MEET THE TEAM
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PAYAL MODI, MD, MSC
Faculty Advisor
Dr. Payal Modi is Director of the Division for Health Equity in the University of Massachusetts Emergency Department. She received her medical degree from the Baylor College of Medicine and a Master of Science in Public Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Dr. Modi completed her Emergency Medicine residency at Alpert Medical School of Brown University and her fellowship in International Emergency Medicine at Harvard University/Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
Dr. Modi is committed to promoting health equity both locally and internationally. She has worked on a range of topics including mass casualty management, trauma training, Ebola response, pediatric illness, and sexual reproductive health with a personal interest in refugees and IDPs. Her research and projects have spanned across 4 continents and over a dozen countries including Pakistan, Liberia, Bangladesh, South Sudan, Haiti, and Thailand.
Her current projects include developing a trauma informed care pathway for victims of human trafficking, assessing the social determinants of health among the ED patients, and conducting medical evaluations for asylum seekers.
LUCY CANDIB, MD
Lead Evaluator
Dr. Lucy M. Candib is Professor Emerita of Family Medicine and Community Health at University of Massachusetts Medical School. She practiced full spectrum family medicine with obstetrics for 40 years at Family Health Center of Worcester in an inner-city area serving vulnerable low-income families including immigrants and refugees. For the past 20 years, working together with immigration attorneys, she has conducted medical evaluations for persons seeking asylum in the U.S. She lectures regularly to students in the Health Professionals for Human Rights interest group, and is now involved with medical students, therapists, and other physicians in the formation of this UMass Med Asylum Clinic.
Dr. Candib continues to conduct medical asylum evaluations with students observing and documenting the process; she also works with interested physicians wanting to observe the process and learn this skill.
KAMLYN HAYNES, MD
Lead Psychiatrist
Dr. Kamlyn Haynes received her medical degree from Boston University School of Medicine in 1997 and completed her residency in Combined Adult, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at University of Massachusetts in 2002. She has provided direct psychiatric care for teens in the Department of Youth Services for a decade and has provided forensic evaluations for mentally ill offenders. Since 2011, she has been the Department of Mental Health’s Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist for Central Mass. In all roles, she has worked with immigrant families and the majority of patients in her care have endured past traumas.
Throughout her career, she has taught medical students, residents and child and adolescent psychiatry fellows, winning teaching awards from each group. She completed the Physicians for Human Rights Asylum Evaluation Workshop in Spring 2020 and is now a physician evaluator.
Learn more about our
STUDENT LEADERS
Read the bios of our UMass Chan executive board.
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SUHASINI GUPTA, B.S.
Director of Operations
Suhasini is a second-year medical student at UMMS. She graduated from UCLA in 2019 where she studied Human Biology & Society with a concentration in Public Health & Medicine. She was born in India but has spent her life moving between different communities globally and has developed a passion for global health and human rights through serving displaced and underserved communities that range from different parts of rural India, to the immigrant, refugee and unhoused populations of Los Angeles. Given her background she is interested in the intersection of global health and sustainable development of medical systems.
COURTNEY CHAN, B.A.
Director of Communications
Courtney is a second-year medical student in the Population Urban and Rural Community Health (PURCH) Track and Global Health Pathway at UMass Med. She attended Washington University in St. Louis, where she majored in Philosophy-Neuroscience-Psychology: Cognitive Neuroscience. Prior to medical school, she conducted global health research in Geneva, Switzerland on the psychological impact of the asylum-seeking process and access to longitudinal mental health support systems for refugees after resettlement. After college, Courtney worked as an Infection Control Coordinator at Tufts Medical Center, where she conducted research on racial and ethnic disparities in antimicrobial resistance. She is passionate about building community partnerships driven by the interests and needs of people themselves and hopes to work in migrant/refugee health as a future medical provider.
STEPHANIE CHOI, B.S.
Events and Advocacy Coordinator
Stephanie is a second-year medical student in the Global Health Pathway at UMMS. She graduated from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2018 where she studied Biochemistry & Molecular Biology and Psychology/Neuroscience. She grew up in Hong Kong and moved to the United States alone in 2012. As a first generation Chinese American, Stephanie understands how difficult it is to overcome systemic, cultural, and linguistic barriers in order to settle in a new country. She hopes to apply her understanding and dedicate her future career to providing care for immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers.
ARIBA MEMON, B.S.
Outreach Coordinator
Ariba is a second-year medical student at UMMS. She graduated from the University of Connecticut in 2021 where she studied Physiology and Neurobiology and Political Science. During her time at UConn she co-founded an organization, Huskies for Refugees, which furthered her passion for advocating for marginalized communities. At UMMS she is pursuing the Global Health Pathway and is interested in maternal and child health outcomes especially in regions facing humanitarian crises.
ABHINAYA GUNASEKAR, B.A., M.A., MPH
Outreach Coordinator
Abhinaya is a second-year medical student at UMMS in the Global Health Pathway. She graduated from Case Western Reserve University in 2019 where she studied Cognitive Science and Bioethics. After graduation, she attended graduate schooling in public health at Boston University where she focused on Global Health and Health Policy. During her undergraduate and graduate degrees, she spent time researching, promoting, and working to improve mental healthcare access for the refugee population both in the US and globally. Abhinaya is interested in continuing her prior work through HPHR and hopes to use her experiences at UMMS to better improve access to care for underserved and marginalized populations globally.
NADINE KRIDLI, B.S.
CLINIC COORDINATOR
Nadine is a second-year medical student in the AHEC urban health pathway at UMMS. She graduated from the University of Michigan in 2020 with a Bachelor of Science in Neuroscience. After graduation, she completed an AmeriCorps VISTA service year in the greater Ann Arbor area where she assisted with the organization of a food pantry as well as a children’s after-school program. As a Palestinian-American, she is particularly interested in being involved with the Middle Eastern community and resettlement efforts in her future career.
NATASHA BITAR, B.S.
Clinic Coordinator
Natasha is a second-year medical student in the Global Health Pathway at UMMS. She graduated from UMass Amherst in 2019 with a Bachelor of Science in Biology. Before beginning medical school, she worked in an infectious disease lab. She has worked extensively with Syrian refugees during her undergraduate studies. As the child of immigrants from Lebanon, Natasha hopes her work with HPHR will further her understanding of the refugee experience in the US.
TALIA CAMPBELL, B.S.
MEMBER AT-LARGE
Talia is a second-year medical student in the AHEC Urban Health pathway at UMMS. She graduated from Brown University in 2018 with a Bachelor of Science in Neuroscience. Between college and medical school, she worked for Zeno Mountain Farm, a nonprofit which runs retreats for people with and without disabilities. Her friendships within the disability community interested her in working with marginalized populations and she plans to continue working with asylum seekers in her future practice.