NHP + PAUSE Joint Board:
NHP Board Members:
Executive Director/NHP Community Outreach Director: Ryan Sutherland, YSM 2026 (ryan.sutherland@yale.edu)
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Ryan Sutherland is a student at the Yale School of Medicine. Ryan Sutherland completed a Master of Public Health degree at the Yale School of Public Health in the Social and Behavioral Science Department with a concentration in Global Health in 2020 and an MPhil in Development Studies as a Rotary Global Grant Scholar from the University of Cambridge in 2022. After completing his graduate education at Yale, he worked for Partners in Health to stem the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in Massachusetts while serving as an inaugural fellow at the Harvard Public Health Review. While a graduate student at Cambridge, he was elected Director of the Cambridge Development Initiative, Cambridge’s largest student-run development NGO that partners with local change agents across Tanzania to collaboratively address development challenges. In addition to serving as the Executive Director of PAUSE, Ryan serves as a Coordinator of the Neighborhood Health Project and works with the Haven Free Clinic.
PAUSE Board Member: Mesk Al-Hammadi, YSPH 2025 (Mesk.alhammadi@yale.edu)
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Dr. Mesk Al-Hammadi is a physician from Morocco and a graduate of Yale University’s Master of Public Health program, with a concentration in Social and Behavioral Sciences. Growing up in a modest community with limited access to healthcare, she witnessed firsthand how disparities deeply affect families. These experiences sparked her commitment to advancing health equity and improving mental health care for underserved populations. She has led and participated in several community health initiatives. As president of the volunteering committee at her medical school, she partnered with Special Olympics to provide Healthy Athletes screenings and helped organize diabetes and foot health screenings. She also led awareness campaigns on Alzheimer’s disease and cardiovascular health, reinforcing her dedication to culturally sensitive, community-based care. At Yale, she contributed to the development of breast cancer care pathways at Smilow Cancer Center and completed a capstone project on sex disparities in cardiovascular disease. She is currently developing a digital mental health tool that uses art therapy to support cancer patients. She now serves as a research assistant in Yale’s Department of Pulmonary, Critical Care & Sleep Medicine and aspires to pursue a psychiatry residency with a focus on child and adolescent mental health in underserved communities.
PAUSE Board Member: Kayl Carroll, YSPH 2029 (Kaylia.Carroll@Yale.edu)
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Kayl Carroll is a post-graduate associate with the ENRICH lab. They graduated with honors in Anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley in 2020, followed by an MPH in Social and Behavioral Sciences with a concentration in Health Justice from Yale School of Public Health in 2023. They will enter the Yale School of Public Health PhD program this summer ‘25. Kayl’s research interests lie at the intersection of substance use, LGBTQ health, homelessness, and sex work.
PAUSE Board Member/NHP Special Projects Director: Ella Suh, YSPH 2026 (ella.suh@yale.edu)
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Ella Suh is a Master of Public Health Candidate at Yale School of Public Health, concentrating in Health Policy. She is a passionate advocate for health equity with a strong dedication to expanding access to care for underserved and low-income communities. With a background in health services research, she witnessed firsthand the gap between clinical practice and community-based health outreach, which inspired her to focus her work on bridging this divide. Building on this experience, she joined NHP to contribute to preventive, patient-centered, and culturally responsive health initiatives. Her work is grounded in the belief that collaborative care models—integrating medical, social, and educational components—are essential to addressing structural determinants of health. Through partnerships with local organizations and public health institutions, she supports efforts that promote long-term health equity and community resilience.
NHP Board Members:
NHP Resources and Referrals Director: Carlos Hernandez-Castillo, YSM 2027 (carlos.hernandezcastillo@yale.edu)
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Carlos Hernandez-Castillo is a medical student at the Yale School of Medicine from Ventura, CA. He completed his undergraduate degree in chemistry at Pomona College. He holds a Master of Science degree in Global Health from UC San Francisco. Carlos’s research has spanned bench and computational work in physical chemistry, clinical work aiming at improving diabetes diagnostics and finding biomarkers of diabetes complications prior to onset, epidemiological research exploring extrapulmonary tuberculosis in San Francisco, and community-based work focusing on a psychosocial intervention in a predominantly Latino, immigrant community in Southern California. Carlos’s passions include community health, community-based participatory research, immigrant health, and long-term management of disease sequalae (i.e., childhood cancer survivors, post neuroinfectious disease). Carlos is ecstatic about joining the NHP leadership because of its mission of improving health outcomes for the New Haven community through screening and referrals and its commitment to work with community partners to ameliorate health disparities.
NHP Special Projects Director: Ezra Otto, YSN 2026 (ezra.otto@yale.edu)
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Ezra Otto is a GEPN- Family Nurse Practitioner at the Yale School of Nursing. He completed his undergraduate degree in public health at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and has experience working on community health and LGBTQ+ health initiatives in the Clinical Operations department within the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion department of a major health system in the Midwest. He also completed an internship with Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, where he developed a resource guide for under and uninsured populations to receive breast screenings after abnormal findings, increasing their access to care. He is passionate about improving health disparities, health outcomes, increasing access to routine medical care, and increasing trust between clinicians and community members. He is thrilled to join the NHP team as Special Projects Director to help further their efforts in the New Haven community!
Special Project Director: Fabrizio Darby, YSM 2027 (fabrizio.darby@yale.edu)
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Fabrizio Darby is a Medical Student at the Yale School of Medicine who completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Miami with a double major in Biology and Health Science and Minors in Chemistry and Creative Writing. He has been involved in community initiatives such as the Science Made Sensible high school teaching program in Miami, co-coordinated the New Haven Voices panel, and mentored several pre-medical students through various programs. He has an interest in global health and has co-organized on-campus global medicine events and conducted research projects related to global surgery. He’s excited to continue his work with NHP as a director.
Supplies/Budget and Data Management Director: Tommy LeFevre, YSPH 2026 (thomas.lefevre@Yale.edu)
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Thomas (Tommy) LeFevre is a Master of Public Health student at the Yale School of Public Health in the Health Care Management track. Thomas brings experience in social impact consulting, data analytics, and addiction recovery advocacy. His work is grounded in a deep commitment to health equity, justice, and expanding access to care, particularly for individuals impacted by incarceration and substance use disorders. In addition to his role at NHP, Thomas conducts research at the SEICHE Center for Health and Justice and serves as an analyst at the Venture Capital firm Limitless Ventures.
NHP Volunteer and Attendings Director: Stacy Uchendu, YSM 2028 (stacy.uchendu@yale.edu)
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Stacy Uchendu is a MD-PhD student at Yale Medical School with research interests in Neuroscience and clinical interest in Psychiatry. She graduated from Wesleyan University with a degree in Chemistry. Stacy’s interest in creating healthy lifestyles for herself and the people around her began when she participated in a longitudinal clinical study on juvenile Type 2 Diabetes and lifestyle habits in middle school. She has fostered this interest by volunteering at Gather New Haven, teaching food science to kids, and serving as co-Director at Neighborhood Health Project.
