UCSF Fresno Celebrates and Honors 2026 Graduates

Bouquets were waved over heads, and parents, family members, and friends clapped and shouted with joy for more than 100 UCSF Fresno residents and fellows as they filed on stage at the Fresno City College auditorium for a commencement photo.

The commencement on June 11, 2026, celebrated the completion of years of training for UCSF Fresno residents and fellows, and for Community Medical Centers General Dentistry residents.  Every seat on the floor of the auditorium in the college’s Old Administration Building was filled for the ceremony, with more well-wishers watching from the balcony.

“Completing residency and fellowship training is rigorous, challenging, and rewarding, and cannot be accomplished alone.  We are grateful to your family, friends, and support networks who have encouraged and supported you throughout your medical training. We thank them tonight,” said UCSF Fresno Vice Dean Jose M. Barral Sanchez, MD, PhD, who asked the audience to give a round of applause.

Barral Sanchez also thanked faculty, department chiefs, program directors, program staff, and the Graduate Medical Education office for their dedication to residents and fellows.

Stacy Sawtelle Vohra, MD, UCSF Fresno assistant dean for Graduate Medical Education and the Designated Institutional Official, expressed her happiness in sharing the celebration. “We are excited to celebrate this day with you, our residents and fellows, and with your families, loved ones, supporters, and with our faculty and staff.”

“Throughout training, you have inspired us and each other by sharing your skills, knowledge, insights, and friendship,” Sawtelle Vohra said. “Your energy, motivation, talents, and innovative spirit enrich our training programs and advance our mission to improve the health of the San Joaquin Valley. We at UCSF Fresno are proud of you.”

Staying to carry it forward

The San Joaquin Valley has one of the lowest doctor-to-population ratios in California. Barral Sanchez noted the mission of UCSF Fresno, a regional campus of the UCSF School of Medicine, is “to train physicians to deliver the highest-quality and compassionate patient care, expand access to care, improve health through discovery, and contribute to our communities.” 

Overall, 40% of UCSF Fresno graduates remain in the Central Valley to care for patients, train future physicians, or continue their education. Approximately 70% stay in California to provide care. 

2026 commencement highlights:

UCSF Fresno offers pathway programs to support local students in becoming physicians, with the goal that they will return to the Valley to practice. Anuvir Singh, MD, one of the 2026 graduates, began his journey in medicine as a student at the UCSF Fresno Doctors Academy, a four-year school within a high school for students interested in medicine. Singh attended the Doctors Academy in Caruthers, a small city south of Fresno. He is joining the UCSF Fresno Department of Emergency Medicine as a faculty member.

The Doctors Academy was integral to his success, Singh said. He faced barriers to becoming a physician, including limited guidance on navigating higher education for a career in medicine, and he found the support he needed at Caruthers High while attending the UCSF Fresno Doctors Academy. “These mentors helped guide me through unfamiliar processes and encouraged me to persist,” he said.

Brandon Croft, MD, a Visalia native, is joining the UCSF Fresno Pulmonary and Critical Care Division as a faculty member after completing a three-year Pulmonary and Critical Care Fellowship at UCSF Fresno. 

Growing up in the Valley, he witnessed limited access to medical care. Training at UCSF Fresno taught him “how to work in resource-limited regions and how to navigate the hindrances placed on patients with poor access to care,” he said.

He also participated in a pathway program during medical school. In 2020, he graduated from the San Joaquin Valley Program in Medical Education (SJV PRIME) at UC Davis. UCSF is now the medical degree-granting institution for SJV PRIME, a program that aims to increase the number of practicing physicians in the Valley. 

Croft’s journey in medicine began 13 years ago as a research coordinator at the UCSF Fresno Clinical Research Center and as a scribe with the Department of Emergency Medicine.  He completed a three-year residency in Internal Medicine at UCSF Fresno in 2023. 

Caring and supporting each other

After an away rotation at UCSF Fresno during her fourth year of medical school, Abbigayle Laszacs, MD, a native of Tennessee with ties to Fresno, decided to pursue OB-GYN residency at the UCSF regional campus. She is staying in Fresno to work as an OB-GYN generalist at Community Regional Medical Center with Valley Children’s Women’s Group.

“It was then that I truly knew this was the place for me,” she said. “I loved the diversity in the community and faculty. I knew the high volume and acuity would give me the well-rounded training I needed.”

She will most remember her time at UCSF Fresno for the camaraderie she experienced during her training, she said. “Residency is a gauntlet, but it is so much better to go through with people I now consider my lifelong friends. The people in the UCSF OB-GYN program are what make it special.”

It is also serendipitous that her mother grew up in Fresno, and she still has family in the area, Laszacs said.

Among other graduates remaining in the Valley is Michael Salzano, MD, a native of Folsom, California, who completed a three-year psychiatry residency. He is staying in the Central Valley to join UCSF Fresno with a volunteer appointment in the Department of Psychiatry and will work at Community Behavioral Health Center in Fresno.

Reflecting on his years in residency, Salzano said he treasures bonds formed with co-residents and faculty in the Department of Psychiatry. “I feel exceptionally fortunate to have had the opportunity to work alongside numerous brilliant, passionate, and genuinely kind individuals. The sense of support, collaboration, and camaraderie within the program is something I will carry with me long after residency.”

Continuing Their Journeys

Lucky Malhi, chief operating officer at Community Regional, the primary clinical partner for UCSF Fresno, spoke at the commencement before presentation of the Resident and Fellow Awards, sponsored by Community Medical Centers.

The partnership between Community Regional and UCSF Fresno is valued, he said, as he recognized the graduates for “the extraordinary dedication, perseverance, and compassion you have demonstrated throughout this journey.”

Keynote speaker Liana Milanés, MD, FAAFP, a UCSF Associate Professor in the UCSF Fresno Department of Family and Community Medicine, and the 2025 Kaiser Award for Excellence in Teaching Winner, shared her hope for graduates to maintain connections.

 

In addition to the presentation of the graduates, several honors were awarded: