Who we are
Shaw Medical Travel Consultants represent over 30 years of experience in medical practice, medical management and operations. Shaw Medical Travel Consultants represent a diverse team of highly skilled individuals who bring together a breath of knowledge that spans all corners of the globe with experience second to none. Our solutions-oriented team demonstrates a breadth of knowledge with tenacity and purpose delivered with comfort and calm.
Core Values:
- Empowering and promoting self-sufficient communities.
- Self-actualization and personal growth.
- Improving health care delivery and meeting healthcare needs.
- Promoting health and Wellness.
- Promoting cultural competence and global citizenship.
Our Team
Founder & CEO
Dr. Judi Shaw MD, FACP, MMM, CPE, CHCQM is a board-certified internal medicine physician with over 20 years of clinical office experience and over 10 years of Executive medical management experience in utilization management, process improvement and quality control.
Dr. Shaw received her medical degree from the Medical University of South Carolina and completed her Internal Medicine Residency at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. She became a Certified Physician Executive through The American Association for Physician Leadership, then later completed her Masters in Medical Management at Carnegie Melon - Heinz College of Information Systems & Public Policy. Dr Shaw is fluent in English and Spanish.
Dr. Shaw believes in a patient centric model of care. She believes that imperative in the holistic approach to health is the understanding that traditional medicine complemented by behavioral modification and the concepts of cultural wellness intersect to achieve health and well-being. Dr Shaw understands that the patient holds the key to health and Wellness, and the doctor serves as the teacher, and facilitator to achieving the maintenance of self-care able to prevent illness.
Patient satisfaction, client and physician satisfaction can all inherently occur concurrently. A culturally competent healthcare environment sensitive to Cultural awareness and understanding in addition to cultural integration are imperative to achieving a bi-directional healthcare engagement. Integration, caring, education in health literacy, improving well-being and patient empowerment are what drive Dr Shaw to change health care delivery to all in the most efficient, effective, cost effective and transparent manner possible.
Chief Consultant of Clinical Affairs in Medical Missions
Aneita High MD, MPH, is board-certified psychiatrist in child and adult psychiatry. She completed her BS in psychology at Yale University then receiver her medical degree from Medical University of South Carolina. She has over 20 years' worth of experience in correctional psychiatry, adult and child residential care, day treatment, inpatient psychiatry, and school-based and community-based clinics with at-risk youth and underserved populations. She started going on mission trips as a teenager and has been on over 20 service trips with faith-based and other non-profit organizations. Her passion in helping people and global mental health prompted her to complete a master's in public health at George Washington University with a focus on international medicine.
Dr. High has studied a large body of evidence that highlights the long-term ineffectiveness of "volunteerism", as well as, the potential detriment it poses to the communities it is meant to serve. Research has shown that the most effective sustainable programs must involve the community in defining what they see as the "need" and then engaging that community in creating a culturally relevant solution. She is excited to be a part of Shaw Medical Travel Consultants as a resource to assist teams of volunteers to make a lasting impact on the communities they desire to serve.
In addition to practicing psychiatry, Dr. High spends part of her time in Kenya serving alongside her husband in Teule Kenya, a registered NGO that serves orphaned and vulnerable children.
Director of Quality & Program Management
Venice Rashford is a Registered Nurse with M.S. in Management with specialty in Healthcare Administration from University of Maryland. She earned her B.S. in Nursing from State University of New York, at Brooklyn. She holds several national certifications, Certified Case Management; Certified Health Care Risk Manager; Certified InterQual Criteria; and other federal and state healthcare related certifications. Venice has more than 20 years experience in healthcare industry, beginning as a clinical nurse at New York-Presbyterian, Cornell Medical Center and serving on the Women and Children's Quality Assurance Committee. Since then, she has worked as a Risk & Quality Care Manager, Nurse Case Manager in Workers' Compensation, Utilization Review/Management, Legal Nurse Consulting. Ms. Rashford has over 10 years experience performing onsite quality reviews for hospitals readiness for The Joint Commission, healthcare facilities and providers, both nationally and internationally. Other reviews for private and federal agencies and review of clinical records base on Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS) and other guidelines to assess for physicians' compliance with National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA). Ms. Rashford also writes healthcare management articles for publishing in Federal Newsletter.
Director of Strategic management & Program Development
Maylene Leu-Bent holds a BA from University of the West Indies and a MSc in International Business from the University of London. She is a human development consultant who brings over nineteen (19) years of experience in all aspects of strategic planning, program management and policy advice in public health and other human development disciplines. Maylene has extensive knowledge and experience in the international health systems landscape and has worked to provide senior country-level/regional organizational development and policy advice, for the United Nations, academic institutions, and key international philanthropies. Mrs. Leu-Bent's expertise features work in health policy development, organisational development, strategic planning (national, regional and organisational), programme development, capacity building, with in-country experience in the English-, Dutch-, French- and Spanish-speaking Caribbean, Latin America, as well as the USA and Africa.
Director of Clinical Affairs and Medical Mission Management
Marcelyn Sawyer, a family nurse practitioner, is a graduate of Barnes Hospital School of Nursing associated with Washington University School of Medicine, Milliken University. She received her MSN in Public Health Nursing from the University of Illinois @ Chicago. Marcy, as she is affectionately known, is a caring, enthusiastic, diversified family NP with 26 years of experience serving in rural health clinics, federally funded clinics and select private offices. NP Sawyer's goal over the long-term has been and continues to be providing efficient, cost effective treatment while achieving the best health outcomes using evidence-based knowledge and collaborating with the medical staff, patient's family, and patient.
A known pioneer in her field in Texas, in addition to being the first NP Hospitalist in the Woodlands Tx areas, she has led the opening from the ground up of 13 clinics in the Houston, TX area for the leading retail owned healthcare clinics in the USA. She functioned as the Manager of Operations with a 200% plus production over expected marketing projections. She also led the establishment of the county jail healthcare provider system for 70 plus inmates.
NP Sawyer is no stranger to the world of volunteerism. Marcelyn has helped with the building of homes in the Navajo nation of New Mexico. She has also served with her church community 2-3 times a year over the last 6 years in the mountain community of Marmalade, Haiti where her duties have been performing medical evaluations and the care of 400-600 community people and 36 plus orphans in the church orphanage. NP Sawyer served as a nurse practitioner with the People to People Ambassadors rural health project, introducing the nurse practitioner concept to the Medical University in Beijing and Xi'an, China.
NP Sawyer believes it is important to have a caring relationship with the patient; informing, educating and helping the patient and family to make the needed decisions in care. A person of high integrity and compassion, over the years her experience has taught her the wisdom she believes is imperative in the process to honor the patient's choice in the decision s of healthcare.
Marcelyn believes that being a nurse practitioner is not a job, but a calling that lasts a lifetime.
Director of Wellness and Health Programs.
Clinical care Liaison
Lorena Cruz, a native of Dallas, Texas. is a certified medical assistant who has over 15 years experience working with all ages in private medical offices and is loved by all her patients for whom she is a strong advocate. She believes in holistic medicine and has mastered the art of acupuncture medicine for the care of her patients. Lorena is fluent in English and Spanish and she is a dedicated healthcare professional for whom the holistic care of her patients is of paramount importance.
Programs manager
Tammi Carter is a Native of Southwest Louisiana. She is a graduate Louisiana State University with a B.A. in Psychology, minor in Sociology. Tammi has over 20 years diverse experience in the Pharmaceutical industry spanning from Field Sales, Sales Training, Marketing, and Sales Management. She has participated in numerous Medical Mission trips in Mexico over the years and continues to be a local community supporter and advocate for Disease State Education and awareness. Tammi believes in Empowerment and Accountability through Knowledge, Education, and Resourcing in order for Effective Long term Change to happen.
Consultant in Architecture, Design & Construction
Founded in 1997, RCGA Architects is one of the most respected architectural and interior design firms in New York and employs the world's best designers and architects. Their prestigious designs can be seen in structures of aviation, commercial, House of worship, medical, industrial, and residential. From Montreal to Shanghai, they have designed comfortable and livable homes of all shapes and sizes for families. They have extensive experience designing interiors for restaurants and offices as well.
Principal Architect Robert Gaskin AIA has more than 36 years of experience in all aspects of Architectural Design and Master Planning. He directs a firm that not only has become a top-ace in the high stakes field of terminal and hangar design, but one that has also branched out into houses of worship, residential buildings educational facilities completing projects throughout the United States, Europe and the Caribbean.
Mr. Gaskin is Jamaica born, Scottish bred, Pratt educated graduating with a degree of Bachelors of Architecture and is a Licensed Pilot from the Academics of Flight Nassau Flyers.
Prior to founding RCGA Architects in 1997, Mr. Gaskin worked as an Associate Principal with Architectural Firms in New York, Florida and the Caribbean. His expertise and multi-faced accomplishments in Airport Development and Transportation Related Projects makes Mr. Gaskin unique in his field. He has also conducted numerous lectures on Aviation Design and Development throughout the United States, India and the Caribbean.
Voted one of the Top Entrepreneurs in NYC Business of 2005, projects most notably completed are the AirTran stops at the American Airlines and British Airways terminals at John FK International Airport, the new facade for the administrative building at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn and the master plan for the new Diamond Bay Resort and Casino in Jamaica, American Airlines Terminal Concourse C, Alaska Airlines ATO and Gates at EWR and Delta Air Lines LGA Headquarters.
Custom Travel Design Consultant
Luciana Cherques, a native of Brazil, is an expert in the history, culture and geography of South America. Luciana started her career as a Tour Guide in Rio de Janeiro, a practice that exposed her to different cultures and enabled her to communicate and create bonds with many different people across the globe. Since she moved to the US in 1996, Luciana's been working in the travel industry, designing customized programs with focus on Heritage Travel, Travel Missions, and Affinity Travel Groups, and has recently launched her own brand: Connect Vacation.
In Luciana's words: "traveling is about discovering; and while it is about experiencing different cultures, interacting with new and interesting people, exchanging experiences, de-stressing from day-to-day life, and breaking routines, it is also a trip within oneself. Most times, travelers come back transformed and reinvigorated." Luciana does not have a favorite destination. "All countries, cultures, and peoples have something special and unique about them. It's always enriching to share this diversity. A couple of months ago, when traveling with a group of women on an educational trip, we visited a community center geared towards educating children in Colombia's country side, it was amazing how in spite of the language and socio-economic differences, and educational barriers we could receive and give so much; how most of us can easily adapt to an unknown environment and be so receptive to the local people and consequently contribute in such a generous way. "
Luciana is well known in the industry and has worked as a Sales, Operations, Product Manager for over 20 years.
Luciana Cherques is fluent in Spanish, Portuguese and English.