Explore UAB

Dr. Catherine C. Parker

Two Department of Surgery faculty members recently were awarded the Champ Lyons Outstanding Clinician Award: The division of Breast and Endocrine Surgery’s Catherine C. Parker, M.D., associate professor, Vice Chair of Patient Experience, and Co-Director of UAB Women in Surgery Program, and the Division of Vascular Surgery and Endovascular Therapy’s Benjamin J. Pearce, M.D., associate professor, Director of the Vascular Surgery Integrated Residency and Fellowship Programs, as well as the William D. Jordan Endowed Professor in Vascular Surgery and Endovascular Therapy.

Four faculty members have been named associate vice chairs within the Department of Surgery:

Dr. Panayotis VardasUAB cardiothoracic surgeon Panayotis Vardas, M.D., was recently appointed as a member of the Career Development Committee for the Eastern Cardiothoracic Surgical Society. The ECTSS aims to enhance the standards of patient care through research and thoracic surgical training programs.

Dr. Colin Martin

UAB pediatric surgeon Colin Martin, M.D., FAAP, FACS, was recently selected by the American Academy of Pediatrics Section on Surgery Executive Committee to serve as vice chair of their Publications Committee.

UAB biomedical sciences Ph.D. candidate Rachael Guenter recently won for her oral research presentation at the American Institute of Chemical Engineers Division 15 competition at the 2019 AIChE Annual Meeting in Orlando, Florida, Nov 10-15.

UAB Professor of SurgeryIrshad H. Chaudry, Ph.D.,was recently awarded honorary membership to the European Shock Society. Chaudry was given this honor in recognition of his service and dedication to the ESS at the ESS Congress in Chania, Greece, Oct. 8-12.

UAB cardiothoracic surgeon Panayotis Vardas, M.D., has been selected to attend the inaugural Society of Thoracic Surgeons Leadership Summit. The course, “Leadership Beyond the Operating Room for Early Career Surgeons,” is designed to help develop the next generation of leaders in cardiac surgery.

Dr. J. Bart Rose delivers his testimony to the Senate Special Committee on Aging on Nov. 15, calling for greater federal funding for pancreatic cancer research.

UAB Pancreatobiliary Disease Center Director and surgical oncologist J. Bart Rose, M.D., MAS, recently testified on the state of pancreatic cancer at a Nov. 15 hearing with the United States Senate Special Committee on Aging.

Jayme Locke, M.D., MPH, has been named the director of the Division of Transplantation within the Department of Surgery at The University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Background

A Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) in Neuroendocrine Cancer (NE SPORE) is under further development at The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). An initial P50 application was submitted in September 2019 and is pending review. There is need to engage additional investigators and projects that have potential to strengthen an anticipated revised application. Therefore, an AMC21 Multi-Investigator Grant was awarded to continue the development efforts for this important grant and has resulted in this pilot program.

UAB pediatric surgeon Colin Martin, M.D., has been selected for the 2019-2020 James IV Association of Surgeons Travelling Fellowship program. The Association and the fellowship, generally considered one of the field’s more prestigious honors, boast a more than 50-year history of supporting international communication and collaboration among academic surgeons.

The UAB Medicine Office of Patient Experience and Engagement has awarded 11 Department of Surgery faculty and staff 2019 Patient Experience Excellence Awards:

Dr. Robert Russell

UAB pediatric surgeon and Children’s of Alabama Trauma Program Director Robert Russell, M.D., MPH, was elected treasurer of the Pediatric Trauma Society at the organization’s sixth annual meeting earlier this month in San Diego, California. Russell will serve a two-year term, which has already begun, and will be a member of the board of directors for PTS during his tenure as treasurer. 

Dr. Ammar Asban

UAB general surgery resident Ammar Asban, M.D., MAS, has been selected as one of the recipients of the 2020 STS Looking to the Future Resident Scholarship.

The UAB Department of Surgery recently established a new research unit to design and conduct clinical trials. 

UAB medical student Amaris Elston will receive a Student Diversity Travel Award from the Association for Academic Surgery to attend next year’s Academic Surgical Congress.

Eight faculty from the UAB Department of Surgery were initiated into the American College of Surgeons as fellows at the ACS 2019 Clinical Congress in San Francisco, California, on Oct. 27. (Photo by Brenessa Lindeman)

UAB Department of Surgery faculty, staff and trainees traveled to San Francisco, California, last month for the American College of Surgeons 2019 Clinical Congress, as well as a number of other national society meetings.

Dr. Brenessa LindemanUAB endocrine surgeon and Department of Surgery Wellness Officer Brenessa Lindeman, M.D., MEHP, FACS, has been selected to participate in Momentum’s Upward Early Career Leadership Program. 

UAB general surgery research resident Dr. Raoud Marayati presents “Novel Retinoic Acid Derivative Induces Differentiation and Growth Arrest in Neuroblastoma” at the American Academy of Pediatrics 2019 National Conference and Exhibition in New Orleans, Louisiana, Oct. 25-29. (Photo by @RMarayati via Twitter)

UAB general surgery research resident Raoud Marayati, M.D., won the Rosenkrantz Award for Basic Science Research at the American Academy of Pediatrics 2019 National Conference and Exhibition in New Orleans, Louisiana, Oct. 25-29. The AAP national conference is the premier venue for pediatric health care professionals to collaborate and allows attendees to engage in interactive, hands-on workshops, as well as pediatric-related plenary sessions.

Four Department of Surgery faculty members received promotions or tenure earlier this month.

Next month marks the start of the UAB Department of Surgery’s new Champ Lyons Lecture Series. Beginning with the Champ Lyons Medical History Lectureship, which will be presented on Nov. 12 by Joseph Woo, M.D., this annual talk series will support nine visiting lectures at Surgery Grand Rounds over the course of the next year through the Champ Lyons Lectureship Fund.

The UAB Trauma and Surgical Critical Care Fellowship will welcome four new fellows next year: Cragin Currence, M.D., Zain Hashmi, M.D., Jacey Loberg, M.D., and Thomas Muse, M.D.

The UAB Department of Surgery is excited to welcome breast surgeon Pamela L. Strickland, M.D., as its newest clinical assistant professor. Strickland will join the faculty in the Division of Surgical Oncology and will practice in Montgomery, Alabama, at the UAB Breast Health Clinic at Baptist Medical Center South.

Dr. Pamela L. Strickland

Strickland is an alumnus of the UAB School of Medicine, having graduated with her medical degree in 1996 after earning a master’s degree in chemistry from the University of Mississippi in 1990. She then completed her residency training in general surgery at Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena, California, as well as an internship at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. She went on to practice in the U.S. Air Force for four years before going into private practice in Montgomery, Alabama.

Dr. Raoud Marayati wins first place at the O'Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center at UAB Research Retreat on Oct. 11, 2019. (Photo courtesy of the O'Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center at UAB)

General surgery resident Raoud Marayati, M.D., won first place last week at the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center’s 21st annual Research Retreat. Marayati took home the award for best research poster in the Clinical Residents and Fellows Category for her project, "PIM3 Kinase Promotes Tumor Growth and Metastasis in Hepatoblastoma.”

UAB transplant surgeon Jayme Locke, M.D., MPH, has been named one of “Birmingham’s Top 40 Under 40 of the Decade for the 2010s” by the Birmingham Business Journal. As one of the paper’s Top 40 Under 40 in 2015, Locke was chosen for this year’s list from the nearly 400 other winners who have been included in the annual series over the past 10 years.

Score some CME credit and check out two new videos and podcasts from Division of Vascular Surgery and Endovascular Therapy assistant professors Brent Haverstock, DPM, FACFAS, and Graeme McFarland, M.D. Haverstock and McFarland are both co-directors of the UAB Limb Preservation Program.

If you’re headed to this year’s American College of Surgeons Clinical Congressin San Francisco, California, Oct. 27-31, get ready with our guide to who’s presenting from the UAB Department of Surgery. All talks will be held at the George R. Moscone Convention Center.

The Department of Surgery is also hosting a cocktail reception during the conference, beginning from 5-7:30 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 28, at the Hilton San Francisco Union Square in Imperial A on the Ballroom level.

Note: Lists of presenters were provided by division administrators. If you are presenting as a part of the official ACS Clinical Congress program but aren’t featured here, tweet us the details of your presentation by mentioning @UABSurgery on Twitter, and we’ll retweet you!

Visiting medical student Kaitlin Weisshappel is preparing to head back to Rockford, Illinois, after completing her four-week visiting elective in general surgery this week at UAB.

Kaitlin Weisshappel

“I was told by several of our physicians back home about the excellence of the surgical department here at UAB, especially in regard to volume and the diversity of the caseload,” Weisshappel said. “I'm Midwest born and raised, and so seeing health care from a different regional perspective was what initially drew me to UAB. However, the more time I spend here, the more it feels like a natural home.”

Weisshappel joined the UAB Surgery team from the University of Illinois College of Medicine in Rockford in September, as part of this year’s UAB Visiting Elective Scholarship Program, and said she was excited by the consistent presence of surgical residents at UAB.

“The only service in which we are exposed to residents [at the University of Illinois] is family medicine, so being able to see the dynamics of medical students, residents, fellows and attendings is exciting and extremely important for my professional development,” she said.

The UAB Visiting Elective Scholarship Program supports underrepresented minority students on a four-week visiting elective in general surgery at UAB. Students interested in applying for a general surgery residency at UAB also have the opportunity to interview for residency during their rotation.

“UAB has diverse patient demographics and serves many medically underserved patients from the entire state,” Weisshappel said. “Many of the main issues, both medical and socioeconomic, transcend from UAB to my future practice … My [long-term career] goal is to return to a tribal area or a population with a significant native population size.”

UAB Department of Surgery faculty members Babak Orandi, M.D., Ph.D., and Emily Spangler, M.D., were recently named two of this year’s UAB Center for Clinical and Translational Science Deep South Mentored Career Development Program Scholars.

The program culminates in lead-author manuscripts and an extramurally funded research grant submission for scholars, including Orandi’s project, “The Role of Bariatric Surgery in Obese Liver Transplant Candidates and Recipients,” and Spangler’s project, “Assessment of Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Repair Imaging Surveillance Practices in Veterans.”

The mentored career development – or KL2 award – program at the CCTS is sponsored by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences of the National Institutes of Health and seeks to prepare early-career faculty for a career in translational research.

The goal is to impart the knowledge, experience and perspective required to develop a network of independent investigators, with an emphasis on research that addresses diseases and health disparities that disproportionately affect the Deep South.

UAB pediatric surgeon Colin Martin, M.D., was recently named the most recent member at large of the Children’s of Alabama Medical Executive Committee. Martin will serve in this position for a two-year term ending in December 2022.

Dr. Colin Martin

Martin is the surgical director of the Center for Advanced Intestinal Rehabilitation at UAB and Children’s of Alabama, as well as the program co-director of the UAB Department of Surgery’s Pre-College Research Internship for Students from Minority Backgrounds.