Class Notes
1950s
Clifton Meador, MD’55, HS’60, FE’61, FAC’00, BA’52, has published a revised edition of his book “A Little Book of Doctors’ Rules III, for Oslerian Clinicians.” His rules are drawn from extensive reading and more than 60 years of teaching and practicing internal medicine.
1960s
Alan Graber, MD, HS’63, FE’64, FAC’06, has authored the book “T.E.B. Doctoring in an Age of Scientific Medicine.” A retired endocrinologist, Graber examines the influence and legacy of Thomas Evans Brittingham II, MD, a legendary physician and educator at Vanderbilt University.
Several members of the Class of 1968 gathered at Reunion in October 2018 and reminisced about a treacherous canoe adventure they embarked on as students. Twelve of them — Pete Phillips, Bob Schweitzer, Lon Dowlen, Marvin Vickers, Stewart Bauknight, Bob Sewell, Chas Martin, Tom Campbell, John Mather, Arthur Gallun, George Smith and Pete Townsend — rented six canoes and began paddling down the Class IV and V rapids of the Obed River. The two lead canoes with all the provisions successfully managed the rapids, but the other four were not so lucky, capsizing and getting stuck between large rocks. The group was forced to spend a cold, wet night together outdoors with little-to-no food. Dowlen and his canoe partner, Vickers, nicknamed their canoe Bumpy, and when several of the adventurers reunited in October, they posed for pictures with the canoe.
1970s
Roy Meals, MD’71, is semi-retired as an orthopaedic hand surgeon. He currently occupies much of his time blogging at www.aboutbone.com and enjoys engaging with the aspects of bone as it reflects on not only health and science, but also on art, history, business and engineering.
Jim Whiteside, MD’72, BA’68, has retired from his medical practice after 42 years. A cardiology wing in TJ Samson Hospital in Glasgow, Kentucky, has been named in his honor.
Ben Kibler, MD’72, FE’74, HS’77, BA’68, has been named the recipient of the Thomas Brady Community Service Award from the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine. Kibler was also selected by the American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons Society as a member of the inaugural class in the Charles Neer Circle, a group of recognized thought leaders in the shoulder and elbow community. He has co-edited a book titled “Tennis Medicine” from Springer Publishers.
David Tanner, MD’74, received Top Doctor honors and was ranked among metro Atlanta’s Top Doctors in the July 2018 issue of Atlanta Magazine. Tanner practices with Atlanta Allergy and Asthma in Buckhead and John’s Creek, Georgia.
Bedford Waters, MD’74, BA’70, received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Urological Association, presented annually to an individual who has been deemed to have made outstanding contributions to advance the mission and goals of the AUA. Waters, president of VMAA, received this award for advancing urologic oncology and inspiring diversity in the field of urology.
Thomas Evans, MD’76, retired from Sweetwater Hospital Association in Tennessee after 40 years of service and was honored by Mayor Doyle Lowe, city commissioners and hospital staff in June 2018. Evans and his wife, Charlotte, plan to travel and spoil their grandchildren.
1980s
Catherine Fuchs, MD’82, HS’85, FE’87, BA’78, FAC was named co-chair of the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine Admissions Committee effective July 1, 2018. Fuchs has been on the faculty since 1998 and serves as the director of the Child and Adolescent Consult-Liaison Service to Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt. She teaches in both the general psychiatry residency and the child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship as well as in the medical school. Her clinical research is in pediatric delirium.
Brian Christman, MD, HS’84, FE’88, FAC’00, recently had a poem published in the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society’s quarterly journal “The Pharos.”
Jeff Prinsell, DMD, MD’86, HS’88, received U.S. and international patents on an autoclavable dental implant surgical drill instrument that requires no prior impressions or labwork. Prinsell is past president of the Georgia Society of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgeons. He maintains a private practice in Marietta, Georgia.
Kevin Churchwell, MD’87, has been named president of Boston Children’s Hospital and will maintain his role as chief operating officer.
Benjamin Citrin, MD’89, HS’92, FE’95, has moved his interventional cardiology practice, Citrin Cardiology, P.C., to 6701 Airport Blvd., Suite C-138, Mobile, Alabama.
Jeffrey Sippel, MD’89, MPH, is the associate director for inpatient services in the Pulmonary Sciences and Critical Care Medicine Division at the University of Colorado. He oversees the ICU, pulmonary consult, pulmonary hypertension and lung transplant services.
1990s
Scott Gibbs, MD’92, BA’88, was selected to join the board of governors at the American Academy of Otolaryngology, representing West Virginia.
Linda Brady, MD’92, HS’97, FAC’00, BA’88, received the 2018 Excellence in Diagnosis Award from the Vasculitis Foundation, presented annually to a medical professional who made a quick diagnosis of vasculitis, thus enabling the patient to receive timely and appropriate treatment.
Sam Chang, MD’92, HS’98, EMBA’15, Patricia and Rodes Hart Professor and Chair of Urologic Surgery at Vanderbilt, is corporate secretary of the board of directors of the American Urological Association, effective June 2018.
Rhys Branman, MD’93, HS’96, FE’99, is the newest member of the Arkansas State Medical Board, serving a six-year term as congressional district member. He is a cosmetic plastic surgeon in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Anna Tanner, MD’95, HS’99, helped open Veritas Collaborative Child, Adolescent & Young Adult Hospital in Dunwoody, Georgia. It is a 50-bed facility providing multidisciplinary medical, psychiatric, nutritional, family therapy and other types of care to male, female and transgender patients up to age 21. Tanner identified the need for a hospital to treat eating disorders in the Atlanta area and was instrumental in seeing it built.
Sheila Lynam, MD, HS’99, a pathologist for PeaceHealth Medical Group for the last 20 years, is the new chief medical officer at St. John Medical Center, effective Sept. 2, 2018. She is responsible for the oversight and development of medical care at the 193-bed Longview Hospital.
Michael Stein, MBChB, FE’94, recently authored the book “Not Discussed: The Unspoken Rules for a Career in Academic Medical Research.” He is professor of Medicine and Pharmacology at Vanderbilt.
2000s
Alan W. Keister, MD, FACP, HS’00, was awarded the Oscar E. Edwards Memorial Award for Volunteerism and Community Service from the American College of Physicians. Keister established the Heal the City Clinic in Amarillo, Texas, in 2014, which provides free medical care for indigent patients who are not eligible for Medicaid or county assistance. The clinic saw more than 2,300 patients in 2017.
Jesse Taylor, MD’00, was named chief of the Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in July 2018. Taylor also serves as co-director of the hospital’s Cleft Lip and Palate Program and director of the Craniofacial Plastic Surgery Fellowship in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.
Brian R. Long, MD’00, returned to Nashville after completing residency and fellowship training in interventional cardiology and has been in practice locally since 2007. Long joined Vanderbilt University Medical Center as an assistant professor of Medicine in August 2018 and practices primarily at the Vanderbilt Heart and Vascular Institute of Franklin at Williamson Medical Center. He lives with his wife, Jessica, and the couple’s three daughters in Brentwood, Tennessee.
John (Matt) Hardin, MD, HS’01, HS’09, retired from the U.S. Public Health Service after serving in the Indian Health Service and, recently, as the national dermatology consultant for the Federal Bureau of Prisons. He recently began his dermatology practice with Heritage Medical Associates in Nashville, Tennessee.
Laura Green, MD’02, was selected to join the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education’s Residency Review Committee for Ophthalmology in 2019.
Monika Kiripolsky, MD’04, a board-certified dermatologist in Beverly Hills, California, recently appeared on an episode of “The Doctors,” hosted by Travis Stork, MD, HS’06, whom Kiripolsky worked with while she was a VUSM student. “I never thought that the two of us would end up on a stage in front of a huge audience in Hollywood together 17 years later,” she said.
Taylor Ripley, MD’04, joined the Michael E. DeBakey Department of Surgery, Division of General Thoracic Surgery at Baylor College of Medicine and was named director of the Mesothelioma Treatment Center within the institution’s Lung Institute.
Ildiko Csiki, MD’07, HS’12, PhD’04, was named chief medical officer of Sensei Biotherapeutics, a privately-held biopharmaceutical company developing immuno-oncology therapies that stimulate the immune system to teach it to recognize cancer-specific antigens and attack cancer cells.
Jill Friebele, MD’09, and her husband, Tom, welcomed a son, Sawyer, on Oct. 15, 2018. He joins big brother, Bryce, 2. Friebele runs the clubfoot deformity clinic at Valley Children’s Hospital in California as part of her practice. She recently received the Neubauer Fellowship.
Douglas Anderson, MD’09, BE’05, recently joined the faculty at the University of Alabama-Birmingham as assistant professor of Surgery in the Division of Transplantation.
2010s
Mohan Mallipeddi, MD’10, finished his MIS/bariatric surgery fellowship at Cedars Sinai in Los Angeles in 2018 and is an attending general and bariatric surgeon at Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle, Washington. He and Lauren Ring, BA’10, have an 18-month-old daughter.
Fiona Fang Rahbar, MD’10, is a dermatologist in Charleston, South Carolina. She recently launched a podcast “theSpotSession” that gives an intimate glimpse into the lives of patients and aims to debunk the misconception that dermatology only encompasses Botox and beauty.
Matt Kynes, MD’11, HS’12, FE’18, will move with his family to Kenya to be an attending at AIC Kijabe mission hospital in 2019 for six months as part of the Vanderbilt International Anesthesia program.
Merina Thomas, MD’11, is an assistant professor at the Casey Eye Institute at the Oregon Health & Science University, specializing in vitreoretinal surgery.
Pimkwan (Oph) Jaru-ampornpan, MD’11, married Chottiwat Tansirisithikul, MD, Nov. 24, 2018, in a traditional Thai wedding in Bangkok where she practices medicine.
David Johnson, MD’11, HS’17, and Suzanne Bryce Johnson, MD’11, HS’14, BS’07, welcomed a son, Theodore (Teddy) William Johnson, Sept. 14, 2018. Teddy joins his big sister, Juliana, who is 2 years old.
Sarah Tiggelaar, MD’11, BS’06, was awarded the degree of Fellow in the American Academy of Family Medicine at the AAFP National Conference in New Orleans in October 2018.
Ryan Lang, MD’13, is the chief resident of the general preventive medicine residency program and instructor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Thuy Tran, MD’13, PhD’11, and Joshua Bilsborrow, MD’13, welcomed their son, Liam Minh Huy, on March 7, 2018.
Vanessa Johnson, MD’13, HS’17, BA’09, and her husband, Brett Johnson, BE’10, welcomed the newest addition to their family, Evelyn Marie, born Nov. 12, 2018.
Natalie Lockney, MD’13, and Tim Lockney, MD’13, welcomed their first child, Evelyn, Feb. 20, 2018. Natalie completed a radiation oncology residency in June at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and joined the faculty at the University of Florida, where Tim is continuing his neurosurgery residency.
Jessica (Jessi) Solomon, MD’14, BS’10, married Mike Sanders, a graduate of Northeastern University, in Ashland, Massachusetts, in July 2018. Jessi is in her fifth year of neurodevelopmental disabilities residency training at Boston Children’s Hospital. Mike is a civil engineer at Kleinfelder in Boston.
Tiara Aldridge, MD’14, HS’18, BA’10, completed her OB-GYN residency at Vanderbilt in 2018 and has since moved to Marietta, Georgia, where she joined a private practice at Wellstar Kennestone OBGYN.
Iréne P. Mathieu, MD’15, completed a residency in pediatrics at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and joined the University of Virginia as an assistant professor in general pediatrics. Her second full-length poetry collection, titled “Grand Marronage,” is forthcoming from Switchback Books in 2019.
Sarah Coggins, MD’15, BA’11, completed a pediatrics residency at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and remained there to begin a neonatology fellowship.
John Ericson, MD’15, PhD’13, won the 2018 Marshall Klaus Award from the American Academy of Pediatrics, Section on Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine. He is in practice at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital.
Brittany Gatta, MD’16, an internal medicine resident at Duke, and Luke Gatta, an OB-GYN resident at Duke, welcomed their first child in February 2019.
Ashlee Hurff Arteaga, MD’16, and Daniel Arteaga, MD’16, welcomed William (Liam) Michael into the world on July 9, 2018. Ashlee is the Family Medicine Chief Resident at the University of Virginia (UVA) Health System. Daniel is completing his neurology residency at UVA.
Shreyas S. Joshi, MD, HS’16, completed a two-year urologic oncology fellowship at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia and joined the institution as an attending surgeon.
Michelle Izmaylov, MD’17, second-year resident at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, co-wrote a novel, “Delta: In the Middle of the Lake,” with her sister, Nike. Michelle is the author of five novels and received first place in the 2016 national Gold-Hope Tang, MD Humanism in Medicine Essay Contest. Her medical essays have been published in an array of academic journals. Nike is a graduate of Harvard University with a Bachelor of Arts in molecular and cellular biology.