At last evening’s Internal Medicine Residency Graduation, the final two resident-chosen awards for the year were announced, and a third’s inauguration was celebrated. The bulk of the awards had been announced last week at the Chief Residents’ Grand Rounds.

Outstanding Intern of the Year – Marie Finkbeiner, MD
Outstanding Junior Resident of the Year – Reed Johnson, MD
Outstanding Fellow of the Year – Andrei Schwartz, MD
Outstanding Support Staff of the Year – Holly Geiger, LPN

In addition, two named awards—one honoring François M. Abboud and the other Ernest O. Theilen—were also distributed. The first went to Christian Anderson, MD, PhD, and the second to Emily Nguyen, MD, PhD, and Robert Windisch, Jr., MD.

At that same event last week, Suneja also announced the new Chief Resident Improvement Fund, established with a generous gift from alumnus Kevin Dellsperger, MD, PhD, (R ’85, CR ’88, F ’89) and his wife, Linda.

Our Design Center also produced a thank-you video from members of the residency program to the Dellspergers.

The final two awards, Outstanding Faculty Teacher of the Year and Outstanding Graduating Resident, would be revealed a week later, at last night’s Residency Graduation event. (Our full recap of that evening is coming soon.) A third award was also announced that evening, the Amarachi Anukam Humanism Award, created in honor of a resident who passed away in 2019, but would have graduated with last evening’s honorees. The inaugural recipient of this award, which will honor Anukam’s memory in perpetuity, is Ian Kidder, MD.

This award set the stage for the remaining traditional pair to be announced. The first, Outstanding Faculty Teacher of the Year, went to Kevin Glenn, MD, director of the UI Health Care Adult Hospitalist Program and associate professor in General Internal Medicine. A recognition of his generosity, particularly with food, was recognized with the gift last evening of two pies, split in half because he would surely give some away. The typically verbose Glenn said in brief and moving remarks that for one of the first times in his life he was “speechless.”

The Outstanding Graduating Resident of the Year was then announced. Tommy Robinson, MD, was joined onstage by last year’s winner of this award, Desmond Barber, MD, outgoing Chief Resident. Barber echoed many of the same kind and admiring words that Robinson had offered himself last year.

Congratulations to all this year’s winners!