Alumni briefs

Rachel Preisser (08MD), a diagnostic radiologist specializing in breast imaging at MercyOne Waterloo Medical Center, has been named to the Iowa Medical Society’s board of directors. 

Emma Mohr (12MD, 12PhD) was awarded the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health's Gerard B. Odell Award for her outstanding research on improving health outcomes for children affected by infections acquired during pregnancy. 

Maria Story (14MD, 17R, 21F) is a nephrologist at the Southeast Iowa Regional Medical Center. She recently received certification for a home hemodialysis program to improve quality of life for her patients on dialysis.

Raul Villacreses (15R, 19F), UI clinical assistant professor of internal medicine, received a K12 award from the National Institutes of Health to investigate the connection between COVID-19 infections, small airway cells, and individuals who develop long COVID-19. 

Atif Zafar (15R) launched a health technology and services startup in Pakistan where he and other U.S.-based colleagues are advancing primary health care systems in the developing world. He has also been co-principal investigator on various NIH grants and is part of the executive committee for the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke’s Rare Disease Consortium. 

Catherine Yee (16F) has been appointed to medical director and chief medical officer of the Western Washington Medical Group, a provider-owned, multispecialty medical practice with more than 100 providers in 23 locations serving the Puget Sound region of the Pacific Northwest. 

Rufus Kruse (45MD) was commissioned to the U.S. Navy Reserve and practiced in Marshalltown, Iowa, for more than 30 years. His life and career story were profiled in the spring 2023 edition of Medicine Iowa. He died May 28, 2023.

Stanley D. Levine (54MD) worked at Mills-Peninsula Hospital in San Mateo, California. He continued to practice into his 90s at Sonoma Valley Community Health Clinic and Sonoma Valley Community Hospital. He died June 3, 2023.

William Whitmore (56MD, 63R) served as a flight surgeon in the U.S. Air Force. He founded a private orthopedic practice in Davenport, Iowa, and served as president of the Iowa Orthopedic Society and on the board of directors for the Ponseti International Association. He died January 29, 2023.

Philip R. McFadden (59MD, 67R) practiced obstetrics and gynecology in Marshalltown, Iowa, for nearly 30 years, assisting in over 3,000 deliveries. He died April 14, 2023.

William E. Bell (63R) was a pediatric neurologist with UI Health Care who was recognized for his medical teaching and completed clinical research on intracranial pressure, central nervous system infections, perinatal and neonatal hypoxic and ischemic brain lesions, and intracranial neoplasms in childhood. He died June 28, 2023.

Edson Forker (63R) practiced and taught medicine in the Carver College of Medicine for 20 years and was a widely published hepatologist. He later became associate dean for research at the University of Missouri Columbia School of Medicine and retired in 1992 to devote himself to planting over 10,000 trees on his farm in Millersburg, Missouri. He died May 22, 2023.

Frank Judisch (62MD, 68R) was a member of the UI Department of Ophthalmology for most of his career. He is remembered for his philanthropic generosity and for building and furnishing a log cabin in the remote Canadian wilderness in his retirement. He died May 29, 2023.

Jackson Roberts II (69MD) was an internationally known clinical pharmacologist at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine who helped define the role of lipid peroxidation and oxidative stress in human disease. He died May 31, 2023.

John McKeown (70MD) served two years in the U.S. Army Medical Corps, which included a one-year tour in Vietnam. He completed his residency training at the University of Colorado and practiced obstetrics and gynecology in Ottumwa, Iowa, from 1976 until he retired in 2004. He died May 31, 2023.

Marion Panepinto (70R) served in the Vietnam War and was awarded the Bronze Star, Combat Medic Badge, and the Vietnam Service Medal. After residency, he joined the Springfield Clinic in Illinois and was a member of the teaching faculty of Southern Illinois University School of Medicine. He died May 18, 2023.

Jonathan Hruska (72MD) trained at Broadlawns Medical Center in Des Moines and practiced family medicine in Storm Lake, Iowa, for 34 years, retiring in 2008. He died May 10, 2023.

Tomlin Rosi (74R) began his career as a field surgeon during the Vietnam War and provided surgical and medical care for 30 years at Grayling Mercy Hospital and the Keyport Clinic in Michigan. He died June 5, 2023.

Richard Brasington (82R, 85F, 86F) directed the rheumatology clinic and fellowship training program at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. He died April 30, 2023. 

Dwayne Capper (92MD) trained in surgery and otolaryngology in the Medical College of Wisconsin then in facial plastics at Park Central Institute in St. Louis. Since 2021, Capper has been a clinical assistant professor in the UI Department of Surgery. He died May 7, 2023.

Bushra Sulieman (06F), a gastroenterologist, divided his time between Iowa City and Sudan, where he directed the medical faculty at the University of Khaetoum and founded and directed the Sudanese American Medical Association. He died April 25, 2023.