Press Release

UMDNJ will present honorary degrees to Dr. Stanley S. Bergen Jr., president emeritus of UMDNJ, who will also present the keynote address during commencement ceremonies;

Dr. Louis Sullivan, president of Morehouse College and former secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; and Dr. Anne Brooks, medical director of the Tutewiler Clinic, a primary care clinic in the Delta region of rural Mississippi, one of the most economically depressed areas of the country.

In addition to four honorary degrees, the University will be presenting distinguished alumni citations to four UMDNJ graduates. They are:

• Dr. Frederick F. Buechel, a member of the Class of 1971 of UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School, and an internationally recognized orthopaedic surgeon and co-developer of the New Jersey knee;


• Dr. Cosmo V. De Steno, a member of the Class of 1969 of UMDNJ-New Jersey Dental School, and a nationally recognized expert in prosthodontics, who has been a member of the faculty for more than 30 years and is also associate dean for clinical affairs;


• Sue Lachenmayr, M.P.H., a 1997 graduate of the New Jersey Graduate Program in Public Health, immediate past president of the New Jersey Society for Public Health and a trustee of the national Society for Public Health Education; and


• Dr. Donald J. Rose, a 1980 graduate of the UMDNJ- Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, director of the Harkness Center for Dance Injuries at the Hospital for Joint Diseases in New York City and a member of the faculty at New York University Medical School.
  

Many graduates of the Class of 2002 have interesting stories to tell. Several will be available for interviews/photos on Wednesday between 8:45 and 9:30 a.m. on the stage at the Arts Center. Press credentials will be distributed at this location as well. Following is a list of some of the noteworthy UMDNJ graduates :

BERGEN COUNTY
Dorothy Dorfman, 46, of Teaneck, knows what kids are eating for school lunches these days and it's not all good. Dorothy, who is earning a masters degree from the UMDNJ-School of Public Health, recently completed a survey for the New Jersey Public Health Association that measured the availability of "junk food" to New Jersey children during school hours. Responses from nearly half of all New Jersey public schools showed that junk foods are available in 79 percent of the schools and that more than two-thirds of them offer these foods for sale in cafeteria lunch lines. Ms. Dorfman, whose son will earn an undergraduate degree this month, is a manager at the Hudson County Perinatal Consortium where she has worked for the past eight years.

BURLINGTON COUNTY
UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School graduate Anthony Mazzarelli, 27, of Cinnaminson, has joined some of the most famous Americans of the past 60 years with his selection by the U.S. Junior Chamber of Commerce as one of the Ten Outstanding Young Americans in 2002. Past winners include John F. Kennedy, Henry Kissinger, Walt Disney,

Elvis Presley and Bill Bradley. The U.S. Junior Chamber noted his role as founder of the Healthcare Outreach Project, a medical student clinic that provides health services for underserved residents of Camden. That project was also picked as one of six distinguished programs in the nation to receive a Pfizer-AAMC Caring for Community Grant in 2000. Dr. Mazzarelli's interests range beyond the normal boundaries of science and medicine. His skill as a writer earned him a spot on the NBC television drama, "ER," where he contributed to the story lines of this past season and also appeared in one episode. As a student in the joint six-year M.D./J.D. program with the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Mazzarelli is receiving his medical degree from UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School this year and both his law degree and a masters degree in bioethics from the University of Pennsylvania next June. After he finishes his final year of law school, Dr. Mazzarelli will be doing a residency in emergency medicine at Cooper Hospital/University Medical Center.

ESSEX COUNTY
Tony Al-Amin, 43, of Newark, knew he wanted to be a physician when he was still a child, but life circumstances intervened, delaying his arrival at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School until he was 39 years old. He completed high school in three years, and started studies for a degree in biology at Seton Hall University. He dropped out after two years to help his wife, Michelle, whom he had known since kindergarten, raise a family. After owning two businesses, Dr. Al-Amin settled into a 15-year career with the U.S. Postal Service. He eventually returned to college as a part-time evening student at Kean University. His credits from Seton Hall could not be transferred, but he completed a dual degree in biology and chemistry in just four and one-half years. A serious accident at work led to several months of rehabilitation and his retirement from the U.S. Postal Service. Dr. Al-Amin will do his residency in physical medicine and rehabilitation at Temple University.

Dr. Laura Eaton, 39, of Livingston, knew she wanted to become a physician for as long as she could remember. But the death of her mother interrupted her college studies and then she became a wife and mother of three children, the youngest of whom is now 15. While raising her children, she finished her undergraduate degree in computer sciences. Dr. Eaton then worked for several years in both the biomedical research and health insurance arenas while earning her master's of public health degree in epidemiology and quantitative methods from the joint UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School/Rutgers program in public health. But her commitment to medicine stayed with her and she is now graduating from UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School with a degree in medicine. With her three children nearly grown, she will begin a residency in family medicine at the University of Missouri in Columbia.

Jared Eisen, 29, of Livingston, may be a dentist by vocation, but music is his avocation. A classical violinist by formal training, he is self-taught in playing the bass, the piano and guitar. In fact, while he was an undergraduate at Arizona State University, his band often played at a restaurant owned by musician Dave Matthews. Dr. Eisen is such a music lover that he even has a recording studio in his home. Following the completion of a general practice residency at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center, Dr. Eisen will go into private practice. The patients in his waiting room will have the pleasure of enjoying his music--composed, played and recorded by this jazz, blues, and rock and roll musician who has written more than 40 pieces of music

CAMDEN COUNTY
Gregory Arthur-Kahn, 27, and Tamer Salib, 29, were roommates at the UMDNJ-School of Osteopathic Medicine in Stratford. On September 11, each ended up separately at the World Trade Center site trying to help in the wake of the devastation. Dr. Arthur-Kahn, a member of an Air National Guard unit in Delaware, had just awakened in his Jersey City apartment after grabbing a few hours sleep from his training at Christ Hospital. He looked across the river and saw billowing smoke, but he wasn't wearing his contact lenses yet so he couldn't tell what happened. After he heard the news report, he tried reaching his guard unit by telephone, and when he didn't get an answer, dashed out the door and made his way to Ground Zero. He started helping the Army National Guard units searching for survivors. He was asked to drive a woman who had brought her search and rescue dogs from Pennsylvania home because she had burned her feet badly. Then he returned, having learned enough about basic commands from the woman during the journey to Pennsylvania, to spend the next several days working with her dogs on site. Following graduation, Dr. Arthur-Kahn will do an internship at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn. Dr. Salib was on the Stratford campus on September 11. He got in his car and headed for New York City. After stops at St. Vincent's and Bellevue hospitals, he ended up at the World Trade Center site where he provided eye washes to rescue workers at a high school on the edge of Ground Zero. He later moved to a triage center at One Liberty Plaza and was evacuated just before the building collapsed. The next day, he went to a triage center in the American Express Building where he provided first aid services. After graduation, Dr. Salib will begin a residency in emergency medicine at New York United Medical Center in Port Chester.

The faculty at UMDNJ-School of Osteopathic Medicine learned to look the other way when David G. MacBride, 29, of Lindenwold, occasionally showed up late for class. That only happened when he was at the scene of a fire. Dr. MacBride is a volunteer with Lindenwold Fire and Rescue Company #1. Being a firefighter is part of the MacBride family legacy. In 1997, he became the youngest chief in the history of the company. In doing so, he followed in the footsteps of his grandfather who was the Lindenwold fire chief in the 1940s and his father who served in the same capacity in the 1970s. David resigned as chief in December 2001, in anticipation of the demands he will face completing an emergency medicine internship at Albert Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia

HUDSON COUNTY
Edward D. Ziga, 38, of Kearny, was a member of two United Nations peace-keeping forces when he served as a medical officer in the Armed Forces of Ghana. He was with the U. N. Interim Force in Lebanon for eight months in 1996 and then with the U.N. forces monitoring the cease fire in the Liberian Civil War in 1995. Along with his military responsibilities to provide health and humanitarian aid to refugees and displaced persons, Dr. Ziga also was a volunteer with UNICEF, where he helped distribute medications to people in rural areas isolated by the war and with the U.N. AIDS program, where he helped train healthcare workers to identify and treat patients with HIV/AIDS infections. In 1998, Dr. Ziga moved from Ghana to New Jersey, where he had family, to pursue a master's degree at the UMDNJ-School of Public Health. Last year he received a Cook and Ruteledge Fellowship Award from the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services. Trained as a surgeon in Ghana, Dr. Ziga plans to continue his medical career in the United States after completing a residency in family medicine.

HUNTERDON COUNTY
Diane Applebaum, 50, of Califon, has always been interested in bugs. Not the kind that buzz around the backyard barbeque, but the infectious disease type. Her fascination with microscopic malefactors began 30 years ago when she graduated from nursing school and landed a job working in the isolation ward at Muhlenberg Medical Center. Although Ms. Applebaum has held several different positions at Muhlenberg since then, her curiosity about germs and infections eventually led her to pursue a masters degree at the UMDNJ-School of Public Health. Her field work project for her degree focused on accidental needle sticks by non-healthcare workers, but began with a unique twist. She started by assessing the occupational risks of those who provide tatoo and body piercing services in New Jersey and her research contributed to the development of new health and safety guidelines for that industry

MIDDLESEX COUNTY
When Neal Moskowitz, Ph.D., 32, of Kendall Park, and Cheryl deBorja were engaged to be married they searched the internet for sites on interfaith marriages. While they were online, they discovered that noted film director Michael Apted was seeking couples for his documentary entitled, "Married in America." They applied and were accepted as one of nine couples to be featured in the documentary which will air in June on the Arts & Entertainment (A&E) Network. The film crew traveled to Florida last winter to attend the couple's wedding at Disney World and will be following the couple through married life for the next decade. Dr. Moskowitz is a graduate of the M.D./Ph.D. program at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. He received his doctoral degree in molecular genetics and microbiology from the UMDNJ-Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences in 2000. He will begin an internal medicine residency at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital.

Anna Patras, 44, of Perth Amboy, fled Poland in the early 1980s after she was denied admittance into dental school because she refused to join the Communist Party. Living in a refugee camp in Austria, she emigrated to the United States in 1984, but spoke no English. To earn money for classes to learn the language, Dr. Patras cleaned houses and later took a job as a surgical technician. She not only learned the language, she graduated from the joint nursing program sponsored by the UMDNJ-School of Nursing and Middlesex County College. She took a nursing position in the maternity ward at St. Peter's University Medical Center and stayed for five years. But she never gave up her dream of becoming a dentist, enrolling in the joint BA/D.M.D. program with UMDNJ-New Jersey Dental School and Thomas Edison College. In March, she earned a bachelor of arts degree in natural science from Thomas Edison College. After receiving a doctor of dental medicine degree from the UMDNJ-New Jersey Dental School, she will complete a two-year residency in orthodontics at Columbia University and then open a private practice

MORRIS COUNTY
Cary S. Idler, 33, of Rockaway started a general contracting company 15 years ago after graduating from high school. He also spent eight years pursuing a bachelor's degree in philosophy and political science from Seton Hall University. In his second year at UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School, Dr. Idler received the prestigious Basic Science First Place Award from the American Medical Student Association for a research project about the metabolic responses to sepsis. His submission was judged the best of 100 entries by a panel of scientists from the National Institutes of Health. He will pursue an orthopedic residency program in San Francisco, California.

UNION COUNTY
Nadia Ovhinsky, 26, of Union, came to the United States 11 years ago from Russia. She could not speak any English, yet in only eight years, she completed undergraduate and graduate degrees from Rutgers and will receive a medical degree from UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School on May 22. She is a member of Alpha Omega Alpha medical honor society and one of the first 14 students to be inducted into the medical school's newly established Gold Humanism Honor Society as well. She is also the recipient of the Bruce Fischer Award for demonstrating humanism in medicine and academic excellence. Following her pediatric/gastroenterology residency at Children's Hospital of New York, she plans to teach at an academic medical center