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LSUS alumni enjoying successful medical careers

Tiffany Milne
As Dr. Elizabeth Strabel drives to work, the sun peeks over the hilly horizon. She passes evergreens, a frozen lake and a farmhouse, and she waves energetically to the familiar families outside. She takes a deep breath as a big smile creeps over her face. “I love my life,” she thinks as she presses on the accelerator.

Special to LSUS News Dr. Elizabeth Strabel checks both a newborn and mother at the Portage, Wis., hospital where she is a family physician. The 1988 LSUS graduate says she loves all aspects of her practice in the small town of 10,000, but especially enjoys delivering babies.

Walking through the hospital doors, Strabel puts her stethoscope around her neck, and heads into the first room, eager to start what she was put there to do.

A 1988 graduate of LSUS, Strabel moved to Shreveport when her husband was stationed at Barksdale. She enrolled in the accelerated premedical program then offered by LSUS in conjunction with LSU Health Sciences Center in Shreveport. The program allowed Strabel, and other aspiring doctors, to complete medical school in six years, compared to the traditional eight years. The plan was to finish pre-med training at LSUS in a condensed 2 ½ years, then move on to finish medical school at LSUHSC-Shreveport.

“Very few states offered this program which not only saved me time and money,” Strabel said, “but also afforded me the opportunity to stay with my husband.”

Since graduation, she earned the Doctor/Patient Relationship Award from LSU Medical School and Intern of the Year in Family Medicine from Duke University. Strabel is now in her fifth year as a family physician with Dean/St. Mary’s Venture, a hospital in Portage, Wis.

“I love all aspects of my practice in this small town of 10,000,” Strabel said, “but I especially enjoy delivering babies.”

Dr. Alan Duncan, another graduate of the LSUS accelerated pre-med program, is an assistant professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine in Rochester, Minn., and leads the Physician-Patient Interaction Research Interest Group at Mayo Clinic.

Duncan received an academic scholarship from LSUS, earned his B.S. in science and medicine at LSUS and completed his M.D. degree at the LSU School of Medicine in Shreveport.

One LSUS grad who chose to remain in Shreveport is Dr. Phillip A. Rozeman, founder and president of Cardiovascular Consultants.

“LSUS is a bargain for those who don’t have a lot of money,” Rozeman said. “You get a great education and the cost is very, very reasonable.”

Graduating in a class of 10 students, Rozeman said he could network with others with “common goals, common efforts in an intermediate environment.” He earned high grades in medical school while competing with top students from other states.

“It was very nice to be able to shorten the time it took to get out and practice,” Rozeman said. Since beginning his cardiology practice, Rozeman has been active in his community. He was named 2004 Business Leader of the Year by the Greater Shreveport Chamber of Commerce and the LSUS Alumni Association’s Distinguished Alumnus of the Year in 2002.

Rozeman created the Alliance for Education in 2000, an organization that generates funds and works to expand opportunities for local children. In mid-2003, he wrote personal letters to LSUS graduates who are now physicians urging them to reconnect with and give back to the university. He also matched their donations to the university.

“The (accelerated pre-med) program was second to none offered,” Rozeman said.

Since the 1970s, more than 100 doctors graduated from the six-year program. At the time, according to Dr. Charles Black Sr., only a handful of cities had this type of intense medical training, including Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston and Shreveport.

Black, a Shreveport surgeon, and Dr. Edgar Hull, then-dean of the LSU School of Medicine in Shreveport, designed the program. They canvassed five Northwest Louisiana parishes, seeking academically superior students interested in becoming physicians. After interviewing prospective students, Black and Hull developed a curriculum to fit their needs. The curriculum for the accelerated pre-med program started the summer immediately following high school graduation and continued non-stop through the third summer. After graduation from LSUS with at least a 3.2 GPA, the students were guaranteed a place in LSU’s Shreveport medical school.

“We had one faculty member who surveyed medical students who went through the regular preparatory four years of college and those who used the six-year program,” Black said.

Gregg Trusty/LSUS News Dr. Charles Black Sr. displays one of the many beautiful paintings in his Shreveport home. Black was instrumental in the creation of an accelerated pre-med program at LSUS in the 70s, 80s and 90s.

Black said the study showed there was no difference between the two tracks in the failure/dropout rate, “so it was a good program.”

When the accelerated pre-medical program ended in 1995, LSUS-educated doctors were spread across the country.

LSUS continues to offer a pre-med or allied health curriculum. Although nearly every student accepted into medical school has a BS degree, they can apply for medical school if they earn at least 90 hours with specified courses in biology, chemistry or biochemistry. Pre-med students work with Dr. Cran Lucas, an LSUS professor of biological sciences, and Dr. Al Vekovius, dean of the College of Sciences, to understand how to gain admission to medical school, including a personal written statement and experience in a medical area. Of the 500 science majors at LSUS, about half have an interest in attending medical school.

Historically, LSUS students have had a high acceptance rate into medical school, Vekovius said. “We get a large number of students into LSUHSC-Shreveport and New Orleans each year,” Vekovius said. “Out of 70 applications to LSUHSC-Shreveport, we get 10-20 in a year.”

In addition to the M.D. degree, students can attend LSUHSC-Shreveport to earn a Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology, cell biology and anatomy, pharmacology, physiology, biochemistry and molecular biology. Allied health fields available are physical therapy, respiratory cardio-pulmonary, physician assistant, clinical research assistant, speech pathology and occupational therapy.