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UAB General Surgery Residents Alizeh Abbas, M.D., and Stephanie Rakestraw, M.D., were elected as officers of the House Staff Council (HSC) for the 2024-2025 academic year.

UAB Division of Breast Surgery Professor Helen Krontiras, M.D., has been named Distinguished Professor of the UAB Department of Surgery.

UAB Division of Surgical Oncology Assistant Professor Sarah B. Bateni, M.D., MSW, MAS, has been selected to serve on the UAB Department of Surgery’s Grand Rounds Committee.

Robert Russell, M.D., MPH, a professor in UAB’s Department of Surgery and director of Children’s of Alabama’s trauma program, was recently appointed to the editorial board for The Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery.

The Division of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery said farewell – and welcome aboard – to the Trauma and Surgical Critical Care Fellows at a dinner on Friday, July 19 at The Club atop Red Mountain.

Several members of the UAB Department of Surgery have recently graduated from the institution’s leadership development programs. Among the graduates are Jessica Fazendin, M.D., Marissa Keppley, MBA, Sushanth Reddy, M.D., and J. Bart Rose, M.D., MAS.

Several members of the UAB General Surgery Residency Program were selected to participate in the Learning Community (LC) Housestaff Program.

UAB Division of Surgical Oncology Director Vikas Dudeja, M.D., has been selected for a $360,000 grant award over the next two years from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for his project entitled, "Integrated genomic-transcriptomic characterization to identify molecular mechanisms of disparities in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) outcomes."

UAB Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery Assistant Professor Panayotis Vardas, M.D., has co-authored the article, "The Society of Thoracic Surgeons 2023 clinical practice guidelines for the surgical treatment of atrial fibrillation,” in The Annals of Thoracic Surgery.

UAB Division of Breast & Endocrine Surgery Assistant Professor and Global Surgery Associate Vice Chair Lily Gutnik, M.D., MPH, has been selected for the 2024 Lloyd Nyhus Scholarship to attend the World Congress of Surgery this year.

Sabrina Goddard, M.D., Assistant Professor in the Division of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery is this year’s recipient of the UAB Emergency Medicine Residency’s Faculty Consultant of the Year Award.

UAB Division of Surgical Transplantation Associate Professor Paige Porrett, M.D., Ph.D, has been awarded an R01 grant from the National Institute of Health (NIH) and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) for her project entitled "Tissue-resident NK cell development and function in pregnancy and transplantation: lessons learned from human uterine transplant recipients." The award will continue until 2029 and totals about $3 million in funding.

Maria Helena Lima, M.D., an associate professor of the UAB Division of Plastic Surgery, was recently featured on UAB's MedCast Podcast.

UAB Division of Breast and Endocrine Surgery Clinical Assistant Professor Katelin Holmes, D.O., FACS, has graduated from UAB's Sharing Authentically to Inspire and Lead (SAIL) Program. She was a member of the fall 2023 cohort.

UAB Department of Surgery Associate Professor and General Surgery Program Director Britney Corey, M.D, MACM, has been selected to serve as fellowship council liaison for the Association of Program Directors (APDS) in surgery, from 2024 to 2027. 

From childhood, Sen. Luther J. Strange knew he was in good hands with the care he received from UAB’s surgeons.

UAB Division of Gastrointestinal Surgery Associate Professor and Strange Family Endowed Professor in Surgical Sciences Research Karin Hardiman, M.D., Ph.D., has been named the Associate Director of UAB’s Physician Scientist Development Office (PSDO).

UAB Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery Assistant Professor Rongbing Xie, DrPH, MPH, has been named a Forge AHEAD Center Scholar for the project entitled “Enhancing Recruitment and Retention for Black Females with HIV: Identifying Barriers, Facilitators, and the Role of Social Determinants for the Willingness to Participate in the HEALTH Study.”

Sasha Still, M.D., an assistant professor of the UAB Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, was recently featured on UAB's MedCast Podcast.

Christophe Hansen-Estruch, M.D., a cardiothoracic 4/3 integrated resident in the UAB Department of Surgery, has been selected for the Young Cardiac Robot Investigator Award at the International Society for Minimally Invasive Cardiothoracic Surgery (ISMICS) conference in Greece.

Mallory Perez, M.D., a general surgery resident at UAB, has been awarded the American Pediatric Surgical Association (APSA) 2024 M. Judah Folkman Award in Clinical Science.

UAB Division of Surgical Oncology Director Vikas Dudeja, M.D., and Division Surgical Oncology Associate Professor Annabelle Fonseca, M.D., MHS, have been selected for health policy scholarships through the American College of Surgeons (ACS).

UAB Division of Vascular Surgery Professor Bin Ren, M.D., Ph.D., FAHA, has been selected as a recipient of the Transformational Project Award for $300,000 over a period of three years by the American Heart Association (AHA) for his project entitled "Arteriolar angiogenesis and endothelial cell immunity in Alzheimer’s disease.”

UAB Division of Gastrointestinal Surgery Clinical Instructor Margaux Mustian, M.D., MSPH, has been appointed to the Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract (SSAT) Resident & Fellows Education Committee.

UAB Department of Surgery Post-Doctoral Researcher Sanjana Balachandra, M.D., has been selected for a travel award from the International Association of Endocrine Surgeons (IAES) for her project entitled "Hypercalcemic patients have a lesser risk for psychiatric complications after parathyroidectomy."

UAB Department of Surgery Professors Gregory Kennedy, M.D., Ph.D., Jayleen Grams, M.D., Ph.D., and Melanie Morris, M.D., were selected as officers of the Society for Surgery for Alimentary Tract (SSAT) at the organization’s 65th annual meeting in Washington, D.C.

Zain Hashmi, M.D., assistant professor in the Division of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery, has been named as a recipient for the 2024 Stepping Strong Innovator Award.

UAB Department of Surgery’s General Surgery chief residents were recognized at the Birmingham Veterans Affairs’ (VA) annual Resident Recognition Ceremony for their hard work and dedication to the patients they treat.

Brittney Knott, a student in UAB’s Graduate Biomedical Sciences (GBS) Ph.D. Program in Immunology, was chosen to present work from her submitted abstract called “Critical role of NFAT in tissue residency transcriptional programming of human uterine natural killer cells" as part of the major symposia at the American Association of Immunologists’ annual meeting in Chicago, Illinois.

UAB Division of Surgical Oncology Assistant Professor Kimberly Kopecky, M.D., MSCI, has written an editorial featured in The Oncologist.