Meet Our Donors

Mark A. Erlich, M.D. ’75, was teaching anatomy at Columbia University and practicing head-and-neck plastic surgery in New York when a hand injury ended his clinical career. He began looking for a second teaching post. “My wife, Alicia, was saying, ‘You have to go back to Einstein. That’s your place,’” he recalls.

For alumni donors Jill Zimmerman, M.D. ’93, and Michael Stifelman, M.D. ’93, it’s all about community. The couple, who met as medical students at Einstein, found mentors who “really cared about you on a personal level and were invested in your success,” recalls Dr. Zimmerman, who matched at Lenox Hill Hospital for her internal medicine internship, followed by a radiology residency at Montefiore Einstein.

Over the years, Dr. Silverstein has remained connected to Einstein, and has maintained a particular affinity to his alma mater, which he credits for his successful career. As such he has left a bequest in his will to support a scholarship for an Einstein medical or graduate student.

Dr. Schapiro recently made a generous planned gift to Einstein, specifically designed to create a scholarship for a student from southern California who is traditionally underrepresented in medicine.

Janet and Marty Spatz have a long-term affection for the Bronx and a deep connection to the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, where they have been generous donors to cancer research for 20 years.

Suzanne (Sue) Fried, MD '64 was just 12 when her father died, but seven decades later, her eyes still well up when she talks about him.

"He was an amazing man. He'd come from Ukraine and gone to university and then medical school at NYU, where he was second in his class. He refused to serve in the Army in World War II, so he was assigned to the Veterans Administration, and we lived all over the place — New York, Texas, Kentucky."

Hal and Deb have ensured that Bronx HOPE will continue empowering students from underserved backgrounds to achieve their dreams in medicine and public health.