Nearly 40 members of the GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences (SMHS) community were honored during the 2014 Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society (AΩA) Awards and Induction Banquet, May 15. The 2014 Class of AΩA honorees included 34 members of the SMHS M.D. Program Class of 2014, as well as four residents, and two full-time SMHS faculty members, a voluntary clinical faculty member, and an SMHS alumnus.
Induction into the national medical honor society is based on a student’s academic standing, as well their leadership qualities, professionalism and firm sense of ethics, promise of future success in medicine, and commitment to service in the school and community. Each chapter inducts residents and faculty members as well, selected by a committee of elected AΩA faculty and students who nominate them and then vote to select the new members.
The evening was moderated by Alan Wasserman, M.D., M.A.C.P., Eugene Meyer Professor of Medicine, chair of the Department of Medicine at SMHS, and councilor of the GW Alpha Chapter of AΩA, who also formally conferred membership on this year’s class of physicians. The event was organized by Angelike Liappis, M.D. ’96, F.I.D.S.A., associate professor of medicine at SMHS and secretary of the GW chapter of AΩA.
“It is an incredible honor to be inducted into the AΩA, and it’s an honor that will follow you throughout your career,” Wasserman told the new members. He cautioned them that it was also an honor they would have to live up to. “We expect a lot of you as AΩA members. There are 51 Nobel Prize winners in physiology and medicine, or in chemistry, 30 of whom received their prize after becoming AΩA members.”
Addressing the crowd of AΩA members, inductees, and their families was David L. Porter, M.D., the Jodi Fisher Horowitz Professor in Leukemia Care Excellence and director of Blood and Marrow Transplantation at the University of Pennsylvania. Earlier in the day Porter presented grand rounds lecture about his innovative cancer research titled, “Reprogramming Human T-Cells to Treat Leukemia.” At the banquet he toasted the new AΩA members and focused his remarks on maintaining perspective in ones career.
“Whether you are a physician who is going to provide direct patient care, whether you are going to go into basic science, whether you are going to work in the pharmaceutical industry trying to make these new therapies available to more patients, all of this work comes back to that one patient sitting a room looking for your help,” said Porter. “I guess the one thing I can impart tonight, is to ask that you don’t forget that.”
About The Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society
The Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society is the national medical honor society dedicated to recognizing high educational achievement, honoring gifted teaching, encouraging the development of leaders in academia and the community, supporting the ideals of humanism, and promoting service to others.
The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences 2014 AΩA Inductees
Residents and Fellows
Mohammad T. Abu-Rub, M.D. Resident, Neurology
Paige A. Armstrong, M.D. Resident, Emergency Medicine
Ann M. Laake, M.D. Fellow, Infectious Diseases
Alice M. Semerjian, M.D. Resident, Urology
Faculty
Nancy D. Gaba, M.D. ’93, RESD ’97 Oscar and Mildred Dodek Professor and Chair. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology
Robert K. Zeman, M.D. Professor and Chair, Department of Radiology and Radiation Oncology
Alumni
George Rappard, M.D. ’96 Director, The Los Angeles Minimally Invasive Spine Institute
2014 Voluntary Clinical Faculty Award
Helen Burstin, M.D., M.P.H. Senior Vice President for Performance Measurement National Quality Forum, Washington D.C. Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine, SMHS
Class of 2014 Inductees
Assya E. Abdallah The George Washington University, Emergency Medicine
Samantha Lynn Ahle Yale-New Haven Hospitial, CT, General Surgery
Abena Obenewaa Akomeah Carolinas Medical Center, NC, Emergency Medicine
Bradley Troy Anderson University of Colorado, CO, Pediatrics
Mark Allen Anderson Overlook Hospital, NJ, Medicine-Preliminary Massachusetts General Hospital, Radiology-Diagnostic
Kathleen Keely Boyle University at Buffalo School of Medicine, NY, Orthopaedic Surgery
Elaine L. Chiang University of Pittsburgh, PA, Pediatrics
Julia Mae Emanuel New York Presbyterian Hospital- Columbia University Medical Center, NY, Pediatrics
Devon C. Flaherty Icahn School of Medicine, Mount Sinai, NY, Anesthesiology
Daniel A. Gerber Stanford University Programs, CA, Internal Medicine
Saba Ghorab Mayo School of Graduate Medical Education, AZ, Otolaryngology
David Grabski Special Studies Masters in Education, Harvard University
Arielle Risa Gumer New York Presbyterian Hospital Columbia University Medical Center, NY, Obstetrics-Gynecology
Sarah Jawed Icahn School of Medicine, Mount Sinai, NY Pediatrics-Preliminary New York Presbyterian Hospital-Cornell Medical Center, NY, Dermatology
Jonathan Katz Medstar Franklin Square Medical Center, MD, Medicine-Preliminary Emory University, GA, Ophthalmology
Jacob Matthew Kirsch University of Michigan Hospital-Ann Arbor, MI, Orthopaedic Surgery
Jared Kirzner New York Presbyterian Hospital-Cornell Medical Center, NY Internal Medicine
Stephanie Jo Knapp Duke University, NC, Urology
Karin Johnson Kuhn Kaiser Permanente-Oakland, CA, Medicine-Preliminary Stanford University Hospital Programs, CA, Radiology-Diagnostic
Amy Marino University of Pittsburgh, PA, Internal Medicine
Neera Nathan NIH Medical Research Scholar Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Branch, NIH/NHLBI
Neil S. Nayak Jackson Memorial Hospital, FL, Otolaryngology
Katherine L. O’Flynn O’Brien Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, PA, Obstetrics-Gynecology
Devin N. Patel Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, CA, Urology
Neal Arvind Patel New York Presbyterian Hospital- Cornell Medical Center, NY, Urology
Aaron Michael Roberts University of Rochester, Strong Memorial, NY, Orthopaedic Surgery
Eric S. Rupe University of California San Diego Medical Center, CA, Radiology-Diagnostic
Kelsey Marie Sanford University of Washington, WA, Anesthesiology
Ashish Vinaychandra Shah Thomas Jefferson University, PA, Internal Medicine
Chelsea J. Slade McKay-Dee Hospital Center, UT, Family Medicine
Sreya Talasila University of Chicago Medical Center, IL Medicine-Preliminary Northwestern University, IL, General Surgery
Frances Alexandra Tangherlini Northwestern University, IL, General Surgery
Tyler David Webster Icahn School of Medicine, Mount Sinai, NY, Internal Medicine
Tiffany C. Wong Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, PA, Internal Medicine
