Alumni Association Welcomes New Board Members
October 2011
Bryan L. Stone, M.D., '86
Bryan graduated from the University of Utah Medical School with the class of 1986. He completed a residency in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at Duke University from 1986-1990. At the completion of residency he was awarded a Pediatric Scientist Development Program postdoctoral fellowship and spent 3 years at the “U” as a molecular geneticist. He left academic medicine for 10 years, serving the people of Carbon and Emery counties in rural Utah as a primary care provider, with the last 2 years as a community hospitalist in Price. Bryan returned to academics at the “U” as a pediatric hospitalist in 2003 at Primary Children’s Medical Center. He resumed a research career pursuing interests in health services and comparative effectiveness, and enjoys opportunities to teach the medical students and residents. He is funded on grants addressing needs of children with chronic illness including focused work helping children with asthma.
Bryan is grateful for the unexpected invitation to work with the Alumni organization on the Board. He is very invested in the “U”, tracing his associations back to undergraduate school, 2 graduate degrees, and an ongoing academic career. He looks forward to associations with many of the “giants” of the School of Medicine well known to his and many prior/subsequent classes, and promoting an ongoing meaningful connection to the “U” for its alumni. Bryan and his wife Cheryl have 7 children, all grown and moving forward with their lives. They enjoy travel (now that they have more opportunity), photography, and the outdoors.
Susie Wiet, M.D., HS 2003
Dr. Wiet graduated from Northwestern University Medical School in Chicago, IL. She completed her residency in Adult Psychiatry then fellowship in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the University of Utah Hospital and Clinics (UofU). She served as Medical Director for the Child and Adolescent Behavioral Health Clinic then Youth Partial Hospital Programs at the University of Utah Neuropsychiatric Institute. She served in community mental health as the Medical Director for Summit County and increased substance abuse services in the community. For the past eight years, she has served as the Medical Director/Consultant and Residency Rotation Director for Odyssey House – Adolescent Unit and will soon expand dual diagnosis services to Adult and Parent/Children units. She holds American Board certifications in Adult Psychiatry, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Addiction Medicine. She is the immediate past president of Intermountain Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and was instrumental to forge collaboration between child psychiatrists and pediatric practices in conjunction with the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Utah. She is an advocate for people with mental health impairments and is particularly committed to improve the identification of and services for youth and adults with dual diagnosis and childhood trauma.
October 2010
G. Marsden Blanch,
M.D. '74, M.P.H. '01, F.A.C.S.,
Dr. Blanch was born and raised in Salt Lake City, attending South High School. He graduated from BYU Magna Cum Laude in 1970 with a joint degree in Zoology and Chemistry. He received his medical degree from the University of Utah in 1974 and completed his residency in Ears, Nose and Throat/Head and Neck Surgery at the University of Utah Affiliated Hospitals. In 2001 he returned to the University to earn a Master’s degree in Public Health. He blended his medical and business acumen in 1984 when he founded Megadyne Medical Products; he is currently Chairman for the Board.
Dr. Blanch is married to Lynette Kehl and they have six children and 18 grandchildren. He enjoys motorcycling and marathon running, having competed in the Boston Marathon twice. He has served on the SOM Alumni Association once in the past and is glad to serve again because he feels he owes a great deal to the University and to all those who came before to make it such a great institution. He hopes to encourage more alumni to get involved with the school and to give back to help the School of Medicine excel.
Richard H. Keller,
M.D., HS '63
Dr. Richard Keller was born in Ogden, Utah. After graduating from the University of Maryland School of Medicine in 1958 he served a straight internship in medicine at Utah and one year of Pathology at L.D.S. Hospital before a three-year residency in Radiology at Utah, finishing in 1963. He was elected to Alpha Omega Alpha in 1957.
The construction of Cottonwood Hospital was pivotal to his career. Dr. Keller took the opportunity to fashion its two-room radiology department that opened on May 7, 1963. Alta View was added to the practice in 1982. During those years, the growth of radiology was amazing with the new technologies contributing to ever more specific and accurate definition of disease. Sub-specialization became the necessary consequence and with it ever more pressure to keep up with snowballing growth in science and technology. As various subspecialties developed thirteen excellent radiologists joined the group.
Dr. Keller served many leadership and administrative positions during his thirty-two years of practice, but his true joy was the diagnosis of disease in the patients he served. Toward the end, he felt the pressure of the explosive knowledge growth in radiology. As a generalist, he felt he had become an anachronism in the field he loved so much.
Since retirement Dr. Keller has enjoyed serving on the School of Medicine Admissions Committee and facilitating social medicine. He looks forward to serving a second time on the Alumni Board.
Sherman C. Smith,
M.D., '76
Dr. Sherm Smith was born and raised in Provo, Utah. He graduated summa cum laude from BYU in 1972, majoring in German Literature. He graduated from the University of Utah Medical School in 1976 and then completed a general surgery residency in 1981 at Fitzsimmons Army Medical Center in Denver, Colorado. He served with the U.S. Army Medical Corps at Frankfurt Army Regional Medical Center in Germany until 1984 and then started private practice with Memorial Medical Center in Salt Lake City, Utah. He moved to Rocky Mountain Associated Physicians in 1992 at Cottonwood Hospital; then to St. Marks Hospital in 1996, where he continues to practice bariatric surgery.