From the Residency Program Director: A Changing of the Guard

As the end of the academic year looms, our Residency Training Program is sending out seven young Pathologists to great fellowship programs, including four who will be staying at UAB for a first fellowship and another three who will be departing for fellowships in other good places including Moffitt Cancer Center, Medical University of South Carolina and Emory University. Several of these also have second fellowships lined up. We are very proud of the accomplishments of these fine young pathologists, and expect to see them in the forefront of our profession in the coming years.

Fellowship directors gathered with outgoing fellows for a send-off.

At the same time, we are welcoming an incoming class of six new PGY1’s who are arriving from as far afield as the West Coast, the Northeast, and South America. This group also includes one of our own, UAB graduate David Brown, who has done electives with us in the past. Dr. Jeffrey Chang, from St. George’s University School of Medicine, Grenada, West Indies, has also done rotations with us in the past year. Dr. Igor Vidal comes to us from Brazil, by way of Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Kesley Green, from Howard University, came to our second look weekend this past January. I guess we did something right! Dr. Steven Mari, who did a Forensic rotation with us this past year, is a graduate of Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences, Yakima, Washington. Dr. Jacob Havens has recently graduated from Rowan University School of Osteopathic Medicine, Stratford, New Jersey. Our new Class covers quite a bit of territory!

Godspeed to all our departing graduates! We wish you success in your careers and happiness in your personal lives. At the same time, we welcome with excitement our new PGY1 pathology trainees. It is our desire that your training careers at UAB be enjoyable and productive! — Rob Hackney, M.D., Pathology Residency Program Director

On Tuesday, June 23, George Netto, M.D., Robert and Ruth Anderson Endowed Chair, UAB Pathology, hosted an outgoing ceremony via Zoom for the graduating trainees as they transition. He announced the winners of several named fund awards for outstanding performance, including:

2019-2020 Graduating Residents:

Erin Baumgartner, M.D. — PGY5 Hematopathology Fellow, Emory University; PGY6 Surgical Pathology at Johns Hopkins University
Paul Boothe, M.D. — PGY5 Cytopathology Fellow, Moffitt Cancer Center, Magnolia Campus; PGY6 — GI Pathology Fellow, University of Florida
Bo Chen, M.D. — PGY5 Surgical Pathology Fellow, UAB
Danielle Fasciano, D.O. — PGY5 Dermatopathology Fellow, UAB; PGY6 Hematopathology Fellow, UAB
Adam Jones, M.D. — PGY5 Hematopathology Fellow, UAB
Ashish Kurundar, M.D. — PGY5 GI Pathology Fellow, Medical University of South Carolina
Morad Qarmali, M.D. — PGY5 Cytopathology Fellow, UAB; PGY6 Breast Pathology Fellow, Moffit Cancer Center

Graduating Fellows and their new roles:

Cytopathology: Shoujun Chen, M.D., Ph.D. — Breast/GYN Fellowship, UAB; Josesph Kaminsky, M.D. — Pathology Services (private practice), Arkansas
Dermatopathology: David Ullman, M.D.
Forensic Pathology: Farnaz Khalafi, M.D. — Forensic Medical (Nashville)
Gastrointestinal Pathology: Meng-Jun Xiong, M.D. — Tift Regional Health System, GA
GYN/GU Pathology: Tyler Clemmensen, M.D. — Pathology Associates of Alabama
Hematopathology: Jeff Ahlstedt, M.D.; David Dorn, M.D.
Molecular Genetic Pathology: Benjamin Saylor, M.D. — UAB Hematopathology Fellow
Surgical Pathology: Rong Chen, M.D. — GI Fellowship, University of Florida
Transfusion Medicine: Nirapama Singh, M.D., Ph.D. 

Our Graduate Trainees for 2019-2020 include:
Mohammad Abedelgawwad
Kellie Regal-McDonald
Alyncia Robinson
Vinyak Khattar
Jennifer Valcin