As their family and friends looked on, 60 resident physicians and three fellows from WMed were honored Friday, June 9, during a graduation ceremony at Western Michigan University's Miller Auditorium.
"This day marks an exceptional achievement signifying (our residents and fellows') dedication to the profession of medicine," said Dr. David T. Overton, the medical school's associate dean for Graduate Medical Education.
The graduation ceremony drew a large crowd to Miller. The graduates who were honored have spent between one and five years training and sharpening their skills as physicians in Southwest Michigan.
WMed currently has nine residency programs in the specialties of Emergency Medicine, Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, Medicine-Pediatrics, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Orthopaedic Surgery, Pediatrics, Psychiatry and General Surgery. There also are two one-year fellowships for Emergency Medical Services and Sports Medicine.
The medical school's OB/GYN Residency Program is new and was approved in April. The program will welcome its first four residents in July 2018.
Dr. Hal Jenson, WMed's founding dean, told the graduates at Friday's ceremony that the festivities were a reminder of what each of them had accomplished during their time at the medical school. He also said the completion of their residences marked "an important milestone" in their careers as physicians.
Dr. Jenson told the graduates he hoped their time at WMed helped instill in them an inspiration "to become the lifelong learners you will need to be."
"The future will demand, in fact, that you are the lifelong learners you will need to be to take care of the patients of tomorrow," he said. "Wherever you go, realize that you take a part of Kalamazoo with you "¦ and know that wherever you are, you're part of the family here at WMed."
In all, four of the residents who graduated Friday will remain and work in Kalamazoo. An additional eight residents will be working outside of Kalamazoo, but will still be in Michigan.
In addition to honoring resident physicians and fellows, Friday's graduation ceremony gave the residents and fellows a chance to honor the medical school's clinical faculty with 2017 teaching awards. A total of 15 faculty were honored.
Here's a complete list of this year's resident and fellow graduates, as well as faculty who received awards Friday:
Emergency Medicine
Tyler Brian Andre, MD (Chief)
Elizabeth Jean Arnall, DO (Chief)
Brett Lee Baumgartner, DO
Nicholas Robert Bope, MD
John Walter Brainard, MD
Christopher Adam Chesnut, MD
Maxwell Jason Geers, MD
Nicholas Jay Gould, DO (Chief)
Paul Michael Guernsey, DO
Charles Everett Mansell, MD
Daniel Stuart Mortensen, MD
Matt John Perala, MD
Mary Kathleen Russo, DO
Timothy Sean Ryan, DO
Paul Michael Shotkin, MD
Anton Lee Temple, MD
Aaron Forrest Triplett, DO
Christina Marie Weaver, DO
Daniel George Zindrick, MD
Emergency Medical Services Fellowship
Kevin Praful Patel, DO
Brian Lee Snyder, MD
Family Medicine
Nicole Marie Akers, MD
Elizabeth Lynn Albright, DO
Wesley Ryan Eichorn, DO
Zachary Alan Koehn, DO
Latifa Abdullah Pacheco, DO
Varinder Singh Sidhu, MD (Chief)
Alexander James Witte, MD (Chief)
Sports Medicine Fellowship
Juraj Zahatnansky, MD
Internal Medicine
Sumaiya Ansari, MD
Courtney Jo Barrett, DO
Hardik Satish Chhatrala, MD, MPH
Christopher Vittorio Di Felice, MD (Chief)
John Samuel Fleming, DO
Janie Marie Katarsky, DO (Chief)
Monoj Kumar Konda, MD
Andrea Marie Landon, DO
Sandeep Patri, MD
Anusha Surender, MD
Medicine-Pediatrics
Yashwant Agrawal, MD
Theotonius Juyen Gomes, DO (Chief)
Jason Khoa Lam, DO
Matthew Thomas Siuba, DO (Chief)
Orthopaedic Surgery
Jason Mark Habeck, MD (Chief)
Peter James Howard, MD (Chief)
Nicholas Miladore, MD (Chief)
Pediatrics
Meveshni Govender, MD (Chief)
Manasa Josyula, MD
Yamini Soundarya Kuchipudi, MD
Devika Malhotra, MD
Anju Patel, MD
Michael James Schmalz, MD (Chief)
Alissa Marie Welsh, MD
Psychiatry
Carmen Dolores Garcia, MD
Nauman Aman Khan, MD
Priya Mahajan, MD (Chief)
General Surgery
Daniel Stephen Krcelic, MD (Chief)
Julia Ng Miladore, MD (Chief)
Kyle N. Seudeal, MD (Chief)
General Surgery "“ Preliminary Year I
Hailey R. Chang, MD
Brandon Michael Tanner, MD
General Surgery "“ Preliminary Year II
Richie Gopal Goriparthi, MD
Yaqeen Abdullah Qudah, MD
2017 Teaching Awards
Emergency Medicine
David Hartman, MD
Family Medicine
Abigail Annan, MD
Lisa Graves, MD
Internal Medicine
William Nichols, DO
Kurt Schubert, DO
Michael Trexler, MD
Medicine-Pediatrics
Thomas Melgar, MD
Gregory Tiongson, MD
Orthopaedic Surgery
Karen Bovid, MD
Pediatrics
Allison Long, MD
Priscilla Woodhams, MD
Psychiatry
Peter Longstreet, MD
Perry Westerman, MD
General Surgery
John T. Collins, MD
Gitonga Munene, MD