Katrina Mitchell, MD - Weill Bugando

Louis Wade Sullivan, MD and Katrina Mitchell, MD

Katrina Mitchell, MD, a fellow of the Center for Global Health and senior general surgery resident, recently received the Louis Wade Sullivan, MD Resident/Fellow Award for Excellence in Public Health Advocacy at the 2011 Pioneers in Diversity Awards Ceremony. Katrina devoted the past two years of her research time to help develop a surgery curriculum for the new Weill Bugando University College of Health Sciences (WBUCHS) clinical surgery rotation in Mwanza, Tanzania. Working with local providers and students at WBUCHS, Katrina created an electronic and print database of lectures on relevant surgery topics, as well as a basic surgical handbook. She also started teaching surgical skills in the operating theatre, bridging to an official and recurring workshop through the Canadian Network for International Surgery, and has compiled donations of electronic resources, books, and surgical supplies for WBUCHS.

Katrina with an intern from the first graduating class of WBUCHS.

Aside from her work in the surgery department at WBUCHS, Katrina is assisting Operation Giving Back at the American College of Surgeons with a project to create a database for surgery residents interested in international electives. She also contributed to the Weill Cornell Department of Infectious Disease study on female genital schistosomiasis in the Tanzania Lake Zone Region. Katrina is incredibly grateful for the opportunity to live and teach in Tanzania, and hopes to continue working in the developing world after finising surgery residency.