Distinguished Alumni Award
Alumni selected for the Distinguished Medical Alumni Award will be at least ten years post graduation and must have achieved prominence in one or more of the following areas: notable community or public service achievement; national recognition as a result of their medical career, or as a result of an associated career achievement.
Distinguished Alumni Awardees
Dennis Agliano, M.D. ’68
Year inducted: 1997
Dr. Agliano is an otolaryngologist who specializes in nasal and sinus surgery and facial plastic surgery. His expertise has earned him recognition in Woodward/White’s “Best Physicians in America,” the Tampa Bay Business Journal’s “Most Influential Physicians” and various local and international “Who’s Who” listings, among other recognitions.
Susan Alpert, Ph.D., M.D. ’84
Year inducted: 2003
Dr. Alpert is a microbiologist and pediatrician with experience in laboratory research and clinical trials. She specializes in public policy, law and regulation related to products subject to FDA jurisdiction.
Eugene “Bucky” Bloom, M.D. ’60
Year inducted: 1998
Dr. Bloom was a scholar, leader and humanitarian. He practiced internal medicine in Florida for more than 20 years. Bloom was a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha Scholastic Medical Honor Society and the Iron Arrow Leadership Society
Carson Burgstiner, M.D. ’58
Year inducted: 1997
Dr. Burgstiner was an OB-GYN and microsurgeon who formulated the groundbreaking supplement Complete Thymic Formula (CTF), which helped restore integrity to compromised immunity. He founded Preventive Therapeutics, Inc. (PTI) to make comprehensive nutritional support available to his patients.
Robert Carr, M.D. ’81
Year inducted: 1998
Dr. Carr is a preventive medicine physician leader, educator, consultant, executive coach and board member with extensive experience in health care, pharmaceutical and consumer products businesses. He began his medical career as a flight surgeon in the U.S. Air Force and went on to hold various leadership roles focused on public health. As president of the American College of Preventative Medicine (ACPM), Carr borrowed a page from the tech world to help stimulate new ideas and investments in solutions to our country’s pressing health needs.
Edward Dauer, M.D. ’75
Year inducted: 2000
Dr. Dauer, who’s had a distinguished career in diagnostic radiology, is a University of Miami trustee who’s provided generous philanthropic support to the university over the years — he was the first UM undergraduate to study biomedical engineering. He’s president of Florida Medical Services and a founding board member of one of the largest group practices in Florida.
Stephen Dresnick, M.D. ’75
Year inducted: 1999
Dr. Dresnick is a leader in emergency medicine, serving as founding director of the Emergency Residency Program at Orlando Regional Medical Center. Under his leadership as founder, president and CEO of Sterling Healthcare Group, the organization was recognized several times as a leading Florida company by Florida Trend, Business Week and the Miami Herald.
Umberto De Girolami, M.D. ’68
Year inducted: 1999
Dr. De Girolami is well-known to generations of pathology and neuroscience students for his work in co-authoring and co-editing nervous system and neuropathology textbooks. His clinical expertise includes AIDS, spinal cord and neuromuscular disease and the neuropathology of experimental vascular disease.
Charles Dunn, M.D. ’62
Year inducted: 1997
Throughout Dr. Dunn's career in family medicine, he’s earned numerous awards and distinctions for his expertise. He's served as president of the Dade County Medical Association and the Florida Academy of Family Physicians and as a delegate of the American Medical Association.
Emilio Echevarria, M.D. ’56
Year inducted: 1998
Dr. Echevarria had a distinguished career as a general surgeon and leader, serving as chief of surgery for more than 20 years at two Florida hospitals. Later in his career, he was appointed to the Florida Board of Medicine and served on a powerful regulatory board.
Arthur Eberly Jr., M.D. ’60
Year inducted: 1996
Dr. Eberly's career was marked by his leadership and participation in various medical associations, including the Florida Medical Association, Florida Academy of Family Physicians, American Academy of Family Physicians and the Broward County Medical Association. He founded the family practice residency program at North Broward Hospital, where a chair in the residency program was named in his honor.
Arthur Gilbert, M.D., ’57
Year inducted: 1999
Early in his career, Dr. Gilbert has focused on hernia treatment — he’s repaired more than 22,000 hernias. He developed a classification of hernias that’s used worldwide and developed innovative repair techniques.
Julian Haber, M.D. ’61
Year inducted: 1999
Dr. Haber is a pediatrician who specializes in child development and behavioral issues. While serving on the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Disabilities, he helped define the academy's definition of ADHD.
Keith Hussey, M.D. ’82
Year inducted: 1998
Dr. Hussey is a gastroenterologist who specializes in the treatment of ulcers. He was honored with the Charles K. Donegan Memorial Award from the American College of Physicians for his service and care to the underserved in Haiti.
Norman Kenyon, M.D. ’56
Year inducted: 1997
Dr. Kenyon was the president of the Class of 1956, the first graduating class at the University of Miami School of Medicine. As a surgeon in Miami, he received numerous awards from medical associations and authored or co-authored many publications.
Richard Kaplan, M.D. ’70
Year inducted: 2003
Dr. Kaplan, chief of clinical investigations at the National Cancer Institute, is program director for the NCI’s national program of cooperative group clinical trials of cancer treatments and brain tumor consortia. He coordinates NCI-funded or sponsored treatment trials in central nervous system, genitourinary system and gastrointestinal malignancies.
Kenneth Kiehl, M.D. ’56
Year inducted: 1998
As a family medicine physician, Dr. Kiehl was a solo practitioner in obstetrics, pediatrics, internal medicine and surgery for many years in Sarasota, Florida. His leadership roles included chief of staff at Sarasota Memorial Hospital and president of the Florida Academy of Family Physicians and the Sarasota County Medical Association.
Ray Lopez, M.D. ’63
Year inducted: 2004
Dr. Lopez is emeritus clinical professor of neurology at the University of Miami. He's been nominated many times by his peers for “Best Doctors in America” and “Top Doctors in South Florida” for his expertise.
Aileen M. Marty, M.D. ’82, FACP
Year inducted: 2003
Dr. Marty is medical director for biological and chemical strategic planning for SRA International’s homeland security program and a weapons inspector for the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC). Her educational roles include course director and developer at Johns Hopkins University and adjunct associate professor Uniformed Services University’s F. Edward Hébert School of Medicine.
Theodore Nash, M.D. ’68
Year inducted: 2003
Dr. Nash is head of the gastrointestinal parasites section of the Laboratory of Parasitic Diseases at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health. He divides his time among molecular and cellular biology studies of parasitic protozoa, clinical research, and attending in clinical parasitology and general infectious diseases.
Barry Materson, M.D. ’62, MBA
Year inducted: 2004
Dr. Materson is an internal medicine physician, with a subspecialty in nephrology, and a certified hypertension specialist (CHS). He's a tenured professor at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and medical director at the University of Miami Medical Group for managed care, UMCare and UMHealthTrust[LR1] .
James Oster, M.D. ’65
Year inducted: 2007
Dr. Oster spent the bulk of his career at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, serving as a professor of internal medicine in the Division of Nephrology. His research focused on acid-base and electrolyte homeostasis, including hepatic cirrhosis, sickle cell disease, renal failure, gastrointestinal disorders and diabetes, resulting in more than 130 peer-reviewed articles, a textbook on hypertension and numerous book chapters.
Ferdie Pacheco, M.D. ’58
Year inducted: 1998
Dr. Pacheco is famous for being Muhammad Ali’s fight doctor for 17 years, but he also made an impact outside the ring as a physician, boxing announcer and reformer, painter and writer. He opened a clinic for the underserved in Overtown, Florida, during the 1960s at a time when Miami was part of the segregated South.
Guido Perez, M.D. ’65
Year inducted: 2000
Dr. Perez has dedicated his career to education, serving as professor of medicine at the University of Miami for more than 20 years, thesis advisor and lecturer at the University of Florida School of Pharmacy and lecturer at postgraduate education courses at the University of Miami and several community hospitals. He's authored or co-authored 130 journal articles and 13 book chapters and received the Arnold J. Lehman Award from the Society of Toxicology for his pharmacology research.
Manuel Penalver, M.D. ’77
Year inducted: 2000
Dr. Penalver was instrumental in developing the Miami Pouch operation, a medical breakthrough that allows women who’ve lost their bladder to recurring cancer to enjoy a better quality of life. He’s credited with perfecting the technique to construct an internal urinary pouch out of a section of the colon, making external urinary bags unnecessary
Jeffrey Raskin, M.D. ’65
Year inducted: 2004
Dr. Raskin is professor and interim chief of the Division of Gastroenterology at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and professor of pediatrics and oncology at the university. He’s also director of the training programs in gastroenterology and endoscopy, and medical director and chief of endoscopy at Jackson Memorial Medical Center.
James Reed, M.D. ’68
Year inducted: 1997
Over the course of nearly 20 years, Dr. Reed has lectured on radiology at the University of North Carolina, Georgetown, Duke, Wake Forest and the University of Kentucky and delivered more than 140 on radiology in the U.S. and Mexico. He’s authored a radiology textbook, contributed chapters in several books, and served on the editorial boards of various medical publications.
Anne Marie Rompalo, M.D. ’79
Year inducted: 1998
Dr. Rompalo is an associate professor of medicine, epidemiology, and obstetrics and gynecology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and medical director of the CDC-sponsored Region III Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD)/HIV Prevention Training Center. She has more than 15 years of experience as a lecturer in the field of STD and HIV, publishing more than 50 peer-reviewed articles and authoring or co-authoring 11 book chapters.
Jack Sanders, M.D. ’57
Year inducted: 1997
Dr. Sanders overcame extraordinary challenges — a significant craniofacial deformity and a hearing deficit — to practice in his hometown of rural Graceville, Florida, where he was one of just two practicing physicians in the area since 1958. He was instrumental in the founding of the local hospital, and he was invited to the White House in 1996 to discuss issues related to rural medicine.
Eugene Schoenfeld, M.D. ’61
Year inducted: 1997
Dr. Schoenfeld is a psychiatrist who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of problems related to drug abuse and addiction. He was one of the first physicians to be certified in the treatment of alcoholism and other drug dependencies through examination by the American Society of Addiction Medicine.
Brian Schuster, M.D. ’72
Year inducted: 2003
Dr. Schuster is deputy director of the military infectious diseases research program at the U.S. Department of Defense. He's principal investigator of a $6 million NIH grant concerned with integrating drug discovery from natural products, biodiversity conservation and sustainable economic development in Central and West Africa.
Alvin Smith, M.D. ’64, FACP
Year inducted: 1996
Dr. Smith is director of medical education at Halifax Medical Center in Daytona Beach and clinical assistant professor at the University of South Florida in Tampa. Early in his medical career, he was chief of the Department of Medicine at the U.S. Army Hospital in Fort Campbell, Kentucky.
Elliott Stein, M.D. ’73
Year inducted: 2004
Dr. Stein has been practicing older adult and geriatric psychiatry in South Florida for more than 42 years. As a writer, lecturer and teacher, his primary focus has been encouraging psychiatrists to treat the elderly and on issues related to geriatric practice management and Medicare.
H. Murray Todd, M.D. ’66
Year inducted: 1998
Dr. Todd was a renowned neurologist who practiced in the South Florida area.
Jonathan Wasserberger, M.D. ’71
Year inducted: 2006
Dr. Wasserberger became the first full professor of emergency medicine in the Level I Trauma Center [LR2] at the King-Drew Medical Center, where he served as the director of 911 operations for the County of Los Angeles for 20 years. He’s written 40 peer-reviewed research articles, published four textbooks — three of which were original work on the new science of advanced paramedic procedures — and served as senior editor on the standard textbook of the toxicology field.
Paul Alan Wetter, M.D. ’75
Year inducted: 2004
Dr. Wetter is an internationally recognized leader in minimally invasive surgery, performing some of the first advanced laparoscopic gynecological surgeries in the U.S. He’s chairman and executive director of the Society of Laparoendoscopic Surgeons, which has more than 6,000 active members.
Raymond Woosley, Ph.D., M.D. ’73
Year inducted: 1997
Dr. Woosley's extensive research and expertise in pharmacology put him among the top candidates for commissioner of the FDA in 2002. He was awarded the FDA Commission’s Special Citation for his work with the FDA to inform the public and the U.S. Congress of the dangers associated with dietary supplements containing the herbal medicine ephedrine.