Alumni Profiles

After four years leading Medicaid expansion and other key health initiatives as Louisiana’s secretary of health, Dr. Rebekah Gee (M.D. ’02) was appalled by trends showing “moms and kids were getting unhealthier and unhealthier every year” — often because they couldn’t access primary care.

The realization planted the seed for Nest Health, the 68-employee primary care company Dr. Gee launched in 2022. Now serving about 30,000 families across Louisiana and Arizona covered by Medicaid, Nest aims to improve medical, social and behavioral health trajectories of underserved families with children by combining in-home clinician visits with 24/7 virtual care access. It’s the first such clinical model of its kind, says Dr. Gee, who was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2017 and is also the recipient of a 2025 Special Achievement Award from the Weill Cornell Medical College Alumni Association.

“We’re not a one-and-done solution once we enroll a family,” she says, noting that the model is designed to address barriers to healthcare access such as transportation difficulties and patient distrust that discourages some from seeking care. “We’re there to assist them until the children are out of the nest.”

Leaping from the public to private sector has brought challenges, but also freedom from political volatility and funding instability. Already turning a profit, Nest is proof that public health can succeed within a business framework, Dr. Gee says, and she aspires to launch Nest in all 50 states in order to serve even more women and children.

“There is no partisan debate over whether we ought to have healthy moms and kids in America,” she says. “It’s a nice space to navigate in.”

Dr. Gee can’t wait to return to campus in the fall to accept her Special Achievement Award at Reunion — and hopes to spread some gratitude in the process.

“Weill Cornell was way ahead of its time” by training budding physicians to view care through a health equity lens, she says. “It will be a joy to reconnect with some of the people who taught me and supported my career.”

— Maureen Salamon

Dr. Jim Castellanos (M.D., ’20 Ph.D. ’20) returned from his service as a U.S. Marine in Iraq determined never to carry a weapon again and to devote his life to healing people.

He knew this could be a tough road. He was an indifferent student in high school and was the first in his immigrant family to make it out of grammar school. Dr. Castellanos persevered, graduated from college and set his sights on Weill Cornell Medical College, where he entered the Tri-Institutional (Tri-I) M.D.-Ph.D. Program.

“I always wanted to give back. That’s why I decided to become a physician,” says Dr. Castellanos, an assistant professor of anesthesiology at Weill Cornell Medicine, whose research focuses on using genetic tools to improve skin healing in burn patients through precision therapies.

“The skin is the largest organ of the body, and your first barrier of immunity,” adds Dr. Castellanos. “Yet we still don’t understand how skin heals after wounds, let alone how to harness its regenerative power. There’s still a lot to be discovered.”

Dr. Castellanos began considering medicine after witnessing a horrific attack on his military base. Enemy rockets injured several of his friends, killing one. The experience shattered him, and he started thinking about other ways to serve.

A writer in his spare time, Dr. Castellanos chose the Tri-I program because research appealed to his creative instincts, while clinical work satisfied his need to help patients directly. He loved that faculty, like his mentor Dr. Randy Longman (M.D. ’07, Ph.D.), associate professor of medicine, cared that he succeeded and grew as a physician-scientist.

A rotation in the operating room opened his eyes to the fast-paced decisions that anesthesiologists sometimes make under pressure. Later, Dr. Castellanos chose to build his career at his alma mater because, he says, it felt like home. And in 2024, he was one of 25 early-career scientists in the United States selected to be a Hanna H. Gray Fellow by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Dr. Castellanos also serves on alumni panels for the Weill Cornell Medical College Alumni Association, helping to recruit and support the next generation of students.

“I came home from war determined to heal others,” he says. “Weill Cornell Medicine gave me the science, the purpose and the community to turn that promise into a life of service and accomplishments.”

— Peter West

Dr. Samuel Globus (Ph.D. ’13) decided as a student that he wanted to build a career at the crossroads of genetics and the business of biomedicine.

Years later, Dr. Globus is now the chief operating officer of the life sciences company Genomenon, which uses artificial intelligence and scientific expertise to organize and interpret published biomedical and genetic data for clinical and pharmaceutical clients.

A graduate of Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences’ Biochemistry, Structural Biology, Cell Biology, Developmental Biology and Molecular Biology (BCMB) Allied Program, Dr. Globus oversees large teams of professionals that mine all published papers — some going as far back as the 1940s — that focus on biology.

And he means “all,” since Genomenon aspires to be the first company to curate the entire human genome.

“On the clinical side, our work helps labs interpret the results of genetic tests they are conducting,” he explains. “On the pharmaceutical side, we help companies understand what’s already known so they can design better clinical trials, expand drug labels and advance human health.”

For example, if a company is developing a drug for a rare disease, Genomenon can gather a wide range of patient details from every published case of that condition. AI is the huge driver of what his company does, and Dr. Globus is involved in the development of proprietary software that makes the work possible on such a massive scale.

Dr. Globus entered science during the heyday of the Human Genome Project, an achievement that captivated him in high school. A native New Yorker, he chose Weill Cornell Medicine for his graduate studies, drawn by the urban location and sheer variety of the program’s courses and lab offerings. The BCMB program provided exposure to areas that continue to fascinate him.

The skills he learned at Weill Cornell Medicine prepared him for a move into business. Faculty trained him to tackle complex problems, see the big picture and make informed decisions.

“You need people doing the basic academic research, and you also need people who know how to turn those discoveries into real products and businesses,” says Dr. Globus. “A great idea needs a whole chain of expertise working together.”

— Peter West

Photo: Aaron Joel Santos; Portraits: Nigel Buchanan