GUSOM Medical Alumni Board Newsletter
White Coat Ceremony 2019
Dr. Donald Knowlan
Packed Gaston Hall!
Dr. Ray Mitchell
Letter from the Board Chair
Dear Medical Alumni Board Members,

Welcome to the newsletter of the Medical Alumni Board for Fall 2019. We had a fantastic year ending June 30, 2019 with an excellent MATCH for Graduating Seniors whose new locations can be seen on  the "MATCH Map" outside of the Medical Library.  California remains the primary destination for graduates and new alumni have been matched with Alumni mentors via the CURA program.

We began fundraising in July, the start of our fiscal year, with sponsorship of White Coats awarded to incoming M1s  on August 2. All enjoyed our Alumni Welcome Reception the night before.  Many students sent thank you notes for that sponsorship and have been invited out by their sponsors.  

We are pleased to welcome new members of the Medical Alumni Board to our first board meeting  of th e year, which also coincides with Reunion Weekend - always a busy time for those members who ar e also celebrating their reunions. We especially thank those board members who served as Class Ambassadors and raised Scholarship donations, which remains our highest priority.


Hoya Saxa!          Regina Torsney-Durkin, M.D.  C'73, M'77

MAB Staff
Joan Wadkins, Director, GUMC Engagement & Annual Giving

Joan has recently been appointed as Medical Alumni Board Director. She comes to us from Atlanta, where she recently managed advancement  communications for Emory Healthcare, as part of Emory University's Woodruff  Health Sciences Center.  Previously, she was a Minnesotan for 20+ years, with both nonprofit and c orporate roles in health sciences, including philanthropic brand management for  Be The Match/National Marrow Donor Program. Joan was also in a pivotal  marketing role for Feeding America, introducing digital platforms as part of the  charity's vast growth as a public health philanthropy during the economic recession.
And here's the rest of the team! 
Kathleen Ott - Associate Director for GUMC Reunions and Engagement 
Samantha Poremba - Assistant Director for GUMC Reunions and Engagement
Charlotte Barry - Coordinator 

Welcome New MAB Board Members 
Dr. Kathleen Antonetti (B'90, M'97)  Elgin, SC

Kathleen practices Internal Medicine in Columbia, South Carolina.  After completing both her undergraduate and medical degrees at Georgetown University, she went on to complete her residency at the University of Connecticut.  She met and married her husband, Marc Antonetti, at Georgetown University School of Medicine, and after residency they moved to Travis Air Force Base, in Vacaville, California, to fulfill his military obligation.  While in California, Kathleen practiced outpatient medicine at Kaiser Permanente.  After relocating to South Carolina in 2005, Kathleen initially practiced outpatient medicine.  She then moved into public health as Director of Healthcare Associated Infections at the SC Department of Health and Environmental Control.  She currently is utilizing her skills in medicine and epidemiology as director of long term care and rehabilitation facilities, as well as a medical director for a local hospice company.

Kathleen has interviewed for the AAP for the past fourteen years.  She and Marc have two daughters, Isabella (C' 21), and Olivia, who is currently a senior in high school.  In her spare time, Kathleen enjoys fitness and designing and sewing clothing for herself and others.


Dr. Christine Hluchan
(C'08, M'17)  Baltimore, MD

Christine is a third-year Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation resident at Johns Hopkins. She intends to pursue a Sports Medicine fellowship, and she is particularly interested in sports concussion and women in sports. Before medical school, Christine traveled to Uganda and volunteered at a rural health center. During medical school at Georgetown, she returned to East Africa to work on a clean water project in Uganda and summited Mount Kilimanjaro with her father Rich (SFS '71).

Christine has always had a passion for serving Georgetown and promoting its values. As an undergraduate, she was President of the GU Pep Band and served as a Blue & Gray tour guide. She has served as an Alumni Admissions Program interviewer for 7 years, and she is a Communications co-chair for her undergraduate reunion committee. After moving to Baltimore for residency in 2018, she established and currently serves as President of the Georgetown University Alumni Association Club of Baltimore. When she isn't practicing medicine or promoting Georgetown, Christine is an avid yoga and acrobatic yoga practitioner, and enjoys traveling (to 6 out of the 7 continents) and attending as many Georgetown basketball games as she can.


Dr. John Roohan (MS'86, M'90)  Torrance, CA
(Dr. Roohan is returning as a full term member after filling in a member vacancy earlier this year.)
   
I am privileged and honored to join the Medical Alumni Board, as Georgetown has always held a special place in my life! I'm a proud husband and a father of two teenagers, 17 and 14, living in Torrance, CA. I pursued my undergraduate studies at UC Irvine prior to coming to Georgetown as a student in the Special Masters Program and School of Medicine. After graduation, I moved back to Southern California to complete my training in Family Medicine at Santa Monica UCLA Medical Center. I have been a practicing family physician for over 25 years. Along the way, I've fulfilled various clinical leadership roles at both the medical group and health plan level. Currently I'm Clinical Director for Venice Family Clinic, a federally qualified health center serving the West Los Angeles region. We provide comprehensive primary health care to a diverse, traditionally underserved patient population across 12 clinical sites as well as through our street medicine program for the homeless. In my spare time I enjoy cycling, swimming, golf, and travel.


Dr. Nick Theodore
(MS'87, M'91) Baltimore, MD  

Nick is Professor of Neurosurgery, Orthopaedic Surgery and Biomedical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He is also the Director of the Neurological Spine Program, Co-Director of the Carnegie Center for Surgical Innovation and Director of the Complex Spine Fellowship.
 
He attended Cornell University undergrad and graduated from GUSOM, AOA and with honors. After completing his internship at Bethesda Naval Hospital, he served as a Senior General Medical Officer with the United States Marine Corps in Okinawa, Japan before completing his residency and fellowship in spinal surgery at the Barrow Neurological Institute (BNI) in Phoenix. In 2009 he became Chief of the Spine Section and Director of the Complex Spine Fellowship at the BNI before moving to JHH.
 
His areas of interest include brain and spinal cord injury, minimally invasive surgery, robotics and personalized medicine. In 2010 he co-founded Excelsius Surgical, a surgical robotics company which was sold to Globus Medical in 2013. The technology associated with this venture led to the first real-time image-guided surgical robot for spine surgery and was the most successful launch of a surgical robot in medical device history. He is active in injury prevention and advocacy and has been involved with ThinkFirst for many years, serving as both the Medical Director and National President of the Board of Directors. In 2018 he was appointed Chairman of the National Football League's Head Neck and Spine Committee, which advises the league on neuroscience, concussion and other health and safety issues.


Dr. William Oppenheim (M'70)   Marina Del Rey, CA

Bill is the Margaret Holden Jones Kanaar Professor and Emeritus Chief of Pediatric Orthopedics  at the Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA in Los Angeles. He grew up in Silver Spring, Maryland, where he played in a dance band through college and medical school, attending the University of Maryland in College Park, and then graduated from Georgetown 
Medical School in 1970. Without the scholarship help he received at Georgetown, Bill  feels that his career would have turned out very differently. 

Along the way, he interned at San Francisco General Hospital, and subsequently served in the US Air Force in San Ant onio, TX and at the Pentagon. His residency at the University of Washington included a year as a Girdlestone Scholar in Oxford England. He is now in his 41st year at UCLA where he is currently the Director of the Orthopaedic Hospital / UCLA Center for Cerebral Palsy. He is a Past President of the American Academy for Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine and Recipient of their Lifetime Achievement Award. As a UCLA Professor, he served as a Visiting Professor in Europe, the Far East, and throughout North America. 

He is married to Patricia Schnegg, a retired Los Angeles Superior Court Judge, and resides in Marina Del Rey, CA. His daughter Jennifer is a graduate of Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. He is most pleased to have an opportunity to serve Georgetown on the Medical Alumni Board.   

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THANK YOU
We are very grateful to the following members who are now rotating off the board, 
and give them our deepest thanks for their service  and expertise:
Dr. Flo Baricelli 
Dr. Caridad de la Uz
Dr. Vincent DiMaggio
Dr. Tim Duffin
Dr. Mark Jaffe
Dr. Alli Linden
Dr. Michael McQuillen

Dining With the Docs

Dine with a Doc is a program which provides an opportunity for students and GUSOM alumni to network together over a meal in a small group setting, giving students a chance to learn, connect, and talk candidly about their shared professional experiences. For most students, this is an unforgettable experience that they remember well beyond their Georgetown years, and they  are extremely appreciative of their hosting physicians' time, effort and support.  

Please contact  student coordinator  Dahlia Fateen (M'22) at [email protected]  to set up a mutually convenient date. Dinners can be scheduled at your home or a local restaurant.

Thank you to the following physicians who provided a DWAD experience for students this past year:
                   
Dr. Kara Beckner 
Dr. Kevin Camphausen*
Dr. Nancy Ripp Clark*
Dr. Vinny DiMaggio*
Dr. Tim Duffin* 
Dr. Chris Farrell
Dr. Kathleen Farrell 
Dr. Adriane Fugh-Berman 
Dr. Alice Fuisz 
Dr. Tony Fuisz
Dr. Brendan Furlong

Dr. Mary Furlong  
Dr. Christina Hanna*
Dr. Daphne Keshishian*
Dr. Bill Licamele*
Dr. Lisa Lillienfield
Dr. Tom Loughney
Dr. Jenifer Luck
Dr. Steve Luck*
Dr. Francis Palumbo*
Dr. Michelle Roeser 
Dr. Regina Torsney-Durkin*
                                                                                         
* denotes Medical Alumni Board member

Drs. Daphne Keshishian and Nancy Ripp Clark 
gather with their DWAD students in April.

Drs. Kara Beckner and Kevin Camphausen 
host students this past spring.
M'23 Freshman Class Stats
The news is in and it is great! GUSOM received medical school applications from 13,149 students, representing more than one-quarter of the total national application number. Approximately one thousand applicants were interviewed, resulting in an incoming class size of 203. 

Today's freshmen graduated from 101 different colleges and universities, and represent 35 states, the District of Columbia and 5 countries (South Korea, Zimbabwe, Canada, and Honduras). The class is 53% female; almost one-third of all the students are already starting with advanced degrees; 8.4% are underrepresented in Medicine. ( The AAMC defines "underrepresented in medicine" as those racial and ethnic populations that are underrepresented in the medical profession relative to their numbers in the general population.) The average student age is 24 years, with a range of 21-43 years. Congratulations and Welcome to the Class of 2023!

Thank you to Dr. Ellen Dugan (M'82), Senior Associate Dean for GUSOM Admissions, and her committee for their outstanding efforts in recruiting another top class. If you are interested in becoming an alumni interviewer for medical student applicants, please contact the Office of Admissions at [email protected] or (202) 687-1154, or fill out the Interviewer Availability Survey to indicate your general availability for the upcoming interview cycle. 

Upcoming Calendar Events 
October 25 - 27, 2019 






October 26, 2019 1:30-3 pm

Monday, October 28, 2019

Tuesday, November 19, 2019
6:30-8:30 pm




February 7-9, 2020


Oct. 30 - Nov. 1, 2020
GU School of Medicine Reunion 
for graduation classes ending in "4" and "9"
For all those interested in serving as a Class Ambassador, please contact Kathleen Ott at [email protected]
Click here for the weekend schedule of events 

Fall Medical Alumni Board Meeting

Lauerman Cup Golf Tournament

World of Choices Student & Medical Alumni Networking Event: we need alumni to sign up for this! Register here or contact Samantha Poremba at [email protected]
Location: GU Alumni House (3604 O Street, NW)

Winter Leadership Weekend; 
Medical Alumni Board Meeting TBA

Medical Reunion 2020

Alumni in the News  
 
Dr. Ray Mitchell (W'86, MBAE'13) was inducted as a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in London on September 10th, 2019.  Fellowship is an accolade held by some of the most exceptional and innovative physicians in the world. It is a mark of high medical achievement and skill, recognizing the inductee's ongoing contribution to the profession. Dr. Mitchell is Dean of Medical Education at Georgetown, serves as a member of the National Council of Deans of the AAMC, and has been honored numerous times for his teaching excellence, including receiving multiple "Golden Apples" for medical student education at Georgetown.

Dr. Eric S. Vallone (M'97, R'81) F.A.C.P.,  Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine at Georgetown, was  elected to Fellowship in the American College of Physicians in April 2019.  Fellowship in the College is an honor achieved through advancement from ACP Membership. Dr. Vallone is a member of the Medical Alumni Board.


Dr. George Heyrich (M'89) was recognized for consecutive years by Philadelphia Magazine as a top doc in Interventional Cardiology for 2019. Dr. Heyrich is a member of the Medical Alumni Board.

 
New Authors!
Dr. William Hoffman (M'19) wrote and published a novel called " Wings of Deceit" before his graduation last May, and is now a resident in Neurology in San Antonio, TX.
He is a private pilot and member of the U.S. Air Force and was inspired to write about  the interface between neuroscience and aerospace. Amazon calls his novel "a riveting aviation thriller of suspense, longing, lies and a pilot's ailing brain", comparing him to a new Dan Brown!


Dr. David  Fajgenbaum (N'07) recently published a memoir called " Chasing My Cure: A Doctor's Race to Turn Hope into Action" about his groundbreaking efforts to find cures for deadly "orphan" diseases, including his own terminal disorder. Dr. Fajgenbaum earned a BS from Georgetown
University magna cum laude with honors and distinction, MSc from the University of Oxford, MD from the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, and MBA from The Wharton School, and is  is one of the youngest appointed members of the U. Penn medical faculty. While at Georgetown, he was the quarterback for the football team and a state-champion weight lifter.