Our Vision
At Condition Confidant, we build bridges between people at different stages of navigating their medical condition. We believe the best mentors are people who have been through the same journey. That's why Condition Confidant pairs mentees with mentors who have a wealth of knowledge and experience to share. We empower our mentors as leaders and give them the tools to support mentees in overcoming the same challenges they once faced.
Food Allergy Mentoring Program
One of our programs connects high school students preparing to go to college with college students who have already made this transition. The goal is to assist high school students with a time when they will become more independent in managing their food allergies. This program hopes to empower high school students with the knowledge to navigate topics such as eating in dining rooms, living with roommates, communicating with new people about their allergies, and more.
Our other program connects parents of children who are newly diagnosed with food allergies to peer mentors who have experience navigating their child’s food allergies. The goal is to provide these parents with support via a personal connection so that they feel less overwhelmed and better equipped to handle their child’s condition. Condition Confidant wants to take the first step to make this connection based on parents’ individual preferences.
Watch the video below to learn more about our target patient population for this program:
Join the Food Allergy Mentoring Program as a mentor or mentee!
Our Story
In February 2021, a group of Northwestern medical and undergraduate students came together for Northwestern’s healthcare hackathon. The goal of this hackathon was to leverage technology to tackle social determinants of health in Chicago communities. Our idea was to create a mentorship network of people with similar experiences who could help guide each other and navigate their newly diagnosed condition. This idea landed us first place and helped us gain the support of Dr. Ruchi Gupta, head of the Center for Food Allergy and Asthma Research. This sparked the idea for Condition Confidant - using our original idea of peer mentorship to help those with food allergies.
Meet the Team
Emily Merrick
Emily graduated from the University of Michigan in 2019 with a degree in Biopsychology, Cognition, and Neuroscience. She spent the 2019-2020 school year working in New York City’s Public School system through AmeriCorp’s City Year program. She is currently a fourth year medical student at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine going in pediatrics with a strong interest in medical education, research, and advocacy.
Anahita Iyer
Anahita is a fourth year medical student at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. She graduated from Harvard College in 2019 with a Bachelor’s degree in Neurobiology and a secondary in Global Health & Health Policy, after which she spent a year working as a bilingual medical scribe in an underserved community in Philadelphia. She has a personal interest in food allergies since she herself has food allergies and is very excited to be involved with Condition Confidant!
Khalid Ahmed-Abdelmutalab
Khalid graduated from Northwestern University in June 2021 with a degree in Chemical Engineering. During his college years, Khalid gained experience in the research, nonprofit, pharmaceutical and affordable housing sectors. Khalid focuses a lot of his work on making processes more efficient. He is currently working as a fermentation engineer at AbbVie.
Kathryn Wicks
Katy Wicks is a student at Northwestern studying Industrial Engineering and Cognitive Science with a certificate in Design. She has been involved with multiple social impact design projects with partners ranging from the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab to Chicago Public Schools, and as a person with a chronic illness, she is passionate about helping people navigate their symptoms and the complexities of the healthcare system.
Sahibzada Mayed
Mayed is a current undergraduate at Northwestern University studying Design Innovation and Human-Computer Interaction. A curious thinker and transformative practitioner who is committed to advocating for more equity-centered and community-based design practices. He sees design as an avenue to provide agency to and uplift historically marginalized and underserved communities.
Contact Condition Confidant
To contact us, please fill out the following form. We look forward to hearing from you!