Current Board
Rasa Valiauga, '26
Editor-in-Chief
Rasa graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2014 and spent four years as a research specialist studying retinogenesis and using stem cells as therapies for degenerative retinal diseases. She is currently pursuing her MD/PhD dual degree. Rasa has leadership roles in numerous organizations and is passionate about service. She has an adventurous spirit and loves trying out new activities, as well as throwing down in the kitchen.
Deborah Chen, '27
Editor-in-Chief
Deborah grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and attended the University of California, Berkeley with a major in Molecular Environmental Biology and a minor in Molecular Toxicology in 2020. She then worked as a medical assistant for two years and earned her Master of Public Health at the University of California, Davis with a concentration in epidemiology in 2023. Deborah is interested in learning more about environmental, global, and public health at Stritch. Outside of school, she enjoys drawing, photography, embroidery, and spicy cuisine.
Angeli Mittal, '28
Creative Director
Angeli grew up in Northern Virginia and is currently a medical student at Loyola Stritch School of Medicine class of 2028. She graduated from Northwestern University in 2024 with a bachelor’s in neuroscience and a master’s in computer science. During college, she was on the senior staff of The Daily Northwestern, serving in several editorial and managing positions. Angeli is passionate about research and the intersection of technology and medicine. Her hobbies include snapping photographs, watching anything Marvel related, and playing with her two dogs.
Rohan Sethi, '28
Creative Director
Rohan is a second year medical student at Loyola Stritch School of Medicine and is from Chicago, Illinois. He graduated from Loyola University Chicago in 2024 studying bioinformatics and data science. During his undergraduate education, he has and continues to lead various research projects in software engineering and artificial intelligence with a focus on its application in medicine. His work includes clinical note destigmatization, source attributed patient question answering systems, computer vision in oncology, and computational simulation of biochemical signalling pathways. Rohan is passionate about adopting responsible and ethical AI tools in the field of medicine to promote preventative medicine and promote patient prognostic outcomes. In his free time, he enjoys playing tennis and basketball, watching movies (MCU and Star Wars!), cooking, and coding.
Sarah Ditelberg '27
Media Director
Sarah grew up in the wicked awesome city of Boston and attended UMass Amherst, graduating in 2020 with a degree in biology. She is passionate about space medicine, innovation, and service. She aims to make science and medicine inclusive, fun, and accessible to many different backgrounds (catch her on The Interactome, another podcast she runs with friends from home!) Outside of school, Sarah enjoys any good adventure, hiking, running, spending time with friends and family, experimenting with new recipes, skiing, and good music.
Griffin Johnson, '27
Chief Technical Officer
Griffin grew up in the northern Chicago suburbs. He worked as a firefighter/paramedic before starting medical school. He graduated from Northeastern Illinois University in 2022 where he majored in biology. Outside of school, he enjoys playing music.
Nikita Ganeshan, '27
Talent Acquisition and Training
Nikita grew up along the coast of beautiful Orange County, CA and attended the University of California, Irvine, graduating with a degree in Biomedical Engineering. Prior to starting medical school she worked as a Biomedical Engineer and Scientist for Quest Diagnostics. She is passionate about advocating for interdisciplinary medicine, academic medicine, healthcare entrepreneurship, health policy shaped by science. Nikita is involved in the Academic Medicine Interest group, research, and community clinics through Stritch. Outside of school, her hobbies include dancing, hiking, climbing, reading, and spending time with friends and family.
Medicus Podcasters
John Engelbert, '26
Born and raised in the mighty northwest side of Chicago, John graduated from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign with a degree in behavioral neuroscience. Throughout his time as a college student and during his two gap years prior to starting medical school, John worked as an EMT with a private ambulance company and as a tech in Glenbrook Hospital’s ER. John is passionate about neuroscience, particularly where the fields of psychiatry and neurology intersect, and is on the Neurosurgery Interest Group Board as Secretary. Broadly, he wants to spend his career finding the most effective ways of improving the well-being of his patients. In his off-time, you can find John traveling, hiking, running, skiing, not ping-ponging, enjoying music, movies, books and board games, walking Clarke, cooking with only Costco products, and spending as much time as possible with friends and family.
Isabelle Tan, '25
Isabelle was born and raised in Singapore, where she attended Singapore American School from K-12. She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 2019 with a degree in Integrative Biology and a minor in Creative Writing. She spent two years prior to medical school in San Francisco assisting an orthopaedic spine surgeon, working at the Palo Alto VA, and painting custom denim jackets. Isabelle is passionate about global health, manta rays, basketball, books, and movies with good soundtracks. She is terrible at ping pong.
Caleb Keng, '28
Caleb is from Dallas, Texas and studied psychology and political science at the University of Texas at Dallas. Prior to attending medical school, he worked in non-profit consulting, interned for both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives, and conducted health policy research at a think tank. In his free time, he loves playing sports, making music with the piano and guitar, reading, listening to podcasts, line dancing, trying new coffee shops, and exploring photogenic areas around the city with his camera.
Anumitha Aravindan, '28
Anumitha is a first year student at the Loyola Stritch School of Medicine, and is from Pleasanton, California. She graduated from Arizona State University in 2022 with a bachelors in Genetic, Cellular and Developmental biology. Prior to attending medical school, she worked as a scribe in an ophthalmology clinic, worked in diabetes education for low income patients in India, and was a project developer for Hearts 4 Health, which aims to make mentorship, research and volunteering opportunities more accessible to pre-medical students. Anumitha is passionate about improving healthcare education and information accessibility. In her free time, she enjoys playing basketball, dancing, and reading.
Aritra Chakraborty, '28
Aritra is a first-year medical student at Loyola Stritch School of Medicine, originally from Fremont, California. He graduated from Case Western Reserve University summa cum laude in 2022 with a degree in biochemistry and a minor in applied data science. Before medical school, he was involved in orthopaedic and long COVID research at Stanford and now continues his work at Loyola and UCSF, exploring topics ranging from AI-generated surgical guidance to health outcomes for total joint arthroplasty. Now he is involved on campus as the co-president of the South Asian Medical School Alliance and vice president of the Orthopaedic Surgery Interest Group. He is particularly interested in sports medicine, surgical innovation, and improving post-op recovery in athletes. Outside of medicine, Aritra enjoys playing the saxophone at gigs all over the United States, nerding out on the NFL as a die-hard supporter of the San Francisco 49ers, and exploring music production.
Karina Mak, '28
Karina is a first year medical student at Stritch School of Medicine. She graduated from The University of Chicago in December 2023 with a bachelor’s in Biological Sciences and a specialization in Endocrinology. Prior to starting at Stritch, she worked as a clinical research coordinator for the University of Chicago’s Interstitial Lung Disease Research Group. In her free time, she photographs for a culinary magazine, makes art, and loves exploring the city.
Julien Stroumza, '27
Julien is from San Francisco, CA and majored in biochemistry at UC San Diego with a minor in business. His interests include learning more about different professions in medicine and understanding the impact of diet and exercise on overall health. Julien is passionate about service, teaching, and preserving the environment. Between exams he can be found exploring nature, running, biking, and trying new foods.
Rohan Mandavilli, '27
Rohan is a first-year medical student from Atlanta, Georgia. He majored in Cellular and Molecular Biology from Augusta University. His interests include cooking, baking, lifting, and scuba diving. He is also the Vice President of his class and is involved in PULSE, medical chinese, and medical spanish. When you cannot get ahold of him, he is either napping or playing with his dog.
Medicus Alumni
Raj Ramini, MD '23
PM&R PGY-3 at Inspira Health, New Jersey
# of Episodes Produced: 2
Shawn Choe, MD '23
Neurosurgery PGY-2 at Loyola University Medical Center, Illinois
# of Episodes Produced: 8
Brendan Connolly, MD '23
Emergency Medicine PGY-3 at Maine Medical Center
# of Episodes Produced: 8
Dave Lee, MD, MSc, MPH '23
Psychiatry PGY-3 at University of Wisconsin, Madison
# of Episodes Produced: 8
Olivia Gyssler, MD '24
Pediatrics PGY-1 at Corewell Health, West Michigan
# of Episodes Produced: 1
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Brittany Zelch, MD '24
Internal Medicine PGY-2 at Loyola University Medical Center, Illinois
# of Episodes Produced: 5
Katie Mott, MD '24
Neurology PGY-2 at UChicago, Illinois
# of Episodes Produced: 10
Emily Hagen, MD '24
Internal Medicine PGY-2 at University of Massachusetts Medical Center
# of Episodes Produced: 18
Aaron Deng, MD '24
Internal Medicine PGY-2 at Kaiser Permanente Oakland
# of Episodes Produced: 10
Monica Contractor, MD '24
OB/Gyn PGY-2 at Loyola University Medical Center, Illinois
# of Episodes Produced: 3
Insup Hong, '26
Medical Student at Loyola Stritch School of Medicine
# of Episodes Produced: 2
Lauren Hekman, MD '25
Urology PGY-1 at UChicago, Illinois
# of Episodes Produced: 6
Jacqueline Tarsitano, MD '25
OB/Gyn PGY-1 at Lenox Hill Hospital
# of Episodes Produced: 4
Megan Bollinger, '26
Medical Student at Loyola Stritch School of Medicine
Former Creative Director
Vamsi Rojulpote, '26
Medical Student at Loyola Stritch School of Medicine
Former Creative Director
Neal Sethi, MD '21
Anesthesiology PGY-4 at Montefiore Medical Center, New York
# of Episodes Produced: 5
Aleksander Druck, MD '21
Urology PGY-4 at University of South Florida, Florida
# of Episodes Produced: 18
Co-Founder
Mara Peterson, MD '21
Internal Medicine Physician
# of Episodes Produced: 8
Co-Founder
Nathan Burstedt, MD '21
Internal Medicine Physician
# of Episodes Produced: 12
Josh Lewis, MD, PhD '21
Pain Medicine/Interventional Spine Fellow at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pennsylvania
# of Episodes Produced: 9
Ari Peikes, MD '25
General Surgery PGY-1 at Loyola University Medical Center
# of Episodes Produced: 4
