Officers

2017-2018

Officers:

President | Andy Vo

Andy is a senior on the pre-medical track and is currently applying to medical school. He hopes to matriculate into an M.D./Ph.D. program with his Ph.D. being in biomedical engineering. Andy is currently working in the Regenerative Immuno-Engineering Lab under Dr. Olivares-Navarrete and will continue doing research in tissue engineering and artificial organs. He currently serves as the President of the BMES Student Chapter at VCU. In addition, he is also the President of the VA Epsilon Chapter of Tau Beta Pi.

Vice President | Joshna Seelam

seelamj@vcu.edu

Joshna is a senior on the pre-medical track. She has been involved with BMES ever since her freshman year and has served as Chair of Research for the past three years. She is currently working on a telestroke research project in Department of Neurology at VCU Health. As Vice President, Joshna hopes to increase membership in BMES and host more medical awareness events. Joshna is also co-planning VCU's 2nd annual medical hackathon, HealthHacks 2017, so if you're interested in participating or volunteering, please feel free to reach out to her.

Secretary | Melanie Blackaman

blackmanmm@vcu.edu

Melanie is a sophomore on the pre-medical track. She has previously served as the Chair of Social Activities for BMES this past year, and now aims to contribute further to the organization by taking on the role of Secretary.

Treasurer | Karun Rajesh

rajeshk@vcu.edu

Karun is a sophomore on the pre-medical track with minors in computer science, mathematics, chemistry, and biology. In addition to BMES, he is a member of the Honors College and is also working under Dr. Lemmon in his Extracellular Matrix Lab. He is from Herndon, Fairfax County in Northern Virginia. Apart from BMES, Karun is the president of the Tea and Waffles Club and is a member of the Running Club. He also dabbles in other activities such as sports and video games.

Historian | Neha Potdar

potdarn@vcu.edu

Neha is a junior on the rehabilitation engineering track. In addition to BMES, she is a member of the Honors College, VCU ASPiRE, an engineering student ambassador, and a VIP team member of the Engineering Critical Patient Care Team. Neha is very interested in going into industry and/or graduate school after graduation. She did an engineering co-op her sophomore year which made her more interested to go into industry.

Committee Chairs:

Chair of Mentorship | John Costonas

cotsonasj@vcu.edu

John is a rising senior in BME on the pre-med track. He has been a member of BMES for the past two years and served as Chair of Mentorship for the past year. Separate from BMES, John has tutored for the School of Engineering for EGRB 102, EGRB 203, MATH 200, MATH 201, and MATH 301. He has spent the past two summers working as a flight test engineer intern for NAVAIR in crew systems engineering. John is also the President of Club Baseball at VCU. His future plans are to either attend medical school or graduate school in BME. When John isn't studying , he enjoys playing baseball, reading books about medicine or the military, and playing video games. If anyone has questions about BME, BMES, working for the government, tutoring, or getting tutored, John would be happy to help.

Chair of Professional Development & Industry | Alina Arakal

arakala@vcu.edu

Alina is a junior on the rehabilitation track in addition to a minor in mathematics. She is from Fairfax, VA and has been a member of BMES since her freshman year. In addition, she has worked positions such as an undergraduate teaching assistant at VCU. After graduation, she would like to work in the industry of orthotics and prosthetics, and hopes to ultimately pursue her masters at graduate school.

Chair of Graduate & Professional Education | Diana Sinanian

sinaniandm@vcu.edu

Diana is an Honors BME sophomore from Richmond, VA on the pre-med/vet track. After finishing her undergraduate degree, she plans to attend veterinary school. Her hobbies include hiking, practicing music, traveling, skating, playing soccer, and sketching. She currently works as a veterinary assistant at a local animal hospital and a private tutor in mathematics, Spanish, and chemistry. This past summer, she attended two weeks of surgery rounds at the Hospital Virgen de la Luz in Cuenca, Spain with the Atlantis Project. In addition to BMES, she is a returning member of the Armenian American Student Association, and she participates in Queer Action, the Creativity Club, and oSTEM. She is excited to serve as the Committee Chair of Graduate & Professional Education for BMES at VCU! Please feel free to reach out to her if you have any questions

Chair of Research | Arth Shah

shahah4@vcu.edu

Arth is on the pre-med track with minors in mathematics, chemistry, and biology. He is also in the Honors College. Arth is from Reston, Fairfax County in Northern Virginia. Outside of BMES, he loves playing basketball and dabbles in other hobbies, like ping pong and tennis. He is currently doing research in the BME department, and looks forward to serve as Chair of Research for the next year.

Co-Chairs of Social Activities | Courtney Cislo

cislocn@vcu.edu

Courtney is a freshman on the pre-medical track hoping to minor in mathematics and chemistry. In addition to BMES she is a member of the Honors College, Vice President of Community Council for the Honors Residence Hall, and a VIP Team member of the Bone Marrow Transplant team. She is from Lynchburg, Virginia in Central Virginia. Apart from BMES, she participates in the VCU Peppas and is a member of For The Children. Courtney hopes to attend medical school to become a pediatrician because she loves children.

Co-Chairs of Social Activities | Madhu Sriram

sriramm@vcu.edu

Madhu Sriram is currently a freshman from Northern Virginia on the pre-med track. She enjoys art, exploring the outdoors, and architecture.

Chair of Fundraising | Katelyn Shin

shinh22@vcu.edu

Katelyn Shin is currently a senior majoring in biology and will be serving as the Chair of Fundraising. She is originally from Fairfax, VA, but considers Richmond my second home. Although she is not an engineering major, she has participated in events within the School of Engineering and is familiar with fundraising. If you have any questions or any fundraising ideas, feel free to contact her. She hopes to work well with everyone this year!

Chair of Public Relations | Aryon Shariati

shariatia@vcu.edu

Aryon is a sophomore here at VCU. He is a biomedical engineering major on the pre-med track. He hopes to pursue either interventional cardiology or cardiac surgery in the future and would love to attend medical school in his hometown of Chicago. In his limited free time, Aryon likes to do Mixed Martial Arts with the MMA club here at VCU, or go to the gym. He also enjoy playing soccer and picking up his guitar from time to time.

Other Executive Members:

BMES-IHPA Liaison | James Filson

filsonjc@vcu.edu

James Filson is a graduate of Fauquier High School in Warrenton, Virginia and is a sophomore at VCU pursuing a minor in Mechanical Engineering. James grew up in rural Virginia where his closer neighbors were cattle and horses. He is interested in Track and Field, particularly the pole vault in which he competed and placed in state level competition; however now he just tries to run when not buried in classwork. Through his position as Liaison, he hopes to broaden the scope of the BMES membership and aid in building the organization. After graduation, James intends on going into research to study Human-Machine interfacing in relation to prosthetic limbs.

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