HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine will welcome alumni and their families back to Huntington for its 35th annual homecoming and reunion celebration Sept. 30 and Oct. 1.

The School of Medicine Alumni Association will host a student-alumni networking lunch Friday, Sept. 30, at noon, followed by a series of lectures:

• 1:15 p.m.: “EMS to the ED and Beyond…Things I Wish I Had Heard Earlier in My Career” with Danny M. Phillips, M.D., (‘87), former emergency medicine physician and retired owner and medical director of MedAccess Urgent Care PLLC
• 2:15 p.m.: “COVID: Past, Present and Future” with Michael E. Kilkenny, M.D. (’82), CEO and health officer for Cabell-Huntington Health Department
• 3:15 p.m.: “Remembering Your Why: The Power of the Patient Experience” with Betsy A. Dovec, M.D., FACS, FASMBS, (‘07), renowned weight loss and bariatric surgeon and medical director of the Digestive Health and Surgery Institute for AdventHealth in Orlando, Florida

That evening, the School of Medicine will host a reception at 6 p.m. followed by its annual reunion banquet at 7 p.m. in the John Marshall Room at the Marshall Memorial Student Center. The banquet will celebrate the classes of 1982, 1987, 1992, 1997, 2002, 2007, 2012 and 2017 and present the 2022 Distinguished Alumnus Award to Phillips.

Phillips is a native of Fairmont, West Virginia. His path to medical school started as an emergency medical technician, followed by military service as a flight medic. After graduating from the Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine in 1987 and completing his emergency medicine residency at Akron General Medical Center, he served as flight surgeon for the West Virginia and North Carolina Army National Guards and worked as an ER physician in various hospitals in Ohio, North Carolina and South Carolina from 1990 to 2008 before he and his wife, Sandy, and another fellow physician started their own urgent care group in the Raleigh-Durham area of North Carolina. The practice, MedAccess Urgent Care, flourished to include four urgent care centers, until they sold the business in 2017. In 2022, Phillips served as the assessment team physician on two North Carolina Baptists mission trips to Poland and the Ukraine.

On Saturday, Oct. 1, at 10 a.m., alumni will have the opportunity to meet Marshall University President Brad D. Smith during a brunch at the President’s Home. The weekend concludes with a tailgate party in front of the Marshall Sports Medicine Institute that is open to all School of Medicine alumni, family and friends prior to the home football game against Gardner-Webb University.

Educational sessions are open to the public. Registration is encouraged. For more information, visit jcesom.marshall.edu/homecoming or contact Linda S. Holmes, director of development and alumni affairs at the School of Medicine, by phone at 304-691-1711 or by e-mail at holmes@marshall.edu.

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Media Contact: Michele McKnight, Marshall Health/Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine, 304-691-1713

Date Posted: Thursday, September 15, 2022