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Class Notes

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1970s

David Chow 78MD 78MPH takes office in November as president of the Medical Society of Northern Virginia. Chow, former chief of ophthalmology at Reston Hospital Center, is a TV guest lecturer who conducts question-and-answer sessions for Voice of America, interacting with audiences in China. Speaking in Mandarin Chinese, audience members call in toll free to a studio in Washington, DC, to discuss medical and surgical aspects of ophthalmology.

Chow also was selected to participate in the yearlong Claude Moore Physician Leadership Institute, sponsored by the Medical Society of Virginia. The training institute helps create a network of physician leaders to advance health care in the state.

1970s

Michael Ugwueke 86MPH was named CEO and ­administrator at Methodist North Hospital in Memphis, TN. He continues to serve as CEO of Methodist South Hospital. Both hospitals are part of Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare.

1990s

David Delozier 96MPH was named team lead for the Public Health Partners Team within the CDC’s Public Health Partners and Coordination Branch. DeLozier has served as lead health scientist for infectious disease programs in the Research Application Branch, Division of Adolescent and School Health. He also has worked in the Nutritional Biochemistry and Radiation Studies Branches with the National Center for Environmental Health.

BORN: To Jennifer Fields ­Seligman 97MPH and her husband, Greg, a son and a daughter, on May 5, 2009. Their twins are named Gabriel Ryder and Sophie Michelle. The family lives in Wayne, NJ.

BORN: To Cari Connell Lichtman 99MPH and her husband, Dan, a son, Rory James, on Oct. 8, 2008. The family lives in Atlanta.

2000s

Cali Khan 00MPH was named acting director of the National Center for Zoonotic, Vector-Borne, and Enteric Diseases at the CDC.

BORN: To Jonathan Ratcliff 01MPH 08M and his wife, Megan Benoit Ratcliff 01MPH, a son, Noah Jay, on March 21, 2009. Jonathan is an emergency medicine resident at the University of Cincinnati. Megan is a research fellow in pediatric obesity at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.

Darcy Ann Freedman 02MPH received her doctorate in community research and action from Vanderbilt University. She serves on the faculty at the University of South Carolina as assistant professor of social work.

Jennifer Tuboku-Metger Blakely 03MPH received her law degree from the University of Georgia. She is an associate with the Atlanta firm Arnall Golden Gregory.

Melody Moezzi 06MPH 06L of Decatur, GA, provided television and radio commentary on Iranian politics and the presidential election held in June. Moezzi grew up primarily in Dayton, Ohio, amid a “strong and vibrant Iranian-American diaspora.” She was interviewed about Iran on the Mike O’Meara Show and the Montel Across America on Air America show. Her recent articles include “Iran’s Underground Railroad” in the The Huffington Post (July 7, 2009) and “Islam, Iranian Style” in The Washington Post (June 26, 2009). CNN also interviewed Moezzi about Neda Soltan, the young woman killed during the protests after the election in Iran.

Eva Lathrop 09MPH and Youseline Telemaque were recognized by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists for their research on postpartum planning practices and needs among women in Cap-Haitien, Haiti. Lathrop leads the Konbit Sante Cap-Haitien Health Partnership’s women’s health team of Portland, Maine, while Telemaque is an OB/GYN who works for Konbit Sante in Haiti.

For their research, the physicians interviewed medical providers and postpartum patients at a large public teaching hospital in northern Haiti. They learned that patients favored learning more about family planning before leaving the hospital. They also learned that Haitian health care providers do not use the opportunity to talk with women hospitalized postpartum about family planning. However, Lathrop notes, Haitian doctors and nurses are concerned about the high incidence of unsafe abortions and maternal deaths. The clinicians recognize that prevention of unwanted pregnancies by focused family planning programs is one of the most effective ways to reduce maternal mortality rates.

Lathrop and Telemaque have begun training hospital health care providers in family planning. And they are reaching out to the community with reproductive health training for traditional birth attendants, who deliver most of the babies in the area. Lathrop is a GYN/OB fellow at Emory.

Shauna Mettee 09MSN/MPH is one of 81 new Epidemic Intelligence Service Officers at the CDC. Her class includes Bizrat Abraham 06MD/MPH, Laura Bettencourt 05MPH, Carrie Deboer 08MSN/MPH, Erin Murray 08MSPH/PhD, and Roxanne Williams 04MPH.