Kasey Lewis ’21  came to Oak Knoll in grade nine with an already piqued interest in the medical profession. In her former middle school, she had taken a life sciences course and caught the bug. At Oak Knoll, she promptly created Code Blue, which she explicitly organized as a pre-med interest club. That would be the beginning of a journey whose latest milestone is a Bachelor of Science Degree in Behavioral Neuroscience with a minor in Sociology from Lehigh University.

“My time at Oak Knoll shaped me,” she explained. “I was empowered to follow my passions. In Code Blue, I found guest speakers from various health professions. We had presentations on medically relevant advancements. It was a good outlet for me in terms of my career interests.”

She highly praises Oak Knoll’s STEM program and specifically remembers the support she received from Upper School Science Teacher Anna Khan, who mentored Lewis through a challenging but highly rewarding AP Biology Course.

The all-girls aspect of the school also shaped Lewis. “I noticed once I got to Oak Knoll the difference in the social atmosphere in the classroom,” she explained. “Before Oak Knoll, I went to a coed Catholic school. The Oak Knoll environment encouraged me to find my interests and be super participatory in class.”

Lewis considered a variety of fields in the medical profession, including nursing and becoming a physician’s assistant. She was attracted to the science of medicine but also to the mystery. “For a long time, I have been interested in problem-solving,” she related. “I like understanding how things work, why things happen, diagnosis, and deductive reasoning. How did we get here?”

She reflects on the academically supportive environment at Oak Knoll and looks back on the confidence she developed. “In and outside of the classroom, I developed leadership skills that helped me immensely coming into college,” she recalled. “When I got to college, I was confident to take on new opportunities and try new things as I had done in high school.”

Lewis matriculated from Oak Knoll to Lehigh University, where she was off and running. The summer following her first year, she applied to a program at Stanford for college students interested in getting their foot in the door of the scientific research world. She conducted research in the cardiovascular institute focusing on cardiotoxicity — the relationship between cardiac health and chemotherapy. The study exposed racial disparities within the field, noting that certain minorities have higher rates of heart disease following cancer treatment. 

While at Stanford, Lewis also joined a literature review team and co-authored her first formal research paper, “Disparities in Cardio-Oncology: Implication of Angiogenesis, Inflammation, and Chemotherapy.”

“That was a huge eye-opening experience for me regarding what kind of medicine I might be interested in,” she explained. “I didn’t know what cardiotoxicity was before that experience. It was a huge learning curve in the beginning, but then it became something that confirmed my passions. I started thinking about public health, health disparities, and racial disparities. I was interested in understanding that more.”

Though Lewis enrolled at Lehigh as a standard biology major, that summer experience inspired her to switch to neuroscience with a minor in sociology. A psychology class in her first year also influenced her interest in the brain and mental health. 

“I think there’s something untapped in figuring out how to treat mental health conditions more effectively,” Lewis shared. 

In addition to the Stanford summer program, Lewis spent a subsequent summer working on a project at NYU researching the effects of secondhand smoke exposure in New York City Public Housing. She has also been engaged with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s local charter in collaboration with the Allentown Health Bureau, serving as the Institute’s local program and events chair.

In her junior year, Lewis began working as a Patient Care Technician (PCT) at St. Luke’s Hospital on the neurology wing. The hands-on work with patients furthered her understanding of the field and solidified her career choice.

Her days at Oak Knoll also inspired a penchant for service work, which she has realized through her sororities’ philanthropy efforts. Specifically, she has raised funds annually for Lehigh Valley Youth House, an adjunct to Prevent Child Abuse America, which works with families in the surrounding area to prevent cycles of abuse and provide support to struggling families.

Her research into neuroscience, coupled with her interest in mental health and public policy, has provided a happy academic marriage. Her next step will be enrolling in Rutgers University Medical School.

“My studies have bridged science and humanity,” she concluded. She refers to this as the sociology of health. “It may be cliche, but I like helping people and recognizing that everyone might not be starting at the same place. I’m very passionate about the career I am embarking on.”