Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society inducts 56 leaders, mentors, researchers

UMass Chan Medical School inducted 56 members of the UMass Chan Medical School community into the Delta chapter of the Alpha Omega Alpha (AΩA) Honor Medical Society on Wednesday, Nov. 12, including 34 members of the T.H. Chan School of Medicine Class of 2026. 

Students are selected for high educational achievement, leadership, supporting the ideals of humanism and promoting service to others. As part of the national organization’s criteria, a maximum of 20 percent of a class can be inducted. 

“More than ever, the ability of physicians to earn the public trust depends on the academic, professional and ethical attributes that we espouse,” said Terence R. Flotte, MD, the Elisabeth Chair for the Dean of Medicine, executive deputy chancellor, provost and dean of the T.H. Chan School of Medicine and the chapter’s councilor. “These are the attributes that AΩA exemplifies and are the key to earning the trust of our patients and demonstrating our ‘worthiness to serve the suffering’ as the AΩA theme expresses.” 

Talia Feldman, MPH, was inducted for her dedication to leadership and mentorship, leading the Student Interest Group in Neurology and QMass. Felden earned her Master of Public Health through the UMass Amherst–Worcester Campus MPH Program, while serving as the medical decision maker for her father. His diagnosis of a rare form of dementia sparked her initial interest in neuroscience and medicine. 

“This journey has had a powerful bidirectional impact on me: my personal experiences have shaped my empathy and compassion toward patients and their families, and my clinical training has strengthened my ability to advocate for my father’s needs throughout his illness and passing,” Feldman said. 

Ezdean Alkurdi has been involved with projects and organizations that support refugees since he was a young boy in Worcester, helping his mother and brothers pack boxes of first aid kits and clothes to send to family members and strangers in war-torn Syria. As a medical student he has been active with Worcester RISE for Health (connecting new Haitian neighbors with primary care doctors and MassHealth) and the Worcester Refugee Assistance Project (WRAP). Through WRAP, he played soccer with refugee youth, helping them with homework and writing grants. With the help of his brother, a medical student at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and Alkurdi’s mentee, they brought in $150K in two years for WRAP, Alkurdi said. 

“Honestly, my idea of advocacy isn’t standing at a podium. It’s standing next to someone who’s never been given the mic,” Alkurdi said. “My family is just like a lot of the kids at WRAP. The entirety of my extended families are refugees—the same ones that lost their lives in prisons or paddle across the Mediterranean.” 

Chloe Herczeg, MS, has worked to increase diversity in the field of orthopedics, a field that became personal when Herczeg suffered a ski injury a few months after starting medical school. Multiple surgeries and a long recovery period followed, but she will be graduating on time. 

“You have a new layer of appreciation when you work with patients on either improving mobility or allowing them to have more mobility with less pain,” Herczeg said. 

Herczeg conducted research on spine surgery last year during a research year at Rothman Orthopaedics in Philadelphia. She led the Orthopedic Surgery Interest Group and she started a professional development program for medical students interested in orthopedics.  

Three faculty members, including one alumnus, and 18 house staff members (interns, residents and fellows) were inducted alongside the medical students.  

Faculty inductee Melissa Fischer, MD, MEd, professor of medicine and associate vice provost for interprofessional and instructional innovation, was recognized for being one of the recipients of the 2025 Alpha Omega Alpha Robert J. Glaser Distinguished Teacher Awards, presented by the Association of American Medical Colleges in October. 

Matilde “Mattie” Castiel, MD, associate professor of medicine, was presented with the Volunteer Clinical Faculty Award. Dr. Castiel retired this year as Worcester commissioner of health and human services. 

This year’s AΩA inductees are: