Population Health Internships

Kithmy Wickramasinghe

Summer 2024 Rutgers Health Service Corps Leadership Intern

Kithmy Wickramasinghe is an intern for the Office of Population Health, where she is actively contributing to health communication and promotion efforts and the development of the Rutgers Health Service Corps. She is a 2024 graduate of Rutgers University–New Brunswick’s Honors College, where she earned a bachelor's degree in molecular biology and biochemistry. She previously served as president of the American Preventive Screening and Education Association (APSEA) at Rutgers, where she raised awareness for preventable chronic illnesses via holding free health screenings in the community. 

Kithmy aspires to be a physician and is a medical student at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. She is broadly interested in population health, health communications, community service, and healthcare equity.

Brithany Andrade 

Summer 2024 IFH Research Intern

Brithany Andrade is an intern for the Population Health Office and the Rutgers Health Service Corps, where she is engaging in community health initiatives, including a Breast Cancer Screening Student Patient Navigator study and other projects in New Brunswick and Newark. She is a rising senior at Rutgers University–Newark, majoring in neuroscience with minors in chemistry and social justice.

Brithany is a scholar in the Honors Living Learning Community, a Garden State LSAMP Scholar, and a BOLD Women’s Leadership Network Scholar. Aspiring to become a physician and attend medical school after her undergraduate studies, Brithany is deeply committed to population health and community service. She is also passionate about addressing language barriers in medicine and plans to work on initiatives to improve communication and healthcare accessibility for non-English-speaking patients.

Abigail Puszkin

Summer 2024 IFH Research Intern

Abigail Puszkin is an intern at the Office of Population Health, where she is helping manage the social media account for the Rutgers Health Service Corps, and other communications efforts, as well as supporting the PHOENIX High School Summer Program. She is pursuing a bachelor’s degree from American University, double majoring in public health and journalism. 

While in school, Abigail is a member of the school’s television station, ATV, and in the dance club AU in Motion. Outside of school, Abigail was one of the first staff members of Camp Soar, a summer camp in Franklin Township, New Jersey, dedicated to giving kids from under-resourced families a chance to attend day camp.

Gwen Matsukawa

Spring 2024 Intern

Gwen Matsukawa graduated from Rutgers–New Brunswick with a bachelor of science in public health, having double-minored in medical ethics and health policy as well as planning and public policy. She previously worked as a legislative intern for Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman (NJ-12), curating memoranda, batching messages from constituents, and aiding staffers in legislative work. During her internship at the Office of Population Health, she helped create educational content on colon cancer screening for various populations, such as Rutgers students, their families, and community members.

As a master of public health candidate at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, she hopes to eventually work in public health policy. Her academic interests include health equity, culture in relation to health, and the United States healthcare system.

Nathalia Gomez-Artica

Summer 2023 IFH Research Intern 

Nathalia Gomez-Artica is a 2024 graduate of Fairleigh Dickinson University, where she earned a bachelor's degree in health science. During her time at the Office of Population Health, she helped lead cancer screening efforts within the Rutgers Health Service Corps and helped translate educational content for community members to promote health literacy. Since then, she has begun her research and training as a Morehouse College Lewis Scholars Imhotep Project Scholar, where she is conducting research at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health for summer 2024

Nathalia aspires to work within the public health sector as a chronic disease epidemiologist and eventually acquire a leadership position within a cancer institute, leading research and initiatives to improve chronic disease outcomes specifically among underserved populations. She plans to pursue a master’s degree in public health with a concentration in epidemiology. Nathalia is particularly interested in chronic disease prevention, implementation science, and health equity and disparities research. 

David Prilutsky

Summer 2023 Research Intern

During his time at the Office of Population Health, 2023 summer intern David Prilutsky worked on drafting the annual report for the Integrated Population Health Data Project, a fact sheet and FAQ document for the NJ Population Health Cohort Study, and a curriculum providing an overview of the US healthcare system for college students. In addition, he contributed to the "Population Health Central" newsletter initiative. 

David is a member of the class of 2025 at Princeton University's School of Public and International Affairs. Currently, he is interning on the government affairs team at Haleon, a consumer health company known for brands like Advil, Sensodyne, Centrum, Flonase, and Tums. David aspires to be a lawyer with the goal of one day applying a legal background to healthcare.

Karolin Wadie

Summer 2023 IFH Research Intern

Karolin Wadie graduated in May 2024 with a master of public health, concentrating in epidemiology, and a certificate in pharmacoepidemiology. She currently works full-time at the Rutgers Institute for Nicotine and Tobacco Studies as a Research Teaching Specialist III, primarily focusing on projects related to substance use surveillance to improve state policies and campaigns. During her internship at the Office of Population Health, Karolin helped advance efforts to promote HPV vaccination among students at Rutgers.