Alumni Notes

Ames L. Filippone Jr., M.D. ’53 writes, “I’m shopping, driving, living alone, and enjoying the healthy air of the Jersey Shore. I’m still building miniature architectural models for diversion and mental challenge at 97.”

Bernard Siegel, M.D. ’57 writes, “A Yale surgeon and author known for empowering patients, I have authored books such as ‘Love, Medicine and Miracles: Lessons Learned About Self-Healing from a Surgeon’s Experience with Exceptional Patients.’ I started support groups like ECaP (exceptional cancer patients). I am now age 93 and still empowering patients.”

James “Jim” Van Buren, M.D. ’59 shares, “My wife, Mary, whom I married in 1957 when I was a junior in medical school, and I are now fully retired from internal medicine practice and living in the King’s Bridge retirement community in Atlanta. My last 14 years of active practice were with the Emory University Clinic. Many great memories of Weill Cornell Medical College, longtime friends, and a wonderful education.”

William “Bill” Schaffner, M.D. ’62 has been recognized by the Association of American Medical Colleges with its 2025 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation David E. Rogers Award. The award honors medical school faculty members who have made major contributions to improving public health and healthcare. Dr. Schaffner is a professor of preventive medicine and infectious diseases at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and a nationally recognized advocate of vaccination who helped usher in rigorous infection control policies in healthcare facilities. The honor is named for the late David E. Rogers, M.D. ’48 who was chairman of the Department of Medicine at Vanderbilt, dean of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and a professor of medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine. The award is particularly special for Dr. Schaffner as Dr. Rogers was one of his “most important mentors.”

Sumter Carmichael, M.D. ’64 published her third book, “Healing the Healer: What Fifty Years as a Physician/Psychiatrist While Having Multiple Sclerosis Taught Me About Healing.”

Gus Kappler, M.D. ’65 shares, “My third book, based on my experience as an Army trauma surgeon, ‘Letters to Helene from Vietnam: An Outline of my Descent into PTSD,’ is based on 14 letters my sister returned to me 55 years after they were sent. My message is that PTSD does not discriminate; no one is immune. It develops insidiously; it’s a predictable response to mental and physical trauma. You are not weak, and there is hope.”

Robert Ennis, M.D. ’67 writes, “Lorelei and I are celebrating our 61st wedding anniversary this year. Enjoying family and semi-retirement.”

Frank Chisari, M.D. ’68 shares that he and his wife, Linda, will celebrate their 59th wedding anniversary this year. They met during his medical school rotation in the surgical unit in what was then New York Hospital, where Linda was a nurse. They married soon thereafter and lived a full, active and happy life. Frank is an emeritus professor of virology and immunology at the Scripps Research Institute, a hobby winemaker, nature photographer, and addicted fly fisherman, and Linda is a landscape designer, pianist, writer and community volunteer. They have two successful, bicoastal children in their mid-50s and three grandchildren in their early- to mid-20s. The couple lives in a modest cottage at the top of a hill that provides sunrise, sunset, moonrise and moonset views across eastward mountains and the westward Pacific, and hopes fellow alumni will let them know if they’re nearby.

Ronald Rankin, M.D. ’68 writes, “I visited my former roommate, Paul Wassermann, M.D. ’69 in Scottsdale and had fabulous weather.”

Robert H. Digby, M.D. ’69 shares, “I’m working but semi-retired as an internal medicine consultant for two large organizations. In prior private practice, I never went so far as to call ‘joy in medicine’ an oxymoron, but I had my cynical, doubtful moments. But that practice, along with Weill Cornell Medicine, prepared me for what I do now, and with a good career all along then and now. The 2024 alumni reunion was big fun, and I look forward to the next one.”

Rob Gordon, M.D. ’71 writes, “After graduating from Weill Cornell Medical College, I completed the surgical residency program at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and a Harvard fellowship in transplantation immunology with Nobel laureate Peter Medawar in London. I retired at the young age of 78 after 20 years doing vascular and transplant surgery, most of that as a senior liver transplant surgeon on Dr. Thomas Starzl’s team in Denver and then in Pittsburgh from 1979 until 1992. This was followed by 22 years in industry research and development. I have been married for 55+ years to Linda, whom I met and married while at Weill Cornell. One of our sons is a physician. David is an associate professor of emergency medicine and an associate dean for medical student affairs at Duke. He is their ‘Dr. Hochstein.’ Looking forward to the ’70-’71 reunion this fall!”

Eric Gutnick, M.D. ’71 writes, “I have published a book, ‘Heyday of Trek and Travel: Mendocino Musings in Rhyme.’ It touches on the humor and irony of life on the road and raising kids, especially before cell phones and the internet. I’ve had a lifetime of travel and practiced medicine in Kenya and on the Mendocino coast of Northern California.”

Sharon Oberfield, M.D. ’74 received the Judson J. Van Wyk Prize, a Pediatric Endocrine Society (PES) Laureate Award, at the PES 2026 Annual Meeting in recognition of her lifetime of distinguished service, leadership and impact in pediatric endocrinology.

Richard Lynn, M.D. ’71 writes, “I am proud to announce the release of my newly published book, ‘A Surgeon’s Story: Key Insights for Today’s Physician.’ I recently spent two weeks in Rwanda with Weill Cornell Medical College alum Karl Weyrauch, M.D. ’80, who founded Pygmy Survival Alliance. It was an incredible, gratifying experience and I feel honored to be a part of this nonprofit. I feel grateful and lucky to have turned 80 last November. I am blessed with 20 grandchildren and, at present, five great-grandchildren, my three sons and wonderful wife, Margrit.”

William B. Kleinman, M.D. ’72 shares, “I retired this year after 48 wonderful and rewarding years as founding partner of the Indiana Hand to Shoulder Center in Indianapolis. In spite of having to take a Conestoga wagon across the Hudson to find Indiana in 1978, it turned out to be the best professional choice I could have made after residency and fellowship at Columbia University Irving Medical Center: 300 post-residency hand fellows trained, enumerable honors, national and international awards received, scientific papers, chapters and manuscripts published, lectures worldwide. I owe so much of my professional success to the quest for knowledge instilled in us at Weill Cornell: the character, drive and teaching skills our mentors provided us by example (especially Elliot Hochstein, whom we all remember with such fondness). Four years of medical school at Weill Cornell were such a gift to us all — and propelled us into some astonishing careers. My wife, Susan, and I celebrated our 46th anniversary. Our health is good. Three successful children and four grandchildren. I wish contentment and health to all my classmates who remain with us.”

Allan Gibofsky, M.D. ’73, who is also a 1985 graduate of Fordham University School of Law, received the Lifetime Achievement Award from Brooklyn College of the City University of New York for his contributions to medicine and law. Dr. Gibofsky is co-director of the Clinic for Inflammatory Arthritis and Biologic Therapy at Hospital for Special Surgery.

Thomas “Mike” Anger, M.D. ’75 writes, “A car collision ended my cycling career — I’m coping pretty well. I recently celebrated my granddaughter Livia’s bat mitzvah in Columbus.”

Matthew Gold, M.D. ’75 shares, “For the last 25 years, I have been active at the American Medical Association (AMA) and Massachusetts Medical Society (MMS), even earlier with the Massachusetts Neurologic Association, where I am past president and webmaster. I continue to chair of a number of committees of the AMA and MMS and am a delegate to both. I have written and passed numerous resolutions on a variety of topics, both medical and directed to the healthcare system.”

George Kacoyanis, M.D. ’75 writes, “I am loving semi-retirement. Now retired from my practice of general and vascular surgery, I am the medical director of the Beverly Hospital Wound and Hyperbaric Medicine Center. I also enjoy singing in the Boston Saengerfest Men’s Chorus with fellow classmate Matt Gold, M.D. ‘75. Looking forward to seeing fellow classmates at our 50th reunion.”

Paul Miskovitz, M.D. ’75 shares that “he and his wife, Leslie Miskovitz — accompanied by Dr. Charles Herbstman (radiologist and NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center Alumni Council member) along with his wife, Sara — completed a two-week tour of Central Europe starting with Warsaw and continuing on to Krakow, eastern Slovakia, Budapest, Bratislava and Vienna. They met with colleague Dr. Robert Hardi (gastroenterologist and NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center Alumni Council member) in Dr. Hardi’s hometown of Budapest, to which he returned after 30 years of practice in the Washington, D.C., area. A sobering journey to the lands of our ancestors.”

William “Bill” Furman, M.D. ’76 shares, “I finally retired in April 2025 after 35 years of academic anesthesiology and critical care, OR leadership and medical staff leadership, followed by eight years as a part-time hospital accreditation surveyor. Mary and I are now living in the Boston area, near our daughters, grandsons and many pickleball courts. Planning to attend the reunion (50th!!) in October.”

Gerald B. Kolski, M.D ’76, Ph.D. writes, “I am doing occasional locums in allergy-immunology and semi-retired. Sue and I will be celebrating our 60th wedding anniversary. Our triplets all have doctorates; Brian is an interventional cardiologist, Melissa has a doctorate in physical therapy, and Andrea is a J.D. and criminal defense attorney.”

Vincent DeLuise, M.D. ’77 shares, “I am retired from the clinical practice of ophthalmology. I remain active teaching in ophthalmology at Yale University and at the national eye meeting, and at Stony Brook University Renaissance School of Medicine in medical humanities, working with medical students on art and observation skills in the tool kit of clinical diagnosis.”

Mark Heitner, M.D. ’80 is currently a master’s degree painting student at the Royal College of Art (RCA). He was recently the featured painter on the college’s Instagram account. He will be in group shows in London June 17-21 and during Frieze London Oct. 14-18.

Benjamin Eng, M.D. ’83 currently serves on the board of the Chinese-American Planning Council in New York. He received the Distinguished Service Award from the Parent-Child Relationship Association, a social service agency, in Brooklyn.

Michael Drews, M.D. ’86 writes, “I am scaling back my clinical practice since selling to KKR but no intention of retiring! Looking forward to seeing everyone at Reunion 2026.”

Sonny Bal, M.D. ’87 writes, “I retired from hip and knee arthroplasty a while back, as a professor at the University of Missouri Health Sciences Center. I received a law degree, Ph.D. in engineering, and an M.B.A. from Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern, and served 10 years as CEO of a medical device company. I am working with CVS-Aetna as medical director and consulting with a venture capital fund. I am married, with four grown children. Life stays exciting! Hope all is good with everyone else in the Class of 1987 (has it been that long?)!”

Alexander Babich, M.D. ’88, Ph.D. ’83 writes, “I have been retired for four years now, and am very much enjoying it. I am painting (mostly landscapes in oils and some pastels) and traveling. We are visiting Nice and Valencia this year. My wife, Sarah Hanly (Ph.D. Rockefeller, ’88), and I welcomed our first grandchild, baby Clara, in July 2025. Grandparenting has been a blast, especially since she lives half a mile from us here in St. Louis.”

Sonja Gray, M.D. ’88 currently practices psychiatry in New Jersey, Arizona and California.

Theresa M. Rohr-Kirchgraber, M.D. ’88, writes, “I was elected president-elect for the Medical Association of Georgia in October 2025. I am looking forward to all the great work to be done on the physician shortage, increased medical education, and increased positions for training in Georgia. I continue my work with the American Medical Women’s Association and co-chair the Advocacy Committee. Paul Kirchgraber, M.D. ’88 is consulting and enjoys the boards he is on while also teaching at Medical College of Georgia and the University of Georgia partnership part time. He is very active with Rotary Club in Athens, Ga., and we look forward to travel and time with family, grandkids and friends.” Dr. Rohr-Kirchgraber was also awarded the Laureate Award this past fall by the American College of Physicians’ Georgia chapter.

Susan Soletsky, M.D. ’89 shares, “I retired in May 2025, after 23+ years at the Veterans Administration and eight years at Shriner’s Children’s. I’m proud of my accomplishments, but I have now changed my focus. These days are filled with travel, volunteering, pottery, exercise, friends and family. Attending Weill Cornell Medical College made this possible.”

Dan Jones, M.D. ’90 recently released “Master Techniques in Surgery: Hernia.” This second edition is part of the richly illustrated “Master Techniques in Surgery” series.

Brian A. Aslami, M.D. ’93 shares, “I am launching an interventional psychiatry practice on Park Avenue in New York City to complement my existing psychotherapy and medication practice. The first offering is TMS — transcranial magnetic stimulation — for treatment of resistant depression. Neuromodulation is an exciting and growing part of psychiatry.”

Amy Wechsler, M.D. ’95 writes, “I opened Spotless, a new skin care clinic in New York City, with my daughter, Zoe. Spotless removes traditional barriers to dermatologist access by offering high-efficacy treatments — no referral or appointment required. From teen breakouts to adult hormonal acne, Spotless provides fast, science-backed solutions for all skin types and stages of acne, bridging the gap between clinical treatment and everyday accessibility.”

Miriam Hoffman, M.D. ’00 has been awarded the EJI Excellence in Medicine 2026 Outstanding Medical Educator Award for her outstanding contribution to medical education in New Jersey.

Catherine Sagal, P.A. ’03 writes, “I work for medical device company Boston Scientific. Since graduating from the physician assistant program, I have built a successful and fulfilling career in the healthcare and medical device industry. I currently work in a senior clinical awareness role, supporting physicians and healthcare teams through education, training and clinical expertise, drawing daily on the strong foundation I received at Weill Cornell Medicine.”

Paul Mullan, M.D. ’04 shares, “This past year, I have been building StatDebrief, a clinical debriefing app and software platform designed to help healthcare teams rapidly capture frontline insights after clinical events, making care safer for patients and healthcare teams. A bonus has been connecting more frequently with my roommate and bestie, Mike Pfeffer, M.D. ’04 (CIO at Stanford!), over our shared tech-nerd mindset. If anyone is interested in this patient safety software solution or participating in our AHRQ-listed patient safety organization, let’s connect.”

Gunisha Kaur, M.D. ’10 shares, “This past fall, I was invited to participate in an event at the 9/11 Memorial & Museum commemorating the 10-year anniversary of the joint service with Pope Francis in 2015. The event was hosted by actor Michael Douglas and former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and I had some wonderful conversations with them about Weill Cornell Medicine and our human rights program. It was really a beautiful commemoration of a moment in history close to the hearts of all New Yorkers. I was so happy to represent Weill Cornell Medicine as a part of it.”.

Maureen Gannon, Ph.D. ’96 shares, “I was extremely honored to be the commencement speaker in May 2025 at my high school alma mater, The Mary Louis Academy, in Jamaica Estates, Queens, N.Y.”

Sadaf Amin, Ph.D. ’11 shares, “I started my position as a tenure-track assistant professor at Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis. My lab will study the role of innate immune responses in brain aging and neurodegeneration. I am grateful for all the support I received from the Weill Cornell Medicine community during my training years as a Ph.D. student and postdoc.”

Sheng Li, Ph.D. ’15 writes, “I am currently an associate professor at the Keck School of Medicine of USC and co-leader of the Epigenetic Regulation in Cancer Program at the Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center. In 2024, I was honored to be named a Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Scholar. I also serve as an associate editor for Science Advances and Aging and Cancer. My laboratory designs and develops AI-driven multi-omics approaches to study how aging and somatic mutations reshape the hematopoietic system and contribute to clonal hematopoiesis and leukemia. We combine computational biology with translational genomics to turn large-scale data into insights that advance precision medicine and improve human health.”

Lewis Cheseborough, M.S. ’19 is working as a data engineer at One Medical in value-based care for senior health.

Minwei Liu, Ph.D. ’19 is a bioinformatics scientist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and will start a second postdoc at MIT.

Ofrona Reid, M.S. ’19 is the CEO of Syracuse Community Health, where they recently launched a family medicine residency program.

Dasom Kim, M.S. ’20 is a scientist at a biotech company in New York City.

Lissenya B. Argueta, Ph.D. ’22 writes “This past fall, I was promoted from fellow to assistant director of clinical research methodology (CRM) within the Department of Scientific Solutions at Worldwide Clinical Trials, a global, full-service contract research organization. CRM is a therapeutically agnostic group of postdoctoral translational scientists who complete a rigorous two-year fellowship focused on clinical trial designs, regulatory approval pathways, and strategic drug development. In my current role, I work closely with the company’s co-founder and chief scientific and medical officer to ensure scientific rigor and regulatory alignment across diverse therapeutic areas, allowing me to translate the analytical, problem-solving, critical thinking and scientific training developed during my Ph.D. studies to advance diverse therapeutic programs toward the clinic.”

Peter Armonious, M.S. ’23 is now the chairman of anesthesia at Mercy Hospital in Rockville Centre, N.Y.

Edgard El Chaar, M.S. ’24 writes, “My book, ‘Reclaiming Dentistry,’ is published by Quintessence publishing.”

Kyeara Mack-Henry, Ph.D. ’24 is now a scientist (study director) at Perceptive.

Yunshu Yang, M.S. ’24 shares, “After earning my master’s degree in health economics from Weill Cornell Medicine in August 2024, I began my Ph.D. training at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities in health services research, policy and administration (health economics track). I am now in my second year of doctoral study and serve as a health economics and outcomes research fellow on the cardiac rhythm management team at Medtronic. My research focuses on how social determinants of health influence mental health outcomes and access to care, using machine learning and large-scale insurance claims data to analyze utilization patterns, provider behavior and policy-relevant outcomes. I am deeply grateful for the training and mentorship I received at Weill Cornell Medicine, which continues to shape my work and career goals. Outside of research, I enjoy attending live concerts, traveling with my family, and proudly identify as a cat person!”

Sweta Patel, M.S. ’25 is now a program director of the Critical Care PA Fellowship Program at NewYork-Presbyterian Columbia University Irving Medical Center.