Current Pipeline Program Educators
Karen Hamilton, PhD
Administrative Program Director
Dr. Hamilton earned her B.A. and M.A. from Ohio State University in Romance Languages and her doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania in Comparative and International Education. She has combined formal education and professional experiences as an instructor at Rutgers University and as Manager of Research and Development for the City of Philadelphia Office of Employment and Training to create successful programs and activities at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.
As Director of Minority Affairs and an Assistant Dean Karen devised a faculty-first year student advising system and developed a strategic plan to improve the scores of second year students on the National Board Licensure Examination, Part I. Moreover, she initiated the “Interviewing Techniques for Residency Positions Seminar” for fourth year students and co-edited Getting Into Medical School: A Planning Guide for Minority Students, the first book of its kind written by minority medical students. Karen was also the administrator of the “Project 3000 By 2000 Educational Pipelines which assisted minority high school students originally from two Philadelphia inner-city public schools and minority undergraduates at the University of Pennsylvania to prepare for medical school. Although this program now targets one high school, Sayre High School, it has greatly expanded and is described much further in this web site. Karen co-directs this program with Dr. Roy Hamilton and Mr. Scott Baier. She was also a co- Principal Investigator for the University of Pennsylvania Provost Diversity Fund Grant Pre-Health Mentoring Program.
Additionally, Karen was a member of the International Collaborations Task Force as well as a Member- At-Large for the National Board of Medical Examiners and ended her tenure on the GSA- MAS Coordinating Committee in 2004. She has served as National GSA- MAS Chair, Northeast Regional Chair and Chairperson for the AAMC Task Force for the Underrepresented Minority Male Initiative. Karen has also been a member of the Career in Medicine Advisory Council and remains a Careers in Medicine Liaison. She was a co - author of a AAMC publication, “A Review of the Research Literature on Non-cognitive Variables: What Have We Learned?” and co-authored an article, “Minorities in Medicine: Nurturing Interest and Enhancing Opportunities to Pursue a Medical Degree” which appeared in The Advisor, June 2003. She is a co - author of articles about the Pipeline Program: “Teaching Residents in the Hospital, Mentors in the Community: The Educational Pipeline Program at Penn”, Neurology 2007;68;25-28 and “Teaching About the Brain and Reaching the Community: Undergraduates in the Pipeline Neuroscience Program at the University of Pennsylvania” in the June, 2007 issue of the Journal of Undergraduate Neuroscience Education.
Click here to read or download Dr. Karen Hamilton’s curriculum vitae.Roy Hamilton, MD, MS
Faculty Program Director
Dr. Hamilton is an Assistant Professor of Neurology at the University of Pennsylvania. He completed residency in Neurology at the University of Pennsylvania in 2005 after having graduating from Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2001 with degrees in Medicine and Health Sciences Technology. He completed a fellowship in Cognitive Neurology at the University of Pennsylvania in 2006 and was appointed to his current position in January 2009.
Dr. Hamilton assumed the role of Curriculum Director for the Pipeline program in 2004 and subsequently became the Faculty Program Director in 2009. He has an enduring interest in medical education, and in addition to his role as a Pipeline co-director, he also teaches in two separate neurology courses at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and coordinates the cognitive neurology curriculum for residents at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Hamilton is especially committed to increasing the presence of underrepresented minorities in neurology, neuroscience, and medicine. He is the curriculum director of the University of Pennsylvania Summer Mentorship Program in Medicine and sponsors underrepresented research trainees through Haverford’s Multicultural Scholars Program.
Aside from his role as a teacher, Dr. Hamilton studies the characteristics and limits of functional plasticity in the adult human brain. He is interested in how the brain reorganizes itself in response to injury, and whether or not it is possible to enhance the brain’s potential for reorganization in order to speed rehabilitation. Dr. Hamilton uses two technologies--transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS)--to examine and manipulate the functional anatomy and connectivity of the brain in both healthy and injured states. He is a co-director of Penn’s Laboratory for Cognition and Neural Stimulation.
Click here to read or download Dr. Roy Hamilton’s curriculum vitae.
Sharon Lewis, MD
Neurology Resident Coordinator
Dr. Lewis is a neuromuscular fellow at the University of Pennsylvania. She completed residency in Neurology at the University of Pennsylvania in 2009. She earned her medical degree from the University of Miami Miller School Of Medicine in 2005 and graduated from the University of Miami in 2001 with a degree in Biology.
Dr. Lewis was involved in the pipeline program as a resident in 2007-2008 and coordinated the curriculum with other residents in 2008- 2009. She took the role of curriculum director in 2009. Additional, she teaches the medical students during their neurology rotation and gives lectures to the neurology residents. She is also responsible for organizing the curriculum for the neuromuscular division.
John Ibrahim
Undergraduate Teaching Assistant Coordinator - Graduating Class of 2014
John is from Riverside, California and is currently studying Neurobiology and Chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania. He is interested in learning new subjects, has a great passion for teaching, and enjoys staying active; he loves most outdoor activities, especially water sports. John’s future academic plans include attending medical school.John Ibrahim, Undergraduae Teaching Assistant Coordinator
© The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania | Site Design by SOMIS Web Team