Who are we?

The PLME Undergraduate Senate is the official representative body of PLME undergraduate students. Its objectives include the following: to help integrate all eight years of medical education at Brown University, to represent the undergraduate students before the university administration, to promote social events amongst the PLME undergraduates and the Brown community at large, to promote community service activities amongst the PLME undergraduates and the Brown community at large, and to monitor and distribute funds for the fulfillment of said objectives.

The PLME Senate generally meets once every two weeks on Sunday from 5-6 pm in Faunce 201. For more information about our next meeting, refer to the calendar on our home page.

 PLME Senate Events

The PLME Senate organizes and sponsors a variety of events over the course of the academic year. In the past, some of these events have included picnics, bake sales, food drives, "Grey's Anatomy" television nights, movie screenings, and semi-formal dances. The PLME Senate also collaborates with a number of other groups on campus and at the Alpert Medical School to organize events like bone marrow drives and Relay for Life teams.

In addition to all these events, the PLME Senate also plans and hosts the Whole Physician and Whole Patient Programs for all PLME undergraduate students.

• Whole Patient Program: This program, geared toward undergraduate PLME freshmen, emphasizes the significance of the doctor-patient relationship and seeks to demonstrate the importance of treating the patient's illness as well as the disease. The Whole Patient Program, recognizing the limited medical knowledge of first-year undergraduate students, does not attempt to address topics from a completely clinical perspective. Rather, it stresses the role of empathic understanding in the practice of medicine, hopefully establishing a precedent for students' future clinical practice.
• Whole Physician Program: This program, geared toward undergraduate PLME sophomores, juniors, and seniors, focuses on life as a medical student and physician. The Whole Physician Program seeks to show students that life at Alpert Medical School and beyond is manageable and full of possibility, in that medical students and physicians can make commitments to their practice while living balanced lives and being involved in activities outside of medicine.

 PLME Senate Positions & Committees 

The following table lists our executive board officers and their positions' responsibilities for the 2007-2008 academic year. Names starred with an asterisk (*) indicate officers-in-training.

Scroll down to view the entire table, or use the dropdown menu below to access a particular Senate position directly. Click on each officer's name to display a brief biography.

Co-Presidents:

• Geolani Dy ('08/'12)

  Geolani (e-mail) is a senior International Relations concentrator who spends most of her time riding her bicycle around the East Side, studying contemporary Chinese issues, and making sure PLME Senate affairs run smoothly. In her time at Brown, Geolani's very best experiences include: designing pages and managing publicity for VISIONS (Brown's Asian/Asian-American Literary Magazine), exploring the inner workings of the cell in Cell and Molecular Biology, creating a group independent study project on China's Western Borderlands, and discovering Providence's off-campus dining options. In the summer, she can be found traveling through various corners of Asia or enjoying time at home in the San Francisco Bay Area.

• Jenna Kahn ('08/'12)

  Jenna (e-mail) is a senior graduating in May 2008 from Tampa, FL. She has been very involved with the PLME Senate and has been Co-president since May 2006. She is concentrating in Biology and is very interested in cancer research. In the summers and during the school years she does brain tumor research as well as doing her independent study on breast cancer. In her free time she volunteers for Hospice in RI and is in the sorority Alpha Chi Omega. She is very excited to start medical school next year!

• Oversee the activities of the PLME Senate and run its biweekly meetings.
• Maintain a good working relationship with the Deans of the University and of the Medical School.
• Maintain close contact with all Committee Chairs, Class Representatives, Treasurer, Secretary, Medical School Liaison, and Webmaster.
• Attend all PLME-sponsored events to the best of their abilities.
• Design new activities and programs as well as plan the PLME Senate's future direction.

Class Representatives:

• Ana Gustafson ('08/'12)

  Ana (e-mail) is an senior from Fargo, ND studying biology and music at Brown. She has done research at the NIH for the past four years on genetic connective tissue disorders. In her free time she enjoys helping facilitate TALC (http://www.hasbro-brown-talc.org), a leadership for chronic illness, being outside, running, and cooking with condiments!

• Rory Merritt ('09/'13)

  After 18 years of cold Alaskan winters, Rory (e-mail) ended up in the Lower 48 studying community health. In terms of research, he's particularly interested in structural violence, marginalized populations in the United States and medical communication. He enjoys his jobs as a respite provider for children who have autism and as a teaching assistant in the chemistry department at the URI. He's interested in the revolution, which he hears is coming to us live - on the big screen. The best advice he's ever heard was to "Be yourself and listen first." He's still working on the latter.

• Laura Perez ('09/'13)

  Laura (e-mail) is currently a junior at Brown and a Community Health concentrator. She was born in New York City and currently lives in the Bronx. Her other activities include MEZCLA, the Latino Performing Arts Troupe, FMLA, Latino Writing Circle, tutoring French, and working at the SAO. She enjoys writing, dance, yoga, and singing along to Britney's new CD (not always a good idea, but a good pastime nonetheless). She looks forward to studying abroad at the Sorbonne in Paris this spring.

• Rachel Kahn ('10/'14)

  Rachel (e-mail) is a sophomore PLME and a human biology concentrator. She grew up in Tampa, FL but now realizes what a fantastic state Rhode Island is. In her free time she volunteers for Hospice and watches trashy reality TV shows. She hopes to find a new research opportunity in Boston this summer because home just isn't an option.

• Jane Zhang ('10/'14)

  Jane (e-mail) has not decided on a concentration yet because she's enjoying taking courses in whatever field she feels like. She hails from St. Louis, Missouri, and is absolutely in love with Kentucky Men's Basketball. Go Wildcats! Next to Christmas and her birthday, she believes March Madness to be the third best time of the year. Of course it's only great if Kentucky's winning. In addition to PLME Senate, Jane is currently a Residential Counselor as well as a member of UCS (Undergraduate Council of Students), Key Society, the Great Balls of Fire Softball Team, and Kappa Alpha Theta. Other things she enjoys include tennis, Texas Ping-Pong, drawing/writing in her Doodle Book, varied research opportunities, and mixing coffee with cappucino at the Sci Li.

• Kevin Huang ('11/'15)

  Kevin (e-mail) is a Human Biology and Economics concentrator from West Palm Beach, Florida. His current portfolio of activities includes institutionalizing local high school students by teaching SAT classes for the Princeton Review, slaving away mindlessly in the MacMillan chemistry lab stockroom, spitting relatively hot fire as an active member of Brown's spoken WORD! poetry group, volunteering for Brown Student and Community Radio as a youth mentor on hip hop Tuesdays, and naturally, serving on the illustrious and quite socially efficacious PLME Senate. He enjoys feigning competence at both tennis and at the wonderfully stereotypical Asian-American rite of passage, piano playing. In essence, he is a fierce advocate of Pikachu's "down+B" in Super Smash Bros. 64.

• Doug Jacobs ('11/'15)

  Doug (e-mail) is a freshman from the sunny San Diego, California. When he is not studying, you can find him playing tennis, taking photographs, playing the piano, cracking jokes, or volunteering as a tutor to help teach low-income students. He has absolutely no idea what he wants to major in yet, but since this is only his first year he has some time. Recently, Doug has spent a summer researching at the Salk Institute about obesity.

• Helen Johnson ('11/'15)

  Helen (e-mail) is a Biochemistry major from Tampa, FL. She plans to be a researcher/physician who specializes in autism. A devoted musician, Helen is grateful to be able to continue her passions for cello and piano while pursuing an ScB, an opportunity afforded by Brown's open curriculum. Helen's activities include laboratory research, chamber music, dance, and tutoring mathematics.

• Act as a venue between PLME students and the PLME Senate, voicing the concerns of Brown students at the biweekly Senate meetings.
• Send a biweekly e-mail to PLME members of their class with reminders about upcoming meetings, as well as information about upcoming events.
• Organize study groups for courses like chemistry, neuroscience, or genetics that many students in their class are taking.
• Attend all PLME-sponsored events to the best of their abilities.
• Work with the Committee Chairs and Co-Presidents to ensure that the interests of their respective class are evaluated and advanced.

Whole Patient Chairs:

• Jack Cossman ('10/'14)

  Born in and raised around Philadelphia, Jack (e-mail) has been happy to escape the horrors of suburban life and begin his journey into legitimate adulthood at Brown. The PLME has empowered him to avoid the cutthroat curriculum of a traditional premed and explore new subjects such as geology, Italian, psychology, and anthropology. If he weren't intent on becoming a physician, Jack would rather spend his life as a food critic who travels the world to offer his epicurean insights. Now at Brown, he plays badminton, tennis occasionally, participates in the Sustainable Food Initiative, obsessively plays Scrabble and gets ornery when he misses Jeopardy. He loves Brown and is proud to claim it as "home" for the next six years.

• Lisa Ratsanaprasatporn ('10/'14)

  Hailing from her hometown of Staten Island, NY, Lisa (e-mail) is a member of the PLME class of 2010 studying Human Biology and Community Health. At Brown, Lisa dances with ImPulse Dance Company. Her interests include dancing and theater. Lisa toured in the National Broadway tour of "The King and I" and performed in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. She goes to school with her identical twin sister Linda who is also a PLME!

• Deborah Lee* ('11/'15)

  Deborah (e-mail) is from Oakland, California. She is concentrating in Biology, but plans to use Brown's humanities to fully "humanize" before entering her formal medical studies. Perhaps because she's been blessed with such a wonderful Mommy, Deborah dreams of becoming a mother- and sister-like figure to children, elders, and all those in between. She enjoys spending time with Jesus, playing chamber music, talking with children and elders, writing, and watching films from all cultures.

• Work jointly with the Freshmen Class Representatives to identify topics and speakers of interest.
• Contact physicians and patients who would be willing to speak before the freshmen class about their experiences with the doctor-patient relationship.
• Coordinate dates of programming, room & food reservation, and media services for each PLME Whole Patient Program.
• Organize at least two such Whole Patient Programs each semester.

Whole Physician Chairs:

• Kevin Liou ('10/'14)

  Kevin (e-mail) is a sophomore who grew up around Boston, Massachusetts. He is currently a very lost soul - some of his potential concentrations include Philosophy, Psychology, East Asian Studies, or History. A staunch advocate of complementary and alternative medicine, he will do just about anything to bring the Yin and the Yang back into the medical system. Besides serving on the PLME Senate, he spreads Taiwan pride and love by serving as a board member for the Brown Taiwan Society and the Formosan Association for Public Affairs. He plays keyboard for the legendary band White Rice (of course, he also enjoys eating the food itself) and is currently a proud member of both the Sexyback and the Sexyfront intramural basketball teams.

• Linda Ratsanaprasatporn ('10/'14)

  Linda (e-mail) is from Staten Island, New York and plans to concentrate in Human Biology and Community Health. At Brown she discovered her evil twin sister, Lisa Ratanaprasatporn, who looks and acts exactly like her. She likes to get her groove on and is part of Impulse Dance Company. You might recognize her from the national tour of The King and I, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, or the iPod accessory iZ commercial. Her passion is medicine and she hopes to be able to spread love and happiness around the world through her medical career.

• Erica Alexander* ('11/'15)

  Erica (e-mail) is a first year PLME from North Miami Beach, FL, where it's always really warm, which stands in stark contrast to Providence. Erica is thinking about majoring in Human Biology, and is really enjoying her Biotechnology in Medicine Course (BIOL17) this semester. Her activities include the Rhode Island Urban Debate League, Unite for Sight, South Asian Students Association, and PLME Senate. Her interests include watching movies, shopping, and baking with her friends.

• Emily Li* ('11/'15)

  Emily (e-mail) was born in Massachusetts, raised in Taipei, and now calls Orchard Park (Buffalo) her permanent residence. Physiology fascinates her, meaning that she is a big fan of dissections. She plans to concentrate in Human Biology and thinks of becoming a surgeon. At Brown, she has joined organizations such as the Senate, Unite for Sight, BTS, FAPA, UCAAP and the Swearer Center. She has just trained to be a research assistant to Dr. Li, an education professor at Brown. In Emily's spare time, she obtains much joy from jogging, playing scrabble, shopping, napping, playing piano, chatting, and fiddling in the kitchen (even though it has had disastrous results).

• Work jointly with the Sophomore, Junior, and Senior Class Representatives to identify topics,speakers, and programming of interest.
• Contact physicians who would be willing to speak before the PLME undergraduate body about their experiences as one-time students of medicine and as providers of health care.
• Coordinate dates of programming, room & food reservation, and media services for each PLME Whole Physician Program.
• Advertise each Whole Physician Program to PLME upperclassmen as well as to the Brown student body at large.

Community Service Chairs:

• Mansi Shah ('10/'14)

  Mansi (e-mail) is a sophomore from near Reading, Pennsylvania, which (as she would like to point out) is pronounced "RED-ing" and is home to the Reading Railroad of Monopoly fame. Although she loves the PLME Senate enough to be on its e-board forever, as a back-up option she's also planning a double concentration in community health and development studies. She's also a WPC (Women's Peer Counselor) and spends her spare time volunteering, writing articles and planning culinary events for the Triple Helix, and playing Set.

• Arune Gulati ('11/'15)

  Arune (e-mail) is a first-year student from Kingston, New York hoping to concentrate in neuroscience. He's Indian, so it naturally follows that he likes tennis and is one day going to be a doctor. But don't start thinking that you know him through and through because he likes really mixing things up by being a part of the South Asian Students' Association and a member of the table-tennis team. He's very interested in doing research here at Brown and is beginning to shadow in a lab studying memory formation. In addition, Arune enjoys mercilessly beating Kevin Huang '11/'15 in Super Smash Bros.

• Work jointly with class representatives to create a running list of possible community service opportunities, both on Brown's campus and in the Providence area.
• E-mail the PLME student body about one-time or continuous community service opportunities that relate to health care in some way.
• Help run community service events being run by the PLME or by Alpert Medical School students.
• Organize separate meetings for the Community Service committee in addition to the biweekly PLME Senate meetings.

Social Events Chairs:

• Whitney Eng ('08/'12)

  Whitney (e-mail) is a senior concentrating in Marine Biology and Literary Arts. She hails from Brooklyn, New York, and loves and misses the subway. At Brown, she can be found in lab studying jellyfish development or at Coffee Exchange writing her senior screenplay. When not chattering about defending short people everywhere, she likes to talk about Asian-American issues and her semester in Melbourne, Australia. She has two baby turtles named Dewey and Louie, and she's teaching them to be smart so that they too, can one day be PLMEs...

• Ken Morales ('09/'13)

  Ken (e-mail) was born in Texas where he lived the first 18 years of his life within essentially the same 30-mile radius. Then he mixed things up by going to school at Brown, where he studies anthropology and science and society. His research interests include online personals communities and their possible correlation with increasing rates of STIs among youth. His activities include involvement in Students for Sensible Drug Policy, Habitat for Humanity, Bike & Build, Brown's Department of Health Education, and racing on Brown's cycling team. His interests include vegan baking, cartooning, and complaining about not getting enough sleep.

• Work jointly with class representatives to create a running list of possible activities and events that PLME students would be interested in.
• Formulate ideas for new social events on campus that will bring PLME students together, as well as increase campus awareness of the PLME Senate.
• Organize social activities and events by coordinating room availability, food catering, media services, etc. Work with the treasurer to develop and implement budgets for these events.
• Organize separate meetings for the Social Events committee in addition to the biweekly PLME Senate meetings.

Treasurer:

• Sean Curran ('08/'12)

  Sean (e-mail) has not submitted a biography yet.

• Neil Parikh* ('11/'15)

  Neil (e-mail) spent his years before college in North Brunswick, New Jersey. A freshman at Brown, his major is undecided, but is considering COE and Neuroscience and is open to trying out new things. Along with the PLME Senate, Neil is involved with SASA, the Daily Jolt, Model UN, and BUSUN. This past summer, Neil worked at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center designing lunar and Mars-bound robots. His interests include web design, building robots (FIRST), his research, and having study parties at the SciLi.

• Maintains a written record of all money spent during the academic year, along with corresponding amounts, dates, and purposes.
• Along with one co-President, handles purchase orders through the Student Activities Office.
• Works with the committee chairs to prepare an accurate and appropriate budget at the beginning of each semester.

Secretary:

• Liz Rodriguez ('08/'12)

  Liz (e-mail) was born and raised in sunny southern California (L.A. area). She studies Human Biology, with a focus on human health and disease. Liz also studied abroad in the spring of her junior year in Sevilla, Spain and absolutely loved it. Her hobbies include soccer, swimming and tennis. She really likes traveling and experiencing new things. She also enjoys spending time laughing with (and sometimes at) her roommates. That about sums it all up for now, but feel free to contact her if you want to know anything else!

• Records, distributes, and maintains the minutes of all PLME Senate meetings.
• Works with the webmaster to make these minutes accessible to all PLME students.
• Maintains an attendance record for PLME Senate officers throughout the academic year.

Medical School Liaison:

• Larry Kwon ('08/'12)

  Larry (e-mail) is a senior majoring in biology. His hobbies include golf, reading, fitness and traveling. His favorite show is 30 Rock, favorite singer is Alicia Keys, and favorite snack is peanut butter and jelly on whole wheat bread!

• Serves as an active link between the PLME Senate and the Alpert Medical School Senate.
• Attends all PLME Senate and Med School Senate meetings, providing the PLME Senate with the minutes of the Med School Senate meetings.
• Works to advance cooperation and education between both halves of the PLME's eight-year undergraduate and medical continuum.

Webmaster:

• Rahul Banerjee ('10/'14)

  Rahul (e-mail) grew up in Massachusetts, lives in Connecticut, and goes to school in Rhode Island, allowing him to say that he knows New England like the back of his hand (if you ignore New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine). The fact that he works as a computer lab consultant and serves as webmaster for a half-dozen groups on campus belies the reality that he is not really a computer science major - he only plays one on TV. Or something like that. He's actually a biology concentrator interested in virology and public health. Outside of class, he works as a chemistry tutor and is involved with Brown Badmaash Dance Company, Brown Hindu Students Association, the Triple Helix, and of course the PLME Senate.

• Maintains the PLME Senate website and provides an e-mail address on the website for feedback.
• Maintains the calendar on the home page to inform viewers about upcoming events and Senate meetings.
• Works with the co-Presidents and committee chairs to provide online access to media, Senate minute meetings, information about community service opportunities, and other material deemed relevant.
• Maintains and creates new e-mail listservs to facilitate communication between PLME students and the e-board.