Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans 20Th Anniversary Alumni Notes
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Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans 20th Anniversary Alumni Notes The following notes are included for each fellow who submitted an update and are organized by class year (1998 to 2017) and last name (A to Z). An index is included at the back of this collection for reference. 1998 Rajiv Doshi | Los Altos, CA | [email protected] Director, India Program, Stanford Biodesign; Adjunct Professor, Stanford School of Medicine Since completing the Fellowship, Raj followed two career paths in parallel. First, Raj has taught medical technology innovation at Stanford in the medical, engineering, and business schools. He directs a collaboration between Stanford and the Government of India to promote medical technology innovation, training 32 fellows (all Indian nationals). Second, Raj has pursued a career in the healthcare industry, first as a venture capitalist and then as an entrepreneur, founding two companies. His most impactful inventions to date have been a disposable sleep apnea product (Provent) and a consumer snoring product (Theravent), which are both available globally. Raj currently runs Piper Biosciences, a startup focused on non-drug solutions to manage chronic diseases and serves as a Sr. Advisor to McKinsey. Nadine Duplessy Kearns | Washington, DC | [email protected] District of Columbia Program Director, Meyer Foundation Nadine is well settled in Washington, DC, her husband’s hometown, where they are raising two boys (ages 10 and 14). Twenty years ago, when she was named a Fellow, she could not imagine how much the identity of being a first generation immigrant would shape all that she has done and how she continues to engage the world around her. She is deeply committed to working in the social sector to create opportunities for ALL Americans, new and by birth, to fulfill their potential and realize their dreams. Nadine has led in creating the Haitian Ladies Network, a global platform to connect women of Haitian descent to each other for personal growth, professional advancement, and community impact. Na Eng | St. Paul, MN | [email protected] Communications Director, McKnight Foundation After more than 20 years as a news and documentary television producer in New York City, Na returned to her home state of Minnesota to tell stories in a different way. Since 2015, she’s served as the communications director at the McKnight Foundation, a private family foundation that gives away about $90 million a year in a variety of program areas. Since taking on this role, Na has has really enjoyed working in the complex interdisciplinary field of public interest communications. Na and her husband Paul Bachleitner have a six year old son named Brandon. They enjoy summer concerts by the lake and biking along the Mississippi River. They’re especially grateful to be close to their extended families. Ikeolu Gbadegesin Adeyemi | Palo Alto, CA | [email protected] Head of Legal, Corporate, BHP Billiton After spending the last 11 years in London, Ike has recently returned with her family to the United States. She is living in the Bay Area with her husband and three children—with a fourth on the way. She is currently Head of Legal overseeing corporate and M&A matters, with BHP Billiton, an international resources company headquartered in Melbourne and London. She is very excited to be back in the United States and looks forward to reconnecting with the Soros family. Lisa Halpern | Boston, MA | [email protected] Rollie Lal | Reston, VA | [email protected] Visiting Associate Professor of Security Studies, George Washington University Rollie has been involved extensively in research and teaching for the past 20 years since receiving the Fellowship, and now covers primarily terrorism and organized crime, and how identity plays into these arenas. She is married to Steven (a Belgian) and they have a daughter, Isis Valentina, who is nine years old. Rollie enjoys traveling and generally goofing off with her family. Her main hobbies are swimming the backstroke (very good for the back) and science fiction. She has also recently turned minimalist. Her family is to be found clutching their last possessions before she donates them (the possessions, not the family). Alba Morales | Philadelphia, PA | [email protected] Assistant Federal Defender, Eastern District of Pennsylvania Federal Community Defender Office, Capital Habeas Unit After graduating from law school in 2001, Alba clerked for the Honorable Rosemary Barkett on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. She then became a public defender with the Legal Aid Society in Brooklyn, New York, and has been working on criminal justice issues ever since. She currently litigates death penalty cases, representing prisoners in habeas corpus proceedings. On weekends, she’s either on her bicycle working through her love/hate relationship with the hills outside of Philly, or rock climbing in the Shawangunks. Akilesh Palanisamy | San Francisco, CA | [email protected] Integrative Medicine Physician, Institute for Health and Healing Akilesh has found his dream job practicing integrative medicine, blending Ayurvedic medicine and holistic therapy with conventional medicine at the Sutter Health Institute for Health and Healing. He also released his first book The Paleovedic Diet, and launched a series of online classes on holistic medicine. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his lovely wife and 7 year old daughter Alisha. They enjoy tennis, poker, traveling and keeping in close touch with good friends, including a number of Fellows from the Fellowship class of 1998! Anita Yang Hsu | Irvine, CA | [email protected] Senior Vice President, General Counsel, MBK Real Estate Companies 2 1999 Supinda Bunyavanich | New York City, NY | [email protected] Associate Professor, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Supinda completed her MPhil, MD, and MPH degrees, internal medicine residency training, allergy/immunology fellowship training, and postdoctoral research fellowship. She served on the Harvard Medical School faculty and was then recruited to the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York where she is a physician scientist and Associate Professor. In addition to caring for patients, teaching, and advising, Supinda is the PI of an NIH-funded laboratory studying the genomics of asthma and allergic disorders. Supinda enjoys exploring NYC with her husband and two kids. Constance Chen | New York City, NY | [email protected] Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Constance M. Chen, MD, PC Dr. Constance M. Chen graduated from Stanford University School of Medicine in 2001. Connie completed general surgery training at University of Washington in Seattle, Washington, a clinical research fellowship at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, plastic surgery training at New York Presbyterian Weill-Cornell/Columbia, and a microsurgery fellowship at New York University Institute of Reconstructive Plastic Surgery. She is editor of two plastic surgery textbooks, and has developed international recognition for her expertise in perforator flap breast reconstruction and sensory restoration of the breast after mastectomy. She is married to Dr. Stephen M. Warren, who is also a plastic surgeon, and they have a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, J. Bentley Digweed. On weekends, Connie enjoys cooking and sailing with her husband and their dog. Renee Hsia | San Francisco, CA | [email protected] Professor of Emergency Medicine and Health Policy, University of California, San Francisco After receiving the Fellowship at Harvard Medical School, Renee proceeded to obtain her master’s in health policy, planning, and financing from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the London School of Economics, and then completed residency training in emergency medicine at Stanford Hospital. She is now an emergency physician at San Francisco General Hospital, where she serves the majority of immigrants, refugees, and homeless patients in the city. Her research focuses on the uneven distribution of emergency care for vulnerable patients, and how closures of emergency services affect patient outcomes. She has published extensively, and her work has been cited in national print media, including the New York Times, as well as network television news. Hsing-ay Hsu Kellogg | Boulder, CO | [email protected] Concert Pianist; Director of Pendulum New Music, University of Colorado-Boulder; Artist-Teacher of Conscious ListeningTM Since putting roots down in Colorado a decade ago, Ms. Hsu has become a prominent cultural figure in the Denver-Boulder corridor and solos with numerous orchestras. She recently performed two concerts back to back as the finale feature of the most recent Gulangyu Int’l Piano Festival in China. As Artistic Director for Pendulum New Music at CU-Boulder, she expanded the program to bring in international artists from Finland, Mexico, and the United Kingdom, and hosted celebrity 3 masterclasses including Kronos Quartet and Béla Fleck. She loves to mentor young/young-at-heart musicians and teachers, and serves as a creative consultant for organizations. A beloved teacher of prize-winning students, visiting piano faculty, adjudicator, lecturer (including a MTNA National Convention), she created Conscious ListeningTM seminars to bring dynamic teaching to festivals and music societies, and her masterclasses span Paris and Xiamen. She chairs the CSMTA College Forum and serves on the national editorial board of American Music Teacher magazine.