Madison Jones

Madison is a fourth-year medical student at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School. Originally from Wayland, Massachusetts, she earned her undergraduate degree in Biology from Columbia University. After graduating, she joined Teach for America, where she taught high school math and science in Hawaii. There, she developed a passion for working with diverse populations and saw firsthand the health inequities that exist across historically under-resourced and underserved populations and the impact these had on her students on a daily basis. Madison subsequently earned a Master of Science in Education from Johns Hopkins University School of Education prior to matriculating into medical school. Her desire to continue to work with diverse populations and address healthy equity led her to the Global Health Pathway at UMass Chan. She is passionate about the intersection of education and medicine and believes that great physicians must also be educators. As a result, she holds many active leadership and mentoring roles including Peer Mentor, BaccMD Mentor, House Cup Chair of the Learning Communities, and Choosing Wisely Student Trainee Advocating for Recourse Stewardship. She is applying to Internal Medicine residencies and hopes to pursue her interests in a primary care role where she can continue to serve a diverse population of patients while leveraging her educational background. Outside of medical school, Madison enjoys being outdoors as often as the New England weather allows, reading (with a recent affinity for female comedians' memoirs), and spending time with her two nephews. 

What does the Kean Fellowship mean to you?
It is an honor to be a recipient of the Kean Fellowship. This fellowship means I have the opportunity to return to Kenya continue a project I began working on as a first-year medical student with more resources and a new network of likeminded peers and mentors. Further, during my previous time spent in Kenya, I developed a deep connection to the country and the members of the community with whom I was fortunate enough to work and interact. I am thrilled by the opportunity to return to continue to learn more about the vibrant culture and to continue my research.

What do you anticipate learning?
My Kean project in Kenya is centered around pinpointing examples of vaccine misinformation and understanding how that impacts individuals health-seeking behaviors and their future decisions to vaccinate their children. We are especially interested in attitudes towards diseases common in Kenya, including malaria and measles. Through this fellowship, I anticipate furthering my knowledge of vaccine misinformation to better understand how it can be addressed and combatted. 

What interests you about tropical medicine and what problems are you interested in solving?
Tropical medicine interests me because there is space for growth and creativity as we work in diverse communities and countries with a different set of tools and resources to combat public health concerns and diseases that either don’t exist or have been eradicated elsewhere. This makes space for novel approaches and unique research opportunities in an attempt to address the health inequities plaguing regions including the way the individuals in Kisumu, Kenya are affected by Malaria. I feel drawn to this space because I know by engaging in research and learning to address complex issues in places like Kenya, I will be working to develop skills transferrable to my future practice as an internal medicine physician. The skills I develop working in global health and tropical medicine will be applicable to my future career in medicine; I will be better equipped with a broad understanding of diverse health challenges and effective treatment strategies with an enhanced ability to address complex patient needs in diverse settings.