Alumni Notes

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...by contacting the Office of Alumni and Collegiate Relations online, by fax: (319) 384-4638, or snail mail: 4414 Westlawn, UI Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242.

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1940s

Robert S. Homes (’49 MD) is retired and living in Manchester Center, Vt.

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1950s

MD Reunion Classes of 1950 and 1955
Medicine Alumni Reunion Weekend
June 11-12, 2010

M. Samuel Noordhoff (’54 MD), of Naples, Fla., a world leader in cleft lip and palate surgery, received an award for excellence and humanitarian contributions from the World Craniofacial Foundation in 2008. In 2007 he was presented with a UI Distinguished Alumni Award for service, in addition to the Joseph G. McCarthy Excellence in Medicine and Humanitarian Award from The Smile Train, an international charity dedicated to the treatment of cleft lip and palate.

William R. Wessels (’50 BA, ’54 MD, ’65 R) is retired and living in Marshalltown, Iowa.

Stan Haugland (’56 BA, ’59 MD), of Des Moines, received a recognition award through the “Making a Difference” staff program of Iowa Health-Des Moines.

Myron “Rene” Hausheer (’59 MD), of Topeka, Kan., reports “it’s still fun to exercise my brain.” He works at least 20 hours a week in administrative medicine.

John L. Heine (’59 MD), of Kalispell, Mont., has retired from ob/gyn.

Howard “Howie” C. Wolf (’56 BA, ’59 MD), of Boulder, Colo., has had a solo family practice for 43 years. He co-founded the Clinica Compensina in northern Colorado, which today cares for about 15,000 medically underserved patients, half of them uninsured. He was voted Best Family Doctor in the area three times and is a past president of the Colorado Academy of Family Physicians. He is a board member of Health Care for All Colorado.

Edwin D. Wolfgram (’54 BA, ’59 MD), of St. Louis, Mo., continues to practice psychiatry and also compete in the Ironman Triathalon, where he was the 2003 world champion in the 70-to-74 age category. He remains among the top three contenders on the world scene.

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1960s

MD Reunion Classes of 1960 and 1965
Medicine Alumni Reunion Weekend
June 11-12, 2010

Raymond O. Pierce Jr. (’63 R), emeritus professor of orthopaedic surgery at Indiana University School of Medicine, received the 2008 Lifetime Achievement Award at a fundraising dinner for the school’s George H. Rawls, MD, Scholarship, which provides tuition assistance for underrepresented minority students from Indiana who aspire to become physicians.

Lenly M. Gearhart (’59 BA, ’64 MD) is retired and living in Wilsonville, Ore.

Douglas H. Kirkpatrick (’69 MD), of Denver, Colo., has tapered his private practice to ambulatory gynecology during his term as president of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists for 2008-2009. He proudly reports the marriage of his daughter, Brooke, to James Davis Jr. on top of Vail Mountain last August.

J.D. Thoreson (’69 MD), of Mason City, Iowa, is a clinical professor at the UI Carver College of Medicine.

Stephen L. Towle (’65 BS, ’69 MD, ’76 R), of Cook, Minn., provides radiology nighthawk services from home. Previously he practiced diagnostic radiology in Duluth, Minn.

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1970s

MD Reunion Class of 1970
Medicine Alumni Reunion Weekend
June 11-12, 2010

Robert Kuhl (’73 BS, ’76 MD), of Creston, Iowa, was featured in a Washington Post article about the decreasing number of general surgeons, because younger physicians more often choose non-surgical specialties, or select surgical areas—transplant, plastic—where salaries are higher and the range of cases fewer than those confronting a generalist. The shortage of general surgeons is a major problem in rural communities. Kuhl, whose father was a general surgeon in Creston, performs nearly 70 percent of Creston’s surgeries.

Stephen Stefani (’76 MD, ’79 R) is chief of anesthesiology at Broadlawns Medical Center in Des Moines. He is a past president of the Iowa Society of Anesthesiologists.

Kenneth Burkhart (’78 MD) was appointed medical director of the Council Bluffs (Iowa) Community Health Center in October. He has been a family practice physician in Atlantic and Council Bluffs. In 2007 the Community Health Center served 6,658 patients, with 62 percent of them uninsured.

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1980s

MD Reunion Classes of 1984 and 1989
Homecoming Reunion Weekend
October 9-10, 2009

Peter Jerome (’77 BS, ’80 MD) is a pulmonologist with Albert Lea (Minn.) Medical Center, part of Mayo Health System. He specializes in all forms of lung disease, pulmonary hypertension, and sleep medicine.

James R. Fick (’86 MD) is a neurosurgeon in Centre County, Pa. He specializes in the removal of brain and spinal tumors.

Gerry Clancy (’83 BA, ’88 MD, ’92 R) was named 2009 Tulsan of the Year by TulsaPeople magazine for his “creative thinking and visionary leadership to initiate positive change in the accessibility of health care for the underserved.” He is president of the University of Oklahoma-Tulsa and dean of the OU School of Community Medicine.

Steven Dominguez (’88 MD), MPH, of Downey, Calif., owns Acute Response Inc., a mobile outpatient medical diagnostic company, and Bella Milagros Inc., which produces Bella MD patented skin care products and holds patents on non-surgical facial and body sculpting laser technology.

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1990s

MD Reunion Class of 1999
Homecoming Reunion Weekend
October 9-10, 2009

Tony Brenneman (’96 MPAS), associate director of the UI Physician Assistant Program, received the Rising Star Award from the Physician Assistant Education Association, recognizing his service to physician assistant education in one or more of the following areas: teaching, research, administration, and peer recognition as demonstrated by scholarship and service. He joined the program as a faculty member in 2004, initially serving in the role as director of clinical education.

Viviana Martinez-Bianchi (’96 R), of Raleigh, N.C., is associate program director of the Duke Family Medicine Residency Program, which emphasizes ambulatory care, team-based health care, chronic disease management, community engagement, leadership development, and quality measurement and improvement. She and Gregory Bianchi (’98 MS, ’00 R) love the North Carolina climate and living close to the mountains and the ocean.

René Recinos (’98 MD/PhD) is a plastic surgeon with Albert Lea (Minn.) Medical Center, part of Mayo Health System. He specializes in breast reconstruction and augmentation, body contouring, and other medically necessary and cosmetic procedures.

Anne Niemiro Robinson (’92 BS, ’98 MD) has remarried and moved from Wichita, Kan., to Virginia Beach, Va. She and husband Brian Robinson have two children, Kate and Matthew.

Janeta Tansey, MD (’99 R), joined the practice at Eastwind Healing Center in Iowa City. She also is a clinical associate professor in psychiatry in the UI Carver College of Medicine.

Mohsen Karimi (’99 F, ’02 R, ’03 F, ’05 F) is a cardiothoracic surgeon specializing in the repair of congenital heart defects in children. He is on the faculty at the Medical College of Georgia School of Medicine.

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2000s

Ahmad Shihabi (’01 R) is a cardiologist practicing at the CardioVascular Institute at North Colorado Medical Center.

Jessica Krochmal (’97 BA, ’02 MD, ’05 R, ’06 F, ’07 F) has joined the Department of Pathology and Clinical Laboratories at Berkshire Health Systems in Pittsfield, Mass.

Josalyn Olsen Cho (’99 BS, ’03 MD), of Melrose, Mass., welcomed her first child, a son, Tayson Jeffrey Cho, on Dec. 5, 2008.

James “Brad” McConville (’05 MD) was selected by the American College of Psychiatrists for the Laughlin Fellowship Program, an honor awarded to just 10 residents from the U.S. and Canada annually. He is a fourth-year resident at Tulane University. He also has been named Resident of the Year for the Medical Center of Louisiana New Orleans, and twice received the Tulane Department of Psychiatry Gonzalez Prize for Scientific Writing. He and Anne McConville (’05 MD), a resident in anesthesiology, live in New Orleans with their children, Kellen and Quinn.

Mark Petersen (’01 BS, ’05 MD) and his wife, Allison, of Menlo Park, Calif., welcomed their first child, Lauren Elizabeth Petersen, on Aug. 13, 2008. He is chief resident in pediatrics at Stanford University.

Luis Arangua (’08 F) joined the Borgess Brain & Spine Institute in Kalamazoo, Mich. He specializes in the treatment of strokes, aneurysms, and other neurological conditions.