Langford Auditorium at Vanderbilt University Medical Center was brimming with excitement and anticipation Friday, March 21, as 80 graduates of Vanderbilt University School of Medicine took turns opening their envelopes on the big stage and announcing the next stop on their medical careers: residency training.
The National Resident Matching Program reports that this year’s Match — the process of matching the preferences of applicants for U.S. residency positions with the preferences of residency program directors — had an all-time record for applicant participation.
Across the nation a total of 52,498 applicants registered for the Match, an increase of 2,085 (4.1%) over last year.
Twenty-six VUSM medical students will stay at VUMC for residency. Four couples entered the Match together.
This year, eight students will graduate with both MD and PhD degrees as part of the Medical Scientist Training Program.
The breakdown of Match specialties for residency is: internal medicine: 14; diagnostic radiology: 8; pediatrics: 8; orthopaedic surgery: 6; obstetrics-gynecology: 6; emergency medicine: 5; anesthesiology: 5; general surgery: 4; psychiatry: 3; neurological surgery: 3; physical medicine and rehabilitation: 2; pathology: 2; otolaryngology: 2; preliminary surgery: 2; urology: 1; plastic surgery: 1; oral and maxillofacial surgery: 1; ophthalmology:1; neurology: 1; interventional radiology: 1; family medicine: 1; dermatology: 1; urology research fellowship: 1; and preliminary medicine: 1.
Yanelis Diaz-Greenberg, the 2025 class president, welcomed her classmates, their families and friends, as the countdown to 11 a.m., the first moment envelopes could be opened.
Diaz-Greenberg was doubly excited for the day as she and her husband, Michael Greenberg, were participating in the Couples Match. In this process, a couple’s rank order lists of residency programs are linked, and the couple is matched with the highest ranked pair for which they’ve both been offered positions.
“To all the friends and family here, I have to say that this class has been the most supportive, hardworking class — coming in every single day with heart and determination,” Diaz-Greenberg told her classmates. “I am so proud of you all, and it’s such an honor to be all of your friends and colleagues.”
Diaz-Greenberg and her husband met six years ago when they were University of Central Florida undergraduates. They came to Vanderbilt University together for medical school and were married in September 2024. Their envelopes were popped open to reveal they are remaining in Nashville at VUMC. Her residency is in psychiatry and his is in physical medicine and rehabilitation.
“I could not have imagined going through medical school without Michael,” Diaz-Greenberg said. “We encouraged each other through difficult times and celebrated the wins, small or big. I am so grateful we got to share our dream of becoming physicians together.”
Fourth-year medical student Jullian Valadez knew where he was heading for residency before he was handed his Match Day envelope. His specialty, ophthalmology, is an early match specialty, but he wanted to surprise his family, and especially his mother, by opening the envelope with them on stage. The news that he’d be heading back home to them in Houston for a residency at Baylor College of Medicine-Cullen Eye Institute brought tears to his mother’s eyes.
“Baylor was my top choice, but somehow she was much more eager than me throughout the process,” Valadez said. “I want to note that these past four years have been fun. Yes, coursework is hard, but when everything is nested within a larger mission of bringing health to populations (and in my case, preserving vision as a process to experience and interact with the world around us), then it makes things really easy.
“Of course, I also owe a lot to the effort my mom put in raising me and centering education as a focal point for me. To come from where I came from and achieve all that I have thus far is truly a credit to the hoops she jumped through and barriers she overcame for me.”
Fourth-year medical student Carter Lovvorn said it had been an interesting experience attending medical school at Vanderbilt because his father, Harold “Bo” Lovvorn, MD, a professor of Pediatric Surgery at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, is a well-known presence on the Main Campus.
“It’s pretty crazy going to school at a place where your dad is a legend,” he said. “He’s worked here for virtually my whole life, and EVERYBODY knows him. It feels like everywhere I go (especially at Monroe Carell), there are folks coming up to me telling stories about their interactions with him. Hearing these stories from everyone from nurses to pharmacists to environmental service workers to doctors has only increased my admiration for and drive to be like him, especially in the way he treats others.
“In terms of his career influencing my choice to pursue medicine and particularly pediatrics, it honestly didn’t play a huge role. Our relationship is a dad-son relationship, not a mentor-mentee relationship. At home, we mostly talk about our shared interests in sports and grilling — although we will occasionally nerd out about a cool medical case.”
His brother, Davis, chose a career as an immigration lawyer, while medicine has been his path, and Lovvorn gives his parents great credit for “intentionally trying not to sway our paths and dreams in life.”
Lovvorn’s envelope revealed that he would remain at Vanderbilt for a pediatrics residency, so there will be countless opportunities for family grill-outs.
Residency assignments
Neha Aggarwal – Northwestern McGaw, Neurology
Amad Amedy – UCLA Medical Center, Emergency Medicine
Chinonso Ani – Emory, Interventional Radiology
Anagha Ashokan – Boston U. Medical Center, Internal Medicine
Alexandra, Belfi – UPMC Medical Education, Internal Medicine
Natalie Bennett – VUMC, Internal Medicine/ABIM Research Path
Shreya Bhatia – VUMC, OBGYN
Michael Bolos – VUMC, OBGYN
Alexander Bruno – VUMC, Pediatrics
Tina Chai – Johns Hopkins, Pediatrics
Anoop Chandrashekar – Emory, Orthopaedic Surgery
Hannah Chew – Kaiser Permanente-Fontana, Psychiatry
Anne Clinton – UPMC Medical Education, Internal Medicine
Wyatt Cole – U. of Rochester Medical Center, Urology
Margaret Comer – VUMC, Internal Medicine
Dhweeja Dasarathy – Stanford Health Care, Internal Medicine
Yanelis Diaz-Greenberg – VUMC, Psychiatry
Starina D’Souza – Children’s Hospital-Los Angeles, Pediatrics
Shady Faltaous – UC San Diego Medical Center, Radiology-Diagnostic
Kyle Fletcher – VUMC, Internal Medicine-Preliminary
Chase Frasee – VUMC, Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery
Lakshmi Suryateja Gangavarapu – VUMC, Neurological Surgery
Michael Greenberg – VUMC, Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation
Katherine Hajdu – Barnes-Jewish Hospital, Orthopaedic Surgery
Savanah Hardcastle – U. of Utah Health, Anesthesiology
Simone Herzberg – Boston U. Medical Center, Orthopaedic Surgery
Brian Hou – VUMC, Orthopaedic Surgery
Natasha Hughes – Massachusetts General Hospital, Neurological Surgery
Seohyun Im – St. Louis Children’s Hospital, Pediatrics
Naadir Jamal – VUMC, Orthopaedic Surgery
Jihoon Jang – Johns Hopkins Hospital, Internal Medicine
Maryam Jawid – Baylor College of Medicine, Orthopaedic Surgery
Natalie Jones – VUMC, Anesthesiology
Nathaniel Kelm – VUMC, Radiology-Diagnostic
Marissa Khalil – Loma Linda U., OBGYN
Lena Khanolkar – Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Radiology-Diagnostic
Sunaya Krishnapura – Stanford Health Care, Pediatrics
Shimran Kumar – UCLA Medical Center, Emergency Medicine
Alexander Landry – U. of Cincinnati Medical Center, Emergency Medicine
Michael Libre – Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Internal Medicine
Carter Lovvorn – VUMC, Pediatrics
Sean Luong – Naval Hospital Camp Pendleton, Family Medicine
Margaret McBride – Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Pediatrics/Research
Jessica McDonald – VUMC, Pathology
Grant Mercer – UC San Francisco, General Surgery-Preliminary
Jean Mok – VUMC, General Surgery
Monica Nable – U. of Washington, Radiology-Diagnostics
Sydney Nelson – VUMC, Pediatrics
Kirsten Nguyen – U. of Southern California, Internal Medicine
Yeong Ha Oh – VUMC, Anesthesiology
Gosife Okoye – Mayo Clinic School of Graduate Medical Education, OBGYN
Seungweon Park – Stanford Health Care, Radiology-Diagnostic
Ankush Patel – Northwestern McGaw, Radiology Diagnostic
Olivia Prosak – Hospital of the U. of Pennsylvania, Otolaryngology
Jessica Quintos – Kaiser Permanente-Santa Clara, OBGYN
Sweeya Raj – U. of Texas Southwestern Medical School, Otolaryngology
Chirag Ram – Barnes-Jewish Hospital, General Surgery
Derek Riffert – VUMC, General Surgery
Amelia Sawyers – Johns Hopkins Hospital, Internal Medicine
Sophie Schelhammer – VUMC, Internal Medicine
Alexander Silver – U. of Michigan Hospitals-Ann Arbor, Pathology/PSTP
X-Zavyer Smith – Barnes Jewish Hospital, Anesthesiology
Hayden Smith – U. of Arizona-Tucson, Dermatology
Lauren Sullivan – U. of Kansas-Kansas City, Plastic Surgery
Alison Swartz – VUMC, Emergency Medicine
Thomas Ueland – Boston U. Medical Center, General Surgery
Jullian Valadez – Baylor College of Medicine-Cullen Eye Institute, Ophthalmology
Niketna Vivek – VUMC, General Surgery-Preliminary
Claire White-Dzuro – Oregon Health and Science U., Radiology-Diagnostic
Zachary Williams – UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience, Psychiatry-Research
Mae Wimbiscus – Massachusetts General Hospital, Anesthesiology
Gunther Wong – Barrow Neurological Institute, Neurological Surgery
Emily Wooder – Umass Chan Medical School, OBGYN
David Wu – VUMC, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
Connie Xiao – U. of Michigan Hospitals-Ann Arbor, Emergency Medicine
Grace Xu – Medical U. of South Carolina, Internal Medicine
Yuanchu Yang – VUMC, Internal Medicine
Michael Zargari – VUMC, Internal Medicine
Olizer Zhao – Northwestern McGaw, Radiology-Diagnostic; Surgery Preliminary
