Alumni Stories

Jessica Leif

Senior Medical Physicist
MD Anderson Cancer Center’s Department of Radiation Physics

After graduating from college in New York, Jessica chose ECU because of its strong reputation in the specialized field of medical physics, a concentration in the MS degree in physics. ECU’s excellence is evident in part because of the long track record of accreditation that ECU’s Department of Physics, with support from the Department of Radiation Oncology, has maintained through the Commission on Accreditation of Medical Physics Education Programs (CAMPEP). Jessica graduated with a MS in physics, concentration in medical physics, in 1997.

Jessica is now the Senior Medical Physicist at the MD Anderson Cancer Center’s Department of Radiation Physics, and she also serves as Associate Director of the Imaging and Radiation Oncology Core, both in Houston, TX. Her job entails performing quality assurance of National Cancer Institute clinical trials involving radiation therapy.

“The Department of Physics and the staff at the Leo Jenkins Cancer Center are what molded me for my career. Without the skills that I learned there, I would not have been able to do what I do currently,” she says. “I enjoyed my two years at ECU. It opened my eyes to an entirely different way of applying physics. I also really enjoy the friends—who are now my colleagues—that I made while at ECU.”

Thomas A. Bayliss III

Founder TAB Electric Supply Company
Former Mayor of New Bern

Tom graduated from ECU in 1973 with a BS in physics. He went on to found TAB Electric Supply company in 1983, which was involved in some of the earliest applications of automation in the electrical control of paper mills. In 1991 he was elected Mayor of New Bern, NC and served there for 16 years. He was a member of the ECU Board of Trustees from 1999-2003. He also founded the Sarah Patterson Lane Award and the TAB Scholarship for outstanding physics students at ECU.

Clara Ferreira

Assistant Professor and Clinical Medical Physicist
University of Minnesota Medical School

Clara is an assistant professor and clinical medical physicist at the University of Minnesota Medical School. At ECU she obtained a PhD in biomedical physics and a MS in medical physics, both in 2013. She also had a clinical assistant position at the ECU Brody School of Medicine for one year. She says that her training at ECU helped her in getting accepted into a Commission on Accreditation of Medical Physics Education Programs (CAMPEP) accredited residency position, helped her pass her board exams, and helps her in her current position as a professor advising her own PhD students. She is thankful to everyone at ECU—in particular Dr. Michael Dingfelder and Dr. Jae Jung—for helping her achieve her goals. She also is thankful for all the professors and staff at ECU for their kindness, helpfulness, and friendliness.