‘It still feels like home’
UF College of Medicine community celebrates the 2022 Alumni Weekend
Oct. 12, 2022 — Since the first class walked across the stage in 1960, thousands of students have donned their caps and graduated from the University of Florida College of Medicine, going on to become globally influential researchers and health care providers.
College of Medicine alumni have been stewards of science and medicine since before the first Star Wars movie, the original McDonald’s Big Mac and access to the internet.
During the 2022 UF College of Medicine Alumni Weekend, held in person on Oct. 7-8 for the first time since the pandemic began, over 400 alumni and friends signed up to celebrate each other, ushering in new Wall of Fame recipients, applauding millions of dollars in scholarship commitments and enjoying shared company at class reunions and a UF homecoming tailgate.
At a luncheon for scholarship donors and student recipients on Oct. 7, Dean Colleen Koch, M.D., M.S., M.B.A., announced the successful completion of the College of Medicine’s Legacy Challenge goal, an ambitious call for 100 scholarship commitments that started in 2016 and was championed by the college’s Medical Alumni Board of Directors.
To date, 105 scholarship commitments have raised over $30 million, helping to provide world-class medical training while minimizing tuition debt for the next generation of health care providers.
2022 UF CoM Alumni Weekend Their Future Your Legacy Scholarship Lunch
Third-year medical student and Dean’s Preeminence Scholarship recipient Dominique Szymkiewicz thanked alumni for their generosity at the luncheon, saying that as a child of Polish American immigrants, she was raised to be financially frugal and chose to attend medical school at UF because of all the support available.
“I love seeing my patients bright and early and then coming back to explain to them things the team has come up with,” she said. “It reminds me of helping people like my parents, who were once in a vulnerable position but were able to make it through with the help of others. It takes a village to move to America, to treat a patient and to be a medical student. And thankfully, I have you all in my village.”
Later in the day, Koch and alumni honored the new Wall of Fame recipients at a celebratory cocktail reception and dinner for their outstanding careers and contributions to medicine, government, education and their communities: Joe Lezama, M.D. ’97; Maude Lofton, M.D. ’79; Reuben Brigety, M.D. ’70, and James “Jim” Free, M.D. ’60.
MD Cocktail Reception and Dinner
Lezama serves as associate chief of staff for medicine and specialty care at the James A. Haley Veterans Hospital in Tampa, Florida, and is a professor of medicine and the vice chair of education in the department of internal medicine at the University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine. He is known for his extraordinary contributions to government service, including establishing one of the first VA patient safety and quality improvement residencies with national recognition. He was awarded the Laureate Award for his career contributions to the American College of Physicians last fall.
“I wanted to be a Gator since the eighth grade,” said Lezama, a 2020 Wall of Fame inductee who was recognized during the 2022 reception. “For me to not only go to medical school here but then have a career that the University of Florida feels is deserving of a Wall of Fame induction is the highlight of my career. It means so much to me, and it’s so great to be able to have this night where my classmates are here … We’re a class that has a lot of spunk and a little bit of a rambunctious nature, but that’s really carried us to be successful.”
Lofton, a 2021 Wall of Fame inductee, the principal owner of Lofton Enterprises and the board chair at Dallas-based startup drug delivery company CourMed, has built an impressive career as a children’s health advocate and served at the UF College of Medicine – Jacksonville, Howard University and the University of Louisville.
Brigety, the first African American graduate of the College of Medicine and the first physician in the Jacksonville area to perform laparoscopic surgery, is a trailblazer and medical history-maker in Florida who was inducted into the Wall of Fame this year. In addition to paving the way for all future African American physicians at UF, he is celebrated for his service as a senior physician medical consultant for the state of Florida since 1985.
And Free, a member of the college’s first graduating class and the man behind the naming of Gatorade who passed away last year, was posthumously recognized as a 2022 Wall of Fame inductee. His son, Doug, attended the event to accept the award on his behalf.
At the reception and dinner, Koch also recognized Stephanie Byerly, M.D. ’92, a life coach, professor in the department of anesthesiology and pain management at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and director of obstetrical anesthesiology at William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital, as the 2022 Notable Alumnus Lecturer and a recipient of the Dean’s Award for Leadership, which is given to alumni who have distinguished themselves in their field and brought honor upon their alma mater through their scholarly achievements.
PA ALUMNI GATHERING
For the College of Medicine’s physician assistant graduates, Alumni Weekend events included an Oct. 7 gathering welcoming all classes in honor of the UF School of PA Studies’ 50th anniversary. About three dozen alumni traveled from as far away as North Carolina to gather at Shula’s Steak House and reminisce on their time in the program with their peers.
Celebrating their 40th graduation anniversary, Rick Davis, PA ’82, and James Heine, PA ’82, reflected on spending hours with their study groups at the library to prepare for Saturday morning exams.
“After our Saturday morning exams, all 30 of us would head to Lake Wauburg to have a party and celebrate being done,” Davis said. “It was hard work, but we had fun as well.”
Read more about the PA reception, National PA Week and the 50th anniversary of the UF School of Physician Assistant Studies at the college’s Dr. Gator news website.
On Oct. 8, hundreds of alumni came together at the College of Medicine’s George T. Harrell, M.D., Medical Education Building for food, football and fun. As the UF community geared up for the Florida Gators’ homecoming game against the Missouri Tigers, MPAS, Ph.D., M.D. graduates and their loved ones enjoyed a morning of mingling and family-friendly activities, like face painting, corn hole, photo ops, tours of the UF Center for Experiential Learning and Simulation and a watch party for the football game.
Dressed in festive orange and blue, families from around the state and country chatted happily with friends new and old over tasty barbecue, sharing stories of their UF years and alternating between exclamations at the college’s realistic medical mannequins in the simulation center and football plays on the big screen outdoors.
CoM Tailgate
Double-Gator Lauren Braue, MPAS ’12, who has practiced as an orthopedic physician assistant in Vero Beach, Florida, attended with her husband and three young children. Braue said she drove up to Gainesville with her family to show them her old stomping grounds.
“We always look for reasons to come back; It still feels like home,” she said. “I just feel like education is so important, and it’s fun to show my kids things to look forward to. I’m so proud to come from such an incredible, reputable program, and I can’t believe the PA program has been here for 50 years.”
See pictures from our Alumni Weekend events in the gallery below.
