Medical Directors
Michael Devlin, MD
Michael Devlin is HRI’s Medical Director for Psychiatry and performs psychological evaluations for clients seeking asylum. He is Professor of Psychiatry at CUIMC and staff member at the Eating Disorders Research Unit at New York State Psychiatric Institute. He also teaches medical students in foundations of clinical medicine, including humanism, communication, and patient-provider relationship, and he is active in inter-professional education. Favorite activities outside of medicine include taking advantage of NYC’s music and theater offerings, reading, and learning to play the banjo.
Prantik Saha, MD, MPH
Pran Saha is HRI’s Medical Director for Medicine and Pediatrics and performs medical and psychological evaluations for clients who are seeking asylum. He is an assistant clinical professor of pediatrics and spends 50% of his time in a busy primary care practice in the upper west side of Manhattan and 50% of his time as a medical educator. Besides precepting students in Foundations of Clinical Medicine (FCM) and directing the Health Promotion Block in FCM–II, his focus is upon developing a motivational interviewing curriculum here at the Vagelos College of P&S. In his free time he loves cooking in his small NYC kitchen and nurturing his recently discovered love of creative writing.
Clinic Co-Directors
Charu Vyas
Charu grew up in New Jersey and graduated from Columbia College in 2020 with degrees in economics and biology. After graduation, she worked at Massachusetts General Hospital to improve access and delivery of palliative care for patients with advanced cancer and to develop an oncology hospital-at-home program in collaboration with a Boston-based startup. Charu’s past experiences working with immigrant and refugee populations in college have inspired her to continue promoting health equity and social justice within medicine. She is grateful to serve, and learn from, some of the world’s most vulnerable populations through Columbia’s Asylum Clinic. In addition to her role in CHRIA, Charu serves on the Dean’s Advisory Committee at VP&S and is a Columbia Technology Ventures Fellow. In her spare time, Charu enjoys reading, trying new plant-based recipes, and attending the opera and ballet.
Christine Yang
Christine grew up in New York City and attended Stanford University, graduating in 2021 with a degree in Mathematical and Computational Science. She studied abroad in France, and worked with medical visa patients in France learning about human rights and medical policy. There, she became intent on transforming her experiences with refugees and asylees to a more comprehensive understanding of healthcare in the US. Outside of class, Christine enjoys playing pool and learning how to cook.
Case Coordinators
Ketty Bai
Ketty spent time in a few different places as a child (such as Beijing and Japan), but she calls Richmond, VA home. Last year, she graduated from Duke as a Chemistry major with minors in Latin and Sociology. Throughout college, she also had a special interest in global affairs and policy, and through CHRIA hopes to learn more about how to be an effective advocate for refugees and asylees in the U.S. As one of the Case Coordinators, her role is to coordinate with clinicians, legal aid, and student evaluators to set up evaluations and help prepare affidavits for our clients. She is excited to work with the rest of the CHRIA board to support and serve our clients!
Kishan Bhatt
Kishan joined CHRIA as a Case Coordinator because it is a unique opportunity to combine health work with social impact. His career goals extend from clinical medicine to public policy, the space in which he worked and earned a master’s degree before starting at Columbia. Kishan grew up in suburban New Jersey, roots for the Buffalo Bills, and has a professionally recorded solo on Spotify from his college a cappella days with the Princeton Nassoons.
Chloe Ayers
Chloe grew up in Dallas, Texas and attended MIT for undergrad, double majoring in brain and cognitive sciences and biological engineering. In college, she conducted research on the striatum and neurodegenerative diseases. She is now in the MD/PhD program, in which she will continue pursuing neuroscience research. Chloe is passionate about the reduction of disparities in medicine, and has devoted time to volunteering with pro bono organizations that provide legal aid to immigrant communities regardless of documentation status. In her free time, Chloe enjoys visiting art museums, spending time with friends, and jumping rope competitively.
Programming Coordinators
Emma Tucker
Emma grew up in Northern Manhattan and moved to Atlanta when she was eleven. She graduated from the University of Georgia in 2021 with a major in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and a minor in Spanish. Outside of medicine, her main interests lie in policy writing and advocacy, especially as they pertain to insurance coverage and access to care. Through work with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Roosevelt Institute, she has advocated for equitable access to kidney transplantation while gaining familiarity with the federal rule-making process. As one of CHRIA’s Programming Directors, she hopes to apply her background in policy to advocate for the rights of asylum-seekers on the local and national levels. In her spare time, Emma enjoys watching sitcoms, cooking, and FaceTiming her dog.
Gabrielle Wimer
Gabrielle (Gabby) was born in Paris, France and grew up in Connecticut. She went to the University of Chicago where she studied the history of medicine and human rights. After graduating in 2016, she moved to Xela, Guatemala to work with the non-profit she co-founded, MealFlour. This non-profit teaches rural communities how to grow mealworms as a more affordable and environmentally sustainable source of protein. After 2 years in Guatemala, Gabby moved to Amman, Jordan to serve as the Managing Director of Paper Airplanes, a non-profit that provides online education to refugees in the Middle East. Gabby is looking forward to collaborating with Emma on education and advocacy initiatives at CHRIA. Outside of school and CHRIA, she likes to run, bake, and explore NYC.
Research Coordinator
Joe Ryu
Joe was born in Jersey but grown in New York City. He graduated from Princeton in 2019. He majored in Molecular Biology, but his most formative experience was joining a hip hop dance company called BAC (Black Arts Dance Company) whose mission is to celebrate the black community and its culture through dance. His four years dancing challenged him to grow not only physically as a choreographer and dancer but also emotionally and mentally as an advocate. As one of the Research Chairs in CHRIA, he is excited to combine his passion for advocacy with the hard skills he developed in his two gap years as a clinical research coordinator to support clients seeking refuge and asylum in the US.
Brian Schibler
Brian is from St. Louis, Missouri. He attended the University of Oklahoma where his time was split between school, EMS work, and competitive gymnastics. He graduated in 2019 with degrees in Biochemistry and Spanish. In 2021 he received his Master in Public Health degree at the National Institute of Public Health of Mexico, specializing in epidemiology and physical activity research. He hopes to apply his public health and medical education to improve the health of disadvantaged populations, as well as spread his love of sport and exercise.
Communications Coordinator
Juliana Levy
Juliana grew up in Hillsborough, CA and moved to Berlin, Germany when she was thirteen. She graduated from Dartmouth College in 2019 with a major in Biology and minors in Philosophy and the Anthropology of Global Health. After college, she worked in a DNA damage lab at the Massachusetts General Hospital. She has been interested in immigrant and refugee health from an early age, as her grandmother spent several years of her childhood in a displaced persons camp after fleeing West Prussia. Outside of school, Juliana loves baking, skiing, and exploring NYC. She is excited to join the CHRIA team as the Communications Coordinator.
Financial Coordinator
James Park
James is a New Jersey native (but born in Korea) and attended college at Emory University where he studied Neuroscience and Sociology! His work there primarily focused on memory research and he spent another year prior to coming to medical school participating in this. He is otherwise a caffeine addicted, food loving, dancer excited to work with CHRIA as the financial chair.
Continuing Care / IRAPH Coordinators
Anna Sun
Anna grew up in Memphis, TN, and graduated from Yale with a degree in Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology in May 2021. In college, she was a writer and later the managing editor for the Yale Scientific Magazine, and she was also involved in RNA research. From her previous experiences volunteering in the hospital and tutoring underserved students, Anna recognizes the importance of social support in empowering communities. She is eager to begin working at CHRIA as part of the Continuing Care Team, advocating for those seeking asylum and offering resources to support their physical and mental health. In her free time, Anna enjoys exploring new restaurants, appreciating the arts, and spending time with family and friends.
Kateri Donahoe
Kateri grew up in the Hudson Valley of New York and attended Boston University for both her BA in International Relations and her MPH, specializing in Global Health. During her MPH studies, Kateri was awarded a fellowship to produce journalistic works on the issue of FGM in Mali and examine the deeply entrenched cultural norms that perpetuate the practice, the medical consequences of being cut, and the accounts of women who had firsthand experience with the procedure. After finishing her master’s degree, Kateri spent a few years in Rwanda conducting research in the areas of maternal and child health, health equity, and implementation science. In 2020, she completed a post-baccalaureate pre-medical program at Goucher College, where she was a founding member of a support program on campus for undergraduates who had experienced a nonconsensual sexual or romantic encounter. Most recently, she worked as a research assistant in the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health on an NIH-supported effort to examine data related to the impact of environmental factors on child health, working closely with investigators, biostatisticians, and epidemiologists to address research questions in order to inform healthcare practices, programs, and policymaking.
Hannah Houpt
Hannah (she/her) grew up in Virginia and graduated from DePauw University in 2019 with degrees in International Conflict Resolution and Anthropology. She is now pursuing a joint masters in Social Work and International Affairs, focusing on trauma, migration, and human rights. Hannah has worked with survivors of forced displacement in resettlement organizations in her hometown and in New York, asylum centers in Denmark, and refugee camps along the Thailand-Myanmar border. She hopes to apply the lessons learned from her experiences and classes to support and advocate for CHRIA’s clients. In her free time, Hannah works at her local wine store, explores the city with her pug, goes on long runs, bakes breads of the world, and reads/watches Scandinavian thrillers.
Click here to see prior board members
Columbia VP&S Human Rights Initiative & Asylum Clinic (CHRIA) 