Dr. Jessica Bailey always knew she wanted to be in health care, but education wasn't originally in her career plans.

Honored as Alumnus of the Year during SHRP Alumni Day Friday, the dean of the School of Health Related Professions and chair of health administration at UMMC started out as a UMMC Health Information Management graduate in 1980.

Her path took her back to UMMC when Becky Yates, former chair of HIM, called her about a position.

“Of course, I thought of her,” said Yates. “I was thrilled she would even be interested.”

Bailey started as an assistant professor of Health Informatics and Information Management in SHRP in July 2003. After almost four years in SHRP, she moved into the role of director of education for the Department of Medicine and then director of education for the Graduate Medical Education office.

While working with the Department of Medicine, Bailey developed and supervised a program that placed medical students and residents with clinics in rural parts of Mississippi. Fourth-year medical students and residents would work in these clinics for a month and keep a detailed journal on their experiences.

“Students would come here for school, and their primary training was in this metropolitan area. They weren't getting a picture of what rural medicine was like,” said Bailey. “It was such a rich experience. All students who did it came back enlightened.”

They say you never get a second chance to make a first impression, and the University of Mississippi School of Dentistry put its best foot forward on Thursday, March 23, for the 2017 Impressions Program hosted by the UMMC chapter of the Student National Dental Association.

The program invites up to 35 undergraduate students from across Mississippi who are interested in a career in dentistry to the school for a day of networking, Dental Admission Test preparations, mock interviews and even some hands-on dental work in the simulation laboratory. The program is designed to help underserved students gain the knowledge to better navigate the challenging path to being accepted into dental school.

Leading the program were current dental students who are members of the SNDA, many at the national level as well. Third-year dental student Jiman Nelson is the president of the local SNDA chapter and holds the position of corporate roundtable representative in the national organization. He and members Alexa Lampkin, fourth-year; Clora Evans, third-year, and Amadia Giles, fourth-year, welcomed the undergraduate students to the school after breakfast with Dr. David Felton, dean of the school.

Carter Griffin of Brandon had teeth on his mind Saturday. Specifically, happy ones and sad ones.

Dental students from the University of Mississippi School of Dentistry were helping him decide which plastic pretend foods - think broccoli and carrots - would make teeth happy and which foods would make them sad. The plastic frosted doughnut and artificial candy bar went into the sad tooth bag.

The lessons on having a healthy smile, along with trial-size tubes of toothpaste, were just part of the fun of Doctors' Day at the Mississippi Children's Museum. Part of Children's of Mississippi's participation in Question It? Discover It! Saturdays at the museum, the day included activities, information and interaction between medical professionals and kids and their families.

National Doctors Day is observed each year on March 30 as a way to recognize the service of physicians. The holiday was first marked May 9, 1933, the date being the same as the first use of general anesthesia in surgery in 1842. With the signature of President George Bush in 1990, Doctors Day was set for each March 30 as a national holiday.

Several interesting events are scheduled for the upcoming week at the Medical Center.