new faculty

Dozens of women to benefit from gift to UConn Foundation

Dr. Bruce Liang, Dean of the UConn Health School of Medicine, Wanita Thorpe, academic administrative manager of the Neag Comprehensive Cancer Center, Sue Tenore and Adam Clemens of the Linda Clemens Breast Cancer Foundation, Richard Carbray Jr. of the Linda Clemens Breast Cancer Foundation, the UConn Health Board of Directors and UConn Board of Trustees, and Dr. Andrew Agwunobi, executive vice president for health affairs at UConn Health. (Photo by UConn Provost Mun Choi).

Up to 60 women who are either uninsured or underinsured will receive free and potentially life-saving mammograms this year at UConn Health, thanks to a recent $6,000 donation from the Linda Clemens Breast Cancer Foundation.

“Many of these women would not go for mammograms otherwise because they have no coverage,” says Richard Carbray Jr., a member of the UConn Health’s board of directors who helped facilitate the gift.

The gift, to be paid in two $3,000 installments, was presented to the UConn Foundation’s Linda Clemens Fund at a recent UConn Health board of directors meeting. The funds will help support the mammogram program.

“We’re trying to reach out to as many as we can in the community, really the Hartford-based community. It’s about trying to get out there and work together to eradicate the disease,” says Carbray, who also sits on the board of directors of the Linda Clemens Breast Cancer Foundation and recently was elected to his second term as a member of UConn’s Board of Trustees.

This is the second year the Linda Clemens Breast Cancer Foundation has made the generous donation to the Carole and Ray Neag Comprehensive Cancer Center at UConn Health. The program has already provided 35 free mammogram screenings.

“That means a whole lot to us, just the fact that there were 35 women out there who really couldn’t have afforded it and we helped them,” says Adam Clemens, one of the founders of the Linda Clemens Breast Cancer Foundation.

“Breast cancer survival rates increase exponentially the earlier you catch it,” Clemens says.

Breast cancer survivor Rosanne Palazzolo started the foundation in 2011 with Clemens, who lost his own mother, Linda, to breast cancer when he was 7 years old. Their first fundraiser, the Pink Glove Gala, was so popular it has become an annual event.

About a year ago, with Carbray’s help, the Linda Clemens Foundation asked to meet with leaders of UConn Health’s breast program to inquire about how they could partner together. They decided to focus on early detection through annual screenings for underserved and uninsured women.

“Our comprehensive breast team educates women at various community outreach events throughout the year on 3D mammography and early detection,’’ says Wanita Thorpe, academic administrative manager for the Neag Comprehensive Cancer Center. “But to tell a woman with no insurance we can offer her a free mammogram can be life changing.’’

In addition to funding the mammograms, the Linda Clemens Foundation provides “chemo care bags” for UConn patients that consist of games, lotion, nail care items, hats, and candy.

The foundation has also donated 30 $50 Stop & Shop cards for patients who sometimes fall on hard times during their cancer treatments, Thorpe says.

–Jack Cramer, UConn Foundation

Meet some of the new clinicians who recently have joined UConn Health.

Dr. Mario Perez	Dr. Mario Perez, a graduate of the UConn School of Medicine Categorical Internal Medicine Residency Program, is back at UConn Health as a member of the clinical faculty. Perez is a pulmonologist who primarily sees patients in the intensive care unit. He completed a pulmonary and critical care medicine fellowship at the Yale School of Medicine and concurrently earned his MPH at the Yale School of Public Health. His M.D. is from Universidad Nacional de Colombia in Bogatá, Colombia. Perez is board certified in internal medicine, pulmonary disease, and critical care medicine. He speaks English and Spanish.
Dr. Ethan Bortniker	Dr. Ethan Bortniker is a gastroenterologist seeing patients at the UConn Health Outpatient Pavilion and the Colorectal Cancer Prevention Center in Farmington. He recently completed a fellowship in gastroenterology and hepatology at the UConn School of Medicine and a residency in internal medicine at the Boston University School of Medicine, where he also earned his M.D. He is board certified in internal medicine and has clinical and research interest in colon cancer prevention and motility disorders. Bortniker holds the additional title of director of colorectal clinical research.
Dr. Ridhi Bansal	Dr. Ridhi Bansal is a primary care physician seeing patients at UConn Health in Canton. She is board certified in internal medicine and her clinical interests include women’s health, geriatrics, preventive medicine and endocrinology. Bansal completed an internal medicine residency at Danbury Hospital (affiliated with the Yale School of Medicine) and is a graduate of Dayanand Medical College and Hospital in India. She speaks English, Hindi and Punjabi.
Dr. Tilahun Gemtessa	Dr. Tilahun Gemtessa is an infectious diseases physician who is working primarily with Correctional Managed Health. He also sees patients in the ID practice in the UConn Health Outpatient Pavilion. His areas of clinical interest include HIV/AIDS, hepatitis C and international health. He is a graduate of the UConn School of Medicine Infectious Diseases Fellowship Program, and did his residency training in internal medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx and Howard University Hospital in Washington, D.C. His M.D. is from Jimma University in Ethiopia. Gemtessa is board certified in internal medicine.
Lindsay Osborne, APRN	Lindsay Osborne is an APRN who sees patients in UConn Health’s family medicine practice in Plainville. She holds a master’s in nursing from the University of Saint Joseph in West Hartford and a bachelor’s in nursing from Simmons College in Boston.