Boston University Medicine - Fall 2021

BostonUniversity Medicine Boston University School of Medicine

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R A E Y E FIV DATE UP

Message From The Dean

Dear Alumni, Friends, and Colleagues, We hope you and your families are adjusting to the “new normal” of the pandemic’s second year. As vaccine distribution continues, many of our alumni are still caring for sick, but younger, COVID19 patients. We are welcoming our students back to campus for their next academic year with in-person teaching, learning, and research while following federal, state, and University guidelines to keep our community safe and well.

The one-year pandemic milestone provided an opportunity for us to reflect on our experiences since March 2020.

Despite challenges, the BUSM community continued to educate the next generation of physicians and scientists, provide exceptional patient care, publish important research findings, and continued to address antiracism and enhance diversity—plus so much more. To learn more about these initiatives, please read our pandemic retrospective on page 2. The perseverance, collaboration, and compassion of our students, faculty, and staff is inspiring.

We have much more news to share with you in this content-rich issue. During the week of February 8, 2021, we celebrated what would have been Rebecca Lee Crumpler’s (MED 1864) 190th birthday with a virtual symposia. “The Legacy of Rebecca Lee Crumpler: What is possible?” featured 15 hosts and panelists, all Black women, and nearly 400 viewers for a wide-ranging conversation as part of a fundraising campaign for a new endowed scholarship in Dr. Crumpler’s honor. Read the recap on page 8.

Faculty and staff developed new and creative ways to celebrate student

achievements for our annual events such as Match Day and Commencement. Match Day morphed into a weeklong virtual celebration (page 10), and Convocations were held in a hybrid format (pages 12 and 14).

BUSM’s clinical affiliate St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center in Brighton, Massachusetts, also become a Boston University Teaching Hospital, deepening and expanding an existing relationship that will benefit our students and faculty.

The new agreement will bring more clerkship opportunities at the 308-bed hospital located about five miles west of the Medical Campus.

Our cover story highlights the five-year anniversary of our Kaiser Permanente Regional Campus in Northern California. Now among one of our most popular programs, it quickly pivoted when COVID-19 hit, giving our students invaluable firsthand experience when their healthcare provider teams adjusted their practices as we learned more about a particular disease.

Our Giving section highlights two very important initiatives: the Charles Terrell (GRS’71) Scholarship Fund honors our nationally recognized expert in diversity and higher education and will bestow annual, need-based awards on one or more students. The Judith L. Vaitukaitis (MED’66) Medical Student Research Fund will support medical student research opportunities to help launch the careers of physician-scientists.

Perhaps you will find our White Coat Ceremony story the most entertaining of all, as it describes our first in-person, large event since 2019! Faculty and staff thoroughly enjoyed meeting our new, first-year medical students and their families personally. We hope this is only the first of a number of such events as we emerge from the pandemic stronger and ever more resilient.

I hope you enjoy this issue of BU Medicine.

Boston University Medicine Boston University Medicine is published by the Boston University School of Medicine Communications Office.

Maria Ober Associate Dean, Communications

design & production

Boston University Creative Services

contributing writers

Lisa Brown, Jeffrey Cruikshank, Gina DiGravio, Sara Frazier, Art Jahnke, Julia Serazio

photography

Boston University Photography, David Keough, Cydney Scott, Mymy Nguyen, Boston Medical Center Communications, Vianney Alcala, University of Utah Health

Best Regards,

Karen Antman, MD Provost, Medical Campus Dean, School of Medicine

Please direct any questions or comments to: Maria Ober Communications Office Boston University Medical Campus 85 East Newton Street, M810H Boston, MA 02118 P 617-358-7869 | E mpober@bu.edu

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Contents

SUMMER/FALL 2021

Members of the BUSM and BMC communities gather to observe a moment of silence for the Black lives lost due to the consequences of systemic racism.

FEATURE

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DEPARTMENTS

MEETING THE CHALLENGE

The Kaiser clerkship program responds to COVID-19.

2 Campus News 20 Faculty News 30 Research 32 Giving 34 Alumni News

Summer/Fall 2021 | bumc.bu.edu

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News

A 2020 Pandemic Retrospective: BUSM Steps Up

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he year 2020 was like no other: business as usual for January and most of February, then everything changed in March.

On top of the stress and isolation of a global pandemic, 2020 evolved into a year of recognizing racial injustice and political turmoil.

In the face of unprecedented adversity, students, faculty, and staff at Boston University School of Medicine pulled together and continued its important mission of teaching, learning, and discovery.

During this uncertain and often chaotic time, BUSM community members expertly cared for patients, developed rapid COVID-19 testing, put up a genome sequencing lab, published important research findings, reinforced their commitment to antiracism and diversity, and adapted to the Learn from Anywhere (LfA) format, among other things.

Students, faculty, and staff embodied the principle of frontline medicine while consistently demonstrating perseverance, compassion, and collaboration. As the pandemic passes the one-year mark, we proudly acknowledge our community’s accomplishments.

Clinical Faculty on the Frontlines Clinical faculty—physicians at Boston Medical Center (BMC), community health centers, and the VA—have been on the frontlines of fighting the virus since it began in addition to planning curricula and educating students.

Five clinicians shared their experiences of working on the frontlines at New England’s largest safety-net hospital, BMC. Kristen Goodell, MD, associate dean of admissions, assistant professor of family medicine at BUSM, and attending family medicine physician at BMC, was one of them.

In addition to her demanding admissions responsibilities and working in the family medicine clinic, Goodell stepped up to assist with COVID-19 testing.

“I was just glad to be able to do something,” she says. “I am not very good at doing nothing.”

In July 2020, Goodell transitioned from testing back to her regular clinical role in family medicine. Now, much of her job entails discussing various COVID-19 experiences with her patients.

“The way that I interact with COVID now is focused on the impact it’s continuing to have on people’s lives,” she notes.

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Many of Goodell’s patients are struggling with food insecurity, newfound unemployment, grief over the loss of loved ones, and other issues the coronavirus has brought to their lives. She worries about the long-term effects of the pandemic when society begins settling back into “normal” life, especially for her fellow clinicians who have lost more patients than ever before.

“I think there will be scars,” she says. “It really is kind of like a war.”

Center for Regenerative Medicine When the virus was making its way to the United States, tests for it were in dangerously short supply, which the Center for Regenerative Medicine (CReM) stepped up to remedy.

George Murphy, PhD, associate professor of hematology & medical oncology and CReM codirector, and Christopher Andry, MPhil, PhD, professor and chair of pathology & laboratory medicine, decided to develop their own clinically approved test.

With the help of more than 50 volunteers and colleagues across the Medical Campus, they built a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test that detects RNA (or genetic material) that is specific to the virus and can detect it within days of infection, even in those with no symptoms. Soon, they were reporting results in less than 24 hours.

Richard Giadone, who was finishing up his PhD in molecular and translational medicine at the time, offered to help out despite a full workload leading up to his thesis defense.

“A big issue early on in the pandemic, as the state was slowly climbing this upward slope of the roller coaster nervously waiting for infection of the virus to peak, was that many hospitals needed to rely on commercial labs for their diagnostic testing,” Giadone explains.

“Problematically though, there were massive backlogs and often turnaround times of something like 7 to 10 days.”

Murphy is immensely proud of the trainees and volunteers who joined him in working around the clock to develop the test.

“These people and these brilliant trainees are capable of solving any problem,” he says. “If there was a zombie apocalypse, I’m

Many patients are struggling with food insecurity, newfound unemployment, grief over the loss of loved ones, and other issues the coronavirus has brought to their lives.

BUSM ON THE WEB

facebook.com/ BUMedicine

twitter.com/ BUMedicine

Left: Associate Dean for Admissions and Family Medicine Physician Kristen Goodell prepares for clinical work. Top: Labs pivot to COVID-19 research. Bottom: Medical students receive training on how to administer COVID-19 vaccines.

sure they would have solved that problem as well.”

While developing protocols for running the test, CReM also disseminated the test’s blueprint with scientists around the world.

Late-night (and early morning) Zoom calls with researchers from Saudi Arabia to Israel, a worldwide COVID-19 Slack channel for scientists, and Twitter all became vital resources for sharing testing information.

“Everything was happening at light speed,” Murphy recalls. “You couldn’t wait for a publication to come out because people were dying.”

After two months of testing using any available tools and techniques, CReM transitioned the process over to Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, where testing is done with automated machines rather than piecemeal reagents and kits.

Now, CReM is working on stem cell modeling of COVID-19 and studying infection in organoid models of lung development.

“It’s going to be interesting to see what comes next,” Murphy says. “Every time we think that we have it encapsulated or understood, COVID gives you a new twist.”

National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories Last February, scientists at BU’s National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories (NEIDL) filed paperwork to bring the coronavirus into their facility. In March, they began conducting research on live samples of the coronavirus, the first teams in Boston to do so. Within weeks, they tested thousands of drugs to determine if they were able to fight off the COVID-19 infection.

As one of only a handful of facilities in the country designed to research highly contagious and dangerous pathogens, the NEIDL is well equipped to keep the virus contained and researchers safe, who are required to undergo careful training before they can work with viruses and pathogens.

“We’re only as good as we are safe,” says NEIDL director Ronald Corley, PhD. Very early on, nearly every NEIDL scientist turned their regular research programs into COVID-19 research.

“It was absolutely clear that the virus was spreading like wildfire, and was a serious issue,” he says. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Currently, the NEIDL investigators are studying every aspect of the virus, including how it impacts cells. They’re looking at models of the disease, testing vaccines, and examining the therapeutic side of COVID-19.

Also home to BU’s important genome sequencing efforts, the NEIDL collaborated with BMC to move the entire sequencing process in-house, providing a faster turnround for results.

John Connor, PhD, associate professor of microbiology, notes that genome sequencing became a reality due to a team-science approach and generous support from the Genome Science Institute, BMC, and BU. The sequencing campaign grew out of a BMC/ BUMC collaboration involving the Connor Lab: Karen Jacobson, MD, MPH, assistant professor of epidemiology; Tara Bouton, MD, MPH, assistant professor of medicine; and Cassandra Pierre, MD, MPH, MSc, assistant professor of medicine.

In this project, viral genome sequencing was used to improve infection control within the hospital, early work that enabled a quick January pivot to include samples from BU’s Clinical Testing Lab as concerns arose about Summer/Fall 2021 | bumc.bu.edu

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CAMPUS NEWS new variants of the virus. The material is sent over to the NEIDL, then analyzed and sequenced in a process that takes several days. All identifiers are removed by the testing lab before it is sent for sequencing.

“We are happy to be able to apply the power of whole genome sequencing to identify what virus variants are disappearing and flag those that are spreading,” Connor says.

In the Media Since the pandemic began, more than 175 BUSM faculty members have been quoted as expert sources in local, national, and international media stories pertaining to various 4

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Medical students and other members of the BUMC community come together in support of #WhiteCoatsForBlackLives.

aspects of the pandemic, from symptoms and testing to treatments and vaccines.

Antiracism The year 2020 was also the year of a movement, with national protests addressing the history of racial injustice in the United States after the death of George Floyd, when millions took to the streets to protest police brutality against Black Americans.

Established during the summer of 2020 after years in the making, the Boston University Center for Antiracist Research aims to coalesce researchers across disciplines with the goal of identifying ways to understand, explain, and solve racial injustice. With research, policy innovation, and advocacy campaigns, the center hopes to build a more equitable and just society.

At the School of Medicine, Associate Dean for Medical Education Priya Garg, MD, says the MD curriculum is focusing antiracism efforts on creating inclusive pedagogy, more diverse dermatologic images, and a glossary of terms aimed at providing equitable care.

The Medical Education Committee (MEC) formed the Racism in Medicine Vertical Integration Group in June 2019 to provide a historical understanding of how racism impacts medical training, assess the current BUSM curriculum on race and racism, summarize current literature on the topic, and provide resources and recommendations to address

race and racism in the curriculum moving forward.

In June 2020, the MEC released their report, “Is Race a Risk Factor? Creating Leadership and Education to Address Racism: An Analytical Review of Best Practices for BUSM Implementation.”

“What we found was that in every course and clerkship, there were opportunities to strengthen our antiracist presence,” Garg says.

The report found that the way the BUSM curriculum described race was a problem, and it needed to emphasize that race is a social—not biological—construct.

“As a community, we’ve really come together to dialogue more about this,” she adds. “We’ve spent a lot of time ensuring that we are talking about gender and identity in appropriate ways so that the focus has been on gender, identity, race, and appropriate terminology in the classroom.”

As a medical school that is dedicated to equity and care without exception, BUSM is committed to being an institution that is antiracist, diverse, and equitable. This year, BUSM created an online antiracism resource guide, including current related research and recommendations for books, podcasts, and videos.

Graduate Medical Sciences also has curated a list of resources for antiracism and social justice pursuits, including arti-

BMC COMMUNICATIONS

COVID-19 Studies Boston University has been at the forefront of COVID-19 research, covering multiple facets of COVID-19 territory.

A team of BU researchers from NEIDL, CReM, and the Center for Network Systems Biology (CNSB) embarked on a monthslong mission to answer questions related to COVID-19 and human lungs. After infecting lung cells with the SARS-CoV-2 virus, they tracked activity in those cells during the first few moments after infection.

The team discovered there are at least 18 existing, FDA-approved drugs that could potentially be repurposed to combat COVID-19 shortly after infection. Their groundbreaking findings were published in the journal Molecular Cell.

Early in the pandemic, the coronavirus was clearly spreading rapidly in nursing homes and long-term care facilities. A study in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society by Drs. Thomas Perls, Lisa Caruso, and Rossana Lau-NG found that long-term care facilities were major drivers of total COVID-19 deaths.

In December, Drs. Pria Anand, Lan Zhou, Nahid Bhadelia, Davidson Hamer, David Greer, and Anna Cervantes-Arslanian published a study in the journal Neurology that found neurologic complications were common even in moderate COVID-19 cases, and that the most common neurologic symptoms were altered mental status, fatigue, and headache.

These are just a few of the many key studies published by experts in our community whose work is featured in prominent publications including The Lancet, JAMA, Science, and Health Policy.

Spotlight: BUSM Student Affairs Office Advocating for their best interests, providing expert career guidance, and endeavoring to boost their mental and emotional health are just some of the ways that the 13-member BUSM Student Affairs Office (SAO) team supports medical students to ensure they receive the assistance they need to succeed.

More Than Academics The broad responsibilities of the office are embraced by deans and staff who are passionate about making each student’s experience at BUSM the best that it can be. The SAO helps students work through personal issues, familiarize themselves with the 80-plus student activity group offerings, navigate the Match process, and prepare for interviews. Seven assistant deans and five staff members work with students under the leadership of Associate Dean for Student Affairs Angela Jackson, MD, who also is an associate professor of medicine.

While assistant deans keep varying in-office hours each week, they always are available to connect with students who need assistance.

“The role of Student Affairs is one that never goes away,” Jackson says. “You’re never off the clock.”

In January, Pedro Falci joined the team as director after eight years on the Charles River Campus.

“It’s my job to provide students the resources they need to feel grounded and connected to the BUSM community so they can approach their medical education with confidence,” Falci says. “A pandemic doesn’t change that, and I am proud of our whole team’s dedication to being there for our students.”

Meeting Students Where They’re At Students bring a variety of life experiences with them, making the path to medical school different for every candidate. As they move through the four years of school, their needs and concerns change. An integral part of the Student Affairs mission is to meet students where they’re at during the different stages of their personal and professional development.

“A first-year student is navigating how to survive in medical school, and just beginning to explore career options. Learning to thrive and actually enjoy the process may come a little later,” Jackson explains. “A fourth-year student is getting ready for the next phase of their career when they’re walking out of here as physicians, able to write prescriptions and make decisions. The needs are very different, and that is something that we have to be really aware of when we’re talking to a student.”

The broad responsibilities of this office are embraced by deans and staff who are passionate about making each student’s experience at BUSM the best that it can be.

A Passion for Medical Education Jackson has spent her entire professional life in medical education, first acquiring a taste for the administrative side of the field while working as a chief resident at Boston City Hospital (which later merged with University Hospital to become Boston Medical Center). There, she was a program director for the primary care residency training program in internal medicine and developed a curriculum in caring for underserved patients.

After transitioning to the BUSM Student Affairs role, she was surprised to learn that she liked working with students even more than working with residents.

“It’s really amazing, because the students I work with are going to go out and teach more generations of medical students who will care for more patients. It’s like a pebble in a pond,” she says. “Those ripples just keep going out. If I can help somebody or teach them something, they’re going to go out and spread it further.”

Adapting to COVID-19 Jackson notes that her daily routine changed enormously when the COVID-19 pandemic began. Typically, students drop in to her office, even sans appointment, to chat and get help whenever they need it.

“The loss of casual visits hit us really hard,” she says. “When I’m in the office, my door is always open, so if a student wants to stick their head in and say ‘Hey, can I talk to you?’ the answer is ‘Yes, come on in.’ And we lost that in the pandemic.”

Like other departments on the Medical Campus, Student Affairs learned new ways to adapt and serve students remotely, offering virtual office hours and town halls.

Staples of the medical school experience

like the White Coat ceremony, orientation, Match Day, and Commencement are typically celebrated at in-person gatherings. Student Affairs worked diligently to make sure that all of these events were still meaningful for students, even though they couldn’t gather or be with each other in person due to the pandemic.

With classes and clerkships now virtual, the office also realized that unreliable internet was an issue for many medical students getting ready for residency interviews, and they jumped into problem-solving mode again.

Working with faculty and Educational Media, they identified available office space that could be repurposed as virtual interview space for students with the necessary COVID-19 protocols in place.

The PATH Through Medical School The SAO also is responsible for the advising program. After receiving input from students and faculty, Jackson reimagined advising as a role linked to teaching clinical skills and relationship development. In collaboration with Medical Education, this new model developed into the Academy of Medical Educators, where faculty advise and coach in small groups and one-on-one sessions, including clinical skill development. Advising time, including life and career guidance, is now built into the curricular schedule.

A few years ago, SAO organized into PATH: Professional Identity Formation, Advancing to Residency through Mentoring and Advising, Techniques for Lifelong Learning Resiliency and Wellness, and Humanism and Advocacy.

PATH contains different “buckets” of professional development and provides a flexible framework for the SAO to guide students by helping them track their progress, set goals, capture experiences, and develop and plan for next steps. According to Jackson, this all falls under the umbrella of student well-being. “It’s about the whole student—not just academic support, but wellness activities, financial services, learning resilience and balance, and more,” she explains.

“I think the most rewarding thing for us in Student Affairs is that the students themselves are amazing individuals—they are smart, talented, dedicated, and resilient. They come from so many different backgrounds with such richness of life experience. Some of them are straight out of college and some folks are coming into medicine from another career, and they bring those perspectives. They are what makes our job so great.” n Summer/Fall 2021 | bumc.bu.edu

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CAMPUS NEWS cles, books, and other media, to help future clinicians and scientists engage in learning and reflection on the experiences of people of color.

The Vital Role of BUMC IT After a year of working and learning from home, the community reflected on what remote learning and Learn from Anywhere (LfA) looked like for BUSM and GMS. For some, coursework was easily adaptable to a virtual setting; for others, the transition was more challenging. How could bench research be done from a student’s home?

How do you teach dissecting a cadaver over a Zoom call?

Through creativity and determination, the BUSM community devised and adapted to new ways of teaching and learning virtually. With the help of new software and strategies, faculty continued the important work of educating the next class of physicians and scientists.

“I give so much credit to our educational and instructional technology staff, who were hard at work designing just-in-time training workshops and materials to support faculty transitioning to teach using Zoom,” says Christopher Dorney, who transitioned to the position of interim executive director of BUMC Information Technology on the very day the University moved to remote teaching.

BU announced the availability of Zoom to the community back in 2019 and followed that by adopting Microsoft Teams for online meetings.

“Little did we know how critical those strategic decisions would be months later, first for teaching, learning, and working remotely, and later in support for the hybrid Learn from Anywhere modality,” Dorney says.

While various technologies played important roles in shifting the Medical Campus to remote education, Dorney says a critical component was training, and Educational Media (EdMedia) created easy-to-use web forms for faculty to request it.

BUMC IT even built custom web applications to help with creating an LfA structure— InClassLfA and Student Room Scheduling.

The former allows students to reserve seats in classes they wish to attend in person; the latter allows students at both campuses to reserve study rooms.

“BUMC IT strives to help the community produce the best teaching and learning 6

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experience possible,” Dorney says. “There are always ways to improve on that, and it is important we hear suggestions and get that candid feedback from those we work hardest to support. The faculty and students have been extremely patient and understanding during this time, and we are particularly appreciative of the sacrifices they have all made.”

Facilities In response to COVID-19, BU Campus Planning & Operations (CPO), including the BUMC facilities group, established new cleaning and disinfecting protocols to ensure the BU community has a clean, healthy, and safe environment for learning and working on campus. Throughout the pandemic, custodians have been regularly cleaning and disinfecting surfaces focusing on high-touch areas (including fixtures, light switches, handles, and buttons), increasing the use of aerosol sprayers for large-scale disinfecting and providing cleaning and disinfecting supplies for on-campus spaces.

CPO also worked with Building Coordinators, EdMedia, and Environmental Health & Safety to reconfigure every indoor space on campus to ensure appropriate physical distancing and installed signage throughout all areas to reinforce the new protocols. In addition, CPO inspected all HVAC systems across the University in order to ensure they operate as designed and accommodate increased air changes while maintaining the integrity of the systems and the environment they serve.

Lessons of Remote Learning The new virtual teaching style brought with it a number of lessons to Graduate Medical Sciences. For example, carving out social time with students, like Zoom lunches, turned out to be an excellent way to share laughs during an otherwise serious time.

Some faculty members learned that recording lessons ahead of time worked well, while others found that breaking their classes into smaller groups made sessions livelier and more interactive.

Mina Moussavi, PhD, assistant professor of physiology & biophysics, found that scheduling check-in time with students was even more necessary in the new remote world.

“It has become more imperative to check on students that may be struggling and

ensure they have access to additional learning resources and to have frequent virtual check-ins,” she says. “My students know that I have an open-door policy, and we often have Zoom sessions in the evenings or on weekends; whatever works best for their schedule and time zone.”

Moussavi says she was blown away by how motivated her students are, even amid all of the changes that came with 2020.

“Seeing how resilient they have been is one of the positives I will take away from this,” she says. “They deserve a round of applause.”

LfA offered a variety of experiences for the MD program. First-year students were introduced to a new collaboration between BUSM and SPH, kicking off with a virtual debate about vaping restrictions. Second-

Through creativity and determination, the BUSM community devised and adapted to new ways of teaching and learning virtually. year students had wrapped up classes just as remote learning started and began studying for their national licensing exams. Thirdyear students were able to partake in a virtual version of their clinical assessments.

Faculty designed an elective, Preparing for Fourth Year, for the Class of 2020, which focused on themes including skills required for subinternships, caring for patients with COVID-19, and disaster medicine.

Medical education changed in many ways, big and small, including faculty-created video content, utilizing small breakout rooms, pairing students with roommates to limit contact with others, and bringing in actors from the College of Fine Arts to act as patients.

Garg says that it took teamwork and collaboration to smoothly implement these changes, noting that many faculty members turned to national organizations,

BUMC IT Educational Media staff played a vital role assisting faculty and students during the Learn from Anywhere framework.

particularly the AAMC, to learn from peer institutions.

She emphasizes that while many of the changes to the MD curriculum over the past year have potential for the future, in-person peer and faculty interaction remain important for medical education.

“What we learned from this period of time is actually the major loss that’s been felt by students and faculty by not actually being with each other and engaging. I think in-person community building is going to be important moving forward.”

Students Take Charge Throughout a year of mandated social isolation, students did not disappear but rather, stepped up to help the community manage the competing responsibilities and stressors of the pandemic.

At the governor’s request, fourth-year medical students graduated a month earlier than anticipated to work on the front lines.

“Your class is clearly graduating at one of the most medically challenging times of the last century and will shortly be an important part of our country’s response to the COVID19 challenge,” Dean Karen Antman, MD, wrote in a letter to the students. “We are proud of the physicians that you will soon be, and for the role that you will play in the care of your patients.”

Medical students helped in other ways, too—when BMC employees were overworked caring for COVID-19 patients, they thought of a creative way to help.

After gathering a team of medical and health professional student volunteers, they sent out an email asking if frontline workers

and clinicians at BMC or Boston Healthcare for the Homeless Program (BHCHP) needed assistance with chores or other tasks. From picking up prescriptions at pharmacies to babysitting and grocery shopping, they swooped in to help.

A group of medical students led by Tyler Kalajian, Joshua Gustine, and Joseph Cannella raised more than $1,000 through the BU Mask Initiative to purchase more than 6,000 disposable masks that were distributed to homeless shelters across Boston to help stop the spread of COVID-19.

And students have stepped up to vaccinate the public. Spearheaded by Student Affairs, medical, dental, and PA student volunteers completed the required vaccination training session and can vaccinate the public at any site throughout the commonwealth that requests vaccinators. In addition, during the fourth-year geriatrics clerkship, medical students visit patients who are part of the homecare program and assist with COVID-19 vaccines on house calls.

Working with Student Affairs, student organizations have supported their peers throughout 2020 with virtual event programming, offering a number of self-care and wellness events in an effort to keep student morale high and foster a sense of community.

The Medical Campus hosted an inaugural Self-Care Market last December. A generous grant from the Wellbeing Project allowed the four BUMC Student Affairs offices to supply all the self-care treats necessary to keep spirits high ahead of final exams and the holiday break. Approximately 100 students grabbed goodies during appointment times

over a two-hour period, remaining safe and physically distanced.

On top of hosting community-building events over Zoom, the Graduate Medical Sciences Student Organization received a microgrant for a virtual science outreach program with the Dorchester Boys and Girls Club. Four GMS student groups also teamed up in winter 2021 to host a donation drive for Rosie’s Place, a local women’s shelter and nonprofit organization.

The BUMC Climate Action group took the initiative to address one of the failures of the COVID-19 pandemic, improper disposal of face masks. Student leaders created educational materials displayed on Medical Campus waste bins.

Impact on Admissions For all the hardship over the last year, there has been some good news—applications to BUSM have reached an all-time high, as more and more people have been inspired to join the healthcare professions. At GMS, applications to master’s programs rose by 25 percent in 2020 and MD program applications rose by 27 percent, with 12,024 applications for about 110 seats—markedly higher than the national average increase of 18 percent.

“I think the reason we have seen more applicants is that we have this strong focus on social justice,” Goodell says. “Medical school in general is for people who want to help, and at BU I think we’re tapping into what a lot of people are feeling, which is wanting to help make things better.”

Goodell believes that BMC’s largely underserved and extraordinarily diverse patient population is another reason medical school applicants are considering BUSM for their education, as they know they can really make a difference here. As things were initially shutting down due to the pandemic, she asked first-year medical students, “Does this make you want to be a doctor more, or want to be a doctor less?”

Overwhelmingly, the answer was “more.”

Goodell adds that all of the applicants she interviewed this year were brilliant, motivated, and all-around great people who want to take care of others.

“I’ve been telling people for years that if you feel like the world is going to hell in a handbasket, you should do some medical school interviews,” she says. n Summer/Fall 2021 | bumc.bu.edu

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Crumpler Symposia Breaks Ground, Creates Lively Discussion About What is Possible

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ne hundred and fifty-seven years ago, a Black woman graduated from the New England Female Medical College, which later merged with Boston University and formed the core of the BU School of Medicine.

Her name was Rebecca Davis Lee (later Crumpler), and when she enrolled in 1860, there were 54,543 physicians in the US. Only about 300 were women; none were Black.

Crumpler established a practice in Boston and later published A Book of Medical Discourses, likely the first medical text ever written by an African American person.

Crumpler’s remarkable life was at the heart of a week-long series of events hosted

by BUSM in February. “The Legacy of Rebecca Lee Crumpler: What is Possible?” symposia featured 15 hosts and panelists, all Black women, and drew nearly 400 viewers for a wide-ranging conversation.

Breaking Ground: Building a Different, More Diverse Future At the first event, held on the 190th anniversary of Crumpler’s birth, BUSM Dean Karen H. Antman, MD, introduced Joan Y. Reede, MD, MPH, MS, MBA, dean for diversity and community partnership and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and professor of society, human development, and health at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Reede’s address, “The Power of Firsts,” focused on pioneers battling the odds. She spoke of the sometimes dangerous environments within which Crumpler and other underrepresented people blazed trails and discussed setbacks, but also related how individuals and groups kept racial progress moving forward.

Diversity is important, she stressed, because it helps society realize its values, address complex issues, and ensure its longterm viability: “We need to ask questions like, Who has a seat at the table? Whose voices are being heard?”

“We are making progress,” Reede said.

“But we all need to speak up. We all need to be part of the change.”

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What is Possible? Stories from Trailblazing Healthcare Leaders Tuesday’s session brought together a powerhouse group of Black women in medicine, moderated by Kaye-Alese Green, a third-year BUSM medical student and the inaugural Diversity & Inclusion Fellow, and featuring Marcelle Willock, MD (Questrom’89), BUSM professor emerita of anesthesiology and former chair of anesthesiology; Deborah Deas, MD, MPH, vice chancellor for health sciences, Mark and Pam Rubin dean of the school of medicine, and professor of psychiatry at the University of California, Riverside; Deborah Prothrow-Stith, MD, dean and professor of medicine at Charles R. Drew University College of Medicine and Science; Alicia Monroe, MD, provost and senior vice president for academic and faculty affairs and professor of family medicine at Baylor College of Medicine; and Loretta JacksonWilliams, MD, PhD (BUSM’94), professor of emergency medicine and vice dean of medical education at the University of Mississippi School of Medicine.

Panelists discussed their paths to medicine. Willock and Deas recalled that there were few local role models for them to emulate; Prothrow-Stith remembered growing up in Atlanta, where a thriving Black community encouraged her. Monroe described how family tragedy and loss following disease motivated her.

Green asked, “Where are we going next?”

Monroe spoke of the importance of making medical school stronger to improve our communities, pointing out that “Medical students, and doctors, have influence” and suggesting that medical school communities take an active role in promoting vaccine use.

Later, panelists reflected on connections between Crumpler’s experience and their own and emphasized the importance of striving for excellence, even in the face of barriers. “Be the best!” Willock said. “It will be recognized.

Don’t let anybody stop you from doing good.”

Deas added that she was one of only two Black students in her medical school class of 165. She knew she had to find allies, and she did.

“Don’t be afraid to be the first! Be a trailblazer,” Monroe said. “Get help, and don’t give up!”

What is Possible? Stories from Rising Stars On Wednesday, the next generation took center stage. BUSM’s Samantha Kaplan, MD, MPH, assistant dean for diversity & inclusion and assistant professor of obstetrics & gynecology, welcomed a group of early- to mid-career professionals including Ebonie Woolcock, MD, MPH (MED’10), BUSM assistant dean for diversity & inclusion and assistant professor of obstetrics & gynecology; Toya Kelley, MD (MED’07), lieutenant commander in the US Public Health Service and senior clinical education consultant in the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Health Service Corps; Simone Ellis, MS, MD (MED’15), a family medicine physician at Whitman Walker Health in Washington, D.C.; and Dallas Reed, MD (MED’10), division chief of genetics and director of perinatal genetics at Tufts Medical Center and assistant professor at Tufts University School of Medicine.

Woolcock, a Boston native, grew up without seeing many Black doctors, and credited “pivotal little times of exposure” for helping her stay committed to a career in medicine. In an early post at a hospital, Woolcock noted that generally, physicians didn’t wear their white coats outside of work. “Once I became a physician,” she said, “it was very important for me to be as visible as possible. I was a young Black woman working in a Black community, so I wore my white coat everywhere.”

Growing up in Atlanta, Kelley was surrounded by Black role models. But in many other places, she is conscious of how she stands out—and of her power to inspire. “I realize that I turn heads, just by walking in uniform,” she said. “Just by waking up, I’ve put on that hat of role model.”

Ellis recalled observing unequal treatment of her own family as a young child, which spurred her interest in healthcare.

Today, she said, “being Black has its chal-

“The Legacy of Rebecca Lee Crumpler: What is Possible?” symposia featured 15 hosts and panelists, all Black women, and drew nearly 400 viewers for a wide-ranging conversation.

VIANNEY ALCALA, UNIVERSITY OF UTAH HEALTH

All emphasized the importance of confidence.

“Learn the art of self-promotion early on,” Kelley said.

“Comparison is a spirit-killer.” lenges, but I love when I walk in a room, and a patient sees me with my natural hair. That makes their eyes light up. It makes them that much more engaged. I wouldn’t change that for anything.”

Reed, who went into genetics after losing an infant brother to a genetic condition, spoke about recognizing one’s own distinctiveness. Reed is one of only a few dozen OB-GYN geneticists in the world. “That’s how I think about my role. I’m one of the very few,” she said.

All emphasized the importance of confidence. “Learn the art of self-promotion early on,” Kelley said. “Comparison is a spirit-killer.”

Even while celebrating individual agency, all pointed to the importance of finding communities. For some, this meant turning down “name-brand” schools like Harvard to attend Historically Black Colleges/Universities (HBCUs). And each advocated making time for family and friends—and for themselves.

Woolcock, an avid basketball and tennis fan,

turns off her phone to make time to watch the sports she loves: “I love Serena Williams, so Serena is in my schedule.”

Later that day, Woolcock, who also is interim director and an alum of the Early Medical School Selection Program (EMSSP), the diversity pipeline program into BUSM, led a special networking and mentorship session with current students and alumni of color who are part of the EMSSP program.

COVID and the Black Community On the final day, a group of experts discussed the effect of the pandemic on the Black community in a conversation moderated by Rev. Liz Walker, pastor of Roxbury Presbyterian Church and a journalist who was Boston’s first Black weeknight news anchor. Joining Rev. Walker were Cassandra Pierre, MD, MPH (SPH’13), MSc, BUSM assistant professor of medicine and medical director of public health programs and associate hospital epidemiologist at BMC; Judith Absalon, MD, MPH, senior medical director of Pfizer Vaccines Research & Development; Representative Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), chair of the congressional Black Caucus; and Nicole Alexander-Scott, MD, MPH, director of the Rhode Island Department of Health. Patricia Williams, MD (CAS’84, MED’89), played a lead role in organizing the panel and recruiting the speakers.

Pierre shared an overview of the effect of the pandemic on people of color, notably Black Americans, who have been sickened, hospitalized, and died more than other groups. She explained the causes, including systemic racism and the ways it has forced many Black Americans into lower-paying

“essential” jobs and more crowded households, and diminished access to healthy foods, environments, and education.

Absalon described vaccine creation and explained how Pfizer’s messenger-RNA vaccine and others work. She addressed the ongoing challenge of vaccine mistrust and misinformation, offering abundant evidence to support the vaccines’ safety and efficacy.

“While vaccine development for COVID was accelerated,” she emphasized, “there were no shortcuts.”

Alexander-Scott, the first Black director of the Rhode Island Department of Health, described her state’s Health Equity Zones, which have fostered systemic change, including decreased teenage pregnancies and student absenteeism, and have encouraged people at the community level to take agency. “Oftentimes people push back, saying ‘We are the voice, this is what we know is needed,’” she said. “That’s what we want.”

Beatty tackled the issue of how to convince people to get a vaccine. “I was one of those folks that questioned whether this would be safe for me,” she said. “I can remember the Tuskegee experiment; I can remember Henrietta Lacks. But when I saw people like [Absalon] coming forward, and giving charts and information, you know what it did? Trust. When you have trust, you get comfort. When you get comfort and trust, you get action.”

“We need to build on history,” Beatty concluded. “I look forward to my grandchildren living in a better world. And I have to hope that we will have more physicians in honor of Rebecca Crumpler.” n Summer/Fall 2021 | bumc.bu.edu

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CAMPUS NEWS

Match Day 2021 Evolves into Weeklong Virtual Celebration

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raditionally, noon on the third Friday in March—Match Day—is like New Year’s Eve for fourthyear medical students. During this annual rite of passage, all graduating medical students across the United States simultaneously learn which residency program they will be attending and where they will spend the next three to seven years of their lives.

During a pandemic nothing is usual, of course, and for the second consecutive year, Match Day reflected that reality. This year, BUSM celebrated Match Week, a virtual event and collaboration between the Student Affairs office and a 10-person Student Committee on Medical School Affairs (SCOMSA) subcommittee with representation from all four class years.

While Match Day has always celebrated students and their accomplishments, this year’s subcommittee sought to capture the camaraderie, family, friendship, and reflection the day embodies. Videos shared across

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social media channels during the week highlighted favorite medical school memories, including ways to stay awake and post-exam rituals, what makes Boston special, messages of support from friends and family, and a montage of student pictures.

The week culminated with a livestream broadcast by BUSM deans on Match Day, March 19. Immediately after the livestream concluded, the future doctors received a personalized email from the National Resident Matching Program informing them of their match; they then joined their classmates in virtual specialty breakout rooms to celebrate.

“I like transitions, this is why I do my job,” said Kristen Goodell, MD, associate dean for admissions. “It’s so exciting when you’re at that place where you’re about to take the next big step, and where a whole bunch of things are going to change. And so today, I am thinking about all of those times in my life and I am really excited for all of you. I know you are going to be great doctors.

“From the Admissions Office, I offer a toast to all of you, to all the changes to come, to your continued growth, and to your bright, shiny futures.”

Associate Dean for Medical Education Priya Garg, MD, also addressed the students.

“I’m thrilled to congratulate our fourth-year class on reaching this wonderful moment in your careers,” she said. “You have faced so much uncertainty in these four years and you have done it with resilience. This year, by far, was one filled with uncertainty all of us could not have imagined. So, for all of you who are going to open your email, I want you to remember how much you have accomplished. Cheers to all of you!”

Associate Dean for Diversity and Inclusion John Polk, MD, stressed that the class had goals yet to achieve. “Your challenge is to address healthcare inequities and healthcare disparities, primarily access to care. I know you can do it, having seen you in action here over the last four years of medical school. I

am extremely optimistic that you will be able to conquer this. Congratulations!”

“It is an honor and privilege to join you on this very important day. I can still recall the excitement and the nervousness that I felt on Match Day 17 years ago,” said Assistant Dean for Alumni Affairs Heather Miselis, MD. “I encourage you to remain connected with the school as well as your classmates.

The Alumni Association is here to help you maintain those connections. Best of luck in your match in the residency. Best wishes for success in your medical career. Cheers!”

“It has been such a pleasure to work with you over these past years, to see you grow and develop, to watch you just become these fabulous physicians,” said Associate Dean for Student Affairs Angela Jackson, MD. “Wherever you go—the place that you are going to train, the next step in your adventure—they are lucky to have you. Congratulations to all of you! Cheers to the Class of 2021. Well done!”

“On behalf of the deans and faculty, I am delighted to offer a virtual toast to the Class of 2021! We would love to be doing this in person, but the present circumstances do not allow it in Massachusetts,” said Dean Karen Antman, MD, during the livestreamed event.

BUSM students matched in residencies in 28 states, from Vermont to California, Min-

While Match Day has always celebrated students and their accomplishments, this year’s subcommittee sought to capture the camaraderie, family, friendship, and reflection the day embodies. nesota to Texas. Forty are staying in Massachusetts, with New York (22); California (19); Pennsylvania (10); and Florida and Illinois (6 each) as the next most-popular states.

Fifty-one members of the class matched in primary care specialties. Top specialties include internal medicine (32); emergency medicine (15); anesthesiology (13); pediatrics (13); general surgery (10); neurology (8); diagnostic radiology (8); otolaryngology (7); and family medicine, ophthalmology, orthopaedic surgery, psychiatry, and urology (6 each).

“We are delighted that 20 of you will be staying at Boston Medical Center, plus one

at our Children’s Hospital-Boston Medical Center Combined Pediatrics program,” Antman noted.

Former Associate Dean for Admissions and Professor Emeritus Robert Witzburg, MD, who admitted the Class of 2021, shared his best wishes earlier in the week in a video message. “I remain supremely confident— confident in the profession of medicine and in you,” he said. “I’m confident in the profession because we’ve faced hard times before, perhaps nothing exactly like the current environment, but we’ve had tough times and we always emerge stronger than we were before. The profession is a bunch of resilient people and you will make it stronger. The profession of medicine will be fine.

“And you? I am confident in you as well,” he continued. “And it’s not just because of all that you have accomplished. It’s not the GPAs and the MCATs and the board scores and the papers you published. Those things, for me, only serve as windows into the really important stuff: who you are and what you are about as people. You are really a fine bunch. You will make the world a better place, one patient at a time. You will be wonderful house officers; great physicians and scientists. I congratulate you on what you have accomplished. I congratulate you on reaching this moment in life and I wish you every success. Go in peace.” n

2021 MATCH BY STATE

Summer/Fall 2021 | bumc.bu.edu

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CAMPUS NEWS

MD, PhD Graduates Encouraged to “Lean In”

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ypically, MD, PhD, and MD/PhD graduates are cheered on with plenty of pomp and circumstance by family and friends who gather to celebrate their achievements. And while the setting looked different this year, the enthusiasm, celebration, and good cheer remained.

A virtual ceremony was held to maintain safe physical distancing, and BU Medical Campus Provost and BUSM Dean Karen Antman, MD, addressed graduates in a prerecorded ceremony.

“Commencement is really only the end of the beginning of your education as a physician,” she told them. “Today, your diploma is the credential that grants you entry to the next stage of your education—your residency or postdoctoral fellowship—and then, lifelong learning.”

Deborah Stearns-Kurosawa, PhD, ad interim associate provost and dean of Graduate Medical Sciences, congratulated the Class of 2021.

“On behalf of all the faculty and staff in GMS, I applaud you on your achievement,” she said. “Getting a PhD degree is hard enough with all the stress and anxiety.

Accomplishing that life milestone in the midst of a global pandemic, with all the restrictions you faced, is simply humbling.”

BUSM conferred 166 medical degrees: nine MD/PhDs, three MD/MBAs, and 154 MDs, as well as 28 PhDs. Twenty-four students earned Latin honors: 16 cum laude, six magna cum laude, and two summa cum laude.

Selected MD student speaker Carlo Pasco, who now is a pediatric resident at Los Angeles Children’s Hospital, studied the outcomes of narrative medicine training on student communication, reflective writing, and empathy during his time at BUSM. He also was the head writer for first-year Skit Night and served on the fourth-year electives subcommittee.

Pasco reflected on a speech he gave to the class at the end of his first year, and noted that in the ensuing three years, the class amassed countless experiences.

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“What’s interesting to me, however, are those stories we don’t tell,” he said. “Stories of failure, shame, embarrassment.” He’d asked fellow classmates about their failures.

One student described failing multiple NBME practice exams, then taking the real one and passing with a score that made them proud. Another recounted hoping to match with a residency program near their home, then matching somewhere else and ultimately finding strength in the quote: “You will bloom where you are planted.”

“I don’t mention these failures to make the rest of you nervous about our entering the workforce,” Pasco said. “My goal was, instead, to demonstrate that people fail all the time, and in every stage of life. The next year of our lives, especially intern year, will be rife with failure. We may miss a lab value, hesitate during a procedure, or forget an obscure factoid that we swear we knew from step one. But this is all part of the learning process and the reason why working on a team is so crucial.”

Selected PhD student speaker Samantha Shelton studied the effects of Zika virus infection in neural precursor cells and microcephaly in a model of direct brain infection.

After graduation she joined PureTech Health as a virology scientist.

“Over these past few years, we’ve gained the confidence we need to know that we can do hard things, even when it is scary, even when things don’t go as planned, and when the only thing that remains consistent is that we can rely on ourselves to get through it,” she said. “Let’s use our newfound confidence, knowledge, and privilege to make the world a better place than we found it.”

In keeping with tradition, the graduating class selected their commencement speaker: Sadiqa Kendi, MD, FAAP, CPST, associate professor of pediatrics and division chief of pediatric emergency medicine at BUSM and Boston Medical Center.

Kendi currently serves on the American Academy of Pediatrics Executive Committee for the Council on Injury, Violence, and Poison Prevention, which develops recommendations and policies for reducing childhood

PhD student speaker Samantha Shelton is now a virology scientist at PureTech Health.

injuries nationwide. She also is a Bloomberg American Health Initiative Fellow at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

“If I had to identify a theme for this year, your last year of medical school, I would identify ‘discomfort,’” Kendi said, noting the COVID-19 pandemic, George Floyd’s death, inhumane treatment of immigrating families, and more. “This year, you had to lean into discomfort.”

She spoke of her experience undergoing months of treatment fighting invasive breast cancer and feeling that she was not in control of her life.

“I had to lean into the discomfort of cancer, the fear of pain, the fear of the unknown, so that I could survive, and thrive, and be here to talk to you today,” she told the graduating students, stressing that people can choose to lean in and grow from discomfort—or choose comfort.

“I encourage you to lean in, and make the choice to grow,” she urged them. “It’s okay to cry, it’s okay to struggle, it’s okay to misstep.

And you will; that’s part of the next step of your training. But don’t stop there. Push yourself to learn from it. Push yourself to be better because of it.”

In lieu of hooding students in person, the ceremony included slideshows of the MD Class of 2021 as well as a video montage of PhD dissertations before concluding with the Hippocratic Oath.

“You first took this oath at your white coat ceremony when the faculty welcomed you to the study of medicine,” Antman reminded the students. “Today, at your graduation, the faculty welcomes you to the practice of medicine.” n

BU’s Social Work, Medical Students Provide COVID-19 Support Through THRIVE Call Center

Kate Flewelling Named Alumni Medical Library Director

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t Boston Medical Center (BMC), the region’s largest safety-net hospital, when patients are diagnosed with COVID-19 and sent home to quarantine, they often have concerns that reach far beyond their symptoms. How will they get food and medicine if they can’t leave the house? What if they fall behind on their rent and utilities? These patients are finding help through the THRIVE call center, a collaboration between BU’s School of Social Work, School of Medicine, and BMC. Second-year medical students Berit Lindell, Divya Satishchandra, and Kirsten Mojziszek started the call center in May 2020 under the direction of Pablo Buitron de la Vega, MD, a BUSM associate professor of medicine, and sponsored by Thea James, MD, vice president of mission and associate chief medical officer at BMC. Taking it to the next level, they now collaboratively lead a team of social work students including Katy Janvier and Cindy Tao and a dozen medical students who call COVID-19-diagnosed patients to assess their needs and connect them with community and hospital resources. Under the direction of macro department chair Linda Sprague Martinez, PhD candidate Noelle Dimitri from the School of Social Work, and Buitron de la Vega, the students then follow up in two weeks to check in, documenting all calls in the patients’ files in EPIC, BMC’s platform for electronic medical records.

The THRIVE call center is an outgrowth of the BMC THRIVE Social Determinants of Health Screening and Referral program developed by an interdisciplinary team in 2016.

“The screener was developed based on the premise that patient health is linked to the social factors that shape their lives. Housing, transportation, employment, and food access are important determinants of health.

Social work, as a discipline, trains students to understand the relationship between people and their environment as they have a keen awareness of community context outside of the walls of the hospital and are able to navigate that context linking patients to needed services.” explains Sprague Martinez.

COVID-19 demanded a much more comprehensive response. “The THRIVE call center started with medical students calling patients diagnosed with COVID-19, but we quickly realized they needed more support and training to connect patients with resources,” Buitron de la Vega recalls. “Social work students bring all of these other skills to the table: how to build rapport and how to talk to patients who are struggling with adverse social circumstances.”

“Social work students can engage patients in a meaningful way, assess their priorities, and work with them to identify the resources that best meet their needs. This approach is patient-centered and values the lived experience and expertise of patients,” Sprague Martinez says. The two noted the importance of teamwork and collaboration across disciplines in advancing patient care.

“We need more opportunities for students to learn to collaborate and work as a team,” Buitron de la Vega notes.

The student teams complete the calls remotely from their homes by using apps that helped sponsor the project, including Doximity Dialer, which allows student callers to display a BMC caller ID; MindMeister, a cloud-based platform that allows users to visualize the call center workflows; and Aunt Bertha, which hosts the THRIVE directory of community resources.

To provide food assistance, THRIVE Call Center partnered with the City of Boston Mayor’s Office of Food Access. When patients do not have support to get food, this program sends a box of grocery staples and produce for three weeks. The entire team also meets weekly on Zoom with either Sprague Martinez or Buitron de la Vega to check in and troubleshoot any issues.

“The medical students appreciate how social work students engage patients and ask them questions. It’s not just about symptoms, but improving their health and well-being by considering the environment in which they live and work,” Sprague Martinez says.

Social work and medical students alike praise the experience and find they have much to learn from each other. “When Katy and Cindy joined the team, the scope and breadth of what we were able to do expanded so much,” medical student lead Kirsten Mojziszek says. “They are fearless in going out into the community and advocating for their patients. They have a much deeper knowledge of the resources.”

“Each field has something to contribute.

Each benefits the patient,” Tao stresses. “The needs of patients are so complex. We’re most successful when we work as a team to determine what the patients’ goals are.”

“This experience has been empowering for both the medical and social work students,” Buitron de la Vega says. “Medical students are learning when to bring in a social worker. Social work students are learning what they add to patient care and that their work is valuable.” n

ate Flewelling was named director of the Alumni Medical Library effective July 1, 2021. She takes over for Mary Blanchard, who retired after 25 years of service, including as library director for the last 12.

Flewelling received her BA cum laude from Mount Holyoke College and her MLIS from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

She comes to BUMC from the Network of the National Library of Medicine (NNLM), Middle Atlantic Region, where she has held the positions of outreach coordinator, health professions coordinator, and, since 2017, executive director.

Prior to her time at NNLM, she was a reference librarian and instruction coordinator at Upstate Medical University, State University of New York in Syracuse, where she facilitated library instruction for students, faculty, residents, and staff in the Colleges of Medicine, Nursing, Health Professions, and Graduate Studies, as well as the University Health System.

Flewelling also was a National Library of Medicine associate fellow and worked at Inova Fairfax Hospital Health Sciences Library in Falls Church, Virginia, a regional medical center where she provided reference, instruction, and training to healthcare professionals, medical students, patients, and the public. In addition, she was an associate fellow at the National Library of Medicine at the National Institutes of Health, in Bethesda, Maryland, where she received training in operations and resources, investigated and developed recommendations for gathering and reporting library statistics, provided on-site reference services, and conducted an information needs assessment of refugee health professionals.

Flewelling is a distinguished member of the Academy of Health Information Professionals and, in 2017, was named a distinguished alumna of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee School of Information Studies. She has held numerous professional appointments and currently is co-chair of the 2023 National Programming Committee of the Medical Library Association. She has an extensive record of presentations, publications, and professional activities. n Summer/Fall 2021 | bumc.bu.edu

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CAMPUS NEWS

GMS Master’s Graduates Urged to “Expect the Unexpected”

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n behalf of all the GMS faculty and staff, I want to tell you and your families how proud we are of your scholastic and professional accomplishments. You have earned the title of ‘masters’ in your field of expertise despite a global viral pandemic; despite rapidly shifting landscapes in the classroom, in the laboratory, the clinic, in your families, and in our nation,” said Deborah StearnsKurosawa, PhD, ad interim associate provost and dean of Graduate Medical Sciences, at the prerecorded 2021 GMS Convocation.

BU Medical Campus Provost and BUSM Dean Karen Antman, MD, greeted the class and wished the graduates well on their journeys.

“The faculty have great confidence in your creativity and innovation. You are smart, committed, resilient, and adaptive. We are confident that you will collectively and individually change the world. We are counting on it,” she said.

GMS conferred a total of 207 master’s degrees, including 5 MS/MPH; 33 MA; and 169 MS. Reshma Gheevarghese, a graduate of the Biomedical Forensic Sciences program, was chosen to be a class speaker. An active member of the student body throughout her time at GMS, she served as a classroom moderator, teaching assistant, and president of the Forensic Science Student Organization.

After graduation, she is pursuing a career as a forensic serologist or DNA analyst.

Gheevarghese reflected on feeling overwhelmed by the number of students at Boston University and GMS when she first visited Boston for the accepted students open house.

“Every student brought their unique histories. I feared for a moment that my voice would be lost in the numbers, but here I am,” she said.

She shared three revelations she experienced in her time at GMS: the need to reclaim the narrative of her Indian heritage, the importance of perseverance, and the realization that it takes a village to “raise a graduate student.”

Another chosen class speaker, Stephen Wright, completed the Mental Health Counseling and Behavioral Medicine program and was deemed “one of the best interns ever” by the supervisory team at his primary clinical placement.

Wright’s speech focused on the numerous ways the pandemic affected him, his fellow graduate students, and the world at large, and presented not only challenges and obstacles, but opportunities.

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Class speakers Reshma Gheevarghese, left, and Stephen Wright addressed the graduates.

“As we know, the last year has brought to the forefront of our attention the glaring inequities and injustices in our society. Discrepancies in the way our society treats people of color and Black-identifying people of color, LGBTQIA+ individuals, and those with lower socioeconomic status have been made inescapably clear,” he said. “The question now becomes, what are we going to do about it?”

A graduate of the MS in Medical Sciences (MAMS) program, Sara Sakowitz, was the final speaker. Heading to medical school in the fall, Sakowitz plans to devote her time to cancer research and medical education.

“The past year may not have been what any of us had imagined for our MAMS experience,” she said. “But I am so very grateful to have gone through this program with all of you, and I know that if we could get through this past year, there is frankly nothing we cannot do. I am so thrilled and honored to have you not just as my classmates, but as my friends.

In lieu of the traditional in-person hooding ceremony, GMS presented individual acknowledgement slides for each student.

“We know this cannot replace the traditional hooding and presentation of diplomas, however, recognizing each of our graduates’ achievements is important,” said Stearns-Kurosawa.

From May 12–15, several GMS programs held individual virtual celebrations for their graduates.

“It is unfortunate that we can’t be together in person to celebrate our students’ accomplishments, but we still are determined to recognize their success and send them off with best wishes for future success and happiness,” said Theresa Davies, PhD, assistant dean for master’s programs and director of the oral health sciences program. “We feel confident that as GMS graduates, they will make a difference in the world.” n

SEMC Expands its Affiliation to Become BU Teaching Hospital

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t. Elizabeth’s Medical Center (SEMC) in Brighton is now a Boston University teaching hospital under an agreement reached between the University and Steward Health Care, announced in May. The five-year partnership, which went into effect July 1, when the University began its academic year, deepens and expands an existing relationship between BU and SEMC that the parties say will benefit BU students and faculty, as well as patients of the Steward Health Care system. The deal will not impact the BU School of Medicine’s relationship with Boston Medical Center (BMC), its primary teaching affiliate.

The affiliation will bring more opportunities for BU medical clerkships for students to practice clinical rotations at SEMC’s 308-bed hospital, located about five miles west of the Medical Campus and less than two miles from the Charles River Campus. Approximately 170 BUSM students seek clerkships during their third year of studies (third-year medical students begin their academic year in May). For faculty, the partnership is expected to lead to more collaboration on clinical research.

“I am very pleased with the new affiliation between SEMC and our medical school,” BU President Robert A. Brown says. “The commitment by Steward Health Care to enhance SEMC as an academic medical center aligns well with our goals in medical education and clinical research.”

Karen Antman, Medical Campus provost and BUSM dean says the agreement with SEMC means more BUSM students— including those working to become physician assistants and mental health and genetic counselors—will be able to do clinical rotations at a nearby hospital committed to quality education.

“Medicine for future physicians, physician assistants, and mental health and genetic counseling requires hands-on patient care experience, one-on-one, or at most, smallgroup learning,” Antman says. “Ideally, each student is part of the team that cares for a number of patients, with increasing levels of responsibility under close supervision. This requires a large number of faculty and experiences with a large number of patients.”

This year, nine BUSM students at a time participated in clerkships at SEMC—in obstetrics and gynecology, psychiatry, and neurology—in rotations that last four to six weeks, depending on the specialty. BUSM plans to expand the number of these rotations at the Brighton hospital over the next three years and add clerkships in internal medicine, surgery, and radiology. The additional specialties and clerkship slots will mean a significant number of BUSM students would be studying at SEMC at any given time.

The agreement also means new clinical rotations for physician assistant and mental health and genetic counseling students— critical opportunities for professionals who must learn to collaborate, Antman says.

“Optimal care requires a team of providers, not just doctors with different specialties, but also pharmacists, nurses, PAs, too. It takes a village. Students need to work in these teams,” she says.

As of the 2020–2021 academic year, BUSM students participate in a range of clerkships at 27 hospitals, led by BMC. BUSM students also learn at more than 30 community health centers and group medical practices in Massachusetts, Maine, and New Hampshire.

“This is an exciting development for students and faculty,” Ravin Davidoff, chief medical officer of BMC and associate dean for clinical affairs at BUSM, says. “This academic affiliation offers students and faculty immediate opportunities for teaching and research collaborations and sets the stage for mutually beneficial opportunities across all of BUSM’s affiliates, especially BMC.” For St. Elizabeth’s, the agreement represents an opportunity to affiliate with one of the top medical schools in the country that champions quality, affordable care to all, says Harry Bane, president of Steward Health Care’s North Region. (Bane was previously the president of SEMC.)

The affiliation will bring more opportunities for medical student clerkships at SEMC, a 308-bed hospital located about five miles west of the Medical Campus.

“As a physician-led organization, Steward is committed to excellence in graduate medical education and training the next generation of physician leaders,” Bane says. “Our partnership with Boston University is the latest example of Steward investing in local communities, as St. Elizabeth’s serves as a top destination for patients throughout eastern Massachusetts who need highly specialized care at a sustainable price.”

Bane says BUSM’s commitment to community-based care and to vulnerable populations, demonstrated by the school’s long-standing relationship with BMC, was a big draw for Steward. “They serve patient populations that desperately need high-value care,” he says. “And that’s something we at St. Elizabeth’s have always been committed to, which is serving the underserved and the communities where we live and work.”

Physicians at SEMC also can enjoy broader clinical collaboration with BUSM, Bane says, that could lead to career and teaching opportunities. At the same time, students who study at SEMC will experience a setting where doctors are in leadership positions across the organization.

Bane says that while the agreement pertains to medical students now, SEMC is open to including educational opportunities for students in affiliated fields, such as occupational therapy and physical therapy. “Certainly, over time we want to grow this relationship to bring enhanced, innovative education and clinical experiences to St. Elizabeth’s that will optimize patient care,” Bane says. “And that certainly has the potential to go to other schools and programs over time to further strengthen and mature this relationship.”

About 25 clinicians who teach BUSM students during their rotations at SEMC already have BUSM faculty appointments, and the school expects that number to grow under the agreement. SEMC faculty will not become part of the Boston University Medical Group.

Instead, they will hold appointments similar to clinicians who teach BUSM students at Veterans Affairs (VA) hospitals and at Kaiser Permanente’s regional campus in California’s Silicon Valley.

As for medical research, Antman says, the affiliation with SEMC will strengthen clinical and research collaborations with BU’s Medical Campus faculty. “Collaboration on clinical research trials will allow us to answer research questions more quickly, and expanded research collaborations are possible in, for example, genetics, heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and sports medicine, including chronic traumatic encephalopathy,” Antman says.

Since 1957, SEMC has been affiliated with Tufts University School of Medicine, and will transition its affiliation through this agreement, Bane says.

For BU, SEMC’s Brighton campus adds to a diverse mix of healthcare environments that benefit the training of tomorrow’s doctors.

“Students need to see medicine provided in different settings,” Antman says. “They have BMC, where they see global diseases in patients who speak many different languages. At the VA they see deployment medicine. At St. Elizabeth’s hospital they will see a large urban hospital, and at our affiliates in Maine and in the Berkshires, they will experience rural medicine.” n Summer/Fall 2021 | bumc.bu.edu

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CAMPUS NEWS

GMS Student Spotlight:

Hello, Ryen Wilson

“We need different stories. We need nontraditional stories. We need you in genetics, in medicine, in dentistry, in healthcare. Your voice doesn’t only matter—it’s needed.”

Ryen Wilson

Oral Health Sciences Student

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n MS student in the Oral Health Sciences program, Ryen Wilson hopes to become a general dentist and work with queer, trans, and nonbinary survivors of partner abuse upon graduating in September 2021.

What drove you to pursue a career in science?

I’m originally from Fredericksburg, Virginia.

I went to the University of Virginia and majored in theater. I started getting interested in science during my fourth year, but I didn’t really know what I wanted to do with that.

I knew I wanted to act and do something “sciencey” on the side.

I ended up moving to Boston right after I graduated in 2017 and got a job as an ophthalmic technician at Ophthalmic Consultants of Boston (OCB). I thought it was interesting and fun, but I didn’t see myself working towards being an ophthalmologist or an optometrist in the end. I considered nursing, I considered medicine, I considered

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Boston University School of Medicine

being a physician assistant . . . was all over the place!

Eventually, I left OCB and started at The Network/La Red, which works with LGBTQIA+ survivors of partner abuse; my role in the organization was community awareness associate. Essentially, I was responsible for organizational outreach efforts as well as being the lead trainer for providers and community members, educating on partner abuse within LGBTQIA+ communities. It was a really busy time, but it felt significant and impactful. After starting there, I noticed through countless conversations at outreach events that a lot of survivor needs weren’t being met medically, specifically within dentistry. After listening to the experiences of a lot of survivors, I really started to explore and consider dentistry. Being an advocate shaped how I want to be a healthcare provider.

Since moving to Boston, I had started taking prerequisite classes at Salem State.

I shadowed a dentist at the Boston Healthcare for the Homeless Program and thought, “Wow, okay, this is something I find really interesting and could see myself doing.” After that experience, I focused on working full time while also taking the rest of my prerequisites in the evenings part time.

Eventually, my story shaped itself for me.

Now, my goal is to specifically work with survivors of partner abuse, survivors who identify under the LGBTQIA+ umbrella, and individuals who have experienced trauma and systemic oppression. That’s 100 percent my passion and my goal for why I want to be a dentist.

So, you were juggling your work at the OCB and later, La Red, with taking prerequisites and shadowing. How did you manage all that?

I have a great support system of family and friends. It wasn’t easy. First of all, finding someone to shadow isn’t easy. Especially finding someone who shares similar identities

as yours. For example, finding Black dentists, finding queer dentists . . . they’re out there, but they’re harder to find. Less than four percent of practicing dentists are Black. So, one of the biggest hurdles for me was just finding someone to shadow.

Luckily, I met one of my dental mentors early on in my pre-dental journey: Jobren Dingle, a faculty member at BU Dental.

Another one of my mentors is a dentist at the Cambridge Health Alliance named Caleb Tam. They have both been extremely monumental mentors to me in this journey and have shown me what being a truly awesome, competent dentist looks like.

From this time to this time, I’m in class.

From this time to this time, I need to hang out with my dog, go for a walk, play Breath of the Wild or Mario Kart, and just unwind. Since I moved here in 2017, it’s been work eight hours, then school for the rest of the night.

Luckily, I’m a full-time student now in OHS (Oral Health Sciences). This program has been difficult but more so, invaluable.

How did you choose BU? I was deciding between a few master’s programs. Honestly, Boston University’s Oral Health Sciences program was the most dentistry-focused and diverse. At that point, I knew I wanted to be a dentist. I had already talked to Dr. Davies, the program’s director, a year prior to applying, when I had first heard about the program. I introduced myself to her and shared my goals, toured the med and dental schools, and really loved everything about my experience that day. I met a few OHS alumni at the 2019 Impressions Day event that BU Dental’s SNDA (Student National Dental Association) hosted. They talked about how great the program was and how it was really beneficial for their success and overall preparation in dental school.

Everything was really pointing towards BU for my master’s, especially since 90 percent of their graduates matriculate to dental school. Also, Dr. Davies is by far one of the best program directors a student could ever ask for. Having her guidance alone is one

An MS student in the Oral Health Sciences program, Ryen Wilson hopes to become a general dentist and work with queer, trans, and nonbinary survivors of partner abuse upon graduating in September 2021. of the top reasons any pre-dental student should attend the OHS program.

You mentioned that your long-term goal is to work with survivors of partner abuse. How will you go about working in that space?

My goal is to be a general dentist. I think that will give me the most variety in terms of what I can do and who I can see. In terms of working with survivors of partner abuse, LGBTQIA+ folks, people of color, and individuals who are affected by systemic oppression, I think it’ll come down to networking with anti-oppressive programs/groups and actually being out and doing work in the community. I know what it’s like to be within an intersection of marginalized groups. I don’t know exactly how to get my name out there once I’m practicing. However, I do know that I want to get as much continued education around giving trauma-centered, culturally competent care while I’m in school and after I graduate. I don’t think that’s talked about enough in dentistry.

How have your identities influenced your perspectives as a future clinician?

One of the first things you’ll hear if you’re not a white, cishet (cisgender and heterosexual) dentist is that there’s not enough of us. I don’t know a lot of queer dentists—I

know maybe two. How many Black dentists are out there? I know fewer than 10. There’s so few of us there and we need to be there.

And once we are there, we need to focus on breaking down the barriers that make it difficult for marginalized groups to have and receive trauma-informed care. I think it’s imperative to diversify the field of dentistry because a lot of patients want to see providers who look like them and who share similar identities.

What advice do you have for incoming GMS students—especially those who might hold marginalized identities themselves?

Apply, put yourself out there, and share your story. We need different stories. We need nontraditional stories. We need you in genetics, in medicine, in dentistry, in healthcare.

Your voice doesn’t only matter—it’s needed.

Your future patients need you. Be intentional about what you want. If you’ve got goals, write them out. Break them down so you know exactly how you’ll get them done. Also, don’t let your first semester dictate how you view yourself. Push through, STUDY, get to your second semester, and you’ll see that you’re smart and capable of doing rigorous, graduate-level coursework.

Are you still involved in theater? How do you see that weaving into your professional journey?

It’s funny because if I had it my way, I’d work as a dentist three or four days a week and do theater the rest of the time. Right now, as much as I’d love to, I just don’t have the time. I don’t want to let that go, though. I want to incorporate it into my work. Learning theater and performance really shapes how you interact with people, how you make solid connections with them, how you empathize with them, and how you understand them.

Those foundational pieces are what I want to bring to dentistry.

Finally: what are your plans after you finish the OHS program?

I’ll be going to dental school at UCSF! n Summer/Fall 2021 | bumc.bu.edu

17

CAMPUS NEWS

White Coat Ceremony Welcomes Entering Class of 2021

“ Each of you are here with gifts to share.”

Students proudly don their white coats for the first time.

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fter a year of social distancing and a lack of in-person gatherings, incoming medical students and their family and friends safely gathered for the 2021 White Coat Ceremony. Palpable energy filled the air as 150 students processed through the arches of the Talbot building and under the large white tent on Talbot Green of Boston University’s Medical Campus.

A symbolic rite of passage for medical students, the White Coat Ceremony marks their official entrance to the study of medicine. On Monday, August 2, students recited the Hippocratic Oath for the first time, pledging their commitment to the profession and the trust that they must earn from their patients.

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Boston University School of Medicine

Associate Dean for Student Affairs Angela Jackson, MD, kicked things off and welcomed both in-person guests and the hundreds of people watching the celebration online.

Then Kristen Goodell, MD, associate dean for admissions, presented the class and highlighted their unique qualities to the crowd.

Drawn from a pool of nearly 12,000 candidates through six different entry pathways and 84 undergraduate institutions, this class is 60 percent women and 16 percent from groups underrepresented in medicine. More than 20 percent hold a graduate degree at the master’s level or above.

Representing a range of backgrounds and experiences, class members come from 30 different states in the US and 16 countries; 84 percent are at least bilingual

and, as a group, speak 30 different languages.

Medical Campus Provost and BUSM Dean Karen H. Antman, MD, shared her insight regarding transitioning into medical school, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“You and your classmates will have a bumpy ride, but managing challenges and solving problems is part of your socialization as physicians,” she said. “That kind of adaptive creativity has served the profession well during the COVID pandemic.”

Antman was followed by keynote speaker Sheila Chapman, MD, assistant professor of medicine at BUSM. Chapman, who also serves as associate chair for diversity and inclusion, passionately advocates for students, postgraduate train-

“You’ve displayed grit, resilience, and determination, which we now take time to acknowledge and celebrate.”

First-year students get ready to process into the tent on Talbot Green.

Dr. Sheila Chapman delivers the keynote address.

ees, residents, and fellows. In recent years, she has worked closely with the Department of Medicine’s Faculty Development and Diversity office as a cofounder and faculty mentor for the Willock Faculty Development Program. She also is a coleader on the Evans Student Scholars Summer Program, a sixweek career development program for rising second-year students from underrepresented groups in medicine.

“Let me congratulate you and tell you how proud I am that you were able to successfully complete your undergraduate studies and apply successfully to medical

Students recite the Hippocratic Oath, pledging their commitment to the profession and their patients.

school during the historic COVID-19 pandemic,” Chapman told students. “You’ve displayed grit, resilience, and determination, which we now take time to acknowledge and celebrate. We need you to bring your wonderful, authentic selves to your studies, interactions with peers, patients, and faculty. Each of you are here with gifts to share.”

Priya Garg, MD, associate dean for medical education, presented student names.

Faculty members Alexandra Bachorik, MD, EdM, assistant professor of medicine; Julia Bartolomeo, MD, assistant professor of family medicine; Toby Chai, MD, professor & chair of urology; Donald Hess, MD, assistant professor of surgery; Christine Crawford, MD, assistant professor of psychiatry; Jason Hall, associate professor of surgery; Cheryl McSweeney, MD, MPH, assistant professor of family medicine; Shaun Wason, assistant professor of urology; Sabrina Assoumou, MD, MPH, assistant professor of medicine; and Stephen Wilson, MD, MPH, FAAFP, professor & chair of family medicine, coated the students.

John Polk, associate dean of diversity and inclusion, delivered the closing remarks, noting that humility and compassion are the keys to success in the medical profession.

“Here is how I see your challenge,” he said. “It is up to you to make healthcare accessible—a reality—to every member of this society in a mindful and compassionate way.”

The ceremony concluded with the recitation of the Hippocratic Oath, led by Heather Miselis, MD, assistant dean for alumni affairs, who officially welcomed the students to the study of medicine. n Summer/Fall 2021 | bumc.bu.edu

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FACULTY

News

Appointments, Honors & Awards Metcalf Winner Fadie Coleman paves the path to STEM degrees for underrepresented and working students Teaching her first class last fall at the School of Medicine, postdoctoral associate Marianne Collard naturally had beginner’s jitters. But in Fadie Coleman, Collard found a mentor who’d taught students from college to middle and high school—and was only too happy to teach a fellow teacher.

“I met with Dr. Coleman weekly, where she helped me refine my syllabus, plan class lessons, and evaluate students’ learning, providing guidance that was exceptional,” Collard wrote in a letter nominating Coleman (CAS’97, MED’16), assistant professor of medical sciences and education, for a 2021 Metcalf Award for Excellence in Teaching, one of Boston University’s highest teaching honors.

“Perhaps Dr. Coleman’s most admirable quality,” Collard wrote, “is her advocacy for diversity and equality. As a person of color herself, Dr. Coleman understands and empathizes with struggles minority students face, which comprise the majority of the BLCS program.”

BLCS is the Biomedical Laboratory & Clinical Sciences Program, a collaboration between BUSM and Metropolitan College, which offers evening classes for working students seeking bachelor’s degrees in biotechnology. It’s a gateway to STEM education—perhaps the only one—for underrepresented minorities and nontraditional students.

That’s a point of pride for Coleman, who became the program’s director on joining BUSM in 2017 and knows firsthand the value of such gateways. Growing up in New Jersey without professional role models, she says that “picturing myself as a scientist did not become a reality until I met encouraging mentors, who treated me like a scientist from the very first day” at BU. A University summer internship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital exposed her to medical research.

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Boston University School of Medicine

Senior year, she completed a career counseling survey “out of pure curiosity” and discovered a second passion: teaching. Upon graduating, she taught science in several Boston-area communities—chemistry and physical science in middle school; biology, physical science, and laboratory research in high school—and those years inform her university instruction.

“My experiences working with younger students help me to quickly assess where students are,” Coleman says, “and develop effective teaching strategies for introducing new material, reinforcing content knowledge, and encouraging critical thought at appropriate levels.” She learned another valuable lesson: “to reassure my students with great confidence that they can do the work. I love engaging with the range of students that I work with because it keeps me from forgetting what it was like to be in their shoes.”

During her directorship, the BLCS has awarded 59 bachelor of science degrees, with another 21 anticipated for this year.

“Dr. Coleman redesigned the BLCS curriculum by integrating updated laboratory techniques, scientific writings, and streamlining the internship programs,” her department chair, Hee-Young Park, professor of medical sciences and education, wrote in her recommendation letter to the University’s Teaching Awards Committee. “The redesigned curriculum was well received by the students and she received positive evaluations from the students.”

She also taught four BLCS courses herself in each semester this academic year.

In addition to her BU degrees, Coleman earned a master’s from Harvard.

A gift from the late Arthur G. B. Metcalf (Wheelock’35, Hon.’74), a BU Board of Trustees chair emeritus and former professor, funds the Metcalf Cup and Prize and the Metcalf Awards for Excellence in Teaching, created in 1973 as the University’s highest teaching awards. The cup and prize winner receives $10,000; the award winners, $5,000 each. A University committee selects winners

based on statements of nominees’ teaching philosophy, supporting letters from colleagues and students, and classroom observations of the nominees. n Elizabeth Hutton Receives Stanley L. Robbins Award for Excellence in Teaching Elizabeth Hutton, MD, assistant professor of medicine and pediatrics, has been recognized with BUSM’s highest teaching honor, the Stanley L. Robbins Award for Excellence in Teaching.

The annual award honors an outstanding educator and acknowledges the importance of teaching skills and commitment to students and education. It was established in recognition of the exceptional teaching and devotion to students exemplified by Stanley L. Robbins, MD, former professor and chair of pathology.

“Dr. Hutton is simply superb as an educator and at giving feedback,” said a BUSM colleague. “Students routinely tell me that she gives them the most detailed, specific, and actionable feedback. In addition, she is a strong advocate for our students. Whether a struggling student on service or one who excels, Dr. Hutton finds ways to support those who need help and makes time in her busy schedule to independently reach out to residency programs on behalf of applicants so that they can achieve their residency program aspirations.”

Another colleague describes Hutton as demonstrating characteristics all educators should strive for—a thorough engagement in student learning, a clear sense of student expectations, the ability to provide specific feedback to learners, and a willingness to create and enact an action plan to help them improve. “Her ability to identify struggling learners in a timely fashion—and report it to course leadership along with an action plan to help that learner improve—has been invaluable in assisting our students to meet their expectations.”

Hutton serves as the medical director of the pediatric inpatient unit at Boston Medical Center. According to a colleague, she is attentive to educational concerns from an administrative level in her role running the inpatient service. “Over the years she has innovated ways in which hospitalist faculty can contribute to education and has routinely gone above and beyond in her consideration for how to set up a service that can really assess the competency of medical students,” another colleague said.

Hutton’s research interests include medical education, quality improvement in inpatient pediatric care, faculty development, improving coordination of care between inpatient and outpatient providers, and childhood onset chronic disease.

She completed her medicine-pediatrics residency program at Brigham & Women’s Hospital and Boston Children’s Hospital. n Sandra Looby-Gordon Receives Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award Sandra Looby-Gordon, MD, is the recipient of the Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award, presented by the Arnold P. Gold Foundation to faculty who best demonstrate the foundation’s ideals of outstanding compassion in the delivery of care; respect for patients, their families, and healthcare colleagues; and clinical excellence.

A clinical associate professor of medicine who has served on the faculty since 1992, Looby-Gordon is a primary care provider who also treats complex patients with substance use disorders. She is known for her empathy toward patients and colleagues and for being a role model for her trainees to whom she teaches primary care, inpatient general medicine, addiction medicine, and culturally competent care. In her own words, her goal is to provide excellent care with compassion and respect, regardless of her patients’ zip codes.

Admired and appreciated by her colleagues, patients, and medical students

alike, Looby-Gordon embodies compassion and empathy as a caregiver and approaches teaching with sensitivity and openness. A nurse colleague said, “She’s an incredible human being and always treats her coworkers and patients with dignity and respect. She goes above and beyond for her patients and is very knowledgeable, patient, and kind.”

A physician colleague said, “I love having the opportunity to precept residents with her or participate in a case conference with her.

Being in her presence, you always feel the warmth and caring for the patients, her trainees, and her colleagues.”

Admired and appreciated by her colleagues, patients, and medical students alike, Looby-Gordon embodies compassion and empathy as a caregiver and approaches teaching with sensitivity and openness.

Evaluations from medical students and residents demonstrate her superlative personal and professional skills. Their comments have included, “Dr. Looby-Gordon was a pleasure to learn from as she instantly made students feel at ease and capable of performing their clinical duties without fear”; “I felt she valued my opinions and thoughts on rounds”; and “Very caring about the patients, always addressing their social determinants of health as well.” A patient wrote, “She has been my doctor for almost 20 years. She is friendly and easy to talk with about problems.”

A public, nonprofit organization founded

by Drs. Arnold and Sandra Gold to perpetuate the tradition of the caring doctor by emphasizing the importance of the relationship between the practitioner and the patient,

the Arnold P. Gold Foundation’s objective is to help physicians-in-training become doctors who combine the high-tech skills of cutting-edge medicine with the high-touch skills of effective communication, empathy, and compassion. n Christian Arbelaez Appointed Chief, Chair of Emergency Medicine Christian Arbelaez, MD, MPH, has been named the Department of Emergency Medicine chief at Boston Medical Center and chair at Boston University School of Medicine.

Arbelaez previously served as vice chair of Academic Affairs and associate professor of emergency medicine at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University with appointments at Rhode Island, Hasbro Children’s, and The Miriam & Newport hospitals.

Arbelaez completed his medical degree at University of Texas Medical Branch, an emergency medicine residency at Brown University/Rhode Island Hospital, and fellowships at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (minority health policy) and American College of Emergency Physicians (teaching).

An innovative leader and expert in emergency care delivery systems and public health and policy, Arbelaez has given more than 100 presentations and authored more than 70 publications during his 20-year academic career. His strong clinical leadership and track record developing faculty will advance the mission of the academic medical center and the effectiveness of the Emergency Medicine Department.

Special thanks to Jon Olshaker, MD, who served as chief and chair of the Emergency Medicine Department for the past 19 years and last year announced his plans to step down from his leadership role once a successor was named. Olshaker has made many lasting contributions to the Emergency Medicine Department, including establishing programs and interventions that have become national models for advocacy, research, and teaching. n Summer/Fall 2021 | bumc.bu.edu

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FACULTY NEWS

Appointments, Honors & Awards

Tuhina Neogi Named Alan S. Cohen Professor of Rheumatology Tuhina Neogi, MD, PhD, was named the Alan S. Cohen Professor of Rheumatology on February 17 as her colleagues, friends, and family gathered virtually to witness the installation and celebrate her work in rheumatology.

Neogi is section chief of rheumatology and professor of medicine at BUSM, professor of epidemiology at SPH, chief of rheumatology at Boston Medical Center, and an investigator at the Framingham Heart Study. She received her MD from the University of Toronto and PhD from Boston University School of Public Health.

This professorship honors the late Dr. Cohen, who graduated from BUSM in 1953, trained at Boston City Hospital, and in 1960 established the first BUSM arthritis section.

He served in various leadership roles until his retirement in 1998.

BUSM Dean Karen Antman, MD, kicked off the virtual event. “Installations are joyous academic events that celebrate two Boston University School of Medicine professors, one historic and the other a new, younger, outstanding professor,” she said.

David Coleman, MD, FAACP, Wade Professor and chair of medicine at BUSM, then introduced Neogi.

“Her many, many accomplishments are filled with descriptions of honors from a number of local and national service organizations, where she has been involved in setting the standards of care and treatment for patients with rheumatic diseases, and in particular with osteoarthritis and gout,” said Coleman. “It is in these two areas, osteoarthritis and gout, where she is known throughout the world for the clarity of her thinking and ability to bring methodological rigor to the important studies of these conditions.”

He added that Neogi has played a critical role in establishing career development programs and increasing efforts to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion on the Medical Campus.

“She may be small, but she is mighty.

Tuhina is an influencer; she is a key informant; she is a respected expert in our field,” said Gillian Hawker, MD, MSc, the Sir John and Lady Eaton Professor and chair of medicine at the University of Toronto and an 22

Boston University School of Medicine

internationally recognized leader in osteoarthritis research.

David Felson, MD, MPH, professor of medicine at BUSM and professor of epidemiology at SPH, a thought leader in the field of rheumatology, spoke to the importance of Neogi’s work in osteoarthritis. “It’s a big public health problem,” he said. “Throughout the world, it is one of the major causes of disability that we’re grappling with.”

He noted the considerable influence of her work, which has refocused the field of osteoarthritis on what causes pain and why patients seek care.

“That’s what matters to patients, and what we need to treat,” said Felson. “The NIH has recognized a lot of this work and has awarded Tuhina three RO1 [grants] in the last year to pursue this investigative work.”

Felson said Neogi has also been a major force in the treatment of gout, spearheading efforts to encourage more comprehensive and aggressive treatment, leading guidelines committees, and writing reviews of gout management in the New England Journal of Medicine.

In thanking her many colleagues and supporters, Neogi said, “I went and got a Kleenex just before I came into the room—and sure enough, I’ve gotten teary-eyed.”

Her family congratulated her, including cousins tuning in from India and her aunt and uncle from the West Coast. Her in-laws and other family members shared their joy in her achievements.

“Tuhina really embodies the role of being a caregiver but also a thought leader, a researcher, and an all-encompassing practitioner,” said her husband, Scott.

A cousin, recalling the time her 14-year-old son needed neck surgery, recounted how the family consulted Neogi, who worked her way through a thorough differential diagnosis.

“Her questions were so insightful and prompted a process that led everybody, including the surgeons, to think about it more deeply and approach the case in a way that ultimately led to a successful surgery,” she said. n Katya Ravid Installed as Barbara E. Corkey Professor of Medicine Katya Ravid, DSc, was installed on May 20 as the Barbara E. Corkey, PhD, Professor of Medicine in a virtual ceremony witnessed by colleagues, friends, and family.

This professorship was made possible thanks to support from the Department of Medicine and a generous bequest from Drs. Barbara and Richard F. Corkey.

Ravid, professor of medicine, biochemistry, and biology, is the founding director of the Evans Center for Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research and of the BU Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research Office, and the director of the Master of Science Program in Biomedical Research. She also is a member of the BU-BMC Cancer Center, Whitaker Cardiovascular Institute, and Genome Science Institute.

Ravid is known for seminal discoveries in the field of megakaryocyte and platelet biology.

BUSM Dean Karen Antman, MD, delivered the opening remarks. “The installation of a new professorship is one of the most joyous occasions in academia, perhaps second only to graduation,” she said. “Professorships both honor the distinguished faculty member named, and also the outstanding faculty member who will be supported by this professorship.”

This professorship honors Corkey, professor emerita of medicine, who served as the Zoltan Kohn Professor of Medicine and vice chair for research in the department of medicine. She has been a leader in the fields of diabetes and obesity research for more than 50 years, with 190 related publications and 40 years of continuous federal research support.

David Coleman, MD, FAACP, Wade Professor and chair of medicine, introduced Drs. Corkey and Ravid to the virtual crowd.

“Today we are celebrating science and discovery. We are celebrating mentorship and role models, and we are celebrating two incredibly important women scientists,” he said.

Coleman mentioned that he had the pleasure of working with Corkey in her role as vice chair of research, a position she held for 12 years. “Through her energy and insights, she

really revolutionized the role in our department. It was through her efforts that new initiatives to support our faculty and new research programs arose.”

Ravid is known for seminal discoveries in the field of megakaryocyte and platelet biology. As a recognized leader in this field, she has received awards from and has been recognized by national and international societies, including the American Heart Association Established Investigator Award, fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the French National Research Agency, University of Sydney Professorship Award, Weizmann Institute Visiting Professorship Award, the Fulbright Research Scholar Award, and three BUSM mentoring and teaching awards. She currently serves as president of the Massachusetts Academy of Sciences.

“What is not captured in all of these awards is how generous she is with her time, with her insight, and the degree to which she cares about all members of her community,” Coleman said of Ravid.

Mark Prentki, PhD, professor of nutrition, biochemistry, and molecular medicine at Université de Montréal, and Joseph E. Italiano Jr, PhD, associate professor of Harvard Medical School and founder of Platelet Biogenesis, spoke about the work and legacy of Corkey and Ravid, respectively.

Corkey shared her gratitude for her family, friends, and colleagues, as well as her admiration of Ravid’s intellectual and leadership abilities.

“I would like to express my great pleasure in the selection of Katya Ravid as the incumbent chair in my name,” she said. “Your intelligence, focus, spirit of collegiality, and inclusiveness personifies good leadership.”

Three of Ravid’s former trainees took to the virtual podium to share their mentorship experiences. Cynthia St. Hilaire, PhD, associate professor of medicine at University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Hao Nguyen, MD, PhD, who holds an endowed associate professorship at the University of California San Francisco, and Milka Koupenova, PhD, assistant professor of medicine at University of Massachusetts Medical School, all spoke graciously and passionately about the impact of Ravid’s mentoring and teaching on their academic careers.

Ravid addressed the group, noting that most faculty members do not have the plea-

sure of knowing the person whose name they carry as an endowed chair, and her unique position in being able to thank and congratulate Corkey personally.

She described her recruitment to BU, thanked family members, recognized BU faculty and trainees with whom she collaborated or had mentored, and told the group, “Rewarding science is born out not only of courage, creativity, and tenacity, but out of generosity as well.”

Ravid’s family and friends joined the Zoom meeting to celebrate her accomplishment.

“My mom has always shared her curiosity with us, and moreover, taught us how we might use that curiosity to better understand ourselves and the world around us, like a true scientist,” said her daughter, Noga Ravid.

Another trainee of Ravid’s, Shannon Carroll, said, “I cannot express how grateful I am for my time in the Ravid Lab and at BU, and for all I learned about not only science, but also myself.” n Emelia Benjamin Promoted to Associate Provost, BUMC Faculty Development Emelia J. Benjamin, MD, ScM, FACC, FAHA, professor of medicine and epidemiology at BUSM and BUSPH and a clinical cardiologist at BMC, has been promoted from assistant to associate provost, BUMC Faculty Development.

Benjamin is deeply engaged in the professional development of healthcare professionals and has a fundamental commitment to mentoring minority and underrepresented early-career, mid-career, and established investigators in epidemiology, genetic epidemiology, and academic health sciences. She was appointed assistant provost for Faculty Development in 2015. Benjamin has codeveloped and led faculty development efforts on the Medical Campus with her colleagues at GSDM, BUSPH, and BUSM over the last 11 years, during which time more than 560 faculty members have participated in the various programs. In addition, she has conducted more than 600 faculty career consultations since 2015. She currently serves as primary mentor or coprimary mentor on seven NIH Ks.

Benjamin is deeply engaged in the professional development of healthcare professionals and has a fundamental commitment to mentoring minority and underrepresented early-career, midcareer, and established investigators.

Benjamin is a coprincipal investigator of the Framingham Heart Study core contract, and principal investigator or multiprincipal investigator of 11 RO1s since 1998, including an MPI grant on the genetics of atrial fibrillation. She has published more than 620 original research articles and is listed on the Thomson Reuters List of Highly Cited Researchers (top one percent) in medicine.

She has received multiple honors, including the 2020 Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine (AAIM) Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Award, the American Heart Association’s (AHA) Paul Dudley White Award, the AHA Women in Cardiology Mentoring Award, the AHA Functional Genomics and Translational Biology Mentoring Award, the 2020 Boston Medical Center Jerome Klein Award for Physician Excellence, and the Department of Medicine mentoring and inpatient teaching awards. This year, Benjamin is being inducted into the Association of American Physicians. n Robert Lowe Named Assistant Dean for Medical Education Robert Lowe, MD has been named assistant dean of Medical Education for Clinical Integration. An associate professor of medicine at BUSM, Lowe is a graduate of Harvard Medical School and completed his residency and chief residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

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FACULTY NEWS

Appointments, Honors & Awards

Lowe has been heavily involved in multiple aspects of the educational programs at BUSM and Boston Medical Center (BMC) since arriving in 2001. He is codirector of the second-year pathophysiology course, Disease and Therapy (DRx), as well as an associate clerkship director in the third-year Internal Medicine Clerkship. He is also a member of the Academy of Medical Educators Program, teaches first- and second-year students in doctoring, and advises students across the four years. He is director of the Medical Education Pathway for the BMC Internal Medicine Residency Program and a key faculty member in the Department of Medicine, attending frequently on the medicine wards and running educational conferences for house staff.

Lowe is active in curriculum development for medical students, house officers, and fellows, with special interest in the teaching of clinical reasoning skills and fostering professionalism among medical trainees.

He has received numerous teaching awards, including BUSM’s Stanley Robbins Award, BU’s Metcalf Award, and the Grant V. Rodkey Award for Outstanding Contributions to Medical Education from the Massachusetts Medical Society.

In his new role, Dr. Lowe will focus primarily on the integration of foundational and clinical science across the four-year MD curriculum. He will be designing and implementing a new case-based integrated portion of the curriculum that will begin in 2022. n David Atkinson Announces Plans to Step Down as Chair of Physiology & Biophysics After 45 years at BUSM and 15 as chair of the Department of Physiology & Biophysics, David Atkinson, PhD, has announced his plans to step down as chair to concentrate on his research program and teaching as a member of the faculty.

Atkinson received his BS in physics with honors, with specialization in X-ray crystallography, from the City, University of London and his PhD in biophysics from the Council for National Academic Awards in the UK. He was recruited to BUSM in 1975, joining what, at that time, was the Biophysics Institute. He helped transform the institute to departmental status and 24

Boston University School of Medicine

establish a graduate PhD program in biophysics in 1988, and was key to the merger with the physiology department to form the Department of Physiology & Biophysics in 2000. He has served as chair since 2005.

Atkinson is internationally recognized for his research to understand, at a molecular and structural level, the formation and function of the plasma lipoproteins that play a central role in the pathophysiology of cardiovascular disease, particularly low-density lipoprotein (“bad cholesterol”) and highdensity lipoprotein (“good cholesterol”). His research was continuously funded for more than 30 years through an NIH National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) Program Project “Structural and Cell Biology of Cardiovascular Disease,” in which he directed a component project and a structural biology core; he led the program project for more than 10 years. Subsequently, he has continued his research through an independent research grant. Atkinson was a visiting scholar, Division of Structural Studies, Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, England in 1987–1988.

Atkinson has served on a variety of scientific, administrative, and advisory committees at international, national, industry, university, and medical school levels, including a fouryear term as a member of the parent Program Project Review Committee, NHLBI. He teaches in many varied disciplines in PhD, MS, MD, and DMD programs, including macromolecular structure and function, molecular biophysics, lipid, lipoprotein and membrane biochemistry, and hepatic and pancreatic physiology and endocrinology.

He received the Excellence in Teaching in the Basic Sciences award, Boston University Goldman School of Dental Medicine, in 2008. He has mentored more than 25 PhD students and postdoctoral fellows and numerous students in the University and school’s outreach and diversity programs such as Undergraduate Research, RISE, STaRS, and EMSSP. n William Lehman, PhD, Appointed Chair ad interim of Physiology & Biophysics William Lehman, PhD, Professor of Physiology & Biophysics, was appointed chair ad

interim of the Department of Physiology & Biophysics, effective July 1. Lehman succeeded David Atkinson, PhD, who stepped down as chair at the end of June.

Lehman received his doctorate in biology from Princeton University. He completed postdoctoral training in muscle biochemistry and biophysics at Brandeis University and was a Unilever Fellow at Oxford University before joining the BUMC community in 1973 as an assistant professor in the former Department of Physiology.

Lehman’s research focuses on the assembly and function of actin-containing thin filaments in muscle and nonmuscle cells in order to elucidate mechanisms of calcium regulation of muscle contraction and to better understand cytoskeletal remodeling. He applies a combination of molecular biology, cryo-electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and computational modeling to define the interactions and dynamics of protein components of normal and mutant actin filaments, in particular those leading to cardiomyopathies.

Continuously funded by the NIH for more than 25 years, which included Shannon and MERIT awards, his work has led to fundamental understanding of troponintropomyosin-based calcium regulation of muscle contraction and its dysfunction during disease. Lehman’s work is internationally recognized for its excellence, and he has been an invited speaker and chair at symposia multiple times in Europe and the UK. Lehman has served in several roles within the department, including as course director for the dental and OHS physiology courses, as well as a member of a number of departmental committees. He also has served on several University committees, including the Committee on Basic Life Sciences and the Appeals Committee for Promotions in the Seven-Year Medical Student program. Lehman has received the first Faculty Recognition Award for Educational Innovation and a Spencer N. Frankl Award for Excellence in Teaching, both from the Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine. Lehman is an editor of the Journal of Muscle Research and Cell Motility and the journal Biology. He has been a reviewer for the NIH and other funding agencies both nationally and internationally. n

LaKedra Pam Puts Her Passion for Trivia to Good Use OB-GYN, and two-time Jeopardy! winner, now stars on GSN’s Master Minds

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE GAME SHOW NETWORK

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he’s the lady with all the answers: LaKedra Pam, a School of Medicine assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology, has made a side career out of her passion for trivia. These days, she stars on the Game Show Network’s Master Minds.

“My family is much more excited about my game show life than my OB-GYN life,” says says Pam, who is moonlighting as a game show contestant and personality. “They don’t get to see me do C-sections, but seeing me on TV is really exciting for them!” Pam is currently a cast member of the Game Show Network series Master Minds, where challengers compete to win $10,000 by knowing more than each other and resident experts like Pam and Ken Jennings (best known for amassing more than $4.5 million from his appearances on Jeopardy!).

And speaking of Jennings: this isn’t Pam’s first trivia rodeo. She is also a two-time Jeopardy! champ—she appeared on three episodes in December 2017, took home just under $35,000 (“I bought a car!” she says), and had the honor of being deemed a “trivia buzz saw” by the late, great Alex Trebek. Her Jeopardy! wins are what led her to this latest show: as a Jeopardy! alum, she became involved in the alumni community’s trivia conventions and competitions, where she eventually caught the eye of Master Minds producers.

Pam officially joined the show as one of its “master minds” in early 2020, a role she stepped into with gusto. On an episode that aired this past February, she was steely during the show’s prerequisite smack talk.

“I am ready to dominate,” she said, staring down the three challengers. Master minds and challengers go head-to-head for three rounds, with the one scoring lowest on each side being eliminated until it’s one-on-one. If a challenger defeats any of the master minds three times, that person joins the experts panel, potentially knocking one of the master minds off the show.

LaKedra Pam

Not that it’s happened yet, of course— the experts are, naturally, wildly smart. They rattle off factual anecdotes after questions, including a recent minimonologue from Pam about how house cats (no, really!) are the biggest killers of birds every year.

So, she wasn’t fazed by the threat of competition. “Highly unlikely, Brooke,” she told host Brooke Burns, after Burns explained the consequences of losing to a challenger. She shook her head: “I don’t think so.”

That’s because trivia has always been Pam’s thing. Growing up in Louisiana, she watched Jeopardy! every afternoon with her parents. As she told Trebek during one of her contestant interviews, when she was just five or six, she asked her dad how she could one day get on Jeopardy! His advice? Try to learn three new things a day. It was a challenge she accepted.

“I’ve always had a curiosity about random things, and in addition to that, I’ve always been a massive reader—I would read the encyclopedia or the World Almanac for fun,” Pam explains. “My brain is the type that’s

wired to hold onto nuggets of information, and in general I’m really good at remembering things I’ve read or seen somewhere.”

It’s a skill that comes in handy as an OBGYN at Boston Medical Center and as a BUSM faculty member. “I teach the essentials of care in the clinic, the delivery room, in the operating room, and so on,” she says. She also recently became the clerkship director for her specialty, which means she’s in charge of the third-year OB-GYN student rotation.

Obstetrics wasn’t always her plan, however—Pam initially thought she’d go into pediatrics. An obstetrics residency at Northwestern University’s teaching hospital changed that: “I didn’t have that aha moment during my pediatrics rotation, but I had it just about every single day of my OB-GYN residency,” she recalls. “It was over for any other specialty after that.”

Once a year she takes a break from BMC and BUSM and heads to Los Angeles to film Master Minds. She’s there for about a week at a time. The shooting schedule is grueling, with as many as six episodes filmed in a single day. (“It’s nothing I’m not already used to as an obstetrician, but when I go out to California to tape, it’s no vacation,” she says.) Despite the 10-hour days, it’s less stressful than her Jeopardy! shoots—“There’s not nearly as much pressure involved,” Pam explains. “If I’m not the last master mind standing at the end of a game, I don’t consider that ‘losing’ the same way one would if I were trying to win money.”

So, what’s next for Pam? Her own trivia spin-off? A memoir about her double life?

For someone who generally has all the answers, she’s noticeably mum on the topic. What she can say for sure is that she’s enjoying the ride: “I consider myself an obstetrician first and foremost, but I am really grateful that I’ve gotten the opportunity to turn my hobby into something as unique as being a regular on a TV show!”

Want to watch? Stream full episodes of Master Minds at gameshownetwork.com. n Summer/Fall 2021 | bumc.bu.edu

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COVER STORY | CROSS-COUNTRY CLERKSHIPS

Cross-Country Clerkship Program

Ramps Up Teaching COVID-19 brings hurdles, opportunities

BY ART JAHNKE

R A E Y E FIV UPDATE 26

Boston University School of Medicine

The elderly patient was understandably anxious: aortic valve replacement was a serious operation.

“I’m very worried about the surgery,” he said, speaking in Vietnamese from his hospital bed. “I don’t want to go through with it. I’m afraid that I will die.”

Mymy Nguyen (MED’21) looked at him calmly. “You are not going to die,” she told him, also speaking Vietnamese. “In fact, we know that you are going to be fine, because you have already had the surgery, and it went very well. I’m just here to see how you’re feeling today.”

For the frightened patient, the exchange in his native tongue brought relief, and for Nguyen, a third-year student at BUSM, who just completed a year-long clerkship program at a Kaiser Permanente medical center, it brought meaning.

“That was an important moment for me,” says Nguyen, who is currently completing the business component of BU’s

MD/MBA dual degree program.“I feel that medical literacy is very important, and this was an opportunity to improve that, and to help the patient understand what was happening.”

In the five years since the School of Medicine started a clerkship program at the Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara and San Jose Medical Centers, 103 Boston University medical students have spent all or part of their third year of medical school in Silicon Valley, admitting patients, delivering babies, learning how to talk to patients and to family members of patients in various stages of medical crisis. At the Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Santa Clara, California, they have done clerkships in pediatrics, surgery, radiology, and psychiatry. In San Jose, where Nguyen studied, students complete core clerkships in family medicine, OB-GYN, internal medicine, psychiatry, and neurology. And all the time they were away, they attended Bostonbased lectures and academic discussions via Zoom.

The Kaiser Regional Campus offers third-year BU medical students completing their required clinical experiences a sunny alternative to Boston winters, as well as an alternative to clerkships in the many long-standing BUSM clinical affiliates, including Boston Medical Center, Boston Children’s Hospital, St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center, Mount Auburn Hospital, VA Boston Healthcare, and more than 40 private and group practices and community health centers across New England. It also offers an up-close and personal look at a different kind of healthcare system, an “integrated” system that is highly regarded for its emphasis on preventive care, its reliance on evidence-based medicine, and for doctors who are salaried, rather than paid a fee for service, an arrangement that discourages unnecessary tests and procedures.

“That, I think, is a big benefit of the program,” says Subbu Lakshmi, MD, an internal medicine co-clerkship site director at the Kaiser Medical Center in San Jose.

“Kaiser helps the students understand integrated medicine. They see the seamless

Summer/Fall 2021 | bumc.bu.edu

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COVER STORY | CROSS-COUNTRY CLERKSHIPS

transition from inpatient to outpatient to follow-up.

They see that doctors don’t have to run around trying to figure out how to get authorization to do tests or procedures. They see the attendings ordering what they think is needed.”

“What that means for students,” says Francis Chu, MD, assistant dean and program director in Family Medicine at Kaiser San Jose, “is when they leave here, the students can look at things through a different lens.

We provide them with a perspective that helps them compare and contrast.”

Jack Killion (MED’21), who was a clerkship student two years ago and is now a resident in emergency medicine at Yale, says that observing the patients’ complete treatment from beginning to end was an enlightening experience. “I appreciated training in an integrated health system,” he says, “I think it improves the patient experience by providing a more streamlined experience with fewer concerns about what services their insurance might or might not cover. It favors a bigger-picture view of how a given patient’s disease is managed throughout their hospitalization.”

Nguyen agrees. “It’s a great opportunity to work in a different kind of care system,” she says.

“I can compare it to other systems and see all of the pros and cons.”

Every medical specialty presents students with its own daily schedule, but most days begin between 7 am and 8 am, when students arrive for morning visits with the patients they have admitted. At around 9 am, they join attending physicians on their morning rounds, checking on patients’ progress. Next comes a 30-minute one-on-one with attendings, where potential clinical treatments are discussed.

Lunchtime does not necessarily mean free time, as it often includes conferences with medical experts or other instruction.

In the afternoons, students may admit patients from the emergency room, always with supervision and guidance from an attending physician. The student sits with the patient and records a complete medical history, reviews available labs, and takes a stab at diagnosing the problem and formulating a treatment plan.

“It gives them the real experience of admitting patients,” says Lakshmi. “They go through their physical history and an examination.”

Later, the students will check up on the patients they have admitted and attend meetings with patients’ families. “They follow up with their patients,” says Lakshmi. “They see which patients are having procedures and they see how those procedures have gone.”

Jacqueline Chak, MD, an inpatient pediatrics hospitalist who teaches pediatric medicine at the Santa Clara medical center, says the discussions with family members are an important part of medical training.

“These students are part of a team that sees patients 28

Boston University School of Medicine

Previous pages, from left: Students attend in-person orientation at the Kaiser Santa Clara facility on their first day visiting campus; Sarah Singh assists on a six-hour coronary artery bypass graft surgery during cardiovascular week while rotating through surgery; All students attend a lecture by Dr. Danny Sam on Kaiser’s history and the population they will serve.

every day,” she says. “We want them to be the point person. We want parents and families to see them as the primary caretakers, and see us as just backing them up. We are teaching them the medicine and also how to communicate with families and how to approach children, who are often scared of medical providers. We are teaching them how to be doctors.”

Throughout its first four years, the Kaiser clerkship program carried its dozen or so participants smoothly along the often intense journey from students to doctors. Things changed, in March 2020, when COVID-19 arrived.

“COVID affected the teaching here the same ways that it affected teaching everywhere,” says Elizabeth Yellen, MD, assistant dean of medical education for affiliated sites and director of Kaiser Permanente Regional Campus. “The third-year students went home for spring break and never came back. They missed the last bit of hospital training; we had to switch to virtual teaching of clinical medicine, which was challenging, to say the least.”

Throughout its first four years, the Kaiser clerkship program carried its dozen or so participants smoothly along the often intense journey from students to doctors. Things changed, in March 2020, when COVID-19 arrived.

The pandemic also disrupted the schedule of 2020–2021 clerkship students. Instead of arriving at the California hospitals in May, they waited until September. To make sure that the summer months’ education would not be lost, the medical faculty used the time to present much of the didactic teaching that normally would take place over the course of the year.

At Kaiser, as at hospitals across the country, COVID-19 drastically altered services, as nonCOVID-19 related procedures were canceled or postponed until beds opened up and the risk of infection subsided.

“That really affected the ability of the students to see the cases they should have been seeing,” says Chu. “It limited their experience, but our faculty were pretty resourceful and found other ways to cover the material.

On the outpatient side, the students had to learn a lot

R A E Y E FIV UPDATE Kaiser students, from left back row: George Matta, Michael Ngo, Enrique Garcia, Phillip Richards, Rahul Bhale; front row, from left: Sraavya Kakarlapudi, Sarah Singh, Rita Wang, Jessica Shen, Jennifer Yu, Callie Ding, Mymy Nguyen.

with virtual care calls and video. All in all, COVID gave us a very different experience.”

Danny Sam, MD, assistant dean and associate professor of medicine at Kaiser’s Santa Clara Medical Center, says the pandemic dampened the usually stimulating social interaction between staff and students. “Before the pandemic we would go out to dinner and go to conferences,” he says. “The pandemic put the kibosh on that. It temporarily changed the dynamic of the relationship between students and faculty. These students are like family to us. They are here for a full year, and we embrace them.”

Chak says that different experience included a few upsides. In addition to requiring a crash course in telemedicine, it presented the students with an opportunity to see how medical experts adjust their practices as they learn more about a disease. “That’s one of the more exciting things about medicine,” says Chak.

“And at Kaiser, the students got to see the different approaches of different specialists, including cardiologists, hematologists, rheumatologists, and infectious disease doctors.”

While the number of students in the program can be up to 16 (it varies by year), the program itself has evolved, particularly at San Jose, which became more teaching-oriented as two new residency programs were established. In 2018, the medical center welcomed its first residents in family medicine, and the following year the first psychiatry residents arrived.

The Santa Clara medical center has long had residency programs in internal medicine and in OB-GYN. Marina Dergun, MD, a codirector with Lakshmi, of the San Jose hospital’s internal medicine clerkship program, says the environment changed for the better when the residency programs started. “The students now rotate through the internal medicine program with residents, and the residents and the

students really seem to enjoy each other. I think the students are getting a lot of very practical advice from the residents.”

“Sometimes the students feel a little better about asking what they think might be silly questions,” says Lakshmi. “They are a little more comfortable talking to residents than talking to attendings.”

Chu believes that the benefits of San Jose’s two teaching programs, the residencies and the clerkships, function as a two-way street, with residents advising clerkship students and clerkship students helping the residents become more comfortable in their mentorship roles. Chu says the early years of the clerkship program, before the establishment of residency programs, helped attending physicians develop the teaching skills necessary to work with residents. “I think the students really paved the way for the residency program,” he says. “Having the students there helped the residents take things to the next level. And the clerkship program helped prepare the faculty for teaching residents.”

For BUSM medical students, the teaching is clearly appreciated. Nguyen says there were times when the program was hard, but it was a great experience.

“Everyone was so eager to teach me,” she says. “And we had really great teachers.”

Two days after this year’s program ended, Chu noticed a student from the program in the emergency room. “I said, wow, aren’t you done? And she said she was just trying to get some more experience in the emergency room and more time on the labor and delivery floor. It was very encouraging to see a student so excited about learning that she wanted to spend more time with us.”

Mymy Nguyen remembers the meeting well. “I did want a little more experience in OB-GYN,” she says. “I reached out to my attendings and they said sure, just come in when you have the time.” n Summer/Fall 2021 | bumc.bu.edu

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BUSM

Research

Hair Aging Differs by Race, Ethnicity

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hile aging is an unavoidable biological process with many influencing factors that results in visible changes to the hair, there is limited literature examining the characteristics of hair aging across the races. A study in the Journal of Clinical and Aesthetic Dermatology now describes the unique characteristics of hair aging among different ethnicities that the authors hope will aid in a culturally sensitive approach when making recommendations to prevent hair damage during one’s lifetime.

Among the findings: hair-graying onset varies with race, with the average age for Caucasians being mid-30s, for Asians being late 30s, and for African Americans being mid-40s. Caucasians and Asians typically experience damage to the distal hair shaft, while African Americans see damage occurring closer to the hair root. Postmenopausal changes include decreased anagen (active or growing) hairs in the frontal scalp, lower growth rates, and smaller hair diameters.

“Despite a similar chemical composition, the structural properties of hair vary between different ethnicities and, consequently, the aging of hair differs as well. As the population ages and becomes more diverse, it is of greater necessity to understand the hairaging process in different types of hair,” says corresponding author Neelam Vashi, MD, associate professor of dermatology.

According to the researchers, the role of hair for both protection and cosmetic improvement makes it incredibly important to physical and mental well-being.

“A thorough understanding of the unique characteristics of hair aging among different races and ethnicities is essential for the appropriate management of mature patients,” adds Vashi. n

Loneliness is a subjective feeling resulting from a perceived discrepancy between desired and actual social relationships.

Although loneliness does not itself have the

status of a clinical disease, it is associated with a range of negative health outcomes, including sleep disturbances, depressive symptoms, cognitive impairment, and stroke.

Still, feeling lonely may happen to anyone at some point in life, especially under extreme and unresolved circumstances such as the COVID-19 lockdowns. Yet, people differ in how long—or how “persistent”—they feel lonely for. Thus, it may be that people who recover from loneliness will experience different long-term consequences for their health than people who are lonely for many years.

In an effort to shed light on the relationship between these different forms of loneliness (transient and persistent loneliness) and the incidence of AD, researchers from BUSM examined data involving cognitively

Midlife Loneliness a Risk Factor for Dementia, Alzheimer’s Disease

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ersistent loneliness during midlife (ages 45–64) appears to make people more likely to develop dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) later in life. However, people who recover from loneliness appear to be less likely to suffer from dementia, compared with people who have never felt lonely.

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Boston University School of Medicine

normal adults from the Framingham Heart Study. Specifically, they investigated whether persistent loneliness more strongly predicted the future development of dementia and AD than transient loneliness. They also wanted to see whether this relationship was independent from depression and established genetic risk factors for AD, such as the Apolipoprotein ε4 (APOE ε4) allele.

After taking effects of age, sex, education, social network, living alone, physical health,

and genetic risk into account, persistent loneliness was associated with higher risk, whereas transient loneliness was linked to lower risk of dementia and AD onset after 18 years, compared with no loneliness.

“Whereas persistent loneliness is a threat to brain health, psychological resilience following adverse life experiences may explain why transient loneliness is protective in the context of dementia onset,” explains corresponding author Wendy Qiu, MD, PhD,

professor of psychiatry and pharmacology & experimental therapeutics. In light of the current pandemic, these findings raise hope for people who may suffer from loneliness now, but could overcome this feeling after some time, such as by using successful coping techniques or following a policy change in the physical distancing regulations.

The findings appear in Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association. n

intakes of foods high in saturated fat and animal products, positively benefited the heart’s left ventricular function, which is responsible for pumping oxygenated blood throughout the body.

“Our findings highlight the importance of adherence to the MIND diet for better cardiovascular health and further reduce the burden of cardiovascular disease in the community,” explains corresponding author Vanessa Xanthakis, PhD, assistant professor of medicine and biostatistics and an investigator for the Framingham Heart Study (FHS).

In another study that appeared in the Journal of the American Heart Association, using data from the FHS, Xanthakis has found following a routine of regular physical activity combined with a diet including fruits, vegetables, and other healthy foods may be

key to middle-aged adults achieving optimal cardiometabolic health later in life.

Cardiometabolic health risk factors include the metabolic syndrome, a cluster of disorders such as excess fat around the waist, insulin resistance, and high blood pressure. Presence of the metabolic syndrome may increase the risk of developing heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes.

“Healthcare professionals could use these findings to further promote and emphasize to their patients the benefits of a healthy diet and a regular exercise schedule to avoid the development of numerous chronic health conditions in the present and in later life,” Xanthakis says. “The earlier people make these lifestyle changes, the more likely they will be to lower their risk of cardiovascularassociated diseases later in life.” n

Plant-based Diets, Physical Activity Improve Heart Health

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hat if you could improve your heart health and brain function by changing your diet? BUSM researchers have found that by eating more plant-based food such as berries and green leafy vegetables while limiting consumption of foods high in saturated fat and animal products, you can slow down heart failure (HF) and ultimately lower your risk of cognitive decline and dementia. These findings appear online in the British Journal of Nutrition.

Adopting diets such as the Mediterranean diet (MIND) and the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH), which are characterized by high intakes of plant-based foods, is among lifestyle recommendations for the prevention of HF. However, whether a dietary pattern that emphasizes foods thought to promote the maintenance of neurocognitive health also mitigates changes in cardiac structure and function (cardiac remodeling) has been unclear until now.

The researchers found the MIND diet, which emphasizes consumption of berries and green leafy vegetables while limiting

Summer/Fall 2021 | bumc.bu.edu

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BUSM

Giving

bu.edu/supportingbusm

Eid al-Fitr Celebration Members of the Medical Campus community came together to celebrate the end of Ramadan on May 14. The event was sponsored by BU alumna and Dean’s Advisory Board member Shamim Dahod (CGS’76, CAS’78, MED’87).

Celebrated by the Muslim community across the world, Eid marks the end of the month-long fasting period of Ramadan, which was observed April 12–May 12. During this time, Muslims observing Ramadan abstained from food and drink during daylight hours. Eid marks the end of Ramadan and the end of the month of fasting.

Dr. Dahod graciously donated gift bags containing Eid meals and decorated L109 to celebrate the occasion. Students stopped by to pick up their meals, which they enjoyed during a virtual celebration. n

Keefer Society Gathers for Evening of Gratitude & Introduction of New Members

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embers of BU School of Medicine’s Chester S. Keefer, MD, Society—which recognizes donors who have supported the school with lifetime gifts totaling $50,000 or more—gathered for the first time since 2019, having paused last year due to the pandemic.

The virtual event’s theme, “An Evening of Gratitude,” featured prerecorded words of thanks from Anatomy & Neurobiology Chair Jennifer Luebke, PhD, for the recent upgrades and renovations to the gross anatomy lab made possible by a gift from Albert and Debbie Rosenthaler; and Vaishali Sanchorwala, MD, director of the Amyloidosis Center, on how decades of support continue to transform the center. Several students also thanked their donors for helping to make their BUSM education possible.

“We are particularly thankful for your continued generosity and support during this challenging time,” said Dean Karen Ant32

Boston University School of Medicine

man, MD, “which makes it possible for our faculty and students to teach, learn, and discover on the front lines of medicine.”

Dean Antman then introduced the new members of the Keefer Society.

Class of 2020: • Mary Ann Blount and James A. Blount, Jr. • Alan J. Brody • David R. Edelstein (MED’80) and Eve Lesser Edelstein • Geraldine L. Feldman (MED’69, CAS’69) • Daphne H. Foster and Lawrence S. Foster • George L. Hines (MED’69) and Helene A. Hines • Betsy E. Horen and Robert A. Horen • Clinton W. Josey, Jr. and Betty Josey • Reshma Kewalramani (MED’98, CAS’98) and Abhijit R. Kulkarni, PhD (ENG’93,’97) • The Kibrick Family • Ruth A. Moorman, EdD, and Sheldon N. Simon

• Zein E. Obagi, MD, and Samar A. Obagi • Joel A. Roffman (MED’75) and Nancy C. Roffman • Albert and Debbie Rosenthaler • Ralph L. Sacco (MED’83) and Scott Dutcher • The Samowitz Foundation Trust • Barry E. Sieger (MED’68) and Margarete Sieger • Marian A. Vita • Andrew Yee, MD, and Mirta Yee • Larry C. Young and Sue Young Class of 2021: • Ronald B. Corley, PhD, and Janice Corley • R. Gordon Darby • Daniel E. Moalli (MED’61) and Glenna M. Moalli • Martin S. Rifkin and Judy A. Rifkin • William F. Shields (MED’94) • The Shooshan Family n

Charles Terrell Scholarship Fund Honors Nationally Recognized Expert in Diversity, Higher Education

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new, permanently endowed scholarship fund in honor of Charles Terrell (GRS’71) will provide annual awards based on financial need to one or more BUSM students, with a preference for students from underrepresented backgrounds in medicine.

The Charles Terrell Scholarship Fund was made possible thanks to donors David L. Walton, MD (MED’83), and Machiko Nakatani. Walton was a medical student when Terrell was associate dean for student affairs and director of student financial management at BUSM. “I thought this would be a great time to honor Dean Terrell and set up a scholarship with the goal of aiding students from underrepresented groups at the school,” Walton said. He spoke of Dean Terrell’s support for his wife as she adjusted to life in America after moving from Japan.

“There were many people who were so helpful, but there were also a number of anti-Asian interactions while in Boston, and she was struggling with those interactions,” Walton said. “In the end, Dean Terrell’s counsel, empathy, and advice proved to be of the most value for us.”

A nationally recognized expert on diversity and access in higher education, Ter-

rell received a Master of Arts in African American studies from Boston University. In March 1970, Terrell and fellow Colby College students occupied the college chapel in an attempt to remedy institutional inequities and create a more inclusive environment for students from all backgrounds. “In Their Footsteps: A History of Colby College” highlighted Terrell as one of the individuals to have a significant impact on the history of the college over the past 200 years. In 2006, he was appointed to the Colby board of trustees. More recently, he founded Cross Creek Higher Ed Associates, a nonprofit organization providing pro bono higher educational advice and guidance.

The scholarship fund is accepting additional donations to aid in its goal of lightening the financial burden of students who are typically underrepresented in the medical field.

“Support for our students is our numberone priority,” said Suzanne Maselli, BUSM associate dean for development. “We are very grateful to our donors who provide scholarship support and help alleviate that debt burden as our students go into their residences and launch their careers.”

To support this fund, please visit bu.edu/ supportbusm or contact busmdev@bu.edu with giving questions. n

Judith L. Vaitukaitis Medical Student Research Fund Created at BUSM

I believe that she would be pleased by this use of the funds she donated.”

Thanks to a bequest from the estate of Judith L. Vaitukaitis (MED’66), a permanently endowed fund has been established at BUSM that aims to launch the careers of physician scientists through medical student research.

“Given Dr. Vaitukaitis’ dedication to research, we have established this fund to support medical student research,” said BUSM Dean Karen Antman, MD. “She was an exceptional physician and scientist and

An accomplished researcher, administrator, and educator Best known for her role as director of the US National Center for Research Resources at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Vaitukaitis died in 2018 at age 78 from Parkinson’s disease.

An accomplished reproductive neuroendocrinologist and clinical researcher, she played a key role in developing a biochemical assay in the early 1970s that ultimately led to the creation of the home pregnancy test.

Dean’s Advisory Board Gathers for Virtual Spring Meeting The Dean’s Advisory Board held its spring meeting virtually on April 30.

Board members heard updates from BUSM Dean Karen Antman, MD, and Associate Dean for Development Suzanne Maselli.

Assistant Professor of Medicine Juhee McDougal, MD, gave a presentation on the telemedicine curriculum, and Professor of Microbiology Elke Muhlberger, PhD, and MD/PhD candidates Kristine Albo, Aditya Mithal, and PhD candidate Ellen Suder led a COVID-19 research panel.

Attendees also participated in a reprise of the Rising Stars panel from the Rebecca Lee Crumpler Symposia, featuring Dallas Reed (MED’10) and Ebonie Woolcock (MED’10, SPH’10) that was moderated by Samantha Kaplan, MD, assistant dean for diversity & inclusion. n

She returned to BUSM in 1974 as professor of medicine, section chief of endocrinology and metabolism at Boston City Hospital, and director of BUSM’s General Clinical Research Center. She rejoined the NIH as director of the General Clinical Research Centers program and ultimately directed the US National Center for Research Resources. Vaitukaitis retired from the NIH in 2005 as senior advisor on scientific infrastructure and resources.

Additional donations to this scholarship will aid student research at BUSM. To support this fund, please visit bu.edu/supportbusm or contact busmdev@bu.edu with giving questions. n Summer/Fall 2021 | bumc.bu.edu

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Alumni Dear Alumni and Friends,

A

To make a gift, please scan.

s many of you know, Jean Ramsey stepped down as associate dean for Alumni Affairs in July 2020 after leading the Alumni Office for 13 years. I am honored to succeed Jean in this role and build on the successes of the Alumni Association.

As a graduate of Boston University Schools of Medicine and Public Health and the Family Medicine Residency Program at Boston Medical Center, I have committed my entire professional career to teaching and providing inpatient and outpatient care to patients in and around Boston. Along with my clinical duties, I am honored to be a faculty member in our inaugural cohort of BUSM’s Academy of Medical Educators, teaching and advising first- and second-year medical students longitudinally in the doctoring courses. Additionally, my academic and scholarly interests are in interprofessional education and collaborative practice, both in the classroom and clinical learning environments.

New Ways to Stay Connected The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged us in ways we never imagined, with many of us juggling clinical care, research, and teaching—including the next generation of clinicians—as well our own children. We are discovering new ways to do the work we do while staying connected. Spearheading alumni and student relations in the pandemic setting has provided the alumni team with an opportunity to think outside of the box.

This year, we developed initiatives to bring our community together virtually, not only for social support but also for personal and professional growth. To date, we have hosted nine alumni events, with more events to come before year’s end. These activities have seen alumni participation climb, including among people who ordinarily would not attend or connect with BUSM. Opportunities for collaboration have been highlighted during the pandemic. Partnering with Student Affairs, we virtually connected students across academic years with alumni and faculty, understanding the long-term impact of social distancing and isolation and the necessity of fostering an inclusive and engaging environment that supports community.

Events were purposely created to place students, alumni, and faculty in small-group breakout rooms, with alumni and faculty sharing why they entered their chosen discipline or what they wish they had known as firstyear medical students. We know firsthand that these interactions between students and alumni have been key to the medical student experience this year.

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NEWS

CONTACT US: If you have news, announcements, or creative works you’d like to share with your fellow alumni, please write to the BUSM Alumni Association at 72 E. Concord Street, L120, Boston, MA 02118 or email us at alumbusm@bu.edu.

What will post–pandemic alumni activities look like?

Giving all students and alumni a place to belong and return to is a top priority. We know the importance of having a personal connection, and that sometimes it can be done well virtually and other times, in-person is preferable. Whether clinical shadowing, mentoring, or connecting alumni within and across years, we are looking forward to identifying new ideas and ways for our students and alumni to engage with each other and BUSM. Our community is strengthened through our alumni.

The Alumni Association Office and board are investigating how to be more inclusive and further support our alumni, students, and the BUSM community. With your participation, we hope to offer more mutually beneficial and varied programs and activities for students and alumni.

Reunions!

BU Alumni Weekend will be held September 29 through October 3. BUSM looks forward to welcoming back the Classes of 1971, 1986, 1991, 1996, and 2011 for their milestone reunions! At this time, we anticipate a hybrid approach to reunion activities and will keep you posted on any changes. In the meantime, we encourage you to connect with your classmates and consider sponsoring a virtual gathering while we await in-person events. If you’re interested, please contact us at alumbusm@bu.edu.

Since fall 2020, we have had four virtual class reunions, with BUSM class leaders celebrating and sharing virtual toasts with their peers. Alumni feedback was overwhelmingly positive, and as one alum noted, the reunion was “a chance to reminisce with classmates and to be reminded that we were once goofy yet sincere in our quest for our education.” Another commented on “an opportunity to see classmates that I didn’t even know were living! So many are still involved in medicine.”

There is a lot going on. I invite you to stay connected and invested in the BUSM community. Please reach out to me with any questions at alumbusm@bu.edu.

Wishing you the best,

Heather Miselis, MED’04, MA/MPH’00 She/her/hers

Assistant Dean for Alumni Affairs Assistant Professor of Family Medicine Principal Investigator, Boston University Community Health Alliance of Medical Professionals (BU CHAMPs)

BUSM Alumni

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1952

Alvin Eden of Forest Hills, New York, writes, “COVID year has aged me 5 years so I am now 100. But I still plan to attend our 70th reunion in 2022. I just completed my memoirs and am now working on an obscene joke book to complete my legacy. I very much would like to hear from any and all members of the class of 1952.”

1955

Hugh Miller of Boston, Massachusetts, writes, “If you want to know how we survived the COVID winter, it was in the North End of Boston, hanging out in a neighborhood food store. Otherwise, I continued to build my Great Wall in Ashaway, Rhode Island, with the help of my friend, a 1963 Ford front-end loader. We hope to return to Hawaii in January, where my wife Fran teaches law for the spring term. Yes, I will go with her. Someone has to carry the luggage.

Had a recent dinner with Steve Alphas. We both want info on the 70th Reunion.”

Resolution in COVID-19 Patients,’ which I wrote with Drs. Charlie Serhan and Richard Bazinet, was published in Molecular Aspects of Medicine and is one of their most downloaded articles since its publication.”

1958

Jerome Waye of Greenwich, Connecticut, writes, “After graduation, I interned and did residency in internal medicine and then gastroenterology at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. I was in private practice in New York City for 56 years while on the voluntary staff at Mount Sinai. I served as president of the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, the American College of Gastroenterology, and the World Endoscopy Organization, while also writing seven books and lecturing worldwide on endoscopy. I joined the full-time Mount Sinai staff in 2014 as a professor and retired in 2019 at age 87. I now am busy as the first person to train doctors remotely on how to do colonoscopy. At the present I am training doctors in Uganda via a Zoom connection.”

our timeshare in Mexico annually. Then the pandemic was really limiting, but tolerable with increased reading, Zoom meetings, etc.

Help and inspiration from my wife June has made the difference. Hope all of you stay safe and well until next time.”

1964

Kenneth Vaughn of Albany, Oregon, writes, “After retirement, I expanded my interests in other physical sciences, as medical knowledge atrophies. After planting 190K seedlings, I sold my 230-acre tree farm (I have included a photo of one of my redwoods). I

1961

Burton White of Hillsborough, California, writes, “Hello to all my classmates, I retired in 2016; medical problems changed my plans somewhat. We did travel to Antarctica, Indonesia, Australia, Norway, Denmark, Alaska, Florida, and the Northwest, and to

Hugh Miller, MD (MED’55), with his wife Frances in front of Diamond Head in Hawaii.

1956

Artemis P. Simopoulos of Washington, D.C., writes, “Despite the lockdown and the issues and concerns of the coronavirus, this has been a very good year relative to various aspects in preventing, controlling, and treating COVID-19. Two of my papers have been very well received: ‘Genetic Variation, Diet, Inflammation and the Risk for COVID-19’ was published in Lifestyle Genomics; ‘The Need for Precision Nutrition, Genetic Variation and

Burton White, MD (MED’61), with his wife June.

Kenneth Vaughn, MD (MED’64), with one of his redwoods.

now enjoy annual elk hunts, halibut/salmon fishing in Alaska, and cutting, splitting, and stacking homegrown firewood. My vegetable garden is work and a pleasure to tend (200 hills of potatoes). As a volunteer for the US Forest Service, I have been a carpenter, archaeology assistant, and host ranger.

Now, I am volunteering one day each week for my local health department vaccinating for COVID-19. Retirement has afforded Linda and me the wonderful opportunity to travel extensively, occasionally with Don Pettit and Pierre Provost’s widow, Lura. I am looking forward to the return of cruising, especially to the South Pacific and Antarctica. There is so much more to see and learn in this world.”

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1965

Elizabeth Dooling of Boston, Massachusetts, writes, “Enjoyed our pandemic-delayed 55th Class Reunion via Zoom, thanks to the efforts of Howie Ledewitz and John Hermos, and the Alumni office staff! I’m having video visits with some new and old patients once a week at MGH and also trying to convince everyone to get vaccinated now! I am so grateful for all of our essential workers and the resilience of the students and residents during this critical time with its huge impact on their training and lives.”

1967

Peter Glassman of San Antonio, Texas, writes, “An author of 16 published multigenre thrillers, I’ve become a regular writer for the web-based New English Review Press, where my short stories have been featured since December 2019. I wrote a memoirbased story for the April issue titled “The Nose Knows” that is mindful of the difficulty in maintaining a balance of family, medical practice, and time for self-issues.

However, the life of a doctor has its satisfying moments, such as when my third-grade elementary school daughter asks her doctor father to address her class. A lesson is also delivered on the importance of getting the COVID-19 vaccine.”

Richard Goldwater of Newton Center, Massachusetts, writes, “I retired from psychiatry a few years ago when I realized that helping people—one, or a few at a time— had lost its charm. I was part of a legal LSD research project in the 1970s with Stan Grof, and decided to spend my remaining days following up on ideas I had then. The results may actually be published in my lifetime, but whatever. More info at our website, profitandentropy.com.”

Meyer Lifschitz of Jerusalem, Israel, writes, “My wife and I have been fortunate to live in Jerusalem, Israel, for the past 18 years. I retired from the University of Texas Health Science Center of San Antonio as an emeritus professor and then worked part time at Shaare Zedek Medical Center here until a month before COVID arrived in Israel. Since

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IN Memoriam Joel Sender Rankin, MD, of Weston, Massachusetts, died June 3 at the age of 89.

Joel was born in Brockton, Massachusetts, to Daniel and Sophie (Lederer) Rankin on September 13, 1931. Valedictorian for the Brockton High School Class of 1949, he graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Yale University in 1953 and received his medical degree from Boston University in 1957, where he was a member of Alpha Omega Alpha. After receiving his MD, he enlisted in the US Air Force as a medic, attaining the rank of captain. Returning to Massachusetts in the late 1960s, Dr. Rankin worked at Boston City Hospital before accepting the role of chief of obstetrics and gynecology at Metrowest Medical Center (formerly Framingham Union Hospital) in 1975, where he specialized in infertility.

In addition to providing exceptional care for his patients, for many years he instructed medical students at both Boston University and Tufts University medical schools.

Throughout his 60 years in practice, he received many honors and accolades. In 1985, several of his patients threw him a surprise party featuring dozens of their children, dubbed “Rankin Kids,” who celebrated him for his role in bringing them into the world. In 2012, Dr. Rankin was honored by his physician peers of the Middlesex West District Medical Society as Community Clinician of the Year, an award established by the Massachusetts Medical Society. In

then, I have been able to learn full time in Yeshiva Ohr Somayach. We are fortunate to live within easy commuting distance of our children, grandchildren, and now, a few great-grandchildren. Israel is almost completely out of COVID restrictions as I write this in April 2021. If any classmates come to Jerusalem, I would be happy to get together.”

Stuart Siegel of Pacific Palisades, California, writes, “I have been retired from my academic positions in pediatric

2019, the Joel S. Rankin Outpatient Maternal Care Unit was dedicated to him to honor his near-half-century of service at Metro-West Medical Center.

As well as putting his heart and soul into his work, Dr. Rankin led an active life away from the hospital. A lifelong learner with an unyielding curiosity, he continued to take classes throughout his life. In addition to his love for all living things, he enjoyed gardening, travel, music, arts, and theater. Making time for golf and bridge, he was a longtime member of the Wellesley Country Club. Above all, he valued time with his family and friends.

Joel was the beloved husband of Verna Rankin and the late Vicki Nicole Rankin; a devoted father to Jonathan Rankin and Danielle Markovsky and her husband Ronald; and a loving stepfather to Susan Sidney and David Lacey and his wife Nancy.

hematology-oncology at the Keck School of Medicine of USC and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles since January 2016. Currently, I am chair of the Health Care Foundation of Ventura County, and DNA-SEQ Alliance, Inc., a start-up biotech company in the cancer therapeutics field. I am also chair emeritus of CureSearch for Childhood Cancer and Ronald McDonald House Charities of Southern California, and serve on the board of Global Ronald McDonald House Charities.”

BUSM Alumni

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1969

Ronald Grant of Southbury, Connecticut, writes, “My privilege to continue my private practice and to be the psychiatrist at a residential treatment center for adult women with eating disorders. I see patients in the office and telephonically, including on Zoom.

Monolaurin and the homeopathic remedy Senega are preventions and cures for COVID-19 and can be taken with the vaccines since they are not 100 percent effective. Jungian psychoanalysis, psychiatry, and pastoral counseling continue to be part of my practice.”

Marc Hirsch of Bowling Green, Kentucky, writes, “I gave up waiting for readers to discover my detective fiction, so I started a marketing company with one client, me.

Beginning with eBooks & moving to paperbacks, the Alice White Investigator series is set in 1950s NYC with a Raymond Chandler feel.” https://welcome.marchirsch.com/ welcome/ Jerilynn C. Prior of Vancouver, Canada, writes, “Women’s health is about way more than estrogen. This COVID pandemic was good for something! An idea about the importance of progesterone as well as estrogen for women’s cycles and lifelong health— an idea I’ve worked to research, understand, and share for several decades—came together. https://www.sciencedirect.com/ science/article/pii/S174067572030013X. I’ve more recently even been able to provide some translation of those (admittedly a bit complex) ideas for laypeople https:// www.scientificamerican.com/author/ jerilynn-c-prior/.

Now, in my late 70s, I am holding the scientific door open for the younger of you to start testing these hypotheses in large, controlled, or randomized studies. The potential to prevent women’s symptomatic and difficult menstrual cycles and later-life risks for osteoporotic fracture, myocardial infarction, and breast and endometrial cancers is worth the hard scientific effort that is still needed. Meanwhile, I have no intention of retiring from my job as a professor of medicine/endocrinology at the University of British Columbia.”

Please scan for Alumni Engagement Survey.

Michael Salcman of Baltimore, Maryland, writes, “At 74, I have been almost totally housebound during the pandemic. Because of unsteadiness from my left polio leg, even with my cane, I am loath to walk on the uneven city pavement circling our house in Baltimore. In warm weather, I sit in the back yard and all year, I have been doing virtual workouts two or three times a week with the trainer I used to see at my downtown athletic club. I closed my medical office after a 50-year career on September 30, 2019, and my last real trip out of town occurred on January 23, 2020, when I gave a lecture on “The Brain as a Metaphor Making Machine” in New York; you can see it on YouTube.

Being housebound has given my literary side the new experience of how most writers live.

My fourth and most recent poetry collection, Shades & Graces: New Poems (Spuyten Duyvil, New York) is the inaugural winner of the Daniel Hoffman Legacy Book Prize. Dan Hoffman was US Poet Laureate (1973) and a good friend, so the award means a great deal to me. In addition to the poems, the collection includes two essays by other poets on my literary career. Unfortunately, it was published in June 2020 when the pandemic really got going, and the few public readings I have done have been virtual. But I have plenty of time to write and have spent 10 years on my memoir, Living in My Head, a Memoir of Art, Medicine & Poetry. I just finished giving a four-week virtual course at Towson University on the place of women artists in western art history, continue to lead a poetry group in New York with virtual meetings, and participated with almost 1,000 artists in a worldwide internet project called “TELEPHONE.” I enjoy doing virtual poetry readings. Unfortunately, I probably will need surgery soon on my right knee after a lifetime of doing 12-hour brain surgeries, dancing, sailing, and scuba diving, mostly on that one leg.

At least it will get me out of the house, my first escape since getting vaccinated.”

1971

John Dundas of Williamstown, Massachusetts, writes, “1971–1972, medical intern at Rhode Island Hospital; a deeply valued growth experience. 1972–1975, psychiatry resident at BU Medical Center; likewise. 1975–1977, fellowship in outpatient

psychotherapy at Faulkner Hospital Adams House clinic; more growth. End of schooling—I ran out of options. I always liked being a student. 1975–2007, 12 different jobs with the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health; amazing experience.

1977–2012, outpatient solo private practice in Needham; equally amazing and a wonderful and instructive match with public sector work. BU Medicine and residency gave me wonderful exposure to psychoanalytic psychiatry. Heartfelt thanks to Paul Kaufman and Bob Goldman, and to all the faculty. I learned psychopharm pretty much on the fly and have spent the last nine years writing in an effort to integrate psychotherapy and psychopharm. Very puzzling. Personal life largely good. I read widely, if not deeply, and like casting a fly rod for smallmouth bass, stripers, and bluefish. I love cross-country skiing (curse you, global warming). Warm regards to all, John.”

Jane Morton of Portola Valley, California, writes, “Quasi-retired after many decades in full-time general pediatrics in Palo Alto.

For five years, I sidestepped across the street and joined the faculty at Stanford. I was asked to start a program in breastfeeding medicine; the unexpected surprise was the outcome of some research we did with mothers of very low birth weight infants. If anyone is interested or has a friend about to have a baby, please visit our website, firstdroplets.com. Bet you’ll learn something you never knew. Can’t imagine a more fun career.

All the best! Jane.”

1972

Russell Jaffe of Vienna, Virginia, writes, “Since 1972, I am grateful to BU and Norm Levinsky for internal medicine. I’ve served the United States Public Health Service and National Institutes of Health, followed by a modestly successful career in biotechnology and personalized medicine. May we all be well and happy.”

1974

Tom Gould of Wilbraham, Massachusetts, writes, “Hi to the Class of 1974 from western Massachusetts. I’ve been out in this part of the state since finishing my residency in 1979 and spent my entire full-time pathology

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BUSM Alumni

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practice career at Holyoke Medical Center, where I served as department chief for almost 35 years before retiring in 2018. I now enjoy doing part-time clinical pathology consulting. Connie and I have been married for almost 43 years and love being papa and nana to our three grandchildren, who all live in the Boston area. Looking forward to seeing my classmates at the big 50th in 2024!”

Alice Rothchild of Seattle, Washington, writes, “I am fortunately mostly as well as can be expected at 72, bubbling with my husband, daughter, son-in-law, and fiveyear-old grandchild, who is a big source of joy and sanity. The hunkering down has allowed me to deepen my relationships with family and a small number of (virtual) friends, to pay attention to what is existentially important, and to deepen my writing and activism. I am almost finished with a young adult novel and deep into a young adult memoir in verse that is focused on growing up female in the 1950s and 60s, facing the sexism of college and med school, and my commitment to a feminist life.”

1976

Mark Goulston of Los Angeles, California, writes, “Along with former hospital CEO Diana Hendel, coauthored Trauma to Triumph: A Roadmap for Leading Through Disruption and Thriving on the Other Side (Harper Collins Leadership, 03/23/21).”

Barry Zamost of Long Beach, California, writes, “After 40 years in gastroenterology private practice in Long Beach, I will be retiring in 2021. Despite the pandemic, we celebrated our good health, a wedding, and the birth of our fourth grandchild. Looking forward to more travel, golf, and sleeping in.”

1977

Stephen Vance of Napa, California, writes, “Oh, boy—it’s been a year, that’s for sure.

And I’m (for once) NOT talking about COVID-19! As it turns out (by coincidence), at the millisecond the very first cases of the coronavirus in Wuhan were reported, I woke up at 3 am at my desk (finishing charts, no less—gotta love this work) with a left MCA stroke. Mind you, I’m a neurologist

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Boston University School of Medicine

medical officer (CMO) at the Soldiers’ Home in Holyoke, Massachusetts. As CMO at the Center for Case Management in Natick, consult nationally on case management, utilization review, and training physician advisors.

Currently serve on the board of directors for the American Association for Physician Leadership and maintain a part-time clinical practice in the ICU at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield.”

1980

Stephen Vance, MD (MED’77), 2013 wet-plate collodion “selfie.”

and dual-trained psychiatrist whose area of expertise is aphasia. Some irony. By the time I got out of the hospital, no one could care less about my stroke, as all attention was focused on the growing pandemic. A year and a half of rehab later, my right hemi is much improved, but I’m left with a positively crippling pure apraxia of speech so rare that my case has been presented to two national conferences already. I’m thrilled. Ahem.

In the meantime, I got an MS in Health Care Administration just before my stroke and have gone back to work doing largely administrative work with Medi-Cal. My wife Margaret is still suffering 13-hour days in private practice neurology. My daughter, Anjelica, is starting her senior year at UC Berkeley (pre-med) and my son, Sebastian, also is heading to Berkeley this fall as a freshman.

I spend some time as an amateur astronomer and engaging in historic photographic processes. The included photo is a 2013 wetplate collodion “selfie” (I don’t look like that anymore). I sincerely hope all is well with my classmates and their families as we climb (hopefully) out of this godforsaken pandemic.

Cheers.”

1978

Tom Higgins of Longmeadow, Massachusetts, writes, “Just concluded a 10-month assignment as interim chief

Andrew Wexler of Pacific Palisades, California, writes, “For those of us who routinely work in low-resource countries, COVID-19 has restricted our ability to travel. I was scheduled to spend two months working in Malawi just prior to the shutdown. However, the Plastic Surgery Education Foundation has instituted the SHARE program (Surgeons in Humanitarian Alliance for Reconstruction, Research and Education), which allows us to virtually share knowledge, lecture, and consult on cases with African surgeons. Many of their cases are extremely complex and their resources for dealing with them very limited. In coordination with the College of Surgery of East Central and South Africa, as a SHARE educator I have been able to webinar lectures into nine African countries and mentor a young reconstructive plastic surgeon in remote western Tanzania. As travel restrictions lift, we hope to be working again face-to-face with our African colleagues in their home countries.”

1984

David Sherer of Chevy Chase, Maryland, writes, “My recent novel, a thriller titled Into the Ether, and my book, What Your Doctor Won’t Tell You, an expose of American medicine, healthcare, and health, have both been nominated in two different categories for the National Book Award.”

Jim Parker of Sudbury, Massachusetts, writes, “Retired two years ago after practicing interventional radiology at MetroWest Medical Center (formerly Framingham Union Hospital) for 25-plus years. Many of you will remember rotating through Framingham Union Hospital for surgery and OB-GYN

BUSM Alumni

CLASS NOTES

CLASS NOTES Ziv Haskal of Charlottesville, Virginia, writes, “I’ve been an interventional radiologist and professor at the University of Virginia since 2013 and just completed a decade as the editor of my society’s journal, The Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology (doubling submissions, raising impact factory, and launching initiatives), gave the annual Charles T Dotter Lecture (virtually), and am enjoying a break. I’m editing a new book, launching a podcast, and climbing Mt. Rainier in late May, along with some other technical climbs after that. So much for sitting still. Family is healthy; dog is old. Where have the years gone?”

1988

Andrew Wexler, MD (MED’80). Specialty: Abdominal Surgery.

rotations in med school. After retiring, all my travel plans and some volunteer activities were cut short due to the pandemic. However, I have been able to pursue interests in architecture, woodworking, hiking, and gardening.

I demoed and redesigned a fix-me-upper 57’ cape in which I am now living in Sudbury, and more recently built a board and batten, postand-beam, 12x16 cabin/shed.”

Ana-Cristina Vasilescu of Belmont, Massachusetts, writes, “Hi, hope all are well and vaccinated against COVID-19. Still doing locum work as an OB-GYN laborist mostly, but also some clinic work here and there. Just started working at Nantucket Cottage Hospital and am helping out in New Hampshire as well. Keeping busy and likely to be at five different hospitals by August.

Hope to get together, for real or virtual, with some of my classmates.”

1985

Bart Hayes of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, writes, “I retired from the air force in 2018 and joined the ophthalmology faculty of Wake Forest in Winston-Salem. The

residency here has four residents per year, as well as two retina fellows and one cornea fellow. It is an honor to be in a position to help educate and mentor the next generation of eyecare specialists. I feel so grateful to all of the faculty who educated us at BUSM. I remember how excited I was to embark on this path, which has taken many interesting turns, starting almost 40 years ago!”

1986

Scott Afran of Scarsdale, New York, writes, “Warmest regards to my classmates. I continue to practice Pediatric Ophthalmology in Westchester County and still teach residents in two programs in the area. My spouse Rhonda and I cherish our life in Westchester with our four children and are delighted that our oldest child Aaron is a proud member of the BUSM Class of 2022! Like me, Aaron is participating in the accelerated medical program. We are so very proud of Aaron and all of our children. Wish everyone from those days at BU the very best. It was a transformative experience, and I have had the unique privilege of being able to return to campus and relive some of those memories.”

Carl Rosen of Anchorage, Alaska, writes, “I am still Alaska’s only oculoplastic surgeon, working half time and acting CEO of CallDR, the company I founded a few years ago that leverages the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act to connect hospital stakeholders with the on-call physician. We are deployed throughout Alaska and about to launch outside. On the home front, two kids are out of the house, one is at Bowdoin, and the other four are still on the launch pad. So far, so good.”

1990

Joan DiMarzio (DeSantis) of Canaan, New Hampshire, writes, “Hi! All is good these days. Three kids, one granddaughter, all healthy and independent. I’m enjoying working part time in my practice and doing a bit of per diem for Dartmouth-Hitchcock. I hope you all are well. Stop by for a visit if you’re ever up in the Hanover area!”

1991

Matthew Blomquist of Niwot, Colorado, writes, “Enjoying a vigorous and rewarding private practice position here in beautiful Colorado with Boulder Radiologists, Inc., where I’ve been since completing my fellowship training at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in 1997. Married to the love of my life, Ashley, and we have three wonderful children! Hope all of my classmates are doing well!”

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Lori Miller of Boca Raton, Florida, writes, “Wow—30 years already since med school graduation! Working hard through COVID-19 at my pediatric practice in Boca Raton. Same place for 27 years and seeing two generations of families already—rewarding. Very proud of my own sons; the oldest is starting medical school and the younger, his second year of college, both at University of Miami. I stay in touch with Julie Dong, Leah Lefcourt, Monica Puri, and Christine Nagy. I see Alex To in my office as a dad with triplets! Wish you all health and happiness this year.”

1992

Keith Miller of Bowie, Maryland, writes, “Hello, everyone! I certainly hope that everyone is well. I am currently residing in Maryland and am employed at the National Institutes of Health as a staff anesthesiologist. Hope to see you soon.”

Tina Carroll-Scott of Coral Gables, Florida, writes, “I was featured in The Miami Herald for my work in reducing barriers in communities of color with the COVID-19 vaccine. I held a pop-up event on March 20 to provide access, health assessments on-site, and critical education/public health messaging.”

Joseph Sidari of Sudbury, Massachusetts, writes, “Chief of otolaryngology at Reliant Medical Group and practicing at St. Vincent Hospital in Worcester. Recently named chair of surgical specialties at Reliant.”

Dana Sachs of Ann Arbor, Michigan, writes, “After 20 years practicing general and cosmetic dermatology, I decided to go back into training and completed an Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education fellowship in Mohs micrographic surgery in 2020. I loved the experience despite the disruption due to the pandemic and am now a practicing Mohs surgeon at the University of Michigan.”

1996

Fletcher Reynolds of Cape Coral, Florida, writes, “I’ve been practicing shoulder, hip, and knee surgery at Orthopedic Specialists of SW Florida in Fort Myers for almost 20 years.

There were four of us when the practice started, and now we have 13 surgeons and are in the process of building a new, larger office and surgery center since we’ve outgrown our current facilities. I just submitted the research project ‘Clinical Outcomes with Surgicel Powder in Total Hip and Knee Arthroplasty’ for presentation at the American Association for Hip and Knee Surgeons and publication in The Journal of Arthroplasty. I’m most proud of my daughter Blake, who just graduated with high honors with a major in microbiology and immunology from the University of Miami and is planning to attend medical school (hopefully BUSM) after a year of research at Arthrex in Naples, Florida.”

1997

Andrew Breuder, of Bedford, New Hampshire, writes, “I have continued as the co-chair of the Joint Military Task Force of the New Hampshire Governor’s Commission on Alcohol and Other Drugs, and as vice president of St. Gianna’s Place, a homeless shelter for pregnant women in Hudson. In addition, I continue part time at Southern New Hampshire University College of Engineering, Technology, and Aeronautics in the aviation section, teaching aerospace.”

David Weinreich of Tarrytown, New York, writes, “I began my career destined to be a surgeon, but during my time at the National Cancer Institute, I was drawn to the idea of reaching more patients globally and shifted my career to research and the biopharmaceutical industry. Today, as executive vice president and head of global clinical development at Regeneron, I lead the team responsible for translating our incredible pipeline of research candidates into important new medicines. I entered industry to impact patients on a larger scale, but could have never anticipated that my team and I would find ourselves in the middle of efforts to address a global pandemic. When COVID-19 hit, we went to work. We rapidly pushed forward clinical trials for a novel antibody cocktail homegrown in Regeneron’s

1995

Frank MacMillan Jr. of Stratham, New Hampshire, writes, “Missing seeing my classmates during our 25th medical school graduation anniversary. I’m still practicing GI, most recently on the New Hampshire seacoast. It’s been a tough year for all, but with my youngest twins missing their graduation from high school because of COVID19, we had a productive summer at scooter school (as you can see from the photo).

Riding the coasts from Massachusetts to Maine searching for the perfect lobster roll while on two wheels has been the antidote to oxymoronic “social distancing”!

The youngest twins of Frank MacMillan, Jr., MD (MED’95). “A productive summer at scooter school.”

40

Boston University School of Medicine

BUSM Alumni

CLASS NOTES

CLASS NOTES

labs, all while managing the personal and logistical difficulties of pandemic life.

Working quickly, but thoughtfully, to help patients—just as I was trained to do as a physician—we contributed an important new treatment to those most at most risk for COVID-19 complications. My time at BUSM prepared me for a career full of split-second life or death decisions made on behalf of patients, and I’ve carried these skills with me to this day. They have proven to be critical in our fight against COVID-19. It’s been an honor to do our part.”

1998

Stephen Thomas of Houston, Texas, writes, “In the nearly quarter-century since being at BU, time has moved swiftly. Great memories from Boston, and my daughter is hearing all the stories such that she cannot wait to go to the Hub herself!”

2003

Andrew Hsing of San Diego, California, writes, “It has been a crazy 15 months. In private practice in San Diego my group provides 24/7 pulmonary/critical care for Scripps Encinitas in San Diego. We have run the COVID-19 unit and lead the COVID-19 response and management program at our hospital, which fortunately has been very supportive and never ran out of PPE. Also running a 90 percent sleep practice and opened a sleep lab, so keeping busy. I see Sue Lahey regularly, as she is my sister-inlaw now, and am in touch routinely with Jason Hinman. Pam Rejendron and I share some patients as well. Looking forward to a reunion sometime soon! I do have a stash of PPE in my storage unit if anyone needs it; I hope to never have to utilize my own stash in the future. I have extra TP as well!”

Alyson McGregor of Warwick, Rhode Island, writes, “I have practiced emergency medicine at Warren Alpert Medical School at Brown University since graduating BUSM and have just been promoted to professor of emergency medicine—teaching scholar tract. I recently published a book called Sex Matters: How Male-Centric Medicine Endangers Women’s Health and What We Can Do About It.”

2004

Jessica Amorosino of Jupiter, Florida, writes, “The pandemic experience for my husband Mark (MED‘00), our four children, and me has been challenging, yet also a time of discovery. Prior to the pandemic, we figured out how to grow an effective and profitable medical weight loss and management program in our Massachusetts hometown with a physician partner. We discovered how critically important this service is—and continues to be—as we emerge from this pandemic. Pre-pandemic, our medical weight loss service was immensely rewarding for our patients and helped our practices grow. During the pandemic, public demand for the outcome(s) achieved from the medical weight loss and management protocol accelerated significantly and kept our staff very busy. Not surprisingly, the pandemic has exacerbated the obesity epidemic and demand for our services is unprecedented. I’d be happy to share our experiences as lifestyle medicine physicians. Proud to be a part of the solution in getting the community to a healthier state during these uncertain times.”

Waleska Pabon-Ramos of Durham, North Carolina, writes, “I was appointed vice chair of Quality and Safety in the Department of Radiology at Duke University School of Medicine.”

David Furman of Manchester Center, Vermont, writes, “I have joined the staff of Southwestern Vermont Medical Center in Bennington as the chief of gastroenterology and endoscopy services.”

2005

Lily Talakoub of McLean, Virginia, writes, “Currently residing in Washington D.C., with my husband and three children. Before opening my practice at McLean Dermatology and Skincare Center in 2009, served in the Office of the US Surgeon General.

Assistant Professor of Medical Education at the University of Virginia and serve on the D.C. Board of Visitors for the Children’s National Medical Center. Serve as Allergan’s national trainer for all aesthetic injectables and teach other physicians how to properly inject Botox and soft tissue fillers such as Juvederm, Voluma, Volbella, and Vollure.

Also founder of Derm to Door (dermtodoor. com), a new app launched in 2021 offering product recommendations based on AI technology that diagnoses and treats all skin types and concerns with dermatologist-approved products. Hand-selected and tested every product recommended to create an algorithm identifying more than 1,000 products based on an individual’s unique skin care needs.

Additionally, offer app users medical advice and/or tips for the ultimate customer service/ telederm experience.”

2014

Stephanie Feldman of New York, New York, writes, “After finishing a cardiology fellowship at Boston Medical Center in 2020, I am completing a cardio-oncology fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and will be starting on faculty at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School’s Division of Cardiology as the director of cardio-oncology this summer. Excited to finish training and embark upon this next adventure!”

Kristine Karkoska of Cincinnati, Ohio, writes, “David Robinson (MED’14) and Kristine Karkoska welcomed their daughter Maura in October 2020. In addition, both will finally finish training this June in neurocritical care and pediatric hematology/oncology, respectively!”

2015

Charles Gruver of Glendale, California, writes, “After finishing an anesthesiology residency at the University of Southern California in 2019, I completed an Interventional Pain Medicine Fellowship at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Now I am a private practice interventional pain medicine physician at Beverly Hills Advanced Pain & Spine. I am truly grateful for the education I received at Boston University School of Medicine, as it gave me the necessary foundation to provide excellent and compassionate patient care.”

2018

Aileen Souza of Fall River, Massachusetts, writes, “I’m graduating from the Brown University Family Medicine Residency this summer.” n

Summer/Fall 2021 | bumc.bu.edu

41

BUSM Alumni

YOU WE Are dedicated to advancing BU

Are a leader, inspiring others to make a difference Give in many ways to make the world a better place

Educate the leaders of tomorrow

Push the boundaries of scholarship

Tackle great societal challenges from health inequities to climate change

You belong in a

BU Leadership Society loyalty society

The Loyalty Society

Donors are welcomed into

recognizes and honors the

the 1839 Society when they

more than 30,000 donors

give a cumulative amount

who support Boston

of at least $1,000 within a

University consistently every year. The members

fiscal year. Their generosity benefits the entire

understand that consecutive annual investments,

University community—and those touched around

no matter the size, transform the lives of students

the world by our graduates’ work and our faculty’s

and faculty every day at BU.

groundbreaking research.

Your generosity and commitment will help ensure BU’s position as a leading global research and teaching institution, paving the way to a more equitable, just, and healthy world.

Together, we can lead the way to a better future.

Take your place in BU’s Leadership Societies today.

Learn more at bu.edu/givingsocieties.

42

Boston University School of Medicine

“ We All Stand on the Shoulders of Others. ”

Sarkis J. Kechejian (MED’63) was born and raised in Queens, New York. His parents were immigrants and survivors of the Armenian genocide who worked hard, were involved with their church community, and were happy with their new life in America.

“I have memories of cracking and preparing walnuts for 100 trays of my mother’s baklava donations to the church,” recalls Dr. Kechejian. His parents’ hard work and dedication to others would be instilled in his way of doing things, and ultimately, his inspiration for giving.

After attending NYU, Dr. Kechejian made his way to Boston University for medical school. He worked summer jobs, received financial aid, and ended up graduating with only $10,000 in debt.

In the ‘90s, Dr. Aram Chobanian invited him to be a member of the School of Medicine Board of Visitors to provide guidance and support for students and the school.

“I couldn’t believe how much tuition costs had risen. Dedicated students shouldn’t be burdened with a mountain of debt.”

By the 2000s, Dr. Kechejian made two generous $1 million donations. Recognizing the significant need for student financial assistance, he established the Kechejian Family Scholarship Fund—the first of its kind for BUSM students.

“We all stand on the shoulders of others—we didn’t get here alone. I have always been very grateful for the excellent education I received at the medical school. It truly is one of the many shoulders I still stand on today. I hope my scholarships, in turn, will inspire students to do the same when they are able,” he said. Students who receive funds from Dr. Kechejian are encouraged to write to him about themselves so he can learn more about their background and journey to becoming a doctor.

Today, Dr. Kechejian is a cardiologist, president of K Clinics, located in North Texas, chief executive officer and chair of the board of Alliance Health, Inc., and president of the Kechejian Foundation.

At 81 years young, Dr. Kechejian has a few words of advice for his peers who may be on the fence about donating: “Don’t give until it hurts . . . give until it feels good. Also remember, the last suit we wear doesn’t need any pockets.”

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