18 Downstate Alumni News Briefs
Alumni news submitted to the Alumni Association from March 15 to April 15, 2016. If you have news to share, please email it to alumni@downstate.edu, or call 718-270-2075.
Horace Herbsman, MD, ‘53 Dr. Herbsman is “enjoying retirement with his wife, four children and ten grandchildren.”
Robert L. Willenkin, MD, ‘55 Dr. Willenkin and his wife, Roberta, recently celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.
Herbert Leonard Wachtel, MD ’59, deceased Dr. Wachtel died March 30, 2015, at 81 at his home in Florida. He was a military cardiologist who left the service in 1969 and joined Bethesda Memorial Hospital in Boynton Beach, Florida.
Michael J. Goldberg, MD, ‘64 Dr. Goldberg had been named the first scholar-in-residence at the Schwartz Center for Compassionate Healthcare in Boston. The small not-for-profit is leading the way to ensure every caregiver-patient interaction is compassionate.
Andrew R. Schwartz, MD, ‘65 Dr. Schwartz and his wife, Lenore, are “doing well still working as senior care providers.”
John M. Aversa, MD, ‘67 Dr. Aversa continues to practice with Connecticut Orthopaedic Specialists. He is also an associate professor at Yale School of Medicine, and at the Frank H. Netter School of Medicine at Quinnipiac University. He and his wife, Ellen, have a son, John Jr., who is a colorectal surgeon at Yale and Griffin Hospital. Their daughter, Kristen Aversa, is an OBGYN in New Haven, and their son, David, is a triple-boarded psychiatrist at Yale and Netter School of Medicine. Their youngest daughter, Monica, works for her brother, David. “We have seven beautiful grandchildren,” Ellen writes, “and one on the way.”
Lawrence J. Brandt, MD, ‘68 Dr. Brandt is “still working full time and loving it” as Emeritus Chief of Gastroenterology at Montefiore Medical Center. He recently received his first NIH-sponsored grant (on fecal transplants for recurrent C-diff infection), is still happily married, and hopes “never to retire, but to play as much golf as possible.”
Barry Green, MD, ‘68 Dr. Green has practiced diagnostic radiology for a total 45 years.
Marilyn Joseph, MD, ‘72 Warren Regelmann, MD, ‘72 Drs. Joseph and Regelmann are both retired, with two grandsons, ages 1 and 4. Their oldest son, an MD/PhD, is CEO of Quartzy.com, a web-based system of keeping lab inventories for clients. Their other son is an assistant professor of internal medicine at Frank Netter School of Medicine, practicing at St. Vincent’s in Bridgeport, CT.
Howard Grill, MD, ‘74 Dr. Grill practices full time with David Grill, MD, ’80. Dr. Howard Grill also has two grandchildren, Harper and Rowan, and his three daughters all work in health-related fields.
Elizabeth Legatt, MD, ‘76 Dr. Legatt has “practiced gynecology in the same community for 31 years and loves it.”
Alan Schecter, MD, ‘76 Dr. Schecter is director of the Division of Pulmonary Medicine at St. Frances Hospital in Roslyn, NY.
Thomas Quaresima, MD, ‘77 John and Mark Quaresima will both begin family practices in July.
Lawrence Halperin, MD, ’84 Dr. Halperin has been named Chair of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons (AAOS) Board of Councilors, and serves on the AAOS Board of Directors.
John Ratmeyer, MD, ‘88 Dr. Ratmeyer is in his 25th year of serving Native American children and their families through his work as a pediatrician at the Gallup Indian Medical Center in Northwest New Mexico. He is the Deputy Chief of Pediatrics, scheduling coordinator and medical consultant to the Child Protection Team.
Benjamin D. Freilich, MD ‘89 Dr. Freilich has been appointed Senior Medical Affairs Advisor for Intellect Neurosciences, a research-based biotechnology company focused on the discovery, development and licensing of novel, disease-modifying therapeutics for the treatment and prevention of rare neurodegenerative orphan diseases with no approved therapies.
Before entering private practice, Dr. Feilich was full-time academic faculty at SUNY Downstate, and then joined the academic faculty at The Mount Sinai School of Medicine, where he continues to hold the title of Assistant Clinical Professor of Ophthalmology.
Samantha Lowe, MD, ‘02 Dr. Lowe, a pediatrician, has joined the staff of White Plains Hospital in Armonk, NY. Prior to White Plains, she was an associate member of the Department of Pediatrics/Emergency Medicine at St. Barnabas Hospital, and an associate professor in pediatrics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx.