Khadija Khan

UConn School of Dental Medicine, Class of 2016

Background: Born and Raised in Pakistan & Saudi Arabia. Studied Biomedical Engineering at Yale.

Related Experience: My experiences working with underserved populations include volunteering for a Geriatrics program at Yale New Haven hospital where I performed cognitive and physical therapy exercises on patients with delirium and dementia that were admitted to the hospital. At Yale, I was on the Executive board for the Yale Public Health Coalition & Yale College Students for Children’s Health where we worked with underserved minority populations in the City of New Haven. I was part of a week-long Youth Services Opportunities Program in Washington DC where I worked with organizations that advocated for homeless people including cleaning out hoarders apartments, working at soup kitchens & at donation agencies.  I volunteered with Rebuilding New Orleans one Spring Break, where we gutted and re-painted houses for Katrina victims. I also spent a summer working with a local Rural Support NGO in Pakistan working to improve maternal & neo-natal care by setting up community organizations for social mobilization.

I hope to focus on providing oral care to underserved minorities by increasing access to dental care and looking for methods to reduce cost of care. I feel lack of access to care and lack of affordability is the biggest issue in providing adequate healthcare within the United States and abroad, so understanding key issues faced by urban underserved minorities and working with other Health Professionals will provide me with a better insight on tackling these issues