BUILD THE VISION CAMPAIGN, UB MEDICINE
SUMMER 2017 » VOL. 3, NO. 1
A Gift Made in Gratitude DANIEL ALEXANDER, MD ’99, AND WIFE, GAIL, GIVE $1 MILLION TO SCHOLARSHIPS By Mary Cochrane
IT HAPPENED DURING A 911 CALL regarding an injured homeless man.
—DANIEL ALEXANDER
“The man said he used to be a professor, but developed schizophrenia and found himself on the street,” Daniel says. “He had hurt his wrist and was in poor condition. I talked to him for a short time about his life.’” Then, as the ambulance was about to leave to take the man to a hospital, “he grabbed me by the collar and said, ‘You, sir, should be a doctor!’” “That lit a fire in me to go back to school and become a doctor,” Daniel says. The man’s words posed yet another challenge in a lifetime of challenges for Daniel Alexander, who as a child lived with his parents and seven siblings in a two-bedroom, 600-squarefoot house in Buffalo. “We were poor, but I grew up with a lot of love,” Daniel recalls. “My mother didn’t give us material possessions, but she taught us the value of education.” After graduating from Hutchinson-Central Technical High School, Daniel enrolled at UB as an English major. In his
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Daniel Alexander, then a member of the Buffalo Fire Department and an emergency medical technician, responded to the call.
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“My mother didn’t give us material possessions, but she taught us the value of education.”
junior year, at age 20, he left UB to become a Buffalo firefighter, the youngest in the city’s history. After working for seven years as a firefighter—and his encounter with the homeless man—Daniel realized it was time to follow his heart and become a doctor, so he enrolled in night classes at UB and completed his English degree and science prerequisites for medical school. During this time, he met his wife, Gail, who grew up on Grand Island and was earning a degree in finance and marketing. The couple married in 1989 and began a family. Each worked: Gail as an accountant, and Daniel as a firefighter. continued on page 2
New School Downtown Nears Opening “REMARKABLE SYNERGISM” WITH HEALTH CARE PARTNERS
BUILD THE VISION Campaign Committee Members
IN HIS 11TH ANNUAL STATE-OFTHE-SCHOOL ADDRESS, Michael E.
Rose Berkun, MD ’92 John J. Bodkin II, MD ’76
Cain, MD, vice president for health sciences and medical school dean, provided updates on construction of the new medical school building on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus as it nears completion.
Jeremy M. Jacobs, AAS ’60, LHD ’96 Nancy H. Nielsen, MD ’76, PhD Charles R. Niles, MD ’83 Kenneth J. Roth, MD ’83 Robert G. Wilmers, LHD ’04
Moving should begin in October, with the building in full operation by January 2018. continued on page 2 View from Allen Street of terra cotta façade installation.
buffalo.edu/giving/build
A Gift Made in Gratitude (continued from page 1) Once Daniel completed his science prerequisites, he applied to UB medical school and was accepted. “He decided to pursue his dream,” Gail says. “We decided I would continue to work as an accountant to support the family. We would be frugal and take out loans to cover the gap. We learned to appreciate what we had.” After Daniel graduated from medical school, the Alexander family—now with three children, soon to be four—moved to Detroit, where Daniel began a five-year orthopedic surgical residency at the Henry Ford Hospital. After Daniel completed his residency, the family moved to Canandaigua, N.Y., where Daniel began work as a surgeon and a year later established the Finger Lakes Bone and Joint Center. He was joined in the endeavor by Gail, who brought years of accounting and management experience to the practice.
In 2016, the couple pledged $1 million to establish the Daniel and Gail Alexander Scholarship Endowment fund in support of medical students in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, particularly graduates of Buffalo public schools. Daniel said they made the gift in gratitude for UB medical school’s “life-changing” decision to enroll him. “Our hope is that our scholarship will support inner-city kids in Buffalo—such as those from my alma mater, Hutch Tech— who want to become caring, compassionate physicians,” he says.
In 2016, the couple pledged $1 million to establish the Daniel and Gail Alexander Scholarship Endowment fund
New School Downtown Nears Opening (continued from page 1) “There is ‘remarkable synergism’ between the school and its health care partners.” —MICHAEL E. CAIN
The new school offers a 178 percent increase in educational space. There is “remarkable synergism” between the school and its health care partners. The new medical school building, Kaleida’s John R. Oishei Children’s Hospital and Conventus medical office building—all nearing completion—are interconnected facilities that “eliminate redundancies.” In addition, in 2012, the UB Clinical and Translational Science Institute was co-built with Kaleida’s Gates Vascular Institute. Twelve practice plans of UBMD physicians’ group have
co-located on the fourth floor of the Conventus building with the first patients seen there in March, when the building opened. Conventus’ fifth floor now houses the academic offices for pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatric neurology and pediatric surgery. Additional offices currently located at Women and Children’s Hospital of Buffalo on Bryant Street will move to the Conventus building in conjunction with the opening of the Oishei Children’s Hospital, scheduled for November.
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1 Allen-Medical Campus metro station is now incorporated in the building; 2 Looking east from the building; 3 View of the atrium from upper floors.
THE NEW JACOBS SCHOOL OF MEDICINE AND BIOMEDICAL SCIENCES, now under construction on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, will prominently feature 400 Signature Learning Stations.
LEAVE A LEGACY NAME A SIGNATURE LEARNING STATION IN THE JACOBS SCHOOL OF MEDICINE LECTURE HALL
To learn more about sponsoring a Signature Learning Station, or to reserve one today, contact the UB Office of Medical Philanthropy and Alumni Engagement at: (716) 829-2773, email medicine@devmail.buffalo.edu or visit buffalo.edu/giving/medicine/circle-of-leaders
Answering the Call GRATEFUL ALUMNI ACROSS THE COUNTRY ARE GIVING BACK TO THE SCHOOL THAT SET THEM ON THE PATH TO THEIR CAREERS…HELPING TO BUILD THE VISION FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS OF PHYSICIANS AND SCIENTISTS.
Phaelon H. Silva, MD ’00, and Karin S. Silva Join Circle of Leaders
Phaelon H. Silva, MD ’00, MS ’97, BS ’94, and his wife, Karin, both grew up in the Buffalo area, so when they learned about the new Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences being built downtown, they wanted to support the move for several reasons. “I always look back at Buffalo—and UB, in particular—as the place that provided me with the stepping stones for greater opportunity,” says Phaelon, an obstetrician-gynecologist in private practice in Ithaca, NY, and chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Cayuga Medical Center. The Silvas—members of the Circle of Leaders Recognition Society, who supported a Signature Learning Station— continue to have strong ties to Buffalo. “When we found out that the medical school was moving downtown, we asked
ourselves, ‘How often do you get to be a part of such a big change?’” Phaelon explains. “We also recognized that the medical school and its hospital partners are a big piece of what is revitalizing Buffalo.” Phaelon has practiced in Ithaca for five years after serving seven years in the Army and five as a federal employee in various locations around the country. “We finally found a place to settle here in Ithaca, and I’m at a point in my career where I wanted to show my appreciation for my medical education,” he says. “I still remember being in medical school and seeing the plaques on the walls, with names of people who had given to the school 30 and 40 years earlier. And now, with the new medical school building, Karin and I felt that it was our turn to give back. It’s a neat opportunity.” To learn more about the Circle of Leaders, visit buffalo.edu/ giving/medicine/circle-of-leaders.
THE OPPORTUNITIES HERE ARE REALLY GREAT
school’s high-quality instruction, innovative research and advanced patient care.
Kathleen Bethin, MD-PhD ’95, Sustaining Member, James Platt White Society
“I just think that this university is fantastic, and the opportunities here are really great,” says Bethin, who left Buffalo for 13 years to pursue postdoctorate training and to teach before returning to join UB’s faculty in 2008. “I feel I owe what success I have had in life to UB medical school, so I want to give back in order for other people to have the same opportunities that I have had.”
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Pediatric endocrinologist Kathleen Bethin earned her medical degree and doctorate in biochemistry from UB in 1995. Today, the Buffalo native gives back to the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and her community in a myriad of ways. A clinical associate professor of pediatrics and fellowship program director for the Division of Endocrinology in the Department of Pediatrics, Bethin is a teacher, researcher, mentor and clinician.
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Members who pledge five annual payments of $1,000 or more will be recognized in the new medical school building with their names prominently displayed on a plaque located in the James Platt White Society Learning Landscape and visible to all UB medical students.
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OUR TURN TO GIVE BACK
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Count Us In BUILDING A NEW MEDICAL SCHOOL IS A ONCE-IN-ALIFETIME OPPORTUNITY! Meet some Friends of the School and Alumni who are seizing this chance to transform medical education and health care in Western New York…
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5, en wit She is also giving back to her alma mater by ,B h he r American Eskimo To learn more about becoming a Sustaining making a sustained, five-year commitment to the Member of the James Platt White Society, James Platt White Society, which recognizes individuals visit buffalo.edu/giving/medicine/james-platt-white. who make annual gifts of $1,000 or more in support of the
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David C. Stephens, MD ’67, and Mary P. Stephens Scholarship Fund
As his 50th medical school reunion approached this past spring, David Stephens, MD ’67, says that he and his wife, Penny, a retired teacher, felt that “the time was perfect” to recognize what his medical education at UB had meant to them as a couple. As a result, they established the David C. Stephens, MD ’67, and Mary P. Stephens Scholarship Fund, which qualifies them for membership in the Circle of Visionaries Recognition Society. David, an orthopedic surgeon in Wilmington, DE, says he is grateful for the opportunity UB gave him to attend medical school. A native of Kenmore, NY, he completed his undergraduate studies at Georgetown University, where he majored in English in an honors program. When he decided to apply to medical school at UB, then-director of admissions Albert Rekate, MD, counseled David to take math and science classes for a year, which led to his successful completion of pre-med classes. Once in medical school at UB, David says his experience
couldn’t have been better. “I got a fantastic education,” he says. “Both the basic science and clinical faculty provided excellent fundamentals and were wonderful role models.” After training in orthopedic surgery at the University of Michigan (UM), David served for two years in the military before completing subspecialty training in pediatric orthopedic surgery at the Alfred I. DuPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington. He then received an offer to join the faculty at the UM and talked with Eugene Mindell, MD, chair of orthopedics at UB, but decided to stay in Wilmington because it was a good place to raise a family. David says that he and Penny want to provide scholarship support to UB medical students today and into the future “because we want to recognize how important my medical education was, and we want to have a direct, positive impact on medical students today who are incurring such high debt.” To learn more about the Circle of Visionaries, visit buffalo.edu/giving/medicine/circle-of-visionaries.
1 Lawrence Castellani, and Joan Castellani; 2 Daniel Alexander, MD ’99, and Gail Alexander; 3 Teresa Quattrin, MD; 4 Harold Levy, MD ’46
To learn more about these supporters and why they are giving to the Build the Vision campaign, go to medicine.buffalo.edu/newschool and click on Count Us In.
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A DIRECT, POSTIVE IMPACT ON MEDICAL STUDENTS TODAY
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BUILD THE VISION CAMPAIGN, UB MEDICINE
Momentum is published twice a year to highlight the tremendous impact our dedicated supporters are having on the Build the Vision campaign for the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University at Buffalo. Every gift and volunteer effort counts! To learn more about how you can help, call (716) 829-2773 email: medicine@devmail.buffalo.edu, or visit: buffalo.edu/giving/build
BUILDthe
VISION
On our way to $200 million. Every gift counts.
goal $200m
$182 million
$170m
raised to date
WE ARE PLEASED TO ACKNOWLEDGE: T he 133 members of the Circle of Visionaries donor society, who have made gifts totaling $100,000 or more to the Build the Vision campaign, qualifying them for special recognition in the atrium and main lecture hall of the new school. A nd to the 171 members of the Circle of Leaders donor society, who have made gifts totaling $25,000–$999,999 to the Build the Vision campaign, qualifying them for special recognition in the main lecture hall of the new school. Every gift counts—and we are thankful that we can count on you!
$150m Last Chance!
$100m
$50m
The deadline is fast approaching to have your name prominently listed on a donor wall in the Main Atrium of the new medical school (as a member of the Circle of Visionaries) or in the Main Lecture Hall (as a member of the Circle of Leaders). Call or email (716) 829-2773, or email medicine@devmail.buffalo.edu.
buffalo.edu/giving/build