Celebrating its annual lecture, banquet and induction ceremony on May 1, the New York Medical College (NYMC) Iota chapter of Alpha Omega Alpha (AOA), the national medical honor society, had a particularly momentous evening. In addition to recognizing the illustrious inductees, Iota chapter’s councilor, William H. Frishman, M.D., left, the Barbara and William Rosenthal Professor and Chairman of the Department of Medicine and professor of pharmacology, made AOA history this year for his 40-year tenure as councilor, the longest tenure in AOA’s 116-year history, as well as for holding the distinction of being the only councilor in two different medical schools and chapters—Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University and NYMC. Over the course of his tenure, Dr. Frishman has helped induct more than 1,300 students and 250 faculty, alumni and residents. Dr. Frishman presented this year’s AOA lecture, “The Search for Excellence: An Academic Odyssey.” View the AOA Lecture and Induction Ceremony photo gallery.
“The AOA banquet was a celebration of dedication, hard work, perseverance and accomplishments. It’s also an event to honor the guests, faculty and staff who have been our teachers, mentors, support systems and often, our friends. It is a union of kindred spirits,” said Iota chapter vice president, Jannatun Sikder.
Balakrishna (Balu) Vemula, right, the current AOA Iota chapter president, said introducing Dr. Frishman was personally meaningful. “I was happy for this opportunity to introduce someone who has made such a remarkable impact on medicine,” he said.
In addition to the medical students who were inducted for their academic excellence, professionalism and promise of becoming leaders in the profession, NYMC alumni and faculty were also inducted and resident teaching and volunteer clinical faculty awards were presented.
New York Iota Chapter Officers
| President Vice President Academic Coordinator Volunteer Coordinator |
Balakrishna Vemula Jannatun Sikder Michael Doany Shannon Cain |
Class of 2018 Junior AOA Inductees
| Eve Ayeroff Shannon Cain Catherine Callinan Michael Doany Mark Dunlop |
Zachary Gray Sean McDougall Jannatun Sikder Madison Stellfox Balakrishna Vemula |
Class of 2018 Senior AOA Inductees
| Natalie Alvarez Erin Buchanan Lindsey Channen Marina Corines Ryan Dean Stephanie DeLuca Devon Drew John Duffy Arielle Effron Breana Hill Jessa Hoffman Ryan Horn Chun Wai Hung Jillian Jacobson Joshua Junge |
Malka Kirschenbaum Christina Lieu Sherry Liou Ashley Llyod Thomas Mehuron William Mosher David Motola Katherine Nordgren Gisele Papo Michael Reisfeld Alison Riehm Anurag Saraf Madeline Schutt Aishwarya Sriram Linda Zhang |
Class of 2019 Junior AOA Inductees
| Benjamin Catanese Justin Cole Laurne Fink James Haigney Joshua Hanau Kevin Kenney Ariel Kwart |
Alexander Ladenheim Tianci Liu Caitlin Lozano Adele Shenoy Ami Trivedi Nneamaka Ukatu Alex Ward |
Faculty Inductees
Tejinderpal Singh, M.D., Assistant Professor of Medicine
Kristina Harris Petersen, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Camille A. Clare, M.D., M.P.H. ’11, Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology
AOA Resident Teaching Awards
Khwaja Haq, M.D., Internal Medicine Chief Resident, Westchester Medical Center
Katherine Linder, M.D., Internal Medicine Chief Resident, Westchester Medical Center
Srikanth Yandrapalli, M.D., Internal Medicine Chief Resident, Westchester Medical Center
Volunteer Clinical Faculty Award
Taj Deen, M.D., Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences