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Marissa Gioffre, M.Ed., Outreach and Engagement Specialist, RWJF Health Policy Fellows at the National Academy of Medicine

Marissa Gioffre is the Outreach and Engagement Specialist for the RWJF Health Policy Fellows program. Her main focus is on program recruitment, communications, and alumni engagement.

Marissa has a background in education, community engagement, and nonprofit activism. She most recently served as a museum educator at the International Spy Museum and Director of Projects & Programming for America250PA. Her previous experience also includes community organizing positions on various youth advocacy, public health, and presidential campaigns, as well as teaching middle school social studies and theology in Philadelphia.

Marissa holds an M.Ed. in secondary education from St. Joseph’s University and a BA in Global Studies and History from Saint Elizabeth University.

Mona Rahman, M.A., Deputy Director, RWJF Health Policy Fellows at the National Academy of Medicine

Mona Rahman is the Deputy Director of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) Health Policy Fellows Program at the National Academy of Medicine (NAM). In this role, she oversees strategy, recruitment, partnerships, and the program’s unique 3.5-month intensive health policy orientation. She is deeply committed to expanding who sees themselves in policy spaces—ensuring that leaders from all backgrounds not only can access these opportunities, but feel a true sense of belonging within them.
Mona’s approach to leadership is shaped by a defining moment when a fellow told her, “Without you, I would not be here.” That experience continues to anchor her work—affirming her belief that representation, mentorship, and intentional outreach can transform not only individual trajectories, but the systems those individuals go on to influence.

Before joining NAM, Mona built a career in public health education focused on tobacco prevention and cessation. At Truth Initiative, she led nationally recognized campaigns such as Truth and Become An EX, helping to shift both individual behaviors and broader cultural narratives around tobacco use. She later served as an NAM/FDA Tobacco Regulatory Science Fellow, embedded in the Office of Health Communication and Education at FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products where she served as a creative and strategic advisor on major public health campaigns including The Real Cost, This Free Life, and Fresh Empire.

Across her career, Mona has worked at the intersection of policy, communications, and equity—guided by a belief that lasting change requires not just evidence and strategy, but courageous leadership and investment in people. She has led multidisciplinary teams through growth and change, fostering environments where varied perspectives are not only welcomed, but essential.

Mona holds a B.A. in Government from the University of Virginia and an M.A. in Culture and Communication from New York University.

Kumhee Ro, DNP, APRN, FAANP, FAAN 
Associate Professor at Seattle University

Kumhee Ro, DNP, APRN, FAANP, FAAN, is an Associate Professor at Seattle University and a practicing family nurse practitioner at a federally qualified health center, where she provides primary care to immigrants, refugees, and other medically underserved patients. Her commitment to healthcare began long before she entered nursing or health policy. Watching her father live with heart failure and undergo dialysis gave her an early appreciation for the profound difference compassionate clinicians can make, not only for patients, but also for the families who walk alongside them. That experience inspired her lifelong commitment to improving access to high-quality care, strengthening the healthcare workforce, and expanding educational pathways so every community is served by well-prepared clinicians who reflect and understand the people they care for.

As a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Fellow alumna, Dr. Ro served as a Health Policy Advisor in the U.S. Senate, where she helped advance federal legislation focused on healthcare workforce development, educational pathways, primary care, rural health, and support for internationally educated health professionals. She later continued this work with the Washington State Medicaid Agency, advancing strategies to strengthen primary care and Medicaid Graduate Medical Education. Dr. Ro has also served in national advisory roles with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and in state and national leadership positions dedicated to workforce development, nursing leadership, and public policy.

Dr. Ro earned her Doctor of Nursing Practice, Master of Nursing, and Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Washington and is currently completing her MBA at Seattle University.