What Our Residents are Saying—

"I chose SUNY Upstate because of the commitment that I saw in the medical staff to provide the best in medical care and resident training.

There is a culture here that expects one to perform at their best and to improve on a daily basis. This culture extends to the attending anesthesiologists who are expected to work hard preparing the residents to succeed.

The result is a residency program that will prepare me to handle with exceptional skill any case that comes my way. The routine participation in trauma and complex neurosurgical, cardiothoracic, and general surgery cases in both adult and pediatric operating rooms has allowed me to rapidly develop skills and progress as an anesthesiology resident.

Looking back over the past year, the residency program has provided me an incredible clinical experience and training that has exceeded my expectations. I will graduate from SUNY Upstate an exceptionally skilled and confident anesthesiologist eager to manage the toughest cases".

—David Ball, DO - CA-3

"As a graduating anesthesiology resident, the thing that is most important is whether or not you will be able to survive the real world on your own. You want your residency training to encompass all aspects of anesthesiology and to give you enough exposure to different case scenarios so that when you're thrown a curve ball, you don't have to second guess yourself. You want to have a sense of confidence and the ability to make safe judgments when caring for your patients. I truly believe this program has given me the opportunity to gain that confidence, both clinically and didactically. During the past three years, I've had a wonderful experience at SUNY upstate and I'm quite confident my experience here will help me further reach my professional and academic goals in the years to come".

—Kevin Vakili, MD—Class 2007

"I can clearly remember the operative case was a total vaginal hysterectomy, the entire OR was quiet, all eyes on me. It was my first case as an attending, one month post graduation. The induction and the anesthetic management was entirely my plan—what an experience! It became very clear at that time just how valuable my training at SUNY Upstate had been. I had the skills to apply the anesthetic knowledge I had been given but I also had the confidence in my role as an attending anesthesiologist in charge in the care of this patient. I had hit the ground running and have not looked back since".

—Peter Stubbs, MD—Class 2006

Meet Our Residents...

• PGY II (CA-1)
• PGY III (CA-2)
• PGY IV (CA-3)

Where Our Graduates Are—

Class of 2009

Robert David Ball
Pain Fellow
SUNY Upstate Medical University
Syracuse, NY

Brian Alwin Bannister, MD
Pain Fellow
SUNY Upstate Medical University
Syracuse, NY

James M. Caswell, MD
Cardiothoracic Anesthesia Fellow
Duke University Medical Center
Durham, NC

William J. Heino, Jr., DO
Anesthesiologist
Bridgeport Hospital, Yale New Haven Health System
Bridgeport, CT

Alexander Kleiner, MD
Anesthesiologist
Morris Anesthesia Group
Parsippany, NJ

Melissa Michelle Koshel, DO
Anesthesiologist
Syracuse, NY

Kevin John Nebab, MD
 Anesthesiologist
Shore Health System, The Memorial Hospital
Easton, MD

Neal George Puthumana, MBBS
Anesthesiologist
Chicago, IL

Binit Shah, MD
Neuroanesthesiology & Neuromonitoring Fellow
Brigham & Women’s Hospital
Boston, MA

Amit Singh, DO
Pain Fellow
SUNY Upstate Medical University
Syracuse, NY

See Wan Tham, MD
Pediatric Anesthesia Fellow
Seattle Children’s Hospital
Seattle, WA

Sumena C. Thongrod, DO
Anesthesiologist
Hackensack University Medical Center
Hackensack, NJ

Maher Jeffrey Zackary, MD
Pain Fellow
SUNY Upstate Medical University
Syracuse, NY

Class of 2008

Jesse Aron, MD
Pediatric Anesthesiology Fellow
Children's National Medical Center
Washington, DC

Julian Bick, MD
Cardiac Anesthesiology Fellow
Texas Heart Institute, Baylor College of Medicine
Houston, TX

Jonathan Disbury, MD
Private Practice
Tampa, FL

Jorge Fernandez-Silva, MD
Pain Fellow
SUNY Upstate Medical University
Syracuse, NY

Christopher Karsanac, MD
Pediatric Anesthesiology Fellow
Vanderbilt Medical Center
Nashville, TN

Angela Mahajan, MD
Pain Fellow
SUNY Upstate Medical University
Syracuse, NY

Oluwasola Olamikan, MD
Pediatric Anesthesiology Fellow
University of Colorado Hospital
Denver, CO

Jesal Parikh, MD
Private Practice
Springfield, MA

Mary C. Trusilo, MD
Pain Fellow
SUNY Upstate Medical University
Syracuse, NY

Joanna Wroblewska-Shah, MD
Pain Fellow
SUNY Upstate Medical University
Syracuse, NY

Laura Zeigler, MD
Pediatric Anesthesiology Fellow
St. Christopher's Hospital for Children
Philadelphia, PA

Class of 2007

Mirna Abdallah, MD
Attending
SUNY Upstate Medical University
Syracuse, NY

William Duggan, MD
Attending
Arnot Ogden Medical Center
Elmira, NY

Irina Gasanova, MD
Attending
UT Southwestern Medical Center
Dallas, TX

Fenghua Li, MD
Attending
SUNY Upstate Medical University
Syracuse, NY

Brian Marasigan, MD
Cardiothoracic Anesthesia Fellow
Texas Heart Institute at St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital
Houston, TX

Loc Nguyen, MD
Pain Fellow
University of Washington
Seattle, WA

Lisa Patel, MD
Pain Fellow
Cornell/Memorial Sloan Kettering
New York, NY

Kevin Vakili, MD
Attending
The University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ

Class of 2006

Nasreen Akhtar, MD
Private Practice

Manal Basilious, MD
Attending
Robert Wood Johnson
Hamilton, NJ

Amir Mian, MD
Pain Fellow
SUNY Upstate Medical University
Syracuse, NY

Matthew Nims
Anesthesiologist
Army Medical Center, Hawaii

Sunil Patel, MD
Anesthesiologist
Anne Arundel Medical Center
Annapolis, MD

Eileen Simiele, MD
Anesthesiologist
Community General Hospital
Syracuse, NY

Shylaja Sreekumar, MD
Anesthesiologist
Sinai Hospital of Baltimore
Baltimore, NY

Peter Stubbs, MD
Attending
St. Joseph's Hospital
Syracuse, NY

Xiangyang Zheng, MD
PrivatePractice
Midwest Regional Medical Center
Midwest City, OK

Class of 2005

Ramesh Damacharla, MD
Fellow in Pain Management
SUNY Upstate Medical University
Syracuse, New York

Surendra Davuluri, MD
Attending
York Hospital
York, PA

David Hou
Fellow in Pain Management
Seattle, Washington

Kshitij Patel
Fellow in Pain Management
SUNY Upstate Medical University
Syracuse, New York

Jie Ren
Private Practice

Richard Riccardi, MD
Fellow in Pain Management
SUNY Upstate Medical University
Syracuse, New York

Priti Singh, MD
Private Practice
Chicago, Illinois

Tamas Szabo, MD, PhD
Fellow in Cardiothoracic Anesthesia
Duke University Medical Center
Durham, North Carolina

Donna-Ann Thomas, MD
Fellow in Pain Management
SUNY Upstate Medical University
Syracuse, New York

Yuexian Wang, MD
Private Practice

Xiuli Zhang, MD
Attending
SUNY Upstate Medical University
Syracuse, New York