Meet our Team

Dr. Sophia Kogan, MD, PhD

Dr. Sophia Kogan received her MD/PhD from UMass Memorial Medical School in 2015 and completed her adult psychiatry residency at Mount Sinai Hospital in NYC in 2019. During residency, she worked with the Human Rights Program at Mount Sinai where she learned to do forensic evaluations for people seeking asylum. She returned to UMass in 2020 where she supervises trainees , provides psychiatric care to adults and serves as the Associate Medical Director for Interventional Psychiatry. She has been involved with the UHRAP as an evaluator and supervisor since 2020.

Dr Katharine Barnard, MD

Dr Katharine Barnard is a graduate of UMass Medical School and the UMass Family Medicine Residency. She has worked as a family physician in Worcester MA since graduation, primarily in care of patients from under-served or marginalized communities. Areas of clinical specialty include maternal-child health (including family medicine obstetrics), immigrant and refugee health, community health and the practice of trauma-informed care in primary care. Over the past two years she has worked as the medical director at Worcester RISE for Health, providing healthcare for new arrival families. In 2015, she trained with PHR in the provision of forensic medical exams and has been providing evaluations for asylum-seekers since. Dr Barnard is fluent in Spanish and conversant in Portuguese.

Dr Marie Hobart,MD

Dr. Marie Hobart, MD is a 1985 graduate of Yale School of Medicine. She completed Psychiatric Residency at Massachusetts General Hospital in 1989. She partially retired after 30 years at Community Healthlink, where she worked with those with significant mental illness and addiction. She continues to provide consultations, teaching and mentoring through the UMass Chan Department of Psychiatry for the Department of Family Medicine and the Family Health Center of Worcester. She trained with PHR in early 2024 and has been providing psychiatric evaluations for asylum seekers.

Kamlyn Haynes, MD Faculty Advisor

Kamlyn Haynes received her medical degree from Boston University School of Medicine in 1997 and completed her residency in Combined Adult, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at University of Massachusetts in 2002. She has been on the faculty of Umass Chan working first for a decade with adolescents in the Department of Youth Services. Since 2011 she has worked in various roles with the Department of Mental Health currently as the Director of Adolescent Psychiatry and Clinical Services for the Adolescent Continuing Care Unit at Worcester Recovery Center and Hospital.   She completed the Physicians for Human Rights Asylum Evaluation Workshop in the Spring 2020.  She has been involved with the UHRAP as an evaluator and supervisor since.  She has been the Faculty Advisor for UHRAP’s medical students since 2021.

Executive Director

Mitra Asidgha

Mitra Asdigha is a member of the Class of 2029 at UMass Chan Medical School. She is an Iranian-American, born in Worcester, Massachusetts, and raised by parents who immigrated from Iran in pursuit of freedom and a better life. She is passionate about the opportunities she is given as an American and the privilege she has to pursue medicine. She aims to use her position to help others seeking a better life turn that hope into reality. She completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Massachusetts Lowell in 2023 and has since found great fulfillment working with local free medical clinics and social service organizations, as well as working in the UMass Memorial Medical Center Cancer Clinic as a medical assistant. Mitra hopes to continue making a meaningful change within her community through the UMass Human Rights and Asylum Program and to support freedom seekers and under-recognized people in finding safety, health, and belonging in Massachusetts and beyond.

Clinic Coordinator

Prethipan Sakthivel

Prethipan is a member of the Class of 2029 at UMass Chan.

Communications and Advocacy Coordinator

Emerald Wong

Emerald is a member of the Class of 2029 at UMass Chan Medical School. Originally from San Francisco, California, she is proud to be the daughter of Burmese immigrants who came to America seeking safety and opportunity. She earned her BS in Human Biology & Society from UCLA, where her research interests were focused on promoting environmental equity for undocumented populations. Prior to medical school, she volunteered in free clinics, served as a patient advocate, and worked as a clinical research coordinator in neonatology. Emerald hopes to continue to learn from diverse populations and promote access to healthcare and equity throughout her medical education. 

Recruitment Coordinator

Isha Jha

Isha is a member of the Class of 2029 at UMass Chan.

Recruitment Coordinator

Hannah Yusuf

Hannah is a first-year medical student in the Class of 2029 at UMass Chan Medical School. Born in Saginaw, Michigan, she graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2021 with a degree in Political Science, then earned a Master of Bioethics in 2025. At Penn, she wrote a thesis on gentrification in Philadelphia and its impact on healthcare access. She also investigated how distributive justice should inform vaccine allocation. Her passion for immigrant and refugee health stems from her experience as the daughter of Nigerian immigrants. In undergrad, this passion was further fueled by working with marginalized populations through organizations like the Student Hospice Organization of Penn and the Penn Association for Gender Equity. She hopes to continue learning from asylum seekers and immigrant communities, support patient-centered models of care, and address systemic barriers to equitable health outcomes through her work with UHRAP.