KHRC Faculty Advisors
Mary Cheffers, MD
Todd Schneberk, MD, MS, MA
Todd is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Emergency Medicine and Assistant Program Director of the LAC+USC Emergency Medicine Residency Program. He has worked clinically with displaced persons in Tijuana, Mexico, performs forensic evaluations for asylum cases with Physicians for Human Rights on both sides of the border, advises the Office of Immigrant Affairs in Los Angeles and helps run a medicolegal partnership connecting Emergency Department patients to immigration legal services. His research and advocacy interests include social determinants of health integration, immigration status as a health barrier, and leveraging the Emergency Department to address upstream factors affecting the health and stability of immigrant populations.
KHRC Medical Student Board 2023-2024
Co-Directors: Sami Haraguchi and Sarah Wang
Advocacy Chair: Niveda Balemurughan
Client Navigator Chairs: Anne-Marie Tehn-Addy and Arushi Agrawal
Events/Programming Chairs: Katie Erickson and Shrestha Vijayendra
Forensic Medical Evaluation Chairs: Cara Cavarretta, Khoa Nguyen, Julia Kuhn, and Michael Kwan
Justice-Involved Case Review Chair: Alison Ly
Research Chair: Sandhya Murugan
Sami Haraguchi, Co-Director
Sami Haraguchi is a second-year medical student who is serving as co-director of the Keck Human Rights Clinic. She graduated from UC Berkeley in 2020 with a degree in Molecular and Cell Biology and a minor in Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies. Prior to medical school, she worked as a Health Advocate at a safety-net hospital in Oakland, CA and conducted research on how COVID-19 exacerbated socioeconomic and health disparities amongst America’s most vulnerable communities. She is passionate about advocating for equitable access to quality healthcare and is excited to continue this work with KHRC. When not studying, she can be found cooking, eating, or scrolling on social media to find more things to cook and eat.
Sarah Wang, Co-Director
Sarah is excited to fulfill her role Co-Director for the Keck Human Rights Clinic and continue the previous co-directors’ legacy of vaccine education for asylum seekers. As a previous counselor for Crisis Text Line and someone who advocated to bring the hotline to her undergraduate campus, Sarah is passionate about mental health and increasing resource accessibility to those in need. Sarah graduated with a BS in Human Biology at USC and she is proud to be a continuing Trojan. Outside of school, she enjoys watching new shows, cooking, and crocheting.
Niveda Balemurughan, Advocacy Chair
Niveda is a medical student at Keck School of Medicine. She attended UCLA for undergrad, where she received a B.S. in Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology. At UCLA, she worked on neurodivergent advocacy, health and nutrition education, and was on an a cappella team. Niveda is excited to continue her advocacy and work with underserved and under-resourced populations as Advocacy Chair of KHRC.
Arushi Agrawal, Client Navigator Chair
Arushi is currently a medical student at Keck. Arushi completed her bachelor’s degree in Neuroscience at USC. During this time, she organized health fairs to provide free medical care, screenings, and educational resources for LA communities. She hopes to continue providing resources to meet the social and medical needs of individual clients in her role as Client Navigator.
Anne-Marie Tehn-Addy, Client Navigator Chair
Anne-Marie is a second-year medical student at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. She has a bachelor’s in Neuroscience and Behavior from Columbia College, Columbia University. She is a first-generation immigrant from Ghana and is actively involved in the West African communities in NYC and Long Island. She has previously worked with various immigrant community advisory boards, places of worship, and safety-net hospitals to develop culturally competent community health education. She is extremely passionate about immigrant health and currently serves as KHRC’s Client Navigator Co-Chair.
Cara Cavarretta, Forensic Medical Evaluation Chair
Prior to attending the Keck School of Medicine, Cara completed a degree in Psychobiology at the University of California, Los Angeles. While at UCLA, she developed her passion for serving vulnerable groups, including people experiencing homelessness, populations at disproportionate risk for living with HIV/AIDS, and patients struggling with substance use. As a Forensic Medical Evaluation Co-Chair, she is honored to play a role in connecting asylum seekers with physicians who can help to strengthen their case. Outside of school and service, a typical day for Cara consists of practicing yoga, caring for her house plants, and playing with her beloved cat, Caper.
Julia Kuhn, Forensic Medical Evaluation Chair
Julia is a second-year medical student at Keck and serves as one of the forensic medical evaluation chairs at KHRC. She graduated from USC in 2022 with a Bachelor of Science in Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, as well as a Master of Science in Global Medicine. She is passionate about mental health, patient advocacy, and health equity.
Khoa Nguyen, Forensic Medical Evaluation Chair
Khoa is currently a medical student at Keck School of Medicine. He graduated from Washington University in St. Louis. Prior to entering medical school, he volunteered at the Vietnamese American Community Center of the East Bay to distribute culturally appropriate meals to underserved communities in Oakland and at Clinic by the Bay to provide comprehensive health and social services to an uninsured population in San Francisco. He is excited to work as a Forensic Medical Evaluation Chair to connect clients to physicians who can provide medical and psychological evaluations to strengthen their case in the asylum seeking process. He is passionate about KHRC because his parents were war refugees that depended on services like this to build a new home in America.
Michael Kwan, Forensic Medical Evaluation Chair
Michael Kwan is currently a medical student at Keck School of Medicine of USC. He attended USC for undergrad as well, where he worked with children from underserved populations as a tutor. It has always been one of his goals, as an aspiring and future physician, to gain the skills necessary to advocate for vulnerable populations for a healthy life and well-being, as he strongly believes preventive medicine and access to healthcare are basic human rights rather than privileges. Michael is excited to work with the Keck Human Rights Clinic and to take a role in connecting asylum seekers to clinicians for medical evaluation and to support their cases.
Sandhya Murugan, Research Chair
Sandhya is a second-year medical student at USC Keck School of Medicine and is currently serving as KHRC’s Research Chair. She graduated from UCLA with a degree in Human Biology & Society and a concentration in Medicine & Public Health. Sandhya is passionate about advocating for marginalized populations and promoting health equity within the local community and on a global scale. Her research interests pertain to the impacts of healthcare disparities and social determinants of health on long-term health outcomes.
Katie Erickson, Events/Programming Chair
Katie is a second-year at Keck and serves as one of the events chairs for KHRC. She got her bachelor’s degree in Health and Human Sciences and her master’s degree in Global Medicine from USC. After graduating, she worked on aging and metabolism research. She is very passionate about patient advocacy and health equity.
Shrestha Vijayendra, Events/Programming Chair
Shrestha is currently a medical student at the Keck School of Medicine and serves as Events co-chair of KHRC. During her undergraduate student at USC, she served as vice-president of USC Interaxon, which helped teach neuroscience and other STEM topics to K-12 students in Los Angeles. This experience encouraged her to give back to the community in any way possible, now as a medical student, while also learning more about the unique refugee population that is served by KHRC.
Alison Ly, Justice-Involved Case Review Chair
Alison Ly is a second-year medical student serving as the Co-Chair for Keck Human Rights Clinic’s Justice-Involved Case Review branch. She aims to help expand the reach of KHRC’s medical case reviews to encompass any category of human rights, particularly those involved with the prison system. Prior to attending Keck School of Medicine, she researched ICE detention centers, alternatives to detention in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, and studied public health in Thailand’s refugee settings. Alison hopes to continue with research and direct work in these areas under the guiding principle that health and medical care is a human right, regardless of citizenship or income status. Alison attended community college and graduated from UCLA in 2020 with a B.S. in Human Biology and Society and a minor in Public Health.