Learning Locally, Thinking Globally: Educational Opportunities in Refugee Health at GW

Gavin Truong, MD (Host / Moderator)
Assistant Professor, Department of General Internal Medicine

Learn about Gavin Truong, MD

Gavin Truong is an internal medicine trained primary care physician. He completed medical school at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine in Columbia, SC.  He went on to train at George Washington University in Washington DC, where he also served as Chief Resident. 

His clinical interests include chronic disease prevention and management with a focus on refugee and asylum health. He currently runs the GW Newcomer Clinic in Alexandria, VA which serves to create a welcoming medical home for newly resettled refugees in the DMV by providing comprehensive, culturally sensitive healthcare and addressing social determinants that impact overall health and well-being. 

Truong also serves as a faculty advisor for the GW chapter of Physician for Human Student Organization providing forensic medical and psychological examinations to asylum seekers in the metro DC region. His current academic interests include the role of medical education on populations facing involuntary displacement from their home country.

Sonal Batra MD, MST, FACEP 
Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine
 

Learn about Sonal Batra MD, MST, FACEP 

Sonal Batra, MD, MST, FACEP is a board-certified emergency medicine physician and an Associate Professor in the School of Medicine and Health Sciences. She holds a secondary appointment as Associate Professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management in the Milken Institute School of Public Health and is a lead researcher in the Fitzhugh Mullan Institue for Health Workforce Equity. She is co-chief of the Department of Emergency Medicine’s Health Equity Section. Batra practices clinically at GW University Hospital and United Medical Center, the only public hospital in the nation’s capital.

Batra was a founding board member of the Beyond Flexner Alliance, an organization dedicated to advancing social mission in health professions education. Her current research projects include serving as PI of the Social Mission Metrics Initiative, a project aimed at developing a framework for measuring the social mission of health professions schools. She is particularly interested in diversifying the health care workforce and has worked on several diversity pathway programs for high school students across Washington, D.C. who are interested in entering the health professions.

She worked for six years as Associate Director of the Emergency Medicine Residency Program at GW and teaches several Clinical Public Health courses in the medical school. She also has interests in global health with previous experience developing web-based curriculum for post-graduate training programs across India with the Ronald Reagan Institute of Emergency Medicine and volunteers with the Physicians for Human Rights Asylum Network, conducting forensic medical exams to corroborate asylum seekers’ claims of persecution and torture.

Batra received her bachelor of arts in psychology and medical degree from Northwestern University. She completed residency in emergency medicine at The George Washington University, serving as chief resident in her final year. Between undergraduate and medical school, Batra spent two years teaching middle school science with Teach for America. During that time, she earned a Master’s of Science in Teaching (MST) from Pace University in New York City.

Tanuja Devaraj, MD

Learn about Tanuja Devaraj, MD

Tanuja Devaraj is an Internal Medicine, HIV specialist physician at Whitman-Walker Health, a FQHC (Federally Qualified Health Center) focused on HIV prevention and treatment, LGBTQ health and primary care.

Her passion for community health and health equity started as a medical student where she led a student run refugee health organization in Philadelphia. During residency, she continued her work in immigrant health with providing forensic examinations for asylum applicants and building a curriculum in immigrant and refugee health. During her time at Penn State Health, she cared for a large resettled Bhutanese Refugee population through primary care, resident education, and community partnerships.

In her current position at a FQHC, she continues to advocate and provide primary care for immigrant communities in Washington D.C. By understanding the impact of migration history on health, navigating insurance barriers, and building medical-legal partnerships, Devaraj strives to improve access to healthcare for immigrant communities.

Marwah Shuaib, MS3
GW SMHS

Learn about Marwah Shuaib, MS3

Marwah Shuaib is a third-year GW medical student who has worked with refugees in Virginia for almost a decade. Her research centers on trauma, resilience, and health care for refugee women. She is particularly interested in narratives in and about medicine and studied literature in a past life. 

Amy Yi, MS4
GW SMHS

Learn about Amy Yi, MS4

Amy Yi is a fourth-year medical student and President of the Physicians for Human Rights chapter at The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, going into pediatrics. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Global Studies with an emphasis on Global Health and Mobile Populations and a Bachelor of Science in Biology from the University of Minnesota. She is passionate about immigrant health, health care navigation, and improving access to care for individuals with limited English proficiency.

Shurthi Voleti, MS4
GW SMHS

Learn about Shurthi Voleti, MS4

Shruthi is a fourth-year medical student and Vice President of the Physicians for Human Rights chapter at The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Public Health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and will be pursuing a residency in emergency medicine. Her interests include improving healthcare delivery in urban settings, with a focus on immigrant health and addiction medicine.

Avery League, MS1
GW SMHS

Learn about Avery League, MS1

Avery League is a first-year medical student at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences. Before starting medical school, she worked for the federal Health Center Program in the Department of Health and Human Services for three years, where she supported over 1,400 health centers that provide free or low-cost primary care to underserved communities across the United States. Avery received an undergraduate degree from Georgetown University in 2020 and a Master of Public Health from the George Washington University in 2022.