In the video, Dr. Bleich discusses maternal health initiatives by the North Texas Maternal Health Accelerator (MHA) to improve maternal health outcomes in North Texas. The MHA is led by the Burnett School of Medicine at TCU and University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center’s research on iron supplements that could significantly reduce severe obstetric complications (SOCs) in pregnant women, which is one of the leading causes of maternal mortality.
TCU’s “Explained in 60 Seconds” video seriesfeatures the university’s faculty experts sharing their knowledge on popular topics. The video series was developed by Amy Peterson, Assistant Director of Social & Multimedia Strategy at TCU, and her award-winning social media team.
“I think that a global health clinical elective such as this one really helps the students appreciate their medical education in the United States,” said Hari Raja, M.D., Professor at Burnett School of Medicine at TCU.“I think this will open their eyes to a whole different world of healthcare.”
For Bhavana Sreepad, MS-4, the trip was a chance to return to where she was raised. “Coming back was a very wonderful opportunity for me,” said Sreepad, who participated in the global health away rotation with classmates Jessica Ericson, MS-4, Simar Goyal, MS-4, Joel Raj, MS-4, and Akhila Sonti, MS-4.
Sreepad still has family in Bengaluru and said helping patients in India was her way to give back to the community she grew up in.
“I was surrounded by so much love with all my people around me,” said Sreepad, who matched in anesthesiology at Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. “This was an incredible experience, and I think this will help me be a better doctor for my future patients.”
Amanda Block, MS4 and Andrew Goh, MS4 at Burnett School of Medicine at TCU, both matched at University of North Carolina Hospital at Chapel Hill. Block matched as a psychiatry resident and Goh matched as an emergency medicine resident.
The couple met when they first arrived at the Burnett School of Medicine. They were in the same small group session during Introduction to Medicine.
Another Burnett School of Medicine couple, Amir Akhavan, MS4 and Bhavana Sreepad, MS4, matched into residency programs at Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago.
Akhavan matched as a physical medicine and rehabilitation resident and Sreepad matched as an anesthesiology resident.
“I’m so proud of everything she’s achieved,” Akhavan said of Sreepad. “The amount of work she put into her rotations and the care she puts into her patients is wonderful. I’m just proud of her.”
The couple met as freshmen at University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) after being introduced by mutual friends. After completing their undergraduate degrees, they both decided the Burnett School of Medicine would be the best place to grow into physicians.
“It’s so nice to see the person he’s grown into and it’s so nice to see where we were and where we both are today,” Sreepad said.
FORT WORTH –Medical students from the class of 2026 at the Anne Burnett Marion School of Medicine at Texas Christian University have made their way into some of the top medical residency programs in the United States.
The National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) announces residency match results to all medical students in the United States at the same time on the third Friday in March. This year, students at Burnett School of Medicine at TCU celebrated learning their match with a music festival-inspired Match Day.
Attending medical school is a journey that gets most students out of their comfort zone. For Joohi Maknojia, MS4 at Burnett School of Medicine, it wasn’t just medical school pushing her out of her comfort zone.
“That was my first time apart from my twin sister,” Maknojia said. “We grew up together. We went to University of Texas together. She helped me move in and stayed with me for a month because her medical school started later and the first day she left, I didn’t know how to function.”
Her twin sister Roohi attended the University of Houston Tilman J. Fertitta Family College of Medicine. It didn’t take long for the faculty, staff and students at Burnett School of Medicine to help ease Maknojia’s transition.
“During Introduction to Medicine, we went to an elementary school and did a mural painting, and it was so fun,” Maknojia said. “Everyone was so kind and caring. All my classmates and peers were very receptive to the idea. I was a little bit out of my comfort zone, and they made the most effort to make sure I felt included.”
Maknojia would soon find her place as a medical student with a focus on pediatrics and servant leadership. That was something her mother instilled in her and her sister from birth.
“My mom had a complicated pregnancy with us and me and my sister were Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) babies,” Maknojia said. “The one thing she would always said is if my daughters live, they will lead a life of soul and service.”
That message from her mother would really begin to take shape for Maknojia during the Clinical Skills curriculum at Burnett School of Medicine. Using Standardized Patients (SPs) students get hands on learning where they practice patient interviewing and empathetic communication skills. The sessions are also paired with manikins that use artificial intelligence to communicate, and they learn point of care skills like ultrasound assessments.
“I was able to go in there and speak independently and find my own voice and see this is how I like to lead and this is not what I like to do,” Maknojia said.
Maknojia matched in pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine – Houston and her sister matched at HCA Houston Healthcare in emergency medicine. Luckily, they’ll both be living in the same city during residency.
“If I’m ever needing her support or she’s ever needing my support, we’ll be right down the street from each other,” Maknojia said.
Understanding a patient’s story is a powerful skill in healthcare. It helps physicians meet patients where they are and create the best care plan for them.
Simar Goyal, MS4 at Burnett School of Medicine, has always valued storytelling because it what lit the spark to pursue medicine in her as a child. Her grandparents were physicians in India. Her grandmother was an anesthesiologist, and her grandfather was an otolaryngologist. Both shared stories with her about their work.
“We would talk on the phone a lot and they would tell me stories about their experiences,” Goyal said.
Growing up in Rockland County, which is just outside New York City, she saw community members struggle accessing healthcare. The stories her grandparents shared were always rooted in improving the community by removing barriers to care.
“In India, it’s very different because your community are the patients and my grandma always said her patients were her best friends,” Goyal said. “I fell in love with that idea that someone could be treated, and also be considered part of the family.”
Goyal wanted to continue a legacy of serving others through medicine.
“My grandmother would always call me Dr. Simar,” Goyal said.
She attended Baylor University for her undergraduate degree before coming to the Burnett School of Medicine at TCU. As she navigated medical school and the Longitudinal Integrated Clerkship (LIC) curriculum, she gravitated toward becoming a surgeon.
“I think the Operating Room (OR) is the most genuine place where there’s a lot of teamwork from all different aspects and working together for one common goal,” Goyal said.
She matched in General Surgery at NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital. She will be return to the New York City area to make the same community impact her grandparents made in India.
“I’m really excited to be a surgeon,” Goyal said. “I’ll be in a place that values me, and also a place where I can make an impact in the community.”
Lauren Hui and her family react to her residency match reveal. She matched in Vascular and Interventional Radiology at Yale.
Your dreams and aspirations for your life can be rooted in your own ambitions. Other times your aspirations can be fueled by others that came before you.
Lauren Hui, MS4 at Burnett School of Medicine, says her dream to become a physician is also about completing a journey for her grandfather.
“He didn’t get the opportunity to go to medical school back in the cultural revolution,” Hui said.
Hui is a first-generation American whose parents moved to California from Hong Kong. She grew up speaking Cantonese with her grandparents.
“I feel like I owe it all to those who came before me,” Hui said.
Hui matched into interventional radiology at Yale School of Medicine. Interventional radiology is one of the most difficult medical specialties to match with only 150-200 spots in the U.S. available. Demand for the medical specialty is high, but the number of positions has grown slowly making it one of the most competitive specialties, according to the Residency Program List website.
Hui becomes the third medical student from the Burnett School of Medicine to match into the competitive specialty. Jonas Kruse, M.D., ‘23, matched in interventional radiology at University of California Los Angeles Medical Center and Amir Mostafavi, M.D., ‘24, matched at University of Michigan – Ann Arbor.
“To find out that someone wants me to be at their program and wants to train me and make sure I’m the best doctor is very validating,” Hui said.
She’s wanted to be a physician since the eighth grade, but her journey to get there truly began in 2022 when she became a part of the Burnett School of Medicine’s fourth matriculated class. She originally thought she would go into general surgery, but early clinical exposure she received through the Longitudinal Integrated Clerkship (LIC) curriculum made her realize she wanted something different.
“What I ended up falling in love with is working with different patients across the whole body,” Hui said. “There’s so much new innovation coming along in this field that I just wanted to be a part of that.”
Cort Ewing
Cort Ewing, wearing lanyard, and his family celebrate on Match Day.
Growing up in Texas, Cort Ewing looked up to his father who was the first in his family to attend college and had a stellar career in sales.
“He was always able to go and meet people where they were and meet those needs with a product,” said Ewing, MS4 at Burnett School of Medicine.
Ewing chose a career path that also allows him to meet people where they are. “I think being a physician is somewhat the same where you go and find what people’s needs are, and help them with treatment and care plans with compassion,” he said.
His path to becoming a physician started as an undergraduate at TCU. Early on, he realized that medicine combined two of his favorite things: people and science.
“Where else do you get that combination of learning and growing in a field that has such depth and complexity while also being able to apply that to the lives of people?” Ewing said.
In 2022, he began his medical journey at the Burnett School of Medicine at TCU.
The Longitudinal Integrated Clerkship (LIC) curriculum put him and his classmates in hospital settings with patients from the moment they began medical school and throughout their time here.
“When you’re learning something in your cardiology block, for example, you can see how learning the material is going to directly contribute to patient care,” Ewing said.
That ingrained medical knowledge led Ewing to match at University of Oklahoma College of Medicine for otolaryngology, or ENT (Ear, Nose, and Throat). During his away rotation at Oklahoma, Ewing saw the healthcare team’s patient-centered approach.
It’s a place that holds those same values as the Burnett School of Medicine, he said.
This accomplishment will be setting another milestone in his family. Ewing is the first person in his family to become a physician or work in the healthcare profession.
“It’s a real honor to be that person for my family,” Ewing said. “I wish my dad’s parents were here to see this; I think they would have really been honored to see that since they didn’t attend college themselves.”
Angela Abarquez
Angela Abarquez. MS4, reveals she matched in internal medicine at Ochsner Clinic Foundation in Louisiana.
As a medical student, there are moments when you might feel unsure of where you belong.
“There were a lot of moments where I felt like: ‘Am I really doing anything to help the patients?’,” said Angela Abarquez, MS4 at Burnett School of Medicine.
She felt those feelings early in the medical school’s unique Empathetic Scholar® curriculum. It puts students alongside a physician and their patients at the start of their medical education.
“I found that by communicating with them consistently in an empathetic way and putting thought behind my actions really did make a difference in their care,” Abarquez said.
That level of empathy is something that Abarquez has always valued growing up as an only child in a religious household. She was born in the Philippines and her family moved to Austin, before finally settling in Alamo a suburb in Northern California.
“My mom still sings in the church choir to this day, and I lean on my church community a lot,” Abarquez said. “Being an only child, I delved into work in the community a lot because I genuinely like to be around people.”
When choosing a medical school, Burnett School of Medicine was her top choice because of the emphasis in training physicians who have both medical knowledge and empathy.
“I knew I wanted a place that really valued physician communication,” Abarquez said.
The early clinical exposure she received prepared her to match in internal medicine at Ochsner Health in New Orleans.
Through the LIC curriculum, medical students spend four years being a member of a healthcare team at multiple hospital partners in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. They are trained in seven of the major medical specialties: Emergency Medicine, Internal Medicine, Neurology, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Pediatrics, Psychiatry and Surgery.
“In the beginning, I was so shy and I was so nervous, but now I feel like I can be who I am more and be confident,” Abarquez said. “I think that’s something that came with all the exposure.”
In residency, she plans to continue to learn and practice patient care with empathy:“I want to remember the kindness and thoughtfulness that I’ve learned here and make sure I carry that in every interaction I have going forward.”
FORT WORTH – The entire class of 2026 at the Anne Burnett Marion School of Medicine at Texas Christian University matched into competitive medical residency programs across the United States and in Texas.
TheEmpathetic Scholars® will begin the next chapter of their careers as resident physicians at high profile health care systems such as Yale School of Medicine, Rush University Medical Center, University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) Medical Center, UT Southwestern Medical Center and more in the coming months.
“These medical students have learned medicine in Fort Worth, which has one of the most diverse healthcare communities in the country,” said Stuart D. Flynn, M.D., the Founding Dean of Burnett School of Medicine at TCU. “This medical school and community have given them medical knowledge, compassion, empathy, and the tools they will need to be leaders as they advance to the next chapter of their medical careers.”
Each year at 11 a.m. CST on the third Friday of March, fourth-year medical students across the nation learn where they will begin their careers as physicians in the specialty of their choice. The National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) releases results to applicants seeking residency and fellowship training positions in the U.S.
A computerized mathematical algorithm used by the NRMP conducts the match aligning the preferences of applicants with the preferences of U.S. residency programs seeking new trainees. Residency training for most graduates will begin in June or July.
“I know I’m going to a great place where I’m going to learn and meet a lot of new people and provide the best care to patients that I can,” Ewing said.
The Burnett School of Medicine creates memorable Match Day celebrations for their students. This year’s event was titled “MatchFest 2026” and had a music festival-inspired theme. The event was held on Friday, March 20, at the 4Eleven, in the Near Southside neighborhood. The celebration kicked off with a live band providing music.
Burnett School of Medicine faculty members entered the venue dressed like their favorite rock stars and handed the students their envelopes. Each student’s match result was printed on a commemorative lanyard. They also received a commemorative T-shirt and a poster with the MatchFest 2026 design along with their name and residency match.
Angela Abarquez, MS4 at Burnett School of Medicine, matched in internal medicine (gastroenterology) at Ochsner Health in New Orleans. She was thrilled to see her mentors dressed as rock stars.
“The themed celebrations have been amazing,” Abarquez said. “I’ve met some faculty who I know I’m going to stay in touch with even beyond medical school; it’s been a great experience.”
The class of 2026 will be entering 16 residency programs in Texas, with 12 in North Texas including Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth, Baylor Scott & White All Saints Medical Center in Fort Worth, and UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. Burnett School of Medicine students are headed to residency programs in some of the major cities in Texas such as Austin, El Paso and Houston.
Once again, Burnett School of Medicine graduates matched into coveted residency slots in competitive medical specialties. The most notable medical specialties students were accepted into this year were interventional radiology, ophthalmology, orthopedic surgery, plastic surgery and otolaryngology (ear, nose & throat).
Lauren Hui, MS-4 at Burnett School of Medicine, matched in vascular and interventional radiology at Yale School of Medicine. She credited the medical school’s Longitudinal Integrated Clerkship (LIC) curriculum with setting her up for success during her away rotations to land the competitive residency spot.
“I think having the LIC experience really prepared me well,” Hui said. “Having that broad base and depth really helped. I think it paid off really well.”
FORT WORTH – The Anne Burnett Marion School of Medicine at Texas Christian University is proud to dedicate a study room at Arnold Hall to honor Texas Health CEO and TCU alumnus Barclay Berdan, ’76, and his wife, Marsha.
“My wife and I have supported TCU for many years,” Barclay Berdan said. “When the medical school came on board, we decided that we would channel our support to the medical school and really focus an endowment on the technology area and simulation area.”
The dedication plaque on study room 117 on the first floor of Arnold Hall honors their exceptional generosity in supporting medical students at the Burnett School of Medicine at TCU.
In 2022, the couple established the Berdan Family Endowment to strengthen the Burnett School of Medicine’s simulation & technology curriculum. Their support enriches the unique medical training the students receive through the Empathetic Scholars® curriculum. The simulation & technology curriculum uses advanced learning tools such as augmented reality headsets, ultrasound platforms, task trainers and AI-enabled medical manikins.
“That’s why we’re so excited to have contributed and been a part of this great school that has really developed many innovative ways to educate students,” Mr. Berdan said.
In April, TCU plans to honor Berdan with its Distinguished Alumni Award. The award recognizes TCU alumni who have brought national distinction to themselves and to the university.
Her mother is responding well to treatments, Hui said.
Hui was inspired by her grandparents to become a physician. Her grandfather wanted to be a doctor, and couldn’t fulfill his dream, and she watched her grandmother suffer through her illness.
Hui, a California native, is looking forward to representing her family as a physician, and has her sights set on a top residency program in Vascular Interventional Radiology.
“There are only 200 spots in the nation for Interventional Radiology,” Hui said.“Getting to be one of those 200 people will be so special, and it would be something that I would want to pay forward to those coming after me.”
Thousands of medical students across the country are feeling excited and nervous as Match Day 2026 fast approaches on March 20.
“I’m just really excited to know where we’re going to go,” Hui said. “You have so many people around you who are rooting for you whether it’s family or a significant other or classmates. I just can’t wait to celebrate with them.”
Those stories often give insight into a patient’s spiritual beliefs and how they perceive the medical care they are receiving, he said.
“In medicine, sometimes we think religion may tell them we can’t do this kind of thing in surgery or a patient might choose not to do something because of their religious beliefs,” Dr. Bishop said. “That’s true on one level but really we need to understand what a patient believes about their religion and the meaning of that patient’s life in order to take care of them when something is threatening their life.”
Dr. Bishop was the keynote speaker for the 2026 Health Care in a Civil Society symposium held at the Anne Burnett Marion School of Medicine at Texas Christian University in February.
His keynote titled, “Creating Narrative Bonds To Take Care Of The Whole Patient: From Naturalistic Psychiatry To Narrative Transfiguration” touched on the connection healthcare providers can give to psychiatric patients when they connect the patient’s spirituality to their medical treatments.
“Every person has a north star that guides their life,” Dr. Bishop said. “If I’m a doctor and I’m trying to help them achieve what their north star says, it’s nice to know what that north star will be.”
More than 100 health care providers from across North Texas attended the event in-person and online. There were two panel discussions with Dr. Bishop; Stephen Couch, MA, Clinical Ethicist at Children’s Health – Dallas; Devan Stahl, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Bioethics & Religion at Baylor University and Adjunct Professor at Baylor College of Medicine; and Kimbell Kornu, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Bioethics, Theology, and Christian Formation at Belmont University with Pete Geren, J.D., President and CEO of Sid Richardson Foundation, as the moderator for both discussions. The annual conference was organized by Stuart Pickell, M.D., MDiv., Professor of Internal Medicine at Burnett School of Medicine at TCU.
Dr. Pickell, who is also a minister, said focusing this year’s event on spirituality and medicine is something many healthcare professionals may not realize is important to their patients.
“I think it encourages healthcare professionals to embrace curiosity and understand where the patient may be coming from,” Dr. Pickell said.
Dr. Bishop explored this dynamic by telling a story about a patient named Nonnie and her battle with schizophrenia. She was studying to become an actress at a university, and all was well until the fall of 2016.
“Her grades slipped a bit, and she began getting more into conspiracy theories,” Dr. Bishop said. During “the summer between her freshman and sophomore years, her personality changed, and she became more arrogant and assertive and even more aggressive.”
He said that Nonnie’s behavior became more unpredictable over the years. In 2021, she finally shared with her parents that she had been having delusions and hallucinations, which usually had religious context each time she shared a story with them.
That started the long and difficult process of Nonnie being admitted into a hospital and receiving medical treatments for her mental illness.
Madeline Belknap, MS1, at Burnett School of Medicine, attended the conference and found a lot of insight in Dr. Bishop’s keynote.
“A lot of times people have more going on in their life than just their physical ailments,” Belknap said.
Over time, Nonnie’s health and her symptoms slowly improved. However, aligning medical care with a patient’s religious beliefs means that there will be tough conversations, Dr. Bishop added.
“Some things, we’ll have to say that we can’t do that because it won’t help you medically and we also honor things that do not align with their religious beliefs and we don’t force them to do those things,” Dr. Bishop said. “But we need to have the conversation. We are often willing to make those negotiations around things like medications because of a patient’s importance of religion in their lives.”
The Burnett School of Medicine’s unique Empathetic Scholar® curriculum puts a emphasis on preparing future physicians to “walk in a patient’s shoes” while excelling in the science of medicine.
“The two things that matter are curiosity and care,” Dr. Pickell said. “You need to be smart enough to know the medicine and understand how it works but you need to be curious. Curious enough to ask the right questions and then care enough to follow up on them.”
Maintaining a high level of curiosity, continuing to be a lifelong learner, and advocating for her future patients is something Belknap wants to do.
“For me in my career, I know I’ll probably have a lot of really difficult conversations with patients,” Belknap said. “Gathering those practical skills on how to initiate those conversations is a lifelong skill to work on and to develop.”
Having a medical school curriculum that emphasizes the importance of communication for future physicians is very important, Dr. Bishop added.
“Physicians have hard conversations all the time; it’s not any harder to have this conversation around religion,” Dr. Bishop said. “We just got to be open; we’ve got to be honest and trusting. It gives us the patient’s north star and then we can go back to that and align all that we can do to help them.”
“I did competitive skiing and I spent a lot of time on the slopes,” Khan said. While competing in a ski tournament, the then-10-year-old suffered severe injuries that nearly cost her the use of two fingers.
“I fell and the skis cut through my fingers,” the Michigan native said. “My fingers were half cut off. I took the bandana off my head and wrapped it around my fingers and skied all the way to the bottom to get help.”
She received the care she needed, and doctors were able to save her fingers.
That experience motivated her to become an engineer in which she built prosthetics for patients who lost limbs. She loved the job but felt something was missing.
“You lose that personal connection that you build with people,” Khan said. “In medicine, you can build that close relationship and give good patient care, which is why I decided to go into medicine.”
Khan said she wants to be a heart surgeon and will find out where she will go for residency during Match Day 2026, which is set for March 20.
“I’m super excited for Match Day and a little nervous at the same time,” Khan said.
“I just start smiling every time I think about it. You don’t know what’s in store, but you know it will be good for you and I’m just so grateful for the Burnett School of Medicine at TCU.”
Ranching is Ewing’s first love, and it started when he was a youngster growing up in Colleyville, Texas. “Every weekend, our reward for a week at school was to go work at the ranch.” Ewing said.
Located about 90 miles southwest of Fort Worth, outside of Hamilton, the family ranch gave Ewing the work ethic he needed for his medical journey.
“I think that having a small ranch was instrumental in my ability to become a successful medical student and hopefully resident and physician,” he said.
Ewing said hard work and dedication has been hardwired into him and he sees the similarities between ranching and medicine.
“Ranching and medicine are both longitudinal projects,” he said. “There will always be work that needs to get done, and it may take a while, so in both cases, you just have to stick with it.”
He will need that grit as he gets ready for residency: Ewing applied to Otolaryngology, head and neck surgery.
On March 20, Ewing will find out where he will match during Match Day. “No matter where I end up, I’m going to be at a place where I will learn so I’m excited about it,” Ewing said. “I have faith that this school has prepared me for anywhere that I go.”
