UF Med Wrapped: 2025 highlights from the College of Medicine
Celebrating Match Day, service projects, new research findings and more
Dec. 1, 2025 — This year has been another of landmark successes and excitement at the University of Florida College of Medicine, with students, trainees, faculty and staff collaborating to care for patients, contribute new research to the medical field and advance medical education.
As the university extends educational offerings in the city of Jacksonville, the College of Medicine announced plans to expand educational opportunities for medical students in the River City, and senior leadership from the Gainesville and Jacksonville campuses met in person to discuss shared strategy for the first time, signaling a thrilling era of collaboration ahead.
Below, take a look at some of the standout moments at the College of Medicine over the past year.
Top story: The M.D. Class of 2025 celebrates Match Day
More than 150 UF medical students, along with their friends and family members, celebrated four or more years of hard work in medical school as they learned where they will spend the next several years of training and the beginnings of their physician careers during Match Day.
UF students matched to locations in 28 states and Washington, D.C., and 46% of students in the Class of 2025 are continuing their training in the state of Florida.
Top faculty spotlight: Honoring Kyle Rarey, Ph.D.
Every year, Rarey reads 'The Little Engine That Could' to anatomy students to impart in them the lesson that belief in yourself is one of the keys to success.
After 41 years teaching at the College of Medicine, beloved anatomy professor Kyle Rarey, Ph.D., hung up his white coat to begin new adventures in retirement. Surrounded by many family members and others whose lives he and his late wife, Donna Rarey, L.M., R.N., touched during their careers, the college paid tribute to Rarey in a retirement celebration on campus in July.
Top staff spotlight: Behind the scenes with W. Charles Poulton
Charles Poulton photographs the UF PA Class of 2027 during their orientation in June 2025.
If you’ve attended a celebration, ceremony or even a class at the College of Medicine over the past four decades, chances are W. Charles Poulton was behind the scenes — or behind the lens, capturing the moment or ensuring everything ran smoothly.
Poulton has been a quiet constant at the college since joining the staff in the 1980s. His official title is audiovisual specialist, but over the years, he has become a go-to expert across the college — supporting classrooms, capturing milestones with his camera and building relationships that have spanned generations.
Top student spotlight: John Mitchell, Medicine’s leading man
Bachelorette Jenn Tran, left, giving a rose to UF medical student John Mitchell, right.
A medical student’s first semester often brings a mix of surprises and challenges. For John Mitchell, entering his first year at the College of Medicine as a star on the 21st season of “The Bachelorette” was a once-in-a-lifetime experience that mirrored the rollercoaster of medical school, blending moments of excitement with inevitable nerves.
Top research spotlight: Using AI to help babies in the NICU
UF’s Maximizing Initiatives for Lactation Knowledge, or MILK+, project combines the skills of physicians, nurses and AI engineers to identify challenges and find interventions to increase breastmilk production to help a particularly vulnerable population: premature babies in the neonatal intensive care unit. As the AI models continue to improve, the team hopes to make these insights common practice to supplement the care patients already receive.
Top graduate education story: Celebrating 50 years of the Medical Guild Symposium
For half a century, the Medical Guild at the UF College of Medicine has promoted friendship, fun and philanthropy among medical researchers.
During the Medical Guild’s Graduate Research Golden Jubilee in April, faculty, staff, students and trainees gathered to celebrate the college’s research community with awards and an annual student competition.
Top PA program spotlight: A family’s legacy
From left to right: Gabrielle Jetté Register, MPAS ’25, PA-C, Monica Jetté, PA-C ’93, and Erica Jetté Goodson.
The Jetté family, including Gabrielle Jetté Register, MPAS ’25, PA-C, Monica Jetté, PA-C ’93, and PA student Erica Jetté Goodson, are united in their career paths and journeys to the UF School of PA Studies and bound by new traditions they’ve implemented.
Top service spotlight: Collecting clothing for the community
Members of the College of Medicine with clothing donations for the Children's Home Society of Florida.
In an ongoing alliance with the Children’s Home Society of Florida, a nonprofit that supports the needs of local children and families, College of Medicine faculty, staff and students teamed up to hold a clothing drive for Gainesville’s youth.
The collaboration was a huge success, collecting so many items for Metcalf Elementary School, M.K. Rawlings Elementary School and Howard Bishop Middle School that two vehicles were needed to transport the clothes from the UF campus to the society’s Gainesville base.
Top alumni spotlight: Bringing PAs to Ireland with Jaclyn Rohan, MPAS ’11
Rohan sporting Gator gear in Ireland.
Just five years after graduating from the UF School of Physician Assistant Studies, Jaclyn Rohan, MPAS ’11, journeyed to Dublin to help establish Ireland’s first physician assistant program.
PAs can do it all: assist in the operating room, see patients in the clinic, make treatment recommendations, prescribe medications, perform procedures and more. They’re valuable assets to hospitals and practices across the U.S. — and now in Ireland, too.
