Awards & Accolades Monthly Highlights

Each month, the Dean’s Office recognizes and celebrates the achievements of our students, faculty, and staff with this summary.

We’ll begin this month’s accolades summary by congratulating the CMS Class of 2026, which achieved a 96% match rate! We celebrated Match Day with our students on March 26 as they learned where they will be completing their residency programs. Our students matched into top residencies at university health systems, medical centers, and hospitals across the country. We’re so proud of our M4 students as they prepare to move on to the next stage of their medical careers!

Click here to read more about Match Day.

Aequitas Health Fellows Angélica María Arzuaga, CMS ’27, and Gloria Essien, CMS ’26, authored an article titled “Cultivating Community Trust: A Student-Led Initiative for Skin Health Equity,” published in the Aequitas Health Journal. The article documented the health equity project that Angélica and Gloria designed and implemented throughout this academic year, a community-centered dermatologic health education initiative culturally tailored for Latino residents in Lake County. Their project recently received the 2025 Aequitas Chapter Project of the Year Award.

Congratulations to the students who received awards for their research during the university’s 21st Annual All School Research Consortium this month! Natalie Loveridge, CMS ’28, received the CMS Best Research Talk Award for her presentation titled “Synaptic Mechanisms Underlying LRRK2-Associated Parkinson’s Disease,” and Jason Kim, CMS ’28, received the CMS Best Research Poster Award for his poster titled “Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement Slows Progression of Ascending Thoracic Aortic Aneurysm.”

Daniela Maciel, CMS ’27, has been selected for the 2026–27 class of Chicago Area Schweitzer Fellows! This year-long service-learning program helps graduate students design and implement innovative projects to address the health needs of underserved Chicago communities. As part of the fellowship, Daniela will partner with a local organization over the next year to carry out her service project in the Chicago community.

CMS alumna Vivian Wong, MD ’14, PhD ’12, came to campus on March 11 to give a grand rounds presentation titled “Dermatological Emergencies – What’s New in 2026.” While she was here, she also had coffee with students interested in dermatology and met with Dean Archana Chatterjee to receive her Distinguished Alumni Award for Early Career Achievement, which was announced at the CMS Alumni Reunion this past fall. Dr. Wong is a board-certified dermatologist who also holds a PhD in Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology. She also serves as an advisor to the RFU student interest group in dermatology, mentoring medical students, guiding aspiring dermatologists, and shaping future leaders in medicine.