Emily Rencsok, PhD
Incoming Resident Physician
Newton-Wellesley Hospital
Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital
Thanks for being here! I’m a soon-to-be graduate of the Harvard-MIT MD/PhD Program getting ready to make the transition to residency. I studied quality-of-life outcomes in folks living with prostate cancer during my PhD, and I’ll be spending my clinical time in the world of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation supporting patients in recovering from significant medical events. Outside of academia, I spend my time working to create a more representative democracy and strengthening connections within communities. I care about the Red Sox, building LEGO sets, cider donuts, and taking my cats on walks.
Interests
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Quality-of-life epidemiology
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Neurorehabilitation
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Science communication
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Voter access in health spaces
Education
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MD - Health Sciences & Technology Program (Harvard Medical School, 2025)
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PhD - Population Health Sciences (Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, 2023)
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BS - Biomedical Engineering (Johns Hopkins University, 2016)
My Story
I grew up in Northville, a small town outside of Detroit, with my entire extended family nearby. My mom is a special education teacher, and my dad owns an electric motor repair shop. My sister, three years younger than me, is working as a lead teacher at an early childhood education program. I lived in the same suburban house for my entire childhood until I moved away for college, spending endless hours playing in the backyard with neighborhood friends. I was always drawn to math and science, loving multiplication tables and an astronaut mission during my early school days. Inspired by my grandma’s knee replacements, I decided that I wanted to study biomedical engineering in college.
I moved into a Johns Hopkins University dorm in 2012, suddenly far away from my entire family. I quickly found a new community in Thread, getting to know incredible young people and families in Baltimore City. In addition to Thread, various clinical shadowing and research experiences piqued my interest in a future MD/PhD in oncology and immunoengineering. While applying to MD/PhD programs, I spent a gap year working a hodge-podge of social justice-related jobs: a research assistant at the Poverty and Inequality Research Lab, a Mentoring Specialist for the University of Maryland Baltimore CURE Scholars Program, and a Community Manager for Thread. By the end of the year, I decided that equity and population health needed to be at the forefront of my eventual career, and I soon committed to an MD/PhD with no plan for my PhD.
I matriculated into the Harvard-MIT Program in Health Sciences & Technology in 2017. Spending the majority of my time studying the basic science underlying medicine further fueled my desire to dive more deeply into the social sciences and social determinants of health, ultimately deciding to pursue a PhD at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Population Health Sciences. I spent four years studying racial disparities in quality-of-life outcomes within the IRONMAN prostate cancer registry and facilitating the integration of African and Caribbean medical centers as study sites for IRONMAN. In addition to my epidemiology classes, I have taken courses in US health policy, health system innovation, and design in public health, as well as a month-long course in Chile on health reform and community medicine. With a new interest in structural health, I participated in the Vot-ER Civic Health Fellowship and later become their Policy and Strategy Consultant towards the end of my PhD.
While completing the remainder of my clinical rotations, I discovered the field of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation. As a broad field that focuses on improving the quality of life and functioning of those impacted by significant health events, it felt like the perfect specialty to merge my interests in research and advocacy. I’m excited to soon be completing my training within the Mass General Brigham health system at Newton-Wellesley Hospital and Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital.