Education Outreach – United to Serve

David Tassin – Education Outreach Coordinator david [dot] tassin [at] utsouthwestern [dot] edu

David is a second-year medical student who still doesn’t quite know what he wants to do after graduating. Mostly, he is taking his classes one step at a time and will probably decide what kind of doctor he wants to be at the very last minute.
This year, David is the chairman of the Education Outreach Committee, and he is looking forward to spending lots of time at TJ Rusk. He loves working with middle schoolers and hopes he can teach them about health, nutrition, and other science topics.
Before coming to UTSW, David graduated from Boston University with a degree in Neuroscience and studied drug addiction in a BU research lab–and by “studied,” he really means he played with rats for a living.

Divya Chhabra – Education Outreach Coordinator divya [dot] chhabra [at] utsouthwestern [dot] edu

Divya was born in Los Angeles and moved to Texas when she was 8, but she is a California girl at heart. She went to college at Northwestern University on the outskirts of Chicago and has become an avid Bears fan. In college she studied psychology and public health. During junior year she studied abroad in Paris, where she learned a lot about government health systems, NGOs, and public health issues, and was able to do a research project at the World Health Organization. It was then that she realized she wanted to pursue public health. That summer, she taught English in Mauritius, and realized that she loved being around kids. After graduating, Divya taught 5th grade at an elementary school on the south side of Chicago. During her time at Betsy Ross Elementary, she was shocked by the health disparities that plagued the community she taught in. Upon coming to Southwestern, Divya hopes to pursue a career (maybe psychiatry) that will allow her to give underserved urban populations like that she taught in more equal access to quality health care and also enable her to implement programs to educate these communities on public health issues.

On a less serious note, Divya loves to dance and was the stunter for a Bollywood dance team in college. You can also find her eating chocolate, watching Friends (it never gets old), or shopping. She loves the color yellow, sleeping in, Christmas time, sunflowers, traveling, looking at pictures of cute baby animals, Disney classics, and big cities. Some of her favorite bands are Passion Pit, Coldplay, and Bon Iver. Her family now lives in Australia, so she has had some quality time with koalas and kangaroos. She is very excited to be on the United To Serve team this year!

Heather Fahey – Classroom Presentations heather [dot] fahey [at] utsouthwestern [dot] edu

My name is Heather Fahey and I was born and raised in Newark, Delaware. Typically people have trouble picturing where Delaware, so when asked, I say I am from Philadelphia. I am an avid Philly sports fan and have been struggling to cope with the amount of Cowboys fans here at UTSW. I still prefer cheesesteak to barbeque, but I have been coming around to it. I went to University of Maryland for undergrad where I studied microbiology. My junior year, I went abroad to Lesotho (that random little country landlocked in South Africa). While there, I did social research on the globalization of body image disorders specifically in adolescent girls. I loved my experience working with that age group, and decided I wanted be a teacher. After graduating from Maryland, I did Teach for America in Houston. I taught eighth grade for one year, and then moved down to sixth grade. If you every need a laugh, ask me to tell you some stories about my kiddos because I’ve got some good ones! After coming to medical school, I still wanted to work with kids and remain involved with education so United to Serve was a perfect fit.

Additional random information: I love baking and cooking. I am a pumpkin enthusiast. Cheese makes everything better. Meat > Veggies (though veggies are good too). I love Zumba and Body Pump classes at 24 hour fitness. Gossip Girl is my TV guilty pleasure (don’t judge). Chuck Palahniuk is my favorite author, even though his books are really twisted and messed up. I honestly don’t think I’ve ever made it through a whole movie without falling asleep (unless it has Brad Pitt in it). Fall is my favorite season, and consequently Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. Volunteering is the best way to connect with your community, and it’s fun. I can’t wait to see everybody out at TJ Rusk!