Jehanzeb Kayani, MPH

I was born in New York and moved to Connecticut at the age of 4 where I grew up in my hometown of Orange. I attended the Orange and Amity public school systems before heading to UConn for my undergraduate studies where I majored in Biological Sciences while minoring in Physiology and Neurobiology. Through my studies and extracurricular involvements, I became interested in public and global health and the capabilities of these fields to shape the health of populations. I spent several summers in undergrad working in the lab of Dr. Hugh Taylor here at YSM where I used basic science techniques to understand the physiology of embryo implantation and the role of bisphenol-A (BPA) exposure on hepatic gene expression. I then attended Columbia University where I pursued my MPH in Epidemiology with a concentration in Chronic Disease Epidemiology. In graduate school I served as a leader in the Graduate Student Association (GSA) and pursued research within the Myelodysplastic Syndrome (MDS) Center at the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center at Columbia University Medical Center. My research involved developing epidemiological models to understand MDS disease and survival progression and further understand the role of genetic factors on disease pathogenesis. After graduating from Columbia in 2018, I worked for a year in the Office of U.S. Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro where I gained experience in both legislative activities (health policy analysis and the drafting of policy memos) and non-legislative activities (constituent services, outreach, etc).

At YSM I have had the honor of serving as the President of the Medical Student Council (MSC) from 2019-2020 and served on the Education, Policy, and Curriculum Committee (EPCC) over this timespan. I have also been involved in Admissions recruitment and outreach through various lenses. I serve as a Fellow at the Solomon Center for Health Law and Policy at the Yale Law School where I am interested in understanding the changing dynamics of healthcare access and healthcare policy. I have volunteered at the HAVEN Free Clinic and also been involved in various mentoring programs at YSM including: Health Professions Recruitment Exposure Program (HPREP), Anatomy Teaching Program (ATP), and Youth Science Enrichment Program (YSEP).

My academic research interests involve utilizing epidemiological and statistical methods to understand associations in health outcomes and using these data to shape and inform health policy. I am a member of Dr. Saad Omer's research group at the Yale Institute for Global Health (YIGH) where I am involved in epidemiologic projects on understanding the dynamics of COVID-19 and modeling seasonal patterns in birth outcomes across the Global South. I hope to utilize my experiences going forward to develop into a physician scholar who combines clinical care with academic research interests.

During my down time I enjoy playing and watching sports (go Patriots and Red Sox!), engaging in physical fitness, and following the political scene down in D.C!