CLASS NOTES

Mark A. Barreto, of Otego, NY, quit his job at the Veterans Affairs Hospital in Albany during the pandemic and opened a direct primary care family medicine micro practice out of his home. There are about 900-plus people that live in Otego, which is located along the Susquehanna River, and he is the only medical provider in the village. He also makes house calls and enjoys the practice of old-fashioned medicine in current times. He was recently featured in an article in Scientific American on rural health strains during the coronavirus.

Rachel M. PessahPollack, of Roslyn Heights, NY, was named vice chair of the International Society for Clinical Densitometry’s at the annual meeting in March in Chicago.

2008

October 13•14, 2023

2009

Dodji V. Modjinou, of Las Vegas, NV, was named a Castle Connolly Top Doctor in rheumatology in southern Nevada in August/September 2022.

2010

Courtney A. Hill, of Saint Paul, MN, and her husband, Matthew Soule, MD, welcomed their daughter, Lila Grace, on December 11, 2022.

2013

October 13•14, 2023

Rhonda L. Philopena, of Jamesville, NY, and her husband, Andrew, welcomed their son, Logan, in October 2022, making them a family of five!

2017

Kristine M. (Faulknham) Birdsall, of Rocky Hill, CT, was recently married to David Birdsall on September 24, 2022. Her bridesmaids were all classmates.

Emily A. Commesso and Michael Commesso, of San Gabriel, CA, welcomed their third son on May 6, 2022. Proud big brothers Mikey and Liam love their little brother Thomas Ryan. Emily is finishing her sleep surgery fellowship at University of Southern California and will be returning to Duke as part of the otolaryngology faculty in the fall. The family has been enjoying their East and West Coast adventures and look forward to moving back to North Carolina.

Rohan A. Gheewala, of Slingerlands, NY, recently met up in Manhattan with classmates and spouses for an evening out. “We lived together in medical school and still talk almost every week,” he writes. “We all miss Syracuse.”

2020

Richard P. Jean-Louis, of Roslyn, NY, and Elizabeth M. Presutto ’19, both accepted assistant professor faculty positions at Wake Forest University. Richard will be joining the emergency medicine department and Elizabeth will be joining the anesthesiology department. They are both in their last year of residency training at the University of Maryland Shock Trauma in Baltimore, MD.

2021

Sonia S. Narsipur, of San Diego, CA, writes, “I recently got engaged to someone also from Syracuse but we didn’t meet until I was in San Diego in residency. Small world!”

2022

Haley L. Burdge and Nicholas M. Angeloni, of Syosset, NY, became engaged on January 7. “Upstate was where we met and obviously where we have shared most of our memories of our first four years together,” she writes.