Class of 2030

Jessica Ferber, MD
Perelman School of Medicine University of Pennsylvania

Hi, I’m Jess! I’m originally from South Jersey and attended Cornell University, where I studied Biology and Inequality Studies. After graduation, I spent a year working at a radiation therapy center in New York City before returning to Philadelphia for medical school at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. I discovered my passion for Psychiatry through my clinical rotations and the opportunity to work alongside such inspiring faculty and residents, so I’m very excited to continue my training at Penn. During medical school, I was involved in health equity research focused on using AI to expand cancer screening access for high-risk populations, as well as DEI initiatives within the medical school community. My clinical interests within Psychiatry include reproductive psychiatry, ambulatory care, and collaborative care models. Outside of medicine, I enjoy long walks, traveling, finding new coffee shops, and practicing yoga.

Nicole Gehret, MD, MPH
The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University

Hi! I grew up in Phoenix, Arizona, surrounded by cacti, desert sunsets, and lots of sunshine. I moved to the East Coast to join Brown University’s combined baccalaureate-MD program, where I studied Science, Technology, and Society and completed a Master of Public Health focused on mental health access and advocacy.  Although I’m from Arizona, Philadelphia has long been a second home. I spent holidays here with family, and during medical school, it became my familiar and grounding East Coast home base. I fell in love with psychiatry through mentors who modeled curiosity, empathy, and connection. My interests include psychotherapy, child and adolescent psychiatry, medical education, consult‑liaison, and public psychiatry. I’m excited to train at Penn and continue building my life in Philadelphia. Outside the hospital, I enjoy nature, Pilates, and spoiling my two Siberian cats, Zoya and Phoebe.

Jeffrey Hauck, MD
Baylor College of Medicine

Hello! I was born and raised in Allentown, Pennsylvania, but grew up in a military family where we eventually landed in Texas. There, I received a degree in healthcare studies from the University of Texas at Dallas and developed a deep interest in the intersection of medicine and the law, particularly the social and legal determinants of health, and instances where ethics, justice, and autonomy conflict with patient care. These interests motivated me to pursue medical school at the Baylor College of Medicine, where I earned a paralegal certification alongside my medical degree. During this time, I worked to provide legal resources for newly arrived immigrants in Bexar County and conducted research on topics like carceral mental health, psychopathy, and artificial intelligence. Now, I am very excited to return home to join the Penn community! My primary clinical interests remain in forensic psychiatry, particularly carceral and civil mental health, crisis response in collaboration with law enforcement, and the psychiatric manifestations of neurological disease. Outside of medicine, I enjoy reading, writing, listening to metal music, going to the opera, and spending time with loved ones.

Aminata Jalloh, MD
Perelman School of Medicine University of Pennsylvania

Hi everyone, my name is Aminata Jalloh. I was born and raised in the cultural melting pot of Brooklyn NY, and from a young age I became interested in people and the great diversity of human experiences. For my undergraduate studies, I moved to the south to attend Oakwood University, where I majored in Biology, and discovered passions for mentorship, teaching, and community engagement. For medical school, I returned to the Northeast to attend Penn, where I was able to continue to nurture these passions, and also discovered my home in Psychiatry, a field that engages my curiosity about people and the human experience, and allows me to be present and hold space for their stories. My clinical interests include psychotherapy, Women’s Mental Health, and Community Psychiatry. Outside of medicine, I enjoy live music, trying new restaurants, and spending time with my friends.

Allison Lake, MD, PhD
Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
Research Track

Originally from St. Louis, MO, I attended Haverford College and majored in math and computer science while completing premedical coursework. I then worked as a software developer at a health technology company in Boston before returning to St. Louis to work as a programmer and bioinformatics research assistant in a neuro-genomics lab at Washington University. There, I fell in love with computational genomics research and its translational applications to neuropsychiatric disease. This led me to pursue an MD/PhD at Vanderbilt University, where I completed a dissertation focusing on the interactions between trauma and genetic risk in bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and depression, leveraging electronic health record-linked genomic data from tens of thousands of individuals. At Penn, I am excited to explore my clinical interests in psychotic and mood disorders and use my postdoctoral research time to study the neural mechanisms of schizophrenia using large genomic datasets. Outside of science and medicine, I enjoy running, hiking, backpacking, reading, and spending time with my husband Bernie and our pets, Reuben (dog) and Peach (cat).

Grace Lee, MD
USF Health Morsani College of Medicine

"Hi, I’m Grace! I was born and raised in New York and completed my undergraduate degree at the University of Pennsylvania, where I studied Neuroscience and Creative Writing. After college, I worked across Operations and R&D at GlaxoSmithKline before realizing that I wanted to work more closely with patients and subsequently pursuing medical school. I returned to medical school through the University of South Florida (USF) SELECT program, where I completed my preclinical years down in Tampa, Florida, and my clerkships in Allentown, Pennsylvania. 

While in medical school, I was most passionate about USF's medical humanities and global health opportunities, so I was very excited to discover how beautifully psychiatry considers the contexts from which our patients come in order to deliver comprehensive, wraparound care. I am thrilled to be returning to Penn and Philly; my clinical interests include child psychiatry, reproductive psychiatry, and cultural psychiatry. Outside of work, I love running, Pilates, reading, and traveling - and I look forward to trying new restaurants around the city!"

Sidney Saint-Hilaire, MD
Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons

Hi! My name is Sidney Saint-Hilaire. I was born in Brooklyn, raised in Elmont, New York, and attended Yale for undergrad. Even before I started college I was fascinated by the brain and mind, and while at Yale I explored those interests in and out of the classroom! I majored in cognitive science with an education studies minor, worked in various labs studying topics ranging from children’s development of social categories to the nature of trauma in victims of gun violence, and volunteered at a local Montessori preschool. With these experiences in tow, I was set on psychiatry from the moment I started medical school at Columbia University. During medical school I organized events with writers and researchers through our psychiatry interest group and continued my research threads through investigations into psychosocial wellbeing among students, racial disparities in psychiatric diagnoses, and operationalizing culturally-informed psychiatric practices. I’m so excited to continue my journey at Penn, where I’d felt inspired and welcomed by the faculty and trainees that I met during interview season. In my free time I keep myself busy writing and reading poetry, making pottery, and baking as many cookies as I can share with loved ones!

Alexander Schemmer, MD
Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell

I grew up in Boston with two physician parents who told me not to do medicine unless I absolutely had to. So, I decided to do the other thing people say that about and became an actor. I studied English literature and creative writing at Harvard, where I sang with the Krokodiloes and performed with the Hasty Pudding Theatricals. After college I moved to LA, where, between acting class and the usual odd jobs (bartender, hand model), I got a career off the ground and eventually transitioned into writing for television. It was through volunteering as a crisis counselor at The Trevor Project that I first got drawn into behavioral health and the idea of becoming a psychiatrist. I ended up working full-time at The Trevor Project, and after a postbac at Bryn Mawr, worked as a psych tech at Bellevue Hospital on the unit serving patients in NYPD and Rikers Island custody. I went to medical school at the Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, where I explored geriatric psychiatry and worked on using AI to study theory of mind deficits in schizophrenia. I'm thrilled to join the Class of 2030 and settle into Philly. Outside of medicine I enjoy dancing, live music, DIY home projects, thrifting, true crime podcasts, and, aspirationally, yoga and runs along the Schuylkill.

Chris Skovira, MD
Michigan State University College of Human Medicine

Hi, I’m Chris! I grew up in Downingtown, PA. I completed a dual degree in Biology and Business at the University of Pennsylvania’s Vagelos Life Sciences and Management program.

After graduation, I spent nine years in healthcare strategy focused on health equity and community innovation, most recently at Cleveland Clinic. Volunteering as a crisis counselor during that time inspired me to attend medical school.

My experiences in medical school at Michigan State University reinforced my passion for psychiatry and the human brain. During school, I launched a program where medical students live in senior communities to support residents with dementia; and I conducted research on disparities in chronic pain and neuropsychiatric care. I also led advocacy work focused on supporting medical trainees, patients, and healthcare providers with disabilities and chronic illnesses.

I was drawn to Penn Psychiatry for its supportive training environment, interdisciplinary care models, and community access initiatives. I’m excited to return to the fun, food-filled city of Philadelphia and to dive into my clinical interests within neuromodulation, neuropsychiatry, pain management, and community health.

Outside of medicine, I enjoy triathlons, writing, reading anything I can get my hands on, spending time with my rescue animals, and volunteering with animal rights organizations.

David Sowa, MD
Perelman School of Medicine University of Pennsylvania

I was born and raised in northwest Ohio and completed undergraduate studies in Molecular Biology at Kenyon College. Afterward, I pursued an MPH at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. I put this training to work when I commissioned as a Public Health Officer with the US Air Force, working on programs spanning food safety to occupational health in locations as varied as Phoenix, AZ, South Korea, and the United Kingdom. After experiencing the challenges of working in the COVID-19 pandemic, I found myself desiring closer clinical interaction with patients and more direct responsibility for their care, which motivated my decision to complete my MD at the Perelman School of Medicine at U Penn. I feel that the conversations I had while contact tracing and managing patients in this period additionally planted the seeds for my Psychiatry career, where I hope to accompany patients through their recognition and management of mental health conditions. When I’m not working, I’m entertaining my chihuahua, running by the Schuylkill River, catching some of the many live shows that pass through Philly, and exploring new places through the Amtrak system and travel abroad.

Gavin Turner, MD
Perelman School of Medicine University of Pennsylvania

“Hello! I grew up in Massachusetts in a small town near Providence, Rhode Island. I was a competitive fencer and competed nationally, internationally, and collegiately at Penn State. After graduating from Penn State, I moved to Baltimore and assisted with a clinical trial at Johns Hopkins investigating suvorexent and its role in opioid withdrawal management. During medical school at the University of Pennsylvania, I enjoyed almost every specialty and found that my most meaningful moments were those spent with patients going through times of significant suffering. After exploring many specialties, which included completing a research year investigating treatments targeting bitter taste receptors in head and neck cancer, I found that psychiatry was the best fit for me; it fostered my curiosity, allowed for more time with patients, and is a field with exciting developments in the understanding and treatment of psychiatric conditions. Within psychiatry, I am currently most interested in treatment-resistant depression and interventional psychiatry. I also am curious about psychodynamics and psychopharmacology, and I am excited for the incredible and diverse training at Penn! Outside of medicine, I enjoy growing plants, playing soccer, biking around Philly, and shooting film photography on a Pentax K1000.”

Soon Yi, MD, PhD
Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine
Research Track

Hi, I'm Soon! I was born in Seoul, Korea, and came to the U.S. in 2011 to study engineering at The Cooper Union in NYC. My interest quickly switched to biomedical research after I worked on a project on HIV RNA structure. After changing my focus and spending a year as a research assistant at Rockefeller University, I joined the Medical Scientist Training Program at Case Western Reserve University, where I earned my PhD in RNA biology, focusing on RNA-protein interactions. Specifically, I studied 1) how these interactions are different in various cellular compartments and under different cellular states, and 2) how mathematical modeling and quantitative frameworks can help us better understand these biological interactions under cellular constraints. When I returned to medical school for my third year, I quickly became interested in psychiatry during clerkship, with a fourth-year acting internship solidifying my career choice. At Penn, I look forward to working with the many brilliant scientists on campus to apply my background in RNA biology and bioinformatics in psychiatry. Outside of science, I love playing video games, because they allow me to enjoy the artistic perspectives of game developers and designers in an immersive way!