Department of Medicine honors the departing IM chief residents during the 2022 Chiefs’ Roast and Toast

The J. Willis Hurst Internal Medicine Residency Program recently hosted the annual Chiefs’ Roast and Toast to honor (and roast) the 2021-2022 outgoing chief residents, Dylan Baker, Matt J. Brown, Melroy D’Souza, Lakshmi Katta, Layal Sayegh, and Sarah Wondmeneh.

This year’s event celebrated the residents’ hard work and diligent progress with their education during an ongoing pandemic.

Karen Law, MD, program director of the internal medicine residency program, provided opening remarks on the challenging year and the optimism of the road ahead. The event continued with the announcement of awards to faculty, residents, fellows, and staff who have shown dedication to Emory’s internal medicine residency program. The presentations concluded with our traditional “roast” of the chief residents, and their closing remarks and reflections on the year.

See below for a full list of award winners.

Juha P. Kokko Teaching Award

This award represents the single most outstanding teaching attending the residents work with at any of the hospital sites.

• Audrey Jernigan, MD

Joyce P. Doyle Award

The award recognizes an individual who has shown exceptional dedication toward Dr. Doyle’s vision of tirelessly working on the behalf of residents to make this the best program in the country.

• Shelly-Ann Fluker, MD

Golden Apple Award

This award recognizes the most outstanding inpatient attending and subspecialist attending at each hospital.

Emory University Hospital:

• Inpatient attending: Matthew Butters, MD and Hila Calev, MD
• Subspecialist: Varun Phadke, MD

Emory University Hospital Midtown:

• Inpatient attending: Kyle James, MD
• Subspecialist: Zanthia Wiley, MD

Grady Memorial Hospital

• Inpatient attending: Richard Pittman, MD
• Subspecialist: Pooja Amarapurkar, MD

Atlanta VA Medical Center

• Inpatient attending: Monee Amin, MD, Dominic Cruz, MD, and Meredith Trubitt, MD
• Subspecialist: Sara Markley, MD

Most Outstanding Fellow Award

This award recognizes the most outstanding fellows who engage our residents with teaching and enthusiasm for their subspecialty.

• Matthew T. Brown, MD, Jason Tso, MD and Angelos Karagiannis, MD (Cardiology)
• Amalia Aldredge, MD, Vivek Beechar, MD, Eli Wilber, MD, and Lucy Witt, MD (Infectious Diseases)
• Cheryl Ann Augenstein, MD, Morgan Oskutis, MD and Natalia Smirnova, MD (Pulmonary, Allergy, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine)

Laurence Sperling Outstanding Research Mentor Award

This award recognizes the faculty mentor and fellows who most deeply supported resident involvement in research. 

• Faculty: Clayton “Tony” Smith, MD (Cardiology)
• Fellow: Matthew T. Brown, MD (Cardiology)

Outstanding Advanced Practice Provider (APP) Award

This award recognizes the most dedicated and impactful APPs in our system who play instrumental roles on teams and in teaching.

• Viva Snowden (VAMC Team 3)

Outstanding Resident Teacher Award

This award is presented to PGY2 and PGY3 residents who show the greatest dedication to resident teaching and medical education.

• PGY2: Alexander Matelski, MD
• PGY3: Franck Azobou-Tonleu, MD

Golden Stethoscope Award

This award is presented to residents from each class who exemplify superior clinical skills, judgement, and use of evidence to support practice.

• PGY1: Jim Pennoyer, MD and Tucker Pope, MD
• PGY2: Emily Smith, MD and Adi Yadalam, MD
• PGY3: Farmin Samareh-Jahani, MD

Compassionate Resident Physician

This award recognizes the residents from each class who represent exemplary humanism towards patients, colleagues, and all members of the health care team, serving as role models for integrity, altruism, respect, empathy, and service combined with clinical excellence.

• PGY1: Mackenzie Garcia, MD
• PGY2: Mark Spencer, MD
• PGY3: Shub Agrawal, MD, Alex Galloway, MD and Jonathan Huang, MD

Citizenship Award

This award is bestowed by the chief residents upon the residents from each class who most exemplify program engagement and citizenship throughout the year.

• PGY1: Mohamad Ali Tfaily, MD, Mackenzie Garcia, MD and Suyu Zhang, MD
• PGY2: Omid Behbahani-Nejad, Elizabeth Chang, MD and Kaitlyn Rogers, MD
• PGY3: Marc Hersh, MD and Brandon Muckley, MD

Outstanding Residents in Primary Care Award

These awards recognize the residents who display leadership and excellence in primary care, as well as respect, accountability, and integrity.

• Grady PCC: Daniel Resnick, MD and Christina Rudolph, MD (PGY1), Andrew Davis, MD (PGY2), and Nicole Treadway, MD (PGY3)
• 1525: James Pennoyer, MD (PGY1), Lauren Crossman, MD (PGY2), Lawson McDonald, MD (PGY3)
• MOT: Eric Caliendo, MD (PGY1), Aakriti “Alisha” Arora, MD (PGY2), and Marc Hersh, MD (PGY3)

Best Conference Leadership Award

This award recognizes the highest quality hospital-based conference from each of the hospitals in our system.

• EUH: Krakow Case Conference (David Krakow, MD)
• EUHM: Mythbusters/Things We Do For No Reason (Lakshmi Katta, MD)
• GMH: Health Equity Rounds/Global Health (Vanessa Van Doren, MD)
• VAMC: Small Group Workshop (Jason Williams, MD, Andrew Webster, MD, Mark Shumate, MD, Madiha Ahmed, MD, Sara Markley, MD, and Lynn Schlanger, MD)
• Ambulatory: Core Conference (Jennifer Spicer, MD)