Class Notes

Dr. Rozelle Hahn (1948) of Shreveport, La., practiced medicine for many years in Shreveport before retiring at age 70, and has "enjoyed many interests" since then.

She received her M.D. at the University of Virginia in 1950 after finishing at what was then the University of Mississippi's two-year medical school in Oxford.

Hahn spent two years in Virginia in post-graduate training before going into practice in Indianola for four years, then completed training in internal medicine at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md.

1950s

Dr. Joseph E. Johnston (1953) of Mount Olive retired from practice in 2013 after a 57-year career and is now "relaxing, traveling and thoroughly enjoying life," he reports.

Johnston earned his M.D. at Cornell University in 1955, after his stint at the University of Mississippi's two-year medical school in Oxford.

"Office calls were $3 and deliveries were $25 when I started," he writes.

1960s

Dr. Gene L. Davidson (1961) of Tallahassee, Fla., retired from his ophthalmology practice in 1998.

In his retirement, Davidson is enjoying his 12 grandchildren, playing tennis, working out at the gym five days a week and working with a physical trainer.

He's also working and hunting on his farm, owned in the early 1800s by his great-great-great-grandfather, who was also an M.D., is buried a half-mile from Davidson's house and "helped establish the capital in Tallahassee and the county seat [of Gadsden County] in Quincy, Fla.," Davidson writes.

Dr. Stephen Gammill

Dr. Stephen Gammill (1962) trained in radiology, including a fellowship, at the University of Texas Medical Branch School of Medicine in Galveston.

He taught at Tulane University School of Medicine for six years before entering private practice at Baptist Hospital in Memphis ("Elvis' hospital," he writes).  

He retired in 1999 and began a second career. After training he became a therapist for 14 years as a volunteer at a halfway house for recovering addicts.

He now volunteers at the Church Health Center in Memphis as a radiologist. Gammill, who has studied art, is a portrait artist specializing in children. He is, or has been, an air-show pilot, traveler, skier, golfer, tennis player, singer and poet. 

Gammill has been married to Mary Ann Perich Gammill for 48 years. They have two children and twin granddaughters.

1970s

Dr. Thad Waites, Dr. Michael Mansour and Dr. Robert A. "Bob" Guyton

Dr. Thad Waites (1970), Dr. Michael Mansour (1984) and Dr. Robert A. "Bob" Guyton (Harvard Medical School, '71) are three native Mississippians serving together on the board of trustees for the American College of Cardiology (ACC).

All three have been officers for the organization.

Waites, who chairs the ACC's advocacy committee and is a member of the Mississippi State Board of Health, practices in Hattiesburg, while Mansour practices cardiology with his wife Dr. Kathleen Mansour in Greenville.

Guyton, chief of the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, is the son of the late Dr. Arthur Guyton, world-renowned physiologist and chair of the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at UMMC from 1955 until 1989.

Dr. Sandra Rhoden

Dr. Sandra Rhoden (1973) of Houston, Texas, practices at the breast health care organization, The Rose, in Houston, diagnosing breast cancer/diseases and "making sure all comers get treatment, regardless of ability to pay," she writes.

"My work in Houston is very satisfying." For frequent visits home with family, Rhoden keeps a house in Madison, where her son and UMMC alumnus Dr. Chad Rhoden (2003) practices medicine and runs a company he co-founded, FlavorDoctor Foods, which offers a line of salt substitutes.

Dr. C. Ron Cannon (1976) of Brandon is president-elect and treasurer of the American Board of Otolaryngology.

A board-certified otolaryngologist with the Head & Neck Surgical Group in Flowood, he is responsible for board certification for that specialty. Cannon is also a member of UMMC's affiliate faculty in the School of Medicine.

He is a past president of the Mississippi Society of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery.

Dr. Cynthia Brumfield (1978) of Birmingham, Ala., is professor of obstetrics and gynecology in the Division of Maternal and Fetal Medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine.

She has served on the staff for more than 30 years.

Brumfield completed an internship and her residency at the University of Florida before finishing a fellowship at UAB in 1987.

Dr. Charles "Todd" Sherwood (1978) of Jackson is one of three Department of Veterans Affairs physicians honored by the U.S. Office of Special Council in December for making revelations that led to reforms at the Veterans Affairs Department.

The three, including Dr. Katherine Mitchell of Phoenix, Ariz., and Dr. Phyllis Hollenbeck, also of Jackson, received the Public Servant of the Year award.

Each helped uncover problems in patient care at VA medical centers in his or her respective city.

1980s

Dr. Brenda Hines (1982) of Flowood, who is board-certified in psychiatry and sleep medicine, practices sleep medicine at Somnus Sleep Clinic in Flowood.

She treats patients with obstructive sleep apnea, excessive daytime fatigue, restless leg syndrome and narcolepsy. Hines also sees cases of parasomnia, circadian rhythm sleep disorders and sleep disorders experienced by women and children.

She has two sons, who are physicians, a daughter who is in optometry school and two grandchildren.

Dr. Don Gaddy (1983) of Long Beach is a full-time OB-GYN serving as chief of staff at Memorial Hospital in Gulfport, as well as medical director for labor and delivery at Gulfport's Garden Park Medical Center.

In 1987, he returned home to join the practice started by his father and uncle, Drs. Hurd and Ira Gaddy, at the Gulfport OB-GYN Clinic, where he and his brother now continue caring for families along the Gulf Coast.

He helped develop the Gulfport Physician Outpatient Surgery Center and the Family Health Care Center.

Gaddy has three adult children. His pasttimes include farming and raising cattle. "My relaxation time is fishing out at Cat Island," he writes.

Dr. Randy Easterling

Dr. Randy Easterling (1984) of Vicksburg has been appointed chair of the Business and Industry Political Education Committee (BiPEC) for a one-year term.

He is also serving his second six-year term on the Mississippi State Board of Medical Licensure, after he was appointed first by Gov. Haley Barbour and then by Gov. Phil Bryant.

The Long Beach native is a past president of the Mississippi State Medical Association.

 Easterling is board-certified by the American Academy of Family Medicine and the American Society of Addiction Medicine.

Dr. Harold James "Jim" Williams and wife, Carol

Dr. Harold James "Jim" Williams (1985) is vice chair, educational programs, in the Department of Pathology at West Virginia University in Morgantown, "where I live with my lovely wife, Carol," he writes.

"I have been here in West Virginia since April 2003. I am still paying basketball (with some old guys at the Senior Center, we call it 'geezerball')."

Dr. Bob Bennett Jr.

Dr. Bob Bennett Jr. (1988) of the Woodlands, Texas, is a board-certified anesthesiologist - general, cardiac and pain management.

He completed his anesthesiology training at the University of Texas Southwestern Parkland Hospital in Dallas. In Australia and France, he also received advanced-training fellowships in regional pain injections. He serves patients at the CareFirst clinics

Active in his church, Bennett has participated in medical missions as well.

Dr. Timothy R. Smith

Dr. Timothy R. Smith (1989) of St. Louis, Mo., received the 2015 Lifetime Achievement Award of the National Headache Foundation on May 2 in Chicago.

The presentation, part of the foundation's 29th annual fund-raising gala, goes to a health-care professional for an impressive body of work in the field of headache management.

Smith is vice president of research for Mercy Hospital St. Louis, the fifth-largest Catholic health system in the country and second-largest medical group.

The Corinth native is also medical director for the Mercy Clinic Headache Center in St. Louis. He has published 38 peer-reviewed papers and more than 200 other articles, abstracts, and book chapters.

He has been principal investigator for more than 600 clinical trials and original research projects and held teaching positions for three institutions in the St. Louis area, including Washington University School of Medicine. 

Smith, who received his Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy degree in 1983 from the University of Mississippi School of Pharmacy, is listed in the peer-selected list of Best Doctors in America for the 15th consecutive year.

HIs wife of 33 years, Deborah (B.B.A. '84), is the owner and innkeeper of the Maple Leaf Cottage Inn Bed and Breakfast, on the Illinois side of the Mississippi River near St. Louis. 

They have four adult children (Caitlin, Caige, Caleb, and Chance) and a "beautiful granddaughter (Charlotte), born in 2014," he writes.

1990s

Dr. Amy Young

Dr. Amy Young (1990) of Austin, Texas, is the inaugural chair of the Department of Women's Health, and a professor of obstetrics and gynecology, at the Dell Medical School at the University of Texas in Austin.

She took over as chair starting on Jan. 5.

She was most recently the Abe Mickal Professor and Chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans, where she served as the Center Director of Surgical Services of the Interim LSU Public Hospital.

Young was also a member of the LSU Healthcare Network (HCN) board of directors and chair of the LSU HCN Clinical Practice Leadership Group. She is the recipient of the 2013 Leadership Award at the Interim LSU Public Hospital and is the immediate past president of the Association of Professors of Gynecology and Obstetrics.

After earning her M.D. and taking a year-long leave of absence to live in Venezuela, she completed her internship at Emory University in Atlanta and residency in OB-GYN at Baylor College of Medicine.

The Jackson native is married to Charles Shumaker. They have three children.

Dr. D’Ette Lorio

Dr. D'Ette Lorio (1993) was named early this year the District Health Officer for the Mississippi State Department of Health (MSDH) Coastal Plains Public Health District IX, which encompasses Pearl River, Stone, George, Hancock, Harrison and Jackson counties.

A Jackson native, Lorio has been with the MSDH since September 2014. She earned her Bachelor of Science degree from Millsaps College before receiving her M.D.

After completing her residency in pediatrics at the Arkansas Children's Hospital, she began practicing pediatrics in Charleston, S.C., where her husband was in surgery residency. She moved her pediatrics private practice to Ocean Springs in 1997.

Lorio has also been active in a variety of professional and civic organizations. She has filled leadership positions in organizations such as the 4-H "Health Rocks!" Healthy Life Series and Girl Scouts Fitness and Healthy Foods Programs, as well as on local school wellness committees.

Lorio replaced Dr. Robert Travnicek, who retired in 2013. Dr. Paul Byers, deputy state epidemiologist, had been serving as acting District IX health officer since Travnicek's retirement.

Dr. Laura B. Petrey (1995) is associate program director of research and associate attending physician in the Department of General Surgery at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, Texas.

She is also assistant professor in the College of Medicine at the Texas A&M Health Science Center in Bryan, Texas.

Petrey completed her general surgery residency at Rush University Medical Center and Cook County Hospital in Chicago, Ill. Afterward, she received her fellowship specialty training in trauma and surgical critical care at the University of Tennessee at Memphis. 

She has been a member of Urgent Surgery Associates since 2001, specializing in acute care general surgery, surgical trauma and surgical critical care. Petrey is board certified in both general surgery and surgical critical care. 

At Baylor, she became the first female general surgery attending physician in the Department of Surgery since it was formed in 1920.

2000s

Dr. Jason Murphy, center, with wife Susan and daughter Lydia at the 2014 Ole Miss-Alabama football game

Dr. Jason G. Murphy (2003) of Jackson is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons and a partner with the Surgical Clinic Associates, P.A. in Jackson.

He practices the "full breadth" of general surgery, he writes, and is also serving as the chief-of-staff-elect at Mississippi Baptist Medical Center. 

Murphy is a board member of Mississippi Health Partners and serves on the editorial advisory board of the Journal of the Mississippi State Medical Association. 

He is also active on both the membership committee and the young physicians' advisory council of the Medical Assurance Company of Mississippi. 

Dr. Syed Tanvir Ahmed

Dr. Syed Tanvir Ahmed (2004, residency) of West Bloomfield, Mich., has spent the last two years working as a hospitalist and ER physician.

He practiced family and emergency medicine in Lawrence County, Mississippi, for several years, until May 2012, after graduating from UMMC's family medicine program in 2004.

During his years in Mississippi, he also served as clinical assistant professor in the Medical Center's Department of Family Medicine.

Board-certified in family medicine, Ahmed is a fellow in the American Academy of Family Physicians and a member of the College of Family Physicians of Canada in Ontario, which establishes certification standards for family medicine physicians and accredits postgraduate family medicine training in Canada's medical schools.

Dr. James Shipp (2008), an ophthalmologist, and Dr. Lyndsay Shipp (2010), a dermatologist, both practice in Oxford and have been married for five years.

James Shipp has joined Mayo Eye Center, while Lyndsay Ship works at Oxford Dermatology.

They have one son, James, 2, and, as of this publication's deadline, a second child was on the way.

Dr. P. Brent Smith

Dr. P. Brent Smith (2009) of Cleveland assumed the elected post of treasurer for the American Academy of Family Physicians Foundation Board of Trustees on Jan. 1 at the age of 31.

He is the youngest officer ever elected to the board. The position begins a four-year track to the presidency of the AAFP Foundation, which serves as the philanthropic arm of the academy.

A member of the Mississippi Academy of Family Physicians (MAFP) since 2008, Smith serves on the Board of Trustees for the Mississippi Academy of Family Physicians Foundation and several task forces of the Mississippi Academy of Family Physicians.

He is an original member of the Mississippi Rural Physicians Scholarship Program created by the MAFP, and served for two years on the MRPSP Program Committee. 

Smith has filled multiple roles with the AAFP, most recently as an at-large member of the AAFP Foundation Board of Trustees.

After earning his M.D., Smith completed his residency at UMMC in family medicine in 2012. He served with the Vice Chancellor's Residents Group of HEALing Fellows, a community outreach program to identify and help correct the causes of health disparities, and to improve resident training so that it meets the needs of the community.

Smith finished his sports medicine fellowship at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa in 2013 before returning to Cleveland to establish his practice. In 2014, he received a Master of Science in clinical education from the University of Edinburgh, in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Active in the American Medical Association and Mississippi State Medical Association, he served two terms as the resident member of the Mississippi AMA's board of trustees and as a member of the Mississippi Medical Association Council on Legislation.

Smith is certified by the American Board of Family Medicine with a Certificate of Added Qualification (CAQ) in Sports Medicine. 

He is head team physician for Delta State University in Cleveland and a member of the Mississippi High School Activities Association Sports Medicine Advisory Committee.

Dr. Temitope Odetunde (2011) has completed her residency in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at UMMC, and will begin practicing her specialty at Huntsville Memorial Hospital in Huntsville, Texas, this fall.

Odetunde received her B.S. in psychology at Howard University in Washington, D.C., before earning her M.D. at the Medical Center, where she also completed an internship in OB-GYN.

Dr. Jeremy Taylor (2012), a native of Gulfport, will complete his internal medicine residency at UMMC this summer and begin his fellowship in endocrinology. His wife, Dr. Charlotte S. Taylor, is a radiology intern at UMMC.

His hobbies include tennis, baseball and trivia. In his spare time, he also enjoys spending time with his wife, swimming and watching the Atlanta Braves.

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU

If you have an update on your life and career, send it to gpettus@umc.edu. Please include your name at graduation, year of medical school graduation and change of address, along with any other new contact information. If you like, please send us a current photo of yourself for publication as well. If you have any questions, contact Gary Pettus at the email address above, or call (601) 815-9266. Thanks.