Fellowships

2011 Fellowship Alumni Newsletter
2010 Fellowship Alumni Newsletter

Community Health Center Director Development (CHCDD): This fellowship is designed to train future physician leaders to become medical directors of Community Health Centers (CHCs). The fellow will provide Community-Oriented Primary Care in a medically underserved community, and receive faculty development training in preparation to becoming a role model and future teacher of medical students, residents and other health professionals. The fellow will serve as an instructor and junior faculty member, assisting other department faculty in several aspects of teaching, research, and clinical practice. 

Primary Care Health Policy: This is a one-year full-time program with combined experiences in scholarly research and clinical practice. Fellows have a unique opportunity to interact and local and federal policymakers in Washington, D.C. An integrated part of the program provides fellows the opportunity to collaborate with and contribute to institutions focused on improving quality medical care for our increasingly diverse and underserved populations through both clinical and academic practice.

Medical Humanities: Fellows explore and pursue projects related to arts-in-medicine. Fellows develop a curricular project using the arts in medicine, and will have numerous opportunities to incorporate medical humanities/arts into teaching at pre- and post-doctoral levels. The fellow will serve as an instructor and junior faculty member, assisting other department faculty in several aspects of teaching, research, and clinical practice.

TO APPLY: Please submit a CV, personal statement, and two letters of support with references by March 31 the year of application to Dr. Kim Bullock, kab75@georgetown.edu. For inquiries, call 202-687-0925.

CURRENT FELLOWS

Laura Makaroff, D.O. (2011), Primary Care Health Policy Fellow

Dr. Laura Makaroff is a graduate of Coe College (B.A. Chemistry) and Des Moines University (D.O.). She completed her residency in family medicine at University of Colorado Hospital where she received the Larry Green, M.D. award and Colorado Academy of Family Physicians’ Resident of the Year award. After completing her residency in 2006, she opened her own solo practice in Parker, C.O. Mountaintop Family Health was chosen to participate in the Colorado Multi-Stakeholder Multi-Payer Patient Centered Medical Home Pilot and earned NCQA Level III Patient Centered Medical Home recognition in 2009. Owning her own practice and providing first contact care to thousands of patients over the last four years solidified her desire to contribute to the improvement and redesign of our nation’s health care delivery system. She has varied health policy interests including supporting practice and health system transformation that supports patient-centered, equitable, and efficient health care. She will pursue her research and policy interests at The Robert Graham Center and provide clinical care at Unity Health Care.

Christy Tharenos, M.D., M.S.P.H. (2011), Medical Humanities Fellow

Dr. Christy Tharenos is a graduate of the University of Colorado (B.S. Environmental Biology and art) and the University of Missouri (M.D., M.S.P.H.). She completed both her residency in Family Medicine and fellowship in sports medicine at University of Missouri. Prior to coming to Georgetown, she served as a faculty member at the University of Missouri in the family medicine department and student health clinic on campus. Dr. Tharenos is passionate about cultural intersections with medicine and her work overseas in Mexico and Uganda in global health has shaped her greatly. She worked with Ugandan youth and cameras in a participatory project in which youth explored concepts of physical activity via photography. She is passionate about using her visual art and creative background to teach, expand understanding of the human condition and to give voices to those who often do not have a voice in society. In addition to her art and humanities fellowship work, Dr. Tharenos is doing clinical work at Georgetown student health center, precepting residents at Ft. Fincoln Family Medicine Center and will be teaching blocks within the undergraduate medical education curriculum.

Tobie-Lynn Smith, M.D., M.Ed., M.P.H. (2011), Community Health Center Director Development Fellow

Dr. Tobie-Lynn Smith is a graduate of The University of Texas (B.A., M.Ed., Kinesiology), SUNY Stony Brook School of Medicine (M.D.) and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (M.P.H.). She completed her residency in Family Medicine at CHRISTUS Santa Rosa in San Antonio, TX . She has worked in Urgent Care and medical mission trips to Nicaragua and serves as a Physicians for Human Rights Asylum Network Provider.

PREVIOUS FELLOWS

Primary Care Health Policy Recent Fellows

Matthew T. Burke, M.D. (2010)

Dr. Matthew Burke is a graduate of Dartmouth College (A.B., History and Biology) and Albany Medical College (M.D.). He completed his residency in Family Medicine at Brown University in 2009 and has held a strong interest in health policy since medical school. Dr. Burke has previously lobbied for reform on behalf of the AMA and AAFP, as well as having done comparative post doctoral education research at the University of Zagreb public health school in Croatia. He has strong interests in global health policy as well as Health Information Technology, especially as it pertains to the implementation of Patient Centered Medical Homes. He will be doing policy research at the Robert Graham Center while doing clinical work at Unity Health Care.

Keisa Bennett, M.D. (2009)

Dr. Keisa Bennet received her B.S. in Chemistry from Murray State University, and received her M.D. from the University of Kentucky. She is an assistant professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Kentucky. There, she participates in inpatient, outpatient and obstetric clinical care, teaching residents and students, and research in health systems and delivery. Her current research foci include primary care workforce, vitamin Dsupplementation, maternity care education, and motivation and behavioral factors that influence patients and providers to implement evidence-based medicine.

Community Health Center Director Development Recent Fellows

Sarah Kureshi, M.D., M.P.H. (2011)

Dr. Sarah Kureshi is a graduate of University of Central Florida (B.S., Biology), Mayo Clinic College of Medicine (M.D.) and Harvard School of Public Health (M.P.H, International Health). She completed her residency in Family Medicine at UCSF in 2010 where she was a global health clinical scholar and provided care to a multicultural, urban, underserved population. Dr. Kureshi has been passionate about community health since college and has a special interest in gender-based violence, health & human rights, and empowerment, especially pertaining to refugee/immigrant populations and survivors of trauma. Being a former NCAA college athlete and the first US female athlete to compete in Iran since the 1979 revolution, she has a strong passion for using sports as a tool for development, peace, violence prevetion, and health education. She has previously worked with girls rescued from sex trafficking in New Delhi, lady health workers in earthquake-affected Kashmir, and the Somali refugee community in Minnesota. This has been informed by her interest and work within the Muslim communuity addressing health-related issues. Dr. Kureshi currently serves as a Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) Aslym Network Provider. She is currently working at Unity Health Care.

Chevonne Salmon, M.D. (2009)
Erica McClaskey, M.D. (2008)
Michelle Roett, M.D. (2007)