1999 - 5th reunion

After five years away from New Haven, the Class of 1999 gathered once again on the Yale campus for our first reunion. While there are a few things that have changed, it was nice to see some old standbys (Bar, Louis’ Lunch) and some friendly faces from the past (Eric Schonewald is still there!).

Our class gathered on Friday evening, amidst an endless spread of fantastic seafood and the sounds of Dixieland music in the background. Our group included Ken Baum and his wife, Julie. Ken is practicing law in New Haven and Julie is a fifth-year medical student at Yale, planning a career in dermatology. They plan on finally leaving New Haven in one year, when Julie begins her residency. Deborah Steinbaum also joined us. Deb is practicing general pediatrics at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. Alison Days came with her husband, Sergio. Alison is practicing academic pediatrics in El Paso, Texas. Our group also included Sherri Sandifer, Debby Lin, Obi Ugwonali and Joy Weinberg. Sherri is practicing general pediatrics in Houston. Debby is a second-year immunology fellow at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. Obi is finishing an orthopaedics residency at Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital in New York, and will be moving to Boston next year for a hand/shoulder fellowship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Joy is finishing an internal medicine residency at North Shore Medical Center and plans on doing a fellowship in nephrology and hypertension at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City.

On Saturday evening, we gathered at the Graduate Club, the site of our last evening outing as a class back in 1999. We had a great turnout, with close to 20 class members present (and had our own “kiddie” room set aside by the Alumni Association, to keep us separate from the rowdy Class of 1954). We were joined by Lifei Guo, who is in the midst of a residency in plastic surgery in Boston. Deanna Chin and her husband, John (married in September 2003), also attended. Deanna is finishing her fourth year of a radiology residency at Weill-Cornell Medical Center and will be doing an MRI fellowship at NYU next year. Also present were Kathryn Cunningham, Ara Feinstein, Andrew Resnick, Aaron Milstone, Zach Leitze, Johnathan Henderson, and Grey Maher and her husband, Aaron. Kathryn is practicing internal medicine at Mass General. Ara is in a general surgery residency at Mass General and is spending his research years getting an M.P.H. from the University of Miami. Andy, who is finishing a general surgery residency at UPenn, is spending his research years getting an M.B.A. from Wharton. Aaron finished his pediatric residency at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), and is currently working in a private practice for one year, before moving on to Baltimore to do a fellowship in infectious disease at Johns Hopkins. His wife, Amy, who got her medical degree at Yale in 2000, is now a chief resident at CHOP, and is expecting their first baby. Zach is at Yale-New Haven Hospital doing orthopaedics. He is planning to move to Texas next year to do a fellowship in hand/ shoulder surgery. Johnathan is in private practice at Dorchester House Community Health Center in Boston. His wife, Keba, is finishing her ob/gyn residency in Boston this year, after which they will be moving to Atlanta. Johnathan and Keba are expecting their first baby as well. Grey is currently doing a chief residency year in urology at the VA hospital in West Haven, and then plans on doing a female pelvic reconstructive surgery fellowship in California next year. After that, she plans on returning to New Haven and joining a private practice group. Lastly, I am in the middle of a fellow-ship in pediatric hematology-oncology at Boston Children’s Hospital/Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and recently married as well.

We had a fantastic time reminiscing about all of our classmates, and look forward to doing it again in another five years.

Elly Falzarano Barry