Keri Wortherly knew she’d be in the spotlight twice during Saturday’s College of Medicine commencement ceremony, the first time to be hooded with her Pensacola Regional Campus classmates and the second to be promoted from second lieutenant to the rank of captain in the U.S. Air Force.
As the Jacksonville native returned to the stage in her uniform, all eyes in Ruby Diamond Concert Hall were on her, as the only graduate in the M.D. Class of 2024 headed into the military. She matched in general surgery at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio and Joint Military Base San Antonio.
Her eyes shone with pride as the audience gave her a standing ovation.
Most years, between four and 10 M.D. graduates head to residency in one of the military services, according to Dean Emeritus John P. Fogarty, a career physician with the U.S. Army who retired at the rank of colonel before moving into academic medicine. He added the military promotion to the commencement ceremony while dean; both the College of Medicine’s M.D. graduation and Armed Forces Day fall on the third Saturday in May each year.
“Whether one or many, it’s always the same,” Fogarty said, “ending with a standing ovation to thank them for their service.”
Service members are “pinned” at a special ceremony at 8:30 a.m. Later, after being hooded by their respective regional campus deans, military grads slip backstage to change into their uniforms for their promotion ceremony. Once all new physicians have been hooded, an official representative of the military – now Fogarty, since his retirement in early 2023 – reads the orders promoting each from the rank of 2nd lieutenant to captain, or the equivalent in that particular military branch. Each officer repeats the oath he or she took when first joining the military, and then is presented with an FSU veterans’ coin. FSU President Emeritus John Thrasher, a decorated Army veteran of the Vietnam War, presented Wortherly’s coin “as a reflection of the past, present and future and her linkages to FSU,” Fogarty said.
To give the newly-promoted officers time to get backstage and change back into their academic regalia, the ceremony leader calls “Cue the music!” and the Armed Forces Medley is played. Anyone in attendance who served in the military is invited to stand when “their” song is played.
Senior Associate Dean Paul McLeod, M.D., who also serves as dean of the Pensacola Regional Campus, stood for “Anchors Away,” the U.S. Navy anthem, moments after Wortherly received her orders.
Although Worthley is the only active-duty officer, four other members of the Class of 2024 are military veterans and were recognized: Jason Conner, who will begin residency in emergency medicine at Orlando Health; Christopher Davidson, who matched in FSU’s emergency medicine program at Sarasota Memorial Health Care; Hunter Paterson, who will join Wortherly in general surgery at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio; and Michael Sussman, who matched in obstetrics and gynecology at Tulane University School of Medicine.
