Our Fellows
Bella Gomez
Bella Gomez was born and raised in Lexington, KY before attending Harvard College. At Harvard, she studied Molecular and Cellular Biology, was a four-year D1 varsity athlete with Harvard-Radcliffe Heavyweight Crew team, Vice President of Foundation (philanthropy) for Delta Gamma, and President of the Harvard College Anscombe Society. After completing her undergraduate degree, Bella spent two years in the lab of Deborah Hung at the Broad Institute, studying novel therapeutics for tuberculosis. Bella is currently a second-year medical student at Stanford University School of Medicine where she leads the Surgery Interest Group, is involved in curriculum development, and is a member of the Student Resource Task Force of the American College of Surgeons.
Ben Frush, MD
Dr. Frush is a med-peds resident at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He received his MD from the University of North Carolina and was a fellow in the Theology, Medicine, and Culture Fellowship at the Duke Divinity School. He is interested in bioethics, specifically how both theology and moral philosophy can inform current conversations involving disability, moral formation in medicine, and end-of-life care.
Brewer Eberly, MD
Dr. Eberly is a second-year Family Medicine resident at AnMed Health in Anderson, South Carolina, a current fellow of the Paul Ramsey Fellowship at the Center for Bioethics & Culture, and a past fellow of the Theology, Medicine, and Culture Fellowship at Duke Divinity School. He has been published widely, most recently at The New Atlantis, and hopes to practice and teach at the intersections of medicine, aesthetics, theological bioethics, and medical student formation.
Cristiana Nicoli de Mattos
Cristiana Nicoli de Mattos is originally from Brazil. She moved to the United States in 2017 after completing Medical School and Residency training in Psychiatry at the University of Sao Paulo. She also holds a Ph.D. in Psychiatry from the University of Sao Paulo in behavioral addictions and has several peer-reviewed papers published on this subject. Currently, she is a PGY-1 in General Psychiatry at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. She has a special interest in helping reduce mental health stigma in our society and working with vulnerable populations.
Erik Massenzio
Erik Massenzio is a fourth-year medical student at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia who is applying for an Ophthalmology residency position this year. Erik believes that good can come from everyday hardship, and he strives to ameliorate his patients’ suffering while fostering hope. Throughout medical school, Erik has been involved in numerous research projects. He currently is working on multiple projects at Wills Eye Hospital about neovascular glaucoma, retinal detachments, and retina specialists. He has also worked on a team to 3D print anatomical structures for surgical planning. Erik is also passionate about teaching, having written articles for an ophthalmology resident education website, eyeguru.org. Erik holds a B.A. in Philosophy from Princeton University.
James Agolia
James Agolia is a fourth-year medical student at Harvard Medical School. Prior to entering medical school, James graduated from Princeton University with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry. At Princeton, he enjoyed rowing for the varsity lightweight crew team, singing as a member of the Princeton Nassoons a cappella group, and working with younger students as a residential college adviser. He was one of two winners of the Moses Taylor Pyne Honor Prize, the highest general distinction for an undergraduate student. During medical school, he followed his interest in the immunology of brain tumors and spent a research year at Weill Cornell Medical College. He is currently applying to residency in general surgery.
Justin Sanchez
Justin Sanchez is a first-year medical student at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. He earned his bachelor's degree in Neurobiology from Harvard College, where he was also an Undergraduate Fellow in Ethics at the Harvard Kennedy School. Prior to entering medical school, Justin worked as a data analyst at Massachusetts General Hospital, focusing on neuroimaging markers for early detection of Alzheimer's disease. His scholarly work has been published in Nature Medicine, Science Translational Medicine, Neurology, and more. Justin intends to enter into psychiatry or neurology, with a special focus on helping others in the profession to cultivate their highest ideals in the everyday grind of academic medicine.
Matthew DiLizia
Matthew DiLizia, MD, is a resident physician in the Department of Urology at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital. He holds a Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree from the University of Arizona College of Medicine in Phoenix and an undergraduate degree from Arizona State University.
Michael Heger
Michael Heger is a third-year medical student at Saint Louis University who works with patients and their families in various medical settings, acting as an advocate and messenger in their medical team, to address their problems, concerns and questions. Michael believes that his work affirms the dignity of every human person through interactions with patients, families and other medical professionals, and it provides the opportunity to uphold the value of human work. Michael has most notably worked as: Product Engineer Intern for Micron Technology; Advisor for inner-city Chicago middle school students at Midtown Educational Assoc.; Undergraduate Research Assistant in Electrical Engineering at Montana State University. Michael holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Montana State University.
Tess Murray
Tess Murray is a fourth-year medical student at SUNY Downstate Medical Center. She is currently interviewing for residency programs in pediatrics with an interest in pursuing pediatric rheumatology or critical care. She has previously worked in clinical research at The Hospital for Special Surgery and consulting with Lux Research. Her work has been published in the Journal of Clinical Rheumatology. Tess holds a bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Columbia University and will receive a Graduate Certificate in Clinical Bioethics from the Mount Sinai & Clarkson University Joint Bioethics Program in June 2021. She is a member of the Arnold P. Gold Humanism Honor Society, a SUNY Downstate John Conley Scholar in Clinical and Translational Research Ethics, and a fellow of the Leonine Forum.
Todd Jones
Todd Jones is currently a third-year medical student at the Columbia Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. He currently intends to become a psychiatrist. Todd attended Harvard University for his undergraduate education; he studied classical Greek and mathematics before getting his post-bacc and coming to New York in fall 2018.
Zane Christmyer
Zane Christmyer is a first-year medical student at Albert Einstein College of Medicine with an interest in internal medicine and cardiology. Previously, he worked as a cardiology research coordinator at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia where he developed and presented a poster on Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome. Drawing on his personal history with heart disease, Zane spoke to over one thousand Medtronic employees at their quarterly meeting. He has volunteered extensively for Community Volunteers in Medicine, a free clinic in West Chester, Pennsylvania. Zane holds a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry/Biology from West Chester University of Pennsylvania.