News

The University of Kentucky football team has invigorated the campus community with one of the best seasons in the program’s recent history. In October, the Wildcats earned an exhilarating win over Florida, as well as a 21-point victory over 2019 national champion LSU.   

Roberto Gedaly, MD, and Francesc Marti, PhD, investigators in the University of Kentucky College of Medicine Department of Surgery, have noticed a year-over-year increase in liver transplants at UK HealthCare.

“Not only has our volume gone up significantly,” Dr. Gedaly said, “we’re actually going to break a record of liver transplant patients this year.”

Mara Chambers, MD, is an associate professor of medicine in the division of medical oncology with an interest in breast cancer diagnosis and treatment. She also serves as chair of the Markey Cancer Center’s Clinical Care and Research Team (CCART) for breast cancer and is on the UK College of Medicine Admissions Committee.

The University of Kentucky College of Medicine has received the 2021 Health Professions Higher Education Excellence in Diversity (HEED) Award from INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine, the oldest and largest diversity-focused publication in higher education.

National Hispanic Heritage Month is observed Sept. 15 – Oct. 15. In the following Q&A, Carlos Marin, assistant dean for community and cultural engagement, discusses what the month means to him and what he wants others to know about being Hispanic.

Q: How do you identify? What is your national/cultural background?

A: I have always identified as first-generation Mexican-American, but also, as Tejano.

Q: What does Hispanic/Latinx Heritage month mean to you? How do you celebrate or observe?

Pamela Branson has been a nurse for 40 years, 35 of those working at the University of Kentucky. After long days treating patients, she always turned to golf as a way to escape the stress.

So, when she couldn’t garner the energy to make it to the course in 2018, she knew something was wrong.

The Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion is excited to launch the first volume of its quarterly newsletter, The Mosaic. 

The Mosaic represents the varied lived experiences in the College of Medicine, our challenges, our changes, and the patterns we create together. Our vision is to cultivate a learning and working environment that is representative, equitable, and welcoming for faculty, staff, and learners across the College of Medicine and contributes to the growth and development of advocates for change.

Lisa Tannock, MD, is senior associate dean for faculty affairs and development at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine, as well as a professor of medicine. September is Women in Medicine Month. In this Q&A, Dr. Tannock shares the highlights of her career and the advice she has for the next generation of female physician-scientists.

Q: What are your current roles at the College of Medicine, and what do you do?

On behalf of the Office of Graduate Medical Education, the University of Kentucky College of Medicine is pleased to announce the selection of Mohammed Kazimuddin, MD, as the associate dean for graduate medical education at the Bowling Green Campus.

The University of Kentucky College of Medicine has developed into a research powerhouse helping find solutions to Kentucky’s most urgent health needs.

Clinical research is vital in bringing important findings from the laboratory into the clinic to improve patient treatment. To continue to strengthen its research capabilities, the college is excited to share its selection to fill a newly created position, associate dean for clinical research.

Larry B. Goldstein, MD, chair of neurology, has been chosen to take on this role. He will begin Sept. 1.

The University of Kentucky College of Medicine is pleased to announce its selection of Tianyan Gao, PhD, as acting chair of the department of molecular and cellular biochemistry.

Dr. Gao has dedicated more than a decade to the UK College of Medicine as an educator and researcher, mentoring several students, post-docs, and residents over the years while obtaining substantial funding from the National Institutes of Health and other major organizations.

No matter the question, no matter the person who asked it, 7-month-old Ehdisyn Marmolejos had a habit of shaking her head “no” in response.

But when her father, Hal Marmolejos, asked her one day if he should go to medical school, it was the first time he ever saw her nod “yes.”

The moment brought tears to Hal’s eyes. He jumped up and down.

“That experience opened my eyes to the world of medicine,” Hal said. “It was a moment of clarity, that everything in my life had been leading me toward becoming a doctor.”

As part of the Office of Graduate Medical Education’s continued expansion of its graduate medical program opportunities, the University of Kentucky College of Medicine and UK HealthCare have established a new residency program to equip medical trainees with the necessary knowledge and experience to best treat Kentucky patients with both medical and psychiatric needs.

Juneteenth is observed on June 19, 2021, to commemorate the emancipation of enslaved people in the U.S. On this day, enslaved African-Americans in Galveston, Texas, were notified they had actually been freed almost 2.5 years earlier.

Members of the College of Medicine were asked a series of questions on how they honor Juneteenth.

Q: When did you first become aware of Juneteenth?

Em Neiport, MA, is project manager at the College of Medicine and staff co-chair of the LGBTQ* Advisory Committee.

Q: What are your roles at the UK College of Medicine?

A: I’m a project manager in the College of Medicine. The projects I’ve worked on are so varied and have allowed me to see just how expansive academic medicine really is. It’s fascinating! The best part of my role is having a chance to work with so many amazing people in all areas of the college.

Meriem Bensalem-Owen, MD, and Brian Gold, PhD, might not have ever had the chance to work on projects together. Dr. Bensalem-Owen is a physician who spends much of her time at the patients’ bedside, reviewing video-EEG monitoring studies, or in clinic treating patients with epilepsy, and Dr. Gold is a researcher who studies age-related brain and cognitive changes in the lab.

But thanks to the University of Kentucky College of Medicine’s Alliance Research Initiative, they have joined forces to better localize, and ultimately treat, epileptic seizures.

Cheavar Blair, PhD, a 2017 graduate of the University of Kentucky College of Medicine, is now a postdoc at the University of California-Santa Barbara. 

When Abi Recktenwald graduates from the University of Kentucky College of Medicine, she will officially start a career she never imagined possible thanks to a combination of hard work, skill, and a strong faculty support system.

Going into her third year, Recktenwald had a wide range of interests across medicine and surgery. However, on her pediatric rotation early that year, she encountered a child who needed a complex plastic surgery procedure to cover a skin defect. It was through the experience she realized plastic surgery was her calling.

I am excited to announce that after an extensive national search by a committee of your peers and broad faculty input, Zaki-Udin Hassan, MBBS, MBA, FASA, has officially accepted the role of chair of the department of anesthesiology. This appointment will take effect July 1.

Our residents and fellows put in the time and effort each and every day. The Gold Humanism Honor Society’s “Thank a Resident Day,” falls on Friday, Feb. 26, 2021, providing an opportunity to showcase some of their great work.

Our Office of Graduate Medical Education continuously receives nominations for “Resident of the Month.” For Thank a Resident Day, the office is spotlighting the exceptional work of some of our nominated residents at the UK College of Medicine.