Training the next generation of health sciences professionals is more important than ever, and the Regions Bank TEACH Prize and the Norman C. Nelson Order of Teaching Excellence recognizes UMMC’s top instructors. Dr. Stephen Stray, the 2021 TEACH honoree, brings an infectious enthusiasm for virology into classrooms and labs to enrich his graduate, medical, dental and, even, high-school students.

They are often called “first patients” – those who have donated their bodies to the Medical Center and, with that act, provided students with an understanding of human anatomy that no textbook can equal. In a virtual, live-streamed ceremony last week, several of those students made known the valuable lessons they have learned about life from those no longer living.

Mississippi youths ages 12 to 15 are now eligible to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at the Medical Center’s vaccination clinic in the Jackson Medical Mall Thad Cochran Center. Pediatric experts say the expansion of the vaccine distribution to a younger age group will keep children and communities safer.

Quest Whalen came back to Mississippi to earn her master’s in biostatistics and data science at the John D. Bower School of Population Health. The next stage of her journey will take her far professionally, if not geographically: the school’s PhD program in the same field.

Makenzie Byrd will go from being a School of Nursing student on the UMMC campus to working in the Medical Center’s Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit. The Sebastopol native is already considered a nursing leader among her peers for serving as president of the Nursing Student Body and marshal for the School of Nursing Class of 2021.

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

Medical Center leadership is proud to acknowledge those employees who will celebrate service anniversaries during the week of May 17-23.