Behind Every Specimen Is a Patient

As pathologists’ assistants, they will examine, dissect and prepare tissue and surgical specimens, helping pathologists determine what those specimens reveal about a patient’s condition. Their work—vital, but unseen—will help alleviate the burden of an already-stressed medical system and help provide potentially life-saving care to patients in need. After two years of classroom work, labs and clinical rotations, the Class of 2026 was finally ready to move from training into practice.

TouroCOM Executive Dean Kenneth Steier, DO, reminded the graduates what is at stake. “Every specimen in your hand represents a person,” Dr. Steier said.

He also spoke about a field being reshaped by digital pathology, artificial intelligence and precision medicine. “AI may help analyze an image. Technology may help process a specimen,” Dr. Steier said, but it cannot replace “curiosity, judgment, integrity, compassion and commitment to excellence.”

His advice was practical: “Be the person your colleagues can trust. Be the person who double checks when something doesn’t look right.”

A Pioneering Class

Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Patricia E. Salkin, J.D., Ph.D., pointed to the demand awaiting the new graduates. “Your skills and talents have never been in greater demand than now,” she told the class in her commencement message.

Program Director Piotr B. Kozlowski, M.D., Ph.D., FCAP, who opened the ceremony, called the graduates “pioneers.” They entered Touro while the PathA program was still in its second year and worked through both a demanding course load and the adjustments of a new program. “You persisted and soldiered on, and your effort is recognized,” Kozlowski said.

Keynote speaker Nicole Angemi, M.S., PA(ASCP), a pathologists’ assistant with more than two decades in the field and a large social media following, was frank about what comes next.

“One of the most valuable skills you can develop is being comfortable saying, ‘I don’t know,’” Angemi said. “The next is knowing where to find the answer.”

She recalled scoring a 57 on her first anatomy exam and wondering whether she should quit. “I cried and I thought, maybe I’m just too dumb and I can’t do this,” she said. She urged the graduates to keep asking questions, learn from the people around them and eventually pass along what they know.

“Keep building that library in your head,” said Angemi, who shares her work with a large audience on Instagram, the podcast Mother Knows Death and through her books. “Stay humble enough to admit when you do not know something.”

‘Be Proud of What You Accomplished’

Student speaker Kevin Jiang focused on the small class that had gone through the program together. During clinical rotations, students encountered different preceptors, techniques and ways of approaching specimens, then brought those lessons back to one another.

“We supported each other through our challenges,” Jiang said.

As they prepared to leave Touro, he urged his classmates to trust their training. “Believe in yourselves,” he said. “Be proud of what we have accomplished.”

Education and Clinical Coordinator Elizabeth Fabian, M.S., PA(ASCP), was unable to attend after recently giving birth. In her message to the class, she noted that some graduates had already accepted positions as pathologists’ assistants before commencement.

“When our paths cross again,” Fabian wrote, “it will now be as colleagues!”

For Piper Goodleaf, that next step will be Northwell Health, where she will work as a traveling pathologists’ assistant. She said the field appealed to her because she has always wanted to understand how things work—and what happens when they don’t.

“I like knowing how things work, how things go wrong and the way they’re supposed to function,” Goodleaf said. “Why does it work? How does it work? What went wrong?”

Kealah Owusu-Achaw, who first became interested in pathology through a high school forensic science course, will work at White Plains Hospital. She said the program taught her to worry less about chasing perfect grades and concentrate instead on learning the work.

“It’s not really about that,” Owusu-Achaw said. “It’s about making sure you understand the material.”