Ecuador, but moved to Northern Virginia when I was eight years old. As an immigrant myself, I understand how living the immigrant experience in the U.S can be one of isolation and desperation; I have come to realize how migration may enable people to escape turmoil in their homelands, but keep them shacked with chains of poverty and alienation.
Over the course of exploring my interests I had the opportunity to study at Cambridge University and expanded my understanding of the basic science behind human health and pathology by actively conducting biochemistry research at Pomona College. This understanding was complemented via a research fellowship in the Mayo Clinic’s Cancer Biology department. As a fellow I studied the structural characterization of metalloproteinases, primarily expressed in epithelial carcinomas. I earned my BA in Chemistry from Pomona College, where I assisted families at free urban clinics in working class communities in Southern California.

I am cognizant of how the opportunities afforded to me give me the responsibility to be an agent of change to those who are disenfranchised. As such, my aspiration to be a physician derives from a passion and desire to provide optimum health care to individuals who don’t have a voice, but need to be respected. I am committed to help marginalized communities access healthcare and am particularly interested in getting involved with advocacy and policy.

Monica Ferrer

I am an MD candidate in the Yale School of Medicine. Growing up in Venezuela, I saw how disease, poverty and lack of education, instigates a vicious cycle of disease and ignorance and I decided to dedicate my career to helping break this cycle. I graduated from Brandeis University with a triple-major in Neuroscience, Biology, and Health: Science, Society and Policy, and led a number of projects aimed at improving the health and education of communities in Venezuela and the US. I also interned at the International AIDS Society in Switzerland working on a literature review on community-based participatory research in HIV, and subsequently worked at Weill Cornell Medical College studying how electrical activity affects early brain development. Moving forward, I'm particularly interested in exploring how adverse life experiences, including stress and environmental toxins, affects the progress of neurodegenerative diseases.