Thoughts from the Chair

Colleen T. Fogarty, M.D., M.Sc.

It’s hard to believe that I’ve been back from sabbatical now longer than I was away. 2025 has seen several departures in the department. Doug Stockman, MD, faculty in the department for 35 years, and the lead for our global health Honduras program, has retired and will stay on to lead several more resident trips. Dr. Betsy Naumburg, faculty in the department for 39 years, stepped back from her practice of decades. She will continue as medical director and do resident teaching. Dr. Michael Mendoza, faculty for 16 years, left the department for another leadership opportunity. Dr. Celeste Song, Associate Residency Program Director, who has been with us since the start of her faculty development fellowship in 2011, left in August to pursue new opportunities in Prince Edward Island, Canada. 

Managing the transition of these three busy family physicians to their new clinician, whether another FM faculty member, a Nurse practitioner, or a FM resident is challenging. And each time I meet one of their patients, I’m reminded of the value of continuity of care across years and in these cases, decades. We thank Doug, Betsy, and Celeste for their years of outstanding patient care, teaching, and scholarship. By this time next year, we anticipate having several new faculty join us. 

In exciting news, the faculty that we hired in 2020—in the midst of the pandemic—have settled into their roles and are all thriving. They are up for reappointment at the assistant professor level. When I conduct annual faculty reviews, it’s thrilling to see the outstanding teaching and clinical care they do, as evidenced by patient comments on patient surveys and the various resident evaluations. 

Our practice, as part of the larger medical center, introduced ambient listening last year in our clinical practices, which relieves the burden of manually writing notes, both in terms of the physical act of typing and the cognitive load of remembering details to enter in the chart later. 

We have faced some challenges with some of our research funding in our new federal climate. Our researchers continue to pursue funding for their important work through NIH and other mechanisms, despite programmatic changes and delays. 

While we celebrate the 40-plus years of strong collaboration with first Westside Health Services, and since 2011, Jordan Health, we are very sad to announce that we are closing the residency training site at Brown Square at the end of this academic year. The needs of the health center in this era are such that hosting a residency has become increasingly challenging. We plan to continue to cover the maternity patients at Brown Square and Woodward and will look for elective opportunities for our residents in the future. 

I had the opportunity to visit Jones Memorial Hospital in Wellsville NY, this fall. Jones is a rural hospital 95 miles from Rochester, in Allegany County, and an affiliate of URMC. Our maternity fellows each do a month or two of training there and have consistently given positive feedback about the experience. It was great to meet the leadership as well as the labor and delivery staff, who enjoy working with our fellows. I also had the opportunity to visit the Jones practice in Andover, N.Y., where Dr. Ryan Nightingale, a residency grad from 2022 has a thriving practice. 

The practice and teaching of family medicine is rapidly changing in the world around us, and we are continuing to evolve and change to meet the moment. 

1/15/2026