Peds endocrinologist, cardiology fellow; WMC director among new UMMC faculty hires

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

Dr. Stephanie Ghaleb, M.D.

Dr. Stephanie Ghaleb, recently a pediatric cardiology fellow at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an assistant professor of pediatrics and pediatric cardiology.

Ghaleb received her doctorate in medicine with distinction in 2012 from the University of Saint-Joseph faculty of medicine in Beirut, Lebanon. She completed her pediatrics residency at Texas A&M/Driscoll Children’s Hospital in Corpus Christi from 2013-16, then went on to pursue a three-year pediatric cardiology fellowship at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Ohio, where she also obtained in parallel a certificate in clinical and translational research from the University of Cincinnati.

Ghaleb is now an active faculty in the Division of Pediatric Cardiology, serving on the inpatient service but also active in the outpatient setting, seeing a wide range of pediatric patients with cardiology concerns. She is also directing the exercise lab, where she performs cardio-metabolic pulmonary stress testing for all cardiac indications. Ghaleb is also directing and helping to build an inter-stage clinic with the rest of the cardiology team to best serve the population of children with single ventricle physiology known for their very high inter-stage risk mortality.

Ghaleb is board-certified in pediatrics and board-eligible in pediatric cardiology. She is a member of multiple scientific societies, including AAP, ISHLT and AMA. She has published as a first author and co-authored multiple scientific articles in pediatric cardiology. She also has had multiple posters and oral presentations in national and international scientific meetings in the last few years.

Dr. Fariha Kamran, M.B.B.S.

Dr. Fariha Kamran, a pediatric endocrinologist, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an assistant professor of pediatrics.

After graduating from King Edward Medical University, Kamran completed a pediatric internship, followed by a pediatric residency, from 2006-08 at Nassau University Medical Center, New York. She later served as the pediatric chief resident at the same institute. Subsequently, Kamran joined the NICHD at the National Institutes of Health as a fellow in pediatric endocrinology from July 2009 to June 2012.

Since completing her fellowship, Kamran has served as a pediatric endocrinologist in Maryland. Her experience also includes working at Lutheran Hospital in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Throughout her residency and fellowship, Kamran actively participated in research activities. She is the recipient of the Human Growth Foundation Award from the Pediatric Endocrine Society in 2012 and the First Place Award from the Nassau Pediatric Society in 2008. Through the years, she has presented several posters and has delivered oral presentations at scientific meetings nationally. Kamran has also authored peer-reviewed articles in professional publications. She is an active member of the Endocrine Society, the Pediatric Endocrine Society and the American Academy of Pediatrics, among other professional organizations.

Kirby J. Orme, M.D.

Dr. Kirby J. Orme, medical director of the Wound Management Center and Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy at River Oaks Hospital, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an assistant professor of surgery.

After receiving his B.S. from Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, in 1997, Orme earned his M.D. at the Saint George’s University School of Medicine, Grenada, West Indies, in 2003. He then had family practice residency training from 2003-06 at Mountainside Hospital, Montclair, New Jersey, where he was chief resident from 2005-06.

Orme served in solo primary care practice from 2006-12 at the Lakeview Family Medical Clinic, Clinton. He concurrently worked in the Wound Management Center and Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy facility at CMMC from 2007-12. He left CMMC to work full-time in the Merit River Oaks Wound Care Center and was medical director there from 2012-19. Since 2007, he also has worked at Select Specialty Hospital in Ridgeland. He is an active member of the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Family Physicians and Collegium Aesculapium.

Laura Smart, M.D.

Dr. Laura Smart, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Louisville, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an assistant professor of medicine.

After receiving her B.A. in chemistry magna cum laude from the University of Louisville, Kentucky, in 2003, Smart earned her M.D. at the University of Louisville School of Medicine in 2007. She then had internal medicine residency training at Ohio State University, Columbus, from 2007-10; a gastroenterology, hepatology and nutrition fellowship from 2011-14 at the University of Louisville, where she was chief fellow from 2013-14; and a transplant hepatology fellowship at Ohio State University from 2014-15.

Smart served as a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Hospital Medicine at Ohio State University from 2010-11 and as an assistant professor in the Department of Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition at the University of Louisville from 2015-19. She served as medical director of liver transplantation at the University of Louisville/Jewish Hospital and medical director of the Jewish Hospital Hepatitis C Clinic from 2015-19.

An active member of the American College of Gastroenterology and the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, Smart is an Alpha Epsilon Delta Honor Society and a Golden Key International Honor Society inductee. She is the author or coauthor of five articles in peer-reviewed publications, four abstracts and presentations, and three posters presented at scientific meetings in Louisville. Her research interests include efficacy and safety of treatment for patients with alcoholic hepatitis and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis.