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Pathologist, dietitian, psychologist join UMMC faculty

Published on Thursday, December 17, 2015

Published on December 17, 2015

The Medical Center is proud to announce the following additions to its faculty and leadership staff:

Grace Kao Mahowald, MD, PhD

Mahowald
Mahowald

Dr. Grace Kao Mahowald, a recent medical intern at Massachusetts General Hospital, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an instructor in pathology and director-in-training in the HLA Laboratory.

After receiving her BA in chemistry magna cum laude from Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 2001, Mahowald entered the Medical Scientist Training Program at the Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine, where she earned her MD and PhD in immunology in 2011. She then had postgraduate training as an intern in the Department of Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston.

Mahowald is the author or coauthor of 13 articles in peer-reviewed scientific publications. 


 

Arnita Ford Norwood, PhD

Arnita Norwood
Norwood

Dr. Arnita Ford Norwood, a registered dietitian and junior investigator in the Jackson Heart Study, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an assistant professor of medicine.

After receiving her BS in biology cum laude from Jackson State University in 1994, Norwood earned an MPH in international health at the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 1999 and an MPH in nutrition at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2010. She then earned her PhD in nutrition at UNC-Chapel Hill in 2013.

Norwood has extensive professional experience in Jackson, having served as a policy coordinator for the Mississippi Smokeless States Alliance from 2001-04, as an evaluation consultant for the Mississippi Roadmap to Health Equity from 2008-09, as a researcher at UMMC from 2011-12, as a research support manager at JSU from 2012-13, and as a project manager at UMMC from 2013-15. She is a junior investigator for the Jackson Heart Study, a co-investigator with the “Eat Right, Live Well” program funded by the Bower Foundation, and also is an adjunct professor in the College of Public Services at JSU.

An active member of the American Heart Association, the Mississippi Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, Norwood is the coauthor of two articles in peer-reviewed scientific publications.

Her research interests include planning, implementing and evaluating behavioral interventions for the prevention and management of chronic diseases, including cardiovascular disease and diabetes. She is also interested in examining how psychosocial and environmental determinants of health behaviors influence chronic disease prevention and management.

 


 

Kathleen M. Young, PhD

Young
Young

Dr. Kathleen M. Young, a licensed clinical psychologist and assistant professor of family and community medicine, director of behavioral science, and director of research at Albany Medical College, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an assistant professor of family medicine and director of the Judith Gore Gearhart Clinical Skills Center.

After receiving her BA in psychology and in English summa cum laude from Hendrix College, Conway, Arkansas, in 2001, Young earned her MA in clinical psychology in 2005, her MPH in public health nutrition in 2011, and her PhD in clinical psychology in 2011 at Bowling Green State University, Ohio. Following an internship in medical psychology and substance use disorders at the Boston Consortium in Clinical Psychology, she completed a health psychology/integrated primary care postdoctoral fellowship in the UMMC Department of Family Medicine from 2011-13. She joined the Albany Medical College faculty in 2013.

The author or coauthor of 25 articles in peer-reviewed professional publications and one book chapter, Young is a highly sought speaker, having given 40 conference presentations nationally. She serves as associate editor of the journal Health Behavior and Policy Review, and as an ad hoc reviewer for the Annals of Behavioral Medicine, the Journal of Behavioral Medicine, the American Journal of Health Behavior, and Families, Systems and Health.

Young's research interests include obesity and weight management, innovation in medical education, and health-care provider wellness and impairment.