2021-2022 OACA Interprofessional Interns

IPE interns 2021-2022

Office of Academic Clinical Affairs Interprofessional Internship

Eighteen students from across the health sciences were in our 2021-2022 cohort.

2021-2022 pie chart of health professions programs

Center for Interprofessional Health

The Center for Interprofessional Health (CIH) Co-Lead Intern position serves 3 purposes: 1) Promotes advanced personal leadership development in an interprofessional context; 2) Provides mentorship to and leadership of incoming intern cohorts; 3) Contributes to the advancement of novel interprofessional initiatives in line with UMN Strategic Plan priorities through cross-sector collaboration approaches.

 

Bethany O'Bryan

Bethany O'Bryan, BS
College of Veterinary Medicine
Clinical Partner: Center for Interprofessional Health

Bethany O'Bryan, BS (Health Sciences) is pursuing a Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine (2023). Growing up and attending undergrad in Rochester, MN, nicknamed Med-City, helped develop her passion for medicine in both animal and human patients. Bethany plans to spend her career as part of the One Health initiative, specifically focusing on conservation medicine as a zoo veterinarian.

Sara Dasler

Sara Dasler, BS
College of Liberal Arts

Sara Dasler, BS (Communication Science and Disorders), is pursuing her Master's in Speech Language Pathology (2022). She previously worked for a group home taking care of residents that experience a Traumatic Brain Injury and worked at Mayo Clinic as a Pharmacy Technician. She hopes to work with both kids and adults that have langauge difficulties.

Community University Health Care Center

Propose a mentor model with current interns supporting and orienting a new intern and getting them going. Existing interns will teach some of the skills they learned already as the organization works on new projects. Interns will develop templates for trending quantitative and qualitative patient satisfaction data at varying levels, map annual workflow for surveys, and develop structure for reports in the peer review process.

 

Mila Centrella

Mila Centrella, BA
School of Public Health

Mila Centrella, BA (sociology), is pursuing an MPH in Administration and Policy (2023) at the University of Minnesota. Her undergraduate education at the University of St. Thomas focused on minorities and underrepresented communities through sociological, public health, and gender equity lenses. She hopes to eventually work within an organization that seeks to advance health access and overall health outcomes within marginalized and low-income communities. She enjoys singing, playing board games with friends, baking, and reading.

Vanessa Santamaria

Vanessa Santamaria, BS
School of Public Health

Vanessa Santamaria, BS (Public Health) is pursuing a Master's in Healthcare Administration (2022). She interned this past summer at Cleveland Clinic for their Regional Operations department. She hopes to someday utilize skills to lead a federally qualified health center to improve equity and access to care in vulnerable communities.

Ally Taubenheim

Ally Taubenhein, RN, PHN, BSN
School of Nursing

Ally Taubenheim, RN, PHN, BSN is pursuing a degree in the Doctor of Nursing Practice program (2022). Ally Taubenheim has been an active leader in interprofessional education since 2016 and is one of the co-creators of the inaugural Interprofessional Education Health Care Escape Rooms, developed at the University of Minnesota. She is a pioneering leader to improve team-based care in the clinical setting. Her special interests in education include improving health equity and bridging primary care and mental health care for children and families.

GuidePoint Pharmacy

By improving inter-professional communications at high risk times, such as transitions of care, we want to help minimize mental health disparities and improve patient outcomes. By utilizing a Primary Care Team based approach, we can implement tools like care plans to expand our outreach to vulnerable patient populations.The project will introduce and implement a communication platform that is easily utilized by the entire Primary Care Team - especially during crisis situations.

 

Taylor Sinn

Taylor Sinn, BS
School of Public Health

Taylor Sinn, BS (Biology) is pursuing a Master's in Healthcare Administration (2022). This past summer was an intern at Marshfield Medical Center in Eau Claire, WI working under the Chief Administrative Officer. She is interested in working in operations and will be working at Allina Health upon graduation.

Elena Tran

Elena Tran, BA
School of Public Health

Elena Tran, BA (biology, society, and environment) is pursuing an MPH in public health policy and administration (2023). She previously worked as a medical scribe in the ED, observing relationships between applied medicine/direct patient care and public health. She hopes to focus her work on assessing and improving health care needs of her local community. She enjoys spending time outside with friends and family and eating really yummy food.

HealthPartners

Interns will compile and develop resources on Interprofessional education and teaming, create a resource webpage, and develop a teaming toolkit that builds off of the HealthPartners Teaming Framework. Toolkit items will be tested with longitudinal NP/PA students in spring of 2022.

 

Brandon Gilmer

Brandon Gilmer, BS
College of Pharmacy

Brandon Gilmer, BS (Biology) is pursuing a Doctor of Pharmacy degree with an emphasis in leadership (2023). He is passionate about enhancing interprofessional opportunities for pharmacists to address health disparities and improve health outcomes. He is the Lead Intern at United Hospital and spends time volunteering at Phillips Neighborhood Clinic. He enjoys being outdoors hiking, camping, and traveling.

Julie Ntegeye

Julie Ntegeye, BA
School of Public Health

Julie Ntegeye is a first-year MPH student in Environmental Health with a focus on Global Health. I graduated from Iowa State University with a bachelor's degree in Political Science and International Studies. I am studying water and air quality, food safety and security, industrialization, and deforestation as part of her MPH's program. I was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo. One interesting fact about me is that I speak five languages fluently.

Breana Stang

Breana Stang, BS
Center for Allied Health

Breana Stang, BS (Community Health), is pursuing a doctoral degree in Occupational Therapy (2023). She currently works as a nursing assistant and volunteers at Phillips Neighborhood Clinic and Rebuilding Together. She hopes to work with a variety of populations to improve their health, independence, and quality of life. In her free time she enjoys camping, painting, and spending time with loved ones.

Morris Challenge Project

The UMN Morris Challenge promotes sustainability, practical solutions, and community cooperation to engage communities to improve health and quality of life. Interns will support the Challenge Director in garnering data, community interest, expertise, and delivery approaches to engage populations in active change. Interns will support the conceptualization and launch of interprofessional community health intiatives in west central Minnesota based on the needs of the populations involved.

 

Janette Romero Saenz

Janette Romero Saenz, BA
School of Public Health

Janette Romero Saenz, BA (Biology, Society, and Environment- BSE) is pursing a MPH in Administration and Policy, (2022). She previously worked for one of Minnesota’s COVID-19 vaccination projects that focused on community outreach. Janette currently serves on the executive board of Aging Studies Interdisciplinary Group (ASIG) to promote discussion surrounding gerontology. Looking ahead, she hopes to increase equitable healthcare access to underserved populations with a particular focus on the impact of COVID-19.

Aisha Waseem

Aisha Waseem, BS
College of Pharmacy

Aisha Waseem is a third year pharmacy student on the Twin Cities campus. She is passionate about improving healthcare in underserved communities and bridging the barriers in health care disparities.

National Center

To support the advancement of two of the strategic imperatives that are closely aligned: racism within health care teams and the engagement of individuals, families and communities in the Nexus. These themes will be a focus of the Nexus Summit, held in September and October, and specific project goals will come out of action planning associated with that meeting. Interns will develop and refine the patient, family and community curated resource collection, curate a special collection focused on aspects of racism and caste within health care teams, and develop practical tools and resources to promote awareness and engagement of key topics, issues and opportunities.

 

Liza Johnson

Lizz Johnson, BA, AA
College of PharmacyLizz Johnson is a second year occupational therapy student. She isoriginally from St. Louis and was living in Montana for five years before moving to Minnesota for graduate school. I am passionate about my chosen profession and look forward to bringing my clinical and leadership skills back to Montana.

Poornima Vasireddy

Poornima Vasireddy, MS, BDS, NTR
School of Dentistry

 

Veterans Administration

A tiered huddle system was recently implemented, designed to manage the safety and risk concerns from employees. The hope is to expand these huddles across the organization. An intern team would help to develop and implement tools to scale up this work, including development of an objective method to monitor the lifecycle of the tiered huddle system and monitor team alignment.

 

Colton Cannon

Colton Cannon, BS
School of Dentistry

I hold a BS in Biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin - Madison. I am currently a dual-degree student pursing a Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS) in the School of Dentistry and a Master of Public Health (MPH) in the School of Public Health at the University of Minnesota. I currently serve as the National President of the American Student Dental Association (ASDA) representing the rights, interests, and welfare of dental students. I enjoy interdisciplinary healthcare and working improving the oral healthcare system. 

Claire Knutson

Claire Knutson, BS
School of Public Health

Claire Knutson is currently pursuing her MHA in the School of Public Health. She graduated from Creighton University with her Bachelor of Science in Healthcare Administration and Policy. Before attending graduate school, Claire worked for two years at the American Academy of Neurology. Claire is interested in strategy and operations within large academic medical centers.

Welia Health

Welia Health recently shifted to a private not-for-profit 501c3 organization. Interns in this project will conduct a Community Health Needs Assessment consistent with the expectations of Section 501(r)(3), facilitate discussions surrounding implementation strategies to meet identified community health needs, and present their report to senior leadership and governing board.

 

Nathan Evans

Nathan Evans, BS
School of Public Health

Nathan Evans, BS (Neuroscience) is pursuing an MPH in Public Health Administration and Policy. He previously worked through Americorps with a series of homeless shelters to improve programs for shelter seekers with substance use disorders. He hopes someday to advance health policy to promote the health of underserved communities. Nate enjoys improvisational piano, guitar, cooking, and animation.

Hannah Saalsaa

Hannah Saalsaa, BS
Medical School

Hannah Saalsaa, BS (Kinesiology), is pursuing a Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) degree (2023). She is is an IPE Scholar, and is passionate about advocating for both her patients and profession through interprofessional work. She hopes to work with a neurological patient population, and sees herself pursing an MPH in the future.