Savannah Sutherlin

University of Arizona College of Medicine- Tucson

Savannah Sutherlin (she/her/hers) is the co-director for HEART-IM. She is a fourth-year medical student at the University of Arizona College of Medicine- Tucson. She received her B.A. in Neuroscience from Amherst College. Here she was able to take many classes in the arts and humanities including Encounters with Nature, Exploring Music, Watercolor Workshop and Mediterranean Ecosystems, allowing her to explore her sense of self and connection with the environment. After graduating, she worked as a community residence counselor, teaching high-risk adolescents dialectical behavioral therapy, which has a large focus on mindfulness. Throughout medical school, Savannah has been involved in various initiatives, including developing a first-generation club at her school, serving on the clerkship advisory committee and anti-racism policy group and volunteering at various clinics for the underserved in Tucson and Mexico. In her spare time, she is an avid hiker and runner. Her dream is to explore every national park in the US (and many abroad).

Savannah is beyond excited to begin her career in pediatrics where she can continue her work in integrative medicine, global health, mental health, and advocacy!

Lucy Emery

Pennsylvania State College of Medicine

Lucy Emery (she/her/hers) is a co-director for HEART-IM. She is currently a fourth-year medical student at the Pennsylvania State College of Medicine. She received her B.A. in Psychology and Spanish Literature at the University of Virginia. During her time in college, Lucy developed a passion for working with children with disabilities. She worked as a counselor at a camp for children with various special health needs and as an autism attendant for several years. Lucy spent her gap year working as medical scribe in Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics confirming her passion for disability equity and equality. Throughout medical school, Lucy has continued working to promote disability advocacy and awareness. In her free time, Lucy enjoys hiking, exploring various cultures through cooking and baking, reading, and struggling through crossword puzzles.

Lucy is thrilled to pursue a career in pediatrics with a focus in advocacy and equity in medicine.

Dawn Liang is the co-course coordinator for HEART-IM. She is currently a fourth-year medical student at University of California- Irvine. She previously received her B.S. in Neuroscience with a minor in Linguistics from UCLA (go Bruins!). Throughout her time in Southern California, she has continued to advocate for underserved communities through outreach clinics, providing cultural and linguistically appropriate resources, and advocating for change via organized medicine and health policy. Within the realm of integrative medicine, she has led within her medical school to establish acupuncture curriculum with international collaborators, and continues to participate in research tying in surgery and integrative medicine to better address patients’ pain and psychosocial needs. Outside of medicine, Dawn is very active with her local church, loves to take dips in the ocean and surf, make mixtapes, barista for her friends, and play with her baby kitten!

Dawn is preparing for general surgery residency, during which she hopes to continue imparting a culture of wellness within training and improving care for patients and loved ones undergoing the trauma and stress of surgical interventions. She is very excited to embark on this period of restoration and rediscovery through HEART-IM and learn with you all.

Madeline Egan

University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine

Madeline Egan (she/her) is the course curriculum co-coordinator for Heart-IM. She is currently a fourth-year osteopathic medical student at UNECOM. She received her B.A. from Carleton College in Religion with a focus on death and dying from a Tibetan Buddhist perspective. While in college she lived in a Buddhist monastery in Bodh, Gaya India, meditating several hours per day and attending silent retreats on the weekends. She also completed field work in Dharamsala, India interviewing Tibetan physicians about how they perceive the impact of the cultivation of their own compassionate mental state on their patients. Between college and medical school, Madeline took courses at the Center for Spirituality and Healing at the University of Minnesota including Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction, Functional Nutrition, Acupressure, Tibetan Medicine, Nature Healing, and Reiki Healing. She continues to rely on these skills to cultivate her well-being and advocate for the well-being of her colleagues and patients.

At UNECOM, Madeline collaborated with other students interested in holistic healing to restart the Integrative Medicine club and served as the president, recruiting speakers to expand her and her classmates knowledge of healing modalities and how to apply these to balance our own mind, bodies, and spirits so that we can be present for our patients. She also was the co-founder of the first Death Awareness week on campus that is now held annually, educating students about multi-disciplinary approaches to death and dying and encouraging emerging physicians to confront their own mortality through reflection, advanced care directive and funeral planning, death art, ritual, and death cafe discussions so that they will be prepared to have open, honest end-of-life discussions with patients and their families.

Connecting with nature is an important part of what brings Madeline meaning and throughout medical school she has taken 3 day 2 night backpacking trips after every big test to unplug, recharge and reconnect. While studying for Comlex-1, Madeline taught herself how to play the baritone ukulele while simultaneously hula-hooping and singing. During breaks on test day at both Comlex-1 and 2, Madeline went outside and grabbed her hula-hoop and ukulele and played barefoot in the grass. She believes that sharing silliness and laughter in the midst of structure and stress is critical for a healthy, happy life and hopes to bring this to Heart-IM.

Madeline has a passion for Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine and has served as an OMT TA and has completed a 40 hour training course in osteopathy of the cranial field. Madeline is honored to continue her training as an Osteopathic Family Medicine resident, listening to patients with her hands and an open-heart. She is excited to help create a Heart-IM curriculum that challenges fourth-year medical students to think critically about their role as soon to be physicians and how we can look inward to channel the heart of why we went into medicine and how we can continue to cultivate the healer’s art and advocate for our patients in today’s modern medical system.

Pranathi Rao

University of California, Irvine

Pranathi Rao (she/her/hers) is the student coordinator for HEART-IM. She is a fourth year medical student at the University of California, Irvine. She received her B.S. in Neuroscience from UCLA. During college she was part of the Resilience Peer Network to promote wellness to college students diagnosed with depression and anxiety by facilitating peer support groups. Her passion in mental health advocacy pushed her to work as a mentor for incoming freshmen at UCLA after her graduation. In medical school she expressed her interest in holistic patient care and was selected into the longitudinal integrative medicine track called HEAL-IM where she had the opportunity to take Mindfulness and Culinary Medicine Courses. Inspired by what she learned, she helped develop a curriculum for the Teaching Kitchen program at an FQHC to expose patients to healthy but affordable recipes so they may make realistic lifestyle changes. In her free time, she loves painting, writing poetry, and going to brunch!

During her integrative medicine elective she worked with acupuncturists, massage therapists, and naturopathic doctors. She saw the applicability of integrative medicine and the role it plays with patient advocacy. For her future career, she would love to practice women’s health with an integrative medicine focus.