MATCH DAY 2024
Sisters Angela (left), Josephine (center) and Christy (right) Nwankwo are all graduates of the School of Medicine. The most recent graduate, Josephine, matched at Baylor College of Medicine for her residency.
Monumental Match Day for UMKC Medical Students
EXCITED CHEERS POURED OUT of the UMKC Student Union on Friday, March 15, when more than 100 medical students tore open envelopes to discover where they would spend the next few years doing their medical residency training.
For recent graduate Divya Jain, it was a long time coming, but very much worth it. The Overland Park native not only now has a B.A./M.D. from UMKC, but also has a master’s degree in public policy from Harvard University.
“In the six-year program, we start preparing for our residency at 18 years old,” Jain said. “It’s been eight years in the making, but matching feels like all the hard work was worth it because we get the privilege of taking care of people.”
Jain matched in a residency program at the University of Washington in Seattle, where she specializes in obstetrics and gynecology. Rotations at University Health instilled in her a passion for improving women’s lives.
Match Day is a family affair for many students, and that was especially true for Josephine Nwankwo of Oklahoma City, who matched at the Baylor College of Medicine in physical medicine and rehabilitation. She joined her sister, Angela Nwankwo (B.A./M.D. ’22), who is a resident in the same program. Their sister, Christy, is also a graduate of the UMKC School of Medicine.
The matriarch of the Nwankwo family is a registered nurse, and over the years, the family has traveled to their mother’s native Nigeria, bringing medications from the United States that aren’t available there. Those trips influenced Josephine’s desire to return to Nigeria and bring rehabilitation treatment to the country.
“Visiting my family opened my eyes to the healthcare inequities in the world,” Nwankwo said. “I feel like rehabilitation is a resource that’s not really offered in these developing countries. I would love to return to Nigeria because the service could really benefit the people there.”
School of Medicine Dean Alexander Norbash was at Match Day to congratulate the class. Decades into his career, he still remembers that unique feeling that comes with the joyous occasion.
“It’s an interesting day, because you began it with a certain mindset, and you’re ending it envisioning yourself in Topeka or San Francisco as a psychiatrist or a cardiac surgeon,” Norbash said. “It’s one of those watershed days you can’t ever forget.”
According to Norbash, more than 50% of the students matched into primary care. The class matched in a wide range of specialties, including anesthesiology, emergency medicine, psychiatry, dermatology and several surgical specialties. A third of the students matched in Missouri, with 30% of students staying in the Kansas City metropolitan area.
ANESTHESIOLOGY Rodolfo Gomez University of Missouri-Kansas City – Kansas City, MO
Divya Jain University of Maryland Medical Center – Baltimore, MD
Karishma Kondapalli University of Chicago – Chicago, IL
Elaine Nikolov University of Illinois – Chicago, IL
Nabeel Rasheed Stanford Health Care – Stanford, CA
Emma Stoltz University of Kansas – Kansas City, KS
Matthew William University of Michigan – Ann Arbor, MI
DERMATOLOGY Nadine Elkady University of Kansas – Kansas City, KS
Sneha Poondru University of Nebraska Medical Center – Omaha, NE
DIAGNOSTIC RADIOLOGY Sophie Bernstein Barnes-Jewish Hospital – St. Louis, MO
Vijay Dimri University of Kansas – Wichita, KS
Srivats Narayanan University of Florida – Gainesville, FL
Aarya Ramprasad University of Texas – Houston, TX
Hari Randhawa Allegheny General Hospital – Pittsburgh, PA
DIAGNOSTIC RADIOLOGY/NUCLEAR MEDICINE Sriram S. Paravastu Stanford Health Care – Stanford, CA
EMERGENCY MEDICINE Keifer Bohnstedt University of Arkansas – Little Rock, AR
Rohan Chakrabarty Cook County Health – Chicago, IL
Isabel Schwartz Detroit Medical Center/Wayne State University – Detroit, MI
Ashley Segobiano Northwestern University – Chicago, IL
Cole Steinmetz University of Texas Southwestern – Dallas, TX
Madison Walker University of Missouri-Kansas City – Kansas City, MO
FAMILY MEDICINE Elijah Alcorn University of Kansas – Wichita, KS
Jenny Allen Baylor University Medical Center – Dallas, TX
Abby Crede University Hospitals – Columbia, MO
Paige Eickhoff University of Kansas – Kansas City, KS
Hannah Esker Aurora St. Luke’s Medical Center – Milwaukee, WI
Jolene Glaude University of Missouri-Kansas City – Kansas City, MO
Jacob Honey Mercy Hospital – St. Louis, MO
Varoon Kumar Ascension St. Mary – Chicago, IL
Mitchell Mahan University of Kansas – Wichita, KS
Julia Snodgrass HCA Healthcare – Kansas City, MO
Chad Sullivan University of Missouri-Kansas City – Kansas City, MO
Michael Tian University of California, Irvine – Orange, CA
GENERAL SURGERY Nargiz Agayeva University of Minnesota – Minneapolis, MN
Felix Amparano University at Buffalo – Buffalo, NY
Mallika Joshi Florida Atlantic University – Boca Raton, FL
Nina Ruan Henry Ford Hospital – Detroit, MI
Alex Schray Parkview Health – Fort Wayne, IN
INTERNAL MEDICINE Gorgina Barsoum University of Kansas – Kansas City, KS
Chase Boyd University Hospitals – Columbia, MO
Oliver Chrisler St. Louis University – St. Louis, MO
Thomas Cunningham University of Missouri-Kansas City – Kansas City, MO
Clayton Del Pico Case Western/University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center – Cleveland, OH
Aarsh Desai St. Luke’s University Hospital – Bethlehem, PA
Divya Divya Campbell University – Lumberton, NC
Kaylajenna Dobin Emory University – Atlanta, GA
Aldo Dominguez University of California San Diego – San Diego, CA
Alex Harris Geyer Barnes-Jewish Hospital – St. Louis, MO
Sameena Hameed University of Texas Southwestern – Dallas, TX
Fareha Hasan HCA Healthcare – Overland Park, KS
Kamakshi Katwala Advocate Health Care – Oak Lawn, IL
Maya Kosinska University of Missouri-Kansas City – Kansas City, MO
Tej Kosuri University of Kansas – Kansas City, KS
Elorm Kpenu Morehouse School of Medicine – Atlanta, GA
Lara Makhoul St. Louis University – St. Louis, MO
Megan Mayer University of Illinois – Chicago, IL
Anika Mittal University of Iowa – Iowa City, IA
Bethel Orshiso HCA Healthcare – Overland Park, KS
Anjali Pante HCA Healthcare – Overland Park, KS
Parth S. Patel Mayo Clinic – Rochester, MN
Caroline Elizabeth Ramsey University of Missouri-Kansas City – Kansas City, MO
Nikki Seraji Louisiana State University – New Orleans, LA
Erik Way University of Kansas – Kansas City, KS
INTERNAL MEDICINE/PEDIATRICS Barbara Dyer University of Louisville – Louisville, KY
Anshul Raman University of Missouri-Kansas City – Kansas City, MO
INTERNAL MEDICINE PRELIMINARY YEAR Vijay Dimri University of Kansas – Wichita, KS
Nadine Elkady University of Kansas – Kansas City, KS
Nikki Gill University of Kansas – Kansas City, KS
Srivats Narayanan University of Missouri-Kansas City – Kansas City, MO
INTERNAL MEDICINE/PREVENTIVE MEDICINE Lina Al-Tahhan University of California, Los Angeles – Los Angeles, CA
INTERVENTIONAL RADIOLOGY Vijay Menon University of Texas Southwestern – Dallas, TX NEUROLOGY Rodrigo Perez-Magnelli St. Louis University – St. Louis, MO
OBSTETRICS AND GYNECOLOGY Madison Nicole Brown University of Kansas – Wichita, KS
Imaima Casubhoy University of Illinois – Chicago, IL
Melissa Godar University of Missouri-Kansas City – Kansas City, MO
Kiersten Herzog Indiana University – Indianapolis, IN
Divya Jain University of Washington – Seattle, WA
Tanvi Karmarkar Orlando Health – Orlando, FL
Dumebi Okocha University of Cincinnati Medical Center – Cincinnati, OH
Mauli Patel Carle Foundation Hospital – Urbana, IL
Kayla Reifel University at Buffalo – Buffalo, NY
OPHTHALMOLOGY Victoria Cegielski Oregon Health and Science University – Portland, OR
Nikki Gill University of Kansas – Kansas City, KS
Dylan Hailey University of Missouri-Kansas City – Kansas City, MO
Alina Sinha Corewell Health East – Royal Oak, MI
ORAL AND MAXILLOFACIAL SURGERY Anthony Shant Karayan University of Missouri-Kansas City – Kansas City, MO
Rushi Patel University of Missouri-Kansas City – Kansas City, MO
OTOLARYNGOLOGY Brevin Miller University of Kansas – Kansas City, KS
PATHOLOGY Anna McGehee Northeast Ohio Medical University – Akron, OH
Fareeha Naseer University of Illinois – Chicago, IL
Nila Palaniappan Barnes-Jewish Hospital – St. Louis, MO
Devon Rotramel Indiana University – Indianapolis, IN
PEDIATRICS Sherouk Ahmed Abdelmoity Children’s Mercy – Kansas City, MO
Kennison Adams Children’s Mercy – Kansas City, MO
Rosemary Cherian Children’s Mercy – Kansas City, MO
Maria Clark Children’s Mercy – Kansas City, MO
Allison Green Children’s Mercy – Kansas City, MO
Lauren Miller Children’s Mercy – Kansas City, MO
Samantha Sabapathypillai Children’s National Medical Center – Washington, D.C.
Makenna Steger Children’s Mercy – Kansas City, MO
PHYSICAL MEDICINE AND REHABILITATION Josephine Nwankwo Baylor College of Medicine – Houston, TX
PLASTIC SURGERY Eva Kaufman University of Iowa – Iowa City, IA
PSYCHIATRY Sanjula Bhuri University of Missouri-Kansas City – Kansas City, MO
George Cochran University of Missouri-Kansas City – Kansas City, MO
Amreen Hasan University of Texas – Houston, TX
Lakshmi Seetha Kasi Rush University Medical Center – Chicago, IL
John Lin University of Missouri-Kansas City – Kansas City, MO
Shruti Mishra University of Kansas – Wichita, KS
Sayra Nieto Gomez University of Missouri-Kansas City – Kansas City, MO
Mariela Ornelas Texas Tech University – El Paso, TX
Mohan Palakollu Creighton University – Omaha, NE
Andrea Raymundo Loma Linda University – Loma Linda, CA
Andy Sivils Barnes-Jewish Hospital – St. Louis, MO
SURGERY PRELIMINARY YEAR Vijay Menon University of Texas Southwestern – Dallas, TX
Steven Nguyen University of California, Irvine – Orange, CA
THORACIC SURGERY Pournika Muniyandi University of California, Davis – Sacramento, CA
TRANSITIONAL YEAR Sophie Bernstein Broadlawns Medical Center – Des Moines, IA
Josephine Nwankwo Baylor Scott & White All Saints Medical Center – Fort Worth, TX
Sriram S. Paravastu Lemuel Shattuck Hospital – Boston, MA
Sneha Poondru Mercy Hospital – St. Louis, MO
Aarya Ramprasad HCA Houston Healthcare/University of Houston – Kingwood, TX
Hari Randhawa St. Agnes Medical Center – Fresno, CA
Alina Sinha Corewell Health East – Royal Oak, MI
UROLOGY Jada Ohene-Agyei Cleveland Clinic – Cleveland, OH
