Notes

1940s

C. Baldwin DeWitt Jr., M.D. ’49, presented the commencement address and received an honorary doctor of science degree from Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine in May. DeWitt continues to work full time as scholar-in-residence at the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education in Chicago, pursuing his research on the working and learning environments of residents.

2003-2004

Association of Yale Alumni in Medicine

1950s

Maxine F. Singer, Ph.D. ’57, retired from a 14-year tenure as president of the Carnegie Institution of Washington and in January 2003 was named chair of the board of directors of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge, Mass. Singer, who previously served as a member of the board, has earned a strong reputation in science public policy for her studies of risks from recombinant DNA research and her support for the Human Genome Project.

1960s

Laurence A. Boxer, M.D., HS ’68, was named the Henry and Mala Dorfman Family Professor of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology at the University of Michigan. He has been director of pediatric hematology/oncology for the past 21 years.

David C. Law, M.D. ’66, wrote to say that in 1998 he and his wife Doris, “at the ripe old age of 58,” adopted two girls from the Ukraine, Anna, 4, and Ekaterina, 3. A year and a half later, they adopted Natalia, 2. The girls are now 9, 8 and 5 and the family is doing quite well. He adds that this may be of interest to members of the class, as well as to others who might be considering adoption or starting a second family in their “senior” years.

Ghulam Rauf Roashan, M.D., M.P.H. ’67, who is semiretired and teaching and living in Fremont, Calif., was head of health planning and international health in the Ministry of Public Health in Afghanistan in the 1970s and served on the executive board of the World Health Organization. He has also worked as a journalist. Roashan now directs the online Institute for Afghan Studies and is an advisor to Development Gateway, an online research group.

1970s

Barry S. Solof, M.D. ’74, is national chair of the American Society of Addiction Medicine’s committee on Geriatric Alcoholism and Substance Use and physician-in-charge of addiction medicine for Southern California Permanente Medical Group in West Covina, Calif. Previously, Solof served as medical director of adult and adolescent chemical dependency treatment programs at Edgemont Hospital in Los Angeles and Tustin Medical Center in Orange County, Calif., and for Alternatives, a gay and lesbian program at Glendale (Calif.) Memorial Hospital. He spoke recently on the medical aspects of chemical dependency at a conference organized by Save Our Selves, a group that encourages a self-empowerment approach to recovery from drug and alcohol abuse.

1980s

Marian T. Hannan, D.Sc., M.P.H. ’81, assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and a senior research associate at Hebrew Rehabilitation Center for the Aged in Boston, received the 2003 Excellence in Teaching Award from the First Year Student Committee on Teaching Excellence at Harvard. Hannan is a specialist in the epidemiology of age-related musculoskeletal disorders.

Robert S.D. Higgins, M.D. ’85, chair of the department of cardiovascular/thoracic surgery at Rush University in Chicago, was appointed the Mary and John Bent Chair of Cardiovascular-Thoracic Surgery in June at the quarterly meeting of the Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center board of trustees.

David E. Mandelbaum, M.D., Ph.D., HS ’82, former chief of the division of child neurology at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, was appointed chief of the division of pediatric neurology at Hasbro Children’s Hospital in Providence, R.I. Mandelbaum is also professor of clinical neurosciences and pediatrics at Brown Medical School. His teaching and research have focused on childhood epilepsy and related neurodevelopmental disorders.

Eduardo Marbán, M.D. ’80, Ph.D. ’81, chief of cardiology at Johns Hopkins Medical Center, is the director of The Donald W. Reynolds Cardiovascular Clinical Research Center at Johns Hopkins, established under a four-year, $24 million grant in May 2003. The multidisciplinary center will use novel biological therapies and modern imaging techniques to try to reduce the rate of sudden cardiac death. In October, the center held an inaugural symposium to highlight the major projects that make up its research efforts.

1990s

Murad Alam, M.D. ’96, has started his second year as chief of the section of cutaneous and aesthetic surgery in dermatology at Northwestern University in Chicago. Alam completed a dermatology residency at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and fellowships in laser surgery at Harvard and in Mohs micrographic surgery at the University of Texas Baylor/M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.

M. Kathleen Figaro, M.D. ’96, assistant professor of medicine at the Vanderbilt Medical Center, won a Robert Wood Johnson Career Development Award for her work with underrepresented minorities and diabetes care. The four-year, $365,000 grant was awarded in January 2003. Figaro’s project is titled “Disability Expectation: Impact on Self-Care of Type 2 Diabetes.”

Kathryn E. Johnson Hoffman, M.P.H. ’99, and Eric S. Hoffman, Ph.D. ’99, were married on July 5 in Webster, Mass. She is a doctoral candidate in clinical neuropsychology at the University of London. He is a research analyst for biotechnology stocks in the London offices of Bear Stearns, a New York investment bank.

Cynthia Lord, PA-C ’91, program director and assistant professor at the Quinnipiac University Physician Assistant Program, was elected director-at-large to the board of the American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA) for a two-year term. Lord is the graduate advisor to the Student Academy of the AAPA.

Shefali Pardanani, M.D., M.P.H. ’97, and Vinod Pathy, M.D., were married on May 10 in New Rochelle, N.Y. They are medical residents, she in obstetrics and gynecology at the Jacobi Medical Center and he in general surgery at Montefiore Medical Center, both in the Bronx. Pardanani is also a resident at Jack D. Weiler Hospital, Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York.

Lisa F. Price, M.D. ’98, a second-year child psychiatry fellow in the department of child and adolescent psychiatry at the Massachusetts General Hospital/McLean Hospital in Boston, received the 2003 American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Presidential Scholars Award for research. Price will explore the parent-child relationship in couples who have conceived their child with the aid of in vitro fertilization, assessing attachment, risk and resiliency factors.

Joshua M. Rosenow, M.D. ’96, has completed his fellowship in stereotactic and functional neurosurgery at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation and works as director of functional neurosurgery at Northwestern University and Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago. His practice focuses on surgery for movement disorders, epilepsy and pain. His research interests include outcomes from surgery for movement disorders and pain and functional imaging of neurostimulation. Rosenow is also investigating novel applications of neuromodulation.

Chrysalyne D. Schmults, M.D. ’98, was appointed assistant professor of dermatology at the University of Pennsylvania Health System in July. Her initial research will examine the efficacy and safety of topical, nonsurgical treatments for basal and squamous cell carcinomas. Her clinical responsibilities include Mohs surgery, an advanced surgical procedure used for recurrent skin cancers. Schmults is also an editorial reviewer for The Journal of Drugs in Dermatology.

H. Steven Sims, M.D. ’94, HS ’00, was recently named director of the Chicago Institute for Voice Care, a treatment center dedicated to the care of voice and airway disorders. Sims, who completed a research fellowship in neurolaryngology at the National Institutes of Health and a research fellowship in the care of the professional voice at Vanderbilt, relocated to Chicago after serving on the staff at the University of Nebraska.

Dina D. Strachan, M.D. ’94, writes to say that she is an assistant clinical professor of dermatology at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and has gone into a private practice in Manhattan. Strachan received a 40-Under-Forty Achievement Award from The Network Journal at a ceremony in June at Columbia University, where she is studying biomedical informatics part time.

2000s

Daniel Jacoby, M.D. ’00, and Stephanie Snitow were married on August 31 in Florham Park, N.J. Jacoby, son of Robert O. Jacoby, D.V.M., Ph.D., professor and chair of comparative medicine at Yale, is a chief resident in internal medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. Snitow is a fellow in the Harvard Business School Service Leadership Program, working as the special assistant to the president of Phipps Houses, a developer of affordable housing in New York.

Elizabeth Harrold Ratchford and Jack Ratchford

Elizabeth V. Harrold Ratchford, M.D. ’00, and Jack Ratchford, M.Sc. ’98, were married in Atlanta on May 3. She is an instructor in clinical medicine and on the faculty in the division of cardiology at Columbia Presbyterian. He graduated in May from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and will serve a preliminary year in internal medicine followed by a neurology residency at Columbia.

Send alumni news items to Claire Bessinger, Yale Medicine Publications, P.O. Box 7612, New Haven, CT 06519-0612, or via e-mail to claire.bessinger@yale.edu.


			Originally published in Yale Medicine, Winter 2004. Copyright © 2004 Yale University School of Medicine. All rights reserved.