Molly Courtright, 2026 Nehal Shah Memorial Global Health Award Recipient
Molly Courtright’s passion for service began early in her undergraduate career, working with the unhoused community in Tucson, Arizona. She joined the Mobile Medicats, where she would pass out essential supplies to unhoused individuals directly where they were living. In her senior year, the group became a CUP clinic through the University of Arizona College of Medicine–Tucson, expanding into a mobile health unit offering free medical care. As Clinic Coordinator, she oversaw operations and fostered collaboration between students and physicians. Molly’s first global health experience came with Flying Samaritans in Agua Prieta, Mexico, providing care in a resource-limited border community. In medical school, she joined the Global Health Distinction Track and traveled to rural Kenya, where she worked alongside Kenyan and American physicians and experienced firsthand the challenges that arise in global healthcare. Concurrently, she conducted a needs assessment study to strengthen the long-term partnership between UACOM–T and Kapsowar Mission Hospital. She presented this work at the UA Global Health Presentation Day and UACOM–T Research Day in 2024. Molly plans to return to Kenya in 2025, where she hopes to implement these findings. In the future, Molly hopes to continue addressing healthcare inequities both locally and globally throughout her career as a physician.