Alumni Notes

David S. Wilcox, M.D. ’55 reports that he is “living in a continuing care retirement community with a good quality of life at 95 years old.”

Ed Margulies, M.D. ’56 shares that he is “happily retired. Paulette and I winter in Naples, Fla., where we have an active life. We downsized three years ago to a lovely condo in Highland Park. On dialysis thrice weekly, but you can’t let it get you down. Going forward with strength....”

Bernard S. Siegel, M.D. ’57 reports that he had overnight inpatient surgery on July 10 to treat heart arrhythmia.

Peter M. Burkholder, M.D. ’59 reports, “Barbara and I are reasonably well for 90 and 91, respectively. I had ureteral carcinoma resected and treated with chemotherapy three years ago and appear cancer-free at this time. I came to Arizona in 1989 to direct the clinical laboratories at Valleywise Health, and then taught at the Sonoran University of Health Sciences for four years until retirement in 2002. My hobby has been propagation of desert plants and distribution of the progeny to my community. My children are both practicing primary physicians, Kristen (65) in northern Arizona with Indian Health Service and Lisanne (63) in Northern California as a hospitalist. Life goes on and we strive for good health and peace.”

J. William (Bill) McRoberts, M.D. ’59 shares that he “retired in December 2023 from urology practice at age 91. Prior to that, I served 25 years as professor and chairman of the urology department at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine in Lexington. Following retirement, I worked with Physicians for Peace and various locum tenens followed, most recently as staff urologist at Eastern Carolina University Brody School of Medicine in Greenville, N.C., before retiring in December 2023. Thanks to favorable genes rather than impeccable behavior, I am blessed with good health, permitting active travel, keeping up with six children and 14 grandchildren (none living in Kentucky), interspersed with bad golf and dealing with moderate arthritis. Special thanks to Weill Cornell Medicine for making possible a purposeful life for which I’m eternally grateful.”

Melvin S. Rosh, M.D. ’60 shares that he has published his sixth book in his “Anatomy” series, titled “Anatomy of Addiction.” This nonfiction series is an anthropological study of human behavior and culture from early civilization to the present time.

William Schaffner, M.D. ’62 was recognized by the Society for Epidemiologic Research (SER) with the Roger Detels Distinguished Researcher Award in Infectious Disease Epidemiology during the annual SER meeting in June 2024. The award recognizes extraordinary contributions to research in infectious disease epidemiology.

Lawrence W. Raymond, M.D. ’64 reports, “I retired in August from Charlotte, N.C.’s Atrium Health to a quiet lifestyle at Windsor Run, a senior independent living community. I recommend reading Anthony Fauci, M.D. ’66’s “On Call,” quite enjoyable.”

Lawrence P. Levitt, M.D. ’65 tells us that he co-authored “Evitchka: A True Story of Survival, Hope, and Love” with Stephanie Smartschan. The book is available online. It is a tribute to his late wife, Eva Levitt, detailing her harrowing childhood as one of only six children in her town to survive the Holocaust. They were married for 61 years before her passing in 2023. Dr. Levitt is a father of three and grandfather of six.

Richard A. Lynn, M.D. ’71 reports, “Life is good, thank G-d. I have recently been blessed with my fourth great-grandchild! Margrit and I celebrated our 24th wedding anniversary on July 3. It’s wonderful having classmates Lou Rambler, M.D. ’71, Carl Sadowsky, M.D. ’71 and Rick Bailyn, M.D. ’ 71 close by.”

Jeff Urman, M.D ’72 shares, “Marian and I have loved living in Palo Alto, Calif., for 47 years and have two sons and five grandchildren. I’m an adjunct professor of medicine/rheumatology at Stanford University School of Medicine and work for the Medical Board of California in the Division of Investigation. My partner and I developed, patented and licensed to a pharma company the only topical prescription drug on the market for axillary hyperhidrosis, which was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2018. I am still very close with my ‘cadaver mates’ — Mark Vrana, M.D. ’72, Bob Weinstein, M.D. ’72 and Glen Wiggans, M.D. ’72, who are great friends and great people. I loved my years at Weill Cornell Medicine and am grateful for the terrific education I received there.”

Judith Nowak, M.D. ’74 shares, “I endowed a yearly lectureship in Washington named The Bennathan Patient Safety Lecture” for my late husband, Esra Bennathan. The April 2024 lecture on artificial intelligence in medicine given by Peter Lee, Ph.D., president of Microsoft Research, is worth a listen. You can find it online.”

Matthew Gold, M.D. ’75 reports that “as of the American Medical Association (AMA) Annual Meeting in June, I timed out as alternate, then delegate of the Organized Medical Staff Section (OMSS) of the AMA to the House of Delegates, spanning 12 years. I have authored and mentored others to write resolutions that become policy at the AMA and remain chair of the OMSS Policy Committee (as well as chair of the Massachusetts state OMSS). I remain active in the Massachusetts Committee on the Sustainability of Private Practice, the AMA private practice section and (gasp) the senior physician section. I encourage all to join the AMA and its section(s) appropriate to your interests and encourage our younger colleagues to be active advocates for the house of medicine and the best care of our patients.”

Milagros Gonalez, M.D. ’75 shares, “My husband and I visited my classmate Richard Kampf, M.D. ’75 and his wife, Carmen, in Calabasas, Calif., whom we had not seen since the COVID-19 pandemic. It was great seeing both of them. I can’t wait for our 50th year anniversary reunion in 2026. My husband and I also went on vacation in April to Portugal for 11 days. Beautiful and historical country to visit. We had a wonderful time. We are planning to visit South Africa next year.”

Wally Schlech, M.D. ’75 shares, “I’m mostly retired but do a day here and there as a hospitalist. Old ID docs are well suited to that role! Still traveling off and on to Africa to teach as well. Most fun though is chasing my 14 grandkids around between fishing trips and golf!”

Gregory Thomas Everson, M.D. ’76 shares, “Linda and I celebrated 73 years together and 52 years of marriage. You probably think, ‘How’s that?’ It’s true, we were in the same nursery at birth. For those wondering, we did have different parents!”

Ralph Budd, M.D. ’77 writes, “After working in rheumatology for 37 years at the Larner College of Medicine at the University of Vermont and serving as director of the Vermont Center for Immunology and Infectious Diseases, I retired as university distinguished professor of medicine in June. With my new free time, I built myself a digital organ and have returned to playing Bach, as I did in college.”

Frank L. Douglas, M.D. ’77, Ph.D. ’72 reports that he came out of retirement after the murder of George Floyd and founded Safe Haven Dialogues LLC to help individuals deal with systemic discrimination. In 2023, he published “Until You Walk in My Shoes: A Reframed Methodology to Overcome Systemic Discrimination.” He is the chairperson of the diversity, equity and inclusion committee of the National Action Network.

Steven Koenig, M.D. ’77 retired from the Eye Institute of the Medical College of Wisconsin four years ago and recently stepped back from volunteer activities at Clement J. Zablocki VA Medical Center. His daughter, Lisa Koenig, M.D. ’20, joined the ocular oncology service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center as a full-time faculty member, following completion of her ophthalmology residency at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center this past summer.

Jeffrey Gold, M.D. ’78 was selected by the University of Nebraska Board of Regents as the ninth president of its multicampus land grant university system. In this role, Dr. Gold is the chief executive officer of the statewide R1 BIG10 system. The system was founded in 1851 and includes more than 50,000 learners, 16,000 faculty/staff, and over $650 million in research grants and contracts, with more than 200,000 worldwide alumni and a global economic impact of over $10 billion.

Carolyn Grosvenor, M.D. ’80, M.P.H. shares, “We relocated to Florida from New York six months ago. I am still learning my way around. I renewed my New York State medical license but had to get a Florida license to volunteer at free clinics. In the meantime, I am a co-caregiver for my 93-year-old mother, who lives with my sister. I still go on medical mission trips. Last fall, I served at a clinic in El Salvador for six weeks. I will return this fall for eight weeks. I never dreamed of being a missionary, but this is who I am and what I do. I am taking Babbel Spanish lessons so that I won’t have to rely so heavily on an interpreter. They say that learning a new language helps to decrease the risk of dementia, so I hope to be speaking and reading Spanish at the 6th–8th grade level by the end of this year!”

Charles Stone, M.D. ’81, associate professor, cardiovascular medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, was selected unanimously by the cardiovascular medicine fellows to be the inaugural recipient of the division’s 2024 Lifetime Achievement in Education Award.

Michael Ziegelbaum, M.D. ’82 reports, “After attempting to retire from Northwell Health’s Smith Institute for Urology, I am returning to work part time for St. Francis Hospital and Heart Center, part of Catholic Health. At Northwell, I served as chief of urology at Long Island Jewish Valley Stream as well as a member of LIJ’s Medical Board and past president of the Medical Staff Society. I remain very active as a delegate for the American Medical Association and the New York State Medical Society as well as serving on committees dealing with health policy at the American Urological Association. As much as I love my work as a physician, I chose to reduce my hours at age 69 to spend more time with my two grandchildren, ages 2 and 4, as well as find time to travel around the world with my other half, Wendy.”

Maureen Tierney-Brennan, M.D. ’83 reports that “although native and loyal New Yorkers, we have found happiness and success in the heartland. I have recently been named associate dean and chair for clinical research and public health at the Creighton University School of Medicine and have spent a lot of time devoted to COVID-19 over the past few years. John and I have two sons, John and Jim. John is a conservation biologist/ecologist, and Jim is in law school at the University of Virginia. They are both diehard Nebraskans. I am hoping to get back to my beloved hometown for the Class of 1983’s 40th reunion in September.”

David Campbell, M.D. ’84 shares, “I was able to stop working as a cardiologist in August 2022. As our group joined with several others, I successively turned over my roles involving stents, angiography, pacemaker implants and monitoring to my new partners. Genuinely, this retirement gig is the best ‘job’ that I have had in at least 50 years!”

Steve Stein, M.D.’84 reports that he “retired from my last full-time position. I just published an article on a collaboration between a University of Pennsylvania accountable care organization and my last company, Real Time Medical Systems, that led to a 30-day, risk-adjusted skilled nursing facility to IP rate that was less than half of the national average. This, after a career that had me serve as a chief medical officer for health systems (Trinity Health), HMOs (UnitedHealthcare), academic institutions (Harvard) and a provider of geriatric care. But none of these has been as fulfilling as my role as a son, brother, husband, father of three kids and now grandfather of two, so far. Along with the joy of also sharing a life with longtime friends from Brooklyn and Ann Arbor, I look forward to more of that and lots more international travel, pickleball, hikes, bike rides and time at our beach house. I wish all in my Class of ’84 the retirement you all want for yourselves and your family and friends.”

Andrew Kornstein, M.D ’86 is excited to report that he recently joined the plastic surgery team at Azul Cosmetic Surgery and Medical Spa in Fort Meyers, Fla.

Carol McIntosh, M.D. ’87 reports, “I am relocating back to the United States after working in Grenada as director of hospital services with the country’s Ministry of Health and Social Security from 2018 to 2022. Working overseas during the COVID-19 pandemic was an experience that I will never forget. I am presently working at a federally qualified health center, Ocean Health Initiatives, in Toms River, N.J.”

Theresa Rohr-Kirchgraber, M.D. ’88, and Paul Kirchgraber, M.D. ’88 share, “We are living in Athens, Ga., and enjoying life. Paul stepped down as CEO of Labcorp Drug Development last fall and is working on boards, doing some consulting and considering new options. He is involved with local organizations. As a faculty member at the Augusta University/University of Georgia Medical Partnership, Theresa enjoys teaching and is looking forward to being a part of the inaugural University of Georgia School of Medicine that the medical partnership will become in 2026.”

Scott Rodeo, M.D. ’89 shares that he received the Jerry ‘Hawk’ Rhea Award for Outstanding NFL Team Physician at the NFL Physicians Society Annual Scientific Meeting and Symposium during the NFL Scouting Combine. The prestigious award is presented annually by the Professional Football Athletic Trainers Society to the NFL team physician who has made the greatest contributions to both the NFL and the profession of athletic training.

Deepak L. Bhatt, M.D. ’93, M.P.H, M.B.A. reports that “after several years as executive director of interventional cardiovascular programs at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, editor-in-chief of the Harvard Heart Letter and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, [I] returned to New York last year to become the director of the Mount Sinai Fuster Heart Hospital and the Dr. Valentin Fuster Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. [He] also completed his executive M.B.A. at Oxford earlier this year.”

Michael Rinaldi, M.D. ’94 shares, “I have been in Charlotte, N.C., for the last 22 years as an interventional cardiologist specializing in transcatheter valve and structural heart therapies as part of the Atrium Health Sanger Heart and Vascular Institute and serve as the director of the structural heart program. I have an appointment as professor of medicine at Wake Forest University. In addition to clinical work, I do a fair amount of clinical trials work, publishing, teaching and lecturing at conferences. I still stay in frequent contact with Jeff Schwartz, M.D. ’94, and Gregg Palega, M.D. ’94. Hello to all my classmates. Those four years in New York were some of the best years of my life mostly because of the people. I was lucky to be a part of it all.”

Kavita Aggarwal, M.D.’96, FACP shares, ”Happy to send in updates since it’s the class of 1996’s 25th reunion. I continue to practice internal medicine in a large national multispecialty organization and present various health topics as a medical contributor on the “Today” show. My husband, Manoj Abraham, M.D. ’97 is busy not only with his facial plastics practice but also leading international humanitarian missions to Africa and Ukraine. Our son, Kiran, is a rising senior at Cornell studying labor law who is now premed (go figure!) and daughter, Minali, is a rising junior at Tufts studying community health. Manoj and I recently celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary and were thrilled to have several classmates join us in the celebration: Swati (Varma) Bhatnagar, M.D. ’96, Michael Choi, M.D. ’97, Shefali Chaudhry, M.D. ’98, Anjali (Patwardhan) Ahn, M.D. ’97, Rupal Bhatt, M.D. ’00, Ph.D., Monica Girotra, M.D. ’00 and Sundeep Kalantry, Ph.D. ’01. That’s it for now and looking forward to the next reunion!”

Wendy Chung, M.D. ’98, Ph.D. ’96 shares that she is currently serving as the chair of pediatrics, Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School.

Katherine Heyman Saunders, M.D. ’11, and Joseph Habboushe, M.D. ’06 are proud to announce the launch of the new Weill Cornell Medical College Alumni Association Entrepreneurship and Innovation Committee. The committee was established to bring together Weill Cornell Medicine alumni entrepreneurs for networking, programming and collaboration. Please email alumni@med.cornell.edu if you would like to get involved.

Maria (Boboila) Kosovsky, M.D. ’15 reports, “I just finished a wonderful 1.5 years at Penn State Health (Hershey Medical Center) as a hematology oncology hospitalist, and I am now starting a new position at Massachusetts General Hospital as a regular hospitalist. I will miss the focus on hematology and oncology, and the wonderful patients of the Penn State Cancer Institute but am looking forward to this new chapter in Boston!”

Mark Sonnick, M.D.’17 graduated from a pulmonary and critical care fellowship and joined the faculty at NYU Grossman School of Medicine as an assistant professor in the lung transplant program.

Alice Chung, M.D. ’21, and Matt Madruger, M.D. ’21 are engaged! Matt is now an orthopedic surgery resident at Maimonides Medical Center, and Alice is a cardiology fellow at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. Alice writes, “Shout-out to Weill Cornell Medicine for bringing us together!”

Sergio A. De La Torre Jr., M.D. ’21 was excited to share this update: “UCLA internal medicine chief resident, 2024–2025!”

Susan M. Fitzpatrick, Ph.D. ’84 reports that she is in year two of retirement and has been given the opportunity to serve as an advisor or board member for many iconic science institutions, including the Marine Biology Laboratory at Woods Hole and the Santa Fe Institute. She shares that she is “most excited to be serving as a judge for the Templeton Prize — an inspirational and humbling experience.”

Carol Mirenda, M.S. ’85 reports, “Since retiring in late 2017, I have lived the classic retired experience: being busier than ever. I volunteer for The Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, Calif., in various roles: assistant supervisor of a harbor seal crew, photo archivist, clinical lab volunteer and research assistant. When not caring for the seals, I continue to ice dance and do Tai Chi. The past two years, I have competed in Tai Chi Sword tournaments and medaled both times. This isn’t your granny’s Tai Chi! At other times, I am a competition co-chair for my skating club’s events. Any volunteers? Please let me know. Skills acquired and knowledge learned as a molecular and cellular biologist have (oddly) been applicable to these activities. I have been happily married to Warren Lee, an artist, going on 21 years. In between our activities, we travel; experiencing other cultures is priceless... so many great people and ideas in the world.”

Francesca Domenech Wuttke, Ph.D. ’02 reports that she has founded nen, which is a clinical-stage company developing evidence-based digital therapeutics to help kids fighting cancer, their families and their doctors to manage pain. “We are looking for like-minded advocates for kids to join us on this journey!” she tells us.

Victoria K. Schulman, Ph.D. ’14 was named one of the women leaders to look up to in The Women Leaders magazine. Dr. Schulman was recognized for her educational leadership and STEM advocacy as the science faculty and director of science research at King School in Stamford, Conn.

Chelsea Ann Rittenhouse, Ph.D. ’23 shares, “I am now a senior research scientist at a biotechnology company, Rumi Scientific.”

Emily Costa, Ph.D. ’24 reports she has begun a new role as a civic science associate based out of RockEDU Science Outreach/The Rockefeller University and supporting the Civic Science Fellows program at the Rita Allen Foundation. She shares, “I am so looking forward to working with the fellows program, learning from (and with!) a brilliant community of civic science practitioners and helping to build a case study database of civic science scholarship. Many thanks to my mentors at RockEDU and Rita Allen for this phenomenal opportunity!”