Meet the Team
Srikar Muppidi, Founder
Srikar Muppidi is a senior at the University of Pennsylvania pursuing a bachelors degree in neuroscience with a minor in healthcare management and a masters in bioengineering. Srikar is passionate about solving public health problems and advancing health equity in medicine through impactful patient care, research, and community service.
Srikar has previously served as a medical assistant in a foot clinic for people experiencing homelessness and now volunteers at a primary care clinic for uninsured patients in West Philadelphia. He also prepares medically tailored meals for homeless and low-income patients who require special nutrition due to life-threatening diseases. Furthermore, Srikar has dedicated hundreds of hours to tutoring children experiencing homelessness in Pennsylvania school districts.
Srikar is an avid researcher and has published in multiple peer-reviewed journals. He is currently doing research on the epigenetic manifestations of neurodegenerative diseases at Penn Medicine. He is also studying the efficacy of alternative cancer diagnostics as cheaper, more accessible options than traditional cancer screening tests at Emory Medicine’s Urban Health Initiative. In 2022, Srikar was recognized by the Georgia Senate for his collaboration with local hospitals to translate his research findings to better community health outcomes.
Dr. Ryan Clark, PhD, MS, Outreach Advisor
Dr. Ryan Clark is the Director of the Office for Educational Outreach and Health Careers at the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, GA. He also leads the Morehouse School of Medicine Pipeline Initiatives program as an Associate Director. He has over 18 years of experience developing innovative programs that promote health equity and increase diversity in urban, rural, and international settings. Eager to improve public health for all populations, Dr. Clark serves as the outreach advisor for RollingOn and employs his expertise in community outreach by connecting us with rural homeless groups across the Southeast US.
Dr. Karuna Kusan M.D., Medical Advisor
Dr. Karuna Kusan is an infectious disease specialist at Northside Hospital Gwinnett in Lawrenceville, GA. She has over 20 years of experience as a physician treating all infectious diseases, including rare and complicated conditions. Knowing how detrimental foot-related infectious diseases can be for patients' lifelong mobility, Dr. Kusan serves as the medical advisor for RollingOn and leverages her clinical background to help us alleviate health disparities for patient populations experiencing rural homelessness.
Founder's Message
Since 2020, I have volunteered with populations experiencing homelessness, both in and out of clinical settings. My work has given me a unique perspective into some of the biggest public health problems that people experiencing homelessness encounter as one of the most underserved groups across America. The rural homeless are especially underserved, as rural homelessness is difficult to measure and is therefore largely unaccounted for by most policymakers.
After volunteering as a medical assistant in a homeless foot clinic, I learned that people experiencing homelessness, especially those who are unsheltered, are on their feet for many hours a day without socks or proper shoes. My patients frequently presented to the clinic with debilitating physical and infectious diseases of the feet that drastically affected their physical mobility. The effect was even more pronounced in diabetics, who are prone to amputation from such diseases due to reduced blood circulation.
I also quickly learned that the majority of people experiencing homelessness do not have a proper way to protect whatever little they have. Unfortunately, for many people experiencing homelessness, their only option for safekeeping their belongings is a disposable plastic garbage bag that further hinders their physical mobility. Mobility is even more essential for rural homeless populations due to lack of infrastructure for public transportation in rural areas.
I realized that I put on my shoes, pick up my backpack and go to class every morning, but I never thought to myself how much I would struggle if I didn’t own shoes or a backpack and had to carry my materials in a garbage bag walking barefoot across my college campus everyday; it was a privilege I took for granted.
That’s why I founded RollingOn. Lack of access to simple items like socks or shoes should not cause debilitating lifelong diseases, and a garbage bag should not be the solution for people experiencing homelessness to protect their essential belongings. RollingOn collects donations of rolling suitcases, socks, and shoes to provide to people experiencing rural homelessness across Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Appalachia. Please join us in our effort to fight rural homelessness, one step at a time.
Sincerely,
Srikar Muppidi, Founder