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NASHVILLE, Tenn. For James Trotter, the Meharry-Vanderbilt Alliance’s (MVA) new Project Manager, joining the MVA team was all about opportunity. “It was an opportunity for me to get back into project management,” he said. “I wanted to get back into project management, and this was a place where I could grow.”  

NASHVILLE, Tenn. Brittany Landry’s interest in medicine was cultivated at an early age. For most of her childhood, she lived with her grandparents in Plattenville, LA. She came in contact with several nurses throughout those years, and that sparked an interest in the medical field. As she got older, she began shadowing physicians to get better insight into what being a doctor entailed. She then went to Xavier University of Louisiana to study Biology and earn a Bachelor of Science Degree.  

NASHVILLE, Tenn. Titilola Ogunsola was always interested in making a difference in marginalized communities. Throughout her education, she’s worked with adolescents and adults faced with health disparities and difficult circumstances. She hopes to spearhead both intervention and prevention efforts that will bring about positive change. “This is just my heart,” the Baltimore native explained.  

NASHVILLE, Tenn. In 1951, physicians harvested cancerous cells that led to unprecedented medical breakthroughs. What came to be known as the HeLa cell line, which will reproduce indefinitely under specific conditions, continues be a source of medical data to this day. However, the patient who supplied those cells – Henrietta Lacks – was an unwitting source. She provided no consent for her cells to be cultured, and neither she nor her family was ever compensated.  

NASHVILLE, Tenn. Vanderbilt University Medical Center has received a two-year, $250,000 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to develop a new way to measure trust in African American men as it relates to healthcare.   Lack of trust African American men have some of the lowest rates of healthcare utilization and satisfaction in the United States, which is often attributed to the higher rates of medical mistrust observed among that population.

Photo submitted Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center Health Educator Claudia Barajas, Sem. Juan Garcia of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Nashville, Meharry-Vanderbilt Alliance Program Manager Jacquelyn Favours, MPH, CPH, CHES and Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center Health Educator Angelica Deaton at the Faith and Health Collaborative’s Breakfast with Pastors.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. Meharry-Vanderbilt Alliance (MVA) intern Rohini Chakravarthy knew early on she wanted to be a doctor. Both of her parents were physicians, and she always appreciated how they could empathize with people and offer the help they needed.   The path of a young physician Rohini is a Nashville native. She attended Harpeth Hall High School, a private college-preparatory school for young women, before attending Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD. While there, she studied neuroscience and earned a Bachelors of Arts degree.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. Aimee Edgeworth, Program Manager for Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s (VUMC) Office of Clinical and Translational Scientist Development and Editor at Edge for Scholars, met with researchers at the Meharry-Vanderbilt Alliance (MVA) to offer insight on using social media to promote clinical research.  

Photo by Matt Schorr

NASHVILLE, Tenn. Selena McCoy Carpenter, who joins the Meharry-Vanderbilt Alliance (MVA) as Engagement Liaison, entered public health research after teaching special education for several years at Winterville Elementary School in Athens, Georgia. “I taught kids with behavioral and emotional disorders,” Carpenter recalled. “I was aware that most of their disabilities came not from an inherited mental illness, but from a social family structure or lack thereof.”