Leadership Team

  • Akshaya Annapragada

    Director, Co-Founder, Board of Directors

    Akshaya is an MD/PhD student at Johns Hopkins Medical School. She holds an AB magna cum laude with highest honors in Applied Mathematics and an SM in Engineering Sciences: Bioengineering from Harvard University. She was previously the managing editor of the Harvard Political Review and has authored peer-reviewed publications in journals including Nature Medicine and Nature Communications. She is passionate about applying research and medicine to improve public health.

  • Ankita Patil

    Content Team Lead

    Ankita is a recent graduate from The College of New Jersey where she received her Bachelor’s in Psychology and minored in Public Health. She is currently working at Brigham & Women’s Hospital as a research assistant, and is aiming to pursue a career in medicine. Ankita is passionate about patient-centered care, addressing disparities in health care, and using a data-driven approach to generate tangible results.

  • Naomi Castellon-Perez

    Translation Team Lead

    Naomi attended Harvard College where she obtained her undergraduate degree in Integrative Biology and Global Health and Health Policy. Currently, she works in public health research and hopes to pursue a career that merges medicine and public health. Naomi is passionate about improving communications in healthcare, and believes that transcending language barriers is essential for supporting equitable access to health information.

  • Charmaine Yuan

    Social Media Team Lead

    Charmaine Yuan is a second year MD student on the primary care leadership track and a Daniels Interprofessional Education Scholar at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She graduated magna cum laude from the University of Maryland, College Park and holds a B.S. in Biological Sciences and a B.S. in Psychology. Charmaine is passionate about community engagement and public health, especially preventative medicine, social determinants of health, and health education.

  • Nicole Seo

    Community Engagement Team Lead

    Nicole Seo graduated from Washington University in St. Louis with a bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain Operations Management, and Marketing. She currently works at Grubhub Inc. as an Enterprise Loyalty Operations Specialist, and has prior work experience in market research and brand communications. With this background, Nicole joined CHLP in hopes of improving health literacy in the community.

Volunteers

Writers and Designers:

  • Abby Obeng-Marnu - Harvard College

  • Anika Pruthi - The College of New Jersey

  • Ankita Patil - The College of New Jersey

  • Asna Tabassum - University of Southern California

  • Calli Bianchi - Harvard College

  • Christine M Grosso, OTD-R/L

  • Ishu Sivakumar - Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

  • Katie Welgan - Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

  • Leila Habib - Johns Hopkins University School

  • Lisa Young - Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

  • Nicole Seo - Washington University in Saint Louis

  • Salomé Garnier - Harvard College

  • Sonia Hamilton - Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

  • Suchita Kumar - University of Pittsburgh

  • Viviane Liao - Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

  • Vrishabhadev Sathish Kumar - University of Washington


Translators:

  • Alice Liao - Vanderbilt School of Medicine - Chinese (Simplified and Traditional)

  • Angeliki Brouard, Harvard Extension '19, Master Data and Supply Chain Consultant - Greek

  • Ayaka Aihara - Boston University - Japanese

  • Casey Tsimbal - Massachusetts General Hospital - Russian

  • Hithaishini Kodicherla - Telugu

  • HyukJoo Hwang - Harvard College ‘19 - Korean

  • Jiayu Tian - Stony Brook University School of Medicine - Chinese (Simplified)

  • Kadiatou Diallo - Indiana University School of Informatics ‘21 - Chinese (Traditional)

  • Katie Welgan - Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine - Spanish

  • Maria Brouard - Tufts University School of Medicine - Greek

  • Marin Mazeres - Bston University School of Medicine - French, Spanish

  • Molly Zhao - Boston University School of Medicine - Chinese (Simplified and Traditional)

  • Naomi Castellon-Perez - Harvard College ‘21 - Spanish

  • Natalie Wen - Harvard School of Dental Medicine - Spanish, Chinese (Simplified)

  • Rose Berman - French

  • Smruti Desai - German

  • Sonia Hamilton - Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine -Spanish

  • Siam Muquit - Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine - Spanish

  • Vidushi Gupta - SRM Institute of Science and Technology, KTR - Hindi

  • Wafaa Abbasi - Boston University School of Medicine - Urdu

Expert Reviewers

  • Abby Schiff, MD, PhD - Brigham and Women’s Hospital - Content Review

  • Anthony Mell, MD - Boston Medical Center - Content Review

  • Avdhesh Mathur, PhD - Ministry of Electronics & IT, Government of India (retired) - Hindi Translation Review

  • Athanasios Desalermos, MD - University of Massachusetts Medical School - Greek Translation Review

  • Darshan Mehta, MD and Hemendra Mehta - Massachusetts General Hospital - Gujurati Translation Review

  • Disha Saharia, MBBS - Baylor College of Medicine - Hindi Translation Review

  • Eric B. Bass, MD, MPH - Johns Hopkins Medicine - Affordable Care Act Content Review

  • Gopi Shah, MD - Houston Methodist Hospital - Hindi Translation Review

  • Hiroyuki Aihara, MD - Brigham and Women’s Hospital - Japanese Translation Review

  • Ingrid Katz, MD - Brigham and Women’s Hospital - Content Review

  • Joann Bodurtha, MD, MPH - Johns Hopkins Medicine - Genetic Medicine Content Review

  • John Esli Medina Morales, MD - Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School - Content and Spanish Translation Review

  • Mariela Urbina, MD - Nicklaus Children’s Hospital - Spanish Translation Review

  • Mark Yu, MD - Joslin Diabetes Center - Filipino Translation Review

  • Misun Hwang, MD - Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia - Korean Language Review

  • Muna Sheikh, MD and Masood Sheikh - Upham's Corner Health Center - Urdu Translation Review

  • Nelya Melnitchouk, MD, MSc - Brigham and Women’s Hospital - Ukrainian Translation Review

  • Olabimpe Fashanu, MD - Brigham and Women’s Hospital - Yoruba Translation Review

  • Olga Charnaya, MD - Johns Hopkins Medicine - Russian Language Revuew

  • Philipp Lirk, MD, MSc, PhD - Brigham and Women’s Hospital - German Translation Review

  • Shixia Huang, PhD - Baylor College of Medicine - Chinese (Simplified and Traditional) Translation Review

  • Swapna Putta, MD - Brigham and Women’s Hospital - Telugu Translation Review

  • Syed Nasir, MD - Texas Association of Charitable Clinics (TXACC) - Hypertension Content Review

  • Sheila Borboli-Gerogiannis, MD - Mass Eye and Ear - Greek Translation Review

  • Thomas Riou, Interne de Psychiatrie - Universite Sorbonne Paris Nord - French Translation Review

  • Vinod Nambudiri, MD, MBA - Brigham and Women’s Hospital - Malayalam Translation Review

Board of Advisors

  • Defne Altan

    Content Team Lead

    Defne is a general surgery resident at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the former Content Team Lead at CHLP. She graduated from Harvard College in 2018 and Harvard Medical School in 2023, and was previously the Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Harvard Undergraduate Research Journal. She cares about mentorship, disparities and outcomes research, and science communication.

  • Pooja Chandrashekar

    Co-Founder, Board of Directors

    Pooja is a third-year MD/MBA student at Harvard Medical School and Harvard Business School. She graduated from Harvard College with an A.B. in Biomedical Engineering and subsequently completed a Fulbright Scholarship in India. She is passionate about building an equitable healthcare system by improving healthcare delivery for underserved patients. She is a Paul and Daisy Soros Fellow and was named to the 2021 Forbes 30 Under 30 Healthcare list. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Pooja founded the COVID-19 Health Literacy Project to create and translate accessible COVID-19 information into different languages. The COVID-19 Health literacy project grew to reach people in over 150 countries, and has now evolved into The Community Health Literacy Project. She is also the founder of ProjectCSGIRLS, an international nonprofit dedicated to encouraging middle school girls in STEM.

Prior Contributors

Prior Leadership Team Members:

Defne Altan - Content Team Lead, 2021-2023

Madison Luick - Community Engagement Team Lead, 2021-2022

Vineet Raman - Policy and Advocacy Team Lead, 2021-2022

The Community Health Literacy Project originally started as the COVID-19 Health Literacy Project. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the COVID-19 Health Literacy Project developed accessible, evidence-based factsheets vetted by Harvard physicians in over 40 languages. We would like to acknowledge the following individuals who contributed to the early factsheets displayed on this website, under the umbrella of the COVID-19 Health Literacy Project: