Summer 2020 Intern Cohort Brings Multiplicity of Skills to Liftoff PGH

The 2020 JHF Summer Interns (L to R): Kaitlin Roderick, Rongjia Li, Natalie Pyle, Khulood al Ali, Feiyan Zhang, and Ashley Liang.

The Jewish Healthcare Foundation (JHF)'s summer 2020 intern class drums to a different beat. Every year since the program started, JHF has hosted a strong cohort of students interested in healthcare innovation and public health. Due to COVID-19, JHF is piloting a remote internship this year. In the spirit of Liftoff PGH, the team will leverage innovative technologies to enable interns to collaborate with one another, despite the physical distance.

Six interns will join the Liftoff PGH team, working on anything from research and marketing to partnership building, design, and community engagement. This year's interns come from a diverse range of academic backgrounds, and each bring a unique set of skills. 

Originally from Saudi Arabia, Khulood al Ali is a second-year master's student at Carnegie Mellon, with a dual degree in Biomedical Engineering and Engineering & Technology Innovation Management. Khulood spent the summer of 2019 in Rwanda focusing on healthcare technology repairs in low-resource settings. Natalie Pyle is completing her BS in Industrial Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh with a certificate in Supply Chain Management. In the past, Natalie has worked with industrial engineering consulting firms to help provide optimal store-specific solutions to retailers.

Rongjia Li is a back-end developer from Shanghai completing his master's degree at CMU's Entertainment Technology Center (ETC). Rongjia spent last semester building a mobile app for Liftoff PGH 2020 with Ashley Liang, a multidisciplinary designer and developer. Liang recently obtained her master's from CMU's ETC, and her interests lie at the intersection of art and technology. Feiyan Zhang, a CMU ETC master's candidate, has worked with Allegheny Health Network's patient experience team to build empathetic care in VR. Another CMU student, Kaitlin Roderick is pursuing a Master of Health Care Policy and Management degree. Kaitlin is currently president of the Heinz Health Care Club and a Global Links volunteer.