Health sciences, ob-gyn, medicine welcome new faculty

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

Cynthia Casey, D.N.P.

Casey

Dr. Cynthia Casey, a part-time nurse in the Department of Neurology at UMMC, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an associate professor of health sciences in the School of Health Related Professions.

After receiving her B.S.N. from the School of Nursing in 1993, Casey served as a charge nurse/staff nurse at UMMC before joining the Mississippi State Hospital staff in 1995 as a staff/charge nurse. In 1997, she became an instructor at Hinds Community College, serving as a teacher and advisor for almost a decade. While at Hinds, she received her M.S.N. from the University of Southern Mississippi in 2001; she also served as charge nurse/relief supervisor at Brentwood Behavioral Health in Jackson from 2001-08 and admission nurse at Sta Home Health in Jackson from 2003-04. She left Hinds to join the School of Health Related Professions in September 2016.

In 2006, she returned to Hinds as a learning lab manager, advisor, course coordinator, adjunct faculty and continuing education online instructor. The following year, she began working part-time at UMMC. She received her D.N.P. in 2012 from Samford University, Birmingham, Alabama, and became an associate professor and department chair of the health science program and director of the Master's of Health Science online programs for UMMC.

Casey was instrumental in developing international relationships in Guatemala and implemented immersion experiences for students into the country. She also was instrumental in developing the first and only national honor society for associate degree nursing - Alpha Delta Nu - and started the Omega Chapter at Hinds.

Active in the American Nurses Association, the National Organization for Associate Degree Nurses and the Mississippi Nurses Association, Casey has served on the state board and state education committee of Sigma Theta Tau. She is currently on the Board for District 13 of the MNA and on the national board for the Organization of Associate Degree Nursing. She has given five presentations at scientific meetings and has served on numerous committees at Hinds and at UMMC.

Funminiyi A. Taylor (Ajayi), M.D.

F. Taylor

Dr. Funminiyi A. Taylor (Ajayi), an assistant professor of medical education in the Center for Maternal-Fetal Medicine at the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, Springfield, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology in the Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine.

After receiving her B.S. in biology summa cum laude in 2001 from Howard University, Washington, D.C., Taylor earned her M.D. at the Howard University College of Medicine in 2003. She then had residency training in obstetrics and gynecology from 2003-07 at the Mayo Graduate School of Medicine, Rochester, Minnesota, and fellowship training in maternal fetal medicine from 2007-10 at the Ohio State University Medical Center.

Taylor joined the Medstar Washington Hospital Center, Washington, D.C., in 2010 as an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology. In 2012, she moved to Kettering (Ohio) Medical Center to serve as an ob-gyn physician and in 2013 was a locums physician at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville; St. Elizabeth Regional Medical Center, Lincoln, Nebraska; and Sinai Hospital of Baltimore, Maryland. Taylor joined the Southern Illinois University faculty in 2015 and received her Master's of Educational Technology from the University of Florida, Gainesville, in 2016.

A fellow of the American Congress of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Taylor is an active member of the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine, the Society for Maternal Fetal Medicine and the Association of Professors of Gynecology and Obstetrics. She has given five invited lectures and has coauthored four articles in peer-reviewed professional publications and nine research abstracts. Her research interests include cognitive and constructivist learning theory in medical education, blended learning in medical education, training transfer in medical education and fetal ultrasound training for ob-gyn residents.

Montoya Taylor, M.D.

M. Taylor

Dr. Montoya Taylor, a recent interventional cardiology graduate of the Ohio State University Medical Center, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an assistant professor of medicine.

After receiving his B.S. in biology magna cum laude from Tougaloo College in 2004, Taylor earned his M.D. from Brown University's Warren Alpert Medical School in Providence, Rhode Island, in 2008. He then moved to Columbus, Ohio, and began his graduate medical training at the Ohio State University Medical Center. He completed an internal medicine-pediatrics residency from 2008-12, an adult cardiology fellowship from 2012-15 and an interventional cardiology fellowship from 2015-16.

He has coauthored eight articles in peer-reviewed professional publications and 11 poster or oral scientific presentations. Taylor is an active member of several organizations, including the American College of Cardiology, the American College of Physicians, the American Medical Association and the Gold Humanism Honor Society.