Who We Are

Leadership and Staff

C. Nicholas Cuneo, MD, MPH

Co-Founder and Medical Director

Dr. C. Nicholas (Nick) Cuneo is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine with a joint appointment at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, where he is affiliated with the Center for Public Health and Human Rights and the Center for Humanitarian Health. In addition to his work as the co-founding Medical Director of the HEAL Collaborative, Dr. Cuneo works as an academic hospitalist for children and adults at Johns Hopkins Hospital and provides full-spectrum pediatric care at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center. He currently serves as co-lead of the national Asylum Medicine Training Initiative.

Dr. Cuneo has extensive global health research and program management experience, particularly in Haiti, where he was a Harvard Medical School Doris Duke International Clinical Research Fellow, and South Africa, where he was a Fulbright Research Fellow in Public Health.

Dr. Cuneo is a graduate of the Harvard Brigham & Women’s Hospital/Boston Children’s Hospital Medicine-Pediatric Residency and served as chief resident for the Doris and Howard Hiatt Residency in Global Health Equity at Brigham & Women’s Hospital. He earned his B.S. in biology and anthropology at Duke University, his M.D. at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and his M.P.H. in clinical effectiveness at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Nouf Bazaz, PhD

Co-Founder and Mental Health Director

Dr. Nouf Bazaz is a Clinical Assistant Professor at Loyola University Maryland and HEAL’s co-founder and Mental Health Director.

Her clinical work, research, training and consulting focuses on trauma, torture, grief, and loss with survivors of war, violence, and persecution, as well as on culturally responsive care for Muslim youth and families. Dr. Bazaz was the program director of a mental health agency in Maryland serving refugees and immigrants from the Middle East, South Asia and North/East/West Africa, a program which she built from the ground up. She has developed integrative community mental health programs in schools and communities around the state. In her clinical and broader psycho-social work, Dr. Bazaz has served diverse refugees, queer and trans asylum seekers, BIPOC youth, incarcerated males, survivors of sexual trafficking, indigenous women and more. At Loyola she served as an Equity and Inclusion Faculty Fellow from 2020 - 2021.

Dr. Bazaz holds a Ph.D. in Counseling from George Washington University, an M.A. in Trauma and Violence Transdisciplinary Studies from New York University. She has been shaped by her work as an artist, arts-activist and former work as a doula. Dr. Bazaz is from Kashmir and raised in New York, but has lived and worked in the DC/Maryland area for 15 years.

Nicole Warren, PhD, MPH, CNM

Associate Director for Women’s Health

Dr. Nicole Warren is an Associate Professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing (JHSON), where she combines research, clinical practice, and teaching in reproductive health. Her work is guided by a commitment to Respectful Maternity Care and eliminating mistreatment of childbearing persons. She is an international expert in supporting women affected by female genital mutilation/cutting who brings decades of experience in reproductive health to the HEAL leadership team. Nicole oversees HEAL’s gynecological forensic evaluations, and ensure HEAL is enacting best practices in gynecological care to survivors of torture and trauma. Dr. Warren is an award-winning teacher with specialized training in service-learning pedagogy and has collaborated with the World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control, and the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Women’s Health. Dr. Warren holds a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Chicago, an M.P.H. from Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, and is a Certified Nurse-Midwife (CNM).

Maisoon Ateem, MAS

Program Manager

Maisoon has over 10 years of experience working in the field of public and global health. She graduated from Johns Hopkins Master of Applied Science (MAS) in Global Health Planning and Management and studied as an undergraduate in Sudan. Upon her graduation with a BA in Medical Science from Sudan University of Science and Technology, she worked for the United Nations–African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) among other UN agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Sudan and the USA. Her focus was conflict-affected populations in particular women and Internally Displaced People (IDPs) with special attention on survivors of sexual violence and people living with HIV/AIDs. She has been involved in all stages of emergency and reproductive health design and implementation and dedicates her career to bridging access to quality healthcare at the community and individual levels. A strong advocate for education, Maisoon works to integrate various aspects of her practical and personal experience into helping to make the world a better place for all.

Amelita Woodruff, MD

Associate Medical Director

Dr. Amelita Woodruff is a licensed and Family Medicine board certified physician trained in the United States. She completed medical school in 2017 at the Medical College of Georgia Augusta University, and completed residency and fellowship training at the Mayo Clinic. Dr. Woodruff has extensive experience in the evaluation of asylum seekers and leads a curriculum on trauma informed care for resident physicians in the Department of Medicine at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Dr. Woodruff is currently the Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion within the Division of Hospital Medicine at Johns Hopkins.

Emilie Folsom, MPH

Program Manager

Emilie coordinates HEAL’s forensic evaluation clinic, supports our organizational partnerships, and leads communications. In this role, she also serves as the Program Manager for the Asylum Medicine Training Initiative. Emilie is a public health professional with specialization in refugee health and humanitarian crisis settings. She has served as a program manager and project coordinator in supporting recently resettled refugees and asylum-seeking families along the U.S.-Mexico border. Emilie is originally from San Diego, California and received her M.P.H. from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Program Fellows

Lyllian Le

Grants, Monitoring & Evaluation Fellow
Olivia Febles Simeon

Community Health Worker
Manya Balachander

Research Coordinator

Student Leaders

Jeong Jun “JJ” Kim

Forensic Evaluation Clinic Student Lead
Forensic Evaluation Clinic
Marcelina Kubica

Client Outreach Student Lead
Forensic Evaluation Clinic
Carolina Duque

Interpretation Student Lead
Forensic Evaluation Clinic
Valeria Hernandez Munoz

RHP Student Co Lead
Transportation Coordinator, Forensic Evaluation Clinic
Jacob Blum

Continuing Education Student Lead
Forensic Evaluation Clinic
Adalis Rojas

Program Implementation & Compliance Assistant
Howard Li

RHP/AWE Health Navigation Practicum Co-Lead
Evelien van Gelderen

RHP Student Co Lead
Andrew Ly

MPH Practicum Student
Ashley Tetens

RHP/AWE Health Navigation Practicum Co-Lead
Melanie Alfonso Horowitz

RHP/AWE Health Navigation Practicum Co-Lead
Yunah Han

Women's Health Research Assistant