2023 Scholarship Award Recipients
Maria Punchak, MD
(Lisa Hannegan Humanitarian International Neuroscience Scholarship Award) Maria Punchak is a current 5th year neurosurgical resident at the University of Pennsylvania. She obtained her Bachelors degree at Georgetown University, followed by a Masters of Science at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and an MD from the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. As an immigrant from Russia, Maria has always loved working with individuals of different cultures, but it was her exposure to the field of global health prior to medical school that informed her ultimate career path. She has since worked in Bolivia, Uganda, Liberia, South Africa and Mozambique. Her ultimate goal is to become a pediatric neurosurgeon, and work to increase access to quality neurosurgical care in low and middle incomes countries in a sustainable way. The Lisa Hannegan Humanitarian International Neuroscience Scholarship Award will enable her to build bridges with the neurosurgery team at the National Institute of Neurology and Neurosurgery in Mexico City and study treatment delays among neuro-oncology patients in an effort to help improve neurosurgical care provision among this patient population. |
Megan Still, MD
(Lisa Hannegan Humanitarian International Neuroscience Scholarship Award) Megan Still, MD was born in Nebraska and grew up in Nebraska and Wisconsin. She graduated summa cum laude with a B.S. in biochemistry and minor in Spanish with distinction in the honors program from Baylor University. At Baylor, she was a member of the NCAA equestrian team and the Golden Wave Marching Band and was inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society. She earned her MD with Distinction in Global Health from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, where she took a year away to undertake neurosurgical and anesthesia rotations in France, Cambodia, and Morocco with a research focus on global neurosurgical education and neurotrauma intervention in low-resource settings. At Southwestern, she also served as the founding president of the UTSW chapter of the Global Surgery Student Alliance, the president of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons Student Chapter/ Neurosurgery Interest Group, and lead and mentored for the local HPREP program (Health Professions Recruitment and Exposure Program). She was inducted as a member of the Gold Humanism Honor Society as a third-year medical student. Megan began her neurosurgical residency at the University of Florida in 2019 and is scheduled to complete her training in 2026. During her academic year, she will be conducting clinical research and a needs assessment in a teaching hospital in Sierra Leone to support the goal of establishing the first ever Sierra Leonean neurosurgery department and training program. She is very excited to undertake this project and grateful for the support of the Mission:Brain Lisa Hannegan Humanitarian Intenational Neuroscience Scholarship. |
Previous Scholarship Award Recipients
Andres Ramos-Fresnedo, M.D.
(International Fellowship Award) Andres is a medical graduate from Universidad Anáhuac in Mexico City. He joined Dr. Quiñones-Hinojosa’s team in 2016 for a rotation at the Johns Hopkins Hospital while still a medical student. He then returned in 2018 to spend six months as a research trainee at the neurosurgery department of the Mayo Clinic in Florida. Here, he acquired the skills necessary to develop his own clinical research projects, as well as how to analyze the data and present it in a scientific paper. During mission:brain's outreach trip to Mexico City in October 2016, Andres lead the effort to recognize Dr. Q with the Physician of the Year Award as a part of his University’s medical leadership program. Since then, he has been an avid volunteer to our foundation, helping with the planning of our missions in Mexico as well as building bridges between the local and international institutions. Andres will keep volunteering during our outreach trips as he believes that humility and giving back to people in need will change the world. Through the mission:brain scholarship and endowment program, Andres will be able to join Dr. Q’s Brain Tumor and Stem Cell Laboratory and clinical team as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow this year. During his time, Andres will lead the effort to translate projects from the laboratory into clinical trials and continue with clinical outcomes studies. |
Dr. Radzi Hamzah
(Lisa Hannegan Humanitarian International Neuroscience Scholarship Award) Radzi is a Malayasian neurosurgery resident with a keen interest in Global Neurosurgery. He has been successful in winning a scholarship for obtaining an MPH from the Harvard School of Public Health and was accepted as a Harvard PGSSC fellow in 2021. However, due to the pandemic and the inability to travel to US, his Malaysian funding has been on hold. The LHHINS will allow Radzi to refocus his fellowship in global neurosurgery and we're happy to be part of his journey! In honor of our late founding member, The Lisa Hannegan Humanitarian International Neuroscience Scholarship (LHHINS) was created to honor and continue her legacy to the commitment of improving lives of patients and collaborating with our partners around the world. It aims to promote the advancement of neuroscience and neurosurgery worldwide by facilitating observership, education, training and research for healthcare professionals involved in neuroscience and neurosurgery. Learn more about the Lisa Hannegan Humanitarian International Neuroscience Scholarship |