Current Resident

Sam was born and raised in Dallas, Texas. She then attended Duke University, graduating with a B.S. in neuroscience and global health (’19). Alongside Dr. Michael Haglund and the Duke Global Neurosurgery & Neurology research group, she worked on-site with local neurosurgery staff at Mulago National Referral Hospital (MNRH) in Uganda to tackle high infection rates. Sam then went on to obtain her MD at Harvard Medical School (’24), where she continued to pursue global neurosurgery. Under the mentorship of Dr.

Margot was born in Seattle, WA. She majored in Psychology at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. She received a Master of Bioethics from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics. She completed her MD at Duke University in Durham, NC. During medical school, Margot also completed a fellowship in clinical ethics through Duke’s Trent Center for Bioethics, Humanities, and History of Medicine. Her research includes topics in bioethics, medical education, and neurotrauma.

Keanu, a native Hawaiian born and raised in Kailua, Hawai’i on the island of O’ahu, received his B.S. in Kinesiology and minor in chemistry from Oregon State University in 2017 and matriculated to the University of Colorado School of Medicine in 2019. Keanu was selected for the University of Colorado School of Medicine Scholar’s Year fellowship where he conducted a full year of research under the mentorship of Dr. Todd Hankinson and Dr. Daniel Kramer. In Dr.

Fatima began her journey to neurological surgery with a degree in neuroscience at the University of Washington. She returned to UW for medical school and is sticking around for residency here in hopes of continuing to serve the community in which she grew up. Her scholarly interests involve the intersection of genotype and phenotype as it pertains to neurological diseases and improving patient outcomes. Outside the hospital, Fatima enjoys dedicating time to loved ones, mentorship, service, traveling and portraiture.

Nick was born in the California Bay Area but spent most of his early years in Geneva, Switzerland. He attended Northwestern University where he founded the first neuroscience student organization and helped establish the Neuroscience major. He was one of the first students to graduate from Northwestern with a B.A. in Neuroscience. He then attended Stanford University for medical school where he studied the neurobiological impact of opioids on breathing and performed clinical research on peripheral nerve disorders.

Christine was born in South Korea but moved to Reno, NV when she was 8 years old. She attended Dartmouth College where she majored in chemistry. She graduated with high honors and completed her thesis on organic synthesis research which focused on developing synthesis pathways to make optically active monomers to construct chiral and conformationally rigid synthetic oligomers that have potential therapeutic properties. Before matriculating into medical school, she worked as a sushi chef in Las Vegas and as a team host at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics.

Zirun was born and raised in Beijing, China. She moved to the United States to attend Duke University where she majored in neuroscience. She graduated with distinction and completed an honor thesis on validation of a conditional TrkB mutant mouse model to study epileptogenesis. Zirun completed her medical education at the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University in New York, where her research interest developed in glioblastoma and traumatic brain injury.

Adriel, a Panamanian-American from Houston, TX, graduated magna cum laude from Brown University with a BSc and BA in Neuroscience and Science, Society, and Technology Studies. He earned his MD through the combined Baccalaureate-MD Program in Liberal Medical Education at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University.

Julian was born and raised in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He completed his undergraduate degree in biochemistry at Santa Clara University while on an NCAA D1 basketball scholarship, and also played for the Canadian Junior Men’s National Basketball team in the FIBA Americas Championships and FIBA World Championships. He subsequently spent one year at the University of Toronto playing varsity basketball and studying exercise science prior to attending Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Eliza was born and raised in Seattle, WA. She attended Cornell University where she majored in neurobiology and performed research in the neural mechanisms of trial-and-error learning. After graduating, Eliza researched the spatiotemporal dynamics of seizure propagation in the Dr. Theodore Schwartz Lab at Weill Cornell Medicine before matriculating to The University of Colorado School of Medicine. In her spare time, Eliza enjoys trail running, backpacking, and maximizing time spent in the mountains.