BK SWAG CHAMPS is a 4-week summer program that exposes high school scholar-athletes to careers in healthcare by combining their interest in the health sciences with their love for sports. Students participate in health disparities workshops, engage in community advocacy, meet with providers in sports-related healthcare fields, and receive academic mentorship. Through this summer program, students learn how to contribute to the community while advancing their game and their academic career.

Thank you to our BK SWAG coordinators, Shemeika Bowman and Diedreanna Martin!

Health Disparities in Sports

This summer, students created presentations on health disparities in various sports. Check out the list below to see what each student presented.

• Football: Mia Gabriella Julien, Anson Bai, Chelsea White, Allysse Alexis
• Rugby: Alison Macareno Moran, Carissa Wilson, Sylas Mark, Gabrielle Bell
• Ice Hockey: Imani Appolon, Bria Simon, Eric Guo
• Boxing: Ellis Simpson, Clarisa Quinonez, Rexena Chen, Christopher Antoine
• Soccer: Farhan Ruhan, Olivia Steele, Sanai James

PACERS is a four-week research training program which trains first-year medical students to frame health disparities research questions through a health equity and social justice lens.

PACERS provides support for students with:

• with a tentative, early research project or idea
• with an existing research project that needs to be supplemented with additional funding
• with clinical experience; looking to approach shadowing with a health disparities lens

This program is paid. Application information is coming soon. For all questions regarding PACERS, please email diversityprograms@downstate.edu.

TRACS is a one-year paid research training program for medical, graduate, and select post-baccalaureate students. With a research focus on the structural drivers of health and health equity and a one-year stipend, TRACS prepares students for residency or post-doctoral training. Check out this year's cohort below.

Cordero McCall is a third-year medical student at the Medical College of Wisconsin. He earned both his Bachelor of Science and Master of Public Health degrees at SUNY Albany. In later years, he earned Master of Business at Saint Louis University in hopes of utilizing both his MBA and MPH during his medical endeavors.

McCall is a Nth dimensions scholar, research fellow, and member of the esteemed Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated. He is also a proud alumnus of Northwestern University's Minority Health and Health Disparities Research Training Program, Northwestern University's Uterine Leiomyoma Research Center Lab Immersion Program, and Rothman's Orthopaedic Summer Immersion Research Program.

His passions are directly focused on bridging the gap between underserved populations and increasing access to care for these vulnerable populations.

His research interests are largely focused on creating more equitable environments for the underserved and advancing health equity. His projects are mostly focused on basic, translational, clinical, and population science. His current research projects include colorectal men's health, prostate cancer, orthopaedics, chronic diseases, and global health. He is currently working in Dr. Camacho Rivera's research lab.

Valerie Chateau's education was at Long Island University, where she graduated Magna Cum Laude with a B.S. in Health Science as a HOPE Scholar. There she grew an interest in biomedicine and public health. She was a 2-year intern at the Brooklyn-Queens-Long Island Area Health Education Center (BQLI-AHEC). She broadened her understanding of healthcare complexities by engaging in interdisciplinary work and contributing to community-based initiatives in medically underserved areas throughout NYC. Notably, she was involved with the Commission on the Public Health System (CPHS) in designing and implementing the "Collecting the Invisible Experiences During COVID-19" survey to address health disparities and advocate for policy changes. As a SPRINTER Student at SUNY Downstate Medical Center, she worked on research to correlate stress levels with educational attainment; shedding light on the intricate relationship between social determinants and health outcomes. Her current TRACS study is focused on advancing health equity in clinical practice by implementing structural competencies and working with the Coalition to Eliminate Racism in Clinical Algorithm (CERCA). She is working under the guidance of Dr. Carla Boutin-Foster, Dr. Margaret Salisu, and Ms. Jenique Reid.

Tobi Somorin is a rising 4th-year MD/MPH candidate at SUNY Downstate College of Medicine. 

A lifelong New Yorker, Tobi was born in the Bronx and raised in Middletown, New York. He earned his degree in Biochemistry from Stony Brook University, where he worked with the National Cancer Institute to research cancer health disparities in minority communities. Tobi's passion for addressing institutional-level health disparities and promoting health equity led him to pursue a combined MD/MPH degree with a focus on Health Policy and Healthcare Administration.

Tobi is spending his research year serving as the Craniofacial and Pediatric Plastic Surgery Research Fellow at the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, and a Transition to Academic Careers (TRACS) Scholar. 



As a research fellow, Tobi is excited to research advancements in pediatric plastic surgery, cleft and craniofacial conditions, and the integrations of imaging and machine learning under the mentorship of Dr. Jesse Goldstein. Tobi is also committed to developing interventions that promote health equity on a systems level through his involvement as a TRACS scholar under the guidance of Dr. Marlene Camaco-Rivera.

José E. Diaz is a Research Assistant Professor in the STAR Program and Department of Medicine at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University. Dr. Diaz’s research centers on contextualizing health inequities, including HIV and substance use, among sexually minoritized populations, with an emphasis on care/treatment access and Hispanic/Latino/x/e (Latine) sexual minoritized men (SMM). His recent work examined how intersectional stigma and resilience are linked to past-year substance use treatment utilization among Latine SMM who use stimulants (i.e., cocaine, methamphetamine). He has collaborated on studies exploring the feasibility of home blood/urine specimen collection for laboratory testing of relevant health indicators (e.g., HIV viral load, recent substance use) to potentially support treatment disengaged SMM. Lastly, Dr. Diaz recently completed work on a longitudinal study seeking to examine how neighborhood contexts and social networks impact HIV care outcomes among Black and Latine SMM with HIV who live in New York City. His primary mentor is Dr. Sabina Hirshfield.

Dr. Zoe Neale is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University. She earned her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Virginia Commonwealth University, where her NIAAA F31-funded research focused on integrating genetics into alcohol use prevention for youth. Her T32 postdoctoral fellowship at Boston University and the VA Boston Healthcare System afforded specialized clinical and research training in traumatic stress, with an emphasis on neurobiological correlates and dementia risk in veterans. Dr. Neale's current research explores the intersections of trauma, genetics, and neurodevelopment, with a particular emphasis on alcohol use, post-traumatic stress disorder, and brain health (e.g., neural functioning, dementia) across the lifespan. Dr. Neale is also committed to conducting research that expands understanding of genetics in underrepresented groups, with the goal of promoting health equity and advancing precision medicine for individuals from all backgrounds. Her primary mentor is Dr. Jacquelyn Meyers.