2022 Outstanding Recent Graduate Award
Varghese Abraham, Bus 2015
Dr. Varghese (Abe) Abraham has had a stellar career in the biotechnology industry. After rising through the ranks at Genentech as senior medical director and US medical lead in immunology, Abe joined Alladapt Immunotherapeutics as head of clinical development. In that role, Abe was responsible for the development of strategy, design, and execution of all global Alladapt-sponsored clinical trials. With a singular focus on delivering new immunological therapeutic options, he fully enrolled his trial in record time during the COVID pandemic and integrated real world data collection as a key part of his clinical trials. Inspired by his passion for patient-centric approaches in drug development, Abe announced his decision to co-found a startup focused purely on solving for patient inequities within healthcare. Abe has also become a tremendous volunteer leader for Carey: He is a great representative of the Bay Area Alumni Club; he is in his first term on the Dean’s Alumni Advisory Board, serving on its nominating committee; he participates in the NEXT mentoring program for Carey’s full-time MBA students; and he has been a part of numerous panel discussions and other engagements catering to both students and alumni. Abe also took part in the Johns Hopkins Leadership Fellows Program. Abe has a passion for Carey Business School and is truly representative of an outstanding recent graduate.
Manon Barthod, SAIS 2016
Manon Barthod is currently Foreign Policy Advisor at Cabinet of the President of the European Council, a role she assumed in May 2021 after three years working in the European Commission. Her areas of expertise are Sub-Saharan Africa; Southern European neighborhood policy; development, cooperation, and humanitarian assistance; Human rights; Organization of African, Caribbean, and Pacific States (ACP) and Post-Cotonou, Migration. She attended the MAIA program in Bologna with the cooperative agreement with SciencePo Lille University and graduated at SAIS Europe in 2016. She has been an active member of the JHU SAIS Belgium Chapter since 2016 and has been engaged in volunteering activities for Global Careers and the Office of Admissions, where she serves as the contact person for recruitment activities in Brussels. As an alumni volunteer, she leads the charge of connecting and recruiting the next generation of SAIS alumni in the Brussels area by representing SAIS at the Association of Professional Schools of International Affairs recruitment fairs in Brussels, organizing informal get togethers that allow admitted students to meet the Belgium alumni community.
Robert Drummond, Med 2012
Dr. Robert J. Drummond is Lead Physician and Director of Laboratories at Healthcare Partners, an urgent and concierge care facility in Los Angeles. A U.S. Army National Guard veteran, Dr Drummond is an enthusiastic and passionate supporter of Hopkins and has worked tirelessly to channel his time and talent into ensuring the MD PhD Program is the best that it can be. Dr. Drummond volunteers with the JHU MD-PhD program in admissions. Dr. Drummond is an enthusiastic driver of diversity in the Program. As a student, he regularly collaborated with peers to recruit into the Program and as an alumnus, he has prioritized giving back to Hopkins – something that sets him apart. He is passionate about Hopkins as his alma mater and is committed to increasing representation and diversity in medicine, ensuring Black doctors are represented in the program as well as encouraging and recruiting for a diverse MD-PhD student population. In his time as a student, Dr. Drummond designed and developed the MD-PhD crest and pins that students wear. Recently, Dr. Drummond was invited to join the Hopkins Leadership Fellows. In 2020 Dr. Drummond partnered with BET and CBS to coordinate a series of COVID webinars with Black physicians (including Hopkins alumni Kavan Clifford, ‘11 MD-PhD and Errol Fields, ‘09 MD-PhD) to educate the Black community on COVID and the vaccine. Dr. Drummond also works in corporate training with organizations like the Gap and ZocDoc.
Craig Goolsby, Ed 2016
Dr. Craig Goolsby is a medical director and researcher at the Uniformed Services University’s (USU) Department of Military and Emergency Medicine, and Science Director of USU’s National Center for Disaster Medicine and Public Health. His military service included two tours as an emergency department medical director at a combat hospital in Iraq. He earned his MEHP in 2016 and, since graduation, has received more than $5M in federal grants for education-related projects. In 2015, Dr. Goolsby became involved with a White House- led committee to develop the Stop the Bleed campaign. The initiative aimed to save lives from injury – the leading cause of death for young Americans – using techniques learned from the battlefield. Goolsby focused his MEHP capstone project on just-in-time training methods and content in bleeding management for lay people. His training methods, now implemented in Stop the Bleed, have been determined to increase successful emergency treatment by 75 per cent. Dr. Goolsby has also assembled a consortium of medical and public health experts interested in the Stop the Bleed work to develop national guidelines for how to implement this kind of educational program. In August 2021, Dr. Goolsby received a $2.5M grant from the Department of Homeland Security to create the curriculum for First Aid for Severe Trauma (FAST), an injury response training program designed for high schoolers. The program, in collaboration with the American Red Cross, is offered in three modalities to high schoolers nationwide at no cost.
Kenneth Harris, Engr 2017
Acknowledged by Forbes Magazine as one of the world’s youngest and most impactful individuals in the field of science, Kenneth Harris is known for delivering thoughtful and dynamic leadership on programs of critical national and international importance. Since the age of 16, Kenneth has been involved in projects at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, totaling five satellites. He graduated with honors from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County with a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering; he then received a master’s from Johns Hopkins University in Engineering Management. Kenneth serves as a Senior Project Engineer at the Aerospace Corporation. Before taking on this role, he was the Database Lead Engineer for the NASA J2 Joint Polar Satellite System. In this role, he was responsible for developing procedures and implementing processes between the Flight Team, Instrument Vendors and Spacecraft Vendors which led to the successful flight and data collection of the J2 Satellite Mission. Prior to that role, he served as the Deputy Lead Integration Engineer for the James Webb Space Telescope’s Integrated Science Instrument Module (ISIM) where he led a team of 10 engineers to successfully integrate ISIM, the main payload of JWST, to the Backplane of the Optical Telescope Element (OTE) Primary Mirror. His leadership on the JWST program ranks him as one of the youngest African Americans in NASA’s history to lead an integration effort on a multi-billion-dollar satellite mission. His honors and awards extend beyond his professional service to recognition of his tremendous leadership in the STEM field and international community. A proud son of an engineer, he champions the importance of early STEM exposure and engagement. In 2018 he delivered a TEDx Talk to over 500+ students concerning the power of mentorship and guidance. He was recognized as the Next Gen for Industry in 2019.
Keana Kaleikini, BSPH 2020
Keana Kaleikini, MSPH ‘20 is the Senior Epidemiologist at Navajo Nation. Keana Kaleikini, MSPH ’20 began her time at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health as an intern with the Center for American Indian Health. That experience led to her pursuing and receiving her graduate degree, completing her studies during the COVID-19 pandemic. Upon graduating, she applied her new knowledge and skills to support her local community during this challenging time. She began her post-graduate public health career by serving as an epidemiologist on the Navajo Nation and as an environmental scientist on the COVID-19 response team for the state of New Mexico. She has since been promoted as the supervisor of the state government pandemic response program for New Mexico, leading 12 scientists protecting the health and safety of residents from COVID-19 across the entire state. Additionally, she also now serves as the Senior Epidemiologist on the Navajo Nation, overseeing a junior epidemiologist. She has organized multiple mutual aid groups serving tribes across North America. She serves as Chairwoman and Associate Director of the non-profit, Collective Medicine, which was started last year in response to the basic water needs of Navajo and Hopi nations during the pandemic. Collective Medicine is focused on delivering clean water and wood to Native elders, rural residents, and families in need across southwestern reservations. As the Associate Director, she recently secured $3.1M in grant funding to scale their operations. She also serves as a board member for several other mutual aid funds and non-profits around the country.
Seung Hoon Lee, A&S 2012
Since graduating with honors in Neuroscience, Dr. Lee has embodied excellence in all his academic and professional endeavors. He graduated at the top of his class at Seoul National University Medical School, one of the most highly regarded institutions in South Korea, and stayed on to pursue neurosurgery residency at SNU Hospital. In addition to a heavy clinical load, Dr. Lee continues to advance our understanding of neurologic illness through clinical research and recently published a novel method for surgical management of Moyamoya disease in the American Journal of Neuroradiology. For his dedication and achievements, Dr. Lee has been recognized as Best Resident every year in his department and is currently serving as fourth year chief resident. In his few personal hours, Dr. Lee volunteers at the SNU Children's Hospital NICU, mentors premedical students, coaches the SNUMS bodybuilding club, and is father to two beautiful children. Representing the best of the Hopkins spirit, Dr. Lee should be commended for his tireless work-ethic and compassion.
Jonathan Rush, Peab 2019
Jonathan is known for bringing the music he conducts to life, as he spends time with every detail in the score, and clearly communicates these details to those under his baton. As a young conductor, Jonathan was appointed as the Assistant Conductor for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in the fall of 2020. Previously, Jonathan served as Music Director of the Buckeye Philharmonic Orchestra, an orchestra on the campus of the Ohio State University. In 2017, he became the conducting fellow for the Baltimore Symphony Youth Orchestra, and in 2018, Jonathan was also named a Project Inclusion Conducting Fellow with the Chicago Sinfonietta, which was followed by an appointment to Assistant Conductor in 2019. As Assistant Conductor of the Chicago Sinfonietta, Jonathan worked alongside music professionals and fellow conductors to help, “redefine classical music,” by changing its face, and encouraging diversity in Orchestras across the United States. Jonathan made his International conducting debut with the Nairobi Philharmonic Orchestra and Dance Centre Kenya, for the first-ever performance of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Ballet with a live orchestra. As the 2018 winner of the Respighi Prize in Conducting at age 22, Jonathan made his professional orchestra debut with the Chamber Orchestra of New York in the legendary Carnegie Hall. Jonathan has since returned to Kenya to continue his relationship with Dance Centre Kenya and has conducted multiple orchestras throughout the US including additional performances with the Chamber Orchestra of New York, Chicago Sinfonietta, and a debut with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. A versatile musician, Jonathan also has a strong Gospel, Jazz, Soul, and R&B music background. Jonathan has performed with various jazz ensembles and was a lead vocalist with the Ohio Show Band. As a Gospel musician, Jonathan serves as the Minister of Music at Ebenezer Temple UHCA in Hartford, CT and serves as the Director of Music for the New England District of the United Holy Church of America, where he oversees the music departments of 14 different churches.
Lisa Tran, Nurs 2017, 2020
Lisa was nominated for her work as a nurse practitioner resident at Chinatown Service Center, a FQHC that has been a long-standing resource for Asian immigrants in Los Angeles. She quickly became an indispensable leader of the newly formed COVID mobile team that provided free COVID-testing and information, and then supplied over 60,000 COVID-vaccines to the immigrant community that had much mistrust. Lisa created multilingual education materials and forms that increased accessibility to scientifically-backed health information. She and her team worked with community leaders across LA County to provide free COVID-vaccines and education to underserved individuals. Lisa had her pulse on the LA community and assured that there was little or no waste with the COVID-vaccines, even if it meant that she had to go out to a local park to provide some vaccine education! She worked with local organizations like Asian Americans Advancing Justice to dispel vaccine myths and canvas underserved areas. Her efforts increased vaccine uptake by 600% in Chinatown alone, which was noticed by prominent political leaders like Supervisor Hilda Solis and Governor Gavin Newsom. Lisa continues to create impactful change during these hard times of the pandemic compounded by the anti-Asian Hate crimes. After her residency, Lisa accepted a position at Planned Parenthood Los Angeles, where she currently works as a Float Nurse Practitioner. Due to the current overturned Roe v. Wade, California is now a safe haven for those seeking abortion services with Planned Parenthood at the helm.