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GUSOM Medical Alumni Board Newsletter
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Letter from the Board Chair
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Dear Medical Alumni Board Members,
To say that the last eight months have not been business as usual is an understatement. However, the Medical Alumni with the help of our Staff have risen to the occasion. Many signed up for the 1:1 CURA program to match the Class of 2020 with area alumni. Obviously, 1:1 meetings were not practical although many of us still
 reached out to individual graduates in our cities. Together with the Communications Committee, we helped to organize Zoom meetings in the top six geographic areas to which new alumni were headed. The largest turnout was New York City where new graduates enthusiastically attended. Thanks to the alumni in these areas who participated with the aid of the staff and Regional Georgetown University Alumni Clubs.
The Nominations Committee under the leadership of Dr. Keshishian elected four new members to the Medical Alumni Board for terms beginning July 1, 2020 and they are profiled below. We extended our thanks to Drs. Tony Caggiano and Bill Dahut for their six years of service which ended June 30, 2020.
White Coat Ceremony was virtual with over 75% of the incoming class choosing to move to the DC area even though they knew their Classes would be virtual and Medical Campus closed. All M1 and M2 Classes are virtual and some M2s decided to participate from their home towns when their leases expired. The Faculty and Learning Societies have been fantastic in helping to make all students feel they are part of the Georgetown Medical School Family.
In-person Medical Reunion for the Classes of 5 and 10's had to be cancelled because of the pandemic and will be combined with next October's celebration. We are, however, having an individual panel for those who were due to celebrate Reunion this year. There will be a panel to update Alumni on changes in the Medical School and requests to update significant events in the Reunion Classes.
Many of our Medical Alumni have volunteered their time and treasure by participating in Zoom conferences despite the fact that those in Academic Medicine are busier than ever. Thanks so much to all. You will be updated during the Medical Alumni Board Meeting on October 31, 2020 (1:30-3 pm).
Regina Torsney-Durkin, M.D. (C'73, M'77)
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Meet Our Newest Board Members
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Dr. Francis Jay Crosson (C'66, M'70)
Jay is currently a Senior Instructor at the new Kaiser Permanente Medical School in Pasadena, California. From 2015 to May of 2020 he was the Chairman of the Congressional Medicare Payment Advisory commission (MedPAC), which advises Congress on w ays to promote high quality care while preserving the fiscal integrity of the Medicare program. In September 2020, he also received appointments to the Department of Veterans Affairs, Special Medical Advisory Committee and as Senior HealthCare Advisor, Health 2047, American Medical Association.
Jay earned both his undergraduate and medical degrees at Georgetown before completing his residency in Pediatrics at the New England Medical Center and an Infectious Disease fellowship at Johns Hopkins University. His training also included service in the Navy at the Bethesda Naval Hospital. Jay started to work for the Permanente Medical Group in 1977; advanced to become the Associate Executive Director in 1988; and in 1997, the Executive Director of the Permanente
Federation, the physician component of Kaiser Permanente nationally. He is a past Chairman of the American Medical Group Association (AMGA) and served as Group Vice President of the AMA from 2012 to 2015.In his spare time, he graduated from the Kaiser Permanente Executive program at Stanford Business School.
Dr. Christopher Jones (M'01)
Christopher is a transplant surgeon who practices at the University of Louisville. After
completing his undergraduate training at Brown and medical school at Georgetown,  he did a residency in general surgery at Vanderbilt and a transplant fellowship at UCLA. He was then recruited to the University of Louisville to build their multiorgan transplant division. His team has successfully built a program that is nationally recognized for transplanting liver, kidney and pancreas including an Islet cell transplant program. Christopher has won numerous awards, most recently being honored with the Robert L. Fulton Award, presented by the chief residents from the University of Louisville. Recently, he has added functional and integrative medicine into the practice. He has also worked as a national leader in the effort to reduce the disparity of access to life-saving organs.
Dr. Jeff Perri (M'90)
Jeff is the head of Perri Surgical Associates, a general surgery practice in the Pittsburgh, PA area. He completed his undergraduate education at John Carroll University, medical school at Georgetown and a general surgery  residency at Mercy Hospital of Pittsburgh. Jeff is a member of the American Society of Breast Surgeons and has served as the President of the Pittsburgh Surgical Society and President of the Medical staff at St. Clair Hospital. He was also the Chairman, Department of Surgery, at St. Clair Hospital for 10 years ending in 2017. Jeff works as a preceptor/mentor to medical students from several Pittsburgh medical schools at St. Clair. He has also volunteered in medical mission work in the Philippines. In his limited spare time Jeff has competed in multiple half marathons, enjoys fly fishing and is an avid cycler. Jeff's father Francis (M'53) was also a graduate of Georgetown Medical School.
Dr. Sean Pinney (C'90, M'94)
This past July, Sean was named Co-Director of the Heart & Vascular Center; Director of the Advanced Heart Failure, Transplant and Mechanical Circulatory Support
 Program; and the Director of Clinical & Translational Research at the University of Chicago Department of Medicine. Previously, Sean had been a Professor of Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, where he led the advanced heart failure and cardiac transplantation programs. Sean earned both his undergraduate and medical degrees at Georgetown before completing his residency at the Deaconess Hospital in Boston, also serving as Chief Resident. He then completed two fellowships in Cardiovascular Medicine and Congestive Heart Failure & Cardiac Transplant at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center. Sean is the perfect academic triad with dozens of funded clinical projects, numerous publications and teaching responsibilities from medical students to fellows to PhD dissertations. He has won a Cardiology Fellowship research award, a Young Investigators award and the Simon Dack Award for outstanding teaching. However, his fondest memories of Georgetown are the meeting and courting of his wife, Jennifer, also a Georgetown graduate (N'90).
Dr. Tony Caggiano and Dr. Bill Dahut, who have each completed their second term on the Board and who have given invaluable service as Board members and alumni. We wish them well and hope to see them at future GUSOM events!
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From the September 28, 2020 GUMC Update Newsletter:
This past week, yet again, we experienced more deeply troubling developments related to racial injustices in our nation. I wish to reiterate Georgetown University Medical Center's commitment to an inclusive environment that identifies and eliminates acts of racism in any form, and to a culture of mutual respect and support for every member of our community.
In this issue of GUMC Update, you will find a video in which I join medical students and faculty - voices for change - in acknowledging the path ahead towards racial equity. On Tuesday, I will speak to the University's Faculty Senate and share with them the many facets of work underway across our entire campus. I wish to thank our faculty, staff and students as we pursue sustainable changes at the medical center in the spirit of cura personalis.
Edward B. Healton, M.D., MPH
Executive Vice President, GUMC
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From the Office of Admissions
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The Class of 2024 is one of the most selective classes to date, with a 2.7 percent acceptance rate from over 14,400 applications. This is also a very diverse class: 17 percent of our 203 incoming students from underrepresented backgrounds in medicine, coming from the United States, South Korea, Nigeria, China, Iran, Nepal, Netherlands, Pakistan, Romania, Syria, and Taiwan. Fifty-five percent identify as female and 30 percent have advanced degrees.
As we rise to meet the financial needs of students, we can recruit top students that better reflect the diverse population of patients they will someday serve. Social justice and health care advocacy are core tenets of Georgetown Medicine's mission, and this work must begin at home.
One essential programmatic update this year is our efforts toward ensuring diversity and anti-racism. The Office of Diversity and Inclusion, led by Dean Susan Cheng, has worked hard to elevate marginalized voices in our community through speaker-led sessions, resources, and providing safe places for people to listen, support each other, and advocate for change. Beyond those initiatives, students and faculty recently
came together to create a Racial Justice Committee for
 Change, which includes sub-committees that are working on recommendations for how the School of Medicine can ensure a more equitable and inclusive experience for all.
All interviewing is being done virtually at this time.
Ellen Dugan, M.D. (M'82, R'86) Senior Associate Dean for Admissions
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Dine With a Doc Going Virtual!
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We thank all those physicians who hosted students in their homes or out on the town for meals this past year. The conversations and camaraderie that result from these moments are important touchstones and milestones in students' lives. For this year, we will look towards creative and innovative ways to continue our engagement with students - consider sending a group of students a gift card to a local restaurant and hosting a Zoom meal with them! Please contact student co-chairs
2019-2020 Hosts
Dr. Christina Annunziata
Dr. Christopher Annunziata
Dr. Tony Caggiano
Dr. Alicia Cooper
Dr. Matthew Cooper
Dr. William Dahut
Dr. Christopher Farrell
Dr. Kathleen Farrell
| Dr. Brendan Furlong
Dr. Mary Furlong
Dr. George Heyrich
Dr. Daphne Keshishian
Dr. Jenifer Luck
Dr. Steve Luck
Dr. Nancy Ripp Clark
Dr. Michelle Roeser
Dr. Regina Torsney-Durkin |
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Thursday, October 29, 5 pm
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Medical Alumni Board "Meet and Greet" for new members. Register here.
| Friday, October 30, 12-1 pm
| Virtual Panel Discussion: Medical Education at Georgetown Then & Now
Join Dr. Mary Furlong, Senior Associate Dean for Curriculum, and Board members Drs. Christopher Jones and William Oppenheim, to learn how the GUSOM has evolved over time while remaining grounded in the Jesuit ideal of cura personalis. Register here.
| Saturday, October 31, 2020
1:30-3 pm
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Medical Alumni Board Fall meeting
| Weekend of February 5-6, 2021
October 29-31, 2021 | Medical Alumni Board Winter meeting
(specific date and time TBA)
Medical Reunion, celebrating the Classes ending in '0' & '5' and '1' & '6'. RSVP here.Please contact Kathleen Ott if you are interested in serving as a Class Ambassador. |
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Matthew Cooper, M.D. (M'94)
Dr. Cooper, the Director of Kidney and Pancreas Transplantation for the MedStar Georgetown Transplant Institue, has recenly won a national election to become the
 President Elect/VP of the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) from July 2020 to June 2021. UNOS is the organization that manages the nation's organ transplant system, and is responsible for making all the policies regarding allocation of organs, prioritization on the waitlist, and oversight for the activities of transplant programs and Organ Procurement Organizations (OPOs) that procure deceased donor organs. Dr. Cooper has had fifteen years of service to both UNOS and the transplant community, and will become the President of UNOS in 2021. Read more. 
George Heyrich, M.D. (M'89) Dr. Heyrich has been voted a "Top Doctor" in Philadelphia for interventional cardiology for the third year in a row. In a separate publication, he was also voted "Top Doctor" in the initial survey in the Suburban Life Magazine of Philadelphia.
Jay Crosson, M.D. (C'66, M'70)
Bill Licamele, M.D. (C'68, M'72, R'74)
Dr. Bill  Licamele , specialist in child and adolescent Psychiatry, conducted a webinar hosted through the Georgetown University Alumni Association on "Pandemic Parenting: Managing Children's Emotional Wellbeing" in September. The webinar examined best practices for identifying children's traumatic responses and managing those reactions, sharing important takeaways for parents, teachers, and counselors. Dr. Licamele is a member of the Georgetown Medical Alumni Board, Board of Governors and a devoted Faculty member of the Harvey Learning Society at the School of Medicine. The webinar is available here.
Jacques Carter, M.D. (M'79)
Dr. Carter received the GUAA Founders Award in 2020 and is an active member of the Georgetown University African-American Advisory Board. He was recently presented with the Harvard Alumni Association Award, which is presented annually to recognize alumni for their outstanding service to Harvard University through leadership and engagement activities. Warm congratulations were sent to which he responded that he might wear crimson but "bleeds blue and gray".
Mark Dybul, M.D. (C'85, M'92, H'08)
Dr. Dybul, Professor of Medicine at Georgetown University Medical Center and co-director of its Center for Global Health Practice and Impact, has been named to serve on The Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response, a high level panel that is examining the World Health Organization's response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Read more.
Christopher Petrilli, M.D. (B'03, M'12)
Dr. Petrilli, who w as profiled with Dr. Joseph Panarelli (C'03, M'07) in our last newsletter when both were pulled from their roles as attending faculty at NYU-Langone during the Covid-19 Pandemic to work as House Officers, was a participant in a conference in September on NYU's COVID response. Both physicians have returned to their regular practices.
John Gatti, M.D. (M'78)
 Dr. Gatti, an Emeritus member of the Medical Alumni Board, gave a Zoom lecture on unusual plastic surgery cases to the Learning Society first year medical students last month. As a Faculty member in the Hufnagel Society, he also gave a brief history of Dr. Charles Hufnagel, who invented the first artificial heart valve while he was the Director of Cardiac Research at GUMC. He is the father of two Georgetown Medical Alumni and brother of Dr. Eugene Gatti, current Board member.
Aaron Epstein, M.D. (MA'12, M'18)
The American College of Surgeons (ACS) Board of Governors Surgical Volunteerism and Humanitarian Awards Workgroup has awarded Dr. Epstein, a general surgery resident at the University at Buffalo, NY, the Resident Volunteerism Award for his work as founder and president of the not-for-profit medical humanitarian organization Global Surgical and Medical Support Group. Dr. Epstein  created the GSMSG shortly after beginning medical school with the eventual goal of creating health care capacity in troubled geopolitical hotspots. GSMSG training programs have trained more than 2,000 local medics and more than 200 local nurses, and held training sessions for more than 500 local physicians and surgeons in Middle Eastern locales. Dr. Epstein also has personally led more than a dozen deployments of medical and surgical personnel to provide surgical services for affected populations in combat zones in the Middle East. Domestically, GSMSG has provided medical capacity and support in response to hurricanes and Covid-19 outbreaks in New York City and Miami, FL. Read more.
Brian Monahan, M.D. (M'86)
Dr. Monahan has been the Attending Physician Doctor to the U.S. Congress and the Supreme Court since 2009, providing health care and expertise to members of Congress and Supreme Court Justices. He also holds the position of Rear Admiral in the United States Navy. Prior to his service in Congress he was Professor and Chairman of Medicine at The Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland and the director of hematology and medical oncology at the National Naval Medical Center. |
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