PURCH Student Awards

Every year, PURCH honors two students with awards. There's the PURCH Trailblazer Award and the Anthony Lovell MD Memorial Endowed Award for Excellence.

PURCH Trailblazer Award

What is a Trailblazer?

A trailblazer doesn't just develop something new—a trailblazer prepares the way for others to follow.

A trailblazer sees potential and continually seeks opportunity and improvement.

A trailblazer takes initiative, is willing to go where no one has ever been, to do what no one has ever done.

A trailblazer leads the way.

The Trailblazer Award

Dr Deirdre Buckley 2022 Trailblazer Award CompassThis annual award recognizes a 4th year or graduating PURCH student who epitomizes the following characteristics through their actions and/or the trail they blazed.

Personal qualities of strength, courage, and resilience
Relentless in their pursuits while also embracing—and learning from—failures or setbacks
Carves new paths towards success for themselves and others and, in so doing, uphold the PURCH principles through inclusivity, humility, and excellence.

Trailblazer Award recipients receive an engraved compass.

"Take pride in how far you have come and have faith in how far you can go."

2022 Trailblazer Award

Deirdre Buckley, MD

Dr Deirdre Buckley 2022 PURCH graduate

Deirdre Buckley, a future OBGYN, worked to develop unique research opportunities with Dr. Elizabeth Peacock-Chambers in the Department of Healthcare Delivery and Population Science that combined her love for women's health with her interest in opioid abuse and populations who are usually marginalized.

She helped bring opportunities at Planned Parenthood to PURCH students doing rotations in Springfield, and hosted events to support PURCH's emphasis on social and structural determinants of health. Buckley also led Med Students for Choice and the OBGYN interest group at the main UMass Chan Medical School campus. Beyond that she has been a compassionate classmate, providing mentorship and professional development advice to students in all PURCH classes.

Inaugural 2021 Trailblazer Award

The first-ever Trailblazer Award was presented to our entire inaugural cohort of students. These 19 students had an instrumental role throughout their entire four years as co-creators of the Population-based Urban and Rural Community Health track.

PURCH Class of 2021 Graduation

Andrew Boylan, MD

Colton Conrad, MD

Juliana Dixon, MD

Kirstin Lee, MD

Wendy Ma, MD

Poornima Manikantan, MD

Elisabeth McGovern, MD

Caleb Noone, MD

Kathryn Norman, MD

Afua Nti, MD

Emily Nuss, MD

Tatiana Petrovich, MD

Prithwijit Roychowdhury, MD

Laura Schwartz, MD

Alay Shah, MD

Daniel Wenzel, MD

Kevin White, MD

Amanda Whitehouse, MD

Wanlu Xu, MD

Anthony Lovell MD Memorial Endowed Award for Excellence

The Lovell Award honors the outstanding achievements of a graduating medical student from UMass Chan Medical School - Baystate who is returning to Baystate Health for residency training, with a preference for internal medicine or other primary care-related residency.

The awardee epitomizes Anthony P. Lovell, MD's life-long commitment to serving the community and providing highly skilled and deeply compassionate medical care to patients, and also shows great promise for a remarkable career in medicine.

This award is funded by a grant from the Lovell family.

This award honors Dr. Lovell’s legacy and helps Baystate Health to continue attracting the best and brightest future physicians to the region.

Kevin Hinchey MD, Senior Associate Dean of Education, UMass Chan-Baystate

2022 Inaugural Lovell Award Recipient

Molly Ingemi, MD

Internal Medicine Residency

Dr. Ingemi's clinical interests include addiction medicine, care for under-served communities, and care for critically ill patients.