Class of 2023 hooded at Academic Hooding Ceremony

Donavon Dahmer addresses his classmates at the Academic Hooding Ceremony.

On a beautiful spring morning, 74 senior medical students and four doctoral candidates gathered at the Mitchell Center on Thursday, May 4, for the Frederick P. Whiddon College of Medicine’s Academic Hooding Ceremony. 

Supported by their families, faculty and staff, the students received their academic hoods from people of their choosing. Graduating medical students took the Hippocratic Oath, and those with a military affiliation took the military oath of office and received their new rank.

When they receive their degrees at the University of South Alabama’s Spring Commencement on Friday, May 5, the Class of 2023 will become the 48th class to receive medical degrees from the Whiddon College of Medicine, bringing the total number of physicians to graduate since the medical school’s opening to 3,055.

Caleb Butts, M.D., speaks to the Class of 2023.

Caleb Butts, M.D., an assistant professor of surgery and 2012 alumnus of the Whiddon College of Medicine, was selected to address the class. He reminded the students that in order to do something well, first they must do it poorly. 

“No matter the skills you struggle with, do not attempt to hide them but work on them,” he said. “Whether that’s examining patients, presenting to faculty, performing procedures, or discussing a patient with a consultant, don’t try to hide from the hard stuff. Practice, practice, practice.”

Butts cautioned against what he called the accomplishment treadmill: “We think that the next accomplishment will be the one that makes us happy. … This robs us of the joy of life.” Instead, he encouraged the class to “get off the treadmill. Build your life now.”

The Class of 2023 selected Donavon Dahmer to give the class response. During his third year of medical school, Dahmer founded The Lamp Project, a faith-based nonprofit dedicated to educating and raising awareness of eye diseases in communities that are disproportionately affected by vision loss and impairment. 

Dahmer, who matched in the ophthalmology residency program at University of Iowa Health Care, left his classmates with three phrases of wisdom from the Book of Micah in the Bible: “to act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly.” Regardless of their faith as individuals, Dahmer said, “I think we can all agree that as physicians we are called to do this.”

Jazmyne Tabb is hooded by her mother.

Fourth-year medical student Jazmyne Tabb said she was eager to celebrate with her family and friends as well as future black and brown physicians. “The biggest thing on my mind about this next chapter is initiating and executing my goals of increasing diversity in medicine, providing patient education and improving access to quality care while concurrently being a resident, learning how to be a radiation oncologist,” she said. “I don’t want to wait until I finish my training to begin impacting the field.” 

Tabb will begin her residency in radiation oncology at the University of California San Diego. She said her youngest brother’s 10-year fight against leukemia ignited her interest in cancer care. “While my brother’s journey introduced me to radiation oncology, my personal experiences in the field brought awareness to the disparities in cancer care and my ability to address these,” she said. 

A native of Chicago, Tabb grew up in a single-parent household as the eldest of three children and came to the University of South Alabama on a track scholarship. “My family’s story is a testament of hope despite insurmountable odds,” she said. “I wish to continue this testament and bring hope for the future, hope that there continues to be innovative and effective therapies to treat cancer, and hope that black and brown children will see their place in medicine through minority physician representation.” 

Christopher Johnson has his sights set on diagnostic radiology, but he didn’t have to look far for inspiration. His mother, Leigh Ann Cashwell, M.D., a diagnostic radiology specialist affiliated with George Regional Hospital in Lucedale, Mississippi, is a 2001 graduate of the Whiddon College of Medicine.

Christopher Johnson is hooded by his grandparents.

“It’s been very interesting working with attendings that were previously my mother’s classmates. I always make them feel old because my mother had me at the beginning of her M2 year in school,” he said. “But I appreciate going into a field that she is trained in. I always have someone to reach out to while trying to learn this specialty.”

Johnson put what he learned into practice earlier this year during the first medical mission trip to Rwanda since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Before he begins his residency with USA Health, he will travel to Senegal as part of another medical mission trip, again led by the Christian Medical Ministry of South Alabama.

“I’d like to grow more in my faith, and participating in these trips allows me to make a difference helping underserved communities while doing so and has the added benefit of allowing me to see more of the world,” he said. “I am very proud to have successfully made it through my schooling and to have matched into radiology. It is a blessing that this path was open for me to take.”

Meredith Gwin, a doctoral candidate in the Basic Medical Sciences Graduate Program, was hooded by her faculty mentor, Troy Stevens, Ph.D., professor and chair of physiology and cell biology. 

“The majority of my time as a Ph.D. student has been incredible – incredibly challenging but, more importantly, incredibly rewarding and gratifying,” she said.

Troy Stevens, Ph.D., hoods Meredith Gwin.

A native of Daphne, Alabama, Gwin has spent the last several years in the graduate program's physiology and cell biology track and as a researcher in the USA Center for Lung Biology. Her research has focused on the role the GSAP protein plays in the response to bacterial pneumonia in the brain, heart and lungs.

Her post-graduation dilemma is deciding between accepting a research associate position at USA in the Center for Lung Biology and the neonatology division, or a post-doctoral fellowship at Yale University in the department of pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine.

“I don’t think it’s quite hit me that it’s over,” she said. “It feels like I’ve crossed the finish line in the longest marathon of my life, but the adrenaline is still rushing. It’s the end of a very significant chapter of my life, so I’m a little bit in my feels about it being over.”

Several faculty awards also were announced at the Academic Hooding Ceremony. They are:

• Best Pre-Clerkship Module: Respiratory
• Best Pre-Clerkship Educator: Abu-Bakr AL-Mehdi, M.D., Ph.D.
• Best M3 Clerkship: Obstetrics & Gynecology
• Best Clerkship Educator: Nicolette Holliday, M.D., and T.J. Hundley Jr., M.D. 

View more photos from the ceremony on Flickr. 

Watch a video of the livestream on YouTube.