1998 - 5th reunion

A record-breaking 26 members of the YMS Class of 1998 returned to New Haven for our 5th Reunion.

Childsy (Robinson) Art is a private practice pediatrician in Williamstown, Mass., where she lives with her husband, Jamie, and daughter, Maddie. Although she misses California, she does appreciate her proximity to the Woodchuck Cider brewery.

Not content with a mere M.D., Senai Asefaw has been moonlighting as a hospitalist at YNHH while pursuing an M.B.A. at the Yale School of Management.

Tamar Braverman and husband Michael live in Westville with their daughters, Yael and Talia. Tamar is a community internist, and reports annual attendance at the second-year show, although we’re not sure why.

Christi Cavaliere drove from Michigan to the reunion with her grandmother, and reported making a U-turn across the median of I-80 to avoid a jackknifed, burning tractor-trailer. Christi is finishing the two-year research component of her plastic surgery residency at the University of Michigan and starts back on the wards this summer.

Also a resident in plastic surgery at Michigan, Catherine Curtin has embraced the opportunity to be a Robert Wood Johnson Fellow by taking art lessons, joining a women’s soccer team and studying epidemiology. She and Terry Spauling also enjoy the occasional golf round.

Dan Coghlin has just joined wife Barb in a community pediatrics practice in Rhode Island. Their infant daughter, Molly, states that all of her immunizations are up-to-date.

A second-year dermatology resident at Northwestern, Naomi Donnelley enjoys living in Chicago, where she and her golden retriever take regular walks in Lincoln Park. Naomi’s dog is named after the Mark Twain character, Huckleberry Finn. He is not, as we had originally thought, named after the Hanna-Barbara character, Huckleberry Hound.

Caroline Dumont and husband Brian Tobin continue to call New Haven “home” and to call their new daughter “Cecille.” Caroline is finishing up her psychiatry residency on a part-time basis; though she has two more years of 20-hour weeks, she appreciates the time she gets to spend with Cecille and Brian.

Lori Etter is joining a dermatology practice in Durham, N.C. She and her boyfriend, Jeff Welty, have recently purchased a home to share with their dog, Millie, and their dog-to-be, Otis.

Naomi Botkin has one year left in her cardiology fellowship at UMass. She lives in Worcester, and purports to be able to pronounce it.

Karin Finberg, after spending 47 consecutive years in New Haven, is heading to Boston for a pathology residency at Mass General.

Scott Floyd has finished an internship at St. Raphael’s. He, wife Stephanie and son Jack have bought a house in Boston, where Scott will complete a residency in radiation oncology. Actually, we doubt Jack really contributed much toward the down payment.

Peter Hunt stayed on at UCSF for a fellowship in infectious disease. He has been awarded a five-year grant to study hiv. He reports playing trumpet fortnightly in a band that features Finnish folk tunes as well as jazz standards.

Now a dermatology faculty member at the University of Maryland, Lynda Kauls is settling into Baltimore with her husband, Geoff Emerson, an ophthalmology resident at Johns Hopkins.

Despite looking like he hadn’t slept in about two years, Matt Levine reports being thrilled to be a general surgery resident at Mass General. Matt and wife Leslie enjoy living in Charlestown with their dog, Jack.

After finishing a combined residency in medicine and pediatrics, Rich Lyn-Cook is staying at Mt. Sinai for a med-peds-epidemiology fellowship. His wife, Monica Lopez, is a surgery resident at Einstein.

Ursula McVeigh has finished her chief resident year in internal medicine at the University of Vermont and will stay on as a hospitalist in Burlington after a one-month solo hike along the Appalachian Trail.

Matt Mealiffe made a heroic effort to make it to the reunion, coming up for Friday night despite having to present a poster at the gene therapy meeting in Washington, D.C., on Saturday afternoon. Matt continues his fellowship in medical genetics at the University of Washington, and will be moving down the block to a new lab at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center this summer.

Heather Nye has completed her combined med-peds residency at Harvard and is heading out to San Francisco to be a hospitalist at UCSF. She is particularly looking forward to being near family after 16 years of East Coast living.

Leo Otake is completing his internship at YNHH in general surgery on his way to becoming a plastic surgeon.

Greg Raskin’s daughter Daphne won several awards at the reunion, including Least Likely To Smear Herself With Food. Greg, who works at a biotech investment fund in NYC, thinks that Daphne got most of her charm from her mother, Jackie Weiss.

A.J. Rubineau (nee Babineau) is a family practice resident at Brown. She and partner Brian Rubineau (ne Rubin) have two children, Eli and Daisy.

Lisa Gale Suter is completing a rheumatology fellowship at Yale before starting a two-year Robert Wood Johnson fellowship. She and husband Lindsay have an 18-month-old son, Fenn, and a 10-foot waterfall, complete with sluice gate.

Having finished her pediatrics residency at the University of Washington, Meena Thayu has been a hospitalist at the University of Pennsylvania for the past year. She eagerly anticipates starting a pediatric GI fellowship at CHOP.

Steven Williams is a plastic surgery resident at YNHH. We would like to apologize for having teased him so much during medical school for his cell phone—if only because we pretty much all have one now. Just another reminder that it’s a fine line between punch line and prophet.

Ashley Wivel is a chief resident in emergency medicine at the University of Indiana. She and husband Ryan Kime, also an ER resident, have become huge NASCAR fans.
—Greg Raskin