Harrisburg doctors create pipeline to SIU Medical School
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[More than 150 miles separate Springfield from Harrisburg, a community of 9,000 people in southern Illinois. But a group of physicians in Harrisburg have established a pipeline of sorts to Springfield's Southern Illinois University School of Medicine.
Three men from Harrisburg will be among the 62 students graduating from SIU Med School Saturday, and all three have been mentored in some way by Dr. Larry Jones and Jones' colleagues at Primary Care Group in Harrisburg.
"Everybody growing up in Harrisburg knows of Dr. Jones and his role in the community," said Brent Jones, 26, one of the graduating medical students.
"I saw him as someone I aspired to be like," said Brent Jones, who is not related to Larry Jones.
Including this year's crop, a total of 19 graduates of the medical school have come from Harrisburg, and many have returned to practice medicine in Harrisburg, Eldorado and other communities in and near Saline County.
Two more Harrisburg natives currently attend the medical school, including Larry Jones' son, Braden.
"It's been very, very satisfying," said Larry Jones, 59, a member of SIU's charter graduating class in 1976. "We feel very fortunate to have attracted these doctors in a rural area. We feel we have a nice lifestyle and a high standard of living."
Brent Jones, who is married and has a 1 1/2-year-old son who was born in Springfield, is headed to a three-year family medicine residency in Evansville, Ind.
He plans to return to Harrisburg and join Larry Jones' group. Harrisburg Medical Center paid a big chunk of Brent Jones' medical school expenses in return for his pledge to return to his hometown to practice.
Also at Saturday's graduation ceremony at Sangamon Auditorium will be Harrisburg residents Shariff Shakir, 29, who plans to enter a family medicine residency in South Bend, Ind., and Clinton Simpson, 30, a former Harrisburg High School chemistry teacher who will begin an emergency medicine residency in Phoenix.
Unlimited options
The Harrisburg connection makes SIU officials smile. One of the school's main goals is to produce more doctors, particularly primary-care specialists, for central and southern Illinois.
Larry Jones was born and raised in Harrisburg. After graduation from SIU Med School, and a family medicine fellowship in Indiana, he moved back to Harrisburg. There, he built a practice that now has eight full-time doctors, four of them SIU School of Medicine grads.
The group has been honored by SIU for providing on-the-job experience to third-year medical students. Members of the group have gladly served as informal mentors for high school and college students from the Harrisburg area who are considering careers in medicine.
"There's the possibility for high school students in a rural area to have the false impression that their options are limited," said Dr. Matthew Winkleman, 34, anotehr SIU alum and one of Jones' partners. His wife, Dr. Laura Winkleman, is from DuQuoin and also graduated from SIU.
Matthew Winkleman, a Harrisburg native and the son of a coal miner, said Primary Care Group shows promising students that medical school isn't just for "kids who grow up in Chicago's suburbs or for graduates from fancy high schools."
The group also demonstrates to medical students that it's possible to provide high-quality medical care in a rural area, he said.
Caring, quality
Larry Jones said he encourages potential medical students to consider SIU.
"It's a tremendous institution and has a culture that most medical schools don't have - of caring for the students and high quality at the same time," he said.
Larry Jones was Shakir's doctor during his childhood, and Shakir's on-the-job experience in Jones' clinic during medical school helped convince Shakir to change his specialty plans to family medicine from obstetrics and gynecology.
Shakir said he will study health-care administration during his family medicine residency. He doesn't know where he will practice after his training is complete.
But like Brent Jones, Shakir said he enjoys the pace of rural life and relishes the ability to have a big impact on a small community's health.
"I might end up at Primary Care Group," Shakir said.
Seven central Illinois residents to graduate
Seven Springfield-area residents are among the 62 physicians and two graduate students in the 37th graduating class at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine.
The graduates will receive their diplomas during ceremonies at noon Saturday in Sangamon Auditorium at the University of Illinois Springfield.
*Dr. Deena Chihade, the daughter of Issan and Juliette Chihade of Forsyth, will begin a preliminary general surgery residency at University of Pittsburgh Mercy Hospital.
*Dr. Sean Hayes, the son of David and Jeanette Hayes of Hillsboro, will begin an internal medicine residency at Scripps Mercy Hospital in San Diego.
*Dr. Bethany Kearns, the daughter of Michael and Carmella Kearns of Springfield, will begin a urology residency at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood.
*Dr. Richard Meyerholz, the son of Rich and Myra Meyerholz of Rochester, will begin an internal medicine residency at University of Florida College of Medicine Shands Hospital in Gainesville.
*Dr. Erin Schafer, the daughter of Kevin and Michelle Schafer of Buffalo Hart, will begin a family medicine residency at Rose Medical Center University of Colorado School of Medicine-Denver in Aurora, Colo.
*Dr. Christopher Slater, the son of Douglas and Catherine Slater of Springfield, will begin an internal medicine residency at Exempla St. Joseph Hospital in Denver.
*Dr. Robert Weitzel, the son of Robert and Tina Weitzel of Petersburg, will begin an internal medicine residency at SIU School of Medicine and its affiliated hospitals in Springfield.
Other graduates
Other SIU School of Medicine physician graduates and their hometowns are: Dr. Nadia Ali of Carbondale, Dr. Adam Andruska of Marine, Dr. Kimberly Marie-Dubois Bannon of Lacon, Dr. Andrew Bloom of Coal Valley, Dr. Anthony Buecker of Peoria Heights, Dr. Jennifer Bunch of Macomb, Dr. Benjamin Chia of Glen Carbon, Dr. Blake Cohen of Peoria, Dr. Daniel Deem of Villa Grove, Dr. Samantha Dial of West Frankfort, Dr. Danielle Doerr of Hecker, Dr. Erin DuMontier of Belleville, Dr. Katherine Richards Endicott of Wood River, Dr. Norah Farley of Waterloo, Dr. Marita Fisher of Tamaroa, Dr. Luke Frederick of Pekin, Dr. Meghan Freund of Chillicothe, Dr. Julie Fultz of Savoy, Dr. Tandra Gordon of Huntsville, Ala., Dr. Andrew Henry of Moweaqua, Dr. Justin Hinzman of Milan, Dr. Justin Hutto of O'Fallon, Dr. Brent Jones of Harrisburg, Dr. Dawn Kirkwood of Fairfield, Dr. Minh-Bao Le of Waterloo, Dr. Christi Lindorfer of Elk Grove Village, Dr. Benjamin Luong of Macomb, Dr. Laura McEnerney of Mahomet, Dr. Irene Meder of North Canton, Ohio, Dr. Julissa Mendoza of Burbank, Dr. Suzanne Milburn of Peoria, Dr. Hannah Park of Round Lake, Dr. Ann Parkin of Galesburg, Dr. David Pope of Danville, Dr. Lee Radford of Orion, Dr. Matthew Reed of Champaign, Dr. Holly Regnier of Ashkum, Dr. Jillian Rigdon of Macomb, Dr. Adam Rodos of Western Springs, Dr. Sara Rubenacker of McLeansboro, Dr. Carl Ruthman of Dunlap, Dr. Tifani Sanford of St. Louis, Dr. Lisa Shah of Centralia, Dr. Neil Shah of Centralia, Dr. Shariff Shakir of Harrisburg, Dr. Douglas Sheffer of Carbondale, Dr. Clinton Simpson of Harrisburg, Dr. Tisha Spence of Round Lake Beach, Dr. Lacey Stelle of Bloomington, Dr. Mary Sterrett of New Baden, Dr. Ryan Stock of Benton, Dr. Suzanne Suprenant of Bourbonnais, Dr. D. Adam VanderWaal of Bloomington, and Dr. Justin Young of Evansville, Ind.
Dr. Sameer Vohra of Westmont will receive the combined M.D./J.D. degree after completing six years of study in both medicine and law.
The graduate students are Wen Liu of China, who earned her doctorate in molecular biology, microbiology and biochemistry, and Jacob T. Neumann of Minooka, who earned his doctorate in pharmacology.
Distinguished alumni
A faculty member at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine and the founder of cancer centers in Arizona will receive "distinguished alumni" awards from the medical school Saturday.
Dr. Amber Barnhart, SIU professor of family and community medicine, is a native of Champaign and graduated from SIU in 1981.
Under her leadership, SIU's medical education program twice won national recognition as a "Top 10" school for its percentage of medical students entering family medicine residencies.
Dr. Gordon Grado, founder and medical director of Southwest Oncology Centers in Arizona, is a native of Charleston and graduated from SIU in 1977.
A radiation oncologist, he lives in Scottsdale, Ariz., and is an expert on the use of brachytherapy to treat prostate cancer.
Want to go?
Commencement ceremonies for Southern Illinois University School of Medicine begin at noon Saturday in Sangamon Auditorium at the University of Illinois Springfield.
Medical school dean and provost Dr. J. Kevin Dorsey will award diplomas to the medical students.
Admission to the ceremony is free and open to the public.