Sara Zulghena

Sara Zualghena (30), from Syria, is completing a master’s degree in counseling/psychology at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology.

Sara’s studies will equip her with the skills and knowledge to enhance her current frameworks and practice as a clinical psychologist. Conflict settings create a huge spectrum of needs, and help is not readily available to women and children affected by violence. 

Sara’s goal is to develop strategies such as tele-health to enable access to the most rural and vulnerable populations. Driven by her own lived experience and the lack of qualified psychology practitioners, Sara is committed to improving the mental health needs of her Syrian community.

Susana Orrego Villegas

Susana Orrego Villegas (34) is a medical doctor from Colombia, a specialist in health management, and a researcher of epidemiology and biostatistics. She is completing a master’s in medical science and global health delivery at Harvard Medical School and a Child Protection Certificate Program at the François-Xavier Bagnoud (FXB) Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University.

Susana’s thesis will evaluate the impact of telemedicine after the COVID-19 pandemic in Colombia on the local population. She intends to find ways to integrate technology, health, equity, and ethics to address the challenges to vulnerable people, communities with limited resources, conflict settings, and isolated regions. Tech-friendly healthcare opportunities continue to grow in Colombia, but geographical and social barriers still challenge Colombia’s universal healthcare system.

Susana’s previous achievements have included leadership of the national COVID-19 task force. In 2020 she and her team developed a One-Stop Breast Cancer program for women, and in 2019 they created the first Pediatric Palliative Care program in Colombia. Susana’s goal is to continue working in administrative healthcare analysis and research, to focus on healthcare models, E-health medicine, and new technologies across Latin America.