Reflexions

A. Kayum Ahmed is an assistant professor at Columbia University’s school of public health. His interdisciplinary research interests include human rights, Black Consciousness and decolonizing the global health architecture.

Alexander Dagi is a second-year medical student interested in the ways in which people play. These three photos are part of a series entitled “Building Blocks,” which was inspired by the ways our surroundings invite human invention and improvisation.

Alexander has been called a humanist, a flirt, a story teller, and a Californian skater boy. Since arriving to NYC, he has slowly been accepting a new identity within the world of medicine, and in doing so has considered the multiplicity of identities, their limits and their boundaries. Now that he is published in Reflexions, he wonders how does one define 'artist', and is he now an artist?

Alwyn Cohall, MD is a Professor of Public Health and Pediatrics at CUIMC. He is the founder and director of Project STAY (Services to Assist Youth), a clinical program that provides comprehensive health services for youth living with, or at risk for HIV. He is also the Principal Investigator for the NYC STD/ HIV Prevention Training Center - one of eight centers funded by the Centers for Disease Control to provide training and technical assistance to health providers to enhance their ability to provide quality services for populations at risk for STIs and HIV.

Amber Marie Parker is a member of the Class of 2022 at VP&S whose interest in photography began with her photography class during Narrative Medicine. After graduation, she joined the field of orthopedic surgery while continuing to find subjects in her surroundings to capture through the art of photography.

Amy Block is a graduating Columbia-Bassett medical student who will be training at Dartmouth for Psychiatry residency. Before medical school she majored in history, literature and philosophy at Wesleyan University, where she also completed a fiction thesis.

An is a Health and Safety Specialist with Columbia EH&S Department. Years ago, after surviving another Midwest polar vortex, she decided “Nope. Never again” and moved to New York City. Now An is happily working her dream career in a much warmer city.

Benji Freeman is a first-year medical student and visual artist from Miami, FL. Find more of his work, as well as the consequences of his silly ideas, at benjifree.com.

Bree Zhang is a 1st year dental student and President of the Class of 2026 at Columbia Dental. She is involved in public health and dental advocacy work on the school and district level, and in her free time, she enjoys making art and music to understanding the world around her.

Brian is from northern California, studied biochemistry at UC San Diego, and completed medical school at UC Irvine. He completed his internal medicine residency at the University of Chicago and began his fellowship in Hematology/Oncology at CUIMC in June 2021. In his spare time, he enjoys music, sports and being outdoors with his wife, daughter and goldendoodle.

César A. Alfonso, M.D. is Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Columbia University, Chair of the Psychotherapy Section of the World Psychiatric Association and Chief Psychiatrist at the Lighthouse Guild. He is also a visual artist (mixed media, assemblages, photography, painting).

Cheryl Pan is a second-year medical student at VP&S. She is from Queens, New York and adores getting lost in museums and admiring all types of art. She started drawing as a quarantine hobby and hasn't looked back since

Christian Pearsall is a 5th year dual-degree MD-MS candidate at VP&S who is applying into orthopaedic surgery in the class of 2024. He grew up in Mobile, Alabama. In college, he played Division 1 football as a 4 year varsity letterwinner and studied chemistry, biology, and philosophy in his University’s Honors College. In his free time, he enjoys weightlifting, playing piano, watching movies, and spending time with family.

David Blitzer received his MD and Masters in Bioethics from the University of Pennsylvania. He is currently a clinical PGY4 in the integrated cardiothoracic surgery program at Columbia and is planning to pursue a fellowship in congenital cardiac surgery after he completes his residency.

Fletcher is running along, just trotting, sometimes walking. Making friends. Learning as much as he can.

Fred Lang is a third-year medical student at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians & Surgeons. He is from Houston, Texas and graduated from Duke University in 2018. He appreciates that Reflexions has provided a space to share his story.

Gabi Seo is a first-year medical student. She enjoys running, painting, writing, and spending time with friends.

Gillian Wright (VP&S Class of 2024) is originally from Virginia and went to University of Michigan for undergrad. She began exploring narrative medicine in college and believes in the power of writing to reflect and enrich experiences in medicine. She avidly enjoys reading, writing, and running.

Hanna Coleman is a clinician, researcher, teacher and public health advocate for vision health and eye diseases who enjoys writing, painting and nature photography. Hanna Coleman completed a Ophthalmology Retina fellowship at Columbia in 2002 and returned to teach clinical skills to residents and medical students.

Hannah is a graduate of the Epidemiology Master of Public Health program at Mailman and loves to write. During the pandemic onset, Mary Oliver and Frank O’Hara poems solaced her and inspired these works. She hopes they help readers feel connected in that briefly magical, literary way.

Iqra Akram is a former pediatric resident at Columbia and will be going into primary care. Iqra Akram is a lifetime New Yorker all the way and loves the vibrancy of the city. Iqra Akram enjoys performing spoken word whenever possible.

Jackie Dragon is a third year medical student (Class of 2024) at VP&S. Before medical school, she studied chemistry and anthropology at Princeton University and then worked in telehealth. She enjoys photography and dancing.

Jaime Benavides is a Postdoctoral Researcher in Environmental Health Sciences at Mailman. His primary research interests are in understanding the link between environmental exposures and human health in urban settings. As well as writing poetry he is drawn to projects and collaborations that mix science with art.

Jamie Aron is an alum of VP&S (2022) working in emergency medicine. She often encourages others to share their own work and is finally taking her own advice. Her current question is: what allows universal experiences to feel singularly extraordinary?

Jude Okonkwo is a graduate of Harvard College and a second-year medical student at VP&S. He was selected as the 2020 recipient of the Charles Edmund Horman Prize and the 2021 recipient of the Edgar Eager Memorial Fund Prize for his writing. His work has appeared in Pleiades, The Journal of the American Medical Association and Flash Fiction Magazine, among other journals.

Kevin Chiang is a second-year dental student.

Mary Howard Holderness is a fourth-year medical student going into neurology and a writing/painting/ceramics enthusiast. She comes from the land of the pines (North Carolina) but has lived more than half of her life outside of it now, bouncing between coasts and across the Atlantic. She makes visual art to try and make sense of the world and she writes to capture moments that might otherwise be forgotten.

Melissa is a first-year medical student at VP&S and a co-editor of Reflexions. A Bronx native, her local NYPL was her second home as a child. She enjoys reading, watching book to movie adaptations, and horseback riding. She is not a photographer, but she likes to pretend she is.

Mirela N. Trofin – native Romanian with a long connection to Columbia University via Barnard College, Teachers College and CUIMC’s Department of Medicine, uses photography, watercolor painting and writing to balance life and make peace between her left-right brain.

Nate, a third-year medical student, first started to enjoy PB&J in Oak Park IL, where he was born and raised. Since leaving Oak Park for college, he has continued to enjoy PB&J, especially on lazy Sunday mornings with a cup of strong black coffee. He expects that these two food groups, PB&J and black coffee, will continue to be a source of joy and sustenance during the rest of his medical school education.

Nathaniel Rolfe is from San Marino, California. He studied Chemistry and Latin at Haverford College, and he graduated, summa cum laude, in 2019. He is currently an M2 at Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, and he has an interest in surgery and neurology.

Onyinyechi Owo is a second-year student at Dartmouth University. She serves as a Peer Teaching Fellow for the Columbia VP&S Medicine and Research Summer Program to encourage bidirectional mentorship and provide support for student projects.

Paul M. Lewis is a third-year medical student at Columbia VP&S. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard College where he concentrated in Neurobiology with a secondary in Global Health and Health Policy. Paul hosts an annual Medicine and Research Summer Program at Columbia VP&S to teach youth from around the world about foundations of clinical medicine.

Sabrina Hyman completed her MS in human nutrition in 2021, after finishing her post-baccalaureate in pre-medical sciences at Columbia University. Her interests in advocacy, specifically in the power of a patient’s narrative, began during undergraduate at George Washington University, where she studied psychology and theatre, specializing in minority health and wellness.

Shanelly Singh is a recent alumnus of Columbia School of Nursing, and now serves as Assistant Professor of Nursing at CUIMC in the OPEN program. She is a doctorally prepared Nurse Practitioner in the field of Hematology and Oncology who enjoys creativity as a method of stress relief. She mostly enjoys painting botanicals and animals in playful and colorful media.

Sydney Williams is a first-year medical student at VP&S and co-editor of Reflexions. Born and raised in Virginia, she studied biology and philosophy at the University of Virginia before moving, in her gap year to Alabama where she completed a fellowship in community health. She enjoys drawing, painting, reading, and running in her spare time. She plans to combine her passions for art and medicine by practicing medical illustration.

Xinzhu (Tina) Yang is from Atlanta, GA. She studied neuroscience at Brown University and enjoys drawing, cooking, and longboarding in her free time.