Press Release

March 21, 2006
Contact: Melissa Campbell
Phone: (973) 972-4564

New Jersey Medical Students Selected to Ride For World Health
3,700 Bike Ride Across the Country to Raise Money, Awareness

NEWARK—Two medical students from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey will join 23 other medical professionals on a 3,700-mile bike ride to raise money for and awareness of global health issues.

Jim Fausto, a fourth-year student at New Jersey Medical School in Newark, and Ian Hoffman, a fourth-year student at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in Camden, will participate in the inaugural Ride for World Health (R4WH), which includes a coast-to- coast lecture series. The cyclists aim to raise $250,000 for Partners in Health, a global non-profit organization.

The ride kicks off on April 2 in San Francisco and concludes May 22 in Washington, D.C. Along the way, the group will host lectures in 25 locations. Fausto, of Randolph, is serving on the Education Committee, and coordinating 10 of the lectures. Hoffman, who serves recruitment chair for the event, helped attract and select the ride’s complement of cyclists. He is from Philadelphia.

The ride is sponsored by Raleigh Bicycles, Ohio State University Medical Center, and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. In addition, each cyclist will raise $2,500 to cover expenses during the seven and a half week journey.

For more information, visit www.rideforworldhealth.org. To learn more about Partners in Health, visit www.pih.org.

Rider bios

Jim Fausto
Randolph, NJ

Jim is a 28 year-old, four-year medical student at UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School in Newark. He attended six undergraduate institutions, and initially studied photography, but ultimately attained his bachelor’s of science in biology from Grinnell College in Iowa. Following graduation, he set out to complete two years of community service, both nationally and internationally. He spent his first year of service in Dublin, Ireland volunteering with homeless populations, and his second year managing a non-profit hospice home for the terminally ill in Virginia. In the summer of 2002, he began his medical school studies at New Jersey Medical School, where he is currently a director of the student-run free health care clinic. He is interested in specializing in addiction medicine, and has studied at the Betty Ford Center for Addiction Disorders and has completed an addiction elective in Montreal, Canada. He also spent a month in Ecuador, where he learned Spanish and spent time with a village doctor.

Ian Hoffman
Philadelphia, Pa.

Ian Hoffman is a fourth-year medical student at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in Camden and a January 2006 master's of public health candidate at UMDNJ’s School of Public Health. Ian completed a bachelor's degree in anthropology and biology at the University of Pennsylvania in 1998. He brings 10 years of organizing experience to the recruitment chair role for R4WH. For two years, he served as lead coordinator of a city-wide medical supply recovery program in Philadelphia. The organization routinely collected several tons of unused medical supplies that had been destined for the trash, and redirected the supplies for use in resource-poor countries around the world.