National medical honorary welcomes UF students, physicians

The world’s only national medical honor society, Alpha Omega Alpha, recently welcomed 16 new members to its University of Florida chapter, including Wayne Goodman, M.D., a professor and chairman of the department of psychiatry; Erin Dunbar, M.D., a third-year internal medicine resident; and 14 senior medical students.

They were elected by the current members of the UF chapter, which was established in 1960. Alpha Omega Alpha promotes scholarship and research in medical schools, high ethical standards among students and graduates, and recognition of high attainment in medical science, practice and related fields.

Goodman, in his fifth year as chairman, recently was appointed by the Florida Legislature to the board of directors of the Florida Alzheimer Research Center and the state Task Force for Suicide Prevention. He said the news of his election to the society came as a surprise.

Dunbar devotes much of her energy to medical student education and research on the history of medicine. In July 2004, she will enter a hematology-oncology fellowship at UF, with a clinical research focus on neuro-oncology.

Fourth-year medical students admitted to the society were Melissa Bagloo, Sharon Bassi, Jeffrey Brabham, Nicholas Feranec, Angela Giancola, Charles Hodge, Joshua Hu, Matthew Lawson, Christine Mirabal, Christina Mitchell, Kazuma Nakagawa, Marcus Pereira, Anamaria Reyna and Camelita Wallace.

The new members were honored at a banquet Nov. 3 at UF’s Reitz Union. Also honored was Patrick Duff, M.D., a UF professor of obstetrics and gynecology and College of Medicine associate dean for student affairs, who recently stepped down after six years of service as the chapter’s councilor, a position similar to faculty adviser. “It was a privilege to be associated with such talented students for such an extended period of time,” Duff said.