Our Residents
Ben Green
Ben Green earned a degree in Biological Anthropology from Harvard University where he also won an Ivy League championship in 1997-98 and was named a first team academic All-American as a defensive back for the Harvard Crimson football team. A Cherry Hill native, he returned to New Jersey to attend UMDNJ-Camden where he was active in UMDNJ's student outreach clinic and was named to AOA membership in his fourth year. He remains interested in sports medicine and enjoys surf fishing and cooking.
Ellen Kim
Ellen Kim is a 1997 graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where she earned a Major in Biology and Minor in Music. While at MIT she was named to the New 8 All-Conference Field Hockey Team and the College National Field Hockey Coaches Association All-Academic Team. As a student at Drexel University College of Medicine she found time to volunteer with several Philadelphia area community health groups and continues to teach English as a second language at the Chinese Christian Church and Center. She has special interest in serving underserved areas and has spent summers in China as well as Honduras. Ellen has four publications in the realm of cell biology to her credit including work with Joe Gallo's SPECTRUM team. Recent hobbies include reading science fiction, playing the guitar and piano, rollerblading, volleyball, updating her personal website and house painting.
Sean Lucan
Sean Lucan is a 1996 graduate of PENN (Major in Fine Arts, Minor in Chemistry) who joined our residency with a strong interest in research and both MD and MPH degrees from Yale. Sean is one of three 2003 Pisacano Scholars; a highly-competitive national leadership program administered by the Pisacano Foundation of the American Board of Family Medicine. Sean is also one of twenty 2006 recipients of the prestigious American Academy of Family Practice/Bristol-Myers Squibb Award for Excellence in Graduate Medical Education. Sean has published several papers on smoking-cessation, serves as a reviewer for the American Journal of Health Promotion, and after graduation, will continue at PENN as a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar; a distinguished fellowship to foster the development of physicians who will improve the nation's health and healthcare. His interests include fitness and nutrition.
Jessica Ramos-Codjoe
Jessica Ramos-Codjoe left the Bronx to earn her Biology degree from Seton Hall University prior to completing her MD at UMDNJ/Robert Wood Johnson School of Medicine Camden Campus. She is passionate about working with urban underserved patients, especially in the area of maternal and child health. Her most cherished recent achievement is completion of medical school in uninterrupted fashion while having two children (one as a first year, one as a senior) and compiling an outstanding academic record. Her husband Paul is in an orthopedic surgery resident in Northern New Jersey.
Perry Sexton
Perry Sexton received his medical degree from Loma Linda University School of Medicine and his undergraduate biology degree from Sonoma State University in the California wine country. Prior to entering Penn's Family Medicine residency as a PGY2 he completed an internship in Internal Medicine and two years in the Yale emergency Medicine residency before seeing the light of Family Medicine. He is married to an anesthesiologist and plans to return to San Diego to enter Practice while his wife completes her commitment to the US Navy. He just completed his first novel and enjoys traveling and water sports.
Rita Sharma
Rita Sharma came to Penn from "the back of beyond" in Sparwood, British Columbia, a rural coal-mining town of 4,232 people in the heart of the Canadian Rockies. A graduate of the University of Lethbridge in Alberta (Biochemistry), she attended medical school at St. George's University, compiling an excellent academic record while developing a particular interest in children's preventive health. She is married to a resident surgeon and enjoys yoga, knitting, cooking, and foreign films.
Shital Desai
Shital Desai received her undergraduate (Biochemistry and Molecular Biology) and medical degrees from the University of Maryland, where she was active both in her south-asian community and also the broader community of nearby Baltimore county. She served two years as a substance abuse outreach tutor and has also completed an NIH summer research fellowship resulting in publication of her work in the Journal of Biological Chemistry. She is fluent in both Gujarati and Hindi and enjoys racquetball, dance and reading.
Jessica Haloskie
Jessica Haloskie received her undergraduate degree (Biology and Spanish) from Lebanon Valley College in Annville, PA and her medical degree from Jefferson Medical College. Her various pursuits have included study abroad in Salamanca, Spain and volunteer work for several local non-profit agencies, among them Friendship House of Children and Youth where she served as counselor to adolescent boys, serving as chair of Jefferson's Boricua/Latino Health Organization, and volunteering time with Ten Thousand Villages, a non-profit chain providing a retail outlet for third world arts and crafts. She enjoys volleyball and biking in her spare time.
Holly Harris
Holly Harris received her BS in Microbiology/Bacteriology from the University of Florida in Gainesville then moved to Washington, DC and earned her MD from Howard University. A move back to Florida found Holly in the OB/GYN residency program at Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg for a year of training. At that point, Holly realized that although she loves OB, her heart lies in Family Medicine and the involvement in community service and continuity of care that comes with this specialty. She joined the Penn Family Medicine Department early in 2006. Outside the hospital, Holly loves reading, exercise, baking, and spending time with her family.
Meg Johnson
Margaret (Meg) Johnson attended the University of Virginia (Biology) and received her medical degree from Jefferson Medical College. In medical school she focused on various aspects of reproductive health, including an externship and volunteer work with Planned Parenthood and serving as co-president of Jefferson's Medical Students for Choice chapter. As an undergraduate she was a program facilitator and trainer for Young Women Leaders, a group providing college mentors for middle school girls. A summer research internship in the lab of Harold Varmus, MD and subsequent research with W. Doug Figg, Pharm.D., both at NIH, led to several publications and posters. Meg enjoys a variety of extracurricular activities including sailing, field hockey and following the band of her significant other (Mellow Veneer).
Eun Kim
Eun Kim received her undergraduate degree (Chemical Engineering) from the University of Virginia and her medical degree from the Medical College of Virginia of Virginia Commonwealth University. Eun has been active in organized medicine throughout her medical school career, culminating in her serving as president of VCU's AMA medical student section and as member of the student board of the Medical Society of Virginia. As an undergraduate she served as director of Charlottesville Area Riding Therapy, an equine therapy program directed at physically and mentally disabled youth. She is fluent in Korean and enjoys reading and knitting in her spare time.
Aqiyla Muhammad
Aqiyla Muhammad returned to Penn after receiving her medical degree from Penn State University. A native Philadelphian (Girl's High), she earned her undergraduate degree in biomedical sciences at Penn, where she was on the track team and volunteered time introducting inner-city youth to opportunities in higher education, sports and medicine. While in medical school she completed a summer research fellowship at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester where she joined a team studying gait disturbances in patients with ankle and foot arthritis. She also served as Penn State's SNMA Community Service chair. In addition to running she enjoys travel and dancing.
Kathy Cornelius
Kathy Cornelius earned her undergraduate degree in biology (with distinction) from Oakwood College in Alabama. Upon graduation she taught math and science for middle school students in Queens, New York for three years prior to earning her Master's degree in biomedical science from Barry University in Miami. At Wright State University Medical School she was active in student government and community projects, highlighted by her volunteering in the Reach Out Dayton program, which provides healthcare to vulnerable and indigent members of the community of Dayton. She also served as community service chair of the school's SNMA chapter. Her interests include travel, karate, sign language, yoga and running.
Katherine Mahon
Katherine Mahon earned her degree in biology and membership in Phi Beta Kappa at St. Joseph's University where she spent her summers volunteering for Habitat for Humanity and on a Native American Indian Reservation. After graduation she deferred her admission to Jefferson Medical College in order to spend a year in the Jesuit Volunteer Corp working as a social work associate at an adult day program for individuals living with AIDS in Seattle. At Jefferson she was active in community service through working in (and serving on the steering committee of) Jeff Hope, Jefferson's student-run homeless health care network. She was also co-president of Jefferson's Family Medicine Interest Group and participated in Bridging the Gaps, a Philadelphia-based program that links area students with community projects. Her interests include running, reading and cooking.
Kristie Nichols
Kristie Nichols hails from rural New York, where she graduated among a high school class of 29. She earned NJCAA Distinguished Academic All American status as a soccer player at SUNY-Cobleskill before transferring to Binghamton University, where she earned degrees (summa cum laude) in psychobiology and medical anthropology. As an undergraduate she performed research on health care utilization among elderly residents of Ostego County, NY. She received her medical degree from SUNY-Syracuse, where she was active with the NY state Academy of Family Physicians and completed a Medical Students for Choice Reproductive Health fellowship at the Westside Women's Medical Pavillion in Manhattan. She still enjoys playing soccer, running, canoe racing, travel (Central and South America) and caring for her dogs.
Laura Oppenheim
Laura Oppenheim, from Moorestown, NJ, earned her undergraduate degree in political science from Vassar College. Following graduation she received an Urban Teaching Fellowship in New York, where as she taught biology, math, literature, history and art to middle schoolers at a progressive middle school in Manhattan. She received her medical degree from Jefferson Medical College. The daughter of a family physician, she enjoys running, being outside, going to the ocean, and settling into her new house.
Kai Pittman
Kai began her journey to family medicine by earning her undergraduate degree in English from Duke in 1995. A native of Brooklyn, she worked for several years in health care public relations. She developed media strategies for health and disease awareness campaigns while working there, feeding an interest in public health which in turn led to an MPH from Columbia in 2002. While at Columbia she performed independent health disparities research focusing on cultural differences in preventive breast health behaviors among African-American, Hispanic and Caucasian women. She later participated in research on disparities in cardiovascular and diabetes care (CDC) and nutrition and menopause (NIH-CAM). She entered SUNY-Buffalo in 2002 and is glad to move closer to her native Brooklyn. She has a working knowledge of spanish and enjoys clasical music, nonfiction writing and travel.
Sasha Steinlight
Sasha Steinlight, a New Jersey native, earned her undergraduate degree in biochemistry from Indiana University, where she spent the summer of her sophomore year in Bellevue Hospital's summer internship program, rotating through various emergency departments and shadowing physicians. On graduation in 2000 she earned her master's degree in biomedical science from UMDNJ then entered UNDMJ-New Jersey Medical School in Newark, where she's performed research on pap smear follow-up and served as night manager of UMDNJ's Student Family Health Care clinic. Her academic performance at UMDNJ led to her election to AOA in her senior year. Her hobbies (hiking, swimming, camping and "anything outdoors") betray an ongoing interest in sports medicine which led her to student membership on the New Jersey Medical Society's committee on the medical aspects of sports.