• 1950’s
• 1960’s
• 1970’s
• 1980’s
• 1990’s
• 2000’s
• 2010’s
• In Memoriam

1950s

• Harvey Karten, M.D. ’59, formally retired in 2014. He continues to do neurobiological research in the department of physics at the University of California, San Diego. Dr. Karten was recently elected to the National Academy of Sciences in recognition of his long-term contributions to the field of evolutionary neurobiology, particularly his work on avian brains and the evolutionary origins of the mammalian neocortex. He is writing a monograph on the evolution of visual pathways in vertebrates. When not working in the lab, he is “an active single-handed ocean sailor on my 37-foot cutter sailboat, Night Heron.”

1960s

• Edward Stim, M.D. ’60, reports, “I am still going strong and, I hope, ‘long’ in Tokyo, Japan. I am a travel medicine consultant for Emergency Assistance Japan, a company that provides health services for overseas travelers in Japan. I would be happy to mentor younger alumni and students and to be acquainted with anyone from Einstein. You can reach me by phone from the United States at 011.81.3.3811.8124. My magnum opuses are http://physiciansnotebook.blogspot.com and http://adventuresofkimi.blogspot.com.”
• Milton L. Masur, M.D. ’63, has retired “after 47 years in practice (not to mention 10 years in training).” He belongs to a book club, summarizes books, sings in a choir, travels, paints, sculpts and plays the accordion. Dr. Masur writes, “I’ve seen some of the world, which keeps spinning, often out of control. I just met my fourth grandchild and hope she will live in a fairer, more supportive world.”
• William Friedel, M.D. ’66, who has been retired for five years, writes, “I am continually surprised by how much I like it . . . between tennis, hiking, volunteering, not to mention the continuing multiple cultural events and classes, I don’t know how I ever had time to work. My wife, Judith, also is very active here in San Diego, and both our married daughters live fairly close by. All in all, 75 and still going strong.”
• Thomas Daley, M.D. ’69, retired as director of pediatric education at St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital in Paterson, NJ, in 2013, and returned to Jacobi Medical Center as a voluntary attending in pediatrics in 2014. He joins in the morning report three mornings a week and leads a teaching session for Einstein students once a month. He notes, “I was director of the pediatric clerkship at Jacobi after completing my residency at the University of California, San Francisco, in 1972 and have circled back home.”
• Noah Lightman, M.D. ’69, retired from his busy Baltimore-based private radiology practice in 2014 after having served as chair of radiology at Bon Secours Hospital, Upper Chesapeake Health System, in Bel Air, MD, and at Lifebridge Health in Baltimore, for nearly 40 years. He has been a fellow of the American College of Radiology since 2000. Dr. Lightman writes, “Since retiring, I have travelled with my wife to South America and Asia, including an extended time in Singapore, where our daughter and her family live.” He also volunteers on behalf of Israel, “mainly working with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee to strengthen the U.S.-Israel relationship.”

1970s

• Barry M. Schimmer, M.D. ’70, has been elected as a master of the American College of Rheumatology. He continues in his posts as section chief of rheumatology at Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia and as a clinical professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine. He and his wife, Naomi, have four grandchildren.
• Diane Stover-Pepe, M.D. ’70, reports, “My daughter, Dana, is finishing her internal medicine residency at Georgetown and is applying for a fellowship in infectious diseases. She has worked at both the Centers for Disease Control and the Environmental Protection Agency, has her master’s in public health and is interested in the environment and how it affects our health.”
• Henry Klapholz, M.D. ’71, M.E.E., is dean for clinical affairs and a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston, MA. Dr. Klapholz, who is a recipient of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists’ Excellence in Education Award, continues to teach three courses at Tufts. He also oversees the office of faculty affairs and the clinical aspects of the Tufts Physician Assistant Program.
• Philip Coffino, M.D. ’72, Ph.D. ’71, has moved from the University of California, San Francisco, where he has had a faculty appointment for more than 40 years. He is now living in New York and is on the faculty of Rockefeller University. He continues his basic research on regulated intracellular proteolysis.
• Neal Flomenbaum, M.D. ’73, reports, “I was honored in 2014 when the Neal Flomenbaum, M.D., Prize for Excellence in Emergency Medicine was created by Jeanne and Overseer Herbert J. Siegel to support faculty engaged in clinical care at Weill Medical College of Cornell University.” The prize was established “to recognize the commitment and hard work of physicians in emergency medicine who are on the frontlines of care.” Dr. Flomenbaum is a professor of clinical medicine and emergency physician-in-chief at New York–Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, division chief of emergency medicine in the Weill department of medicine and medical director of New York−Presbyterian’s Emergency Medical Service. “This prize,” he writes, “makes a strong statement about the importance of providing excellent clinical care while teaching future Weill Cornell physicians how to do so.”
• Jonathan Tobis, M.D. ’73, recently returned to Jacobi Medical Center after 40 years, to speak at cardiology grand rounds. He discussed his work on patent foramen ovale and its connection to migraine with aura and stroke. Dr. Tobis is a professor of medicine (cardiology) and director of interventional cardiology research at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles. He also works part-time teaching a new percutaneous method of treating mitral regurgitation. He writes, “I train people in Europe and Australia and travel about one week out of every six. Lots of fun and good food! I recently caught up with Michael Garrett, M.D. ’73, by phone, after 10 years. Warm regards to all.”
• Roger Duvivier, M.D. ’74, is a visiting associate professor of obstetrics & gynecology and women’s health at Einstein and Montefiore. Dr. Duvivier has relocated to Antigua, Guatemala, to continue volunteering for WINGS (www.wingsguate.org), a Guatemalan nonprofit organization that provides reproductive/sexual health services (contraception, male and female sterilization, cervical screening and treatment) and for Rotary International, which focuses on services for underserved women and girls, on water and sanitation projects and on children’s education. He has been supervising Einstein medical students and Montefiore residents interested in global health in Guatemala “to help them better prepare for the globally interdependent clinical practice of the future.”
• Jack Stern, M.D. ’74, Ph.D. ’73, reports that his book Ending Back Pain, published in 2014, continues to be on the Amazon best-seller list of health books.
• Harvey Karp, M.D. ’75, is pleased to announce the release of the second edition of his international best-seller, The Happiest Baby on the Block. The book describes a new neonatal reflex—the calming reflex—and how to elicit it to calm crying babies and improve infant sleep. Dr. Karp also reports that more than 3,000 educators have been certified to teach Happiest Baby classes in hospitals and public health clinics in more than 20 countries.
• Kenneth Blank, M.D., Ph.D. ’77, has been named a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI). Election to NAI fellow status is “accorded to academic inventors who have demonstrated a prolific spirit of innovation in creating or facilitating outstanding inventions that have made a tangible impact on quality of life, economic development and the welfare of society.” Dr. Blank, who lives in Philadelphia, also serves as first senior vice president of health sciences at Rowan University in Glassboro, NJ. A professor of biology at Rowan, Dr. Blank holds three patents related to his work as a molecular pathologist and has more than 30 years of experience in research program development, technology commercialization and regional economic development. He was previously senior vice provost for research and graduate education at Temple University and vice provost for research at Northeastern University and Drexel University. He is a member of New Jersey’s Council on Innovation, vice chair of the board of Philadelphia’s University City Science Center and a board member of the New Jersey Innovation Institute. He has been a scholar of the Leukemia Society of America (now the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society) and is currently a fellow of the Philadelphia College of Physicians.
• Ira Helfand, M.D. ’77, and Deborah Smith, M.D. ’77, report that Dr. Helfand “had the opportunity to address the United Nations General Assembly on September 10, 2015, about the urgent need for nuclear disarmament, a topic that has been a main theme of his medical career since shortly after we graduated.” (To view the speech, go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fs-WcHci32c.) Dr. Helfand remains active on the board of Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) and encourages other alumni to join (www.psr.org). He serves as co-president of PSR’s global federation, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, which received the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize.
• Drs. Helfand and Smith are still in practice in western Massachusetts. Dr. Smith reports that she recently “moved to the new Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center at our local community hospital,” and Dr. Helfand continues to work full-time at the urgent care center in Springfield, MA, that he bought a few years ago.
• Lynne M. Mofenson, M.D. ’77, has retired from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) after 26 years doing research on pediatric and maternal HIV infection. “It’s time for younger blood to take over,” she writes. She works as an HIV technical advisor in the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation’s research group two days a week. The group is evaluating implementation of the results of many of the studies Dr. Mofenson was involved in at the NIH. She is an active member of the U.S. Public Health Service and World Health Organization guidelines groups, a speaker on pediatric HIV, and a consultant. “Being able to think and to mentor, instead of being an administrator worrying about budget/funds and supervising staff, has been a pleasure,” she adds.
• Sten Vermund, M.D. ’77, Ph.D., is a professor of pediatrics at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, TN. Dr. Vermund heads the Vanderbilt Institute for Global Health and serves as assistant vice chancellor for global health. His work is focused on HIV control and prevention in Africa and Asia. He is married to child psychiatrist and classmate Pilar Vargas, M.D. ’77. They have two sons: Julian, 35, and Gabriel, 28.
• Joseph Barbuto, M.D. ’78, chaired and presented work at a symposium on core concepts in the psychotherapy of cancer patients at the International Psycho-Oncology Society meetings in Lisbon, Portugal, in October 2014. He continues to supervise residents in the department of psychiatry at New York−Presbyterian Hospital and fellows at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
• William Breitbart, M.D. ’78, completed residencies in internal medicine and psychiatry at Jacobi Hospital/Bronx Municipal Hospital Center (now known as Jacobi Medical Center) after graduating from Einstein. Then, after completing a fellowship in psycho-pharmacology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) in Manhattan in 1984, he joined the MSKCC faculty and “was fortunate enough to have a career in psychosomatic medicine and psycho-oncology.” He served for 15 years as fellowship training program director and has been chief of the psychiatric service since 1996. In addition, he chairs the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and holds the Jimmie C. Holland Chair of Psychiatric Oncology at MSKCC and is a professor of clinical psychiatry and vice chair of psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College. He has received continuous National Institutes of Health research funding for 26 years, has served as editor-in-chief of the journal Palliative and Supportive Care for 14 years and has written more than 350 published papers and 12 textbooks. Dr. Breitbart has received Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine, the International Psycho-Oncology Society and the American Psychosocial Oncology Society. “My career has been extremely rewarding,” he writes, “but my most profound rewards have resulted from my 29-year marriage to my beloved wife, Rachel, and from watching my son, Sam, 24, grow into a fine, compassionate young man who is excelling in a career in law.”
• Jim Mozzillo, M.D. ’79, M.S., M.P.H., reports, “I am back doing occupational medicine exclusively at U.S. HealthWorks. Love the job. Love the people I work with. Love my boss. What more can a person ask for? I actually enjoy going to work! As always, I have ‘someone upstairs’ calling the plays. He takes great care of me.”

1980s

• Richard K. Bernstein, M.D. ’83, was
  an engineer for 24 years before he entered Einstein. He recently produced Dr. Bernstein’s Diabetes University, a series of 70 videos on YouTube focusing on “basic problems associated with diabetes care that are not adequately treated with conventional medical approaches.” Dr. Bernstein, who is 82, pioneered blood-sugar self-monitoring in 1969. He has had type 1 diabetes for 70 years and enjoys good health because, as he puts it, “I insist that diabetics are entitled to the same blood sugars as nondiabetics.” He devised “a simple system” to address this issue 13 years before he became a practicing physician, at age 49, and has written nine books on blood-sugar normalization.
• Brian Delaney, M.D. ’83, is an assistant professor of family & social medicine at Einstein and an internist specializing in geriatric medicine at Montefiore and at St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx. He is very proud of his daughter, Charlotte Delaney, a member of Einstein’s Class of 2016, a Dean’s Recognition Award recipient and a former musical director of the Lymph Notes, Einstein’s a cappella group.
• Vivian Kafantaris, M.D. ’83, has been promoted to professor of psychiatry and molecular medicine at the Hofstra North Shore–LIJ (now Hofstra Northwell) School of Medicine in Hempstead, NY.
• Jeffrey Goldberger, M.D. ’84, recently became chief of cardiology at the University of Miami.
• Jim Giglio, M.D. ’89, reports: “After serving for more than 16 years as chief of emergency medicine at New York−Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center, I have relocated to Queens and am now building a new team as chair of emergency medicine at the Flushing Hospital Medical Center. Friends (and emergency physicians looking to enjoy unmatched ethnic diversity and the rewards of urban medicine in a hospital that is fully committed to its community) can reach me at 718.670.5766.”
• Troy Hailparn, M.D. ’89, is board certified in obstetrics and gynecology, the founder of the Cosmetic Gynecology Center of San Antonio, TX, and the author of a new eModule (online teaching tool) for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) on labiaplasty procedures. The eModule represents “the first time that ACOG has embraced this controversial aspect of gynecology, which is fast becoming one of the most important topics affecting today’s practitioners.” She lives in San Antonio with her husband and son.
• Penelope Shar, M.D. ’89, lives and practices in Bangor, ME, where she has a small integrative practice focusing on chelation therapy, heavy-metal detoxification and bio-identical hormone therapy. “I currently work three days a week and love what I do! I still have children and grandchildren in New York, but my heart is in Maine.” She welcomes any classmates who want to visit.

1990s

• Yvette Calderon, M.D. ’90, has been appointed medical director for emergency services at North Central Bronx Hospital (NCBH) in the Bronx, NY. In her expanded role, Dr. Calderon has jurisdiction over all NCBH emergency services, including adult, pediatric, psychiatry and emergency care of patients in labor. Dr. Calderon is the immediate past associate dean for diversity enhancement at Einstein.
• Sherry C. Huang, M.D. ’94, has been at the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine (UCSD) since she matched there for her pediatric residency. After finishing a residency and a pediatric gastroenterology fellowship at UCSD, she stayed on as a physician-scientist for 10 years, investigating the genetics of familial colon cancers and polyposis syndromes. In the second decade of her tenure at UCSD, she became involved in education and administration, serving as program director for pediatrics. Recently, at the start of her third decade there, she was promoted to serve as associate dean for graduate medical education and as “the designated institutional official” for the 78 training programs and 950 postgraduate trainees at UCSD. She writes, “Time has passed quickly, but UCSD has been a great place to call home for my medical career and family. My husband and I have two teenagers in high school and enjoy the beach and great weather in San Diego!”
• Eric Goldberg, M.D. ’95, has returned to New York City after practicing for three years in Scottsdale, AZ. He now practices internal medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center’s Internal Medicine Associates.
• Oksana Berkovich, M.D. ’98, has a private internal medicine practice in the Bronx, affiliated with Montefiore Health System and Jacobi Medical Center. She can be reached at 917.647.9322 or via e-mail at valerikazakov2000@yahoo.com.

2000s

• Jonathan D. S. Klein, M.D. ’01, F.A.C.S., was honored to be chosen to deliver the keynote address at the graduation ceremony for the Hofstra Northwell School of Medicine’s department of surgery in June 2015. Dr. Klein also has been inducted as a member of the New York Surgical Society.
• David Chesler, M.D. ’06, joined the faculty at Stony Brook University Hospital, in Stony Brook, NY, as an assistant professor of neurological surgery and pediatrics and co-director of pediatric neurosurgery in 2014. He lives in Stony Brook with his wife, Brooke, and children, Hayden and Oliver.
• Adam Friedman, M.D. ’06, F.A.A.D., is an associate professor of dermatology and the residency program director at the George Washington University School of Medicine & Health Sciences in Washington, DC. Dr. Friedman serves as vice chair of the New York Academy of Medicine (NYAM)’s fellows section on dermatology. He has been selected as a fellow ambassador for NYAM. In that position, he shares his expertise through media interviews, blog posts, op-eds and presentations.
• Gary Schwartz, M.D. ’06, reports that after completing his fellowship in cardiothoracic surgery at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, MD, he joined the faculty of the department of thoracic surgery and lung transplantation at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, TX. He is “actively growing” the extracorporeal membrane oxygenation program at Baylor, and also has been named surgical director for airway disorders.
• Joyce Varughese-Raju, M.D. ’06, and her husband, Robin Raju, welcomed their daughter, Laila Mariam Raju, to the world in May 2015, in Stony Brook, NY. Dr. Varughese-Raju writes, “Laila was a cooperative physician’s child and waited until just after her mommy’s week on call was over to make her appearance. Big brother Joseph loves to play with his baby sister, especially right after she falls asleep.”
• Audrey Toda, M.D. ’07, and her husband, Jacques Wilson, welcomed their son, West Zenkou Wilson, in September 2015.
• Hannah Rapaport, M.D. ’09, was married in June 2015 to David Kotch. She has joined a private practice in New Jersey, where she practices breast radiology at the Saint Barnabas and Clara Maass Medical Centers. She recently moved to Chatham, NJ.

2010s

• Jonah Bardos, M.D. ’13, and his wife, Lauren, announce the birth of their son, Zev Uriel. Dr. Bardos is the co-author, with Jenna Friedenthal, M.D. ’14, and Einstein and Montefiore’s Zev Williams, M.D., Ph.D., of a paper, “Public Perceptions of Miscarriage: A National Population-Based Survey,” published in the journal Fertility and Sterility, and received the Arnold P. Gold Foundation Humanism and Excellence in Teaching Award in June 2015.
• Siu Kei (Jacky) Chow, Ph.D. ’13, has been certified as a diplomate of the American Board of Medical Microbiology (ABMM). ABMM certification is the highest credential that a doctoral-level clinical microbiologist can earn.
• Vijay Kotecha, M.D. ’14, is in his second year of residency in internal medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). He writes, “I am really happy with the program and grateful for my education at Einstein, which prepared me well. Einstein’s wide network of affiliate hospitals helped me make a relatively smooth transition to UCSF’s three-hospital system (UCSF Medical Center, the VA Medical Center and San Francisco General Hospital). San Francisco has been a great city to live in, helped by the fact that I’m living in university-subsidized housing and not contending with the out-of-control real estate market. I play roller hockey in Half Moon Bay, take hang-gliding lessons and see a few Einstein alums on a regular basis in the hospital, including internal medicine interns Saate Shakil, M.D. ’15, and Nick Iverson, M.D. ’15.”

In Memoriam

• We acknowledge with sadness the passing of the following Einstein alumni. We honor their memories and extend our deepest condolences to their families and friends.
• Burton Jay, M.D. ’60
• Donald L. Gluckson, M.D. ’61
• Richard Zakheim, M.D. ’62
• Robert P. Santangelo, M.D. ’65
• Fred Hirschenfang, M.D. ’69
• Sheldon Muhlbauer, M.D. ’73
• Sean Michael Misciagna, M.D. ’04