Honoring the human side of medicine: New members named to Gold Humanism Honor Society
Posted on February 23, 2026 by Lindsay Hughes
After finishing patient rounds in the emergency department, third-year medical student Keegan Musaalo was waiting for the elevator at University Hospital when he learned he had been selected for the Arnold P. Gold Humanism in Medicine Honor Society (GHHS).
Members of the honor society surprised Musaalo with the news, adorning him with gold Mardi Gras beads and presenting a gold gift bag filled with goodies.
“I was super surprised,” he said. “At first, I was like, ‘Oh, wow, thank you,’ but also, ‘Me? Why me?’”
GHHS recognizes students, residents and faculty who exemplify compassionate patient care and serve as role models, mentors and leaders in medicine. Nominated by their peers, 12 medical students, four residents and two faculty members were selected for induction into the University of South Alabama’s chapter at the Frederick P. Whiddon College of Medicine.
Musaalo described the honor as both humbling and a tribute to his classmates.
“There are so many compassionate and empathetic people in our class who have made me a better person and a better future physician,” he said. “I am honored to represent the excellence of our class by striving each day to keep my patients at the center of my focus, without exception.”
For Phoebe Garcia, the recognition reaffirmed the purpose that first drew her to medicine. After experiences in which she felt unheard as a patient, she entered medical school determined to bring greater empathy to patient care.
“This is a good confirmation of why I came to medical school,” she said. “I wanted to bring more compassion to the field, and this makes me feel like I’m accomplishing what I hoped to do.”
Skyler Hamilton was caring for a patient during a family medicine rotation when she learned of her selection. She stepped out of the patient’s room to a crowd of GHHS members who had gathered to surprise her.
Hamilton said she was especially shocked because she had long admired previous GHHS inductees and hoped to emulate their approach to patient care. “I always thought, ‘I want to be like that,’” she said.
Known among her peers for spending extra time talking with patients, Hamilton said she sometimes worried that those conversations slowed her down. Instead, she learned that those moments of connection were precisely what her classmates valued.
“They told me that’s why I was chosen — because I make people feel safe,” she said. “That affirmed that this is what I came to medicine for: to make people feel like they have a voice, feel safe and like their care is the top priority.”
Musaalo, Garcia and Hamilton are among 18 honorees selected this year from the Whiddon College of Medicine community. They will be inducted into the GHHS Class of 2027 and pinned during the White Coat Ceremony on June 24.
Medical Students
Paras Ahuja
Nia Booth
Kamryn Carroll
Jade Crabtree
Danielle Flores
Phoebe Garcia
Linhan Jasmine Ha
Skyler Hamilton
Keegan Musaalo
Aaron Nipper
Mariam Omar
Isha Patel
Residents
Aaron Chinners, M.D., Department of Internal Medicine
Robert Ross, M.D., Department of Surgery
Emily Stringfellow, M.D., Department of Internal Medicine
Matthew Coleman Watterson, M.D., Department of Orthopaedic Surgery
Faculty
Hamayun Imran, M.D., Professor of Pediatrics
Ashley Williams Hogue, M.D., Associate Professor of Surgery
GHHS chapter advisors are T.J. Hundley, M.D., associate dean for medical education and professor of internal medicine, and Melody Petty, M.D., assistant dean of health advancement and associate professor of pediatrics. Karen Braswell, supervisor of clinical education, serves as GHHS liaison; and Ashley Nguyen, M.D., a neurology resident, represents Graduate Medical Education.
The honor society now includes more than 180 chapters in medical schools and residency programs and more than 50,000 members in training and practice, all committed to preserving the human connection at the heart of medicine.