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The UAB Department of Surgery welcomes its new communications director this month, Marissa Keppley, MBA. Prior to this position, Keppley worked in the UAB Health System Department of Marketing and Communications as the physician marketing manager.

As the UAB Healthcare Educators Academy prepares to launch in September, Assistant Professor of Surgery Brenessa Lindeman, M.D., MEHP, gets ready to join the Academy's first class of mentees.

UAB medical student and Ren Lab member Reagan Hattaway is preparing to wrap up the last of her research training next week as this summer’s UAB School of Medicine Physician Scientist Development Fellow.

Dr. James Kirklin

Earlier this month, James Kirklin, M.D., professor of cardiothoracic surgery and director of the UAB James and John Kirklin Institute for Research in Surgical Outcomes, started his term as the new acting president of the board of directors of the American Heart Association’s Greater Southeast Affiliate.

Assistant Professor of Surgical Oncology Brenessa Lindeman, M.D., MEHP, was recently chosen to serve as the new wellness champion for the Department of Surgery.

Robert Russell, M.D., was recently chosen to represent UAB at the University of Florida next year, as part of the inaugural UAB/UF Associate Professor Faculty Exchange Program.

(Not pictured: Dr. David Northern)

By Ashton Cook

The Department of Surgery welcomes five new faces to our faculty this summer: Panayotis Vardas, M.D.; David Northern, M.D.; Jonathan Black, M.D.; Jon Winkler, M.D., and Danielle Sutzko, M.D., M.S.

Alumni and faculty, including Urist Society President Dr. Graeme McFarland (second from right), attend the fourth annual Marshall M. Urist, M.D., Society Golf Tournament at Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail at Oxmoor Valley on June 15, 2019. (Photo Courtesy of Jamie Moody)

UAB vascular and endovascular surgeon Graeme McFarland, M.D., has been named president of the UAB Marshall M. Urist, M.D., General Surgery Residency Society.

A Birmingham, Alabama, native and a graduate of both the UAB School of Medicine and the UAB General Surgery Residency, McFarland returned to UAB in 2018 to join the Department of Surgery faculty as an assistant professor in the Division of Vascular Surgery and Endovascular Therapy.

“It is an honor for me to be named the Marshall M. Urist, M.D., Society president,” McFarland said. “I have revered Dr. Urist since I first encountered him as a medical student here at UAB, and I owe a lot to the General Surgery Residency Program, which he ran for many years.”

The Urist Society was founded in 2016 with a mission to engage alumni and provided support for innovative educational opportunities that cultivate residents’ clinical expertise and character, preparing them to become the next generation of leaders in surgery.

Through generous donations from alumni, faculty and friends, the Urist Society, has offered unique opportunities for residents by funding travel to conferences, resident research, international training experiences, program facilities and more.

As president, McFarland said he aims to provide a sense of community among alumni and inspire ongoing philanthropic support for the UAB General Surgery Residency and its programs.

“I am thankful for the opportunity presented by this new position,” McFarland said. “It is my hope that I am successful in increasing membership and involvement within the Society during my term.”

Just last month, the Society hosted its fourth annual Marshall M. Urist, M.D., Society Golf Tournament in conjunction with the UAB General Surgery Residency Program’s 2019 alumni weekend. UAB Department of Surgery faculty, trainees and alumni showed off their swings at the tournament, held on June 15 at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail at Oxmoor Valley, before heading to Regions Field that same evening to cheer on the Birmingham Barons baseball team.

Urist served as the director of the General Surgery Residency Program from 1991-2012 and has dedicated his career to preparing UAB Surgery residents to become surgical leaders in Alabama and throughout the country.

Division of Vascular Surgery and Endovascular Therapy Director Adam Beck, M.D., was featured in the UAB MD Learning Channel’s recent video, “Live Thoracoabdominal Aneurysm Repair.”

Dr. Colin Martin

The Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract recently named Colin Martin, M.D., an associate professor within the Division of Pediatric Surgery, to the Society’s Finance Committee.

As Ronald Brown, MBA, CMPE, prepares to retire after half a decade as the Department of Surgery’s executive administrator, new recruit Christal Moore, MBA, MHA, FACHE, is getting ready to step into the position this summer.

The UAB Department of Surgery gathers for a photo while attending the 14th Annual Academic Surgical Congress in Houston, Texas, Feb. 5-7, 2019.

Submit your abstracts for the 15th Annual Academic Surgical Congress! The deadline for electronic submissions is Aug. 23. Next year’s meeting will be held in Orlando, Florida, Feb. 4-6, 2020.

Participants of this year's UAB Healthcare Leadership Academy, including Associate Professor Dr. Robert Russell and Executive Administrator Megan Yeatts, graduated from the program in May.

Nominations for this year’s UAB Healthcare Leadership Academy are now open. Mid- or early-senior-level faculty and administrators from the Department of Surgery who are interested in participating in the HLA Class of 2019-2020 should contact their division directors and UAB Surgery Chair Herbert Chen, M.D. The deadline for nominations is July 15.

Dr. Samantha Baker, a UAB general surgery resident, presents her research, "Enhanced Recovery Pathway after Surgery Benefits Elderly Patients at the VA," at the Department of Surgery's 2019 Resident Research Day on June 11. (Photo by Ashton Cook)

UAB Department of Surgery residents came out to the West Pavilion Conference Center earlier this month to present their research at the 10th Annual Resident Research Day.

More than 1,200 interns, residents and fellows train in every medical specialty at UAB in Birmingham, at our regional campuses in Montgomery, Huntsville and Tuscaloosa, and in our program in Selma.

In an ongoing series, the Department of Surgery will feature incoming and outgoing trainees for all UAB Surgery programs. In this week’s installment, learn about our Minimally Invasive Surgery Fellowship.

Wound Healing Society President Dr. Sashwati Roy presents Dr. Praveen Arany and UAB plastic surgeon Dr. Timothy King with commemorative plaques at the WHS 31st Annual Meeting, May 7-10 in San Antonio, Texas, in recognition of their service as the program's co-chairs. (Photo via woundheal.org)

Associate Professor of Surgery Timothy King, M.D., Ph.D., director of research for the Division of Plastic Surgery and associate director of the UAB Plastic Surgery Residency Program, recently served as co-chair of the Wound Healing Society’s 31st Annual Meeting program last month in San Antonio, Texas.

General surgery resident Quince Gibson, M.D., was presented with this year’s UAB Emergency Medicine Residency Program Resident Consultant of the Year Award yesterday at the Department of Emergency Medicine’s residency graduation reception at The Florentine.

The National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities of the National Institutes of Health recently awarded Daniel Chu, M.D., a Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award for his research project, “Enhancing Health Literacy in Surgery to Eliminate Surgical Disparities for African-Americans with Inflammatory Bowel Disease.”

Plastic surgery resident Dr. Shreyas Makwana receives the Friend of the Emergency Department Award from Children's of Alabama's Emergency Medicine team on June 5, 2019. (Photo courtesy of Marjorie White)

For his kindness and attention to patient care, Shreyas Makwana, M.D., was presented with the Friend of the Emergency Department Award from Children’s of Alabama Emergency Medicine last week. Makwana is one of the Plastic Surgery Residency Program's second-year rising chief residents.

Former assistant professor in the Division of Gastrointestinal Surgery Courtney Balentine, M.D., MPH, recently presented his research on Virtual Acute Care for Elders at the American Geriatrics Society’s 2019 meeting, where he was also named one of the recipients of this year’s AGS Jeffrey H. Silverstein Memorial Award for Emerging Investigators in the Surgical and Related Medical Specialties.

Participants of this year's UAB Healthcare Leadership Academy graduated from the program in May.

Last month, the Division of Pediatric Surgery’s Robert Russell, M.D., and Department of Surgery Administrative Director Megan Yeatts, MBA, graduated from the UAB Healthcare Leadership Academy training program.

Dr. Abhisek Parmar discusses hernia care with passersby at a community education event in honor of National Hernia Awareness Month on June 4 in the second-floor atrium at North Pavilion. (Photo by Ashton Cook)

Hernia treatment has advanced over the past few years, becoming more sophisticated and efficient as new techniques and technology continue to develop within the specialty.

Dr. Britney Corey

Assistant Professor of Gastrointestinal Surgery and Medical Student Surgery Clerkship Director Britney Corey, M.D., was recently appointed to the UAB School of Medicine Admissions Selection Committee, after having previously served on the Admissions Committee.

As former UAB Medical Student Surgery Clerkship Director Richard Stahl, M.D., steps down from his position within the clerkship, new UAB Surgery recruit Robert Cannon, M.D., has agreed to take on the role of assistant surgery clerkship director this June, at the beginning of Block 1.

Beth Comeaux, MSN, CNP, lead outpatient nurse practitioner in liver transplant and hepatobiliary surgery at UAB, was recently awarded a $5,000 grant from the American Association of Nurse Practitioners to support her work on the UAB Hepatobiliary Outcomes Database.

Third-year medical students from Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee, will soon have the opportunity to train at UAB as part of the Department of Surgery’s medical student clerkship program.

Associate Professor of Transplantation and Comprehensive Transplant Institute Director Jayme Locke, M.D., MPH, has been selected as the inaugural Mark H. Deierhoi, M.D., Endowed Professor in the Department of Surgery.

Medical Student Surgery Clerkship Director Britney Corey, M.D., was named the first-ever Medical Student Career Advisor of the Year at the UAB School of Medicine’s 2019 Birmingham Campus Awards Reception on Friday, May 17, at the UAB National Alumni Society House.

Four UAB medical students were named winners of the Department of Surgery’s annual medical student awards at the 2019 School of Medicine Birmingham Campus Awards reception on Friday, May 17. Among those students, three of them will soon join the department as general surgery residents after matching into the program in March.