Building Bridges to Primary Care: The Generalist Scholars Program

By Keith Gillogly

(EDITOR’S NOTE: This story was originally published in the spring 2026 issue of the UB Medicine alumni magazine.)

Before the condition became known, Haak’s mother struggled to get a diagnosis for her young daughter, often feeling dismissed by doctors. Hearing about these difficulties many years later inspired Haak, now a first-year pediatrics resident at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.

“It inspired me to want to be a voice for the voiceless and to be able to advocate for children who don’t know how to advocate for themselves.”

After leaving the area for college, she was determined to come home to Western New York and stay there. “My goal was always going to be to match in Buffalo and to stay in Buffalo,” she says. “It really gave me a sense of accomplishment and pride to stay in Buffalo.”

Haak is a graduate of the Jacobs School’s Generalist Scholars Program, a specialized curriculum for fourth-year medical students planning to pursue a residency within one of the generalist programs in Buffalo. The year-long program provides early clinical and research experience while preparing learners for residency training and careers in internal medicine, family medicine, pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology, and other primary care fields.

While the Generalist Scholars Program has a longstanding tradition in Buffalo, it remains an important bridge for medical students focused on primary care, equipping them with the leadership skills, knowledge, and personal connections needed to thrive in a dynamic health care landscape.

For Haak, the patient conversation is at the heart of primary care. “I think the importance of primary care really just involves preventative medicine. It’s one of the hardest things to talk to patients about, to explain something that hasn’t happened yet and how to make sure it doesn’t happen.”

Haak adds that the Generalist Scholars Program made the transition between medical school and residency “seem seamless,” providing key clinical experience and exposure even before starting her residency.

At UB, the program dates back to the 1990s as part of the Robert Wood Johnson Generalist Physician Initiative. With funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the program sought to help medical schools increase the number of residency graduates entering primary care careers.

Now, the program is funded through the university, but it’s always had the same intent, says Susan M. Orrange, PhD, assistant dean for education and resident services, who coordinates the Generalist Scholars Program, teaches the seminar series, and has worked with generalist scholars since 1999. “It has always had the aim of providing enhanced experiences in primary care and opportunities in the continuity of care that students get to experience as well as the development of scholarly skills and leaderships skills.”

Orrange says that more than 180 scholars have participated in the Generalist Scholars Program, which is administered jointly by the Jacobs School’s Offices of Medical Education and Graduate Medical Education. Many generalist scholars are Western New York natives who hope to give back to the area by becoming practicing physicians in Buffalo.

Students apply to the program in their third year of medical school, and up to 10 are selected yearly. Recently, a new track in geriatrics became available to students interested in internal medicine and family medicine.

Each participant is paired with a clinical mentor and a research mentor who guides the student on completing a scholarly research project. While participation demonstrates a commitment to primary care, the program does not (and cannot) guarantee placement at a Buffalo residency program.

Before her current appointments as clinical assistant professor of pediatrics and assistant dean for student and academic affairs at the Jacobs School, Jessica A. Donhauser, MD ‘13, was a medical student here and a generalist scholar.

After choosing to pursue pediatrics and being admitted to the Generalist Scholars Program, her connections with “wonderful people” grew and grew through her involvement with the program. Her residency took place at the same clinic she began her journey as a generalist scholar, allowing her to become deeply familiar with both its patients and attending physicians.

A Western New York native, Donhauser’s residency experience also helped cement her decision to stay in the area while inspiring her to serve the community.

“For me, residency really cast a huge light on the need in the area and also just how diverse of a patient population we have in Buffalo,” she says.

Donhauser is now a hospitalist at Golisano Children’s Hospital of Buffalo, where she cares for young patients admitted to the hospital experiencing asthma exacerbations, pneumonia, and many other conditions.

While she’s passionate about clinical care, she says she’s always wanted to keep working with medical students and be challenged by academic medicine.

“And the people who academically challenge you are the medical students and the residents.”

Jacobs School clinical professor of family medicine Michael Freitas, MD ’10, never wavered from his goal of practicing sports medicine. At UB, he was a generalist scholar in family medicine, with the goal of pursuing a sports medicine fellowship after his family medicine residency.

He did just that, completing his sports medicine fellowship at the Jacobs School, joining its faculty, and later becoming a team physician for the Buffalo Sabres and head team physician for UB Athletics.

“Primary care was my pathway toward sports medicine,” Freitas says, adding that the decision to stay at UB was “made easier by the high quality that was here. If it wasn’t a high-quality place, it would be different.”

Freitas isn’t from Buffalo; he’s originally from Boston. After being drawn to UB’s medical program, he made the move to Buffalo to enroll and hasn’t looked back.

“It was an honor to come to UB. I had the opportunity to stay, and I took advantage of it,” he says. “Buffalo’s a great town.”

The Generalist Scholars Program also includes a combined medicine and pediatrics program, which was a perfect fit for Hannah Lease.

Lease, a fourth-year Jacobs School medical student and Western New York native, was greatly influenced by her clinical rotations in pediatrics as a third-year medical student.

“I felt so invigorated by the faculty and the residents. I think the residents were really passionate about what they were doing. They took so much time out of their day to interact with us and teach us first-hand,” she says. “It was clear to me that they loved what they were doing, and I wanted to be somewhere surrounded by people who love what they do.”

While drawn to pediatrics, Lease wanted to treat and see a variety of patients. By choosing the combined medicine and pediatrics program, she’ll be able to care for both younger and older patients while preparing for hospital-based and outpatient clinical settings.

Lease is especially interested in working with patients with intellectual and developmental disabilities and those with complex and chronic disorders.

Her generalist scholar research project features a retrospective chart review of adults with sickle cell disease, specifically looking at whether their rates of anxiety and depression are associated with emergency room use.

Lease says that pursuing primary care through the Generalist Scholars Program will also help her prepare for the changing roles of primary care doctors. With the amount of health news and advice accessible through social media and other channels, physicians will play a growing role in navigating all of this information, she says.

“I think now primary care physicians will take on a role of interpreting and distilling and distributing health information,” she says. “That’s why seeing people throughout their stages of life and having someone you have rapport with and trusts in you with regard to health care is really important.”

Near the beginning of their time in the program, generalist scholars complete a month-long clinical immersion preceptorship, followed by an ongoing weekly clinical continuity experience. Participants are typically placed at the same clinic in residency.

Learning the clinical workflows and ins-and-outs during his immersion has given generalist scholar and fourth-year medical student Dominic Occhino a solid start. “I feel like I’ll have a better ability to be a leader among my class of residents,” he says. “I feel like I’m really prepared to hit the ground running and even be a resource for the other residents.”

Occhino, who’s studying internal medicine, was placed in a clinic in an underserved area in Buffalo, which was a great fit since he’s passionate about giving back to the area.

After hearing about the Generalist Scholars Program in his third year of medical school, “it was kind of a no-brainer for me,” he says. Occhino grew up in Western New York, and his family immigrated to Buffalo decades ago in the 1930s. With such roots, he doesn’t plan on leaving.

The Generalist Scholars Program has given him a chance to dive into primary care practice and to start building relationships. “In primary care, there are many longitudinal experiences. You really have a chance to build relationships with people, and I’m a people person,” he says.

During his clinical clerkships as a third-year medical student, Occhino noted that a lot of specialists meet a patient only once — he wanted more. That simple motive was a big reason why he chose primary care.

“With outpatient care and primary care, you really have a chance to build a relationship and build trust. Once you have those things, you can really begin to make even more meaningful impacts on people’s lives,” he says.