New faculty join UMMC academic ranks
Published on Monday, July 7, 2025
Medical Center leadership is proud to announce the following additions to its faculty and leadership staff.
Dr. Amy N. Hussey
Dr. Amy N. Hussey, recently a Virtual Assessment Technologies Institute Nurse Educator for Ascend Learning, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an assistant professor of education in the School of Nursing.
A Certified Nurse Educator, Hussey earned her BSN at Mississippi University for Women and her MSN in executive nursing administration at the University of South Alabama in Mobile before receiving her Doctorate of Nursing Practice in educational leadership in 2018 from American Sentinel University in Aurora, Colorado.
Before joining Ascend Learning in October 2024, she served at North Mississippi Medical Center in Tupelo as a staff RN, director of Advanced Cardiac Life Support courses and, finally, as a continuing education specialist. She then served on the Associate Degree Nursing Program faculty at Itawamba Community College in Fulton before working as an evaluator in Evaluation Services for Western Governors University.
Hussey is a 2023 UMMC Bower’s Leadership Fellow Graduate. She is a member of the Mississippi Organization for Associate Degree Nursing and the Organization for Associate Degree Nursing.
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Dr. Thomas B. Smith
Dr. Thomas B. Smith, recently an emergency medicine physician at Baptist Memorial Hospital-North Mississippi in Oxford and with Schumacher Clinical Partners, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an assistant professor of emergency medicine in the School of Medicine.
Smith earned his medical degree in 2012 at the UMMC School of Medicine and completed his residency in emergency medicine at the Medical Center in 2016.
He has also served as an emergency medicine physician at Magee General Hospital in Magee, Hardy Wilson Memorial Hospital in Hazlehurst, Baptist Medical Center-Attala in Kosciusko, Merit Health Madison in Canton and Merit Health River Oaks in Flowood.
Board-certified in emergency medicine, Smith is a member of the American College of Emergency Physicians. Throughout his career, he has earned a number of research and academic honors.
Among his other interests is wilderness and disaster medicine.
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Dr. Justin M. Turner
Dr. Justin M. Turner, recently chief medical officer for the Mississippi State Department of Health, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an assistant professor of medicine-preventive medicine in the School of Medicine.
A graduate of Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee, Turner completed his residency in internal medicine at UMMC in 2011. While completing his residency, he was also a HEALing (Health Equity And Learning) Fellow.
Before joining MSDH, he served as CEO of TurnerCare in Jackson, an internal medicine practice he started in 2013.
Turner currently serves on the Public Health Task Force for the Mississippi State Medical Association.
During the Medical Center’s 2024 Medical Alumni Chapter Hall of Fame awards ceremony, he received the Early Career Achievement Award.
His numerous other honors and awards include the 2024 Rising Star Award from Mississippi Public Health Institute; 2024 Rising Star Award from the Mississippi Lung Cancer Roundtable; 2023 Distinguished Physician’s Award from the Mississippi Medical and Surgical Association; 2017 Doctor of Distinction from the MSMA, which also awarded him the 2020 Dr. James Waites Leadership Award; 2022 Mississippi Children’s Museum Community Champion Award; 2021 National Top 40 Under 40 honor from the National Minority Quality Forum; and Mississippi Business Journal’s 2018 Top Entrepreneurs in Mississippi, 2015 Top 50 Under 40 Businesspersons in Mississippi and 2014 Mississippi Health Care Hero; and 2022 Most Influential African Americans in Mississippi by Our Mississippi.
Turner’s community service includes participation in health fairs, panel discussions, outreach ministries and mentorship. He also speaks as a health expert on local and national news and radio stations.