Alumni Class Notes

School of Medicine alumni updates

1970s

David Freeto – 1972

I have finally retired from my GI practice in Napa, CA. Two of my three children practice nearby: Brian is an orthopedist here in Napa, Jill a hospitalist in Santa Rosa, but Michael is an ER doc in Houston. I have seven grandchildren. Recently listened to Bob Fontaine (UC Davis SOM ’72), who works for CDC, give a lecture at UC Davis to the medical students about his discovery of a small mushroom as the cause of a sudden death syndrome in rural China. Hello to all my 1972 classmates and residency mates, especially those who suffered through my year as Chief.

Donna Chacko – 1974

I appreciate the Class Notes and am excited to share news of my first book, Pilgrimage: A Doctor’s Healing Journey (Luminare, 2021). From my patients and my own travails, I learned how “suffering of the mind, body, and spirit could become so tangled as to create a hard knot that was very difficult to unravel.” My purpose in writing the book was to offer my story of healing in the hope that it would help others find their own path to healing of body, mind, and spirit. You can learn more and read the first chapter at serenityandhealth. com/pilgrimage. I now run a faith-based program called Serenity and Health and live with my second husband in MD, near Washington, D.C. Look me up if you are in the area. I hope you all are having a good 2021.

Warren Wong – 1974

I still see patients on and off usually when friends ask for help. It’s interesting, I diagnosed a patient with myeloma!! :(. I still have the drive to improve health care, and am in the leadership group to make palliative care for seriously ill patients a Medicaid benefit in Hawaii. Huipohala.org. Also, in a different chapter of my career and moving into technology. Please connect with me if you’re interested in any of the following: Memoriesconnect.com, Healthpersonas.org, Geriatricswithaloha.com, Covid19caregiving.com. I wish all of my classmates the best. Warmest Aloha!

Thomas Koch – 1975

Made my last dollar with a stethoscope two months ago [May 2021]. Still involved with ownership and strategy-management of our six urgent cares. I hike and bike daily when possible. Ski all winter, mostly xc these days. Enjoying retirement. We have a small cabin on the water in So. Oregon and I spend most of my time there.

Richard Wageman – 1975

I retired 2002 and continue to enjoy retirement. Living in Bellingham, WA. We love sailing in the San Juan Islands and also into Canadian Gulf Islands (when the border re-opens). We both enjoy golf and travel. Next trip will be to Scotland in April 2022 to travel, and highlight will be golf at St Andrews.

Alan Cohen – 1976

Looking back, the best courses I took in medical school were Nutrition, Eugene O’Neill, and Horseback Riding. Its best overall impact on my life was meeting many wonderful lifelong friends. I had a difficult but rewarding subversive career entirely in closed panel HMOs’ patient care, teaching, a little research, and a fair amount of management. I think overall I had a modestly positive impact on quality, cost, equality, insight, and patient comfort and outcomes. Since retirement, I have continued reading and writing about medicine and have published a couple of articles. Over the past year or two, confined by COVID, I have also had 145 poems published in 75 literary venues (if interested, search: Alan Cohen and poetry). My wife and I enjoy life here in Eugene, Oregon, reading, watching movies, going for walks, working in the garden, staying healthy by carefully choosing and preparing foods. Our best to you all.

Ted Cowell – 1978

Retired for five years after 34 years OB/GYN practice Caldwell, ID. However, I am still working part time reading ultrasounds from home, almost a radiologist. Mary and I have enjoyed world travel, visiting family as well as staying active with golf especially with this last year with COVID. 2019 was a busy year for us, having celebrated our 50th anniversary with our entire family in Idaho, visiting Mary’s family in New Zealand, and vacationing in Tahiti. Our three kids, which we had in undergrad and medical school, are all well in Ohio, Nashville and Boise. Can’t believe our oldest is 51! Four grandkids, in Ohio, with the oldest playing football for the University of Indianapolis. We have been blessed with a healthy life and loving family. Greetings to all my classmates. It has been quite the journey.

1980s

Jerryl Lynn Rubin – 1981

I am retired now after such a satisfying career in psychiatry. Our rural Northern California area would love more younger physicians! I am involved in our community — president of PFLAG (parents and friend of lesbians and gays), am learning Yiddish now, the “mama-loshen” of my grandparents, and playing cello in our community orchestra. I have two wonderful adult daughters, one lovely granddaughter, and sweet black poodle. Life is good! UC Davis was great for med school and also for my psychiatry residency, which I completed at age 50! Life has been great. I try to contribute to my community, and there are never enough hours in a day!

David Manske – 1981

I hope you are all happy and healthy! I’ve been retired for over 18 months! I very much enjoy this new phase of life. I miss my work and old colleagues, but NOT driving into the ED at 0200 hours! I stay busy with some work for a consulting firm, being on the UC Davis School of Medicine Alumni Association Board of Directors, and being the President of the Lipscomb-Chapman Orthopaedic Alumni Society at UC Davis. Of course, I’m on my boat at every opportunity too. I’m excited to soon have all three of my children and my three grandchildren on the West Coast, as my son-in-law starts his three-year Peds Critical Care fellowship at UCSF in July. I hope to reconnect with many of my classmates later this year, to acknowledge the passing of 40 years since we graduated from the UC Davis School of Medicine!

D. Malcolm Shaner – 1981

See Angeli Agatep 1986

Robert W. Wing – 1981

I retired in September 2020.

Wilson SooHoo – 1982/1983

I retired from pathology (Kaiser Roseville) January 2019 but still pull occasional locums shifts at Maui Memorial Medical Center. I just finished setting up a pole vault program at the new high school in our subdivision but will be coaching the vaulters at Oakmont High School next season. Although I still jump, I’m no longer the famous athlete of the family, because my wife, Cathy, just won a US Tennis Association National Doubles Championship (3.0 ranking, 50+).

Noachim Marco – 1985

In a year where many couldn’t work, I never worked harder. In the midst of providing direct patient care, and leading my organization through an unprecedented pandemic, I started my city’s COVID-19 asymptomatic testing in nursing homes. The program tested all 60,000 nursing home residents and staff in LA. I was honored that LeadingAge asked me to serve as a founding member of its Clinical Advisory Group. We give guidance to the CDC, and to CMS, and provided key recommendations around vaccine access and distribution in senior communities. I provided guidance to our state and county departments of public health and was an author or quoted in several published articles. I spoke about emerging technology trends in senior care at a national conference, and I still occasionally eat Larry Hess’s cooking. I’m grateful that the journey I began at UC Davis, got me to such a challenging and very rewarding time.

Angeli Agatep – 1986

Hi everyone! Malcolm and I are still enjoying our semi-retired, part-time work life: Kaiser WLA Urgent Care for me and UCLA neurology professor for Malcolm. Practicing medicine has become more of a “visiting pro” mentality which is fun! The band Malcolm plays in (Ocean Park Sound System) is now performing. They sound great and especially knowing that they resumed playing together regularly only 2–3 months ago, outdoors and 6 ft apart. Neighbors complained to the police at least twice about noise level and then neighbors complained to the band when they stopped rehearsing. Website: www.oceanparksoundsystem.com. Attached is a fused photo from the Rosenthal gig July 10th. Stephanie Shaner (class of 1986) in striped shirt, Malcolm Shaner (class of 1981) with hat, Angeli Agatep (class of 1986) with yellow glasses, Anastasia Pappas (class of 1990) with dark glasses.

Loretta Y. Howitt – 1986

Greetings! Here are photos of myself with my partner Brad, and another of my wonderful three young adult kids. I am on the countdown to mandatory SCPMG retirement on December 30, 2021 and happy to hear your tips, invitations and even part-time job offers! I have loved all 31 years in Emergency and C/L Psychiatry and am literally going to Disneyland on New Years weekend ;)

1990s

Hugh B. Cecil – 1992

Enjoyed a fantastic I.R. practice in the Flathead Valley of NW Montana for over 20 years. Started out as the only IR in NW Montana in a radiology group of four; grew to four IR’s in a group of 19. Wow, what a run! Loved my group, my colleagues at the hospital and my IR family. Live on a gorgeous lake with my wife, Denise. Two daughters both in Utah, one grad from U of U, and the other an engineering student at BYU. Life throws curve balls so I’m recently retired, loving spending time with my family, finally got back to Hawaii for some fun, and I try to get out fly fishing/guiding as much as I can.

Joe Robinson – 1996

Hi, everyone! After postgraduate training in TN and PA, I returned to CA, first Modesto, then Santa Maria finally settling with my family in Arroyo Grande. Left the Army, returned, providing a little excursion to Iraq, now a civilian, again. I practice Emergency Medicine in San Luis Obispo County. In the past year, I have also practiced part-time in Tuba City, AZ, in the Navajo Nation. Hope everyone is well; would be great to hear what everyone is up to. Best wishes.

2010s

Natalie Guido-Estrada – 2011

I have been enjoying life in San Diego the last five years. After my residency in Phoenix, AZ, I’ll never take the beach or an ocean breeze for granted again! I was recently promoted to associate professor at UCSD and work as a pediatric neurologist at Rady Children’s Hospital. I got engaged in January and I am busy planning a post-COVID wedding which will include two UC Davis School of Medicine classmates in the wedding party, Hailey MacNear and Laura (Kurek) Marsano. I am eager to reconnect with all my 2011 classmates sometime in the near future, hopefully at the much anticipated 10-year reunion!

Nahid Vidal – 2012

Since graduating, I did my intern year at UC Davis Medical Center, then dermatology residency at The University of Iowa. I completed a fellowship in Micrographic Surgery and Dermatologic Oncology at Mayo Clinic and went on to serve as Director of Dermatologic Surgery and Director of Dermatologic Surgical Resident Education at Dartmouth Hitchcock until 2019. I currently work in academic medicine as the Director of Dermatologic Surgery Resident Education at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. I am focusing my career on diversity, education & curriculum improvement, and rare cutaneous tumors. I am married to David, have a 3-year-old son Mogey, and a golden retriever named Hudson. Instagram handle @Dr.NahidVidal

Taylor Nichols – 2013 and Fellowship 2020

After working in various clinical settings, I completed a fellowship in Health Policy and Advocacy with UC Davis and California ACEP. I currently work primarily at Mercy San Juan Medical Center as well as Adjunct Clinical Faculty in the Department of Emergency Medicine at UCSF. I am completing my second year of my first 2-year term on the Board of Directors with California ACEP, and I’m a member of the newly formed Social Emergency Medicine task force. I live in Sacramento with my wife, fellow UC Davis School of Medicine alum, Katie Alton, and our two-year-old daughter Ellie.

Kellie Corcoran – 2015

I and my husband, Justin, relocated back to Sacramento in September of 2020. We welcomed our first baby, Charlie Ocean, in January.

Residency/Fellowship alumni

Richard L. Cosby – 1986
Residency 1971 (Internal Medicine)
Fellowship 1973 (Nephrology)

After graduating from UCLA Medical School in 1964, I served more than three years in the Army, I came to Sacramento in 1969, a Sacramento County employee as second year medical resident in 1970, a UC Davis employee during my third year medical residency on the wards, welcoming the first class of 3rd year UC Davis students from basic sciences to the wards. After Internal Medicine, I stayed at UC Davis to be its first Nephrology Fellow, finishing in 1973, I performed its first hemodialysis. I later worked for 17 years as partner at the Woodland Clinic, then for eight years in the Navy. Appointed Clinical Professor, UC San Diego in 1997. So old, I no longer see fellow UC Davis trainee or faculty names I recognize. However, I’m amazed and proud to watch UC Davis Medical School grow in size and importance in the medical world, and its graduates perform importantly worldwide.

Lawrence Laslett – 1986
Residency 1976
Fellowship 1978 (Cardiology)

I’m now fully retired and living with wife of 42 years Laurie on Monterey Bay. Laurie and I are enjoying retirement, living on the Monterey Bay coast, near our son and wife and two delightful grandkids. We enjoy beach and forest walks and bike rides, and I serve as the board treasurer of our local Loaves and Fishes and help with our homeowners’ association (having become very used to Zoom this past year). I do miss the fun parts of my job (patients and teaching), but not at all the paperwork and hours. It amazes me how much medicine has changed in (what seems like) the few short years since my UC Davis residency and fellowships. I’m lucky to still be in good health and enjoy hiking and bicycling.

D. Malcom Shaner
Residency 1985 (Neurology)

See M.D. 1981 (Angeli Agatep M.D. 1986)

David Manske
Residency 1986 (Orthopaedic Surgery)

See M.D. 1981

Taylor Nichols
Fellowship 2020 (Emergency Medicine: Health Policy)

See M.D. 2013