Previous Outreach Directors
Lidija Barbaric - Co-Director of Avicenna Outreach Team
Lidija is in her third year at the Carle Illinois College of Medicine and originally from Pittsburgh, PA where she received a master's in biomedical engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. For 3 years she studied the tumor microenvironment at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, TN and then did clinical research with the bone marrow transplant team at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh. Working with families and maintaining that special physician-patient partnership is what she especially enjoys and hopes to bring to the community served by Avicenna.
Andrea Hall - Co-Director of Avicenna Outreach Team
Andrea is currently a third year medical student at the Carle Illinois College of Medicine with an interest in Psychiatry and Women’s Health. She is from Tempe, Arizona and graduated from Arizona State University with a Bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering. She worked as an engineer in Tucson, Arizona prior to beginning medical school. Andrea joined Avicenna in the fall of 2018 as an Intake Volunteer. She enjoyed meeting patients, learning more about them and assisting them move towards improved health. As a Co-Director of the Outreach Team, Andrea looks forward to increasing awareness of this great health care resource in the Champaign-Urbana community.
Manisha Reddy - Co-Director of Avicenna Outreach Team
Manisha is a senior at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Manisha began volunteering with Avicenna in Fall 2018 and had taken a variety of roles across Avicenna. She is currently completing her Bachelors of Science degree in Molecular and Cellular Biology, with a Minor in Gender and Women Studies. As a co-director of the Outreach team at Avicenna, Manisha hopes to raise awareness about the medical resources available to the underserved community within Urbana-Champaign. In the future, Manisha plans to become a physician and utilize the experiences she attained in Avicenna to combat inequities within medicine.
Cassandra Afseth - Co-Director of Avicenna Outreach Team
Cassandra is recently graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, completing her Bachelor of Science degree in Integrative Biology. She started volunteering with Avicenna in October 2019 as an Outreach Volunteer. She especially enjoys conversing with people about the healthcare services offered Avicenna, as well as other resources available to the CU community. Cassandra believes that outreach is instrumental in fostering both long-lasting relationships with individuals and trust with the community, and is excited to continue advocating for the underserved as an Outreach Team co-director.
Past Outreach Team: Chirag Gopinath, Samantha McAllister, Meera Joshi, Jennifer Srnak, Zach Griffith, Isaac Ngo, Wahab Ahsan, Apurva Nayak, Leo Trujillo, Richard Moraga, Aarya Bavare, Manisha Reddy, Anand Haran, John Carroll, Antonia Stokes, Aminah Bilal, Zynab Adewusi, Hiral Patel, Cassandra Afseth, Dania Jahangir, Alondra Camacho, Priyal Patel, Rumeysa Aydogdu, Janina Rojas, Ysabel Floresca, Juan Rubio , Katelyn Stanevich, Varsha Chari, Katherine Castillo, Rajita Kanapareddy, Jacob Light
Rachel Waldemer-Streyer, BS, BA, MD PhD scholar
Rachel is a member of the MD-PhD program at the University of Illinois, and is currently working on finishing her PhD in Cell and Developmental Biology. Her work focuses on the cellular signals that regulate muscle healing and growth. She is a native St. Louisian who is happily settled on this side of the river, but still misses Imo's pizza.
Rachel joined Avicenna in early 2015 as an Intake volunteer. She loves getting to know the patients at the clinic and feels privileged to hear their stories and walk with them on the path to better health. Now serving as the Outreach Coordinator for Avicenna, Rachel is always excited to engage the Champaign-Urbana community and spread the word about the great healthcare we provide. If you are running an event and would like Avicenna to attend, please contact her at Info@avicennahealth.org. We would be happy to bring our volunteers to do health screenings, set up interesting nutrition information, and provide information about our services.
M.D.-Ph.D. candidate, University of Illinois
B.S. Biology, University of Missouri - Kansas City
B.A. Chemistry, University of Missouri - Kansas City
B.A. Spanish language and literature, University of Missouri - Kansas City
Yujin Lee, BS ‘20 in Bioengineering, Co-Director of Avicenna Outreach Team
Yujin is currently a Senior at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign completing her Bachelors of Science degree in Bioengineering. She started volunteering with Avicenna in October 2016 as an Outreach Volunteer. She especially enjoys representing Avicenna at different health fair events and engaging people in conversations to inform them about Avicenna’s healthcare services. Now as a Co-director of Outreach, Yujin hopes to create awareness about medical resources available for the underserved while building relationships and trust with the CU-community.
If interested in joining Outreach Team, please contact Yujin at ylee272@illinois.edu with any questions or concerns.
Nick Griffith - Co-Director of Avicenna Outreach Team
Nick is a Senior studying Molecular and Cellular Biology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Nick started volunteering with Avicenna as a part of the intake team as well as the biomedical technology team in 2017. He loves to spread awareness about the resources available to the Champaign-Urbana community and has also enjoyed forming relationships with community members through his roles at Avicenna.