University of Kentucky College of Medicine Class of 2020

Dear Class of 2020 ...

CLASS OF 2020 Virtual Yearbook

Congratulations!

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Dear Class of 2020 ...

Congratulatory messages for the UK College of Medicine Class of 2020

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Dear Class of 2020 ...

C

ongratulations, Class of 2020! Your growth as physicians has been truly amazing to watch over these last four years. As I started with you four years ago, you all will always be remembered by me in a special way. I look forward to watching as you all move through your future careers as I know the impact you all will have on the people you will serve.

Congratulations on all of your achievements and contributions as students in the College of Medicine – and best of luck on the next phase of your journey.

It has been an honor and a pleasure to have worked with you during your training.

Hats off to our resilient COVID-19 graduates.

Thomas Kelly, PhD Interim Chair, Behavioral Science, UK College of Medicine

Congratulations. All of those years of hard work have come to an important milestone. This has been a great class but even more unique in graduating during a pandemic. Something you will discuss for years and years…. and remember at your 50th reunion!

Robert J. Baumann, MD Chief, Division of Pediatric Neurology, UK HealthCare Professor, Neurology and Pediatrics, UK College of Medicine

Robert S. DiPaola, MD, Dean, UK College of Medicine

Congratulations on making it through what I am sure was the hardest academic challenge of your lives! I’m so proud of all that you have accomplished. I wish you all the best as you go on to your residencies. I know you are well equipped for this next phase of your training. Remember to take care of yourselves. You have chosen a physically and demanding profession so make sure you take time for your own health.

Best wishes to all!

Beth Garvy, PhD Associate Dean for Biomedical Education Professor, Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics, and Internal Medicine UK College of Medicine

Best of luck as you continue on in your medical careers. I am certain all of you will make us very proud!

Regina Fragneto, MD Professor, Anesthesiology, UK College of Medicine

WOO HOO!!! Congrats!! You made it!! So proud of all of you. I will really miss sitting on that stage cheering you on as you get hooded—but I’m sure not as much as you’ll miss being hooded! Go forth and make us proud!

This has been a trying end of the year for everyone, but you made it. Everyone is proud of you and wishes you the best of luck for your future whatever it may be. Thank you for being part of the BBN, and I hope you will continue to support us in the future.

Cortney Lee, MD, FACS Surgery Clerkship Director, UK HealthCare Associate Professor, Surgery, UK College of Medicine

Angela Blythe Pediatric Nurse, UK HealthCare

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Dear Class of 2020 ...

Biggest congratulations on this remarkable accomplishment under extraordinary times! Wishing the very best in your medical careers!

Beth Higgins, LCSW, MSW, CFS, CRS Assistant Professor, Psychiatry, UK College of Medicine

I have had the great honor to work with many of you in the preceding few years. I wish each of you much success in you upcoming residencies and future careers! While the current pandemic has no doubt impacted you greatly, my hope is that you will take with you resilience and innovation as a result.

Wishing you the best.

Congratulations on the impressive achievement of graduating medical school this spring! I’m sure you saw your final days as a medical student playing out very differently, but that makes you no less worthy of your long white coat. Thank you for continuing your dedication to our profession in these uncertain times.

I’m honored to call you fellow physicians.

Spencer Larkin, MD ’15 Chief Resident (PGY 5), Urology, UK College of Medicine

I am so proud of all the accomplishments you have had through the past four years. It has been wonderful getting to know and work with you both professionally and personally. As I have said many times, I am very sad that we could not celebrate this incredible milestone in person. I look forward to watching you grow over the next few years and see where you end up. Please keep in touch and you know my door is always open.

E. Berry Seelbach, MD ’02 Assistant Dean for Student Affairs Associate Professor, Pediatrics, UK College of Medicine

As a residency coordinator, I know how special graduation and match day ceremonies are to each of you. You have all worked so hard to get where you are and though it doesn’t seem fair to not participate in these events - you all will ROCK whatever specialty you choose. I can’t wait to see where life leads each of you. This too shall pass and you will each be stronger than you ever thought you could be. We are PROUD of you, Class of 2020!!

Victoria Bloom Thoracic Surgery Program Coordinator, Graduate Medical Education, UK College of Medicine 2

Jessica D. Lee, MD Director, Comprehensive Stroke Program, UK HealthCare Associate Professor and Vice Chair for Quality, Neurology, UK College of Medicine

I wish you all the best for the road ahead. Please don’t let the current situation dampen your excitement. I hope that in whatever you pursue after graduation, you will find this work ever curious and inspiring.

Rebecca Lee Phillip, MD Resident, Integrated Cardiothoracic Surgery UK College of Medicine

Congratulations! Your hard work, long sleepless nights, unfailing efforts have paid off. You will now have an MD after your name which is a badge of honor but also a solemn responsibility to always do well towards your fellow individuals and especially your patients. You will also remember this year as the year of COVID-19 where just about everything we did and took to be routine was disrupted. Among so many memories of these times will be those of the brave empathetic physicians and nurses who cared for the sick during this time. They will serve as a model and example to you and to us all. Good luck in your future careers.

Henry C. Vasconez, MD, FACS Professor, Surgery and Pediatrics, UK College of Medicine

Dear Class of 2020 ...

Congratulations on a successful medical school journey! It’s been a pleasure getting to know you all and serve you over the years. I am proud of your accomplishments and excited for your futures. While we can’t celebrate in person, this doesn’t diminish your completion of medical school and reaching the goal of being a doctor. You came into medical school with a dream and now your dream is morphing to your reality. You have the opportunity to make a difference and heal the world…what a wonderful life calling! I know that to be true because I am a living testament. At age 14, my appendix ruptured so badly that I had to have emergency surgery, or I would’ve died that day. Someone like you once saved my life, so I am grateful for your profession and know that you all will be awesome doctors. Believe in yourself & best wishes!!

Ashlee-Nicole Hamilton, MS Director of Student Services, UK College of Medicine

I am amazed and impressed how you all have persevered throughout your medical school training, especially during the last few unprecedented months for our College of Medicine. I cannot wait to see all of the great things that you all will do after graduation, during your residency training and beyond. I wish you all the best in the future!

Alan Hall, MD ’10 Assistant Dean of Competency Assessment Assistant Professor, Internal Medicine, UK College of Medicine

Congratulations on all of your hard work! You’re going to do great in residency!

Pat Osterhaus UK College of Medicine Class of 2022

Congrats on all your hard work! You’re going to be wonderful doctors!!

Amy Joseph UK College of Medicine Class of 2023

Hey guys! My name is Kaitlyn, and I am an M1 student. I just wanted to say that you all are so amazing. We have heard the word “unprecedented” far too often in the past months, and you all have been hit pretty hard with adjusting to social distancing. And you took it with such stride. We all loved seeing your celebrations of Virtual Match Day, and we are so proud to be following in your footsteps. You are going to do such amazing things!

Always remember your times at the UK College of Medicine and all you have accomplished. As an M1 student, I cannot fathom all of the work that you all have done in four years. Be proud of that. Have confidence in your abilities and don’t fret on making small mistakes.

Most of all, congratulations Class of 2020. We are all cheering you on - from a distance of course.

Kaitlyn Weyman UK College of Medicine Class of 2023

Congratulations on a hard-earned achievement!

Blessings in all your future endeavors and may you have a healing presence for all the patients you encounter.

Mary B. Sheppard, MD ’12 Assistant Professor, Family and Community Medicine, UK College of Medicine

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Dear Class of 2020 ...

You did it! The past four years you have written this chapter of your story and the time has come to bring it to a close. Revel in all that transpired: the great, the not so great, and everything in between. Every moment happened the way it did for this moment, graduation, to occur. You persevered and adapted.

You completed medical school unlike any other class has in the 60-year history of the UK College of Medicine. Let that resonate. Be proud and do not allow any current circumstances to steal your joy.

Godspeed as you begin to write the next chapter. I am certain your story will positively impact many!

Shavonna J. Ross, MA Associate Chief of Staff, UK College of Medicine

“This is my wish for you: Comfort on difficult days, smiles when sadness intrudes, rainbows to follow the clouds, laughter to kiss your lips, sunsets to warm your heart, hugs when spirits sag, beauty for your eyes to see, friendships to brighten your being, faith so that you can believe, confidence for when you doubt, courage to know yourself, patience to accept the truth, Love to complete your life.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson Congratulations, Class of 2020!

Michelle Lineberry, EdD Assistant Dean for Students and Academic Success, UK College of Medicine

Congratulations for completing four years of challenging study at UK. It has been my pleasure to be involved in your medical education. Your reward is not only receiving a medical degree, but being able to enter into a career where you will be able to help people with your knowledge and talent. Keep up the hard work but always make time for yourself, your family, and your friends.

Best wishes!

Fritz Lower, MD Professor, Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, UK College of Medicine 6

Congrats on your accomplishments and please celebrate. I am sure you all will contribute in many unique ways to help the world overcome this crisis and help the future generations. Keep faith and give out your best to help and heal all those in need.

Congratulations.

Subbarao Bondada, PhD Professor, Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics, UK College of Medicine

Congratulations on meeting your ultimate goal of receiving your MD degree. It has been a pleasure watching you grow into the patient-centered physician you are today. Good luck in your future.

Brendan McCarthy Registrar, UK College of Medicine

Congratulations to all of the 2020 graduating students from the College of Medicine, but especially to my daughter, Colleen Taylor – soon to be Dr. Colleen Taylor! We are all so proud of your accomplishments and thrilled that you are doing your residency at UK. Love you, Mom Patricia M. Gallagher Admin. Services Senior, Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine

Congratulations on surviving both four years of medical school AND the complexities of a global pandemic.

Your achievements will be well rewarded through your residency programs and I wish you the best of luck.

Here’s to an exciting and rewarding future.

Sanford M. Archer, MD, FACS, FAAOA Professor, Otolaryngology, UK College of Medicine

Match Day

Dear Class of 2020 ...

Congratulations on achieving this incredible milestone.

I am proud of each of you. I was honored to serve as your student affairs dean for your first year of medical school. I have thought of your class often and have missed seeing all of you. I had hoped to celebrate with your class in person both at Match Day and Graduation.

Very sorry we could not be together on those days. You are about to embark on an exciting time in your lives. I hope that you will stay in touch. I will leave you with the words I’ve shared at previous Match Day celebrations, be a force for good in the world every day!

Congratulations on obtaining you MD degree and I know you have received a fantastic education. So now remain honest and ethical with yourself and others and you will be a wonderful physician.

Todd Cheever, MD ’91, R ’95 Associate Dean, UK College of Medicine-Bowling Green Campus Associate Professor, Psychiatry, UK College of Medicine

Deepti Sharma, MD Resident (PGY-3), Obstetrics and Gynecology, UK College of Medicine

Congratulations to all of you! I know you will all go on to do amazing things and have successful careers.

Good luck, and best wishes!

Congratulations! I am so proud of all you, you have persevered and now it’s time to celebrate your accomplishments. The world isn’t ready for all of your gifts and talents. Go be great, Class of 2020!

Donna M. Wilcock, PhD Assistant Dean of Biomedicine Professor, Physiology, UK College of Medicine

My congratulations to each of you for becoming capable physicians and particularly for finishing your training in such trying times. Good luck to you all!

John A. D’Orazio, MD, PhD Chief, Division of Hematology/Oncology, UK HealthCare Professor, Pediatrics, UK College of Medicine

I am so excited to share in your celebration! My graduation wish for you is to remember that the greatest honor of being a physician - is not simply taking care of patients but each other as physicians, as well! Take care of each other, Class of 2020! May you find joy in sneaking a snack cracker pack at 2 a.m. on a call night, may you find resiliency when answering your 53rd page of the day, and may you find love in your chosen career. Hooray!

Kristen E. Fletcher, MD Academic Hospitalist

Tom Maddox, MD ’69

Congratulations class of 2020! You’re off to great places! Good luck!

Chioma Brown, M.Ed Assistant Director of Admissions, UK College of Medicine

The graduating class of 2020 faces new challenges, perhaps a whole new world. Still, the path you take and the way you travel can bring you and our world to new heights.

You are the pioneers of today.

Gloria Casale, MD ’81, R ’84 MSPH

As you enter the next chapter of your medical career, I say congrats! This has been an unprecedented spring and as you enter the unknown, I encourage you to give grace and find time for yourself during the chaos of life. Medicine has taught me life is more precious than work. Be blessed graduates and Go CATS! Bethany Snider, MD ’09, HMDC, FAAHPM

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Dear Class of 2020 ...

Let me congratulate you on your completion of medical school. Despite the challenges that medicine faces, you are now in an amazing place empowered to do so much for patients and healthcare in the U.S. Enjoy what you have achieved, commit to simply being the best doctor you can be, advocate for your patients and your colleagues and take pride in the work that you do every day.

those values with you wherever life takes you next.

While these are uncertain times, you will meet the challenge ahead and will lead us all in a return to the heart of medicine. Congratulations!

Ardis Dee Hoven, MD ’70, FACP Former President, American Medical Association Past Chair of Council, World Medical Association

Congratulations Class of 2020! Medical school graduation is among the most memorable professional milestones! This time of transition elicits so many emotions, even more so during these unprecedented times. Celebrate and enjoy your accomplishments. Take pride in how far you have come and have faith in how far you will go!

What a fantastic day for you! And what a great time to look back on all that you shared with your classmates.

Wishing you nothing but happiness! I still love what I do! Keep life balanced!

Carol Mitchell, MD ’86

Congratulations Class of 2020! You are a thoughtful and resilient bunch, and now you’re doctors! Don’t let the lack of a traditional graduation diminish your accomplishment. Best wishes to all of you in your next step. Special congratulations to my brilliant sister, Shelley!

Senna Munnikhuysen, MD ’17 Resident (PGY-3), Pediatrics, UK College of Medicine

Fellow UK Alumni, All of your hard work has paid off and now you enter an exciting phase of your life. Do it well!!! You are now in an exalted group, and I hope you will do your best. Have fun and work hard. Your fellow grads wish you all well.

Michael Barnett, MD ’06, MS, FACP, FAAP, FAAHPM

J. Scott Roth, MD, R ’98, FACS Director, Center for Advanced Training and Simulation, UK HealthCare Professor, Surgery, UK College of Medicine

CONGRATULATIONS!!! on completion of the first phase of your medical education. I was told that at my commencement back in 1973. It was put in context by the speaker’s next statement.

“You have begun, not completed a medical education.

If you do not continue to learn; ten years from now at least 50% of the knowledge you now possess will either be wrong or irrelevant. And, you will be a disadvantage, not an asset, in your community.”

Those words motivated me throughout my careers as a family physician and then a physician executive. I hope they serve as an encouragement to each of you.

Again, CONGRATULATIONS! Ben Humphrey, MD ’73, CPE Retired Family Physician and CEO of The Medical Group of Ohio

George Hromyak, Jr., MD ’69

Best wishes for your future in medicine. You have trained at an institution committed to holistic education and service to those most in need. Take 12

Congratulations to the medical school class of 2020.

I know it has been a hard four years. It it is worth it.

There is not a higher calling IMHO. KJ Klein, MD ’70

Dear Class of 2020 ...

I graduated in 1979 and completed a pediatric residency in 1982. My career has been split between private practice of general pediatrics for 12 years, academic practice as an associate professor of pediatrics at UK for 18 years, and the last eight years in private pediatric specialty practice caring for children, adolescents, and young adults with ADHD and related conditions.

I have NEVER regretted a single moment of my choice to become a pediatrician. There have certainly been stressful moments but many greater moments of reward. I am so grateful that I chose UK for medical school and pediatrics.

I wish each of you the very best as you begin your lives as doctors. I would encourage you to ALWAYS do the right thing for the patient!

With my best regards,

especially those in rural Appalachia and minority communities can be better addressed.

Wishing you all the best, Nancy B. Munro, PhD ’71

Congratulations, and welcome to one of the world’s best ways of serving humanity. As your learning continues through your post-graduate training, I wish for you continued excitement and the reward of being a member of a profession dedicated to making a better life for others.

Respectfully, David A. Sacks, MD ’69

Sheila Woods MD ’79, R ’82, FAAP Good Luck!

I am a 1971 alum of the department of physiology (and biophysics back then) in the College of Medicine. I am a retired research staff member at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and a collaborator with Dr. Yang Jiang of the department of behavioral science and Sanders-Brown Center on Aging at the UK College of Medicine since 2005.

You are very much needed and appreciated, especially now in this most unusual time of the novel coronavirus pandemic. However your graduation is handled, you will likely experience a mixture of disappointment at the lack of the traditional ceremony and apprehension about the uncertainties of the immediate future and the possibility of exposure to the dangers of treating COVID-19 patients. In any case, it is an historic moment which you will never forget.

And the impacts on our healthcare system will likely be lasting, for better or for worse. Please know that many are working to support positive changes in how health care is delivered in this country so that your career in medicine will be a rewarding one and that the health disparities experienced by many,

Mitch Sosis, MD ’78

I wish you all well and know you are being graduated into a new world that has not seen such as this.

To me it seems very exciting and challenging time for all but a very dangerous time also.

You have made it!!

I know the future of health care will be forever changed from this time and that you will do well.

I am counting on you all to care for me in my later years and feel you will do so with dedication.

Be careful and have fun learning doing medicine and caring for your health “It is what you learn AFTER you know it all THAT COUNTS.” Rachel Eubank, MD ’66 15

Graduation

Dear Class of 2020 ...

My name is Debra Sowell MD, Class of 1982, and the current president of the University of Kentucky College of Medicine Alumni Association. First of all, congratulations on your upcoming official graduation. Having gone through the same process, I know what those four years are like, but no one can say they have gone through a pandemic which has changed what the “normal” fourth-year experience would involve. I know it may be hard for you to understand also, but it has been a phenomenal learning experience for all of us which I hope no other generations will ever have to endure. I am sorry that I cannot meet personally those members of the class who I have not interacted with in some way on graduation, but the UK College of Medicine is very proud of each of you and welcome you to our ranks.

Go Cats!

Debra Sowell, MD ’82 President, UK College of Medicine Alumni Association

Welcome to the family of UK medical school graduates who have contributed so much to medicine.

As a professor who has been a residency and fellowship director I have had the pleasure of training a number of UK graduates. I can assure you that you have received the type of education to prepare you for success in residency training. Hoping that you will use this background to achieve a successful career of excellence in medicine.

Wishing you a bright future.

Karl Fields, MD ’76

Congratulations Class of 2020! It has been a true honor to be involved in your medical education. I’m very proud of you and know that you will do well.

Andrew R. Hoellein, MD, MS, FACP Associate Dean for Student Affairs, Professor, Medicine, UK College of Medicine

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Congratulations to all of the UK College of Medicine ‘20 graduates!

As you embark on your future, remember that you have a good educational foundation, but never stop learning. Always demonstrate strong character and work ethic, and LOVE WHAT YOU DO! Best of luck !

Tim Newcomer MD ’90

It has been an honor and a privilege to have been one of your teachers and education deans. Your professionalism, adaptability, and sincere care for each other during these trying times have been inspiring to me, and have made me a better person and doctor. Thank you for all you have done for our medical school, and I hope for nothing short of flourishing for you in your professional and personal lives.

Charles “Chipper” Griffith, MD Vice Dean for Education, UK College of Medicine

Class of 2020, we’re really proud of all you have accomplished! From the changes in your curriculum to the challenges in your 4th year from COVID, you have preserved and adapted through a lot! This ability will serve you well throughout the rest of your training and beyond. We’re very excited for the places you are going and careers you are pursuing.

We hope that wherever you are in July that you feel like you’ve gotten a good clinical foundation at UK and are prepared to succeed in residency!

John Ragsdale, MD, MS Assistant Dean for Clinical Education, Associate Professor, Medicine, UK College of Medicine