2026–27 Grant & Award Recipients Announced

← All News

Aequitas Health is pleased to announce the recipients of its 2026–27 grants and awards, supporting medical student-led initiatives that advance health equity in communities across the United States. A total of $2,000 was awarded across three categories, with the Fellow Project Grant awarded twice this cycle in response to the volume of applications received.

Recipients were named in three tiers: winners, Distinguished Finalists, and Honorable Mentions, which is new this cycle. Winners will write their projects up for the Aequitas Health Journal, a condition of the award and a second layer of recognition; Finalists and Honorable Mentions are invited to do the same.

Chapter Project of the Year Award

Pediatric Vision Screenings

Qays Aljabi · Frederick P. Whiddon College of Medicine at the University of South Alabama

A student-run vision screening program operating at recurring sites across Mobile County in partnership with Impact America's FocusFirst program. Trained volunteers screen children on-site using portable autorefractors, removing transportation, cost, and scheduling barriers, and children who fail a screening are connected directly to local eye care providers. The program has screened more than 2,100 children, identified 141 who failed a screening, and grown from a solo effort to 18 regularly active volunteers, sustained for three years on donated time and equipment.

Chapter Project Grant Winner

Beyond the Bandage: Building a Sustainable Framework for Community-Based Wound Care

Jonathan Lo & Jenny Lee · Chicago Medical School at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science

A community-informed wound care framework for Chicago Street Medicine, developed with faculty mentors, experienced street medicine clinicians, and student volunteers. Standardized data collection will help the team understand common wound care needs and identify unmet clinical and social needs among people experiencing houselessness, who carry a disproportionate burden of chronic wounds. The framework also preserves institutional knowledge through annual leadership turnover, so each student cohort builds on prior work rather than starting from scratch.

Fellow Project Grant Winners

From Incarceration to Care: Transforming Medical Education for a Marginalized Patient Population

Madelyn Moulton · Chicago Medical School at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science

A seminar on incarceration as a determinant of health, now embedded in the school's mandatory curriculum and reaching approximately 200 medical students each year. A formerly incarcerated community member shares her experience navigating healthcare during and after incarceration. Following the first seminar, 94 percent of students surveyed agreed or strongly agreed that they felt more comfortable caring for this population, and 97 percent that hearing from someone who had been incarcerated helped them.

From Clinic to Community: Expanding Free Menstrual Product Access to Vermont Shelters and Community Centers

Sarah Chiavacci · The Robert Larner, M.D. College of Medicine at the University of Vermont

Free menstrual product dispensers for Vermont shelters and community centers, extending a model the team piloted across four hospital and community health center sites. Vermont law requires public schools to stock free period products, but the mandate stops at the schoolhouse door. The project will confirm partner sites and vendor terms and adapt an existing restocking protocol, working toward dispensers that are stocked, in active use, and sustainable by the partner independently.

Distinguished Finalists

Chapter Project of the Year Finalists

Rebecca Hofer (University of South Dakota Sanford School of Medicine) — Listening to Loss: A Rural Approach to Community and Clinical Care in Early Pregnancy Loss (with Emily Boden and Anna Douglas)

Support for rural and Indigenous women experiencing early pregnancy loss at a 25-bed critical access hospital near the Standing Rock Reservation, more than 100 miles from a tertiary care center. The team assembled 40 care kits now stocked in the local emergency room, clinic, and two outreach locations, held a memorial walk that drew more than 140 participants, and presented a chart review with updated guidelines at a hospital all-staff meeting. The hospital has agreed to provide $150 a year to keep the kits restocked, secured through its Auxiliary Committee.

Madelyn Moulton (Chicago Medical School at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science) — From Incarceration to Care: Transforming Medical Education for a Marginalized Patient Population

Recognized in this category as well as the Fellow Project Grant. The seminar is now part of the mandatory fourth-year curriculum and is taught with a formerly incarcerated speaker.

Ani Oganesyan (Chicago Medical School at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science) — Expanding Access to Long-Acting Reversible Contraception for Uninsured Patients: Implementing Intrauterine Device Insertion at a Student-Run Free Clinic (with Joanna Lee, Kaitlyn Sweeney, Ellaina Villarreal and Kristine Burgess)

Intrauterine device insertion at the Interprofessional Community Clinic in North Chicago, built inside a safety-net clinic where patients already receive longitudinal, culturally responsive care. The team partnered with Direct Relief for donated levonorgestrel-releasing IUDs, trained 21 student volunteers, established a rolling patient waitlist, and created capacity for one to two insertions each clinic session. The protocols, inventory processes, documentation templates and training workflows are now incorporated into clinic operations and will continue after the current student leaders graduate.

Chapter Project Grant Finalists

Amy Ortiz (University of South Dakota Sanford School of Medicine) — MWSM Winter Clothing Drive Benefit (with Emily Eisenbraun, Lucas Goetz, Rebecca Hofer, Kiley Medler, Sierra Nguyen and Jada Tschetter)

A winter clothing drive for Midwest Street Medicine, whose volunteers regularly meet patients in need of coats, hats, gloves, and socks. The team of seven, based in Rapid City and Sioux Falls, will identify collection sites and purchase collection receptacles in the fall, then launch the drive in late fall and early winter 2026. For people experiencing homelessness or housing insecurity, warm clothing is a matter of health and safety as much as comfort.

Brianna Lau (Chicago Medical School at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science) — Expanding Access to Family Planning and Fertility Resources for Uninsured Patients (with Ani Oganesyan, Joanna Lee and Kristine Burgess)

Family planning and fertility resources at the Interprofessional Community Clinic, led by former executive officers of its pelvic health clinic who often meet patients hoping to conceive with little direction on preconception counseling, fertility education, or referrals. In winter 2026–2027 the project will place pregnancy tests and emergency contraception in the clinic food pantry and provide clinician and staff training. More than 40 percent of pregnancies in the United States are unintended, and approximately one in six adults experiences infertility.

Hope Horn (Chicago Medical School at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science) — Empowering Leaders through Education, Vision, Achievement, Training, and Engagement

A career-exposure initiative for Black students from middle school through college, prompted by the applicant's experience speaking at STEMM programs where many students knew of only three healthcare careers: doctor, nurse, and coder. Working under the name ELEVATE, the project will identify three to four community partners in the fall and host three to four workshops and panel discussions over the winter, then continue with those partners and build new relationships.

Haley Hemstreet (University of Colorado School of Medicine) — Expanding Mental Health Screening in Aurora (with Emma Shelby, Grace Hanson, Rebecca Altshuler, Aileen Levan, Ariel Davydov, Tamara Anoruse Thomas and Kamsiyochi Ogbudibe)

Mental health screening with the DAWN Clinic in Aurora, which faces a shortage of preceptors and student involvement. The project will help identify patients struggling with mental health conditions and connect them with community resources they can realistically access, beginning with the clinic's barbershop screening event scheduled for October. The team is in the early stages and is settling the final design with the clinic.

Fellow Project Grant Finalists

Devon Roberts & Kyle Labak (Chicago Medical School at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science) — Transgender Health Curriculum Restructuring

Moving a student-built transgender health workshop into standing institutional curriculum, where it reaches approximately 200 students a year and where scores have risen significantly after the workshop in each of the three years data has been collected. Transgender and gender-nonconforming students often lead this teaching, and their work can be politicized or undermined because it lacks the perceived neutrality of standardized curriculum. The grant will pay additional facilitators, training a broader pool for future years as the workshop transitions to faculty management.

Nia Booth (Frederick P. Whiddon College of Medicine at the University of South Alabama) — Growing Healthy Futures: Building Health Literacy Through Community-Based Youth Education

Interactive health education for youth, developed and delivered with Light of the Village by medical student volunteers. Sessions for teens use anatomical models to build understanding of procedures such as Pap smears and speculum exams, and middle school sessions cover menstrual health, period product education, and reproductive anatomy. Programming resumes in early autumn and runs through spring, with lesson plans, educational resources, and volunteer processes being organized for future medical student leaders.

Grace Hanson (University of Colorado School of Medicine) — Program Evaluation: Health Equity Impact of the Pre-Clinic Assessment

An evaluation of the DAWN Clinic's pre-clinic assessment, a tool for understanding the barriers Aurora's uninsured patients face before they arrive in clinic. Care coordination staff report that it has helped them offer more specific and directive resources for patients' social needs at a first appointment. The team will survey patients seen in spring 2026 and share outcomes with clinic personnel in late 2026, to determine whether the assessment should be incorporated into routine practice for all new patients.

Zaymee Syeda (The Robert Larner, M.D. College of Medicine at the University of Vermont) — Bridging the Gap After Hospital Discharge: A Multilingual Healthcare Navigation Toolkit for New Patients in Vermont

A free, digital, easily updateable multilingual toolkit for patients navigating care after hospital discharge. It will be piloted with community and clinical partners, gathering feedback on usability, clarity, language accessibility, and patients' confidence navigating post-discharge care. Because it is digital and easily updated, it is designed to be incorporated into existing discharge workflows.

Erin Manogaran (The Robert Larner, M.D. College of Medicine at the University of Vermont) — Breathe Easy Vermont: Empowering Adolescents and Families Through Community-Based Asthma Self-Management

Asthma self-management workshops for adolescents and families, developed in partnership with the Vermont Department of Health Asthma Program. Existing initiatives emphasize school preparedness but may not give adolescents and families repeated opportunities to develop practical skills. From autumn 2026 the team will review the existing curriculum, develop interactive workshop materials and evaluation tools, and pilot them at a community centre serving more than 500 families. Approximately one in twelve children has asthma, and an estimated 61 percent of those students have uncontrolled disease.

Maya Andrade (Medical University of South Carolina College of Medicine) — Enhancing Dermatologic Care for Uninsured Patients in Primary Care (with Juley Harper, Carol Stegura and Marta Hampton, MD)

A dermatology teaching series for primary care clinicians at the Barrier Island Free Medical Clinic in Charleston, developed in collaboration with board-certified dermatologists. Three initial sessions will cover topical corticosteroids, topical antibiotics, and topical antifungals, with case-based discussions tailored to the conditions the clinic encounters most often. The anticipated benefits are improved prescribing practices, fewer unnecessary dermatology referrals, and better access to effective therapies for uninsured patients.

Lien Kimbell & Megan Kirby (Frederick P. Whiddon College of Medicine at the University of South Alabama) — Bridging Access: Menstrual Health, Dignity, and Sustainability

Menstrual health support at McKemie Place, a women's homeless shelter where the team has spent the past year providing reproductive health education with their local obstetrics and gynecology interest group, and where hygiene products remain among the greatest persistent needs. The project will provide reusable products and informational sessions organized with the shelter's executive director, promoting residents' longitudinal independence and reducing the shelter's reliance on recurring donations.

Honorable Mentions

Emily Eisenbraun (University of South Dakota Sanford School of Medicine) — Midwest Street Medicine Rapid City: Meeting People Where They Are

Weekly street medicine outreach in Rapid City, where the most recent count recorded 343 people experiencing homelessness. The applicant has helped grow the local branch over the past year and a half into a low-barrier, community-centered model. Distributing practical items such as sunscreen, lip balm, socks, and personal hygiene supplies has increased interactions with the healthcare team and addressed previously unrecognized needs. Weekly outreach is planned to continue through spring 2027.

E. Graham Caulk, Sophia Sitsis & Anna Gross (Medical University of South Carolina College of Medicine) — Project Canopy & Community: Expanding Green Space in Charleston

Tree canopy in Charleston, where unequal access disproportionately affects lower-income and socially vulnerable neighborhoods and where research shows that nearly half of newly planted residential trees fail within five years. Working toward partnership with the Charleston Parks Conservancy, the team will recruit participants and prepare baseline materials in autumn 2026, studying the modifiable barriers that determine whether a tree survives, such as physical limitations and watering challenges. The project shifts the measure of success from trees planted to trees that survive, and counts community capacity, confidence, and knowledge as a second lasting outcome.

Rikhil Makwana (Chicago Medical School at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science) — Assessing spatial inequities in access to healthcare via multiple transport modes using the enhanced two-step floating catchment area (E2SFCA) method

A tool that quantifies healthcare access by driving and public-transit time and maps where it breaks down. Local organizations may recognize these barriers qualitatively but lack the technical infrastructure to quantify and visualize them. The tool has already been incorporated into two student-led projects; next steps are a graphical user interface, user documentation, and release as an open source repository, before sharing it with community organizations and public health departments in Illinois.

Brittany Morris (Chicago Medical School at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science) — Beyond the Bell

An education and mentorship initiative rooted in the applicant's experience growing up on the South Side of Chicago, seeing how neighborhood, educational opportunity, and access to resources shape both academic success and lifelong health. Fewer than one-quarter of African American and Hispanic students in grades three through eight meet English Language Arts proficiency standards. The project is in its advocacy and planning phase and aims to identify a pilot site, recruit volunteer mentors and educators, and establish evaluation measures by winter 2026–2027.

Krishi Korrapati (Chicago Medical School at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science) — Cultivating epistemic disobedience in medical training with alternative epistemologies, medical systems, humanities, and poetry

Bringing alternative medical traditions, the humanities, and poetry into medical training to widen what medical education treats as legitimate knowledge. The applicant delivered a two-hour mini-lecture to 40 predominantly BIPOC high school students through the CampMed program and plans to repeat these lectures regularly while refining the syllabus and completing an accompanying research paper.

Project summaries will be published in the Aequitas Health Journal, extending the record of how medical students are addressing health inequities in their own communities.