Life After the UConn Health Center

Wonder where our students go after graduating from the UConn Health Center? Here's recent news on what some of our Alumni are doing!

Past Graduates At A Glance

Alumni In The News

Ph.D. Graduates

David Masopust, '02 Ph.D. and Vaiva Vezys, '02 Ph.D.
Dr. David Masopust and Dr. Vaiva Vezys, Assistant Professors in the Department of Microbiology at the University of Minnesota Medical School, have received NIH Director's New Innovator Award program grants (see: http://www1.umn.edu/news/features/2009/UR_CONTENT_133362.html). Theses awards are different from traditional NIH grants in that they seek to support creative ideas from investigators who are at an early stage in their career. Dr. Masopust will study novel approaches to vaccine development for the AIDS virus, while Dr, Vezys will examine the generation of T cells in autoimmunity and asthma. 

Mina Mina, '90 Ph.D.
Dr. Mina, Professor of Orthodontics, Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Pediatric Dentistry and Advanced Education at the UConn Health Center, was selected by the International Association of Dental Research to receive the 2006 Distinguished Scientist Award for Craniofacial Biology, which recognizes her significant contribution to the field. The award will be presented this summer at the 84th IADR General Session to be held in Brisbane Australia. Dr. Mina is also the head of Pediatric Dentistry at the Health Center.

Sharon Hemond Hrynkow, '90 Ph.D.
Dr. Hrynkow is the acting director of Fogerty International Center of the the National Institutes of Health, which works to advance the NIH mission through international partnerships and supports a range of programs to tackle global health problems. Before joining Fogarty in 1995, Dr. Hrynkow served as a science officer at the State Department, working primarily on AIDS.

Huw Thomas, '86 Ph.D.
Dr. Thomas has been named Dean of the School of Dentistry at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Dr. Thomas received his dental degree in London and his doctorate in biomedical sciences at the UConn Health Center. He was a faculty member for 12 years before taking the chairmanship of the Department of Pediatric Dentistry at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center, San Antonio, in 1992.

B.J. Bormann, '85 Ph.D.
The Connecticut Business & Industry Association (CBIA) elected Dr. B.J. Bormann to a four-year term on its board of directors at its October 26 Annual Meeting. Dr. Bormann is vice president in Pfizer Global Research and Development and the world-wide head of strategic alliances at Pfizer Inc., based in New London. She is one of 13 new members elected to the CBIA board who will begin their terms December 1.

CBIA is the state’s largest business organization, with 10,000 member companies throughout Connecticut. The board of directors approves the organization’s plans, policies and strategies, and particularly focuses on ways to make Connecticut a better place to do business and create jobs.

Dr. Bormann joined Pfizer in 1996 as a project analyst in the R&D operations group, presently called strategic alliances. Since joining Pfizer, she has worked in a number of positions of increasing responsibility, most recently serving as global portfolio executive director for early development technologies.

Prior to joining Pfizer, Dr. Bormann was a principal scientist at Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals Inc., in Ridgefield, working in drug discovery in the area of molecular biology of cell adhesion and T-cell based therapeutic approaches. She also worked as a research affiliate at Yale University in the Department of Pathology.

Lance K. Gordon, '78 Ph.D.
Dr. Gordon is featured in the alumni magazine, Traditions. Dr. Gordon is CEO for VaxGen, Inc. which is currently working on a vaccine for the AIDS virus.

[back to top]

M.P.H. Graduates

Thomas R. Stansfield, '02 M.P.H.
Mr. Stansfield is the sanitarian for the Torrington Area Health District which includes Falls Village, Salisbury, and Winsted. Mr. Stansfield also has a private business as a soil evaluator.

Lori Belle-Isle, '01 M.P.H.
The National Home Office (NHO) of the American Cancer Society in Atlanta, Georgia has promoted Mrs. Belle-Isle to the position of NHO director of Cancer Control Field Planning. Before completing her M.P.H. and moving to Atlanta, she was a Regional Cancer Control staff person in the New England Division and then moved to the Eastern Division as the manager of Cancer Control Planning. Ms. Belle-Isle responsibilities for her new position include: directing, in collaboration with division cancer control directors, 17 field planning managers; and providing leadership and assistance with state Facts & Figures, community assessments, division action planning, and state cancer plans.

Nighat Quadri, '01 M.P.H.
Ms. Quadri is working as an ATPM/CDC Maternal and Child Health Epidemiology Fellow at the Department of Health in Honolulu, Hawaii. As a fellow she is coordinator of a breastfeeding prevalence study and is analyzing PedNSS and PNSS data for the WIC Program and receiving multi-disciplinary training in the area of maternal and child health.

Lourdes J. Hernandez-Cordero, '98 M.P.H.
Ms. Lourdes is the program coordinator for the M.P.H. track on Urbanism and Community Health at Columbia.

Eileen Henzy Blake, '98 M.P.H.
Ms. Blake is currently working as an Evaluator with the Yale New Haven Center for Emergency Preparedness and Disaster Response.

Jennifer Kertanis, '96 M.P.H.
Ms. Kertanis has left the Connecticut Department of Public Health to become project director/executive director of the Connecticut Association of Directors of Health (CADH) for the CDC grant on bioterrorism preparedness.

Mark Cooper, '92 M.P.H.
Mr. Cooper formerly director of Health for the Newtown Health District, was elected First Selectman for the town of Southbury, Connecticut.

Ellen T. Madigan, '86 M.P.H.
Mrs. Madigan has been named the new executive director of HomeCare and Hospice, Day Kimball Hospital, Putnam, Connecticut.

[back to top]

Combined Degree Graduates

Robert Eliot Hagar, '02 M.D./Ph.D.
Dr. Hagar has joined the medical doctor residency program at The Greenwich Hospital.

Daunis Aboaba, '02 M.D./M.P.H.
Dr. Aboaba is working at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York City on the surveillance of World Trade Center Workers.

Alan Wabrek, '94 M.D., M.P.H.
Dr. Wabrek recently returned from a 10-day stint in Afghanistan, where he presented a 10-hour course to physicians, nurses, midwives, and dentists on violence as a public health issue, with a focus on domestic violence. It is "fascinating how differently the issues are perceived from one culture to the next," he said.

Joseph Pachman, '90 M.D./M.P.H.
Dr. Pachman has been appointed the chief of Occupational Medicine at Norwalk Hospital, Connecticut, and the medical director of Occupational Health Services.

Jeanne V. Linden, '86 M.D./M.P.H.
Dr. Linden has been appointed to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Advisory Committee on Blood Safety and Availability, which is administered by the office of the Surgeon General. Dr. Linden is director, Blood and Tissue Resources, New York State Department of Health.

[back to top]