Medical Graduates and Faculty Recognized for Achievements, Compassion and Dedication at the College of Medicine Commencement

The Texas A&M University System Health Science Center College of Medicine honored medical graduates and faculty with awards and recognition at the College of Medicine and Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences commencement ceremony held May 17 in Rudder Auditorium at Texas A&M University. The awards are based on best overall academic performance and character in service.
Katherine Hutka Fiala received The Helen Salyer Anderson Award from the College of Medicine at the ceremony. The award is presented to the outstanding senior for the highest achievement in four years of medical school and is the only award presented by the College of Medicine during commencement. Frank G. Anderson, Jr., M.D., a local ophthalmologist and professor in the Department of Surgery and Humanities in Medicine, established the annual award in 1980, in honor of his mother, Helen Salyer Anderson.
Fiala will serve as a resident physician in dermatology at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center at Lubbock, Texas, after completing first-year training at the Family Practice Foundation of the Brazos Valley in College Station, Texas. She received a bachelor of arts in biology from Southwestern University in 1999.
The Humanism in Medicine Award recognizes compassion and sensitivity in the delivery of care to patients and their families. Sapna Singh Parikh, class of 2003 graduate, and Mark Sicilio, M.D., of College Station, Texas, assistant professor of pediatrics at the College of Medicine, received the Arnold P. Gold Foundation of New Jersey 2000 Humanism in Medicine Award during pre-commencement activities. Parikh graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 1999. Parikh and Sicilio each received a check for $2,000 and a plaque.
The college’s James A. Knight Excellence in Humanities in Medicine Award was presented to graduate Georganna Davis. The award is in honor of Dr. Knight, whose life as a physician and medical educator modeled the highest standards of compassion and dedication to medicine. Knight strongly believed the future of medicine is dependent on the physician’s capacity to blend the scientific and humanistic aspects of medical practice. Davis will serve as a resident physician in a one-year transitional residency at the Christus St. Joseph Hospital in Houston, Texas. She earned a bachelor of arts in biology from The University of Texas at Austin in 1998. As the 2003 award recipient, she received a $500 check and a plaque.
This year’s John L. Montgomery History of Medicine Award went to two fourth-year medical students, Lisa Barre Stigler and Brian Lacson Aguilar. This annual award is given to a fourth-year medical student for research in history of medicine in London, as part of a course directed by Gül A. Russell, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Humanities in Medicine, in collaboration with the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine in London. The award was established in 1999 by the generous endowment of John Montgomery, M.D., then president of Scott & White Clinic. Each recipient received a check for $1,500.
The Texas A&M University Corps of Cadets March of Dimes Scholarship was awarded to Allison Selby Hunt. It is given to a student selected for residency in obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, genetics, or other specialties with direct impact on birth defects. The award is based on academic merit and professional potential.
Andrew Benjamin Ebert was this year’s recipient of the Eta Chapter of Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society Award.
The Janet M. Glasgow Memorial Award presented by the American Medical Women’s Association is awarded to a woman graduating first in her class. Elisabeth Katharina Flachofsky was this year’s recipient.
The American Medical Women’s Association also recognizes those women graduating in the top 10 percent of their class with the Janet M. Glasgow Memorial Achievement Citation. The award was presented to Katherine Fiala, Kimberly Ann Mullinax, and Elizabeth Roberts.
Erica Leigh Ward and Clyde Mitchell Finch were also the recipients of the Merck Award. The Merck Award is presented each year to two graduating medical students based on academic achievement.
During the past 23 years, the college has expanded its medical research and clinical studies statewide. Medical students associate closely with senior faculty and researchers in all phases of the curriculum. Student clerkships include Scott & White Memorial Hospital & Clinic; the Central Texas Veterans Health Care System in Temple; Darnall Army Community Hospital at Fort Hood; and Driscoll Children’s Hospital in Corpus Christi.
The College of Medicine was established in 1973 by the state and federal government under the Teague-Cranston Bill, the Veterans Administration Medical School Assistance and Health Manpower Training Act. Through collaborative affiliations and combined resources and expertise from private, state and federal health care agencies, the College of Medicine offers students an excellent medical education experience.
The Texas A&M University System Health Science Center serves the state as a distributed, statewide health science center which has a presence in communities throughout Texas. The health science center includes five components which are dedicated to meeting the highest standards in health education, outreach and research: the College of Medicine, Baylor College of Dentistry, the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, the Institute of Biosciences and Technology and the School of Rural Public Health.