Health Policy Scholars

Inaugurated in 2023, our Health Policy Scholars Program is an annual fellowship that combines peer support with educational and advocacy opportunities for young adults with chronic and rare medical conditions. Our scholars bring a vital viewpoint to the health policy arena, united by their lived experiences and a keen interest in actively engaging with health policy matters, particularly those related to lowering healthcare costs and the prices of prescription medicines.

The main activities of this program include monthly educational workshops focused on our three key policy areas alongside advocacy opportunities such as co-developing regulatory commentary, writing opinion articles, and scripting educational videos for dissemination. Past educational workshops have focused on subjects such as patents, op-ed writing, value-based pricing, and health technology assessments, as well as drug pricing legislation and the implementation of the Inflation Reduction Act. These workshops have featured esteemed guest speakers, including Natalie Litton, former policy analyst and legislative advisor at Patients for Affordable Drugs; Maya Brod, the Vice President of Burness; Justin Mendoza from Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM); Kim Witczak, co-founder and Executive Director of Woody Matters, and Laura Dolbow, a Sharswood Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School.

Keep reading to learn more about our current Scholars and alumni!

2024 Health Policy Scholars

Giovanna Burno is a 26-year-old MSU student studying to be a teacher. As a child, she was healthy and active, running around all day; at 20, she became sick with a rare disease that left her paralyzed from the neck down in less than three hours. Still active in a new way, Giovanna now dedicates time to learning and advocating about disabilities while also making sure that she can provide better learning experiences for all students.

Casey Doherty (she/her) is a disability justice activist from upstate New York living in Washington, D.C. Casey is disabled by myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), Long COVID, tick-borne diseases, and psychiatric disabilities. Her experience as a young person with disabilities and chronic illnesses have informed her personal, academic, and professional passion for disability justice and health equity work.

Casey received her Master’s degree in Disability Studies from the City University of New York’s (CUNY) School of Professional Studies in 2023 and her Bachelor’s degrees in Government and American Studies from Georgetown University in 2020. She has applied for Disability Studies Ph.D. programs.

Casey organizes with #MEAction and serves as an Ambassador for the Chronic Disease Coalition. She received the 2023-24 Heumann-Armstrong Award named for Judith Heumann and Elijah Armstrong, recognizing students paving the way for equal access in education. She is excited to join the Generation Patient community and advocate for equitable access to health care.

Adam was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease at 12 years old. This diagnosis and his experience with the challenges of living with a chronic illness opened his eyes to the world of advocacy and the influence of law and policy on the lives of those impacted by the healthcare system. As an undergraduate, he collaborated with his state representative to craft disability focused legislation and drove a private-public partnership effort to build a community health clinic near his campus. 

When he is not studying, Adam enjoys playing tennis, cheering on the Timberwolves, doing the Mini Crossword, and listening to stand-up comedy.

Peyton Miles is a 20-year-old from Lynchburg, VA, learning to knit, play guitar, train a service dog, and live with New Daily Persistent Headache (NDPH). In high school, she was senior class president and a tri-varsity athlete with plans to attend William and Mary after graduating, but her life changed on March 4, 2022. After becoming a finalist in the Global Summer Learning Institute’s LEADing for Life national business competition, she became ill with a viral illness. All symptoms subsided after five days, except a severe, unremitting headache that she has had ever since.

In high school, she had a keen interest in social entrepreneurship, advocacy, and public service. She explored these interests both in the classroom - by taking courses like civil discourse and social justice - and outside of the classroom, interning on Capitol Hill, and completing research on abortion access and policy in the U.S.

Though she was able to graduate from high school, she was forced to take a hiatus from college to learn to live with chronic pain. Her interests have continued to grow through her work as a part-time assistant doing research at Echoing Green, a social entrepreneurship company. She hopes to use her experience with Generation Patient as an opportunity to merge her passion for advocacy that was grown inside the classroom and her lived experiences with chronic illness. 

Rachel Litchman (she/her) is a cartoonist, writer, and consultant based in Madison, Wisconsin. Her experience surviving youth homelessness as a teen while navigating several disabling chronic illnesses led her to become an advocate for disabled and housing-insecure youth. She has a passion for addressing the intersections between housing and health. Most recently, Rachel graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with degrees in Sociology and Gender & Women’s Studies. She is a 2023 alum of the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) summer internship program, where she interned with the National Disability Rights Network. She is most proud of the work she has done locally under the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program, which led to the development of new programs to serve youth experiencing homelessness in her community. Her comics and writing on disability-related issues have appeared in The Washington Post, Disability Visibility, The Nib, and Tone Madison. She is passionate about expanding access to compassionate, stable, and affirming healthcare and exploring how policy and structural oppression create barriers to access.

Genna Goist (she/her) is an undergraduate student at the University of Michigan studying Philosophy, Politics, and Economics, with a focus in global health interventions. Her academic interests include historical epidemiology, bioethics, and the intersection between health and economic development. Outside of class, she loves playing the piano, listening to podcasts, crafting, watching football, and telling anyone who will listen what a good boy her dog is. 

The belief that health policy work must be performed and influenced by the people who need it most has led to her passion for public policy as a means to positively impact the lives of those living with chronic conditions. For Genna, over a decade of managing type one diabetes and other chronic conditions has illuminated the inadequacy of current health policy in mitigating the inequalities faced by people with disabilities. She hopes to better understand how policy can be crafted to both honor patient experiences and be realistic in our broken system. 

2023 Health Policy Scholars

Ryleigh Adkins (she/her) is a 19-year-old college student from southern Ohio. She is a second-year undergraduate student at The Ohio State University majoring in Public Health and minoring in Creative Writing. She is passionate about health policy that has a positive impact on chronically ill patients, rural health, and global health. In her free time, she enjoys reading, writing, traveling, watching movies, and spending time with family, friends, and her dog.

Ryleigh was diagnosed with Crohn's disease at 17 during her senior year of high school. This diagnosis and all of the challenges that came with it sparked her interest in patient advocacy and public health, and she joined Improve Care Now's patient advocacy council shortly after. She believes that empowering patients through knowledge and awareness is an invaluable way to improve the patient experience. Moving forward, she hopes to pursue a career in health policy informed by her own experiences and the experiences of other patients.

Kiran Rachamallu (he/him) is a 4th-year college student at the College of William and Mary, studying Public Policy and Biology. Originally from San Jose, California, he has lived with multiple chronic and rare conditions. His experiences navigating the healthcare system since a young age have led him to pursue a career in health policy and medicine. He was drawn to Generation Patient because of its focus on bringing together young adults with chronic diseases to advocate for a more just and equitable healthcare system.

On campus, Kiran has conducted research with the Schroder Center for Health Policy, the Global Research Institute, and the Institute for Integrative Conservation. He has interned for the Department of Health and Human Services, the Health Division of the American Institutes for Research, and various state and local government agencies. Additionally, he serves as a Patient Advisor for Kaiser Permanente San Jose. Kiran is currently writing his thesis on understanding and measuring patient perception of healthcare quality. He is excited to bring his viewpoint to the healthcare industry and continue finding ways to improve care, access, and affordability for patients.

Nathalie Garcia (she/her) is a third-year undergraduate studying Human Biology with an emphasis in Child Development through the Lens of Disability at Stanford University. Inspired by a diagnosis of Crohn's disease and a long battle with enteropathic arthritis in her early teens, she entered the world of patient advocacy.

Her first experience with this was when she completed a fellowship through the Crohn's and Colitis Young Adults Network in 2021 in which she spread awareness about the significance of mental health when living with a chronic illness. Wanting to gain hands-on experience in the medical field, she spent two years as a patient health navigator and Spanish interpreter at a free clinic in Palo Alto and has recently completed a study abroad in Oaxaca, Mexico working with local doctors to learn about community health.

When she's not in the clinic or studying, she's a total dog-lover and loves going to the beach and splashing in the water with her two loving pups.

Most importantly, she is eager to work with the (Health) Policy Lab to gain knowledge of policy, particularly in regard to the intersection between health and education and barriers to treatments enforced by the health insurance industry.

Victoria Koenigsberger (she/her) is a medical student at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, where she is also receiving her master of science in Population Medicine. She graduated with a BA in Public Health from Brown University in 2021. After being diagnosed with axial spondyloarthritis in 2020, she learned firsthand the ups and downs that come with chronic illness, and became particularly troubled by the exponential costs of prescription drugs. As somebody who aspires to care for other patients with complex autoimmune conditions, she knows that tackling the structural barriers that impact patients, such as the sky-high cost of immunotherapies, will be just as important as the care she provides at an individual level.

Throughout her academic and professional path, Victoria has been committed to health equity and disability advocacy. Most recently, she co-founded Brown Medical Students for Disability Justice to support her medical student peers with chronic illnesses and disabilities, facilitate an understanding of ableism among students and faculty, and advocate for the disability community at large in Rhode Island. Victoria is thrilled to be part of the inaugural cohort of Generation Patient Health Policy Scholars, and hopes to learn ways to best advocate for her patients on a structural level. In particular, she is excited to learn more about increasing medication affordability.

Tai (they/them) is a data analyst, hemophilia advocate, and young adult striving to help contribute to global health equity. They like to visit temples, spend time with cats, drink tea, and learn about cultures around the world.

Max Goldberg (he/him) is a patient advocate and policy communications professional from New York City.

At 25, Max received a sudden Type 1 Diabetes diagnosis, tossing him head first into life with a chronic illness. Now, he takes insulin every day in order to stay alive. Since his diagnosis, his experience as an insulin-dependent diabetic has informed his professional life, volunteer #Insulin4All organizing, and local mutual aid work.

Max is the co-founder of Join Projects, a New York-based communications agency that helps progressive advocacy organizations build their movements. In the four years since its founding, Join has worked on and led campaigns to expose how big pharma abuses intellectual property to monopolize life-saving medicines, mobilized young people to participate in the 2022 midterms and the 2020 Census, combated barriers to equitable COVID-19 vaccine distribution, and more.

Max is a proud native New Yorker, avid pickup basketball player, reformed music industry professional, and archetypal little brother.

Anna Ball (she/her) is a chronic illness advocate from Delaware. She is currently a Master’s of Public Health with a concentration in Epidemiology student at the University of Delaware and has B.A. in Psychology. Her research interests involve the social, behavioral, and environmental determinants of health, particularly education and its relation to health outcomes.

Anna’s chronic illness advocate journey began in 2020 with the diagnosis of Lupus and a secondary disorder Sjörgens Syndrome. She is also an advocate for mental health and will never shy away from sharing her experiences as both a mental health disorder and autoimmune disease patient. Her experiences as a chronic disease patient sparked her interest in public health and health policy, which has now evolved into her current master’s program and active involvement in both the Lupus Research Alliance and Lupus Foundation of America.

Anna also currently serves as an ambassador for the Chronic Disease Coalition. When she isn’t doing advocacy work, Anna likes listening to music especially Taylor Swift, watching documentaries, art, reading, cooking, and visiting museums.

Grace Shults (she/her/hers) is a 22-year-old student at The Ohio State University studying Psychology with a Social Work minor in Child Abuse and Neglect. Grace is also a full-time patient and has been since she was 16-years old, suffering from the long-term effects of Lyme disease. Due to her long battle with Lyme, Grace has become a dedicated advocate in the healthcare policy space.

She is a dedicated volunteer with Generation Lyme, LymeTV, Center for Lyme Action, Prescription Justice. She also completed the Patients Rising Legislative Masterclass in the Fall of 2022. She also volunteers with other policy-related groups in Ohio, including the gun policy reform group, Students Demand Action where she is the Treasurer at the OSU Chapter, as well as interning with the Ohio Alliance Against Sexual Violence as their Public Policy intern.