We are honored to award these well deserved recipients the Natalie Beissel Scholarship Fund.
Tanya Omar, 2023 Scholarship Recipient
Janae Rasmussen,
2022 Scholarship Recipient
Gillean Cortes, 2021 Scholarship Recipient
Dr. Tanya Omar, from Eden Prairie, Minnesota earned a Bachelor's degree in Cell and Molecular Biology from Winona State University in MN. Prior to starting medical school, she completed an undergraduate research fellowship at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN in the Physiology & Biomedical Engineering and Anesthesiology departments that resulted in two publications. And while there, like Natalie, she worked as an EMT on an ambulance. Tanya is the current chapter president of the Gold Humanism Honor Society and a Liaison for the Sigma Sigma Phi Honor Society and recently completed her clinical rotations at Cook County Hospital in Chicago, IL. She will pursue a medical residency at the Medical college of Wisconsin in Milwaukee in Psychiatry.
Dr. Omar is passionate about promoting preventative care and mental health wellness through community-centric initiatives. She truly embodies the desire to help others by showing compassion for her patients and coworkers.
Dr. Janae Rasmussen originally from Oahu, Hawaii, also calls the Pacific Northwest home after spending her childhood summers on her grandparent's farm in Washington. Dr. Rasmussen is in the top 1% of her class of 107. She studied Politics and Government and Biology at Pacific University in Oregon then led a Medical Screening Department while working/volunteering as an EMT in Seattle, WA prior to starting medical school. She has held many leadership roles since starting at ATSU-SOMA such as the Vice President of her Class Council, President of the Association of Women Surgeons ATSU-SOMA Chapter, a member of both the Gold Humanism Honor Society and the Sigma Sigma Phi Osteopathic Honor Society, and a tutor for other medical students. She previously was a National Co-Chair for the American Medical Student Association’s (AMSA) Health Care For All Campaign, Vice President of ATSU-SOMA's AMSA Chapter, the Student National Medical Association's Region 1 Secretary, and President of ATSU-SOMA's Medical Ethics Interest Group among other leadership roles. She is passionate about policy work and bringing preventative care into the surgical field to help improve the health care system for all. She is also passionate about women and pediatric health with an interest in considering pursuing a fellowship in pediatric orthopaedic surgery.
Dr. Gillean Cortes was born and raised in New Jersey. She earned a Bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering from Rutgers University. After graduating, she worked for several years as a planner and analyst with L’Oreal and Unilever before changing careers and pursue medicine.
She has spent the last 3 years with Unity Health Care in Washington, DC where she had many opportunities to volunteer, serve as a student ambassador and PAL tutor. Dr. Gillean Cortes will continue her medical residency in radiology.
Olivia Book, 2020 Scholarship Recipient
Dr. Olivia Book was born and raised in Dallas, Texas. Her passion for healthcare began in high school when she participated in multiple medical mission trips, serving as a translator and general volunteer. She followed that calling to Southern Methodist University, where she double-majored in Biology and Spanish. She then graduated from University of North Texas Health Science Center with a Masters degree in Biomedical Sciences and worked as a physician’s scribe in the Emergency Department of Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas. Dr. Book will begin her Internal Medicine residency program at Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs, California, where she is excited to learn and develop as a person, physician and a community servant.
Nafee Talukder, 2019 Scholarship Recipient
Nafee Talukder is a 4th year Osteopathic Medical Student, passionate in pursuing a career in Neurology working with medically underserved populations in the United States. Nafee received his Bachelor of Science in Neurobiology at the University of Texas at Austin; where he completed additional certifications in Applied Behavioral Analysis (Autism Spectrum Therapy) and became a certified Emergency Medical Technician. During his time in Austin, Nafee worked as a research assistant to Dean Morgan studying derangements of the one-carbon metabolic pathway in neural tube birth defects using mice models, headed his own project studying Parkinsonian-like gait deficiencies in the model nematode C. elegans, and served as a Board Member to a local non-profit organization helping to create tech-based internship opportunities for local socioeconomically disadvantaged high school students. Prior to starting medical school, Nafee developed and helped implement an English curriculum at his family’s orphanage in Baidarapur, Bangladesh; an orphanage he helped to start with his family in his father’s home village in 2006 where he serves as a board member.
Currently, he is pursuing his Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (D.O.) Degree from A.T. Still University School of Osteopathic Medicine in Arizona (ATSU-SOMA). Throughout his medical school course, he has served as a Student Ambassador, various leadership roles in student-run organizations, achieved a class rank of 1/105, and has logged over 200 volunteer hours. Nafee was named the Welch Scholar Grant recipient of 2018 from the American Osteopathic Foundation. His well-rounded array of accomplishments ultimately led to his induction into ATSU-SOMA’s honors societies of Sigma Sigma Phi and Gold Humanism Honor Society. Committed to contribute to the advancement of medicine, Nafee has participated in a variety of research initiatives during his time at ATSU-SOMA and has presented at 7 national and regional conferences. He is currently working with his mentor in Houston, TX studying the efficacy of new antisense oligonucleotide promoting therapeutics in atypical, adult-variant Spinal Muscular Atrophy type 3. Having completed his first year of medical school at his home site in Mesa, Arizona, Nafee is currently completing his clinical clerkship at Unity Healthcare in Washington, D.C.
Sabrena Ahmadi, 2018 Scholarship Recipient
Sabrena Ahmadi was raised in Hercules, CA. A small community in the East Bay near San Francisco. She graduated from University of California, Los Angeles with a Bachelor degree in Neuroscience. While completing her undergraduate degree, Sabrena worked as an Emergency Medical Technician in West Hollywood for over four years. Following graduation she continued to work in healthcare, managing a workers compensation department at a pain clinic in Walnut Creek, California. In 2014, she began her medical career at A.T. Still University School of Osteopathic Medicine in Arizona, where she spent 3 years at a Community Health Center in Portland, Oregon. Sabrena is currently seeking a four-year resident position in Neurology. In her free time, she enjoys soccer, travelling, reading, and spending time with family.
“I am sincerely honored to be the recipient of the 2018 Natalie Beissel Scholarship, as the message of this reward resonates with my own aspirations and attests to the very reason why I pursued medicine. As I move forward with my medical career and as a future neurologist, I will honor Natalie in my interactions, and I will constantly remind myself of the core values that make up a great physician, the very values that Natalie embodied in her lifetime.”
Bruce Leewiwatanakul, 2017 Scholarship Recipient
Bruce, a fourth-year osteopathic medical student, who is ranked in the top 15% of his class of 108 students and demonstrated a caring personality toward his patients and co-workers, was awarded the Natalie Beissel Memorial Scholarship on May 24, 2017. Bruce is starting a pediatric residency at Oregon Health & Science University/Doernbecher Children’s Hospital where he is interested in practicing general pediatrics, but is also considering exploring subspecialties of pediatric emergency medicine or pediatric critical care.
“I am intensely humbled at being selected as the recipient of the Natalie Beissel Scholarship
because of what this scholarship stands for and celebrates. It is inspiring to know that Natalie’s essence as an intelligent and caring individual is the selection criteria. I am proud to help propagate and highlight Natalie’s successes and I truly appreciate the honor of receiving this recognition. I intend to uphold the traits that embody Natalie throughout my
career and hope that this spotlight is able to encourage others to do shine in the same
ways.”
Aleksandra Kardasheva, 2016 Scholarship Recipient
The inaugural Natalie Beissel Memorial Scholarship was presented at the ATSU-SOMA gala event held on May 19, 2016 by Natalie’s brother, Nick to fourth-year medical student, Aleksandra Kardasheva.
Aleksandra was born in Bulgaria and moved to Seattle during her teen years. She completed her undergraduate degree in Chemistry and Biochemistry from the University of Washington. Before medical school, she spent four years working on global development programs in agriculture, nutrition and health at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in
Seattle. In June 2016, she will be starting a three-year residency in Internal Medicine at Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle. In her free time, she enjoys hiking, biking, traveling, reading and spending time with family and friends.
“I am truly honored to be the first recipient of Natalie Beissel scholarship, Aleksandra said. I admired her for the beautiful, smart and strong woman and physician she was. I am anxiously waiting to start my internal medicine residency in a few weeks. And when things
go wrong as they sometimes will; when the road I am trudging seems all uphill and when I want to smile but I have to sigh, I will look up and press forward even more, Natalie, to honor you in my interactions with my patients. I love you and I miss you greatly.”