Thomas Agresta, M.D., MBI
Professor
Chair, Department of Family Medicine
Director, Medical Informatics, Family Medicine
Director, Clinical Informatics, Center for Quantitative Medicine
Dr. Agresta is a native of New Jersey and graduated from Stevens Institute of Technology in 1986 with a degree in biomedical engineering and went on to New Jersey Medical School (now Rutgers Medical School), graduating in 1990. He finished his Family Medicine Residency at UConn/Saint Francis Hospital Residency Program. He practiced in Hartford for several years and joined the Department as the Director of Medical Student Education. His interest in health information technology led to several grants that incorporated Health Information Technology (HIT) into the medical school and residency curriculum. Dr. Agresta pursued additional training at Oregon Health Sciences University and received a master’s degree in Biomedical Informatics.
He has been active at the regional and national levels in promoting the innovative and optimal use of HIT in clinical care – especially Primary Care ever since. He was the Informatics leader for the Connecticut Institute for Primary Care Innovation and helped deliver innovative ideas about how primary care could be practiced to numerous Family Medicine colleagues in collaboration with the American Academy of Family Physicians. He has helped lead the development of a new subspecialty in medicine – Clinical Informatics and was one of the first individuals board certified in that specialty. He has helped in the formation of a state-wide Health Information Exchange (HIE) in Connecticut. He actively practices and teaches at Asylum Hill Family Medicine and works to improve the way we use of our Electronic Health Record for clinical care, research and quality improvement purposes. He actively works on education, outreach and research projects with faculty and students from the schools of medicine, dental medicine, computer science and engineering, pharmacy and nursing.
He enjoys spending time with his wife, Miwako, a certified nurse midwife, their grown children - daughter Hanako and son Michio. Together they enjoy travelling, hiking, biking, skiing and other outdoor activities. He has been known to write a song or two on guitar and to make homemade wine on occasion.
Hugh Blumenfeld, M.D., Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Hugh Blumenfeld is a native New Yorker and was educated at M.I.T., University of Chicago and New York University where he earned a Ph.D. in Poetics. He worked as an English professor and then spent ten years touring the U.S. and Europe as a professional singer-songwriter before deciding to combine his love of arts and sciences by becoming a doctor. A decidedly non-traditional applicant, he was fortunate to be accepted at the UConn School of Medicine, where he earned his M.D. degree in 2007. He stayed on to complete his residency in Family Medicine and joined UConn's medical faculty in 2010.
Dr. Blumenfeld practices at the Family Medicine Center at Asylum Hill, where, in addition to seeing his own patients, he supervises the clinical work of medical students and residents. As director of Behavioral Medicine at the residency program, he has created an evening clinic for primary care psychiatry; helps design and teach the year-long psychosocial and community medicine course, and lectures on topics relating to mental health. Practicing the full scope of family medicine, he works side by side with the residents on the inpatient service at Saint Francis Hospital and delivers babies with them. Dr. Blumenfeld also teaches a wide range of topics at the medical school's Farmington campus - from evidence-based medicine to complementary and integrative medicine - with a special interest in medical humanities and ethics. Since its inception, he has been a core faculty member of the Urban Service Track, a model program for interprofessional team-based care, and he is a faculty advisor for the medical students' online literary and arts journal, Anastomoses. He spends most of his free time at home with his wife Andrea and their two teenage sons, but still plays a few local concerts a year. He can also still do a layout on the trampoline - at least for now.
Laura Bujold, D.O.
Assistant Professor
Director, Medical Student Education
Laura Bujold graduated from the University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine in 2011. From there, she went to Middlesex Hospital Family Medicine Residency where she completed the mandatory four-year program in addition to being chief during her last year of residency. Furthermore, during her time at Middlesex, she completed a Masters of Medical Education from Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine. While at Middlesex, she created a simulation curriculum where residents were able to practice Rapid Response Teams and Codes in Middlesex Hospital’s simulation center.
After graduation from Middlesex Hospital Family Medicine Residency, Dr. Bujold moved to Hershey, PA with her husband. She practiced at Penn State Health for three years. During her time at Penn State Health, she had her own outpatient panel, worked with the family medicine resident inpatient team and precepted family medicine residents outpatient. She led the creation and design of a lactation policy with the women of the Family Medicine Department of Penn State Health which was implemented and remains today. Dr. Bujold also created and implemented a scholarly activity BootCamp and curriculum with her colleague Dr. Oser which enhanced scholarly activity at Penn State Health.
Following Penn State Health, Dr. Bujold worked at Eastern Connecticut Health Network as core faculty with the family medicine residency.
Dr. Bujold served as Co-Chair of the Collaborative of Women of Family Medicine through the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine from 2018-2020 where she and her colleagues built a speed mentoring workshop for women physicians.
Dr. Bujold is passionate about evidence-based medicine, shared decision making with patients, resident education, medical student education, procedures, and osteopathic manipulative therapy. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with her family and being outside!
HENRY M. FEDER JR., M.D.
Professor, Family Medicine and Pediatrics
Dr. Feder graduated cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania in 1967, and from Jefferson Medical College in 1971. He was a fellow in Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Johns Hopkins Hospital and served as the clinical director of the Mescalero Public Health Hospital in New Mexico. Dr. Feder has been with the Department of Family Medicine since 1977 and has served as a residency director. His main area of research is pediatric infectious disease, with concentration in the area of Lyme Disease, Streptococcal and Non-Streptococcal Pharyngitis, Recurrent Aphthous Stomatitis, Pediatric Fever Syndromes and Rabies. He is board certified in Family Medicine, Pediatrics and Pediatric Infectious Diseases. His first position was in family medicine at the University of Connecticut as assistant professor and has been with the Department as full professor for 18 years. He has twice won the resident teaching award in Family Medicine and has twice won the teaching award in Pediatrics. He is 50% Family Medicine and 50% Pediatric Infectious Disease at Connecticut Children's. Dr. Feder precepts at the practice center frequently.
Andrew Feller, M.D.
Assistant Professor
Dr. Feller was born in New Haven, CT but grew up in sunny Miami. He graduated cum laud from Tufts University in 1991 with majors in biology and environmental studies. He then went on to the University of Florida (Go Gators!) for medical school and residency where he was chief resident. He began working in private practice in East Hampton, CT for two years and then moved to East Hartford where he has been since 2000. He works full-time with Dr. Zagieboylo and Dr. Rani in the Family Medicine Center at East Hartford. He has a focus on patients with disabilities and is the medical consultant for a number of group homes in the state. Additionally, he precepts residents at Asylum Hill Family Practice Center as well as teaches first year medical students at UConn Health in Farmington. Recently he has been appointed to serve on the State of Connecticut Behavioral Health Partnership Oversight Council. Outside of work, he enjoys spending time with his wife and two children, hiking, and is getting into rock hounding.
Robin Gold, M.D.
Assistant Professor
Dr. Gold received her B.A. degree from Brandeis University in 1988, graduating summa cum laude with concentrations in both Chemistry and Biology, with Highest Honors in Chemistry. She then relocated from Waltham, Massachusetts to the Bronx, New York where she earned an M.D. degree and election into Alpha Omega Alpha in 1992. Dr. Gold (at that time known as Dr. Bersch) then returned to her home state, and completed the University of Connecticut/Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center Family Practice Residency Program in 1995. In an effort to solidify her training in maternity care, Dr. Gold went to Jasper, Texas in April 1996 where she planned a three-month "mini-fellowship." After just a few short weeks, it became evident that this was a superb, unique learning opportunity for rural family medicine. At Dr. Gold's request, with the academic support of the Family Medicine Department at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, a one-year Rural Family Practice/Maternity Care Fellowship was created. Dr. Gold helped to design the fellowship, was the first to complete it in April 1997, and was the on-site fellowship director for the subsequent three-and-a-half years. In addition to the focus of practicing family medicine in a rural environment, the fellowship taught operative obstetrical skills including C-sections, postpartum tubal ligations, and dilation and curettage procedures. In August of 2000, Dr. Gold was swept off her feet by her Prince Charming and returned to Connecticut. Dr. Gold joined our faculty as the Obstetrics and Gynecology coordinator. Here, she plans to utilize the skills she learned in Jasper in the education of family practice residents.
Fonda Gravino, M.D.
Assistant Professor
Dr. Gravino is a Connecticut native and graduate of Smith College. She began medical school at the Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara in Mexico and completed it at New York Medical College. Dr. Gravino completed her Family Medicine residency in 2005 at UConn/Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center where she served as chief resident in her final year. She was awarded the Rhea Barton STFM Resident Teacher Award upon graduation and the Sports Medicine Resident Award twice.
After finishing residency, Dr. Gravino moved to sunny Sarasota, Florida where she practiced fulltime outpatient family medicine in a group practice and part time workers compensation and personal injury medicine. Due to a desire to be closer to family, Dr. Gravino and her husband returned to Connecticut in 2010 with their two children.
Dr. Gravino is an assistant professor of clinical medicine at the UConn School of Medicine; works directly with the Family Medicine residents at the FMCAH to teach them outpatient medicine; cares for her own patients at the FMCAH; and works per diem in the emergency department at Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center. She enjoys caring for not only her own patients, but feels an important and meaningful part of her work is training tomorrow’s physicians. Dr. Gravino was chosen by the UConn School of Medicine students as the Outstanding Clinical Preceptor of the Year Award in 2014 and chosen by the UConn School of Medicine students as the faculty inductee into the Gold Humanism Honor society in 2015.
Dr. Gravino’s professional interests include women’s health, procedures and urgent care. She is a member of both the AAFP and STFM and serves as secretary on the Board of Directors for the Connecticut Academy of Family Physicians. Her personal interests include interior design, gardening, raising her family (currently a husband, 2 children, a black lab, a gecko lizard and a blind bird), reading historical fiction, and local travel.
Jacqueline Guajardo, M.A., Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Director of Behavioral Health
Dr. Jacqueline Guajardo is a licensed clinical psychologist. She holds a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the City University of New York and a Master of Arts in Forensic Psychology from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Dr. Guajardo completed her graduate clinical training at the Bellevue Hospital and Medical Center Forensic Unit in New York City, the Counseling Services Unit of the Kings County District Attorney's Office in Brooklyn, NY, and the Project Second Try Program for Juvenile Sex Offenders of the New York University Lutheran Family Health Centers at Sunset Terrace in Brooklyn, NY.
For more than a decade, Dr. Guajardo has provided mental health treatment, clinical and forensic evaluation services for children, families and adults. Since coming to Connecticut in 2008, Dr. Guajardo has served as a both clinical and consulting psychologist for the Connecticut State Department of Children and Families, where she provided clinical consultation and training to the department's Girls Services Unit and Human Anti-Trafficking Response Team. Dr. Guajardo has also served as a practicing staff psychologist and faculty member for the Albert J. Solnit Center South Campus, Connecticut's only state- run psychiatric hospital for children. Dr. Guajardo has also served as chief psychologist and director of Juvenile Justice Intermediate Evaluations for the Village for Families and Children in Hartford, CT.
Prior to relocating to Connecticut in 2008, Dr. Guajardo served as the clinical coordinator for the FEMA-SAMHSA funded, Child and Adolescent Trauma Treatment Services Program (CATS) for children and families affected by the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center, where she was amongst the first to introduce and modify evidenced based trauma-focused therapies to meet the needs of inner city ethnic and linguistic minority children and communities.
Dr. Guajardo's clinical specialties and research interests include the integration of psychotherapy and complimentary alternative medical practices; multi-cultural assessment and treatment of severe mental illness, assessment and treatment of self-injury, child sexual abuse, domestic minor sex trafficking, domestic homicide, traumatic grief and loss; development of best practices for gay, lesbian and transgender mental health services; assessment and development of community approaches to reduce ethnic and racial disparities in the mental health and criminal justice systems.
Tim Lishnak, M.D.
Assistant Professor
Medical Director
Tim is a local product of Connecticut. He was born in the hardware city (New Britain, CT for those not from these parts) and raised in West Hartford. He traveled all the way to Hartford to attend Trinity College and, upon graduation, began to work in biomedical research. Deciding that he preferred to interact with actual people more than their DNA, he matriculated at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine. During that time, he was fortunate to meet family medicine faculty who ignited in him a spark for family medicine leading to his entering the UConn/Saint Francis residency followed by completion of the UConn sports medicine fellowship. After a period in private practice, he moved to Vermont to return to the world of academic family medicine at the University of Vermont. When his wife’s career (maternal-fetal medicine physician) brought them back to Connecticut he “came back home” to UConn. He sees patients at the UConn family medicine office in Canton and enjoys his time with the residents at Asylum Hill where he is an inpatient rounder, outpatient preceptor, and assistant program director. When not working, he can usually be found with his family (wife, two energetic boys, and an equally energetic dog), often outdoors, enjoying all that the local area has to offer.
Elizabeth Lorick, M.D.
Assistant Professor
Elizabeth Lorick (née Darsan) was born and raised in Queens, NY. At the age of 17, she graduated from Bard High School Early College with both her high school diploma and her Associate degree through Bard College. She completed her undergraduate studies at CUNY: Brooklyn College, where she double majored in Mathematics and Biology, with a minor in Chemistry, within three years. Afterwards, she spent a year working as a Medical Assistant in a dermatology office, before matriculating into Stony Brook University School of Medicine.
She then joined the University of Connecticut Family Medicine Residency program in 2019, where she was a chief resident during her third year of residency. During that time, she served as a representative for both the GME and Saint Francis Hospital Resident/Fellow Forums, co-chair of Residency Recruitment, and member of the Resident Wellness Committee. She particularly enjoyed her time working with UST/AHEC (Urban Service Track/Area Health Education Center) scholars throughout their curriculum focused on the underserved. Upon graduation, she was awarded the Rhea Barton STFM Resident Teacher Award, as well as the UConn/Saint Francis Hospital Family Medicine Inpatient Service Award and was also a resident inductee into the Alpha Omega Alpha (AΩA) Honor Medical Society.
She stayed on as faculty at UConn, and now provides outpatient care and precepts residents at the Family Medicine Center at Asylum Hill, practices inpatient medicine with the residents at Saint Francis Hospital, teaches third year medical students, and serves as a continuity preceptor. She focuses her time into the Lifestyle Medicine Residency Curriculum (LMRC), inpatient service curriculum, and simulation activities, and explores her many interests in wellness; diversity, equity and inclusion; curriculum development; medical student and resident education; women’s health; prenatal and postnatal care; and procedures.
Outside of work, you can find her at a Broadway play, watching Netflix, searching for new ice cream spots with her husband, or trying to keep their houseplants alive.
Kiran Lorick, M.D.
Assistant Professor
Kiran Lorick was born and raised in Queens, NY. He completed his undergraduate degree in Biochemistry with minors in Community Service Learning and Business Management at Stony Brook University. He then worked in health care finance for 3 years at Montefiore Medical Center, where he often encountered patients who struggled to understand and effectively access the health care system. This experience, along with his passion to serve others, ultimately led to him pursuing a career in medicine, more specifically in Family Medicine so that he could work with people of all stages in life.
Kiran obtained his medical degree at Stony Brook University School of Medicine, where he met many wonderful mentors in the Department of Family Medicine through his work at the student-run, free clinic that provided care to those who were un-/under-insured in Suffolk County, NY. He wanted to continue working with underserved and underrepresented populations and was able to find a home at the University of Connecticut Family Medicine Residency Program in 2019, which afforded him the opportunity to work with the community of Hartford, CT. During residency, he served as a recruitment co-chair, a member of the Wellness and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion committees, a Graduate Medical Education representative, as well as a chief resident during his third year of residency. He also joined the Lifestyle Medicine curriculum during its inaugural year at UConn and worked with students of various health professions through the Area Health Education Consortium Urban Service Track on a variety of projects.
In September of 2022, he joined the Department of Family Medicine at UConn Health as an assistant professor. In this role, he looks forward to continuing to serve the Hartford community, as pursue his interests in diversity, equity and inclusion, wellness, undergraduate and graduate medical education, inpatient and outpatient medicine, prenatal and postpartum care, newborn care, women's health, and grow as a mentor.
Outside of medicine, he enjoys spending time with family and friends, exploring the outdoors, watching sports, trying new foods and desserts, and is always up for a Costco run.
Andria Danielle Matthews, M.D., M.P.H.
Assistant Professor
Dr. Matthews is a board-certified family physician who serves as a full-scope primary care physician to families in Hartford, CT. Prior to pursuing medicine as a career, Dr. Matthews graduated with a BA in History from Yale University and went on to work in a variety of fields including Marketing Strategy, Nonprofit Arts, Politics and Food Service. These experiences continue to inspire and inform her current work in the medical field.
Dr. Matthews later attended the University of Connecticut School of Medicine where she received her M.D./M.P.H. degrees and completed a master’s thesis entitled “Community Attitudes Toward Complementary, Alternative and Integrative Medicine in North Hartford, Connecticut.” As a medical student she was Co-President of UConn’s Student National Medical Association and a founding member/Regional Policy Chair of UConn’s Latino Medical Student Association. She is also a proud graduate of UConn’s Family Medicine Residency Program, where she now serves as Core Faculty.
As a person of Puerto Rican and African American descent, Dr. Matthews is passionate about diversifying the medical field and striving towards the elimination of health disparities. As part of her role in the UConn Department of Family Medicine, she teaches medical students and residents, serves as Co-Chair of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee, and participates in curriculum development focused on DEI and Anti-racism.
She is a mother of two spirited girls and experienced the challenges of training as an older student, mother, and person of color, which fuels her desire to create inclusive and supportive spaces within the medical field.
Eugene Orientale Jr., M.D.
Professor
Dr. Orientale graduated magna cum laude from Brown University in 1983 and earned his M.D. degree from Cornell University Medical College in 1987. He completed residency training at UCLA in 1990 and began work at the University of Tennessee in Memphis where he served as predoctoral director, Family Medicine Clerkship director, and served as an assistant dean for medical students. He subsequently became the youngest tenured faculty member in Family Medicine at UT. In 1997 he and his wife Jean decided to relocate to Connecticut and Dr. Orientale joined the University of Connecticut School of Medicine Department of Family Medicine and after 24 highly successful years retired in June 2022.
Dr. Orientale’s tenure with our program spanned all aspects of our department. He originally continued his work with undergraduate medical education but in 2005 was named Program Director, a role he served until 2017, receiving the National Gold Level Program Director Award that year. His passion for teaching residents and medical students has never waived. His commitment to high quality patient care remains to this day. And even though he officially retired from the School of Medicine, he continues to teach our residents part-time in both our inpatient and outpatient settings at Saint Francis and Asylum Hill.
Dr. Orientale remains an avid birder, astronomer, dedicated baseball fan, skier, and all-around woodworker and project guy. He and his wife, Jean, enjoy spending time in their second home in Rhode Island.
Adam E. Perrin, M.D.
Associate Professor
Co-Director, Student Affairs, UConn School of Medicine
Dr. Perrin graduated from Amherst College in 1984 with a bachelor’s degree in anthropology. He attended Wayne State University School of Medicine where he was inducted into Alpha Omega Alpha in 1987, receiving his medical degree in 1989. Dr. Perrin completed his training at the Middlesex Hospital Family Medicine Residency Program in Middletown, CT in 1992. He spent the initial six years of his professional career splitting his time between work in the emergency department and private family practice before settling into full-time community practice in 1998. Along the way Dr. Perrin developed an interest in sports medicine and in 1999 he earned a Certificate of Added Qualification in Sports Medicine.
Since joining the family medicine faculty at the UConn School of Medicine in 2012, Dr. Perrin has assumed several teaching and leadership roles. His teaching responsibilities include the MDelta Stage 1 course PACTS (Patient Advocacy in Communities, Teams, and Health Systems) for first year students and the Family Medicine Clerkship for third year students. Dr. Perrin serves on the faculty of the Urban Service Track and is the faculty advisor for the Family Medicine Interest Group. In 2015 he was assigned the exciting new role of Director of Student Wellness, a role that he relishes. Dr. Perrin was honored by the Class of 2016 as a faculty inductee into the Gold Humanism Honor Society. In 2019 he assumed a new role in Student Affairs at the School of Medicine as a Faculty Co-Director. Dr. Perrin devotes his spare time to choral singing and other musical endeavors. He and his wife Alison enjoy hiking, skiing of both the alpine and cross-country variety, and spend as much time as possible during the summer months in their cabin camp in northern Maine.
Katherine Tringali, M.D.
Assistant Professor
Dr. Katherine Tringali graduated from Boston University magna cum laude with a degree in health science and a minor in human physiology. She then attended Georgetown University School of Medicine where she was a member of the Gold Humanism Honor Society and graduated cum laude. After medical school, Dr. Tringali completed her residency in family medicine at Middlesex Hospital while completing a fellowship in integrative medicine through the University of Arizona.
Dr. Tringali is passionate about providing humanistic care. She is dedicated to practicing evidence-based medicine while at the same time recognizing the limitations of the allopathic model of care. Dr. Tringali loves to help patients foster their individual power in making a difference in their own health. She focuses on helping patients achieve healthy lifestyles using food as medicine and stress management techniques, including mind-body medicine.
Dr. Tringali advocates for patients as an active member on the Board of Directors of the Connecticut Academy of Family Physicians. She also thoroughly enjoys teaching. Dr. Tringali precepts residents at the Family Medicine Center at Asylum Hill, practices inpatient medicine with the residents at Saint Francis Hospital, teaches first year medical students, and serves as a continuity preceptor for a medical student. She provides outpatient care to her patients at the Family Medicine Center of East Hartford.
When not at work, Dr. Tringali enjoys traveling, learning new vegetarian recipes, going to spin and yoga class, taking long walks with her husband Christopher and bichon-poodle Siena, and spending time with family and friends (including her identical twin!).
Erica L. Waddington, D.O.
