MSIH has had our share of love matches. On this Valentine’s Day, we’re happy to share with you two of their special stories.
Rachel Pope, M.D.,
M.P.H. (’11) & Prakash Ganesh, M.D., M.P.H. (’12)
Rachel Pope is the lead fistula surgeon and medical director at the Freedom from Fistula Foundation’s Fistula Care Center in Lilongwe, Malawi. She is an assistant professor at Baylor College of Medicine and assistant fellowship director for Global Women’s Health in the department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. She also volunteers as the Women’s Health Program consultant for Mercy Ships.
Prakash Ganesh is currently a clinical advisor for a pediatric and adult HIV/TB program at the Lighthouse Trust in Malawi through the University of Washington’s Department of Global Health. He oversees and mentors clinicians in managing pediatric and adult HIV and associated complications at the country’s largest HIV and TB clinic. As such, he is a representative of his organization to the national HIV and TB programs.
Rachel and Prakash live happily in Malawi with their dog, Marisol. They occasionally speak Hebrew to each other when they don’t want anyone else to understand what they are saying and they hope to return to Be’er Sheva to visit sometime in the near future.
Connie Keung, M.D. (’09) & John Humphrey, M.D., M.S. (’09)
Following graduation from MSIH, Connie completed residency in General Surgery at Columbia University Medical Center in New York. John did his residency in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at Tulane University Medical Center, followed by a fellowship in Infectious Diseases at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York.
In 2016, Connie and John moved to western Kenya where they both work full-time on behalf of Indiana University at the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH). This is a national referral hospital and one of the largest health facilities in Kenya.
Connie represents the surgical program of the Academic Model Providing Access to Healthcare, a consortium of multiple North American academic health centers that is led by Indiana University. She spends her week operating, teaching surgery to medical students and residents, and assisting with the development and evaluation of the surgical curriculum.
John also works for Indiana University at the AMPATH program and has a few different roles. He is the Pediatric Team Leader for the AMPATH program, which includes attending on the general pediatric ward and helping with the pediatric education curriculum. He also attends a weekly HIV clinic and is involved in several HIV research projects pertaining to mother-to-child transmission and adolescent HIV. John and Connie are involved in hosting and teaching visiting North American medical students and residents who come here for a clerkship. They shared, “It is great to have the opportunity to share our own passion for global health with these learners, particularly knowing how influential our own MSIH clerkship in Uganda was in our decision to take our current jobs.”
