Satcher completed a fellowship in musculoskeletal oncology in 2001 under Dr. Mark Scarborough, professor and division chief of orthopaedic oncology at the College of Medicine. It is the second time a physician with ties to the University of Florida has flown onboard the Space Shuttle. Dr. William Fisher, a 1975 COM graduate, was a mission specialist for the Space Shuttle Discovery in 1985.

Satcher invited former mentors and colleagues to the Space Coast for a reception held the night before the launch and to watch the lift-off from VIP seating. Scarborough; his wife Dr. Kayser Enneking, chair of the department of anesthesiology; his father-in-law Dr. Bill Enneking, distinguished service professor and founding chairman of orthopaedic surgery at UF; his mother-in-law Margaret Enneking and his son Andrew Scarborough, were there to see the spectacular launch.

“It was awe-inspiring,” Kayser Enneking said.

Satcher, originally from South Carolina, received a bachelor’s degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1986; a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from MIT in 1993 and a medical degree from Harvard Medical School in 1994. He completed an internship and residency in orthopaedic surgery at University of California, San Francisco in 2000; and postdoctoral research fellowships at MIT in 1994 and University of California, Berkeley in 1998 before coming to UF for a year to train in orthopaedic oncology.

Photos below are courtesy of NASA.

The Shands Cancer Hospital at the University of Florida, located at the new Shands at UF South Campus, across the street from the existing medical center on Southwest Archer Road, shines inside and out. The variety of materials that make up the new medical tower are reflective of the number of specialties represented by health-care professionals collaborating to optimize patient treatment and care.

“This is the creation of a home where expertise and care come together,” said Dr. Michael Good, interim dean of the UF College of Medicine.

Last week, Shands and UF employees, members of the media and residents from Alachua County and the surrounding area received their first look at the 500,000-square-foot, 192-bed Shands Cancer Hospital and Shands Critical Care Center at UF. Events included an employee open house, a press conference and media tours, a public open house and health fair. The weeklong introduction culminated Sunday afternoon with a candlelight celebration and blessing of the Hands of Hope to honor the caregivers who serve their patients.

The medical tower, designed to meet the area’s growing need for cancer services, will serve a variety of inpatients, including those receiving diagnostic and therapeutic oncology care. It will also house the Shands Critical Care Center for emergency and trauma services.

“The new hospital reflects a high-tech, high-touch approach to care, which will be carried out by interdisciplinary healing teams focused on treatment of the whole patient: body, mind and spirit,” Good said.

The facility officially opens on Nov. 1.

Twelve high-tech operating rooms are designed to accommodate anticipated evolutions in robotics and 3-D imaging; as are the surgical intensive and intermediate care units, a bone marrow transplant unit, outpatient clinic and stem cell lab.

A full-spectrum radiology department features a $2.5-million diagnostic tool, the Aquillion ONE 320-detector row CT scanner. This scanner, the second acquired by Shands HealthCare, helps physicians diagnose cancer, and it can detect stroke and heart disease in minutes. Shands at UF is one of only a few health centers in the nation to have this technology.

The design team of the $388-million building, led by Brad Pollitt, Shands HealthCare vice president for facilities, is stingy on power use and friendly to the environment.

With Leadership in Environmental Education and Design, or LEED, certification, the Cancer Hospital increases operational efficiencies while its construction makes it an environmentally sustainable building. Shands and Gainesville Regional Utilities partnered to establish the GRU South Energy Center to provide 100 percent of the hospital’s energy needs. The onsite power plant will ensure uninterrupted power, independent of the city’s energy grid. The overall energy savings is estimated at 27 million kilowatts per year, enough to power about 3,000 homes.

Other sustainability features include the use of reclaimed water, insulated glass windows, white heat-reflecting rooftops, special parking for hybrid cars and plenty of bike racks and showers to encourage employees to bike to work.

Input and donations from hospital staff were key to the design of the new building. Not only are nursing and medical staff responsible for $1.5 million dollars in funding for the project, but many features of the building reflect their insight: nurse stations that improve the line of sight to patients, and patient rooms with remotes that allow patients to adjust the lighting and window shades. Lighting is positioned in hallways so patients aren’t subjected to blinding glare when they are transported on gurneys.

With one in seven adults treated at Shands at UF for cancer-related ailments, the theme of hope is gently carried out through the choice of artwork on the walls and the views of the indigenous flowers and foliage in the Garden of Hope. The calming and positive healing environment is created by the enveloping natural light beaming from oversized windows, the water feature in the Sanctuary of Silence meditation room and the warmth of the Sanctuary of Peace chapel.

The hospital spans five of the 27-acre south campus, which is prime for development, said Timothy Goldfarb, CEO of Shands HealthCare.

“This is a glimpse of the future of our south campus,” he said. “It’s the first phase of an expanded medical center.”

Goldfarb said the 25-year vision for expansion includes an increase in capacity of the current tower to 1,200 beds and replacing Shands at UF with a cluster of buildings and towers that allows for a grouping of specialty care.

“The expansion allows UF to maintain its leadership as Florida’s flagship hospital,” said Dr. David Guzick, senior vice president for health affairs and president of the UF&Shands Health System.

“The construction of the hospital is a shift in the center of gravity for campus.”

Photos by Sarah Kiewel

Outside the clinic, smoke curled from a barbecue, drawing a small crowd of people lugging red bags stuffed with health information. Nearby, other volunteers fitted children for safe bicycle helmets and checked the safety of a new mother’s car seat.

The event may have seemed like just another health fair to some attendees. But to Kendall Campbell, M.D., medical director of the Eastside Community Practice, having a packed house on a Saturday was a huge step forward in an effort he launched at the clinic more than a year ago.

Kendall Campbell, M.D.

Located on Waldo Road just north of University Avenue, the Eastside Community Practice sits in an area with the highest rates of cancer deaths, infant mortality and sexually transmitted diseases in Alachua County, according to the 2008 Alachua County Health Report Card. That’s why Campbell set out on a mission to improve prevention efforts in the community, recruiting more patients and offering services geared toward taking care of patients year-round, not just when they’re sick.

“What we’re essentially trying to do is not be the ‘doc in the box,’” Campbell said. “We want to be more proactive and go out in the community.”

Because of the unique challenges in the community, the Eastside Community Practice doesn’t operate like a typical clinic. It’s an interdisciplinary effort — family doctors team with pharmacists, pediatricians, mental health counselors, nurse practitioners, nurses and a social worker to help patients. It has a diverse patient population, too. Some patients have insurance. Some don’t. For these folks, the help doesn’t end there. The clinic’s social worker works with patients who are unemployed to help them find jobs or even training so they can get a better job with insurance.

“It’s more of a one-stop shop for people here, to help get them on their feet and not continue in their state of helplessness and hopelessness,” Campbell said. “We’re saying ‘You can do this thing, and I’m going to help you.’”

To reach out to new patients, clinic staff members have performed health screenings at community locations such as Wal-Mart or local churches. Staff members help potential patients figure out if they qualify for programs such as CHOICES, a county program that gives the working uninsured access to needed health services. Campbell also has started a medication voucher programs using donated funds.

In November, the clinic is teaming with the department of urology to raise prostate cancer awareness. And they aren’t just sitting back and waiting for the patients to come to them, they’re taking the message into the community, to ministers and to barbershops. The clinic also received a grant from the U.S. Department of Women’s Health to help train community members how to fight childhood obesity.

Eventually, Campbell said he plans to use a mobile unit for screenings and other health services.

The clinic is also implementing a wellness program to prevent health problems and ensure that patients are following doctors’ orders even when they don’t have appointments. A big part of this effort is a disease management registry Campbell and his staff developed.

The registry will allow the clinic to easily keep track of patients who have conditions such as diabetes or asthma and will categorize them based on how they’re managing the disease, Campbell said. This will allow the practice to focus on specific patients who need to be followed more closely.

“The thing we have to do first is start the data-gathering process,” Campbell said. “How many diabetics are here? How many of our kids have up-to-date immunizations?”

Overall, Campbell’s biggest goal is to increase health-care opportunities for people in East Gainesville. He would like to keep the clinic open later so underinsured workers who can’t leave their jobs during the day can come to Eastside after hours when they’re sick instead of going to a hospital emergency room for primary care. He also hopes to collaborate with physicians in the department of emergency medicine to encourage homeless and uninsured East Gainesville residents to go to the clinic instead of using emergency services as primary care.

Of course, these goals require money, Campbell says. He’s working with UF development officers to raise money for the clinic and has hired a grant writer to work on securing grants for the clinic. The clinic also receives funding through the Alachua County Area Health Education Centers. Every dollar or collaboration helps.

“We have a lot of educating to do,” Campbell said. “We have a lot of work to do on health care in East Gainesville.”

William W. Hauswirth, Ph.D., a professor in the ophthalmology department at the UF College of Medicine

Scientists have discovered that even in adults born with extremely impaired sight, the brain can rewire itself to recognize sections of the retina that have been restored by gene therapy.

The discovery of the brain’s surprising adaptability comes a year after three blind volunteers received doses of corrective genes to selected areas of their retinas at Shands at the University of Florida medical center.

Now, more than a year later, researchers say tiny portions of the patients’ retinas that have received gene therapy have kept their restored function, as much as 1,000-fold increases for day vision and 63,000-fold for night vision.

But in an unexpected finding, scientists writing in the New England Journal of Medicine on Aug. 13 say the treated parts of the retinas may have acquired enough image-processing strength to rival the retina’s normal center for visual perception, called the fovea, for the brain’s attention.

The discovery suggests that even in adults with mature visual circuitry, the brain can find new ways to process optical information, say researchers with the UF Powell Gene Therapy Center and the Scheie Eye Institute at the University of Pennsylvania.

“When one patient came back for her 12-month visit, she said she could read the digital clock in her parents’ car with her treated eye — something she was never able to do before,” said William W. Hauswirth, Ph.D., a professor in the ophthalmology department at the UF College of Medicine. “That prompted us to measure where her gaze was fixed while looking at a variety of dim targets. This showed that she now has two preferred centers of vision rather than one, depending on the brightness of the object.”

The new region is more sensitive to light, but it is not as precise as the fovea for making bright images sharp.

“Her brain tells her to use the best part of retina she can, depending on the situation, so she automatically shifts back and forth between the usual region and the region we supplied to her,” said Hauswirth, who is associated with the Powell Gene Therapy Center and the UF Genetics Institute.

The patients have a rare, incurable form of blindness called Leber congenital amaurosis type 2, the most common cause of blindness in infants and children. In the type 2 form, photoreceptor cells cannot respond to light because a gene called RPE65 does not properly produce a protein necessary for healthy vision.

In the study led by Samuel G. Jacobson, M.D., Ph.D., a professor of ophthalmology at the University of Pennsylvania, and supported by the National Eye Institute, researchers used an apparently harmless virus that already exists in most people to deliver RPE65 to a small area of the retina.

In October 2008, researchers reported that the study volunteers — one woman and two men ranging from 21 to 24 years old — could see brighter areas and perhaps some images.

In the current New England Journal of Medicine report, scientists say vision in volunteers’ treated eyes remains slightly improved in dim lighting conditions. But the “excursions of fixation” from the usual focal point of the retina to the treated area nearby in one of the patients was a welcome surprise.

“This finding required her to tell us she was seeing these objects,” Hauswirth said. “What’s truly astounding is the brain even in an adult is still adaptable enough to learn to use these regions of the retina.”

The viral vectors used to deliver the gene therapy were manufactured by the Powell Gene Therapy Center, directed by Barry J. Byrne, M.D., Ph.D., a professor of molecular genetics and the principal investigator for the trial at UF.

“What’s truly been remarkable so far, beyond the gene therapy to the retina, is how well the visual parts of the brain are adapting to the treated eye,” said John G. Flannery, Ph.D., a professor of vision science, and neurobiology at the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute at the University of California, Berkeley, who did not participate in the research. “You could almost say the patients’ brains are getting better at paying attention to the gene-therapy treated area, because it is functioning at a higher level.”

The letter to The New England Journal of Medicine was submitted by Jacobson, Artur V. Cideciyan, Ph.D., Tomas S. Aleman, M.D., Sharon B. Schwartz, Ph.D., Elizabeth A.M. Windsor, B.A., Alexander Sumaroka, Ph.D., and Alejandro J. Roman, M.S., of the Scheie Eye Institute at the University of Pennsylvania; and Hauswirth, Byrne, Shalesh Kaushal, M.D., Sanford L. Boye, M.S., and Thomas J. Conlon, Ph.D., of UF.

COM Interim Dean, Michael L. Good, M.D., presents Rep. Larry Cretul with a framed stethoscope and plaque that read, "Thanks for keeping your ear on the Heart of Florida".

Representative Larry Cretul, R-Ocala, speaker of the Florida House of Representatives, visited the University of Florida on July 30 and heard from deans of Health Science Center colleges about the progress made in patient care and research as a result of state funding. The deans, including Michael L. Good, interim dean of the College of Medicine; Kathleen Long, Ph.D., R.N., F.A.A.N., dean of the College of Nursing, and College of Dentistry Dean Teresa Dolan, D.D.S., M.P.H.; thanked Cretul for his ongoing support.

“Your support touched all three of the College of Medicine’s missions; education, patient care and research,” Good said.

The 2009 Florida legislative session was an important one for UF and its medical school. College of Medicine funding from the state has decreased significantly in the last five years, and it falls well behind other Florida medical schools in terms of per-student funding – specifically the two new schools at the University of Central Florida and Florida International University and the recently built Florida State University’s medical school.

Cretul was instrumental in bringing this issue to light and in helping UF find advocates in the legislature to begin to close the funding gap between the UF College of Medicine and other state medical schools.

Last year, UF’s College of Medicine received $4.5 million in recurring funds from the legislature, and this year, another $5 million was added.

At the gathering Cretul spoke about how critical is it for all sides to be “at the table” when it comes to budget and policy discussions.

“You need to be at the table because if you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu,” he said. “And in today’s budget climate you better bring a knife and fork with you.”

In winning the competitive National Institutes of Health’s Clinical and Translational Science Award, UF joins a prestigious national consortium of medical research institutions, whose membership will be capped at 60 by 2012. UF is the only university in Florida to get the award, which will be geared toward accelerating scientific discovery, enhancing medical care, producing highly skilled scientists and physicians and fostering partnerships with industry, university officials said today (July 14).

The grant will support multidisciplinary research in a wide range of fields such as biomedical informatics, gene therapy, aging, nanotechnology and infectious diseases.

Awardees are poised to become much more competitive than other institutions by offering stronger research programs in addition to basic medical training, securing more NIH funding and attracting and retaining skilled faculty. And the community benefits — every $5 million in annual research funding leads to about 100 new jobs and $20 million in incremental business activity, according to estimates from the nonprofit Families USA organization.

“Lots of things can happen with this grant that might not have happened — or happened as well — without it,” said Peter Stacpoole, M.D., Ph.D., director of UF’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute and the grant’s principal investigator.

The CTSI, a partnership of several entities both within the university and in the wider community, will coordinate the grant, administered through the NIH’s National Center for Research Resources. The CTSI also is supported by $23 million from the UF Office of Research and $70 million in commitments from the College of Medicine.

Dr. Peter Stacpoole visits with Dr. Jennifer Miller and her young patient, who was involved in a clinical study at UF. Photo by Sarah Kiewel

“This award is an endorsement of UF’s leading-edge research efforts and its contributions to health-related fields,” said Win Phillips, UF’s vice president for research. “The strong research efforts of UF faculty will provide the foundation for enhanced translational and bench-to-bedside research leading to contributions to health care that is the focus of this highly competitive program.”

The impact of the resulting discoveries will extend beyond academia to industry, government and the nation. In addition, discoveries that are developed commercially can generate royalty streams for the university.

“By attracting external funding, whether from federal agencies such as NIH or CDC, or from foundations or industry, new dollars come into Florida from outside the state — this leads to new jobs and a ripple effect in the local economy,” said David Guzick, M.D., Ph.D., UF’s senior vice president for health affairs and president of the UF&Shands Health System. Guzick was principal investigator on the University of Rochester’s CTSA grant, presented in the first set of awards in 2006.

By incorporating 12 of the university’s colleges, the largest health-care system in the Southeast and the nation’s largest two-division Veterans Affairs health system, the CTSI seeks to transform how scientific research is carried out, by emphasizing broad collaborations.

The partnership comprises UF’s Gainesville and Jacksonville campuses, including the colleges of Medicine, Dentistry, Nursing, Pharmacy, Public Health and Health Professions, Veterinary Medicine, Fine Arts, Journalism and Communications, Liberal Arts and Sciences, Engineering, Health and Human Performance and Agriculture and Life Sciences; as well as the Institute for Food and Agricultural Sciences with its 67-county network of extension programs, which will engage citizens in educational activities and participatory research. Shands HealthCare and the North Florida/South Georgia Veterans Health System also help to extend the institute’s resources and services across the state.

“We’ll use those as ways to engage the community and make the CTSI a statewide resource,” Stacpoole said. “It’s a truly fundamental – from the roots up – transformation of how we do research and training.”

The University of Florida supported the new physician assistant profession and, eventually, helped set the pace for public medical schools around the nation.

On June 12, just days before the commencement ceremony for 59 physician assistant studies students, the profession saw another milestone set by the University of Florida’s College of Medicine; the Board of Trustees approved the elevation of the PA program to the School of Physician Assistant Studies.

“This further demonstrates the significant role of the Physician Assistant program at the College of Medicine. It also reflects a tremendous need and demand for physician assistants in the health-care systems of our state and the nation,” said College of Medicine Interim Dean, Michael Good, M.D., during the graduation ceremony on Saturday, June 20.

School of Physician Assistant Studies class of 2009. Photo by Footstone Photography

UF’s first PA program began in 1972 in collaboration with Santa Fe Community College. The 30 students enrolled were awarded with an associate degree after two years of study. The program would find a permanent home at UF just five years later and PA graduates were awarded a bachelor of science degree.

“UF has been a trailblazer in moving the profession to the forefront, answering the growing demand for PAs as health-care reform and spending became top national issues,” said Wayne D. Bottom, PA-C, M.P.H., associate dean and director of the School of Physician Assistant Studies, who has led UF’s PA Program for 27 years.

“I’m not a lightweight,” Bottom said, referring to his longtime commitment to PA studies, which originated in Alabama. During his time there, Bottom successfully lobbied for the creation of the Central Application Service for Physician Assistants, a national application system for PA students that is similar to the American Medical College Application Service for medical students.

Bottom saw UF’s program through instability as it moved from the College of Allied Health Professions (now College of Public Health and Health Professions) back to the College of Medicine in 1993, and he was thrilled a year later when the Florida Legislature earmarked funding to double enrollment to 60 students per class. The Program was upgraded to the master’s degree level in 1996.

When asked about the significance of the recent elevation to a school status, Bottom said, “While this is designated as a school it is the equivalent to a new department within the College of Medicine which means we have the same rights and privileges as every other department … we have a voice and a vote.”

Currently there are 145 PA programs nationwide. UF is the only public university in Florida to offer PA studies as a graduate program. The move to a school has not changed the Program itself, however.

The School of Physician Assistant Studies remains a 24-month-long master’s program that includes 12 months of coursework and 12 months of clinical rotations. Following completion, students must pass the national certifying exam to receive the PA-C designation and to become licensed to practice in all 50 states.

According to labor statistics, this elevated designation as a School parallels the demand for physician assistants. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report new job opportunities for physician assistants will grow by 50 percent in the next six years, making it the fastest growing occupation in the nation. Bottom says that before graduation, his students have five to seven job offers to choose from with starting salaries between $70,000 and $90,000.

Graduate, Emily Stielow and Wayne Bottom, PA-C, associate dean of the School of Physician Assistant Studies at the recent commencement ceremony for the program. Photo by Footstone Photography

This projected job growth reflects the expansion of health-care industries and an emphasis on reducing costs, which results in increasing use of PAs by many health-care providers. The College of Medicine program has turned out more than 1,400 PA graduates with two-thirds still practicing in Florida.

“As baby boomers begin to retire, there will be a massive increase in patient needs; particularly in Florida,” Bottom said. “If President Obama gets some form of health insurance for the 47 million currently uninsured in the U.S., this will result in another massive hit on the resources of the practice of medicine.”

Today PAs assist physicians in virtually all major specialties and they practice in hospitals and private practices in urban and rural areas across the nation. Most PAs work in family and emergency medicine while others are drawn to internal medicine, obstetrics/gynecology, pediatrics and surgery. PAs have become more prevalent in UF’s own network of health professionals, the UF Faculty Group Practice.

“We have had multiple PAs in gastroenterology, hepatology, and nutrition for many years,” said Christopher E. Forsmark, M.D., professor of medicine.

“The ability of our PAs to work collaboratively with the M.D. faculty allows us the ability to provide state-of-the-art care for our patients with complex gastrointestinal and liver diseases,” Forsmark said. “PAs are essential to the smooth functioning of our clinical enterprise and to our delivery of high-quality care.”

When asked about the future of PA studies, there is always room for progress, said Bottom. He sees the need for increased class size but knows there are some fundamental changes that must happen first.

“In order to keep contributing in terms of the number of PA graduates at this capacity, we need more space,” he said referring to the cramped classrooms and labs currently shared with medical students.

Bottom also feels an expansion of the program would be more likely if the out-of-state tuition was less intimidating. Recently, Florida Legislature voted not to allow out-of-state students to convert to in-state status after a year of study. Currently, out-of-state tuition for the program is $42,000 while in-state is $14,000.

“We need students from many backgrounds and clinical experience,” Bottom said. “The ability to have a diverse group of students will keep UF at the forefront of the PA profession.”

Dr. David S. Guzick

Dr. David S. Guzick has been named the University of Florida’s senior vice president for health affairs and president of the UF&Shands Health System.

Guzick (pronounced Guh-zik), 57, dean of the University of Rochester’s School of Medicine and Dentistry, will begin July 1. He also will serve as chairman of the board for the Shands at UF Teaching Hospital and Clinics Inc.

An advocate of integrating patient care and academics, Guzick will lead the development of a shared vision for UF’s Health Science Center and Shands HealthCare. Joint priorities and strategies encourage collaborations that are expected to translate not only into new medical discoveries but also into better health care.

“An accomplished researcher, physician and administrator, Dr. Guzick possesses the set of skills necessary to guide our Health Science Center and Shands HealthCare into the future,” President Bernie Machen said. “He’s thoughtful, deliberate and forward-thinking. We’re proud to welcome him to Gainesville.”

A reproductive endocrinologist, Guzick is an internationally recognized expert on women’s health epidemiology, and on the development and management of endometriosis, infertility and polycystic ovary syndrome.

He earned his medical degree and a doctorate in economics from the New York University School of Medicine and completed an internship and residency in obstetrics and gynecology at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. He then completed a fellowship in reproductive endocrinology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, later joining the faculty as an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology.

After moving on to the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, where he was director of reproductive endocrinology for nine years, Guzick joined the University of Rochester Medical Center in 1995 as the Henry A. Thiede Professor and chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. He was named dean of the School of Medicine and Dentistry in 2002.

Guzick was named to the prestigious Institute of Medicine of the National Academies this past October. Board-certified in obstetrics and gynecology and in reproductive endocrinology, he is principal or co-principal investigator on more than $15 million annually in National Institutes of Health grants. Guzick also serves on the boards of several medical journals and professional societies and is a referee for The New England Journal of Medicine, among other publications.

”The University of Florida is virtually unique in having six health science colleges and a major teaching hospital on its main campus,” Guzick said. “UF is poised to take full advantage of the integration of Shands with the clinical and research programs of the Health Science Center and across the entire campus. Exciting times lie ahead and I look forward to leading this effort.”

Guzick replaces Dr. Douglas J. Barrett, who is stepping down from the Health Science Center’s top post, a position he’s held for the past seven years. A pediatric immunologist, he will return to clinical practice and teaching on the pediatrics faculty in the College of Medicine.

“Dr. Barrett has served with distinction,” Machen said. “He leaves a talented team of professors and researchers who together will make facing the challenges of modern health care that much easier. I am grateful for his leadership.”

The moment they would sign the Hippocratic Oath, scrawling two significant letters after their names for the first time ever — M.D.

The moment they would officially be called “Doctor” for the first time.

The moment they would walk across the stage, eliciting a chorus of cheers from the audience gathered in the Philips Center for the Performing Arts to see the College of Medicine Class of 2009 graduate.

“It’s pretty surreal,” said Omayra Marrero, M.D., after she and her fellow graduates filtered outside after the ceremony. “But it’s worth every tear shed, every extra hour worked. It’s awesome.”

For Marrero, the day was the culmination of a decision she made nine years ago to move to Gainesville for medical school. Just 20 at the time, she decided to take a year off to grow up a little. She took a job with Shands, and one year turned into five.

But on Saturday, she finally arrived at the moment she had imagined.

“This is really what my calling is,” said Marrero, who is headed to Charlotte, N.C., for a residency in emergency medicine. “My dad is in the Army, that is how he serves others. He has very much instilled that in us, that your job, in one way or another on this Earth, is to serve others. And this is my way.”

Hong Vo poses proudly with her family following the commencement ceremony. Photo by Sarah Kiewel

Reflecting on her four years in medical school, Sherita Holmes, M.D., said she felt “overcome with gratitude” as she thought about the College of Medicine faculty and staff who helped her along the way. At the college, she found a home away from home in the Office of Minority Affairs. And she’s met people who have guided her, like Kyle Rarey, Ph.D., who teaches first-year anatomy and serves as senior associate dean for educational affairs, and people who she wants to emulate, such as Patrick Duff, M.D., the associate dean of student affairs and registration.

“I am just overwhelmed with gratitude for everything they have done to support us,” said Holmes, now headed to the University of Chicago for her pediatrics residency. “I just hope they realize what a mark they made in my life and how they are going to make me a better doctor.”

As graduations often are, the day was bittersweet in a way for graduates, too, as they prepared to say goodbye to their classmates.

“We spent almost 50 percent of our lives over the past four years either in the classroom or in the hospital,” said Chris Staudinger, M.D.

“Just the people you meet and the stuff you go through together makes it worthwhile. I am going to miss a lot of these people.”
Although one portion of their medical education is over, the 124 graduates are now entering more specialized fields. Aside from a few graduates who are pursuing sabbatical years, the college’s graduates are all headed into residency training. And, in a way, the training will never stop, even after their residencies end.

Changes in medicine, from the advent of personalized medicine to advances in science and technology, will require students to continually learn throughout their careers, said commencement speaker J. Glenn Morris, M.D., M.P.H., director of the UF Emerging Pathogens Institute.

“What is not going to change is the moment when you sit face to face with a patient to provide reassurance, to share the joy of a birth and the sadness of a death,” Morris said. “This is who we are as physicians.”

Saba H. Jafri celebrates with her family as a new "M.D."

And most importantly, no matter what the obstacles, this year’s graduates are ready to tackle them, said Michael L. Good, M.D., interim dean of the college.

“Let me challenge you to change the world,” Good said. “Our nation and our world face unprecedented challenges, especially in medicine and in health care. You are well prepared. You have what it takes to help create a better tomorrow for all of us. So I challenge you dream big, work hard, give thanks and achieve joy in your own life by giving it to others.”

“I’m not only starting residency but a new life with my wife,” explained Conley, who was married last weekend and who also is the only student from his class to begin active duty service in the armed forces after graduation. “It’s been crazy trying to plan a wedding, graduation, honeymoon and a move to San Diego all at the same time.”

Conley, who was commissioned into the Navy upon graduating from the University of Notre Dame with his bachelor’s degree, will begin a residency in military medicine at Naval Medical Center San Diego.

He said he is excited to be able to give back to his country in such a unique way.

Kevin Conley, a naval officer, was promoted to a U.S. Navy lieutenant during the 2009 College of Medicine graduation ceremony, on Saturday, May 16.

“I want to serve my country,” Conley said. “It just makes sense. Plus, it didn’t hurt that they provided me with a full-ride to college.”

Conley was selected for the Health Professions Scholarship Program as a medical student. The program provides full tuition, books, fees and a stipend in return for a four-year commitment.

Conley, who grew up in a military family and whose father was a deep sea diver, has always had an admiration for the Navy.

When you combine a love for the Navy and love of medicine, you get one great military doctor.