Children's director obtains resolution; SOD faculty, staff earns national, regional honors

A Children's of Mississippi clinic director receives a statewide resolution while School of Dentistry faculty and staff are selected for various national and regional accolades.

Children's of Miss clinic director earns MAFP resolution

Brooks

The Mississippi Academy of Family Physicians has presented a resolution to Dr. Tami Brooks, associate professor of pediatrics and medical director of the Children's of Mississippi North Clinic in Jackson, in honor of her work as part-time medical director in the Mississippi Division of Medicaid.

Brooks was formally recognized at a MAFP meeting last fall.

Brooks' efforts to improve relationships between family physicians and Medicaid have yielded good results, said Dr. Sue H. Simmons, MAFP president.

“Dr. Brooks has really worked to break down barriers Mississippi family doctors had encountered when trying to treat Medicaid patients,” Simmons said. “She has shown dedication to what is sometimes a thankless job, and the resolution has been our way of letting her know how much her efforts mean to us.”

According to the resolution, Brooks “has shown exemplary grace in dealing with and attempting to solve the frustrations of her medical colleagues.” It also states MAFP “acknowledges with deep appreciation the brilliant work of Dr. Tami Brooks as Medicaid's medical director, especially noting her tireless dedication to improving the agency's medical delivery of care to the citizens of Mississippi.”

ADEA designates SOD dean for Leader's Roundtable

Felton

Dr. David Felton, School of Dentistry dean, is one of seven dental deans designated by the American Dental Education Association to take part in the 2017 Leader's Roundtable of the Bell Leadership Institute.

A scholarship to cover the $14,500 tuition for the program is provided by the ADEAGies Foundation through the contribution of Dr. Rick Workman, a trustee of the foundation and founder and executive chair of Heartland Dental, and his wife, Angie.

Leader's Roundtable is a yearlong advanced leadership development program that assists CEOs, presidents and senior executive to become “world-class leaders.” The Bell Leadership Institute has provided leadership training since 1972. Leader's Roundtable will be led by Dr. Gerald D. Bell, founder of the institute.

Dentistry instructor earns Faculty of Color scholarship

Dr. Susana Salazar Marocho, center, instructor in biomedical materials science in the School of Dentistry, receives congratulations from Dr. Cecile Feldman, past chair of the American Dental Education Association Board of Directors, and Dr. Karl Haden, Academy for Academic Leadership founder, for being selected to receive two 2017 Faculty of Color Tuition Professional Development Scholarships from the ADEA/AAL.

The awards are for the ADEA/AAL Institute for Teaching and Learning and the Compass Program for Academic Advancement. The scholarships provide full-tuition waver for each program: $4,950 and $395, respectively.

Marocho received the awards during the 2017 ADEA Annual Session and Exhibition March 20 in Long Beach, California. The training courses will take place this fall.

Graduate student receives biomed engineering award

Bhuvaneswari Gurumurthy, center, a fourth-year Ph.D. student and research assistant in the School of Dentistry, stands with proud UMMC faculty members Dr. Michelle Tucci, professor of orthopaedic surgery, and Dr. Hamed Benghuzzi, professor of clinical health sciences, after receiving First Prize for Oral Presentation at the 33rd Southern Biomedical Engineering Conference March 17-18 in Gulfport.

Gurumurthy's presentation, “Characterization and Optimization of Collagen-Elastin-Like Polypeptide Composite Scaffolds for Bone Tissue Engineering,” was coauthored by Dr. Amol Janorkar, associate professor of biomedical materials science, and Dr. Jason Griggs, associate dean for research and professor and chair of biomedical materials science.

The SBEC is composed of bioengineering professionals from academia and industry in the southern United States. Submitted papers are peer-reviewed; papers accepted for presentation and publication appear in the yearly issue of SBEC proceedings. The SBEC emphasizes participation from young professionals and advanced students.