DukeMed Alumni News
Winter 2008

Class Notes: 1980s

Douglas J. Sprung, MD’80, HS’80-’83, DC, presented a poster on “Low Incidence
of Colon Cancer in Patients with Ulcerative Colitis in the Community” at the May 2007
Digestive Diseases Week. In October he presented a poster, “Celiac Disease in
the Adult Community: Still a Rare Occurrence,” at the American Gastroenterological
Association’s national meeting. His wife Denise is the medical administrator at his practice, the Gastroenterology Group, in Maitland, Fla. Their daughter Katherine is in Manhattan pursuing a voiceover career. Their son Greg, T’09, is a premed student and resident assistant at Crowell Dormitory at Duke.

Thomas R. White, T’76, MD’80, DC, the medical director of Cherryville Primary Care in
Cherryville, N.C., says that as a result of his continued interest in cardiovascular disease prevention, he obtained his board certification in clinical lipidology in 2006. He and his wife Diana live in Cherryville. They have two children, Daniel, a Duke junior; and Whitney, a senior at Appalachian State in Boone, N.C.

Steve W. Schwartz, T’77, MD’81, the president of Flatrends International in Myrtle
Beach, S.C., has successfully filed a U.S. patent regarding a treatment for influenza and avian influenza. The product is applied topically in the early stages of infection and renders the viruses ineffective. He is the chair of the Pandemic Preparedness Committee for his local county in Myrtle Beach. He and his wife Jennifer have two daughters, Andrea, 5, and Chelsea, a freshman at California Polytechnic State niversity
in San Luis Obispo, Ca., majoring in English and Biology.

Caroline Jean Chantry, MD’82, plans to travel to Tanzania to start research on HIV-infected breast milk. She is an associate professor of clinical pediatrics at the University of California- Davis Health System. She and her husband Jim live in Davis. They have three children: Dylan, 22; Moriah, 15; and Zoe, 13.

Eric B. Bass, T’78, MD’83, is editor-in-chief of a new journal called Progress in Community Health Partnerships, which is based in the Johns Hopkins Urban Health Institute. He also is co-director of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine’s Patient, Physician, and Society course. His wife Katherine Miller Bass, T’79, MD’83, is a
reproductive endocrinologist and partner in the Fertility Center of Maryland. Their
son Jamie, 14, enjoys biking, kayaking, soccer, baseball, and wrestling and recently earned the Boy Scout rank of star. The family lives in Baltimore, Md.

Martin A. Morse, T’79, MD’83, DC, the owner/medical director of The Great Falls Plastic Surgery Center in Great Falls, Va, has been chosen as one of 24 participants in the 2007 American Society of Plastic Surgeons Pathways to Leadership program; one of 21 participants in Medical Society of Virginia’s 2007-2008 Claude Moore Leadership program; received the 2007 Outstanding Business Leader Award for Community Service from the McLean, Va., Chamber of Commerce; continues to perform limb-saving surgery on injured U.S. marines and sailors at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. as a U.S. Navy Reserve Captain; was named to the Peer Review Board to review manuscripts for the Association of Military Surgeons of the U.S. Military Medicine Journal; and received a Navy and Marine Corps Commendation medal for service as the only Reserve member on the U.S. Navy Health Professions Scholarship Program Review Board. He lives in Viena, Va.

Kenneth R. Keppel, MD’85, is the lead physician at a 10- doctor practice in rural Pennsylvania. He is involved in clinical research at the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh and is also involved with a large special needs population through the Pennsylvania Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics Medical Home Program. His wife Judy is a pediatric nurse at Magee Women’s Hospital in Pittsburgh. They have two children: Kevin, 14, and Kris, 9.

Tina Sherry Alster, N’81, MD’86, DC, has received the public service award from the
American Society for Dermatologic Surgery for her volunteer work with burn victims. She is director of the Washington Institute of Dermatologic Laser Surgery in Washington, D.C.

Robert L. Minor, Jr., T’82, MD’86, is director of the Rockford Cardiology Research
Foundation and director of endovascular interventions at OSF Saint Anthony Medical Center in Rockford, Ill. His daughter Sarah, 19, is a freshman at St. Olaf College in Minnesota, and daughter Liza, 16, is applying to Duke. His stepson Brandon,
23, was recently hired as a Winnebago County (Illinois) deputy sheriff, and his stepson
Ryan, 24, is a third-year student at Southern Illinois Law School.

Vincent J. Vilasi, MD’86, was named president of Fair Oaks Anesthesia Associates in Fairfax, Va., in January. Fair Oaks provides 60,000 anesthetics per year at five sites
and employs 110 anesthesia providers and support staff. He and his wife Leah have three children—Vincent, Jr., 10; Serena, 9; and Michael, 1—and live in Herndon, Va.

Beth B. Belkin, N’78, MD’87, was named a distinguished fellow of the American Psychiatric Association in 2007. She is also a member of the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Committee of the American Association of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and an executive board member of the N.Y. Council on Child and Adolescent
Psychiatry. She and her husband Robert Belkin, MD, HS’83-’86, have three children.
Daniel is a first-year medical student at Cornell University Medical College; Sam is a junior at Tisch School of the Arts at New York University; and Molly is a freshman at Duke.

Lisa G. Rider, T’83, MD’87, a pediatric rheumatologist, is currently a clinical investigator and deputy chief of the Environmental Autoimmunity Group of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md. Her areas of research interest include juvenile-onset myositis andenvironmental risk factors for systemic autoimmune disease. She keeps busy with her 10- year-old son Benjamin and her husband Simon Wing, a senior staff physician at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. The family lives in Garrett Park, Md.