Students Win Pisacano Scholarships

Five fourth-year medical students have received up to $28,000 through the Pisacano Scholars Leadership Program from the Pisacano Leadership Foundation of the American Board of Family Medicine. The foundation gives scholarships each year to several students who evidence leadership, academic excellence, strong communication skills, character and integrity, and community service.

The new Pisacano scholars "have an incredible passion for excellence that will make them the next leaders of our profession," James Puffer, M.D., the foundation's president and ABFM's president and CEO, said at a luncheon for the scholars Sept. 30 in Washington, D.C.

The 2006 winners are Alana Benjamin of the University of New Mexico School of Medicine, Albuquerque; Elizabeth Enschede of Cornell University's Weill Medical College, New York; Terri Nordin of the University of Iowa's Carver College of Medicine; Suzanne Powell of the University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle; and C. Thayer White of the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill.

The Pisacano Leadership Foundation began the Pisacano Scholars Leadership Program in 1993, three years after the death of Nicholas Pisacano, M.D., founding executive director of the ABFM, "in testament to Nick's commitment to young people interested in the specialty," said Puffer.