Alumni News

1980s

Paul A. Rusonis, MD’82, is medical director of a recently opened dermatology and advanced skin care practice in Ellicott City, Md., with Integrated Dermatology. He continues to lead a medical team of five. Rusonis is a board-certified dermatologist and a member of the American Academy of Dermatology, American Society for Dermatologic Surgery, and the Maryland Dermatologic Society. 

Frederick L. Jones III, BA’79, MD’83, MBA’00, was named partner at BioAdvance, early-stage life sciences fund, after it added six new companies to its portfolio. Most recently, Jones was a director with Broadview Ventures, founder of Spordiff Therapeutics, and CEO of Anchor Therapeutics. Early in his career, Jones practiced internal medicine, most recently as an assistant professor in the University of Pennsylvania Health System.

Gene Z. Salkind, MD, BA’74, GME’85, joined the advisory board of CURE Pharmaceutical, a drug delivery and development company. Salkind will provide strategic counsel to the company’s clinical trials and partnerships for the CUREfilm technology for the central nervous system and other therapeutic areas.

1990s

Bernard J. Costello, DMD’94, MD’97, GD’00, GME’00, has been named dean of the University of Pittsburgh School of Dental Medicine. Costello served as interim dean since February 2018 and began his deanship on April 1. Costello is chief of both the Division of Craniofacial and Cleft Surgery in the School of Dental Medicine and the Division of Pediatric Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC. Costello is currently the president-elect of the American Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Association.

2000s

Anthony Y. Sun, MD, GME’00, MBA’02, has been appointed as an independent member of the board of directors for Eyenovia, Inc. Eyenovia is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing a pipeline of ophthalmology products that utilize its patented piezo-print technology to deliver micro-therapeutics topically to the eye. Sun trained in Internal Medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.

Joseph Henry Hedrick, MD’05, a specialist in general and trauma surgery, has joined the Mohawk Valley Health System Surgical Group – Faxton Campus and has privileges at Faxton St. Luke’s Healthcare and St. Elizabeth Medical Center. 

Marcela V. Maus, PhD’03, MD’05, GME’08, was appointed to the scientific advisory board of Torque, an immuno-oncology company. Maus is an assistant professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and director of Cellular Immunotherapy at the Cancer Center of Massachusetts General Hospital. Previously, she was an assistant professor and director of Translational Medicine and Early Clinical Development in the Translational Research Program at the University of Pennsylvania.

Ali Behbahani, MD’07, MBA’07, has joined the board of directors for Genocea Biosciences, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company developing neoantigen cancer vaccines. Behbahani is a partner in the health care group at New Enterprise Associates, where he specializes in investments in the biopharmaceutical, medical device, specialty pharmaceutical, and healthcare services sectors.

2010s

Bat-Sheva Maslow, MD, GME’13, is a reproductive endocrinologist at Extend Fertility Medical Practice, a specialty egg-freezing practice in Manhattan. Previously, Maslow was an associate physician at a private infertility practice, Gold Coast IVF, in Long Island, where she treated women and couples with a wide range of medical and surgical issues.

 

Obituaries

1940s

George Manstein, BA’37, MD’41, GME’48, a plastic surgeon; Dec. 2. After serving as an anesthesiologist in the U.S. Army’s medical corps during World War II, Manstein returned to Penn to study surgery. He joined Philadelphia’s Einstein Medical Center in 1956 and chaired the department for more than 20 years. He traveled to Israel in the weeks following the Six Day War of 1967 to treat the injured, and was the first non-Israeli member of Israel’s professional society for plastic surgeons.

Shirley G. Driscoll, BA’45, MD’49, a retired pathologist; Jan 1. A professor emeritus of Pathology at Harvard Medical School, Driscoll was appointed chief of Pathology at the Boston Hospital for Women, Lying-in Division, in 1978, and served as director of Women’s and Perinatal Pathology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital until her 1993 retirement. She was internationally recognized in the field of placental, perinatal, and reproductive pathology. Driscoll was a pioneer in uncovering the pathology associated with infants of diabetic mothers, and made significant contributions to the understanding of fetal disease, inherited disorders, and diseases of the placenta.

1950s

Eugene A. “Pat” Hildreth, MD, GME’54, an internal medicine physician; Jan. 5. After serving in the Navy/CIA in Asia from 1951-1953, where he was the chief medical officer of a M.A.S.H. unit, Hildreth worked at HUP as a professor of Clinical Medicine, the head of Allergy and Immunology, and special advisor to the dean. He went on to become the director of the Department of Medicine at the Reading Hospital and Medical Center from 1968-1996 while continuing to maintain an active medical practice. He served as chairman of the American Board of Internal Medicine, the chairman of the Federated Council of Internal Medicine, and chairman of the board and later president of the American College of Physicians . Hildreth was elected to the Council of the Institute of Medicine of National Academy of Science, a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (London), and an Honorary Fellow of the Academy of Medicine (Singapore).

Dennis A. Sharkey, MD’54, a retired pathologist; Dec. 20. At 18, he enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps and served overseas, receiving multiple awards for his service. After training in pathology at the VA Hospital at the University of Pittsburgh, he was appointed as a board certified chief of Pathology Services at the former Andrew Kaul Memorial Hospital in St. Marys, PA and the Elk County General Hospital in Ridgway. He was President of Medical – Dental staff at Andrew Kaul Memorial in 1989-1991 and 1993-94.

Luis Schut, MD, GME’57, emeritus professor of Pediatrics; Jan. 31. Schut was chief of Neurosurgery at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia for more than 25 years and an emeritus professor of Pediatrics and Neurosurgery at the University of Pennsylvania. He came to the United States in 1955 and, after a rotating internship and one-year period of training as a psychiatric resident, he was accepted for neurosurgical residency at HUP. Following a period of training in neurosurgery at the Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, he returned to Penn in 1962. In 1969 he was appointed chief of Neurosurgery at CHOP where he remained until his retirement in 1996.

Harris “Bubs” Meisel, MD’59, a rehabilitation specialist; Feb. 23. After serving in the U.S. Public Health Service followed by training as chief resident in Rehabilitation Medicine at Stanford University Hospital, Meisel developed a physical medicine and rehabilitation hospital on the grounds of the former Santa Barbara County Hospital. He was considered the founder of rehabilitation medicine on the Central Coast of California, and was medical director of what is now the Cottage Rehabilitation Hospital. He enlisted forces under the Americans with Disability Act to outfit and revamp Santa Barbara’s public buildings and spaces for universal, disability-inclusive use.

1960s

Roger E. Farber, MD’63, GME’69, a neurologist; Jan. 24. Farber served in the public health service at NIH, and completed his residency in Neurology at Penn. Farber co-founded the Noran Neurological Clinic in Minneapolis, Minn.. He was at the vanguard in using L-Dopa to treat Parkinson's disease and acute multiple sclerosis and of carotid ultrasonography for stroke prevention. In 1989, he joined the Neurology faculty at Penn. In 1995, he opened his own private practice, the Pennsylvania Headache and Pain Center. His widow is Abigail First Farber, MD’63.

Andrew G. Glass, MD’65, a pediatrician and oncologist; Nov. 16. Born in Warsaw in 1939, Glass and his family immigrated to New York in 1945. Glass earned his undergraduate degree at Harvard and trained in Pediatrics at the Massachusetts General Hospital, then served in the U.S. Public Health Service in Bethesda, Md., before completing a pediatric oncology fellowship at the Sidney Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. Subsequently, Glass spent his entire medical career at Kaiser Permanente North West (KPNW) in Portland, Ore., in Pediatrics, Pediatric Oncology, Adult Oncology and research. He was the driving force behind the expansion and funding of the KPNW registry, which now contains highly detailed case information, dating back to 1960, and later worked with health officials in India to support the creation of registries there. His own research centered on the effect of post-menopausal hormone replacement therapy on the incidence of breast cancer.

Faculty

Roger E. Farber, MD. See class of 1963.

Leonard Jarett, MD, longest-serving chair of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine; Jan. 13. Jarett attended the Rice Institute in Houston and received his MD from Washington University in St. Louis, where he went on to complete his residency and additional training, and served as a member of the medical faculty from 1966 until he came to Penn. Jarett assumed the chairmanship of the Pathology Department at Penn in 1980 and in 1985 was named the Simon Flexner Professor and Chair. The department was formally renamed the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine under his leadership, emphasizing the integration of Anatomic Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and reflecting the department’s broader scope. Jarett held the chair’s position until 1998, when he became distinguished professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. He served as vice chairman of the Medical Board at HUP (1984-1986) and as associate dean for Faculty Affairs (1989- 1990). He was internationally recognized as an investigator in the area of insulin action and was deeply committed to developing an integrated department that excelled in clinical service, both basic and applied research, and teaching. A completely redesigned residency program was instituted early in his tenure as chair. In the department, Jarett is remembered as an exceptional mentor to an entire generation of academic pathologists.

Luis Schut, MD. See class of 1957.