Ashley is an acute care nurse practitioner in cardiac surgery at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. She received a bachelor of science from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, a master of science and a doctor of nursing practice from the University of Maryland, Baltimore.

Ashley has worked in cardiac surgery for more than a decade as a critical care nurse, an advanced practice provider and as a clinical research nurse coordinator for the Department of Transplant Surgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine as part of the Xenotransplant Cardiac Research Team. She is passionate about cardiac surgery and incorporating research into clinical practice.

Danica Dong is a medical student at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She received her bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. While in the Boston area, she conducted research in immunology, contributing to projects on cancer immunotherapies and the development of vaccine adjuvants tailored to vulnerable populations. Since starting medical school, she has developed an interest in surgery and is currently involved in research on cardiothoracic surgery and transplant outcomes.

Leon Fan is a second-year medical student at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Molecular Biology from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he conducted research in clinical natural language processing and in a biological engineering lab focused on tRNA sequencing. At medical school, Leon has developed a strong interest in surgery. His current research centers on improving outcomes in cardiothoracic surgery and applying RNA sequencing techniques to investigate gene expression at the patient level.

Amy is a medical student at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with majors in public health and interdisciplinary studies. Her thesis project was in philosophy.

Since coming to medical school, Amy has been involved in various clinical outcomes research projects. Her research interests include cardiothoracic and transplant surgery, and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). In her free time, Amy loves to run, climb, read and hang out with her friends and family!

Anagha Gogate is a medical student at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She graduated from the University of Connecticut's accelerated pharmacy program with a Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy Studies and a Doctor of Pharmacy degree. Her research during pharmacy school explored pharmacogenomics and systemic diseases of liver origin. Since starting medical school, Anagha has become involved in clinical research focused on cardiothoracic and transplant surgery. Her interests include surgical outcomes research, optimizing medication management for cardiac surgery patients, and applying precision medicine to improve patient care.

Anna Kelly is a medical student at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Engineering in Bioengineering from the University of Pittsburgh, with a concentration in Cellular Engineering and a minor in Chemistry. Prior to medical school, she worked as an Artificial Heart Engineer at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and as a post-baccalaureate research fellow in the Neural Tissue Engineering Laboratory. Her research interests include identifying barriers to surgical access, mechanical circulatory support, and the use of engineering approaches to improve patient care. At Johns Hopkins, she is involved in studies on valvular heart disease diagnosis and intervention timelines, novel cardiac output measurement device validation, and disparities in mechanical circulatory support implementation and safety.

Maria Jennings is a medical student at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She received her bachelor of science in chemical engineering from Northeastern University with honors distinction. During her time at Northeastern, Maria was inducted in the Tau Beta Pi engineering honors society. Following her undergraduate degree, she pursued a Ph.D. in chemical engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. As a graduate student, Maria developed and engineered an enzyme therapeutic to combat immunosuppressive adenosine metabolism in solid tumors, for which she submitted a patent application. During her Ph.D., Maria was awarded the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship and the Georgia Institute of Technology School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Ziegler Award for best Ph.D. proposal.

As a graduate student, Maria was introduced to the art of surgery and quickly realized that she wanted to operate forever! Since arriving at Johns Hopkins to complete her M.D., Maria has been putting her problem-solving skillset to use by pursuing surgical outcomes-based hypotheses. Maria is particularly interested in developing and evaluating risk stratification indices to better predict adverse post-operative outcomes.

Maria Morcos is a medical student at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.  She received her bachelor's in biomedical science and sociology at the Rochester Institute of Technology. She then completed a master's in physician assistant studies and worked in hospital medicine before coming to medical school.  She is interested in addressing cardiovascular disparities in vulnerable populations as well as surgical outcomes in CT surgery. In her free time, she loves traveling, cooking, and spending time with family and friends.

Chiemelie (Melie) Onyebu is a medical student at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He received his bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. In Minneapolis, he conducted research on biomaterials and immuno-engineering for cancer therapeutics. He also worked as an Emergency Room Technician at the Abbott Northwestern Hospital. At Hopkins, Melie has developed a strong interest in surgery, especially cardiothoracic surgery. He’s working on projects looking at outcomes of surgical procedures and improving current techniques and protocols. 

Jakob Quanbeck is a medical student at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He graduated from West Point in 2024 with a bachelor’s degree in Life Science where he also worked in an organic chemistry lab group, researching the mechanism of reaction for the hydrolysis of fentanyl analogues. He is currently pursuing his interest in a career as a military surgeon, and his research interests include surgical education and surgical outcomes. Outside of medicine, he enjoys going to the gym, playing guitar, drawing, flying fishing, and other activities out in nature.

Ria is an undergraduate student at Johns Hopkins University. She is majoring in molecular and cellular biology and minoring in psychology. Ria plans to go to medical school, with the goal of becoming a cardiovascular surgeon. Her research interests include postoperative care as well as long-term outcomes.

Alexandra Rizaldi is a medical student at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Alex received her bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Pennsylvania, where she conducted research in COVID-19 epidemiology, emergency medicine and acute care surgery, heart failure, and wildlife health. While in Philadelphia, she works as an EMT and as a medical assistant at the Unity Clinic, a free clinic primarily serving Indonesian immigrants.

At Hopkins, Alex has been working on clinical research projects with the divisions of cardiothoracic surgery and hematology. Her research interests include evaluating populations-based and perioperative care outcomes, with a particular focus on cardiac transplantation.

Dr. Wang is a cardiac surgeon at Johns Hopkins Suburban Hospital and an assistant professor of surgery at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. She received her bachelor’s degree in biology from Grinnell College, an M.D. from Dartmouth Medical School, and a Ph.D. in computational biology and bioinformatics from Duke University. She completed her general surgery residency at Duke University Medical Center and a cardiothoracic surgery fellowship at Johns Hopkins. 

Dr. Wang is deeply invested in research that bridges the gap between computational biology and clinical practice. Her research interests extend to the development of computational models for predicting surgical outcomes, the application of machine-learning algorithms in the diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular diseases and the integration of bioengineering techniques to advance surgical interventions.

As an educator, Dr. Wang is committed to the mentorship of medical students, residents and fellows, fostering an environment of academic curiosity and clinical excellence. Dr. Wang holds a certificate in college teaching from Duke University and has previously served on the faculty at Durham Technical Community College, where she taught anatomy and physiology.

See a list of her publications.

Baiyue Zhao is a medical student at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He received his bachelor's degree in chemistry from Georgetown University. He conducted basic science research during college in organic porous compounds and crystallography. At Johns Hopkins, his current research focuses on studying cardiac surgery outcomes in connective tissue disease patients.

• Duke Cameron, M.D.
  Professor of surgery, Cardiac Surgery, Johns Hopkins Hospital 
• James Gammie, M.D.
  James T. Dresher Sr. professor of surgery, Cardiac Surgery, Johns Hopkins Hospital 
• Harry Dietz III, M.D.
  Victor A. McKusick professor of genetics, Genetic Medicine, Johns Hopkins Hospital

• Lauren Jantzie, Ph.D.
  Professor of pediatrics, director of the Pediatric Proteome Center, Johns Hopkins Hospital
• Virginia Hahn, M.D.
  Assistant professor, Medicine, Johns Hopkins Hospital 
• Jochen Steppan, M.D.
  Associate professor, Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine, Johns Hopkins Hospital

• Armaan Akbar
• Jessica B. Briscoe
• Ifeanyi Chinedozi
• Zachary Darby
• Albert Leng
• Skylar MacKay
• Deven Patel
• Dalila Cabrieles Rodriguez
• Emily Rodriguez
• Alexander Tinana
• Alice Zhou