Bassett Medical Center Celebrates Resident and Fellow Graduations

Caregivers and practitioners at Bassett Medical Center are starting their summer celebrating the graduation of 29 medical residents and fellows. Their class of 2025 consists of 9 Transitional Year Residents, 12 Internal Medicine Residents, 3 Chief Surgery Residents, 2 Preliminary Surgical Interns, 2 Cardiovascular Fellows, and  1 Chief Internal Medicine Resident.

Bassett Healthcare Network has long held education as an essential part of its mission. Graduate Medical Education residents are medical school graduates. Transitional Year residents graduates have completed 1 year of a combination of medicine and surgery training and are off to complete continued residency training. Similarly, Surgery residents in the preliminary track have completed one year of surgery training and are off to complete their residency training. Internal Medicine residents, Surgery residents and Cardiology fellow graduates are now eligible for board certification and can either begin their career as a practicing physician or continue their education by completing a fellowship in a subspecialty.

Here’s what some of Bassett’s faculty have to say about the program and the Class of 2025.

“We are incredibly proud to celebrate the graduation of our residents and fellows at Bassett, whose dedication, compassion and resilience have prepared them to care for patients in any setting. Trained in a rural program, they bring not only medical and surgical excellence but also a deep understanding of the unique needs of our communities. Their journey has strengthened the future of rural health care, and we look forward to the impact they will make.”
– Joon K. Shim MD, MPH, FACS, General Surgery Residency Program Director

“The journey through residency is a long path for physicians and we are so pleased to be able to provide training for physicians in our community. This process brings residents from a variety of medical schools and helps to foster ongoing development and sharing of knowledge and the latest practices. Residents have a rare opportunity to experience advanced rural medicine through Bassett’s training programs.”
– Erik Riesenfeld, MD, Pulmonary and Critical Care and Transitional Year Program Director

"It's been a true pleasure to practice medicine with this extraordinary group of young physicians. Working with doctors that are early in their career keeps my passion for our profession strong. I’m also incredibly proud that 4 of our graduating medicine residents have decided to take jobs here at Bassett Medical Center where they will continue to care for our patients.”
– Russell Moore, MD, Senior Attending Physician and Faculty Member

This year's graduates are listed below. 

Graduating Transitional Year Residents  Mohammad-Kazem Ahmady, MD Jennifer Cha, MD Amanda Liberman, MD Tyler Petersen, MD Jesse Randolph, MD Priya Rao, MD Aaron Ringle, MD Taylor Zabel, MD Morvarid Zehtab, MBBCh
Graduating Medical Education Residents in Internal Medicine  Mohamed Abugrin, MBBCh Navar Almama, MD Muhammad Bilal, MBBS Rakel Emma-Okah, MD Rida Fatima, MBBS Sagar Ghimire, MBBS Roudabeh Kiani, MD Kunjal Luhadia, MBBS Timur Otajonov, MD Thanmay Sathi, MBBS Bishnu Singh, MBBS Prejin Upadhyay, MBBS Vivian Matubia, MD (Chief Resident)
Graduating Education Residents in Surgery Kristen Laaman, MD (Chief Resident) Matthew Ward, MD (Chief Resident) Eunice Yang, MD (Chief Resident) Laura Holton, DO (Preliminary Intern) Jacqueline Inglis, MD (Preliminary Intern)
Graduating Cardiovascular Fellows Shwetha Gopal, MD Ankur Panchal, MD