Residency Program — Resident Profiles
Learn more about our current residents and their remarkable work in the Public Health/Preventive Medicine Residency Program by reading their profiles below.
You can also check out the most recent edition of our Residency Program Newsletter (PDF) for more information about the physicians who are working to prevent disease and promote health in the city.
Charles Smith (Second year)
Dr. Charles Smith joined after completing medical school and a transitional-year program at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. He is a U.S. Army veteran, where he worked as combat medical specialist for several years. Additionally, he taught STEM classes at the elementary school level. He has an interest in community and environmental health, child and maternal health, and lifestyle medicine. Dr. Smith has been involved in several projects working with different programs throughout the agency. Those projects include long COVID data task force, an asthma protocol revision project with the Harlem Action Center, and Sickle Cell Disease Health Advisory Notifications, all while doing his clinical rotation at the Lincoln Hospital Tobacco Treatment Clinic.
Madhury (Didi) Ray (First year)
Madhury (Didi) Ray, MD, MPH, CEM is an innovator in disaster management working at the intersection of medicine, data, health equity, and public health at the New York City Health Department. As the inaugural Paul Farmer Resident in Anti-Racism and Preventive Medicine, Dr. Ray hopes to focus her work on climate change's impact on human health. Her previous projects integrate diverse disciplines, from inventing a novel, participatory method to define disaster risk to standing up NYC's first COVID-19 mass vaccination sites to designing NYC's first hyperlocal emergency response. Her interdisciplinary approach began when she graduated as a triple major in Russian, Mathematics, and Pre-medicine from the Pennsylvania State University. She then earned a medical degree from Drexel University and a Master’s in Public Health from the Harvard T.H. Chan School with a specialization in Global Health and a concentration in Humanitarian Studies. Dr. Ray is also a Certified Emergency Manager. Dr. Ray counts her time as a Fulbright Scholar in Ukraine during the Orange Revolution as one of her most formative experiences. She is currently a Visiting Scientist at Yale University and a Distinguished Fellow of the International Center for Conflict Resolution (IC4CR). In 2021, Dr. Ray was named a 40 Under 40 Rising Leader in Public Health by the de Beaumont Foundation.
Kimberly Murdaugh (First year)
Dr. Kimberly Murdaugh joined the PH/PMR program after completing an Internal Medicine preliminary year at Mount Sinai Beth Israel. After completing medical school at Yale School of Medicine, Dr. Murdaugh earned a Master of Science degree from the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. She is a physician-scientist and filmmaker with a longstanding interest in community health and preventive medicine. Drawing from an education in chemistry and engineering, as well as clinical training in radiology, she has developed new medical devices, imaging methods, and health screening resources for preventive and diagnostic care in vulnerable patient populations. She is passionate about health equity, palliative care, and maternal, infant, and reproductive health.
Michael Kwakye (First year)
Dr. Michael Kwakye joined the PH/PMR program after completing his intern year at Rush Medical University Hospital and working in clinical practice over the last six years. He completed his medical school education at SUNY Upstate Medical University. Dr. Kwakye is passionate about providing holistic and practical evidence-based care to members of underserved communities in NYC in various medical settings. He has provided medical care and education to homeless populations, chronically ill and bed-bound patients in homecare, elderly patients in inpatient medicine, and has worked in outpatient care with patients primarily of low socioeconomic status and with poor access to healthcare resources. He aims to provide lifestyle implementation practices to his patients to help them address the root of disease and prevent medical conditions from arising. He is a proponent of physical activity and a plant-forward diet and believes health education plays a major role in helping people improve their health span and lifespan. He has recently written a book recently related to his passions to make health education accessible. He is excited and eager to be a part of the NYC Health Department and to learn the tools necessary to excel in the field of preventive mediciine.