Class of 2008: 5th Reunion

The Class of ’08 reunion was a huge success. We broke reunion attendance records for number of classmates present and for total attendance from classmates and guests. Go ’08! In attendance were: Carolyn Avery, Brittany Craiglow, Pete Fabricant, Sanaz Ghazal, Dave Gimbel, Carolyn Graeber, Lars Grimm, Ellen House, Adam Kaye, Alicia Little, Jong Liu, Lindsay McGuire, Mark McRae, Tamara Miller, Charisse Orme, Jeannine Ruby, Jen Voorhees, Rachel Wattier, Jeff Winer, and Kristina Zdanys.

Five years has brought lots of exciting changes (can we say engagements, weddings, babies, and babies-to-be?! Wow!) but much remains the same—for those of you who couldn’t make it, you’ll be happy to know that there was a rousing version of our favorite ’08 ditty (’08, ’08, ’08, ’08, ’08, ’00000-8, ’08…). We also got in a few rounds of "the night is not over!" before we remembered we were at Mory’s instead of Marigold’s. Here are some updates from far and wide …

Mamie Air is headed back to the East Coast to the Hospital for Special Surgery in NYC after finishing a physical medicine and rehabilitation residency in Seattle (the second Yalie ever to go into PM&R, she tells us!). While in Seattle, she founded a free clinic for injured dancers and recently traveled to Singapore to present her research in dance medicine.

Deb Biswas was married on August 11th, 2012, with quite a few ’08 members in attendance, including Nick Galante, Anup Patel, Chris Winterbottom, Sanaz Ghazal, Dave Gimbel, Adam Kaye, John Bernard, and Pete Fabricant. Deb has one more year of residency and is then headed to hand fellowship at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Maggi (Baumbusch) Brooks is finishing up residency at Stanford and will be moving back to Connecticut with her family to join the Obstetrics, Gynecology and Menopause Physicians based in New Haven with offices in Shelton, Guilford, and Essex. She now has three kids—Jack and Teddy are 4 and Luke is 2-and-a-half—and she and her husband, Andy, will be celebrating their 10th wedding anniversary this summer!

Paul DiCapua and his wife just had a baby girl, Noa Joan Di Capua. From Paul: "no word yet from the pediatrician if she’s a gunner, or more a ’Yale Med’ type of student." (We vote for the latter!)

Pete Fabricant is in NYC finishing up his residency in orthopedic surgery. He took a year of his residency to do research and earned an M.P.H. from Columbia University. He recently matched to a fellowship in pediatric orthopedic surgery at CHOP beginning next July.

Ohenewaa Larbi will be completing her residency in internal medicine at Temple this summer, and plans to work in primary care. She and her husband have two boys, who will be starting school in the fall.

Kurtland Ma finished his ER residency at Jacobi/Montefiore in the Bronx and is now a community ER attending back home in Phoenix, Ariz. He is the proud father of a 1-year-old French Bulldog named Kingston and just learned this week that he passed his oral boards!

Mark McCrae married Natalie Babony (Yale College ’06) in September 2012. He’ll be finishing plastic surgery residency in Toronto next June 2014 and then heading to San Francisco for a hand and microsurgery fellowship at the Buncke clinic.

Chris Spock got married in Miami at the Palms Hotel on South Beach in February. Adam Kaye, Dave Gimbel, Nick Galante, Pete Fabricant, and Mark McRae were all in attendance and, per Chris, "caused enough trouble for the rest of the guys who couldn’t make it." Next stop for Chris is Palo Alto, where he will be doing a fellowship in Mohs and cosmetic surgery with Greg Morganroth at a private practice called California Skin Institute. After that, he plans to stay and join the practice, where his wife Angela will be director of physician development.

Rachel Wattier moved to San Francisco for a pediatric residency and stayed for anID fellowship. She’s hoping to stay there long term and says anyone is welcome to get in touch if visiting the area.

Jeff Winer finished his pediatric residency at Massachusetts General Hospital and is starting his third year of fellowship for Pediatric Hospitalist Medicine at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, DC. Jeff got married in October of 2011, with multiple members of ’08 (Jonathan Romanyshyn, Ephat Russcol, Rachel Wattier) present.

As for us, we are happy to be (still/back) in Connecticut—Kristina is finishing up a fellowship in geriatric psychiatry and has taken a position in the Department of Psychiatry at UConn. Britt will be staying at Yale for a fellowship in pediatric dermatology. We hope to see you all when you come through the ’Have! Keep in touch!

—Kristina Zdanys and Brittany Craiglow