Anne Casscells '76 and Nick Patel '06 to Receive Alumni Awards

The 2021 Distinguished Alumni Award and Young Alumni Award will be presented during Tower Hill's Homecoming Weekend at the State of the School presentation on Saturday, Oct. 2, at 11 a.m. Anne Casscells '76 will receive the 2021 Distinguished Alumni Award, and Nick Patel, M.D., '06 will receive the 2021 Young Alumni Award.

 

 

 

Anne Casscells '76 is a managing director, co-president and chief investment officer of Aetos. Prior to co-founding Aetos Alternatives Management in 2001, Casscells was chief investment officer of the Stanford Management Company, where she was responsible for the investment of over $10 billion in endowment funds and other assets on behalf of Stanford University. Prior to assuming her position as CIO in 1998, she served as managing director of Investment Policy Research, where she was responsible for asset allocation and for the endowment’s absolute return investments. Prior to joining the Stanford Management Company, she was a vice president in Goldman Sachs’ fixed income division and an analyst at Morgan Stanley & Company.

 

Casscells graduated from Tower Hill in 1976 and went on to earn a B.A. in British studies, cum laude, from Yale University, and subsequently an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where she was an Arjay Miller Scholar.

Casscells has been an active volunteer, serving as a board member, finance and investment committee chair, and fundraiser. At Stanford, she has served as a trustee of the Stanford GSB Trust (the business school endowment) and as coordinator of the LGBTQ alumni chapter. She has also funded fellowships at Stanford for business school students planning careers in the nonprofit field. At Yale, she serves on the Dean’s Leadership Council for the School of Nursing, where her priority has been financial aid for nursing students.

 

In October 2020, Casscells was honored at the Silicon Valley Business Journal Women of Influence Awards as one of the 100 most influential women in the Silicon Valley. Her siblings, Chris Casscells, M.D., '71, Missy Casscells-Hamby '78 and the late Trip Casscells, M.D., '70 also attended Tower Hill, as did her niece and two nephews.

 

 

 

Nick Patel, M.D., '06 is a joint replacement specialist at Delaware Orthopaedic Specialists. After graduating from Tower Hill in 2006, he earned a dual degree in biology from Emory University and biomedical engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology and his medical degree from Emory University School of Medicine. He completed his residency in orthopaedic surgery at Emory, and his training included high volume elective surgeries at a dedicated Orthopaedic Hospital along with extensive trauma experience at Grady Memorial Hospital, one of the busiest trauma centers in the nation. While in residency, Patel performed research on the anterior approach for hip replacement along with methods to reduce infection in joint replacement. 

 

After residency, Patel pursued a prestigious fellowship in hip and knee reconstructive surgery at Harvard University’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He has extensive training in both primary and complex/revision joint replacement. Patel also has a particular interest in the anterior approach for hip replacement, partial knee replacement and use of robotics in joint replacement surgery.

 

Patel is a member of the American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons (AAHKS) and the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS). His current research interests include integrating his engineering background with clinical medicine to improve outcomes in joint replacement patients.