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Faculty & Staff

Natalie kirilichin, program Director ​

Dr. Natalie Kirilichin

Natalie Kirilichin, MD, MPH, is a board-certified attending emergency medicine physician and assistant professor with the George Washington University Department of Emergency Medicine. As faculty, she works at GWU and The Walter Reed National Military Medical Center clinically caring for patients and teaching/training medical students and residents. Her education leadership roles include co-directing the GWU MFA Health Policy Fellowship and the Health Policy Scholarly Concentration Program at the School of Medicine. Dr. Kirilichin is also core faculty for the Residency Fellowship in Health Policy.
Dr. Kirilichin developed an interest in behavioral health while working for the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) as a health policy fellow. There, her portfolio included mental health and substance abuse policy, and her work supported Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act passage and the opioid funding provisions of 21st Century Cures. Dr. Kirilichin went on to join National Safety Council, a nonprofit that eliminates preventable deaths through leadership, research, education and advocacy. She serves as a medical advisor and member of the Physician Speaker’s Bureau for this organization, working with colleagues in multiple disciplines across the country on constructive interventions to combat the opioid epidemic.
Dr. Kirilichin received her undergraduate degree (BS, Biology) from Georgetown University, and remained at Georgetown’s School of Medicine to complete her MD. She earned her MPH from the GWU Milken Institute School of Public Health. During her residency at University of Chicago Hospitals, she worked with the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) in an advocacy capacity. She currently serves as President of the DC Chapter of this organization and as a member of the Pain Management and Addiction Medicine Section. Finally, Dr. Kirilichin serves on the Advisory Committee for DC Health’s Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP).

janice blanchard, course faculty

Dr. Janice Blanchard

Dr. Janice Blanchard is a Professor of Emergency Medicine at the George Washington University School of Medicine and an Adjunct Affiliate Researcher at RAND. Originally from the South side of Chicago, where her family still resides, she completed her MD from Harvard Medical School and her PhD in health services research from the RAND Graduate School. 

Janice is a mixed methods health services researcher and has worked on a number of projects related to racial disparities in medicine. Her research interests are how health policy intersects with medicine, behavioral health and racial disparities. She has written extensively on how COVID highlighted the role of social determinants of health contributing to racial disparities. 

Her work has been featured on both mainstream media outlets and academic medical journals including National Public Radio, CNN, the Baltimore Sun and The Hill. In addition to her research work, she continues to practice clinical medicine in the emergency department in Washington DC.

guenevere burke, course faculty

Dr. Guenevere Burke

Dr. Guenevere Burke is an assistant professor of emergency medicine, health policy and management at the George Washington University (GW). In this role, she is actively involved in medical education and interdisciplinary graduate programs in health policy and health equity. She is director and co-founder of the Atlantic Fellows for Health Equity program, an international fellowship funded by the Atlantic Philanthropies.

Dr. Burke is a board-certified emergency physician who provides clinical care at the GW Department of Emergency Medicine. She previously served as president of the District of Columbia American College of Emergency Physicians and medical director for the Medical Faculty Associates at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

Dr. Burke completed fellowship training in health policy at GW, working as a fellow with the Kaiser Family Foundation and serving as health policy advisor to Senator Grassley, a member of the Senate Finance Committee. She completed her medical education at UCLA and residency training at the University of Southern California, where she served as chief resident. She holds an MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and previously worked in international healthcare consulting and hospital finance prior to her career in medicine.

marisa dowling, course faculty

Dr. Marisa Dowling

Dr Dowling, MD, MPP is currently the GW Health Policy Fellow for the Class of 2021. She graduated from Stanford University with a B.A. in Human Biology. She then attended Duke University for medical school and completed her Emergency Medicine residency at the University of Maryland. Dr. Dowling also holds a Master in Public Policy degree from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

Her prior policy experiences include: working for two think tanks during the Affordable Care Act debate and enactment (including publishing peer-reviewed articles), working at state (Massachusetts Health Policy Commission) and federal health agencies (Emergency Care Coordination Center, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality), and leading quality improvement and Emergency Medicine professional groups.

As a Health Policy Fellow, Dr. Dowling splits her time between working clinically in local Washington, DC Emergency Departments and in health policy placements. In her current policy placement, she serves U.S. Representative Robin Kelly (Illinois' 2nd Congressional District), assisting with COVID-19 response, health disparities, and telehealth legislation, among a variety of health policy topics.

​James scott, course faculty

Dr. James Scott

Dr. Scott has been on the faculty of the Department of Emergency Medicine at the George Washington University for 33 years. He served as Dean of the GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences (SMHS) from 2003 to 2010. Previously he served as student clerkship director, residency director, Associate Dean for Graduate Medical Education, and Assistant Dean for Student Affairs in the SMHS.

Since stepping down as dean, Dr. Scott has devoted his time and energy to improving medical education in Africa.  He served as Senior Academic Adviser to the Global Health Service Partnership, a program that places U.S. medical educators in African medical schools. He was one of the principal faculty members on the Medical Education Partnership Initiative, to improve the quantity, quality and retention of doctors in sub-Saharan Africa. He is founder of synDRME.org, a Website dedicated to delivering high quality medical educational resources to medical schools in resource-challenged parts of the world. He is also the co-director of the health policy fellowship for residents that has trained over 500 residents from GW and Children’s National Medical Center.

Jamar slocum, course Faculty 

Dr. Jamar Slocum

Jamar Slocum, MD, MBA, MPH is a clinical assistant professor of medicine at George Washington University (GW). He practices hospital medicine and serves as faculty for the Atlantic Fellows for Health Equity and Beyond Flexner Alliance.

During the course of his career, he has combined his skills and experience in clinical medicine and public health to build a healthcare system that is based on equity and prevention. He is a former board member of the Tennessee Health Campaign, one of the leading non-profit advocacy organizations working to ensure affordable and high quality health care for all Tennesseans. Jamar completed his residency training in internal medicine at Brown University in Providence, RI and fellowship training in general preventive medicine at the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins.

Leigh anne butler, course academic advisor​ 

​Leigh Anne Butler

With over 30 years of experience in graduate and postgraduate medical education at the George Washington University, Leigh Anne Butler currently works on domestic programs in the Department of Health Policy and Management primarily in the areas of health workforce equity and social mission. Her current projects include managing all three arms of the Atlantic Philanthropies award and a new award through the Office of Minority Health developing a new fellowship called the Minority Leadership Development Program. She has contributed to proposals and projects totaling over $50M in grants and gifts in the past 10 years. She has published articles in Academic Medicine and Academic Emergency Medicine.

For the Atlantic Fellows for Health Equity program, Leigh Anne’s role includes programmatic and administrative management. In addition, she has coordinated the mentorship programming as well as the Charter Committee for the fellowship. She was the founding Secretary and Treasurer to the Beyond Flexner Alliance Board of Directors. She has had event management and leadership roles on committees as part of the Beyond Flexner Social Mission in Health Professions Education conferences and the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation Awards program. 

Leigh Anne’s previous roles include grants management for the Medical Education Partnership Initiative (MEPI) Coordinating Center. MEPI was a five year, $130M project to increase the quantity of African medical school graduates, improve the quality of African medical education, retain physicians in their home countries, and promote regionally relevant research. GW was the Coordinating Center for this grant with an African counterpart in Kampala, Uganda. Leigh Anne’s role in this project was as the Grants Management Coordinator with programmatic, administrative and finance responsibilities under the two Principal Investigators. Prior to MEPI, Leigh Anne served as Executive Associate to the Dean of the School of Medicine and Health Sciences and reported to the Dean on all aspects of administration of the medical school. She has also had previous coordination roles for graduate and post-graduate education in the Department of Medicine and the Department of Emergency Medicine at The George
Washington University.

andrea jenkins, program Manager

Andrea Jenkins

Andrea M. Jenkins, MPH is an Institute Specialist I at the Fitzhugh Mullan Institute for Health Workforce Equity within the Department of Health Policy and Management. In her role, Ms. Jenkins serves as the Program Manager and Engagement Officer for the Residency Fellowship in Health Policy (RFHP) and as the Strategic Partnership Lead, Student Engagement & Internship Coordinator and Co-Chair for the “For Us All” Campaign for Social Mission Alliance (SMA). Previously, she was the Program Coordinator for the inaugural 2022–2023 cohort of the Office of Minority Health Minority Leaders Development Program, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
Ms. Jenkins began her undergraduate studies in pre-med at the University of New Mexico before relocating to the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area, where she earned her Bachelor of Science in Biology from the University of the District of Columbia. Her interest in public health deepened during her 14+ years of service at the George Washington University Hospital’s emergency department, where she developed a passion for advocacy, policy, and reform. This inspired her to pursue and earn a Master of Public Health from George Washington University’s Milken Institute School of Public Health.
Ms. Jenkins is committed to promoting workforce diversity and advancing health equity. She plans to continue her efforts to advocate for equitable healthcare systems and inclusive policies that benefit all communities.

Vikas Choudhary, Communication Specialist 

Vikas Choudhary

Vikas is a Master’s student in Interaction Design at George Washington University, where he explores how storytelling, design, and technology can intersect to create more equitable and human-centered systems. He is driven by the belief that design, when rooted in empathy and equity, can be a powerful tool for social change.

He has contributed to a research paper titled “The Use of Extended Reality and Computer Vision to Aid Reminiscence Therapy in Persons with Dementia,” which examines how emerging technologies can serve memory care in more compassionate ways.

Prior to graduate school, Vikas worked across a variety of creative and strategic roles, from leading digital media campaigns to supporting nonprofit outreach initiatives, gaining insight into how thoughtful communication can shape public understanding and build trust across diverse audiences.

Kyra King, Administrative Assistant 

Kyra King

Kyra is a Master of Public Health candidate at George Washington University, specializing in Health Policy.

She currently serves as a Student Administrative Assistant at the Fitzhugh Mullan Institute for Health Workforce Equity’s Residency Fellowship in Health Policy.

Kyra has experience in research assistance, policy analysis, and stakeholder engagement, with a focus on advancing health equity through data-driven solutions. She aims to build a career in health policy consulting or program analysis within the D.C. area.