School of Dentistry students named 2025-26 Albert Schweitzer Fellows

Albert Schweitzer Fellowship Houston-Galveston 2025-26 participants (from left) Vivian Tran, Naseem Azadi, and Fatemeh Ebrahimi.

As part of their community project, Azadi (left) and Ebrahimi will be expanding the Explore Club, an outlet for students to become informed on pursuing a career in health care. Vivian Tran not pictured.

Dental students Naseem Azadi, Fatemeh Ebrahimi, and Vivian Tran from UTHealth Houston School of Dentistry have been accepted into the 2025-26 cohort for the Albert Schweitzer Fellowship Houston-Galveston.

The Albert Schweitzer Fellowship gives graduate and undergraduate students the opportunity to design and implement a yearlong, mentored, community project that addresses an unmet health need for an underserved population. Fellows are paired with mentors, field experts, and community sites to enhance and extend the services of existing community organizations who serve vulnerable populations, with the goal of creating an immediate and lasting impact in the Houston-Galveston area.

Azadi and Ebrahimi, Class of 2028, and Tran, Class of 2026, join students from other UTHealth Houston schools, as well as students from The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, Baylor College of Medicine, University of Houston, North Texas, Texas A&M, Prairie View A&M, Texas Southern University, Texas Woman’s University, and Sam Houston State University to make up the 70-member ASFHG class.

The Albert Schweitzer Fellowship prepares the next generation of health care professionals who will serve and empower vulnerable people to live healthier lives and create healthier communities.

“Being named a 2025-26 Albert Schweitzer Fellow is an incredible, life-changing honor that reflects my commitment to improving the health and well-being of individuals and communities,” said Azadi. “It offers the unique opportunity to grow alongside a cohort of inspiring, like-minded peers while engaging in meaningful, service-driven work.”

As part of their community project, Azadi and Ebrahimi decided to expand upon the Explore Club, an outlet for students at YES Prep Schools to become informed on pursuing a career in health care through weekly workshops that gives details on certain fields. Explore Club was founded by past School of Dentistry fellow Kellie Askew, Class of 2027, as part of his yearlong project in the 2024-25 ASFHG cohort.

Tran, for her yearlong service project, will be creating an integrative nutrition program at The Brookwood Community, a residential and vocational community for adults with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities.

While in the planning phase of her project, Tran is creating educational materials and testing certain recipes for healthy living.

“My project centers on individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities — a population that has taught me endlessly to be kind, resilient, and always hopeful,” Tran said. “Through this Fellowship, I have the opportunity to give back to them. I hope to use the knowledge and resources I have as a dental student and future dental provider to advocate for my patients in all spheres of their lives.”

Members of the 2025-26 ASFHG cohort will begin their 200-hour service projects in August until the end of the Fellowship year.