National Board Bio

Hello! My name is Ryesa Mansoor and I am a rising MS4 at George Washington University School of Medicine in Washington DC. I graduated from UNC Chapel Hill (go heels!) where I studied Public Health Nutrition and Neuroscience. Before starting medical school, I completed a 2-year research fellowship at the NIH and have been in the DMV area since. One of my greatest joys in life is being an educator and mentor for others. In medical school, I served as the Director of Education for our student-led community clinic where I organized and helped lead skills-building workshops for our volunteers. I also currently serve as the APAMSA Liaison for the American Academy of Pediatrics and help build the academy’s educational opportunities available for underrepresented trainees in healthcare. I am honored to continue this work as Pre-Health Director and create initiatives that will help our pre-health students succeed. Although I joined APAMSA later in medical school, I am excited to become more involved at the national level. Outside of my clinical rotations, you can usually find me at a concert, exploring new coffee shops, visiting my favorite museums, or enjoying new pop-up events all over DC!

Hi everyone! My name is Kelly Pu, and I am an MS2 at the Duke University School of Medicine. I am originally from Minnesota, studied biomedical engineering at Columbia University, and spent a gap year before medical school doing computational neuroscience research at Yale. My clinical and research interests are at the intersection of neurology and psychiatry.

Outside of medicine, I enjoy reading (slowly making my way through Haruki Murakami’s corpus) and running (running even slower as I train for my third marathon during medical school)!

Allan Chen is currently a 2nd year medical student at Duke University School of Medicine. He grew up in Denver, Colorado and graduated from Duke University in 2021 with a BS in Biology. Since then, he has worked as a medical assistant in orthopedic surgery and completed a Fulbright Scholarship in Mexico. In his free time, he enjoys cooking, baking, watching NFL, music festivals/concerts, and karaokeing to Taylor Swift. He hopes to pursue a career in gynecological or surgical oncology and continue his work teaching and working with Hispanic and Asian populations.

Alicia Leong is a first-generation Singaporean American and third-year medical student at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She believes authentic community engagement and interdisciplinary collaboration are essential to building and sustaining healthy, equitable, and resilient communities—an approach shaped by her work with artists, environmental scientists, faith leaders, and policymakers in Houston and New York. She hopes to continue exploring the intersections of community well-being and intergenerational, historical, and racial traumas as a future psychiatrist. In her free time, she enjoys walking and eating her way through the city, painting, and trying to befriend cats.

Hoang-Viet Tran, BS is a third-year MD/MPH student at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences. He is a first-generation Vietnamese American, born and raised in Memphis, Tennessee. He earned his BS in Biology with a minor in Asian Studies from Rhodes College. Currently, he is completing a research fellowship at the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins University, where his work focuses on demographic disparities in glaucoma quality of life.
Throughout medical school, Tran has remained involved with the Asian Pacific American Medical Student Association (APAMSA), serving as his local chapter’s Co-President and now on the National Board as one of the Hepatitis Directors. He also serves as Health Equity Lead for OCA-DC, the local chapter of a national AANHPI advocacy nonprofit. In this role, he leads a large-scale, community-based initiative focused on disaggregating AANHPI health data and addressing health disparities across the greater Washington, DC area.

Tran plans to pursue a career in ophthalmology and continue his work in health equity and public health advocacy. In his free time, he enjoys photographing everything, being a plant dad, and trying out new fitness hobbies.

Hi! My name is Sophia Choi and I am a MD/MPH student at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. I grew up in Plano, TX and graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a Neuroscience degree. I joined APAMSA during my first year of medical school and previously served on the National APAMSA Hepatitis Committee from 2024-2025. I’m passionate about community health, community engagement, and health disparities, and I’m excited to serve as a Hepatitis B/C Director this year. Outside of school, I love trying new coffee shops, baking sourdough, collecting new stationery, and traveling!

My name is Mia Park, and I am a third-year medical student at Michigan State University College of Human Medicine. I grew up in New Zealand and South Korea before moving to the United States to attend college at UCLA. For several years, I have dedicated myself toward normalizing mental health conversations and minimizing stigma, especially within the AANHPI community. Ultimately, I am interested in working to improve equity in mental health for marginalized populations.

Hello, my name Stephen Kwong, I’m currently a third year medical student at Texas A&M COM. I was born in Oakland, CA and grew up in the SF Bay Area until I went to school to get a B.S. in Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior at UC Davis. From there I took 2 gap years and worked as a scribe at an ophthalmology practice in Los Angeles before coming to Texas A&M for medical school. I was a co-president of my school’s APAMSA chapter and then became a region IX co-director before becoming the Bone Marrow Director. My hobbies include: cooking, baking, scuba diving, videogames, reading, and hiking. I hope to match into ophthalmology in this next year. I look forward to serving you as your Bone Marrow Director for another year!

Emily Uyen Thai is a rising third-year medical student at California Health Sciences University, College of Osteopathic Medicine (CHSU-COM) in Clovis, California. Originally from Vietnam, she immigrated to the U.S. at the age of 14 and later earned her B.S. in Biological Psychology from UC Davis. Her professional experience includes working as a Medical Assistant across multiple specialties, including Oncology, OB/GYN, Cardiology, and Integrative Psychiatry. She has also contributed to literary analyses on therapeutics targeting the tumor microenvironment and propelled global surgical oncology initiatives in rural hospitals in Vietnam through the HEAL non-profit organization.

As the President of CHSU-COM’s APAMSA chapter, Emily launched the first Skin Cancer Screening Event during Community Impact Week 2025. In her role as Cancer Initiative Director, she aims to lead the development of the Clinical Breast Cancer Screening Toolkit and establish standardized protocols for local APAMSA chapters to implement. Passionate about expanding cancer awareness, screening accessibility, and educational initiatives, she is dedicated to serving underserved Asian American, Pacific Islander, and Hawaiian (AAPIH) communities through impactful outreach efforts.

Elizabeth Nguyen is a rising MS3 at the University of Texas Health San Antonio Long School of Medicine. She was born and raised in Houston, Texas, and completed a BS in Biology at Emory University. She began serving APAMSA as the Community Engagement Lead for her local chapter and is now the Community Outreach Director for the National Board. She is interested in a career in ophthalmology or internal medicine. Outside of school, she enjoys playing piano, knitting, and playing tennis.