Aekta Miglani ’04, ’10 (MD), ’13M (Res) pursued her undergraduate and medical education at the University and now serves as the vice chair of operations and medical director of Strong Memorial Hospital’s emergency department.

Aekta Miglani ’04, ’10 (MD), ’13M (Res), vice chair of operations and medical director of Strong’s ED

As a child, Aekta Miglani ’04, ’10 (MD), ’13M (Res) wanted to be an artist or an architect someday. Or maybe even an astronaut. She dreamed big. Her parents encouraged her varied interests while underscoring the future they saw for her: they thought she should pursue a career in medicine.

When it came time to apply to college, Miglani, who grew up in Pittsford, NY, wanted to prove her parents wrong (as many teenagers do). “My plan was to apply to the Ģ����ý’s undergraduate-to-medical school program and show my parents that I could get in, after which it would be clear to everyone that medicine would not be the right path for me,” says Miglani.

A new plan

Miglani’s plan started off as she imagined: she was accepted into the University’s Rochester Early Medical Scholars (REMS) program, which grants select students admission to both the undergraduate College and the School of Medicine and Dentistry (SMD). Soon after, she did what she was supposed to do and met with her advisor, Gregory Connors, MD, the head of REMS. Connors told Miglani what she didn’t expect to hear.

“He said that as a college student at Rochester, I could still pursue my creative interests and that the best physicians use both sides of their brain,” she adds. “I was intrigued and quickly realized that medicine could very well be a good fit.” Her parents were right after all.

And, because Miglani was already accepted into SMD, she had proven her aptitude for the sciences. This meant she could take full advantage of Rochester’s flexible undergraduate curriculum, which she did. For instance, she took courses in art, religion, and philosophy—and she loved it all.

Meeting the right people

At the end of her senior year of college, Miglani was a bit nervous about the pending demands of medical school. That’s when she met , a recent transplant to Rochester and the new director of the REMS program, who inspired and reassured her.

“I was awestruck by Dr. Nobay’s knowledge and presence,” noted Miglani. “I thought: Rochester attracts the most amazing people.” Nobay—now a professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine and the associate dean for student affairs—and others like her reaffirmed Miglani’s decision to become a physician.

Miglani has never looked back. At the end of medical school, she was on track to pursue a surgical residency. Then, in her fourth and final year of medical school, Miglani did her final clinical rotation in .

“After the second or third shift in Strong Memorial Hospital’s emergency department, I realized that this—not surgery—was actually the place for me,” she says. “I fell for the people who worked in the ED and their approach to medicine.”

A career full of milestones

When it came time to match for her residency, Rochester became Miglani’s first choice—again. She wanted to stay in Strong’s ED and she did.

After her three-year residency ended, Miglani–who had become one of the ED’s chief residents–thought it was finally time to leave Rochester. Fate intervened though; her mother was diagnosed with cancer and Miglani needed to stay nearby. She spoke with , a professor and the chair of the ED, about staying another year. “Dr. Kamali told me that I could stay, but that I might never want to leave—he was right.”

Since completing her residency in 2018, Miglani has served in a variety of roles within the ED and is currently its vice chair of operations and medical director. “The ED is a special place,” she says. “Everyone is guided by a certain ethos and a commitment to each other and all those who come to us for help.”

It’s been a career full of milestones, too. For instance, in the early days of COVID, Strong sent Miglani and a small health care team to New York City to treat patients. “We got through a giant bag of unknowns and came back with tools that helped us manage our ED response when COVID hit Rochester hard,” she adds.

Miglani has also been involved in many community outreach programs, including programs with the Rochester City School District that encourage students to explore careers in medicine. In 2021, Miglani was nominated for a Greater Rochester Chamber of Commerce ATHENA Award, too, which recognizes top women leaders in the community.

Strong Expansion Project

More than 110,000 patients visited the ED in 2021 in a space designed to serve less than half of that number of people. Strong ED’s overcrowded waiting room and treatment areas are just some of the issues that the will address in phases, with scheduled completion in 2027.

The project, the largest capital project in the Ģ����ý’s history, will nearly quadruple the ED’s footprint and will have a designated triage area, distinctive waiting rooms and private treatment areas for adult and pediatric patients, and will house the Comprehensive Psychiatry Emergency Program and the Kessler Trauma Center. Plans also include a new nine-story inpatient bed tower, which will add additional floors for cardiovascular care, short-term patient observation, and future operating rooms and treatment services, along with more private inpatient rooms.

Until that happens, Miglani and the ED staff will continue to use every space possible to treat patients, from hallways to former staff areas to make-shift patient and family consultation areas. “It’s challenging, but we do our best,” she says. “This is our community, and we are here to serve it.”

Anuradha Hattangdi P’24 on lending a helping hand during the COVID-19 surge in India

In April of this year, I laid in bed isolated and panic-stricken when my kids and I were diagnosed with COVID-19. We were so careful—always wearing masks and face shields, restricting going out, not meeting friends or family. But this new infectious variant literally came to our doorstep, perhaps through a delivery person.

I was listless, my fever wasn’t breaking; I felt terribly weak and worried about my children. I couldn’t even watch television. But one of those days I did. News channels were flashing a grim situation in Delhi, registering over 1,000 new cases every hour. News bulletins covering the human catastrophe showed heartbreaking stories of people being turned away by hospitals who had run out of beds, medical supplies, even oxygen. There were queues at the crematorium. Delhi was burning.

While we were fortunate here in Mumbai with a doctor who monitored our health parameters every day and prescribed medicines which were delivered promptly to our doorstep, I felt helpless, sometimes tearful about why people couldn’t get access to basic medical services.

Focusing solely on myself while allowing time to slip away from those who needed help seemed selfish. Perhaps it was the influence of my parents: a lawyer, a principal of a women’s university, and lifelong practitioners of Gandhian community service values. They were always lending a helping hand to anyone who needed it, even those they didn’t know and those who didn’t ask. I thought about donating money, but it was clear that access to medical services was a more urgent need. That’s when I came across a news story on a collective of doctors, volunteers, and tech startups that had come together to support the healthcare delivery infrastructure by connecting with patients directly. I had been thinking of how I could help and this came right to me…it was too much of a coincidence!

The next day, I decided to pull myself up and fill out the interest form. Less than 24 hours later, I attended a two-hour online training with the task force. This was a group of dedicated volunteers who were selflessly committed to helping people they did not know halfway across our large nation. They all worked regular day jobs but had dedicated themselves to making a difference by spending a few hours each day helping those in need.

I speak directly with patients now. The conversations range from informing them that they’ve tested positive for the virus, connecting them with doctors for an online consultation, escalating cases to emergency services and teams that can deliver medicines and supplies, and finding hospitals that have vacant beds, oxygen availability, or even volunteer-driven ambulance services.

While some conversations are very hard emotionally—loss of family members, devastation, anger—at times I also hear a quiet ‘thank you’ and words of gratitude for simply having reached out to them. Such is human nature, isn’t it? In the midst of a storm, fear, chaos and death, we can still find words of kindness.

COVID-19 has created many challenges for our students, especially as they prepare to enter the workplace–Richards is stepping up to help them

Josh Richards ’12, ’14S (MS)

A key aspect of the Together for Rochester yearlong fundraising and engagement campaign is to improve career opportunities for Rochester graduates and students. Alumni like Josh Richards ’12, ’14S (MS), the business planning and analysis director for North America at Sandoz Pharmaceuticals, are helping to lead the way by offering internships. For Richards, it’s all about paying it forward.

In 2011, the year before he graduated, Richards learned about an internship opportunity at Sandoz, a division of Novartis. “I discovered that Sandoz’s CEO and president at the time—Don DeGolyer—was a Rochester alumnus and former college athlete,” says Richards, who was on the soccer team for four years. “Because we had something in common, I felt comfortable reaching out to him directly. We ended up connecting a number of times over email, which helped me secure the internship that eventually turned into a full-time job.” Richards has been with Sandoz for 10 years.

During the past few years, Richards has worked closely with Sandoz’s Human Resources department on its internship program—and he lobbies for Rochester undergraduate and MBA-level interns whenever possible. This year, Sandoz and Simon Business School’s formalized their internship partnership program, something Richards helped coordinate.

“Internships are very competitive, here at Sandoz and elsewhere, especially at the MBA level,” he says. “That’s why it is so important for students at all levels to be bold and brash, build and use their networks, and just go for it. This kind of approach will help set them apart and get them in the door.”

More than 100 undergraduate and graduate students applied for five internship spots within Sandoz’s finance department this summer, including 30 from Rochester. “We extended offers to two rising juniors from Rochester and they both accepted,” adds Richards. “And, one of our incoming MBA interns is from Simon.”

Nandini Joshi ’22

Nandini Joshi ’22, an international student with a double major of financial economics and business, is one of the undergraduate interns. She met Richards last summer via Zoom after posting her resume to Handshake, a job networking platform offered through the University’s Greene Center for Career Education & Connections. Richards was intrigued by Joshi’s resume, reached out to her, and then told her about the internships at his company. She was struck with how interested he was in helping her.

“Getting internships is especially difficult right now so I am very grateful to Josh for helping me,” says Joshi. “I’m excited that I’ll get to work in corporate finance soon where I can hone, build, and demonstrate my skills in forecasting, budgeting, and presenting—it’s a great opportunity.”

Sandoz’s internships are paid which makes them all the more competitive. “Internships give undergraduates great, real world experience,” Richards says. “The more we teach them, the more they get from the opportunity, and the more likely they will want to come back here next summer.”

Richards adds Sandoz expects a lot from its interns. “I’m a firm believer in throwing them into the fire and seeing what they can do,” he says, noting that Bryan Kim ’20, an undergraduate intern from two years ago was given an opportunity to present to the company’s chief financial officer in the first few weeks of his assignment. “Bryan did great and, after he graduated, he became a contractor with us. Right now, he’s interviewing for a full-time position here.”

“That internship was the starting point of my career,” says Kim. “Not only was I able to learn a lot about a complex industry like pharmaceuticals, but it also solidified my interest in finance. I was gaining real life experience in projects that had significant impact while also developing my technical and analytical skills.”

Richards says that alumni—in whatever fields they are in—are in a position to really help students, especially this year. “I feel it’s my responsibility to give back and help the next generation gain the experiences that will help them on their career paths,” he says. “We all can do something.”

“The Together for Rochester campaign is an opportunity to reinforce what we know is critical for today’s Rochester students—gaining experience to explore different career paths and apply what they learn here,” says Joe Testani, assistant dean and executive director of the Greene Center. “These valuable opportunities can lead to stronger networks, future job prospects, and an increased understanding of work and a students’ skill set. We hope we continue to have more alumni like Josh help current and future generations of students.”

“Even during the pandemic last summer, 100 percent of Simon’s MBA Class of 2021 had a corporate internship or pursued project work with tech start-ups or new ventures,” says Angela Petrucco, ’01W (MS), assistant dean of the Benet Center. “Simon alumni like Josh and many others helped make these opportunities possible. They understand the value of internships and support the long-term career goals of our graduates by offering career options for our candidates—we are grateful for their partnership.”

Since the pandemic hit, this alumna has attended dozens of virtual events presented by the Ģ����ý

Back in 1964, when Trixie (Sanborn) Meteyer ’67 was a freshman, she went to a lecture presented by Dexter Perkins, a prominent American historian and Ģ����ý professor. Listening to him reminded her of something her father would tell her: “Experts in their field should be able to distill their knowledge in a way that any intelligent person can listen to it, get something out of it, and enjoy it.” For Meteyer, Professor Perkins did that years ago, and many other experts have done that since.

Since the pandemic hit, Meteyer has attended dozens of virtual events hosted by the University and presented by faculty, alumni, and guest scholars. “Before the pandemic, I played a lot of bridge and went to a lot of talks, lectures, and Eastman concerts,” she says. “Now I look forward to these virtual events—I know I’ll always learn something new.”

“Lifelong learning is such a part of the culture of the URochester,” says Karen Chance Mercurius, associate vice president for Alumni and Constituent Relations. “The pandemic has allowed us to expand our academic offerings into a virtual space. This has given people–no matter where they live–access to so many educational growth and personal enrichment programs. We are thrilled with the overwhelmingly positive response from our alumni and friends like Trixie and want everyone to know that we will continue virtual lifelong learning opportunities far beyond the pandemic.”

Getting online

Trixie Meteyer ’67

Last year, Meteyer didn’t even own a computer. If she needed to check email, she would just go to the library down the street. Then in the spring of 2020, one of her daughters sent her an iPad and her other daughter encouraged her to get high speed Internet access. Her world has changed a lot since then.

“I look at every email from the University, and I sign up for everything that intrigues me,” she says. “I put the events on my calendar and often structure my days around them.”

Some of Meteyer’s favorite Experience Rochester virtual events are about diversity, equity, and inclusion. Recently, she participated in the “” lecture that featured Steven Hahn ’73, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and history professor at New York University.

“I watched it live and then watched the recorded version of it—it was that compelling,” she adds. “I told my 84-year-old cousin about it, too. Her church was doing a Black studies program and I knew she’d be interested in seeing it, which she was.” After that event, Meteyer even went out and bought one of Hahn’s books, something she often does after attending these events.

Meteyer also watched “,” which aired live in April 2020, for a second time. “It was so interesting to watch Professor Primo’s lecture again now, a few months after the election,” she says. “A year ago, he predicted that one possible outcome of the 2020 elections would be that the results were contested. He really hit the nail on the head with that one.”

For Michael Scharf’s webinar on “,” Meteyer sat in her car, in a parking lot, on her way home from a trip to New Hampshire. “It was only afterward that I discovered that my daughter, Lisa, from the Class of 1995, had listened to it, too,” says Meteyer. “She lives in California with her husband and 10- and 12-year-old children and was happy for all the advice she could get. We had fun comparing notes about the program.”

The webinar “,” with Vincent Lenti ‘60E, ‘62E (MA), an Eastman piano professor and the school’s historian, resonated with Meteyer, too. She spent the early years of her career as a librarian but for the last 50 years she’s been a professional church organist. Many years ago, David Craighead, then a professor of organ at Eastman and since deceased, gave her Lenti’s book, For the Enrichment of Community Life: George Eastman and the Founding of the Eastman School of Music. Listening to Lenti’s talk reminded her of her undergraduate years. She was a music major on the River Campus who took music lessons and theory classes at Eastman.

Watching “”—part of the University’s REAL Conversations lecture series—also struck a chord with Meteyer. “I became aware of Beverly Tatum in May 2019 when Keuka College awarded her an honorary doctorate and she gave a lecture that I attended,” she says. “ I got to sit and chat with her, and she autographed a copy of her book for my daughter, Karen, who is also a clinical psychologist.” Tatum is president emerita of Spelman College and author of the best-selling book, Why are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? And Other Conversations about Race.

Before the pandemic

Meteyer has always been very engaged with the University. Prior to the pandemic, she regularly attended University lectures. She particularly enjoyed the annual day-long Rochester Forum events at the Memorial Art Gallery that included faculty lectures and a sit-down lunch.

Two years ago, Meteyer participated in the University’s Day of Service, which involved gardening at near the Susan B. Anthony House downtown. “President Mangelsdorf was volunteering at the same event,” says Meteyer. “It was an honor to meet her. She’s a clinical psychologist just like my daughter, Karen, which made it especially interesting for me.”

Meteyer adds that she laughed when she saw the list of alumni who’d be there—the next oldest person was from the class of 2002. “That didn’t matter to me, though,” she says. “I enjoyed getting to work with other alumni and I loved meeting current students—they are so engaged and impressive.”

The most wonderful trip ever

Meteyer hopes that once it is safe to do so, the University will return to doing its day trips to Niagara on the Lake for the Shaw Festival in Canada. “I so loved those trips,” she says. “A friend and I would ride the bus together, have lunch with the group, and then see a wonderful play. Those were always great outings.”

“I also took the most wonderful trip ever to Europe with the University’s Travel Club,” she adds. “David Eisenhower was our guide at the beaches of Normandy and Professor Russell Peck was the Celtic authority who shared his knowledge in Dublin, Wales, and through the Scottish Hebrides, Orkney Islands, and Edinburgh. I will never forget that trip.”

For now though, Meteyer says she’ll continue to sign up for the University’s virtual programs. “I learn something from every virtual event I go to.”

From the pandemic front lines to Highland Hospital, Jose Perpignan, Jr. ’16N is still there for his neighbors and his community.

In the fall of 2020, Jose Perpignan Jr. ’16N got a big surprise: the Bronx resident was recognized as a “” on the syndicated TV program Live with Kelly and Ryan. “I thought I was going to pass out,” he told a local news network. A frontline health care worker who treated patients in the intensive care unit at New York Presbyterian Hospital during the height of the first wave of the pandemic, Perpignan was nominated by a friend.

His nominator wrote that after long shifts at the hospital, “Jose took action for the residents of the Soundview section of the Bronx, assisting them with tele-visits, up-to-date information, and ensuring that they had the capabilities to navigate their technology. He also supported at-risk seniors: checking in on older residents, tackling their grocery shopping needs, and picking up and delivering their needed medications.”

Perpignan graduated from Binghamton University with a degree in Africana Studies before coming to the Ģ����ý for the School of Nursing’s accelerated bachelor’s degree program.

Almost 60 years ago, the School of Nursing’s founding dean Loretta Ford and pediatrician Henry Silver pioneered the nurse practitioner (NP) role. There are now more than 355,000 nurse practitioners improving the health and lives of millions of patients across the U.S.

Jose Perpignan, Jr. ’16N is in his final year of the School of Nursing’s Family Nurse Practitioner program, with plans to complete a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) in 2026. He’s an ICU nurse at Highland Hospital and currently completing clinical hours at Allergy, Asthma, Immunology of Rochester.

Perpignan hopes to inspire future generations to pursue careers in nursing and has already set a strong example through his frontline work and advocacy. Over the past year, he received the National Black Nurses Association’s DAISY Health Equity Award for a Frontline Registered Nurse and was named the 2023-24 Advocacy Leader by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing’s Graduate Nursing Student Academy.

Learn more about Perpignan in this special alumni spotlight—in his own words.

What led you on a path to becoming a nurse practitioner?

It started with my parents. My dad was an EMT, and he used to take us to his base out in the Bed-Stuy section of Brooklyn. The volunteer ambulance service did a lot for the community, and my siblings and I were able to witness this during the summers when we spent time with them. Seeing my dad’s love and passion for his work was an introduction for me.

Around 2015, when I was in the accelerated bachelor’s program at UR Nursing, my mom was diagnosed with soft tissue sarcoma. The first place we went, they told her that she would have to have her leg amputated. I was still becoming a nurse, and I ended up looking for a second opinion. The first thing the second provider said was, “You’re going to have a granddaughter soon? Good. You’re going to be running around and dancing with her.”

I’ve seen what it looks like when you pour into the community you’re from, and when you don’t have to be a victim for not having the care you feel like you should get. This also motivated me to want to become an NP. I want to be in a position where I could educate myself, learn, grow, and be able to provide the care and treatment that patients need.

How do you feel that NPs make an impact in health care?

I believe that one’s impact as an NP extends well beyond the confines of a medical facility.

As the eldest of ten and a secondary caregiver to my siblings, I developed a gift for providing holistic care. Utilizing this gift through active listening, understanding, and meeting people where they are has created opportunities in the field to build genuine bonds, earn trust, educate, and bridge the gap between underserved communities and quality healthcare.

Perpignan received the 2023 DAISY Health Equity Award for a Frontline Registered Nurse at the annual National Black Nurses Association conference in August. The award recognize nurses whose work advances health equity, mitigate health disparities, and addresses social determinants of health.

I’m a co-founder of the Greater New York City Black Nurses Association (GNYCNBA). This opportunity put me in a space where I was able to see what was actually going on in the underserved black and brown communities, which I’m from, and helped me build trust and relationships with the community. I knew that by becoming a family nurse practitioner, I’d still be doing the community work that I love to do, addressing health care disparities, and being a familiar face.

In the GNYCBNA, we have utilized barber shops to address men’s health, and it’s been very successful because Black men don’t always like to be vulnerable in the sense of asking for help, or knowing when to ask for help and having a familiar face in a setting that is comfortable to you. We feel like that was the best place to show that, and to say, “Look, we care. We’re here, we’re showing up. We’re from the same communities you’re from. And we have the education and the resources to help you live a healthier lifestyle.”

Our chapter adopts different schools throughout New York City, and we utilize this opportunity to have students who are from underserved communities come into the nursing world. We brought students to Columbia University’s simulation center and had them act as the nurses in patient scenarios. This introduces them to something new. Some don’t even know that men can be nurses. Some don’t see folks that look like them working in these spaces. For them to see that and be engaged, it allows us to mentor them, uplift them, and provide them an opportunity to figure if this is something that they may want to do with their lives.

What is the most rewarding part of your work?

The most rewarding part is seeing patients’ outcomes. I worked throughout the entire pandemic in the ICU. I come from a large, loving family. One thing that really was meaningful to me was offering support when family members were not able to be there with their loved ones or to watch patients. People felt alone and scared, so being able to fill that void and let them know, “I may not be your family directly, but I’m here for you, and I want you to feel seen and cared for and heard.” That was impactful for me.

In general, going into the community or seeing a student that we work with who graduated high school and started their own journey into nursing is so rewarding. Patients, families, and community members are happier when they have access and trust, and they know that the issues that they haven’t had addressed prior, they have addressed now, and that they can live healthier lifestyles. Seeing families together again as they should be, in a healthier setting, is really meaningful to me.

Tell us about a faculty member or preceptor who has made a difference for you.

Dr. Kathy Rideout, who was the dean when I first started the bachelor’s program, is someone that I look up to and have a lot of respect for. I remember walking through the hallway once and saying good afternoon to her. She replied, “Oh, hello, Jose. How are you?” I was thinking to myself, “How do you know my name?” No matter how busy you are, no matter what the role or title is, the fact that you make time to get to know the students in your programs, that tells me, “I’m here, I see you, and I’m going to invest in you.”

Dr. Yvette Conyers ’07N (now associate dean for equity, diversity, and inclusion at University of Maryland School of Nursing) was a clinical instructor and mentor to me. She’s always been there to guide me. She instilled confidence in me and let me know that I had a lot of potential to do more. If I doubted myself, she was there every step of the way to show me that what she saw in me was everything that I should have seen in myself.

Nebraska state legislator Tony Vargas ’08 works to safeguard a community.

‘PRAGMATIC IDEALIST’: That’s the phrase Vargas uses to describe himself as a public servant. Last summer, Vargas tried to convince his colleagues in the Nebraska state legislature to consider his measure to protect the state’s meatpackers from COVID-19 infection. Having failed by two votes, he will reintroduce the measure in January. “One really encouraging change is that doctors and nurses and health care and infectious disease experts from our state have been using their voices to sound the alarm,” he says. “And I think it’s brought the public closer to changing their views” regarding public health mandates.

Tony Vargas experienced firsthand the tragedy of the pandemic last spring, as it ravaged the New York City region. His parents, immigrants from Peru, continued to work their jobs, as they had for decades.

Both contracted the virus. His father, Antonio, a machinist who worked onsite and in close proximity to others, spent a month on a ventilator before he died in late April.

Vargas did not see his father in that final month. In constant touch with his family in New York, he remained in his adopted hometown of Omaha, Nebraska, protecting his constituents in one of the hardest-hit areas of the state.

Vargas is the only Latino lawmaker in Nebraska’s unicameral legislature. The state and many of its public and private establishments have resisted mandates concerning masks and physical distancing. That has made the task of educating the public critical. Vargas, who represents a district in which nearly half of the population is identified as Hispanic, arranged for the first Spanish language video in the Omaha region.

He showed up everywhere from testing sites to produce distribution stands talking to Spanish-speaking constituents in their native language about the health guidelines and why they were important.

“I think it puts people at ease,” Vargas told the Omaha World Herald. “When people see me and they recognize me, and they see me with a mask and I’m telling them, ‘This is an important behavior practice that we can do to protect each other,’ more people see it as normal, and it’s not invasive, and it’s gonna help our community.”

In July, Vargas took on a greater battle: to convince his colleagues in a deeply conservative state to support mandatory protections for the state’s meatpackers. Their factories were COVID-19 hotspots, and workers and their family members were contacting their leaders, desperate for support.

The story made it all the way to the BBC, which called Vargas’s quest “a battle against time that revealed much about race, politics and workers’ rights in the pandemic.”

Vargas made his appeal in starkly personal terms, reminding his colleagues about his own loss, a tragedy magnified so many times over in the lives of the state’s meatpackers. By only two votes, his colleagues decided against considering the measure on the floor.

“There wasn’t enough time, but also there wasn’t enough will,” Vargas said in late November. “Now, we’re facing a substantial surge. But I have to remain hopeful.”

Handily reelected to a second term, Vargas will return to work in January. He has a number of items on his agenda. Among them, he says, “is to reintroduce this bill.”

This article originally appeared in the fall 2020 issue of Rochester Review magazine.

When he’s not working full time for the state’s largest health network, Timmy Li ’11, ’17M (PhD) can be found volunteering as an EMT in New York City’s Central Park.

DOUBLE DUTY: At the same time that Li ramped up his work as a volunteer EMT, his regular job got a lot more demanding, too. Director for clinical research for emergency medicine at Northwell Health in New York, Li says, “My workload increased tremendously during this time due to COVID-related research studies.”

In addition to his role overseeing clinical research for emergency medicine for New York state’s largest health network, Timmy Li has long been part of a team of volunteer EMTs, the Central Park Medical Unit, that responds to medical emergencies in the 800-plus-acre Manhattan park.

As the pandemic reached a crisis level in the city early last spring, Li, along with other volunteers in the group, pivoted to COVID-19 response throughout the city, fulfilling a critical need, as many EMTs in the area had already fallen ill.

In April, the New York Post named Li “Hero of the Day” for his role with the group.

Li did not take a leave from his full-time job. In fact, he says, “My workload increased tremendously during this time due to COVID-related research studies. During the weekdays, I worked on my Northwell duties from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., and then worked on the ambulance from 4 p.m. to midnight.” He worked most weekends on the ambulance as well.

Li continues to volunteer with the unit. “We continue to remain vigilant and are ready to supplement the New York City 911 ambulance system again, should the need arise,” he said in late October.

This article originally appeared in the fall 2020 issue of Rochester Review magazine.

As commissioner of public health for Rochester’s Monroe County, Michael Mendoza ’12S (MS) has developed a following as the go-to source for community-minded information.

What the NIH’s Anthony Fauci has been to the nation, Mike Mendoza—or, on Twitter—has been to the Rochester area: a ubiquitous presence on TV and print news, radio, and social media; and the go-to person for the most reliable and up-to-date information and advice, based on the best available science, under relentlessly shifting circumstances.

MEDICAL APPOINTMENT: Mendoza talks with patient Lakesha Devoe of Rochester during an appointment at Highland Family Medicine in Rochester. (Photograph by J. Adam Fenster)

Last spring, the Rochester area fared comparatively well. Hospitals never neared the capacity that they had prepared for, and in mid-October, data reported in the New York Times showed that Monroe County had the lowest rate of infection of any community in the nation with a population greater than 500,000. But cases have risen dramatically since then, and Mendoza, with his characteristic blend of candor and positive community spirit, is helping lead a renewed effort to educate the public.

Mendoza is a native of Chicago who earned his bachelor’s and medical degrees from the University of Chicago, later adding a master’s in public health degree, as well as a master of science degree in medical management from the Simon School, to round out his formal training. Holding faculty appointments in both the School of Medicine and Dentistry and the School of Nursing, Mendoza was widely praised for taking early and decisive action last spring that helped keep infection rates down in some of the traditional hotspots.

For example, in the early weeks and months, Monroe County faced the same challenges as every other region when it came to protecting residents of nursing homes and other longterm care facilities, as well as those who care for them. He called upon Thomas Mahoney ’83M (Res), chief medical officer at Common Ground Health—an organization itself dedicated to forging regional partnerships—to launch a collaborative group among longterm care facilities and hospitals countywide. Mahoney says that kind of leadership was not typical.

“We’re part of national organizations, and I’ve spoken to folks and presented what we did,” Mahoney said in October. “A collaboration like this, thought out by Mike, trying to get community members to work with what the county was doing, was pretty unique.” The county’s efforts included a push, forged by Mendoza, to distribute appropriate personal protective equipment, or PPE, throughout the county.

Mendoza’s job has only gotten harder this fall, however, as a weary public has begun to take less heed of the expert advice he and his colleagues in public health have offered repeatedly. As he told a local news station on the first of December, “We truly do hold the future of the pandemic in our hands.”

This article originally appeared in the fall 2020 issue of Rochester Review magazine.

Every year, Wuwei Chen ’11 goes home to celebrate Chinese New Year. This year was no different.

Except, that is was.

On January 19, Chen flew to Wuhan from New York City, where she is a vice president with HSBC Bank. Her plan was to stay with her parents in their 1000 square-foot, three-bedroom apartment for two weeks before returning to work. Chen’s aunt and uncle (who live in Beijing) were going to stay at their place, too, while visiting her grandparents.

But then COVID-19 hit.

Wuhan was the first epicenter and the world changed. That two- weeklong Chinese holiday turned into 62 days in official lockdown. In March, Chen published her coronavirus story in . Chen remained in China until late June. Here, she provides an updated reflection of her lockdown experience.

What do you want people to know about your 62-day lockdown?

My family was lucky—no one close to us contracted Covid-19. I do know a number of people who did get the virus, though. Many residents in Wuhan had people close to them die or were severely affected because of city’s normal operations changed dramatically. Their stories and experiences affected me deeply.

Despite the tragedy, many people worked together during the lockdown. This was due to many heroic actions, the collective effort of residents and the government, and support from all over the country. My wish is to bring hope to other parts of the world that are battling the pandemic right now.

Looking back, I think that the virus and the lockdown helped me become a more compassionate and understanding person. I learned first-hand how our own experiences and interests inform our views about certain events and situations. I also learned that it’s incredibly important to hear stories about people we don’t understand or necessarily agree with, so that we can stay open and pursue a productive dialogue.

Right now, with the virus still out there, the best we can do is to protect ourselves and those around us. That means being kind and helpful and doing what science and global public health experts says: wear a mask, wash hands, and practice social distancing.

The virus created so much worry, fear, and anger in people. The global divisiveness is real and disconcerting. But it’s also been a call-to-action for a lot of people, for them to be kind and do the right thing for others. I hope that we will see more love and less hatred in the future.

What was your daily life like during lockdown?

After waking up, I’d reach for my phone right away. I’d look through news and I’d check WeChat for any updates on the virus, the lockdown, and to see how my friends and family were doing in Wuhan, New York City, and around the world. I also searched for personal protective equipment and essential medical supplies in my network because I wanted to find and donate them to support local hospitals in critical need. My screen time during the lockdown skyrocketed.

My family and I took our temperatures twice each day to know our baseline, too. I made sure our family got enough protein, immune boosters, water, and sleep and I was very strict about hygiene and cleaning everything.

I tried to stay active, too, but options were limited because no one could go outside. So, I did mostly HIIT (high-intensity interval training) and barre exercises that I found on fitness apps. I also practiced making all sorts of traditional Chinese food. In New York City, I mostly eat take out, so cooking was fun and new, and it broke up the day.

A big part of everyday was getting the food and supplies for my family and neighbors. I helped coordinate shopping for about 50 families in our apartment block. That meant collecting lists from them and working with other volunteers to do the shopping. Then, we distributed the food and other items to each family. It was a huge task that took a lot of people working together to make that happen.

What was it like coming back to the U.S.?

When I heard that it was okay to travel again, I started looking for flights, but they were so expensive, especially at first. Flight availability changed quickly, too. When I found a flight to New York City, I only had two days between booking it and leaving.

Although there were many protocols and rules to follow, I was still a bit nervous, especially during a connecting flight from Los Angeles to New York City. I didn’t want to take any chances, so I don’t think I moved my mask for more than a sip or two of water over the five or so hours of U.S. travel time.

I am still in self-quarantine and haven’t been out yet to get a sense for how New York City has changed. Fortunately, I worked remotely from China and now work remotely from my apartment. I’ve been with HSBC for nearly nine years and I love my job. I manage transaction approvals for investment banking business across all industries, and I evaluate strategic innovation investment opportunity for the bank.

How did the lockdown and virus change your life?

I’ve always been a very determined, goal-oriented person. I chose Rochester because of its rigorous academic reputation and its strong ranking, especially in economics. I am still a very hard-working person, but I think I’m more patient now. This virus has made me really think about how to embrace the University’s motto of “ever better,” too. I want to make more of a difference in the lives of others, starting right now. This means paying attention to the people around me and doing something as simple as smiling or really listening, or doing something “big,” like volunteering for organizations or contributing to projects that address the economic and public health challenge triggered by Covid-19.

How has the virus affected your relationship with your family?

My parents and I have always been close, but now we are really close. Before the virus, we talked via video every week or so. Now, we text or video chat almost daily. The virus has underscored how temporary things can be. It has underscored how important my family is to me.

Wuwei Chen ’11