Georgetown College. Georgetown University.

Rasha Khoury, pictured here with Dr. Elmendorf, is getting her M.D. at Yale University School of Medicine. (Courtesy Rasha Khoury)

By Megan Weintraub

Under the patient leadership of Dr. Heidi Elmendorf, Rasha Khoury, a 2004 College graduate, gained the skills needed to assess the big picture of a problem while still tending to the details with diligence. After she left Georgetown, Khoury took these skills with her to the Yale School of Medicine, and in May of this year, she will graduate from the school’s M.D. program. She credits her research with Dr. Elmendorf as a vital part of her continued enthusiasm for the field of public health.

“As an undergraduate, Dr. Elmendorf allowed me to discover the way I learn best, in a self-motivated, independent, and critical thinking environment with good mentorship,” explains Khoury. “My work with Dr. Elmendorf has had a fundamental impact on the way I carry myself as a physician-in-training and social medicine researcher.”

While in Dr. Elmendorf’s lab, Khoury became interested in microbiology and the sociopolitics of infectious diseases caused by various microbes, such as giardiasis, malaria, HIV, and tuberculosis. She worked as part of a team of researchers that was trying to identify how Giardia cells attached to the intestinal wall. While in this role, she documented how actin and tubulin, the main skeletal proteins, function in the attachment role. This work piqued her interest in public and population health and the inequitable distribution of disease along class lines.

In the future, she hopes to implement the societal changes needed to arrest the cycle of infectious disease. Her current research focuses on the characterization and identification of the hosts infected with drug-resistant tuberculosis and the risk factors contributing to the prevalence of the disease in a rural part of South Africa’s KwaZulu Natal province.

After graduation from Yale, Khoury will start her post-graduate training at the University of California at San Francisco in Obstetrics and Gynecology and Infectious Disease. A native of East Jerusalem, Khoury hopes to eventually serve there as a clinician and clinical educator in the field of women’s health, where she hopes her work can contribute to building a stronger civil society.

“My goal is to have a sustainable forward moving impact in the Middle East,” Khoury says. “My research interest is in the health communities and health as a form of social justice. I would like to be a part of the generation that brings justice to the Middle East and moves beyond religious, sect and gender lines toward equality.”

Khoury’s ambitious and worthwhile goals gained support from her work with Dr. Elmendorf, who always takes the time to meet with students individually and invest in them to develop their understanding of important concepts.

“Her hands-on philosophy meant that I was not lost in a sea of 200 freshmen,” explains Khoury. “She helped me identify where and why I was struggling and suggested I work in her lab and try a new way of learning. That was a turning point for me. From a 200-person lecture hall, I moved into a small lab where I thought, created, and executed protocol with Dr. Elmendorf as my mentor. It was exciting to me and allowed me to grow in ways I will always be grateful to her for.”

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