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UMMC faculty shine in professions

Published on Monday, March 20, 2023

Williams takes part in well-being director course

Portrait of Nilda M. Williams
Williams

Dr. Nilda Maria Williams has been accepted into the competitive Stanford Medicine WellMD and WellPhD Physician Well-Being Director course.

Williams, an assistant professor in the Department of Radiology, will take part in a virtual, six-week educational series that equips leaders with knowledge and tools to catalyze changes at the local level in departments, divisions, practices, sites and groups. It includes presentations by Stanford University leaders and faculty in addition to peer-to-peer learning.

Williams chairs the Medical Center’s Physician Wellness Subcommittee of the Well-being Committee.

“Dr. Williams has become recognized in the radiology community—and now more broadly—as a guru in physician wellness,” said Dr. Richard Duszak, professor and chair of the Department of Radiology.

“She has contributed to a variety of initiatives in the department of radiology, across UMMC, and within physician professional society to mitigate physician burnout and prioritize workplace joy,” Duszak said. “Her acceptance into this prestigious program is a big win for her own professional development, but importantly as well for UMMC, which will be the beneficiary of the exclusive education and networking available to her.”

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Attar selected for national optometry board

Portrait of Roya Attar
Attar

Dr. Roya Attar, an optometrist and assistant professor in the Department of Ophthalmology, has been named to the 2023-25 board of Women in Optometry.

The board consists of 12 optometrists, each serving a two-year term after being chosen through a nomination process. “It was heartwarming to read these nominations about women ODs who care so passionately for the profession and their colleagues,” Women in Optometry Editor in Chief Marjolijn Bijlefeld said in a news release

In 2018, Attar became the first faculty optometrist hired at UMMC in the Department of Ophthalmology. She provides clinical services as well as training and lectures for ophthalmology residents.

In 2020, she was named Young Optometrist of the South by the Southern Educational Congress of Optometry International and the nation’s Young Optometrist of the Year by the American Optometric Association.

Attar received her doctorate in optometry from the Rosenberg School of Optometry in 2013. She has double bachelor of science degrees (biology and chemistry) from the University of Memphis and a master’s degree in business administration from the College of Business at the University of Pikeville in Kentucky, where she helped found the Kentucky College of Optometry.

She is a fellow of the American Academy of Optometry and a member of the American Optometric Association, the Mississippi Optometric Association and the Mississippi Public Health Association.