Sisterhood of the Traveling Physicians

Lily DiGiacomo and Katie Koval spent only one year together at Johns Hopkins—both enrolled in the 2010–11 Master of Public Health program at the Bloomberg School—but they agree the experience initiated the most important friendship of their lives.

DiGiacomo, a trauma surgeon in Sacramento, California, met Koval, who practices emergency medicine in Charleston, South Carolina, at a July 4 school welcome picnic, and they bonded over their Catholic upbringings, their love of English literature and travel, and a commitment to global health.

"Katie has inspired me with her work on the front lines of the pandemic, her global initiatives to improve emergency medical care in far-flung places, and her conscientious construction of family and community," DiGiacomo says. "She's done health work all over the world. I can't even name all the countries she's been to."

Koval is similarly effusive about DiGiacomo. "Lily is probably the most selfless, service-oriented, thoughtful human I have ever met," she says. "I've never met anyone who has put so many people above herself."

Hopkins provided an important foundation for both women during a formative time. "It was a fork in the road for the rest of my career," Koval says. "It helped me understand what global health looks like. Lily was someone who shared the same world vision."

Both women are passionate about international humanitarian work. DiGiacomo has brought her surgical abilities to Cameroon, Ecuador, Haiti, and Pakistan, and volunteered for the Peace Corps in Nicaragua. Koval has cared for patients and taught emergency medicine skills to local providers in Cambodia, India, Mongolia, Myanmar, Tanzania, and Uganda.

Their Hopkins experience solidified their commitment to international health—and to each other.

"The time in Baltimore was very intense," DiGiacomo says. "She became like a sister to me. We spent so much time together, enduring that rigorous 11-month program by making it fun for each other and getting as much out of it as we could. It led to a sustained relationship."

They've both married—and Koval has two daughters—and they live on opposite sides of the country, but their decade-old memories remain strong.

DiGiacomo recalls their buckling down to study in Mount Vernon coffee shops, doing hot yoga in Harbor East, "treating ourselves to crab cakes at Faidley's, and basking in the glory of Marie Diener-West's [biostatistics] courses."

Koval says they still find ways to keep those memories alive. "Lily sent me a box of Faidley's crab cakes as a birthday gift one year. It was nostalgic—and delicious."