Class Notes

During a Meliora Weekend ceremony, medical school alumni and supporters were recognized for their achievement, service, and humanitarian initiatives.

Dean’s Medal

Joseph Lobozzo II

Lobozzo founded JML Optical Industries—a company that designs, manufactures, and distributes high-precision optical components and equipment—in 1972. He served as president and CEO until he sold the company in 2011. A long-standing supporter of the Medical Center, Lobozzo has been a member of the center’s board for 17 years.

His support has led to the creation of the Joseph M. Lobozzo II Professorship in Pediatric Surgery and funding for a SMILEmobile, a custom-designed, wheelchair-accessible, mobile dental clinic that allows the Eastman Institute for Oral Health to provide first-of-its-kind access to people with special needs. He has also supported efforts to improve access to the Eastman Institute for patients in wheelchairs and other projects at the Medical Center.

John N. Wilder Award

Frank LoGerfo ’66M (MD)

LoGerfo holds the title of William V. McDermott Distinguished Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School and is retired chief of the Division of Vascular Surgery at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. Nationally recognized for his research on vascular bypass grafts as well as techniques to treat patients with diabetes, he directs training programs for medical students and surgical residents.

In 2004, he and his wife, Judy, established the Frank W. and Judith M. LoGerfo Scholarship Fund. LoGerfo also endowed a summer research traineeship at the School of Medicine and Dentistry in recognition of the role that such experiences played in his career.

Alumni Service Award

Seymour Schwartz ’57M (Res)

Holding the title of Distinguished Alumni Professor of Surgery, Schwartz joined the School of Medicine and Dentistry in 1957.

His research focused on liver physiology, portal hypertension, platelet physiology, and the effects of carotid sinus nerve stimulation on hypertension. Although he performed as a general surgeon, vascular surgeon, cardiothoracic surgeon, and pediatric surgeon, his major clinical impact was in the field of hepatobiliary surgery.

Distinguished Alumnus

Randy Rosier ’78M (MD), ’79M (PhD)

Rosier is a professor emeritus of orthopaedics and rehabilitation at the School of Medicine and Dentistry, where he also was the founding director of the Center for Musculoskeletal Research, which remains one of the top-ranked NIH-funded orthopaedic research programs. Rosier also served as the chair of the Department of Orthopaedics, where he held the title of Marjorie Strong Wehle Professor in Orthopaedics.

Alumni Achievement Award

Antonia Eyssallenne ’01M (MS), ’04M (PhD), ’06M (MD)

Eyssallenne is the program director of the Internal Medicine–Pediatrics Residency Program and assistant professor of internal medicine and pediatrics at the University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine/Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, Florida. She also serves as director for the Intensive Care Unit for Partners in Health at University Hospital in Mirebalais, Haiti; is a medical education consultant with Project Medishare for Haiti in Miami; and is cocreator and program director of Hospital Saint Damien/Bernard Mevs Pediatric Residency Program in Port au Prince.

Humanitarian Award

Sophina Manheimer Calderon ’11M (MD)

Calderon provides medical care to disadvantaged populations in the United States and abroad. As a member of the Navajo Nation in Arizona, she is a family medicine physician at Tuba City Regional Health Care Corporation in Tuba City, a small town on the western end of the Navajo Nation in northeastern Arizona. She also provides inpatient obstetrics labor and delivery services in a midwife provider role. She serves as the HIV officer for the hospital, providing care and education for both providers and patients in the community.

Humanitarian Award (posthumous)

William Gamble ’59M (MD)

Gamble was a professor emeritus of surgery at the University of Minnesota’s medical school, maintaining an active clinical practice for 33 years until his retirement in 1999. He taught surgical ethics and surgical technique at Minnesota throughout his career. With more than 47 years of clinical practice and teaching, Gamble influenced generations of students and residents. The award was accepted by his widow, Katherine, and other members of his family.