Alumni Spotlight

Healing Clay

Finding relaxation — and a way to help patients — at the pottery wheel.

There’s a weight that comes with treating very sick patients. For pulmonologist Joshua Benditt, MD ’82, releasing that weight is essential to well-being. At the end of a difficult day, he’ll often decompress in his home studio, throwing clay on a pottery wheel.

A Vote of Confidence

Faculty members establish a visionary scholarship.

When Eli Luna was a boy in Idaho, he remembers tagging along with his grandma while she went to visit neighboring Latino families.

As a liaison between the public school system and migrant workers, Luna’s grandmother met with parents, encouraging them to enroll their kids in school; as a former migrant worker, she had insight into their culture and needs. For Luna, it was a powerful lesson about the value of education — and the importance of making connections with underserved populations.

Helping Science Thrive

Putting inclusion front and center.

Amanda Bradley is a PhD candidate in molecular and cell biology. Richard Gardner, PhD, is her mentor. We sat down for a conversation with the two researchers, who received a Gilliam Fellowship for Advanced Study from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. The fellowship’s purpose? To foster diversity and inclusion in the sciences.

The Feldsher’s Daughter

A physician assistant follows in her mother’s footsteps.

Growing up in Ukraine, Iryna Kylyukh, PA-C (MEDEX Seattle Class 50) remembers that her mother never hid her work from her seven children.

“I remember her telling us all these stories,” says Kylyukh. “She was in an ambulance car — just like a paramedic — but it was just her and her driver. She would deliver babies in that car.”

The Big Leap

From the circus to medical school, one student charts his own course.

Jonathan Trejo doesn’t remember the exact moment he decided to become a doctor, but he remembers the precise moment he wanted to feel free.

He’d just broken up with his boyfriend and found himself, alone on his 24th birthday, at Cirque du Soleil. Even in his sadness, he was astounded by the strength, grace and joy of the acrobats.

Incurable Romantics

An alumni couple reflects on their lives together.

It was the first day of medical school, and Stefan Chimoskey — clutching a cup of coffee — was hurrying to his seat in the lecture hall. Then his heart stopped: There was a pretty, dark-haired young woman at the bottom of the stairs. Seeing the cup, she smiled at him and said, “Hey, that looks good.”

In what was to become a family legend, Stefan Chimoskey, MD ’99, MBA, extended the cup and blurted, “Would you like some?”

High Contrast

An alumnus views his work and world through a special lens.

When he was just 8 years old, Mahesh Thapa, M.D., MEd, FAAP, Res. ’05, Fel. ’06, moved from Nepal to Las Vegas. It was a case of extremes. He’d left a country with some of the highest mountains on earth to a state containing one of the brightest spots on earth — the Las Vegas Strip.

Needless to say, there was a bit of culture shock.

The Triple Crown

Generations of mentoring for women of science.

When you do research, a lot can go wrong: Your experiment fails. Your funding is denied. Your experiment fails, again.

“In research, you need a lot of perseverance. You need to be smart and organized, but you also need to have passion — and grit above all else — to get past the setbacks,” says Liz Swisher, M.D., Res. ’93, a UW professor in obstetrics and gynecology.

When Swisher finds someone who has that grit — she helps them. After all, that is what her mentors did for her.

From the Ground Up

An alumnus reflects on his volunteer work in helping build a Kenyan hospital.

Fourteen years ago, Ukwala was a small, dusty town in western Kenya. Today, it has been transformed by the Matibabu Foundation Hospital, located at its center. Businesses have sprung up nearby to serve the people who visit, providing food, lodging and other services to families and volunteers.

Going Back to Montana

KayCee Gardner, M.D., fulfills her dream of taking care of people (and cattle) in her home state.

For some, the dream of becoming a doctor begins in childhood. But not for alumna KayCee Gardner, M.D. ’12 — although she had role models, none of them happened to be doctors. At the time, there were absolutely no doctors in Hammond, the town closest to her family’s 20,000-acre sheep and cattle ranch in southeastern Montana.