Class Notes

Class Notes

1960s

Morton Schatzman, M.D. ’62, has a private practice as a psychiatrist/psychotherapist in London. He is the chair of the board of trustees of the Arbours Association, a charity that offers psychotherapy and places to live to people who might otherwise be in mental hospitals. He and his wife, Vivien, co-founded the association in 1970. He has two sons, Daniel and Gideon, and six grandchildren.

Barbara Barlow, M.D. ’63, received a domestic volunteer award in October from the American College of Surgeons’ board of governors for work with the Injury Free Coalition for Kids. She founded that initiative based on her work in Harlem to prevent child injury.

Fabius N. Fox, M.D. ’63, F.A.C.S., F.A.A.P., retired from his radiology practice specializing in breast imaging in July 2017. He and his wife, Ziporah, spend time with their son Ari, a psychotherapist specializing in helping children with school adjustment; their daughter-in-law, Sharon; their two grandchildren; and their son Danny, who is a Harvard graduate and a jazz pianist. Dr. Fox attended his class’s 55th reunion last year.

Morris Stampfer, M.D. ’63, is sad to report that his wife of 54 years, Deborah Lewittes Stampfer, died of endometrioid cancer in June 2018. He has been working as a noninvasive cardiologist at Jacobi Medical Center since 2006 but is transitioning to part-time status.

Jacob Barie, M.D. ’65, retired from interventional radiology four years ago, but is active in educating the public on transgender issues. He and his wife are the grandparents of Jazz Jennings, who is a high-profile transgender advocate. The Learning Channel is featuring their story on the I Am Jazz reality series.

Sally Shaywitz, M.D. ’66, and her spouse, Bennett, were featured in The New York Times on Sept. 21, 2018, in a science article, “The Couple Who Helped Decode Dyslexia.”

David H. Abramson, M.D. ’69, F.A.C.S., received the “Cure OM Award” from the Melanoma Research Foundation for his work in melanomas of the uvea, the second-most-common location for melanomas in humans.

Laurence J. Marton, M.D. ’69, serves on the board of trustees of the American Association for Cancer Research Foundation and on the boards of directors of Cancer Commons, Rapid Science, and the Bay Area American Committee for the Weizmann Institute of Science. In the for-profit sector, he serves on the boards of Cellsonics, Dategra, Matternet, Microsonic Systems, Pathologica, RenovoRx, TOMA Biosciences, and xCures, and chairs the Scientific Advisory Board of PharmaJet.

1970s

Sterling J. Haidt, M.D. ’70, retired in January 2015 because of a spinal injury. Since retiring, he has been creating digital art. His website is www.haidtart.com.

Barry M. Schimmer, M.D. ‘70, received the Pennsylvania Hospital Department of Medicine’s Edward D. Viner Teaching Award for “Outstanding Teacher of the Year” in June 2018. He has been chief of rheumatology for 40 years and is a clinical professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine.

Jerry Appel, M.D. ’72, is still a tenured professor of medicine at Columbia University Medical Center in New York, still married to Alice Sue Friedman Appel, Ph.D. ‘75, still running the Glomerular Kidney Center at Columbia, and still doing research studies, traveling, lecturing, and seeing lots of patients. Their older son, Jacob, is a psychiatrist-ethicist-writer on the Mount Sinai faculty, and their younger son, Seth, practices intellectual property law in Chicago. Their grandkids are 12 and 10.

Walter A. Orenstein, M.D. ’72, has been a vaccinologist since 1974, having directed the U.S. Immunization Program for 16 years at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He has co-edited the last five editions of the standard textbook in the field; the last edition of Plotkin’s Vaccines (7th edition, 2018) won first prize in the public health category at the British Medical Association Awards in 2018. Dr. Orenstein also saw the birth of his third grandchild in September.

Gary Z. Lotner, M.D. ’73, proudly announces the recent birth of his fourth grandchild to his son and daughter-in-law, Drs. Daniel and Monique Lotner. Both are young physicians in Atlanta.

Raymond Reich, M.D. ’73, has an active, full-time ophthalmology practice in partnership with his son, Isaac Reich, M.D. In October 2018, the senior Dr. Reich wrote a book in two volumes: Heaven and Earth: A Real-World View of Jewish Life through the Parashah and the Holidays. It is available on Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble under Yerucham Reich (Raymond Reich, M.D.).

David Siegel, M.D. ’73, recently stepped down as chief of medicine for the VA Northern California Health Care System and vice chair at the University of California, Davis, after 23 years. He will continue to be an inpatient attending. He and his wife, Nancy, recently welcomed two granddaughters, bringing their total to six. Their son, Leon Siegel, M.D. ‘17, is doing a surgical residency at SUNY Downstate Medical Center, Brooklyn.

Harold Pincus, M.D. ’75, received a $2.4 million grant from the John A. Hartford Foundation to continue the Health and Aging Policy Fellows Program, which he directs. Dr. Pincus is a professor and the vice chair of psychiatry at Columbia University’s Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and the co-director of Columbia’s Irving Institute for Clinical and Translational Research. He is also a senior scientist at the RAND Corporation.

Karen Lowenstein Kade, M.D. ’76, plans to sell her dermatology practice and retire. She will be moving to Venice, Florida. She has two grandchildren, one from each of her daughters: a 3-year-old boy and a 7-month-old girl. Both families live in the New York City area.

Jesse Goodman, M.D. ’77, left leadership positions in government and public health, most recently as chief scientist for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and returned to academic medicine/infectious diseases clinical and public health policy work. He finds that Einstein prepared him well and continues to believe that a person can be scientifically sound and humane/socially engaged. He enjoys his three grandbabies, two in Paris and one in Cambridge, who are important antidotes to these challenging times.

Marcia Naveh, M.D. ’77, still lives happily in New York City with her husband, Aaron. Their children and three grandchildren are nearby in Brooklyn. After 20 years in primary care, affiliated with Columbia P&S and Roosevelt Hospital, she has become the co-founder and chief medical officer of Matrix Medical Network, a national organization working primarily with Medicare Advantage plans. She continues to enjoy cycling and travel to places such as Patagonia, Mongolia, and India.

Joyce Davis, M.D. ’79, has been having fun working with Clairol as a hair and scalp expert on its new Nice’n Easy hair-dye formula. She has been interviewed, photographed, and filmed for stories on this product and hair loss.

1980s

Kenneth J. Davis, M.D. ’80, has spent the last 35 years practicing pediatrics in Elizabeth, New Jersey. He is now closing his practice to join a pediatric group. All four of the doctors he will work with are people he helped train during his residency. Dr. Davis is still married to Ellen Radin, whom he wed three days after graduation. They have three grown sons who are all doing well.

David S. Friedman, M.D. ’80, has been retired for the past four years and is enjoying his nine grandchildren.

Elizabeth H. Rand, M.D. ’80, is in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where she became a tenured full professor and the chair of psychiatry at the branch program of the University of Alabama, Birmingham, which trains medical students and family practice residents. She served as president of the Association for Academic Psychiatry, is a lifetime fellow of the American Psychiatric Association (APA), and has sat on the APA Program Committee for six years. Her photography is on view at www.elizabethhrand.com. She has three married children and four grandchildren.

Walter Szczupak, M.D. ’80, closed his pulmonary practice of almost 30 years in 2014 and is working for the 911 Health Monitoring Program of Stony Brook University. He and Anna are the proud parents of Larissa, who works for a New York City law firm; Wolodymyr, who graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and INSEAD (European Institute of Business Administration); and Mikhaylo, who is a third-year ENT resident in Miami. Dr. Szczupak and his wife live in Old Field, New York.

Lei L. Chen, M.D. ’83, specialized in medical oncology. She was trained at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and served as a faculty member at MD Anderson Cancer Center and at the Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah. Her research focused on targeted therapy and immunotherapy with a special interest in gastrointestinal stromal tumor. She is now retired and recently moved to Seattle to be close to her two children and three grandkids.

Andrew Blank, M.D. ‘84, is in private practice with ENT and Allergy Associates in Bayside, Queens. He is a partner in this group of more than 200 ENTs and allergists in New York and New Jersey. His wife, Dalit Ashany, M.D. ’85, is a rheumatologist at the Hospital for Special Surgery. They have lived in Scarsdale, New York, for 25 years. Their daughter, Nina, married in May 2018 and will be pursuing a dermatology residency at Cornell. Their son, Daniel, is a software developer for Blackstone in Manhattan.

Albert T. Quiery Jr., M.D. ’84, and his wife, Donna, relocated to Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he is the medical director for the Rogel Cancer Center at the University of Michigan. He continues to practice hematology and is engaged in courses in bioethics and the social determinants of health. He and Donna are expecting their first grandchild in May.

Simone Kaye Simon, M.D. ’89, née Seimon, reports the passing of her father, Dr. Leonard Seimon. He was a professor of orthopaedics and of pediatrics at Montefiore and Einstein and chief of spine and pediatric orthopaedics services. Dr. Seimon was the father-in-law of David Bruce Simon, M.D., ‘89, and the grandfather of Rachel Beth Simon, Class of 2021. An outstanding teacher and mentor, he retired in June 2015 after 37 years on the faculty.

1990s

Lam Do, M.D. ’92, will captain Team SuperMarrow in the Race Across America—“The World’s Toughest Bicycle Ride”—in June. The ride from Oceanside, California, to Annapolis, Maryland, covers 3,000 miles and 170,000 feet in elevation in nine days or less. Support Team SuperMarrow at www.TeamSuperMarrow.org.

Alan Chen, M.D. ’93, keeps busy in Illinois as chief of plastic surgery and hand surgery at Silver Cross Hospital,  clinical associate for University of Chicago Medicine & Biological Sciences, and assistant professor of surgery at Midwestern University.

Sherry C. Huang, M.D. ’94, is looking forward to her 25th reunion. She has been at the University of California, San Diego, since her internship, staying on as a fellow in pediatric gastroenterology and joining the faculty. She now serves as the designated institutional official and associate dean for graduate medical education. She and her husband have a son who plays volleyball at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a daughter who is a high school senior.

Hanah Polotsky, M.D. ’99, M.B.O.E., B.B.L.S.S., and Alex Polotsky, M.D., M.S. ‘90, are enjoying life in Denver with their five children (Esti, Avi, Yael, Eli, and Yoshi), ranging in age from 8 to 17. Two children want to follow in their footsteps and attend Einstein. Dr. Alex Polotsky runs a division of reproductive medicine at the University of Colorado, and Dr. Hanah Polotsky oversees a Kaiser Permanente office serving 43,000 patients. Last summer they climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.

2000s

Jacob Levitt, M.D. ’00, is the vice chair of dermatology at Mount Sinai Medical Center and the president of the Periodic Paralysis Association. He trains in martial arts and has six rabbits.

Joshua Sisser, M.D. ’05, and Rachel Sisser, M.D. ‘05, are pleased to announce the bar mitzvah of their son, Aaron Sisser.

Christina Gagliardo, M.D. ’07, was graced with the arrival of a baby boy named Stephen in December 2017. She recently accepted a position as a pediatric infectious disease attending at Goryeb Children’s Hospital in Morristown, New Jersey.

2010s

Ali Sharma, Ph.D. ’11, serves as a research assistant professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

Esti Hirschhorn, M.D. ’16, and Evan Hirschhorn are proud to announce the birth of their son, Yosef.

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