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Palliative Care

2024 – 2025 Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellows

Tessie Allen, MD

Dr. Tessie Allan was born and raised in South Jersey. She attended Brown University for her undergraduate degree and joined the Women's Crew team there. After two National Championships, she trained with the Women's National Team in Princeton, New Jersey to try out for the 2012 Olympics. She then moved to Chicago to work in Americorps with the Schuler Scholar Program, after which she returned to New Jersey for medical school at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson. Dr. Allan completed her transitional year at Brockton Signature Healthcare in Massachusetts and her anesthesia and critical care medicine residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital. She sees her fellowship training as an education in the deepest kind of emotional intelligence necessary to navigate the limits of modern medicine. She lives in Fells Point and can be found sunbathing in Patterson Park with her dog Zipper, a book, and some Bmore Licks (both human and puppy cups).

Tessie Allen smiles for a professional photo.

Huong Nguyen, DO, MS

Dr. Huong Nguyen was born in Hong Kong and, at the age of 2, immigrated with her family to Houston, Texas, which she has called home ever since. After college, she decided to move to Scotland to get her master’s degree in Health Services and Public Health Research. While there, she started to understand the Glaswegian accent and even gained a deep love for Scotch. She attended medical school in Mississippi and then made her way to the East Coast for family and community medicine residency training at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. Dr. Huong’s interactions and conversations shared with patients living with or dying from terminal illnesses have taught her, and will continue to teach her, what is most fulfilling to her in this rapidly changing and unpredictable world of medicine. In her free time, she loves to bake (cookies, cakes, and her newest venture— sourdough bread!), cycle on her Peloton, take her nieces and nephew on Target shopping sprees when she is back in Texas, and spend time outside, especially during the fall.

Huong Nguyen smiles for a professional photo.

M. Patrice Rankine, MD

Dr. M. Patrice Rankine is originally from Fort Worth, Texas, so "y’all" is one of her favorite words. She completed her undergraduate degree at Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts and medical school at the Medical University of the Americas in Nevis. Her pediatrics residency training was at Louisiana State University Shreveport Health Sciences Center, followed by a pediatric critical care fellowship at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. One of her aims for her fellowship training is to enhance her ability to better support her patients and their families not only during end-of-life care, but also through the chronicity of illness as her patients may heal and clinically improve. She enjoys Tex-Mex food, traveling and hanging out with her husband Michael.

M. Patrice Rankine smiles for a professional photo.

Jennifer Reyes, MD, MPH

Dr. Jennifer Reyes has lived all over the country. She completed her under-graduate degree at the University of California Berkley and a master’s degree in Global Affairs at New York University. She then attended the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, where she earned both a medical degree and a master’s degree in Public Health. Her residency training in emergency medicine was completed at Washington University School of Medicine. Dr. Reyes’s professional goals for fellowship training include learning the skills to become a stronger advocate for dying patients and their families as well as a better emergency physician, teaching compassionate communication techniques to learners who will face similar challenging conversations in their careers, and building the professional networks to facilitate palliative care integration both within the emergency department and throughout hospital systems. She enjoys botanical gardens, travel, hosting dinner parties, and building community

Jennifer Reyes smiles for a professional photo.

Chelsea Ann Roach, MD

Dr. Chelsea Ann Roach is originally from Charleston, South Carolina, where she completed her undergraduate degree at the College of Charleston and medical school at the Medical University of South Carolina. She completed family medicine residency at The University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill in the rural underserved track. Her experience in residency working with patients in her continuity clinic at a federally qualified health center informed her passion for increasing access to palliative care for underserved populations. She was drawn to Hospice and Palliative Medicine through witnessing the difference in the quality of care provided when palliative was involved and recognizing in this specialty that empathy could be integrated as a strength in the practice of medicine instead of a weakness. Her interests also include mentoring medical trainees, fostering a culture of wellness within medical training and narrative medicine. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her husband, crocheting, running, writing, and going to the beach.

Chelsea Ann Roach smiles for a professional photo.