It's a Match! Resilient Spirit Carries CI MED Physician-Innovators to Top Residency Programs, Specialties

Members of Carle Illinois College of Medicine’s third graduating class have been selected to serve as residents in highly competitive medical specialties at some of the top teaching hospitals in the US. This marks the third straight year that CI MED physician-innovators have successfully competed for coveted appointments announced on residency Match Day, Friday, March 15, 2024. For a group that launched their medical careers under remote learning conditions during a worldwide pandemic, the match results are remarkable, positioning the Class of 2024 to make a lasting impact on patient lives and the future of medicine.

“These impressive match results which include top programs in many competitive specialties for the Class of 2024 are a testament to their achievements and their resiliency, both as individuals and as a group,” said Mark Cohen, dean of the Carle Illinois College of Medicine. “Excelling in medical school the last 4 years and overcoming many challenges including a global pandemic, they have shown resilience, innovation, and the ability to thrive and build community. We are so proud of our impressive students and look forward to the impact each will have in their fields and their communities.”

CI MED’s Assistant Dean for Student Affairs Heather Wright, agrees. “I am eager for future patients to meet our amazing students. I know they will bring so much heart, compassion, and excellence. I’m proud to have met them, and I’m so excited to see their future impact!” Wright said.

CI MED’s soon-to-be graduates will have an opportunity to impact patients’ lives in 17 different medical specialties in 18 states. Students are given the option to share their Residency Match results. Class of 2024 members who chose to make their results public are listed below, by specialty.

As a group, the Class of 2024 will make new inroads into highly competitive specialties, including vascular surgery, interventional radiology, and dermatology.

Richie Li becomes CI MED’s first graduate chosen to train as a vascular surgeon at the prestigious program at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis. “The reason I chose vascular surgery is that it’s a field that offers interventions for the sickest people, and I always want to push the envelope on how much further we can go, how many more lives can we save, and what pathologies that were once untreatable can we finally treat. I’d like to advance that field and help as many sick people as I can,” Li said.

Dara Nafiu will serve his residency at Albany Medical Center in New York, becoming CI MED’s second grad to train in the competitive specialty of plastic surgery. “Engineering is really important for any surgical specialty in terms of the mindset that you have, but in plastics in particular, the attention to detail is really important, and that’s one of the things that made plastics stand out to me as a specialty,” he said.

CI MED’s newest grads also extended traditions begun by previous classes, with matches in engineering-friendly specialties like orthopedic surgery, general surgery, anesthesiology, and diagnostic radiology. Jacob Gasienica will specialize in orthopedic surgery at Western Michigan University’s Stryker School of Medicine. “The engineering background engendered in CI MED students really lends itself to an orthopedic way of thinking and tackling orthopedic problems. Now, I get to pursue my dream career, and I’m over the moon!” Gasienica said.

Beyond earning placement in sought-after specialties, CI MED’s Class of 2024 excelled in securing offers from prestigious residency programs and teaching hospitals. Notable examples include Rush Medical Center in Chicago, Loyola (Chicago), UCLA, and three placements at Stanford, a top-ten teaching hospital. Ariana Barreau (neurology), Jonathan Kim (child neurology), and David Krist (general surgery) are all headed to Stanford where two CI MED grads (Dr. Aaron Brown, Class of 2022, anesthesiology, and Dr. Emily Smith, Class of 2023, radiation oncology) are already serving as residents. “I want to be a specialist who is able to do clinical trials and to be able deliver new devices and therapies in the clinic for my patients, and I feel that Stanford is a place where that dream can really come into fruition,” Barreau said.

David Krist, who came to CI MED with a Ph.D. in chemistry, is also headed to Stanford. “It’s a place where I can pursue a career as a surgeon-scientist while also leveraging what I’ve learned about innovation and engineering in medicine and continuing with that. So I’ll take the foundation that I’ve gained at Carle Illinois as a physician-innovator and continue at Stanford to become a surgeon-scientist-innovator,” Krist said. Specifically, he will target abdominal transplant surgery as a career goal, with a focus on creating new therapies to prolong organ preservation.

Joanne Chan chose obstetrics and gynecology as her specialty and will begin the next phase serving patients in central Illinois at Carle Foundation Hospital. “I grew up in an immigrant community where talking about women’s health was shameful and we would whisper about things like periods. It’s been really exciting to become the first doctor in my family and to now be able to provide good education and address those common misconceptions! I love my time at Carle Illinois and felt that I was so well trained here as a medical student. I’m so excited to continue to serve the community here and growth with my community inside and outside of medicine!" Chan said. 

For Brittany Vill, the determined response of her classmates to the challenges posed by the COVID pandemic set the tone for the rest of their medical school experience and for outstanding match results. “We started medical school during a pretty dismal time in the world, but we stuck together and supported each other. I think we knew we had something special with this class, and I’m super humbled to be a part of it,” Vill said.

Residency match is a competitive process in which fourth-year medical students vie for a limited number of openings in specialties and hospitals that offer advanced training under the supervision of experienced clinicians. A ‘match’ occurs when there’s agreement between the medical student’s preferred program and the residency program director’s list of top applicants. Results are kept confidential until students receive official offer letters on Match Day. New residents will begin their new positions in July, lasting between three and seven years, depending on the specialty. Surgical specialties are a minimum of five years in duration.

Carle Illinois College of Medicine is the world’s first engineering-based medical school, created in 2015 as a partnership between the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Carle Health. CI MED’s curriculum emphasizes human factors, design thinking, medical technologies, and entrepreneurship to prepare caring, compassionate, and skilled physician-innovators for the practice of modern medicine. Carle Illinois graduated its first class in 2022 and is now home to more than 215 enrolled students and more than 700 affiliated clinical and academic faculty members.