2026 Golden Apple Award Winners Impact Medical Students’ Success
April 21, 2026
The annual Golden Apple Awards recognize outstanding service, teaching and mentoring by Drexel University College of Medicine faculty and professional staff. The honorees are nominated by each class of medical students, who vote to determine the award winners.
In a note sent to this year’s recipients, Charles B. Cairns, MD, Walter H. and Leonore Annenberg Dean and senior vice president of medical affairs at Drexel University, and senior vice president, Drexel Health Operations, thanked the award recipients for their “commitment to creating a rich and supportive learning environment” and helping “prepare the next generation of physicians to serve with humanity and humility.”
This year, a Golden Apple has been named in honor of Cheryl Hanau, MD, professor and Richard Shuman, MD, Chair of the Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, who has received about two dozen awards over her years of service.
The 2026 Golden Apple Award recipients are:
Student Government Association Award
- Caroline Bush, MS (Philadelphia)
Student Body Award
Phase 1, Years 1 & 2
Phase 2, Year 3
- Caitlyn Moss, MD (Tower Health, Reading Hospital)
- Jeffrey Andal, MD (Kaiser Permanente – Bay Area)
- Peter Thompson, MD (AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center)
- Ashad Syed, DO (UPMC – Harrisburg)
- Anas Atrash, MD (UPMC – Harrisburg)
- Shawn Mathew, DO (Resident; Tower Health, Reading Hospital)
- Nana Kwasi Appiah, MD (Resident; Reading Hospital)
- Abhishek Dutta, MD (Resident; St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children)
Phase 3, Year 4
- Matthew Hartman, MD (Allegheny Health Network)
- Lorenzo Rafer, MD (Tower Health, Reading Hospital)
- Andrew Klobuka, MD (Allegheny Health Network)
- Neiman Paw, MD (Kaiser Permanente – Bay Area)
- James B. Reilly, MD (Allegheny Health Network)
- Rajesh Thirumaran, MD (Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital)
- Palwasha Zafar, MD (Resident; Allegheny Health Network)
- Ravishankar Ranganatha, MD (Resident; Allegheny Health Network)