“The charge I gave to the admissions committee when the first class was admitted was to look for people who were ready to be pioneers,’’ said Myra Hurt, interim dean and director of the admissions process when the first class was admitted. “We didn’t have facilities and we didn’t have accreditation, but these students believed in the mission and wanted to be a part of this medical school. As much as anything, they were our partners,’’ Hurt said. 

Not only did the pioneering students graduate from a fully-accredited medical school, but all matched with residency programs. Among the destinations were highly competitive programs at schools including Stanford, Vanderbilt, North Carolina and Duke along with leading residency programs in Florida.

Thirteen members of the first graduating class continue with their graduate medical education in programs ranging from family medicine to pediatric neurology and surgery. Of the 14 to complete residency this summer and enter practice, five are working in rural, medically underserved areas in Florida from Winter Haven to the panhandle. Two of those are working in emergency medicine, one in pediatrics and one in family medicine.

In addition to their daily practice, two members of the class – Drs. Christie Sain and Alex Ho – have joined the FSU College of Medicine as part-time faculty members who precept medical students. 

GRADS IN PRACTICE

Kerry Bachista - Staff physician (emergency medicine) at Winter Haven (Fla.) Hospital.

Mark Bochey - Emergency medicine in Austin, Texas.

Natosha Canty - Family physician with Capital Health Plan in Tallahassee.

Shayla Gray - Family physician in Madison, Fla.

Fawn Grigsby Harrison - Pediatrician for DeSoto Hospital in Arcadia, Fla.

Michael Hernandez - Internal medicine/hospitalist at UF Shands-Jacksonville.

Alex Ho - Emergency medicine at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital.

Joda Lynn - Emergency medicine for hospitals in Perry, Apalachicola and hospitals in North Florida and South Georgia.

Adam Ouimet - Emergency medicine in Tacoma, Wash.

Kevin Raville - Emergency medicine in Rochester, N.Y.

Neil Rodgers - Emergency medicine at Leesburg Regional Medical Center in Leesburg, Fla.

Christie Sain - Family physician for Patients First at Lake Ella in Tallahassee.

Lorna Stewart - Family physician for the TMH hospitalist group in Tallahassee.

Amanda Davis Sumner - Staff physician with the emergency medicine residency program at Carl R. Darnall Army Medicine Center, Fort Hood, Texas.

ALUMNI NOTES

Julie Gladden Barre (M.D., ’05), who is in the fourth year in the orthopaedic surgery residency program at the Medical College of Georgia, gave birth July 31 to a baby boy, Mark Christian Barre.

Alex Ho (M.D., ’05), now an emergency physician at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital, was named 2008 Emergency Medicine Resident of the Year at the University of North Carolina.

Joda Lynn (M.D., ’05) has been appointed to the FSU Alumni Association’s National Board of Directors. Lynn, who received his undergraduate and medical degrees from FSU, is an emergency physician for a staffing firm that covers hospitals in Perry, Apalachicola, North Florida and South Georgia.

Sarah Fein Mulkey (M.D., ’05), who is in the second year of a three-year program in pediatric neurology at the University of Arkansas, gave birth April 23 to a baby girl, Anne Margaret Mulkey.

In addition to Mulkey and Barre, 12 other members of the Class of 2005 continue with their graduate medical education: David Bojan (surgery, North Shore/Long Island Jewish Medical Center, New York); Garrett Chumney (family medicine, Tallahassee Memorial Hospital); Laura Dacks (surgery, East Tennessee State University); Victor Gonzalez (radiation oncology PY-4, University of Utah/Huntsman Cancer Hospital, Salt Lake City, Utah); Nari Heshmati (obstetrics/gynecology, Vanderbilt University); Ajay Mhatre (cardiology fellowship, University of Florida-Shands Jacksonville); Javier Miller (urology, University of North Carolina); Karen Miles (psychiatry fellowship, Duke University); Sach Parikh (otolaryngology, Stanford University); Jason Rocha (orthopaedic surgery, Orlando Regional Medical Center); Kim Ruscher (surgery, University of Connecticut).