PGY2 General Surgery Residents

Our PGY2 Residents

Elisabeth Abeles, MD

Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

Elisabeth’s hometown is Washington, DC. She graduated from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She previously completed her undergraduate studies at Cornell University where she was a College Scholar major, graduated summa cum laude, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. Elisabeth has studied Mandarin extensively and completed her honors thesis on practitioner agency and medical plurality in healing. After college graduation, with funding from the 2018 Phi Beta Kappa Scholarship Prize, Elisabeth spent a gap year serving as a health advocate and Mandarin English interpreter for elderly Chinese immigrants with the Chinatown Service Center in Washington, DC. Elisabeth has been a leader in mentorship, serving as a peer advisor in college and engaging as a peer mentor and leader at Hopkins as well. She has served as co-president of the Hopkins’ chapter of the American Medical Women’s Association where she directed the faculty-student AMWA mentorship program. She has also undertaken several research projects in burn surgery and plastics, which have resulted in several publications and presentations. Elisabeth is an endurance athlete, winning age-group awards in both swimming and in distance running. She has run several marathons and has qualified for the Boston marathon!

Samridhi Banskota, MD

Emory University School of Medicine

Samridhi’s hometown is Kathmandu. Nepal. She graduated with highest honors, with a BSE in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology and has completed medical school at Emory. As a medical student at Emory, Samridhi was awarded the Marianne Ruby, M.D. Award and a Society for Vascular Surgery Student Research Fellowship. She has a strong research background, spending time at the Broad Institute, working on RNA sequencing and computational analysis, and also in the lab of Dr. Elliot Chaikof here at BIDMC, where she was studying venous thromboembolism in cancer. These efforts have yielded multiple publications and several presentations to date. Samridhi also has a passion for mental health advocacy began during college when she was selected as a Peer Coach for the Georgia Tech Counseling Center, providing one-one counseling to fellow undergraduate students. She continued her mission in medical school, co-founding the Clarkston Mental Health Clinic, a student-led free clinic that provides mental health support to the Clarkston community, a large refuge community outside of Atlanta. In her free time, Samridhi enjoys videography, writing poetry, and being an interviewer and editor for the WISER podcast, a podcast focused on sharing stories of inspiring female surgeons.

Jackson Fulk-Logon, MD

University of Colorado School of Medicine

Jackson’s hometown is Worcester, MD. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering from Tufts University. While at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, Jackson earned the Dean’s Distinguished Scholarship based on his academic performance. He has participated in research in the areas of antithrombotic adherence, end-stage renal disease, and pediatric tracheomalacia. Jackson has a strong interest in education and has served as an instructor in a peer-to-peer tutoring program, as the student representative for a student question bank at the University of Colorado, and as the student liaison for his medical school problem-based learning course. Jackson is committed to expanding representation in medicine and has been involved in the Student National Medical Association and White Coats 4 Black Lives. He is passionate about decreasing inequities and health disparities for underserved communities. Jackson is a musician, and was a drum set player in the Tufts Jazz Orchestra. In his free time, he enjoys learning jazz drum solos, producing music, watching the Premier League, playing basketball, and yoga.

Justin Heidel, MD

University of Cincinnati College of Medicine

Justin’s hometown is Burlington, KY. He graduated from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. He previously completed his undergraduate and master’s level studies in biomedical engineering at the University of Louisville, from which he graduated summa cum laude. In both college and medical school, Justin has received awards and recognition for his academic excellence, including the John B Flege Scholarship, the Krucker Scholarship, and being admitted to the Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honors Fraternity, the Gold Humanism Honor Society, and to AOA. His research, primarily in pediatric heart transplantation, has yielded multiple publications. Justin is engaged in innovation efforts through device design and is currently patenting a multi-lumen arthroscopic trocar and developing his third novel surgical device. He has also worked as a leader in the efforts to improve the research experience for students at his medical school and has served as the chair of the Research and Industry Relation Committee. Justin’s hobbies include music production & composition and long-distance running.

Paige Holden, MD

University of Connecticut School of Medicine

Paige’s hometown is Granbury, CT. She graduated from the University Of Connecticut School Of Medicine. Paige is a graduate of the University of Connecticut, earning a B.S. summa cum laude in biomedical engineering. Paige has been a leader and role model during medical school, serving as the director of the student-run South Park Inn Clinic, where she has expanded the services to include support for the unsheltered homeless population. She has also served on the Admissions Committee and was nominated to the Gold Humanism Honor Society. Paige has a passion for educating others as evidenced by her work as an engineering senior design mentor, and as a fourth-year preceptor and student representative for first-year students in the Fabric of Anatomy and Biology Lab course. Paige has volunteered with groups aimed at supporting women in surgery and women in engineering and medicine, and she has led the Surgery Interest Group. In addition, she has undertaken several research projects, yielding publications and presentations. She also organized and captained a co-ed soccer team of medical and dental students. Paige also enjoys completing crosswords, puzzles, and the daily Wordle, as well as travel, hiking, gardening, and dogs.

Alexander Idarraga, MD

University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health

Alexander’s hometown is Milwaukee, WI. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. Alexander was selected as a member of both the Gold Humanism Honor Society and Alpha Omega Alpha. Prior to medical school, he graduated from the University of Wisconsin with a degree in Russian Language and Civilization, and he spent a study-abroad year in Kazakhstan. Alex has a deep knowledge of Russian language, literature, government, and culture. He was also a Division I athlete for the crew team. Alex worked in research via a T- 32 funded grant titled “Machine Learning Detects False Negative Benign Thyroid Nodule Diagnoses.” He has many publications based on his earlier research in foot and ankle, and now relating to the thyroid work as well. Alex first independently wrote Python code to turn raw natural language processing output into an analyzable format. Alex has a record of service work mentoring pre-med Latinx students. He also served as the Latino Medical Student Association Community Affairs Chair. Along with learning languages, Alex’s hobbies include Judo, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and surfing the Great Lakes.

Juhye Kang, MD

University of Maryland School of Medicine

Juhye’s hometown is Germantown, MD. She graduated from the University Of Maryland School Of Medicine where she has been elected to AOA. She is also a summa cum laude graduate of the University of Maryland College Park in the Integrated Life Sciences Honor College with a Bachelor of Science in Neurobiology and Physiology. She was the recipient of a Presidential Scholarship while in college. She has been an AOA Student Panel Chair, Co-President of the Asian Pacific American Medical Student Association, a member of the admissions committee, and a representative on the Student Diversity Council. She has also served as a Global Surgery Student Alliance representative for the Global Health and Surgery Interest Group, and as a student teacher for incoming medical students. Juhye has a love for animals and took advantage of schooling from home during the pandemic to foster through the Baltimore Animal Rescue and Care Shelter (BARCS) as well as work as an adoption class counselor. Her other interests include cooking, hiking, and camping.

Lisa Kojima, MD

Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine

Lisa’s hometown is Weston, MA. She graduated from the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine (CCLCM) of Case Western Reserve University. Lisa also obtained a Masters in Clinical Research in from Case Western Reserve University. Lisa graduated from Princeton University with a Bachelor of Science in Engineering in Chemical and Biological Engineering as a major emphasis with a minor emphasis in Biomedical Engineering. In between college and medical school, she worked as a research assistant in the lab of Dr. James Markmann at MGH. She has pursued extensive research during medical school through the CCF Center for Value-based care and also through the CCF Digestive Disease and Surgery Institute. From these efforts, she has multiple publications and presentations. She was the recipient of the Early Career Investigator Award for the AASLD in 2021. In medical school, Lisa has served as the medical student representative on the Curriculum Review Committee and on the Diversity Dinner Steering Committee and she is a student leader in the Christian Medical and Dental Association. She has also engaged in teaching during medical school, working as a preceptor and a teaching assistant in several courses. Lisa taught herself to code in R. Her other interests include weightlifting, playing guitar and improving ambidexterity.

Jeslyn Rodriguez, MD

Albany Medical College

Jeslyn’s hometown is Miami, FL. She graduated from Albany Medical College. Jeslyn graduated magna cum laude from Florida International University where she earned her Bachelor of Science degree in biological sciences and second major in interdisciplinary studies. During medical school, Jeslyn spent time advocating for marginalized communities and for improved access to healthcare. She was the recipient of Albany Medical College’s Underrepresented Student Alliance’s Student Impact Award, and also was nominated for the Building the Next Generation of Academic Physicians Award. Jeslyn has had many leadership roles in medical school, including serving as the Admissions Ranking Committee Voting Student member, the co-founder of their chapter of Socially Responsible Surgery, the President of the Underrepresented Student Alliance, Vice-President of the Medical Student Pride Alliance, Vice- President of LMSA, and as social chair of SNMA. She has also developed her interest in education, serving as an Allyship Research Assistant, through which she co-developed workshops for students on the concepts and practical aspects of allyship, and as a health equity group facilitator. Her efforts have also yielded several publications and presentations. Jeslyn practices Judo. Her other hobbies include playing guitar, cooking, hiking, wine tasting and reading.

Preliminary

Natalia Chaves, MD

Universidad de Los Andes Facultad de Medicina

Natalia’s hometown is Bogota, Colombia. She is a graduate of Universidad de Los Andes Facultad de Medicina in Colombia (2020) and earned an MPH at Harvard T.H Chan School of Public Health (2022). While in medical school, she earned the Social Service Award for her part of the founding team of the fundraising program named LiderAndes. This program covered four complete scholarships for four different low-income students. She founded a Peer-Network to help incoming first-year medical school students by assigning each student to an older student mentor and faculty, with a strong focus on low-income students. From June 2020 – June 2022, she served as a Clinical Research Fellow in the Endocrine Surgery Lab at BIDMC under Dr. Ben James where she focused on the financial burden on thyroid cancer. In June 2022, she served as a Clinical Research Assistant in the FIRST office where she worked in the areas of Endocrine Surgery, Otolaryngology, Head & Neck, and Urology. Her interests include reading, biking (especially throughout Massachusetts to admire nature and discover new places) and her 10-year-old Golden Retriever, Sasha.

Diana del Valle Jiménez, MD

Universidad de la Salle Facultad Mexicana de Medicina

Diana’s hometown is Mexico City, Mexico. She is a graduate of Universidad de la Salle Facultad Mexicana de Medicina Mexico (2017) and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (2022). She has worked as a Research Fellow in the Program in Global Surgery and Social Change (PGSSC) at Harvard Medical School, which advocates for universal access to safe, affordable, surgical, anesthesia, and OB/GYN care when needed. Additionally, she has worked with Dr. Bernard Lee in the Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at BIDMC where she was responsible for drafting, submitting, and revising IRBs, abstracts, and manuscripts. Diana enjoys reading (fiction or historical novels), baking, and being outdoors as much as possible, HIIT (high-intensity interval training), being with family and friends, and trying all sorts of food. She is currently trying to relearn how to play the alto saxophone and figuring out a way to get her pet bunny, Felipe, to the US.

Ashley Lanys, MD

Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland School of Medicine

Ashley’s hometown is Toronto, Canada. She graduated from Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) School of Medicine While there, she received the Student Engagement and Partnership Program Award in 2022, in which she was awarded €3000 to develop a pilot surgical skills training course for medical students. Ashley has published nine papers and twelve abstracts (one of which was awarded the Best Physiology Abstract at the University of Toronto’s Interdepartmental Division of Critical Care Medicine Day). She also participated in RCSI’s summer student research program where she authored a paper on diabetic foot ulcers, and she has two research projects in progress which include a paper assessing the impact of COVID-19 on healthcare education and a paper investigating the personal and professional benefits of a peer mentoring program. She has undertaken several extracurricular roles which include a yearlong certificate program in Lifestyle Medicine, peer reviewer of RCSI student medical journal, co-lead of a peer mentorship program, secretary of RCSI’s Red Cross Society, and member of the Graduate Entry Medicine Welcome Committee. Ashley’s interests include spending time with family and friends and being an avid foodie. Other interests include reformer pilates, playing the drums, boat surfing, and board games. One of her favorite things to do is to travel around the world and learn about different cultures, their practices, and of course, the local cuisine.

Prabh Pannu, MD

Government Medical College Chandigarh

Prabh’s hometown is Chandigarh, India. She earned her medical degree from the Government Medical College Chandigarh in 2017. She has also worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Shriners Children’s Boston. At MGH, she was involved with clinical outcomes and quality of life research projects in patients with colorectal diseases under Dr. Christy Cauley and the role of IAP (intestinal alkaline phosphatase) in aging and gastrointestinal biology under Dr. Richard Hodin. She also served as Co-Chair on MGH Postdoc Association’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Subcommittee. At Shriners, she is working on basic science and translational projects investigating gastrointestinal and metabolic diseases. Prabh’s interests include traveling to new places and exploring local culture and cuisines, movie nights with friends and family, and public speaking. She has participated in debates and speeches at regional and national competitions.