PGY-1

Tiffanie Leeman, MD
(she/her)

Medical College of Georgia

Tiffanie was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia. Her favorite foods are sushi (specifically nigiri) and boba tea. She has no pets currently, but plans to someday adopt a chihuahua. She majored in biomedical engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology; her favorite class was circuits, because this is where she met her husband. She loves our program because everyone is super friendly and interested in helping each other. In her free time, Tiffanie enjoys watching anime and playing video games; additionally, she wears EGL fashion to anime conventions. She is interested in forensic pathology.

Maya Silver, MD
(she/her)
University of Maryland School of Medicine

Maya is a “Maryland lifer” and attended both college and medical school at the University of Maryland. She loves gardening and creating homemade spice mixes from what she grows. She has a cat named Zuko who has one wonky eye. In her free time, she is usually planning a new camping trip or spending time with her family. Her hobbies include quilting, any type of arts and crafts, and soccer. Maya is tone-deaf and likes singing terrible Taylor Swift karaoke with her other tone-deaf co-resident, Katie (but not at work because we like our coworkers). Maya realized she wanted to stay at Maryland’s pathology program for residency during her MS1 year, when she shadowed in the department. She realized that this was the happiest department she had ever rotated through and loved spending time with the people.

Dakota Wheler, MD
(he/him)
AU/UGA Medical Partnership Campus

Dakota hails from Thomaston, GA. He is the proud owner of two cats, Toothless and Stormfly. His favorite food is chicken katsu curry from Bubble Cafe in Athens. His favorite college class was CAD for mechanical engineering, where he learned how to use CAD for 3D modeling, as well as how to turn those models into real-life projects in the machining workshop. He picked pathology for the opportunity to learn a huge breadth and depth of medicine, and also after realizing how wonderful the people are in this field. He loves this program in particular because all the residents and attendings truly care about helping each other out and get along very well. Also, the program strikes a great balance of getting to see a wide variety/number of cases while maintaining a good work-life balance for the residents. In his free time, Dakota plays pretty much any sport, but mainly plays Roundnet, and has been doing so for eight years (ask him about roundnet/spikeball). Other hobbies include reading, video games, trivia, and anime.

PGY-2

Elsadig Abdalla, MD
(he/him)
University of Illinois College of Medicine

Sadig (pronounced “saw-dig”) hails from Chicago. He is known to come into the pathology department on his days off when there is free food. His favorite food, accordingly, is the free food in our department. His hobbies include bicycling and birdwatching with co-residents. He is a man of ecumenical music tastes, including classical, pop, hip hop/rap, and folk/indie (not so much country, but perhaps). He was a philosophy major in college, and his favorite topics include the philosophy of mind, multiple realizability and philosophical zombies, and the Mary's room thought experiment. Sadig had never actually worn a Halloween costume prior to dressing up as Dr. Burke as a PGY1. When asked how he first discovered and chose pathology, he tells a poetic encapsulation of the experience so profound that it must be heard in person — as words don't do it justice.

Hannah Kim, MD
(she/her)
University of Tennessee Health Science Center College of Medicine


Hannah has two cats, an orange tabby named Simba and a black cat with a tiny white spot named Batman. She enjoys going to Patterson Park with her co-residents (ask her about their adorable group nickname), including the birdwatching and Pokémon Go outings. Additional hobbies include crotchet, rock climbing (with Will), video games (with Missy), and enjoying something called blind boxes of trinkets. Her favorite thing about Baltimore is its walkable but not overwhelming city experience. Her favorite people are her co-residents. Her favorite food is noodles, as these are clearly the superior carbohydrate for flavor delivery. Her top Baltimore restaurant: Ekiben, as they have excellent noodles. Hannah first found and fell in love with pathology as a histology teaching assistant as an undergrad, and realized that the people of pathology bring her joy. She chose our program after reading and enjoying the website bios. Her life goals include finding a job with a pathology bestie to share cases, like what Dr. Legesse and Dr. Burke have together.

Melissa (Missy) MacDonald, MD
(she/her)
University of Cincinnati College of Medicine

Missy hails from Ohio. Her favorite food is chicken shawarma in an unnamed restaurant associated with a grocery store in Cincinnati, which may or may not lead the state in health violations. Her favorite college classes were ballet and hip hop dancing (claims to be bad at the latter). Her favorite things to do in Baltimore include walking to Patterson Park and watching birds, rock climbing with her co-residents, going to the library on Sadig’s birthday, and watching her co-residents chase Pokémon Go. Her favorite thing about our program: she loves the kindness and support of her co-residents. The reason why she chose our residency program: the excellent residency website bios. Missy likes GI and breast pathology, and ultimately would like to practice in a teaching hospital.

William O'Connor, MD
(he/him)
University of Maryland School of Medicine

Will is a man of eclectic hobbies. Birdwatching is a big one; he got into this with his girlfriend. As of this writing, there is an ongoing migration with recent sightings of black and white warblers and prairie warblers. Additionally, we note that birdwatching shares significant overlap with certain fields of anatomic pathology, making it a great discussion topic for pathology interview season. A second significant hobby is musical instrument construction/repair: his latest projects include an Irish flute, Soviet piano, accordion, and ukulele. Additional pursuits include rock climbing and camping (he recently got Lyme disease in Virginia and not in Baltimore). His favorite thing about Baltimore: the neighborhoods have distinct personalities and one can find a niche no matter what they're into. His favorite Baltimore restaurant is Daniella's (Sardinian food). His favorite thing about our program: all of the attendings, co-residents, and employees are supportive, and he always feels comfortable at work. Will owns a cat named Sampson.

PGY-3

Kathryn Brimanson, MD
(she/her)
USF Health Morsani College of Medicine

Katie spent her undergraduate and medical school years in Florida. Her favorite class in undergrad was a course on Jane Austen. Her favorite med school class was histology. She loves pathology for the ability to work behind the scenes while having a large impact on patient care. Future goals include becoming a medical examiner and living in Edinburgh, Scotland. Katie chose our program because of the wonderful people in the department. She’s thrilled to be in Baltimore and is excited about the Maryland Renaissance Festival held each fall. She has two pets, a dog named Sirius and a cat named Remus. Her favorite food is pasta, and in her free time, she enjoys sewing her own clothes, crocheting, reading and writing.


Miranda James, MD
(she/her)
Nova Southeastern University



Miranda grew up in Melbourne, Florida. She attended the University of Florida for undergrad, majoring in chemical engineering, and Nova Southeastern University for medical school. She discovered pathology when shadowing pathologists as an undergrad and has been interested ever since. Miranda is excited about hematopathology, and also to be living outside of Florida for the first time and getting to experience real seasons in Baltimore. In her free time, she enjoys traveling, running, movies and museums.


Elisa Wang, MD
(she/her)
Stony Brook School of Medicine


Elisa was born in Toronto, Canada, and was raised in New York. Her family has since moved to New Jersey. Elisa first discovered a love of brightly colored tissue stains from her father, who is a practicing surgical pathologist. She went to Wellesley College, where she studied biology and Chinese; afterwards, she did a short stint in a cancer genomics lab. She then went on to Stony Brook University for medical school, where she took every possible opportunity to escape the OR and go to surgical pathology. Elisa would like to one day become a surgical pathologist and continue to look at pretty stains. In her free time, she enjoys trying to recreate her mother's cooking, watching niche YouTube video essays, and min-maxing cozy games.


Nate Williams, MD, Chief Resident
(he/him)
West Virginia University School of Medicine


Nate is known for his love of sports and enjoying the occasional dad joke. Hailing from West Virginia, he brings a lighthearted charm to his work. When not at his microscope, Dr. Williams can be found playing basketball. He has the impressive ability to dunk on a nine-foot hoop! He also enjoys fishing (he once caught a turtle by accident, but don't worry, he threw it back) and engaging in strategic chess games. He's a movie enthusiast, particularly fond of The Shawshank Redemption and gangster films like Scarface and Goodfellas. He infuses his work with a winning blend of sports, laughter, and West Virginia charm.


Justine Yu, MD, Chief Resident
(she/her)
University of Maryland School of Medicine


Justine grew up in Southern Maryland with aspirations of being a mad scientist. She loved the lab life so much that she completed a BS in biomedical engineering at Johns Hopkins, a PhD in bioengineering at the University of Maryland, College Park (developing and 3D-printing biomaterials for tissue regeneration), and finished medical school at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Now that she has finally graduated, she is excited to spend even more time in academia studying pathology. When she’s not handling very tiny and/or squelchy things, she enjoys going to museums, PC gaming, and building upon her expanding Lego collection.


PGY-4

Andreah De La Hoz, MD
(they/them)
University of Louisville School of Medicine


Andy was born and raised in Maryland and is thrilled to come back home for residency training. As a part of a military family, they have lived all over the country, including Kentucky, Tennessee, Florida, Louisiana, and briefly California. At the age of 10, Andy discovered pathology when their mother was studying for a nursing career and took them along to a general pathology class. Andy was instantly hooked and began a lifelong passion for pathology. They studied pathology in their free time and worked in toxicology and forensics labs. Andy is interested in forensic pathology but has since fallen for the charms of hemopathology and bone/soft tissue pathology. Outside of medicine, Andy's passions include real football (Liverpool fan), music (loves David Bowie), anime and manga, and The Lord of the Rings Trilogy.


Catherine Lee, MD
(she/her)
Northeast Ohio Medical University


Cat was raised in Dublin, Ohio, home of the Memorial Golf Tournament. In high school, she enjoyed golfing and dancing. She has a seriously impressive golf game. Cat matriculated into a combined undergraduate and medical school program at the University of Akron and Northeast Ohio Medical University and discovered the pathology field during a surgical pathology rotation. In her free time, she enjoys exploring new restaurants and coffee spots, drinking boba, traveling the world, attending concerts, watching TikToks, and spending time with family and friends. She has a pet Sheba Enu named Russet.


Lo Tamburro, MD
(they/them)

Western Michigan University


Lo grew up in the metro Detroit area. They did undergrad at the University of Michigan, studying microbiology and medical anthropology, then went straight into med school at Western Michigan University Homer Stryker MD School of Medicine, where they took on many extracurriculars but still managed to graduate. Now they're in residency and planning on a forensics fellowship because of their mild fascination with death and love of all things public health. Lo hopes to do some research on the intersections of queer health and pathology at some point as well. In their free time, they enjoy exploring local cemeteries, spending all their money on concerts and theatre, rewatching Fleabag for the millionth time, and chilling with their cats, Arya and Felix.


PGY-5

Leah Benton, MD
(she/her)
University of Tennessee Health Science Center College of Medicine


Leah was born and raised in Georgia. She received a BS in biology from Emory University, followed by an MS in biochemistry and molecular and cellular biology at Georgetown University. She attended medical school at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC). She is interested in surgical pathology and hematopathology. In her free time, Leah enjoys hiking, cycling, listening to music, crabbing, playing basketball, and attempting to learn how to rollerblade.

Cytopathology Fellow

Rhaya Murray, DO
(she/her)
Western University of Health Sciences College of Osteopathic Medicine



Rhaya grew up in Redlands, California — home of good citrus and breakfast burritos. She went to college at Texas Lutheran University in Seguin, TX, where they erroneously believe that breakfast tacos reign supreme. After completing degrees in biology and chemistry, she went back to California and worked as a lab manager for a respiratory physiology and neurobiology research lab at Loma Linda University. She stayed in sunny SoCal and attended Western University of Health Sciences for medical school. Now she's in Baltimore, desperately trying to find decent tacos. Rhaya is interested in GI pathology. When she's not at the microscope, Rhaya can be found swing dancing and knitting/wearing vintage clothes.


Hematopathology Fellows

Jacob Dear, MD
(he/him)
Cooper Medical School of Rowan University

Jake was born and raised in Mullica Hill, NJ. He has a sheepadoodle named Walker (after the white walkers in Game of Thrones). He met his wife when she trained him in performing PCR testing (as many great romances begin). Upon reflection, his favorite food is beef Wellington. He joined the military during medical school in the Health Professions Scholarship Program and has participated in exciting training, including night land navigation, rifle and hand-to-hand combat training, and field medical simulations. Jake chose hematopathology for the blend of anatomic pathology and cutting-edge ancillary studies. He plans to pursue his passion for education and would enjoy someday becoming a program and lab director.

Sarah Helman, MD
(she/her)
University of Maryland School of Medicine


Sarah grew up in Elkridge, MD, and received an undergraduate degree in cell biology and molecular genetics from the University of Maryland, College Park. After graduating, she continued her tour of Maryland with a two-year post-bac at the NIH in Bethesda, studying T-cell immunotherapies for HPV-associated cancers. Then she attended medical school at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, where she fell in love with pathology and decided to stay for residency. Sarah is interested in pursuing fellowship training in hematopathology. In their free time, Sarah and her fiancé, Connor, enjoy walking around a nearby lake, hiking, sharing their enthusiastic love of Maryland, and snuggling with their cat, Samwell (of House Tarly).