2024 Annual Impact Report

Axel Adams, MD
Toxikon Consortium, Chicago, IL

Dr Axel Adams grew up in rural Wisconsin and attended the University of Wisconsin where he studied potato genetics and molecular biology. He then attended the University of California - San Francisco for medical school while doing a masters at the University of California-Berkeley School of Public Health with a focus in clinical toxicology. During this time, his research was primarily regarding new psychoactive substance surveillance and biomonitoring and mass spectrometry method development. He completed emergency medicine residency at the University of Washington, and is currently a first year fellow at the Toxikon Consortium in Chicago. His interests include drug discovery from natural products, mass spectrometry, occupational toxicology of the semiconductor industry, bioremediation, botany, and lichenology.

Trevor Cerbini, MD
Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, Newark, NJ

Dr. Trevor Cerbini completed his Emergency Medicine residency at Kings County Hospital center and University Hospital Brooklyn. He attended medical school at SUNY Downstate College of Medicine. His first exposure to toxicology was a medical toxicology elective as an MS4. His interests include adverse drug reactions and patient safety, tox history, and addiction medicine. Mithridates VI is his personal hero. In his spare time Trevor enjoys watching movies, entertaining his 2-year-old, playing with his dog, and trying to get his cat to stop hissing at him when he is disrobed.

Mayank Gupta, MD
Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA

Dr. Mayank Gupta completed his bachelor's degree in industrial operations engineering at University of Michigan and went on to medical school at Michigan State University College of Human Medicine. He completed his emergency medicine residency at Beaumont Hospital - Royal Oak and is currently in the medical toxicology fellowship at Emory University. He has worked on various process improvement projects and is interested in further developing his operations management skills during the Medical Toxicology in Industry program. His interests include process improvement, medical education, patient safety, and addiction medicine.

Mohamed Jefri, MD
Cambridge Health Alliance, Boston, MA

Dr. Mohamed Jefri was born in State College, Pennsylvania, and raised in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. He decided to travel for college and while completing a Bachelor’s degree in Neuroscience and Physiology at Flinders University in South Australia, he enjoyed working in the lab and got his first test of research. After graduating, he returned to his home country and completed medical school at King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences. He then spent a year at Kennedy Krieger Institute working on research after which he was accepted in residency at Central Michigan University. He was interested in Medical Toxicology during residency and was accepted at Rutgers NJMS where he completed his fellowship. Dr. Jefri’s interests included research, pharmaceutical R&D, medical affairs and clinical research.

Miya Smith, MD
UT Southwestern Medical School, Dallas, TX

Dr. Miya Smith was born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri. She attended undergrad at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, where she majored in Russian as well as Cognitive Disorders and Human Behavior. She remained in Nashville to attend medical school at Meharry Medical College. She completed Emergency Medicine residency at the University of Chicago, where she was also a chief resident. It was in residency, through her work with interpersonal violence and human trafficking, that she discovered an interest in Toxicology as an important part of forensic medicine. She further explored her interest in Toxicology and is currently in fellowship at UT Southwestern in Dallas, Texas. Her interests include forensic toxicology, addiction medicine, and unconventional applications of and non-clinical pathways in toxicology.

Al Yaqdhan Al Atbi, MD
Emory University, Atlanta, GA

Al Yaqdhan Al Atbi, MD is an experienced emergency medicine physician who has been serving at the Royal Oman Police Hospital since 2014. He earned his Emergency Medicine Board from the Oman Medical Specialty Board in 2020. Currently, Dr. Al Atbi is a medical toxicology fellow at Emory University in the United States (2023-2025).

Duaa Al Lawati, MD
Emory University, Atlanta, GA

Duaa Al Lawati, MD was born and raised in Muscat, Sultanate of Oman. She completed her basic science and medical degree at Arabian Gulf University in the Kingdom of Bahrain and is board-certified in emergency medicine by the Oman Medical Specialty Board. Currently, Dr. Al Lawati is working in one of the busiest tertiary care hospitals in Oman and pursuing a medical toxicology fellowship at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. She is also working on projects focused on enhancing operations at the Oman Poison Center. Her professional interests lie more in occupational and environmental toxicology.

Kayla Kendric, MD
University of California, San Francisco

Kayla Kendric, MD, a San Diego native, began her academic journey with a focus on biology and chemistry at Point Loma Nazarene University. She pursued her medical degree at Creighton University, studying across both Omaha and Phoenix campuses, before returning to California for her emergency medicine residency at Loma Linda University. Following her residency, Dr. Kendric worked as an attending emergency medicine physician in various community hospitals in the Bay Area for three years. During this time, her interest in medical toxicology grew, inspiring her to pursue a medical toxicology fellowship position which she now holds at the University of California, San Francisco. Her professional interests span drug development and safety, forensic toxicology, and addiction medicine.

Kim-Long Nguyen, MD, MBA
Washington University School of Medicine, Saint Louis, MO

Kim-Long Nguyen, MD was born in California but grew up in a suburb of Dallas, Texas. He had attended the University of Texas at Austin for his undergraduate studies majoring in both biochemistry and chemistry. He attended the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center School of Medicine for his medical education, during which he had obtained an additional masters of business administration at the Rawls College of Business. He finally made it out of Texas and completed his emergency medicine residency training at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis prior to starting Toxicology fellowship at Washington University. Outside of work, he enjoys food experiences and breweries and the occasional surprised look when someone witnesses the volume of food he regularly eats in a sitting (even he doesn’t know where it all goes).

Cassondra Paletta, MD
Schulich School of Medicine, Western University, Ontario, Canada

Cassondra Paletta MD, was born in Hamilton Ontario Canada. She obtained a bachelors in science from Texas A&M University- Commerce where she majored in biology, followed by medical school at Saba University School of Medicine. She moved to Providence RI and completed her residency in internal medicine at a Boston University affiliated program at Roger Williams Medical Center. Following her training in the US, she moved back to her home country of Canada to pursue fellowship in clinical pharmacology and toxicology at the Schulich School of Medicine at Western University in London Ontario, Canada. She is currently a second year fellow in the program. Her toxicology interests include drug-drug interactions, complex therapeutic regimens, drug R&D and pharmacogenomics. Outside of medicine, Dr. Paletta’s hobbies include fitness, running, hiking and skiing.

Fermin Suarez, MD
Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Safety, Denver, CO

Fermin Suarez, MD was born in Chicago but grew up in West Valley City, about 30 minutes away from Salt Lake City. He attended the University of Utah where he majored in biology and minored in chemistry, followed by medical school at Temple University in Philadelphia. After graduating from Temple, he completed his emergency medicine residency at Denver Health. He was able to stay in Denver after completing residency where he is currently a second-year medical toxicology fellow at the Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Safety Center. Current toxicology interests include performance enhancing drugs, drug testing for athletics, drug research and development and post marketing surveillance. Outside of medicine, Dr. Suarez enjoy spending time with his wife, daughter and dog, board games, video games, soccer, weightlifting, and stereotypical Colorado activities like skiing, snowboarding, and downhill mountain biking.

David Toomey, MD
University of Rochester, Rochester, NY

David Toomey, MD was born and raised in the greater Boston area, and completed his Bachelors of Science in Molecular Genetics at the University of Rochester in Western NY. He returned to Massachusetts for medical school at University of Massachusetts, and completed residency through the Harvard Affiliated Emergency Medicine Residency Program at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. David previously worked as Emergency Medicine faculty at the University of Rochester, and is currently the inaugural fellow in Medical Toxicology at the same institution. His interests include safety in drug development, advanced resuscitation for severely poisoned patients, and fungal horticulture.

Josue Zozaya, MD
University of Texas Southwestern, Dallas, TX

Dr. Josue (Josh) Zozaya was born in Brownsville, at the southern tip of Texas. He completed his bachelor’s degree in biological sciences at the University of California Riverside. He had post graduate training at the Keck Graduate Institute, where he focused on drug discovery and development on biological toxins including those responsible for causing anthrax and botulism. He then returned to the University of California Riverside where he attended medical school. He completed residency training in Emergency Medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern, where he currently works as a Toxicology fellow. His first exposure to toxicology was out in the ranchos of Mexico where he grew up studying, as well as getting stung by, venomous creatures. Dr. Zozaya’s interests in toxicology include animal/plant toxins, pharmacogenomics, cardiac toxins, and forensic toxicology.