IN OUR C OMMUNITY
care careers Scholarship helps launch grads
Scholarships honor James L. Potts, MD, the first African-American member of Upstate’s clinical faculty.
Tracking 24 award winning doctors Potts Prize Winners
Orthopedic surgeon Daryll Dykes, MD, PhD, JD, was the first award recipient; pediatrician Windy Grant, MD, was the most recent.
ix are working in
S
New York state, including one
(Daryll Dykes, MD, PhD, JD) at Upstate. Many are at hospitals or private practices in the Northeast, although one is in California and three are in Houston. One (Nicole Alexander-Scott, MD) is the director of the Rhode Island Department of Health. What they have in common: When each graduated from Upstate’s College of Medicine, he or she received a $500 prize established in honor of James L. Potts, MD, the first African-American
member of Upstate’s clinical faculty. After completing his cardiology fellowship, Potts joined Upstate in 1972. He directed the cardiac catheterization laboratory and initiated the echocardiography program, in addition to taking care of patients and teaching students. He left in 1994 to become chief of cardiology at his medical alma mater, Meharry Medical College in Nashville. “He was an important role model for all students and residents,” Harold Smulyan, MD, said of Potts. Donations from cardiology fellows and hospital staff funded the Potts Prize. The first award 25 years ago went to Dykes, an orthopedic surgeon who grew up in Syracuse and earned his medical degree and a doctorate at Upstate. Dykes went to the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis for further training in orthopedic, spine and trauma surgery and later joined the faculty there. He returned to Upstate as a faculty member in 2018. The most recent winner, this year, was Windy Grant, MD, who is starting a pediatrics residency at Yale New Haven Hospital. She intends to care for children in her homeland, Haiti. u
YEAR NAME SPECIALTY 1995 Daryll Dykes, MD, PhD, JD orthopedics
LOCATION Upstate Medical, Syracuse
1996 Esme Anne Riley, MD
Maryland
anesthesiology
1997 Toycina Aguilh-Figaro, MD pediatrics
Brooklyn
1998 Pierre Frederique, MD
pulmonology
Pennsylvania
1999 Vonda Johnson, MD
family medicine
Dannemora, NY
2001 Nicole AlexanderScott, MD
internal medicine, pediatrics
Rhode Island
2002 Madison Cuffy, MD
transplant surgeon Cincinnati
2004 Lauren Brewington, MD
infectious diseases Atlanta
2004 Donna Thomas, MD
internal medicine
Long Island
2006 Dalton Foster, MD
anesthesiology
Houston
2007 Peter Guirguis, MD
obstetrics/ gynecology
Brooklyn
2008 Francois Boubert, MD
obstetrics/ gynecology
New Haven, Conn.
2008 Jacqueline Busingye, MD ophthalmology
New York
2010 Jewel Appleton, MD
radiology
Houston
2010 Tesha English, MD
anesthesiology
Greater Los Angeles
2012 Jacqueline Minasso, MD
dermatology
Long Island
2012 Richard Ogbuji, MD
neurosurgery
Boston
2013 Tiffani Cherry, MD
pediatrics
Kentucky
2014 Kilali Iyalla, MD
surgery
Houston
2014 Andrea LuncheonHilliman, MD
anesthesiology/ critical care
University of Pennsylvania
2015 Krista Tookhan, MD
pediatrics
Maryland
2016 Marie Fleury, MD
surgery
Stony Brook University
2018 Nicodeme Wanko Agassy, MD
orthopedic surgery Rutgers University
2019 Windy Grant, MD
pediatrics
Yale New Haven
Two winners were awarded some years, and no winners were awarded some years. Of the 24 winners, 16 are women and eight are men.
upstate.edu l fall 2019 l U P STAT E H E A LT H
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