Global Women's Health Faculty

Dr. Lindsey Zamora’s interest in global health and cultural studies started before she entered the field of medicine. She completed her undergraduate degree in Anthropology at the University of Florida and during this time, she studied abroad in Tanzania and Brazil.  She then completed medical school at the University of Florida and went on to residency training at the University of Florida and Baylor College of Medicine. During medical school, she led an ongoing mission trip to the Dominican Republic providing care for rural areas of the country. In residency, she had the opportunity to rotate in Zambia working with midwives leading safe delivery training workshops. 

After residency, Dr. Zamora completed a fellowship in Global Women’s Health through University Hospitals/Case Medical Center in partnership with University of Guyana and Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation. During this time, she helped establish the first Ob-Gyn training program in the country. The program was developed with the goals of training local specialists and leaders in Ob-Gyn in the country of Guyana to reduce the country’s maternal mortality rate.  Dr. Zamora lived in Guyana for two years during her fellowship and helped to graduate the country’s first specialists in Ob-Gyn. After her fellowship’s completion, she then continued her work from the United States as an Assistant Residency Program Director for the program.  During this time, Dr. Zamora earned her Master of Public Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Dr. Zamora’s specific global health interests are maternal mortality reduction, global health education, capacity building in low and middle income countries, and care for immigrant and refugee populations.

Dr. Robinson was born and raised in New Orleans, LA and did her undergraduate studies at the University of Virginia. After college, the goal of becoming bilingual pulled her to Argentina where she was an ESL teacher for a year. Ultimately, she decided to return to the US to pursue a degree in medicine. Throughout medical school at LSUHSC and residency at VUMC, Dr. Robinson has been interested in underserved populations and immigrant communities. Growing up with a mother who immigrated from Colombia at the age of 10, she is specifically passionate about the Latino community and the hardships they, and other immigrants, face when relocating to an unknown country with language barriers. 

Dr. Robinson has traveled to the Andes mountains of Peru on multiple trips and led a group of medical students to India to care for Tibetan refugees.  More recently, she has travels to Kenya as part of the longstanding relationship VUMC has with Kijabe Hospital.  Dr. Robinson hopes to form partnerships worldwide as an OBGYN to make a sustainable, appropriate impact where care is needed, and take those lessons home and apply them to her local community. 

Dr. AJ Mata’s interest in global health and equity began while obtaining her undergraduate degree in Anthropology and Biology at The Ohio State University. This led her to put her plans for medical school on hold to join the United States Peace Corps, where she served in Antaretra, Madagascar as a Community Health Volunteer. She then transitioned to a position in Madagascar’s capital, Antananarivo, as the Malaria Technical Officer for USAID|Deliver Project through the U.S. Peace Corps Response program. There, she worked on the supply chain management of antimalarial commodities, including a national long-lasting insecticide-treated net (LLIN) distribution campaign. 

After 3.5 years in Madagascar, she returned stateside and completed a dual MD/MPH program at the University of Miami, during which she focused her attention on serving some of the diverse communities of south Florida. OBGYN Residency at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) brought her the first opportunity to work clinically in Kenya while she completed a 1-month elective at Kijabe Mission Hospital. She then moved abroad again for a fellowship in Global Women’s Health and Equity at the University of Toronto. She spent the first year in Toronto, where she provided care for Ontario’s diverse populations, with services primarily focused on First Nation, refugee, immigrant, and persons who use substances. Her second year brought her back to Kenya, where she served as the AMPATH (Academic Model Providing Access to Healthcare) Reproductive Health Team Lead at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH). Now that she has returned to VUMC as Global Women’s Health Faculty, she plans to continue partnerships with Kijabe Mission Hospital and MTRH with a focus on medical education and capacity building for minimal access surgery.

Dr. New grew up in Canada and emigrated to the US for college.  She attended college and medical school in Philadelphia then moved to Cincinnati, Ohio for residency training.  Following a brief time in private practice, Dr. New embarked on a career in academic medicine with a focus on medical education.   Dr. New held faculty positions at the University of Texas (2000-2003) and the University of Pennsylvania (2003-2005) before coming to Vanderbilt.  Shortly after joining the department, she began to work with Graduate Medical Education to help establish global health electives for residents interested in pursuing this opportunity. 

Dr. News experience in Global Health came primarily from annual medical mission trips to Bahon, Haiti with her local church community.  She also made a trip to Guyana to serve as an education consultant as their physicians began to develop an in-country residency training program. Her interest then shifted to seeking out community sites for service and also as a place where residents and fellows could learn to care for women in medically underserved communities.  In addition to providing compassionate, culturally appropriate care, our trainees learn about how community sites are funded and the importance of local politics and policies to supporting these sites.