Illinois Medicine

'' SHE NEVER GAVE UP ON HER GOAL OF BEING A DOCTOR. SHE NEVER QUIT. '' 14 | SPRING 2 010 where they'll be assigned that crucial first job as interns. This year, approxi- mately 31,000 applicants vied for some 24,000 vacant hospital positions in the National Residency Match Program selection process. In the Signature Room, with the order of the names selected at random, the first student to learn his match was Michael Winstead, who quickly peeled open his acceptance letter to the pediatrics residency program at the Univer- sity of New Mexico School of Medicine in Albuquerque. Minutes later, Jeremy Smiley's letter revealed that he is among the 105 Illinois Medicine students staying in the state. Smiley said he is elated to remain in Chicago at University of Illinois Medical Center's Internal Medicine and Emer- gency Medicine Program. The Highland Park native and his classmate Tom Alcorn of Hoffman Estates earned two of only 23 such IM/EM spots nationwide. Ann Kathleen Navarro-Leahy is one of the students who'll be leaving the state. She was placed in the family practice residency program at Exempla St. Joseph Hospital in Denver. "We're relieved and excited," said her mother, Rose, a retired nurse. "For parents, the four years go so fast." A Chicago native, Navarro-Leahy did her undergrad at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, but both her mother and father are UIUC alumni. "We never knew she wanted medicine until she was 22," says her dad, Ron. "She spent a year with AmeriCorps at West Suburban [Resurrection] Medi- cal Center on the West Side with nurse practitioners doing home visits and obstetrics." With the loud cheers, screams and applause in the main venue as matches were announced, some students moved to the hallway to make cell phone calls with the news. Caroline Nitschmann and her sister, Monica, were busy text-messaging friends and relatives with the news of her OB/GYN residency at Brigham and Women's Hospital, a teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School. "This is probably a $40 phone call," Caroline said as she called her mother, who was travelling in Mexico, "but I don't care!" Match Day had extra-special meaning for Margo Smith, a returning medical student from Houston whose three children were on hand with her father, Tellas Sauceda. Smith got her first choice: family medicine at Resur- rection/St. Joseph Hospital in Chicago. She earned a biology degree from the University of California at Irvine in 2003, then got married and had a son and two daughters, the youngest while in med school. "Margo's path has been non-linear, and she has made many sacrifices along the way," said Sauceda, a mortician turned math teacher. "Yet she never gave up on her goal of being a doctor. She never quit. Margo is such a great role model for her kids, and it means the world to her that they're all here to help her celebrate." We are looking for alumni from the College of Medicine to host a reception in your city to welcome these new graduates to our COM family. Please contact our Office of Alumni Relations at (312) 355-5138 or comalumni@uic.edu to learn more. ARIZONA Scottsdale Healthcare– Osborn Clifford J. Gazda S P ECI A LT Y: Family Medicine CALIFORNIA Alameda County Medical Center Suzanne Hatsumi Hiramatsu S P ECI A LT Y: Emergency Medicine Cedars-Sinai Medical Center John Chan S P ECI A LT Y: Internal Medicine Contra Costa Regional Medical Center Melina Beaton S P ECI A LT Y: Family Medicine David Grant Medical Center Robert C. Ryu S P ECI A LT Y: Surgery Harbor-UCLA Medical Center Baia Jasmine Lasky S P ECI A LT Y: Pathology–Anatomic and Clinical Shea Elizabeth Suskin S P ECI A LT Y: Family Medicine University of California, Los Angeles Steven Tham S P ECI A LT Y: Anesthesiology University of Southern California Neelmini Bernadette Emmanuel S P ECI A LT Y: Radiology–Diagnostic Carol Lynn Ferro S P ECI A LT Y: Psychiatry Nuzhath Amina Hussain S P ECI A LT Y: Obstetrics and Gynecology 2010 UNIVERSITY O Kaiser Permanente Cristina Gamboa S P ECI A LT Y: Obstetrics and Gynecology Kaiser Permanente Southern California Robert J. Darflinger S P ECI A LT Y: Radiology–Diagnostic Rachelle Dawn Padilla S P ECI A LT Y: Internal Medicine Long Beach Memorial Medical Center Gregory Isaac Winter S P ECI A LT Y: Family Medicine Naval Hospital Steven W. Saito S P ECI A LT Y: Family Medicine Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital Karen L. Fleming S P ECI A LT Y: Internal Medicine Santa Clara Valley Medical Center Eric Robert Mehlberg* TRANS I T IONA L S P ECI A LT Y: Anesthesiology Stanford University Programs Rebecca Marguerite Garza S P ECI A LT Y: Plastic Surgery (Integrated) Eric Robert Mehlberg S P ECI A LT Y: Anesthesiology University of California, San Francisco Sameir Ali Alhadi S P ECI A LT Y: Emergency Medicine Christina Xochi Rose Chavez S P ECI A LT Y: Family Medicine Patience Abosede Odele S P ECI A LT Y: Surgery Tarkan Sidal S P ECI A LT Y: Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Kiran Baig Qidwai S P ECI A LT Y: Pathology–Anatomic and Clinical Jennifer W. Yeh S P ECI A LT Y: Dermatology COLORADO Exempla St. Joseph Hospital Ann Kathleen Navarro-Leahy S P ECI A LT Y: Family Medicine CONNECTICUT Hospital of St. Raphael Emilia Genova S P ECI A LT Y: Surgery University of Connecticut Health Center Jermaine Bridges S P ECI A LT Y: Emergency Medicine Yale-New Haven Hospital Kara Simone Bagot S P ECI A LT Y: Psychiatry Victoria Trendafilova* TRANS I T IONA L S P ECI A LT Y: Internal Medicine

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