Etc.

Class Notes

1978

Diana Fite (M.D., '78) was installed as the 105th president of the Harris County Medical Society for a one-year term. Diana is the first emergency physician and the fourth woman to fill the role. She currently works in the emergency departments at Christus St. Catherine Hospital, Methodist Willowbrook Hospital, and part time as an attending physician with the emergency residency program at Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston. She also serves as medical director for several area emergency medical services and also is a staff physician at the Medical School.

1983

Randy Peters (M.D., '83) joined ThedaCare Clinic in Shawano, Wis., as one of two general surgeons. ThedaCare employs 150 physicians and nearly 5,000 employees and owns three hospitals in northeast Wisconsin.

1984

Cathy Coats-Ramey (M.D., '84) reports that she now lives in Latvia, a country in Eastern Europe, and work as a full-time missionary with the International Mission Board.

Rhonda Shannon (M.D., '84, R '88) was elected chief of staff at St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital in Houston, with a oneyear term beginning Jan. 1. Rhonda, who also serves as chief of pathology and medical director of the hospital's pathology laboratory, has been an active member of the St. Luke's medical staff since 1989. She has a volunteer position with the Medical School as clinical associate professor of pathology and laboratory medicine.

1986

C. Dwayne Shafer (M.D., '86, Ph.D.) has become disabled and retired due to an injury. He and his wife, Kathy, live on a Texas Hill Country ranch, and his two youngest sons share the work. His oldest son, Raz, is a sophomore at Hillsdale College in Michigan.

1987

David Bartlett (M.D., '87), professor of surgery and chief of the Division of Surgical Oncology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, was named the inaugural Dr. Bernard Fisher Professor of Surgery Feb. 1. David has been a member of the school's faculty since October 2001. In addition to his academic appointment in the School of Medicine, David is director of the David C. Koch Regional Perfusion Cancer Therapy Center at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute.

1988

Kenneth Lipshy (M.D., '88, FACS) writes that he and his family could not tolerate the subfreezing temperatures of northern Indiana, so he has assumed the chief of surgery position with the Veterans Administration Hospital in Hampton, Va.

1990

Melissa Ludwig (M.D., '90, R '96, FACEP) is practicing in Phoenix, Ariz., as medical director of Medical Advisory Systems, a telemedicine advisory service for commercial shipping vessels and remote research camps and oil exploration sites and a division of MedAire. She writes that she enjoys her job but misses Texas and remains a devoted Astros fan and more of a Houstonian than she realized. She makes frequent trips home to New Braunfels and San Antonio.

Abdul Thannoun (M.D., '90) voted in the Iraqi election. He hopes to see his fellow alumni at the 20-year reunion.

1992

James Armstrong (R '92) has joined the staffs at both Grace and Valdese Hospitals in North Carolina as a full-time neurologist. The hospitals are part of Blue Ridge HealthCare.

1993

Elizabeth Bartlett (M.D., '93) writes that she is working part time and is busy with her practice. She and her husband, Kelly Tjelmeland, M.D., have three children, Jenna Noelle and twins Kirsten Grace and Brooke Linae.

1994

Russell Broaddus (M.D., Ph.D., '94) is currently an associate professor of pathology at M. D. Anderson Cancer Center Houston. He is married to Nancy, and he has two daughters, Emily (9) and Betsy (7).

1995

Mary Peterson-Suri (M.D., '95) was appointed by Gov. Mike Easley of North Carolina to the N.C. Interagency Coordinating Council for Children from Birth to Five with Disabilities and Their Families. The council assists the state in carrying out requirements for participating in Federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Amendments of 1991 and in providing early intervention services to children from birth through age five who are with or at risk for developing disabilities. The council has 30 members, each serving a two-year term. Mary is an emergency physician at Sandhills Emergency Physicians and is a member of the Osteogenesis Imiperfecta Parents Support Association.

Regan Stuart Killion (M.D., '95, R '99) married Sean Killion Sept. 3, 2005, in San Francisco. She works in the pediatric intensive care unit at Stanford University. In attendance were Shane Chapman, Nicole Pace ('95), Mike Humphrey ('96), Matt and Jean Bender (both of '96), and Seva Papageorge ('97).

1996

Benjamin Bassichis (M.D., '96, FACS) was among 1,336 initiates from around the world who became Fellows of the prestigious American College of Surgeons during convocation ceremonies at the College's 91st annual Clinical Congress in San Francisco. Benjamin is currently practicing at the Advanced Facial Plastic Surgery Center in Dallas. The American College of Surgeons is a scientific and educational organization of surgeons that was founded in 1913 to raise the standards of surgical practice and to improve the care of the surgical patient.

1999

Gregory Johnson (M.D., '99) announces that his second son, Dominic Stephen, was born Jan. 6, 2005, in Tyler, Texas. Michael Petersen, '00 is Dominic's godfather. Gregory currently is the lead hospitalist for a private hospitalist group in Tyler.

2000

Allison (Albright) Gorrebeeck (M.D., '00) married Christopher Gorrebeeck June 18, 2005.She is a hematology/ medical oncology fellow at Wilford Hall Medical Center on Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, where the couple resides. In addition, Allison is an active duty captain in the Air Force and has been selected for promotion to major in June when her fellowship ends.

Lynda Mitchell Schoenstein (M.D., '00) and her husband, Ed, recently celebrated their sixth wedding anniversary in New York City. Lynda's plans for residency were interrupted by illness in 2001, but now she is completing her residency in internal medicine/pediatrics at St. Vincent's Hospital-Manhattan. Eventually, they plan to move back to the Houston area, but for now, they are enjoying life in The Big Apple.

2002

Jennifer Emmett (M.D., '02) joined Denver Health's Community Health Services and completed her residency at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center.

2003

Michael Cripps (M.D., '03) and Amy Moore (M.D., '03) were engaged Dec. 22, 2005. They are both completing residencies in Oakland, Calif., where Michael is a general surgery resident, and Amy finishes her last year in internal medicine. They plan an October wedding.

Lives lived

Dr. Daniel Jacobson, '82 died in 2003 after a three-year battle with esophageal cancer. He was 47. He was a staff physician in neurology and neuro-ophthalmology at Marshfield Clinic in Wisconsin from 1986 to 2003.

Terrance (Terry) Harris, '86 died Jan. 12, 2006, from stage IV metastatic melanoma, which he fought for more than two years.

Christopher Balcezak, '95 died Nov. 23, 2003, in Topeka, Kansas. He was 34.