On March 17, Yale Neurosurgery was pleased to announce the addition of Fathima Bushra, MD, and Angelica Alvarez Reyes, MD, as the newest residents to join the Yale Neurosurgery Residency Program. The department extends our sincerest congratulations, and we look forward to continuing our commitment to education as we welcome these new residents.
The Neurosurgery Residency Program, led by Program Director Michael DiLuna, MD, and Associate Program Director Joseph King, Jr., MD, MSCE, is a 7-year program that provides training to the best and brightest physicians to achieve confidence and success in all neurosurgical domains. Residents in our program benefit from early OR experience, two years of protected academic time, and nearly all recent graduates have gone on to take highly competitive fellowships or academic positions.
With the addition of the newest incoming class, the program is now made up of 50 percent women.
Angelica Alvarez Reyes, MD was raised in the small agricultural town of Somerton, Arizona, an underserved community, which has shaped her commitment to healthcare equality. She achieved an undergraduate degree in Neuroscience & Cognitive Science from the University of Arizona, which led her to pursue research at Yale University where she studied polarity protein involvement in axon specification. While there, she received mentorship from the neurosurgery department which sparked her desire to pursue medicine, specifically a career in neurosurgery. She received her medical degree from the University of Arizona College of Medicine in Tucson where she researched clinical outcomes in patients with adult spinal deformity. Additionally, her research on a novel classification system for acute traumatic central cord syndrome won her the J.A.N.E Award at the AANS/CNS Joint Section on Disorders of the Spine & Peripheral Nerves Conference. She chose to train at Yale because she knew from experience that the program would be highly supportive of her clinical and research aspirations.
Bushra Fathima, MD was born in Chennai, India and spent her early life there and then in Saudi Arabia before moving to the USA as a young child. She developed a passion for service after watching her parents serve their community through teaching and volunteering. This, along with a love of science cultivated by many excellent teachers over the course of her education led her to healthcare. She attended the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and studied Medical Laboratory Science. During this time she volunteered with the Muslim Community Health Clinic and worked with doctors who encouraged her pursue medicine. Then, she attended Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit where she had the opportunity to meet several neurosurgeons who introduced her to the field. Their dedication to their patients, and passion for research inspired her to pursue the field. She chose Yale Neurosurgery for the supportive community, clinical excellence, and wealth of research opportunities.