GHOPE Leadership
Chris A. Rees MD, MPH
Director of GHOPE
Chris A. Rees, MD, MPH is the Director of the Global Health Office of Pediatrics at Emory (GHOPE). As the Director of GHOPE, he aims to continue to support students, residents, fellows, and faculty at Emory who engage in global child health as well as abroad in furthering strong, sustainable, and meaningful pediatric global health research, education, and operations.
Chris is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine at Emory University School of Medicine, an attending physician in the pediatric emergency department at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, and a research scientist in the Child Health and Mortality Prevention Surveillance (CHAMPS) network. He joined Emory in 2021 after completing a fellowship in pediatric emergency medicine and global health at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, where he served as chief fellow. Prior to his time in Boston, he was a resident and chief resident in the pediatrics and global child health residency program at Texas Children’s Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine. His research interests include developing novel approaches to prevent childhood mortality in low- and middle-income countries and research collaboration in global health. He has led, and collaborated on, several multi-country studies in low- and middle-income countries. Chris is also a research consultant to the World Health Organization and UNICEF.
Amy RL Rule MD, MPH
Pediatric Global Health Track Director
Amy RL Rule MD, MPH is the Director of the Pediatric Global Health Track which is the education arm of the Global Health Office of Pediatrics at Emory (GHOPE). As the track director, she aims to curate and implement global child health education for primarily for residents in the track and all pediatric residents. As well as mentor and cultivate scholarly activities for Emory pediatric trainees developing careers in global child health through sustainable bidirectional partnerships. While also contributing to global health education for fellows, and students interested in global child health.
Dr. Amy Rule is a pediatric and neonatal hospitalist and Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Emory/CHOA. She is the co-director of Emory’s Collaborating Center for Maternal Infant Health. She completed her pediatric residency and combined hospital medicine and global health fellowship at Cincinnati Children’s. She joined Emory in 2022. Her research centers on the intersection of health education and social determinants of health. Her work includes maternal-newborn outcomes research in East Africa, partnering with immigrant and refugee families in Georgia and cultural humility and global health education for healthcare trainees. Dr. Rule is the co-lead author for the AAP GHEARD. She has been an author on multiple global health education curricula from the SUGAR team and helped develop the AAP Global Health Education Course. Dr. Rule is also the chair of the APPD Global Health Learning Community.
Emilee Flynn, MD, MPH
Associate Director, Pediatric Global Health Track
Emilee Flynn, MD, MPH is the Associate Director of the Global Health Track in Pediatrics. In this role she works closely with the Pediatric Residents in the Global Health Track to provide additional mentorship and guidance as they complete their scholarly projects and engage in dedicated Global Health educational experiences.
Emilee is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at Emory School of Medicine. She obtained her medical degree from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland. She completed her Pediatric Residency at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She then went onto complete a fellowship in Pediatric Global Health and obtain a master’s in public health through the University of Massachusetts in Worcester, Massachusetts. Through this fellowship she had the opportunity to work in collaboration with Partners In Health in rural Liberia as well as with the Umodzi Pediatric Palliative Care Program in Blantyre, Malawi. She has also taught and lectured on a variety of topics in Guyana. She completed a fellowship in Pediatric Hospice and Palliative Medicine Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia. She joined the faculty at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta in 2019 and is currently an Attending Physician with the Pediatric Hospice and Palliative Medicine Team at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and serves as an Assistant Program Director for the Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship Program. Her scholarly work focuses on designing and evaluating sustainable curriculum in Hospice and Palliative Medicine for a variety of educational settings and creating bidirectional learning opportunities.
Our Residents
Joel Ofori
(PGY 3)
Joel was born to Ghanaian parents in Overland Park, KS and grew up in Orlando, FL. He attended the University of Central Florida and studied Biomedical Sciences. Before coming to Emory, Joel attended Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine where he had his first experience with global health. While attending WashU, Joel had the opportunity to participate in the Summer Opportunities Abroad Program and participate with the Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research on a clinical trial for Lymphatic Filariasis-- an experience that helped inform his understanding of diverse health care and research practices in different global settings. Joel looks forward to taking the lessons and skills he learns as part of the Global Health program and utilizing them to help raising the standards of care for pediatric patients worldwide.
Amanda Kuhn
(PGY 3)
Dr. Kuhn was born and raised in Bethesda, Maryland, and attended Carnegie Mellon University for her undergraduate degree in Neuroscience. During this time, she was involved in Global Public Health Brigades and traveled to a rural community in Nicaragua to help with disease prevention efforts and public health education. She further became interested in global health after shadowing physicians in Hungary and learning about another healthcare system. She attended medical school at Georgetown, and during her time in Washington, D.C., she enjoyed devoting her time to mentorship and community health education. Amanda is thrilled to be a part of the Global Health Track and hopes to further explore climate change’s impact on health, develop skills to deliver culturally competent care, and collaborate on efforts to improve health outcomes for all.
Lindsey Theodore
(PGY 3)
Lindsey Theodore was born to Haitian immigrants and raised in Gaithersburg, Maryland before moving to Conyers, Georgia. She received a Bachelor of Arts in Global Health Studies and a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology at Mercer University, and she remained at Mercer for medical school. Her involvement in study abroad and exchange programs provided her with opportunities to learn and walk amongst citizens of the United Kingdom, France, and the United Arab Emirates. She plans on going into primary care and being involved with local and international global health throughout her career. She wishes to experience providing healthcare in underdeveloped countries to gain expertise on different health conditions and learn how to navigate ill-equipped clinics and cultural and language barriers. Along with global health, Lindsey’s medical interests include mental health and sexual education.
Lucie Fan
(PGY 2)
Dr. Fan grew up in both Hong Kong and Upstate New York. Her interest in global health first stemmed from her background having lived in multiple cities and experienced different healthcare systems. She attended Cornell University and majored in Human Biology, Health, and Society, and minored in Human Development. At Cornell, she worked as a research assistant in Malawi, and participated in malaria prevention, community advocacy, and HIV research. She then received her medical degree from the Emory University School of Medicine. While in medical school, She completed a pediatric rotation on the Navajo Reservation at Shiprock, NM, where she worked with local physicians in both the outpatient and inpatient settings. In both experiences, she learned about health disparities in the context of environmental injustice, structural racism, and the lack of equitable access to education, healthcare, and nutrition. She wants to serve in racially diverse neighborhoods in the future and invest in global health research alongside her husband who is a psychiatrist with an interest in global mental health.
Yursa Ahmedin
(PGY 2)
Dr. Ahmedin is of Eritrean origin and was born and raised in Atlanta, GA. After attending Emory University for undergrad, she went to UCLA for medical school where she had the chance to help create a resource toolkit for immigrant youth and their families and work with many, many immigrant and refugee families in various clinical settings. She has a specific interest in being a primary care provider for primarily refugee and immigrant communities locally, participating in global health projects in East Africa, and engaging in clinical teaching for future physicians and allied healthcare workers abroad. She is glad to be part of this vibrant community of passionate physicians.
Dana Kapeller-Libermann
(PGY 2 - Child Neurology)
Dr. Kapeller-Libermann was born in Boston, MA, her family immigrated to the US from Brazil and Germany. She became interested in global health after traveling to different countries and seeing the healthcare disparities. At New York University during her undergrad, she was involved with Global Public Health Brigades and traveled to Honduras working alongside community members in public health projects. She was also involved in her global health program in medical school at University of Buffalo, where they worked with a clinic in Sierra Leone to identify supplies and medications that were needed in the area. She is excited to be a part of the Global health track and hopes address deficits in child neurology care globally.
Clayton Swords
(PGY 2)
Dr. Swords was born in Greensboro, North Carolina, and attended UNC Chapel Hill for his undergraduate education. While at UNC, he had the opportunity to work on an innovative project in Masaya, Nicaragua that aimed to improve healthcare accessibility. After this experience, he continued to explore his newfound interest and passion in global health. Before starting medical school, he wanted to gain conversational competency in Spanish so that he could continue to pursue global health opportunities, both domestically in local communities, as well as globally. He taught English in Madrid, Spain for one year before starting medical school at Tulane University. While there, he had the privilege to work remotely on projects in both Peru and Bolivia. He is excited to continue to refine his interest through the Global Health Track and take advantage of all the opportunities that it can offer.
Chase Floyd
(PGY 1)
Dr. Floyd is a native of Columbia, SC, and completed medical school at the University of South Carolina - Columbia. His current career interests include pediatric hospital medicine, critical care, and gastroenterology. Chase’s research interests primarily span nutrition (particularly in critically ill patients) and point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS). As a participant in the global health track, he is eager to develop as a skilled clinician through diverse training experiences and to gain a deeper understanding of the global health landscape.
Erkin Ozel
(PGY 1)
Dr. Ozel was born in Ordu, Turkiye and studied medical school at Koc University in Istanbul. As part of his public health course, he worked with Human Resource Development Foundation to provide health education for Syrian refugees which inspired his interest in global health. His research on gene therapy for rare diseases led him to pursue medical genetics residency in the US. Before starting residency, he studied Lesch-Nyhan disease as a postdoc research fellow at Emory University Human Genetics Department. During this time, he also completed Global Genes Rare Compassion Program. He plans to stay in academic medicine and work on developing partnerships to improve access to innovative treatments for rare diseases in low-income countries. He is excited to learn more about challenges faced by patients with rare and complex conditions from diagnosis to treatment across different health systems.
Karin Videlefsky
(PGY 1)
Dr. Videlefsky was born in Atlanta Georgia, shortly after her family immigrated from South Africa. She attended Tulane for her undergraduate degree in Sociology, and for medical school. During medical school, she was part of a cultural immersion service-learning rotation in Nome, Alaska in partnership with the Indian Health Service. She was trained by local tribal leaders and gained deep insights into native Alaskan history and culture. She collaborated with village-based providers in a community aid health program created to address geographic and cultural barriers to care. In the Global Health Track she is excited to develop bidirectional partnerships and be part of a team dedicated to improving access to high quality patient-centered care globally.
Munachi Uzodike
(PGY 1)
Dr. Uzodike was born in Nigeria, and raised in the diverse city of Houston, Texas. She has always been interested in engaging with and learning from different cultures. In college, she first discovered an area of focus through her major in Public Health and a minor in African Studies. Though she knew she ultimately wanted to be a pediatrician, the seed was planted to also consider health at a community level with a specific interest in how history, culture, and religion impacted the health and livelihood of children in Sub-Saharan Africa and the African diaspora at large. From classes like “Religion in Africa” to global health trips to Grande Goave, Haiti, Munachi deepened her commitment to the principles of valuing historical context and the bidirectional and anti-imperialistic global health practice.
She continued to cultivate this passion through medical school at Dell Medical School at UT Austin where she participated in the global health club, cared for local newly immigrated populations, and received a Master's in Public Health from UT Health Houston – Austin Campus. Now as a pediatric resident, Munachi is excited to join the global health track to learn, practice, and inspire others in the global health. Outside of her professional pursuits, Munachi enjoys spending time with her husband, learning languages, cooking, enjoying the outdoors, and being involved in her church community.
Madeline Wetterhall
(PGY 1)
Dr. Wetterhall was born and raised in Atlanta, GA, and completed her Bachelor of Science degree in Biology while minoring in German Studies at Elon University in North Carolina. Following her undergraduate studies, she moved to Wuerzburg, Germany, as a Fulbright scholar, where she taught English and Physics to local students. While abroad, she gained first-hand experience in a different healthcare system, which opened her eyes to and sparked her passion for access to care issues faced back home.
When she returned to the states, she began working as a 911 Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) in DeKalb County and was later deployed with FEMA to support New York City during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. She then attended medical school at Medical College of Georgia in Athens, GA, where she continued pursing interests in issues of social justice and access to care through her volunteer work with Athens Free Mobile Clinic, a local addiction-recovery center, and an Atlanta-based homeless shelter. She is eager to learn more about global health through the Global Health Track and looks forward to learning how to incorporate those lessons into her further career goals pursuing interests in pediatric emergency medicine or critical care.