julia toman, MD MPH FACS
Dr. Julia Toman is a founding member of Kismet: Empowering Health Access. She completed her undergraduate training at St. Mary's College of Maryland and her medical degree at the University of Maryland. She is completing her Otolaryngology training at Yale University and is going on to complete a year of extra training in Facial Plastic Surgery. Global Health has been a central part of her career development.
She first traveled to South Africa in November 2015, paving the way for the Yale Resident Exchange which she subsequently developed. Armed with a broader vision of the potential of global health, she and her partners, Dr. Porterfield and Dr. Barnes, launched Kismet in 2017 to be a broader umbrella for developing education and research and establishing relationships to better serve the global community.
J. Zachary porterfield, MD, PHd
Dr. Porterfield is senior research fellow in Infectious Diseases and a Clinical Instructor in the Department of Internal Medicine at Yale University with research interests in HIV and a keen desire to build research capacity within the global health sphere. He will be continuing in his career as a Global Health Equities Scholar in Durban, South Africa.
He completed his undergraduate degree, MD and PhD at the University of Oklahoma and University of Oklahoma Health Sciences. He has a 17-year history of work and study in South Africa, speaks several South African languages, and worked to spearhead the collaboration between Yale University and the University of KwaZulu-Natal, where he holds a faculty appointment as an Honorary Senior Lecturer. This partnership focuses on capacity building and the mutual exchange of ideas and training through educational, research, and clinical initiatives with an aim to address health disparities.
melynda barnes, MD
Dr. Melynda Barnes is a founding member of Kismet: Empowering Health Access.
Dr. Barnes graduated with distinction from Stanford University with a BAS in Biological Sciences and Spanish Literature. She earned her medical degree from The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, where she was a Doris Duke Clinical Research Fellow. She then completed her Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery training at Stanford University Hospital and Clinics, and her Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery training at Oregon Health and Science University. Since completing her training, she has worked in academics, at the Yale University School of Medicine, in New Haven, CT, and in private practice, at ENT and Allergy Associates, LLP, in New York, NY.
Global Health has been an integral part of Dr. Barnes' career. Dr. Barnes participated in several humanitarian trips to Guatemala and Peru, before focusing on South Africa. She first traveled to South Africa in November 2015 as the Yale Faculty Advisor for the inaugural Yale Resident Exchange. Together with her partners, Drs. Porterfield and Toman, Dr. Barnes cofounded Kismet in 2017 to facilitate bilateral exchange of research, education and medical care between physicians in the United States and the broader global community.