Meet The Team

Gabrielle"Gabby" Arens
SCOPE/SCORE Director
"Being able to interview my peers who wanted to go abroad for IFMSA exchanges will always be a highlight. It was so cool to be able to hear about everyone's passion for travel, global health, and plans for their respective futures."
Fun Fact: I learned Arabic and Russian in undergrad, and studied abroad in Jordan.
"I love that IFMSA inspires collaboration and that there are so many committee’s and opportunities to make an impact in healthcare during our time in medical school!"
Fun Fact: "I’ve gone sandboarding down a volcano in Nicaragua! I can also speak 5 languages!"

Jesse Becker
SCORA Co-Director
"I like IFMSA because it helps me give back to the local community. I get to work alongside some really compassionate and dedicated people to create fun events and work with local organizations to make a change."
Fun fact: I’ve travelled to more than 20 different countries.

Anushka Kigga
SCOPE Director
"I joined the club in January 2022 and through IFMSA I’ve had so many opportunities to connect with different people of different backgrounds and perform various activities like volunteering, hosting fun events and being part of donation drives. I also love that we are able to go international exchanges to different countries to experience and be exposed to various environments, which is beneficial for future physicians."
Fun fact: I have trekked up a Himalayan peak in winter

Stephanie Staneart
SCOPE Director
"IFMSA is the one of the only clubs that offers real clinical experience to members. Sure we have fun, but at the end of our medical school years active IFMSA members also have real evidence of their passion for international medical collaboration. No other club offers actual medical student exchanges, and international research opportunities. Serving with IFMSA is directly in line with my long-term professional goals, and personal interests, and I'm delighted to be part of this organization."
Fun fact: I've moved 39 times, so "home" is a pretty flexible concept.

Calum Macpherson,
PhD, DIC, MEVPC, FRSPH, FRSB, FRSTMH
Founding director and Vice President, WINDREF
Dean of the School of Graduate Studies, and Director of Research, SGU, Faculty Advisor of IFMSA
Dr. Macpherson completed his PhD at Imperial College, London, joined the African Medical Research and Education Foundation (AMREF: The Flying Doctors) in Nairobi, Kenya, which he worked with for 10 years. In 1982, he was appointed the Head of a National Control Program on Cystic Hydatid Disease, an important zoonotic infection amongst the pastoral peoples of Eastern Africa. He then joined the Swiss Tropical Research Institute in Tanzania, and served as Director, working on malaria vaccine trials, schistosomiasis control initiatives, lymphatic filariasis, onchocerciasis, and nutrition, infection, immunity and the environment projects. He then spent a year at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and then moved to Trinidad as Professor of Veterinary Parasitology at the University of the West Indies. He joined St George’s University in 1993 as Professor of Parasitology and Director of Research in the School of Medicine. He assisted with the creation of the Schools of Veterinary Medicine and Graduate Studies. He has been an invited speaker and conducted field based research in over 70 countries. He serves on many internal and international committees. Dr. Macpherson is the Founding Director and Vice-President of the Windward Islands Research and Education Foundation, a 501 c 3 charitable trust registered in New York and the UK and an NGO in Grenada. Over the course of his career, he has supervised over 80 master’s degree and PhD students in Kenya, Tanzania, India, the UK, Nevis, Trinidad and Tobago and Grenada. In 2014 he was appointed to the Research Advisory Committee of the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) and elected as a Global Football Ambassador by the Grenada Football Association. He has served on many World Health Organization and Pan American Health Organization Advisory Committees, published over 140 peer-reviewed international journal articles and written or edited 5 books and over 30 book chapters. He has a wide diversity of research interests, but focuses on human behavior, zoonoses, vector-borne diseases, and surveillance. In 2008, he was the Founding Faculty Advisor for the IFMSA.