Ever since Ph.D. candidate Chris Bolden can remember, he’s been fascinated by how small changes can have big impacts in the biological world.

Today, he studies how he can harness for positive purposes one of the basic functions of viruses, using them to deliver antibodies into cells that work against methamphetamine addiction.

In the past few years, he has grown to love how similar effects can occur in education. One specific approach, analogy or teaching method could make all the difference for a particular student.

“I love it when a student tells me, ‘I see what you’re getting at,’ or you can literally see it in their face when they have that ‘ah-ha’ moment – it makes you feel like you’re actually getting through to them,” Bolden said.

In both microbiology and education, small changes can make big differences, and Bolden has decided to continue exploring both by going into academia. He also knows that one of the ways in which he might be the right person to connect with a student is because of his race. He can only remember having one African-American male professor during his undergraduate science education, and he wants to be part of changing that.

“Seeing that similar face, it helps some students feel more comfortable, and it also helps give some students a different outlook, because some students come from an area where there’s only one race or ethnicity and they don’t get to experience diverse teaching methods or teachers,” Bolden said. “I think that’s where I come into play and can have a positive impact.”

While working toward this goal, Bolden applied for and has received the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) fellowship for doctoral students. He begins the one-year fellowship in July 2018 and it is renewable for two years. It is specifically for minority Ph.D. candidates who want to pursue careers in education. It will include financial assistance, research funding, attendance at the Institute on Teaching and Mentoring in October in Atlanta, career mentoring, and assistance finding postdoc positions specifically for teaching.

He will network, be exposed to teaching opportunities, have assistance with logistical hurdles and generally have a group of people who are invested in helping him advance his career goals – a combination of support and accountability.

“It’s a little like having extra parents, but for your career,” Bolden said.

The SREB’s goal is for there to be more minority Ph.D. students who seek careers as faculty on college campuses. They note that while more than one-third of America’s college students are people of color, those numbers are not reflected in college faculty, where about 5 percent are African-American, 3 percent are Hispanic and 1 percent are Native American.

Since it began in 1993, the SREB has supported about 1,200 students at 94 institutions in 31 states.

At UAMS, Bolden is in the Graduate School’s Interdisciplinary Biomedical Sciences program. He is working in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology in the College of Medicine in the lab of Eric Peterson, Ph.D.

“When Chris first came to my lab, he immediately impressed me with his drive and his scientific curiosity, and since then he has continued to impress me with his ability to network professionally and find opportunities and sources of funding, like this SREB fellowship, which is instrumental to any successful career in the academic sciences,” Peterson said.

He is also a member of the Graduate School’s Initiative for Maximizing Student Development, which aims to increase the number of students graduating with doctorates in biomedical sciences who come from underrepresented groups. It is funded by a grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences and provides participants with tuition, fees and a $24,000 annual salary for their first two years of graduate study. It also includes training, networking and mentoring opportunities.

“We’re very proud of Chris for everything he’s accomplished so far and for receiving this prestigious fellowship. We know the selection committee saw in him what we already know – that he is going to be a great science-educator and his future is worth investing in,” said Robert E. McGehee Jr., Ph.D., dean of the UAMS Graduate School.

By Amy Widner | May 30th, 2018 |

George Crocker is up to just about any challenge. A retired Army lieutenant general, Crocker spent the good part of his life defending his country both at home and abroad. From two tours in Vietnam to serving as commander at Fort Lewis in Tacoma, Washington, Crocker made a lasting mark through his distinguished military service.

That steely determination carried over into other parts of his life as well, and when he was told he needed treatment for prostate cancer, Crocker was ready to do whatever it took to take care of the problem.

“I told him, ‘We can take the prostate out,’” he said, recalling his conversation with UAMS urologic oncologist Rodney Davis, M.D., following his biopsy in 2017.

Davis, though, had other ideas. After studying Crocker’s medical history, which included a massive stroke two years earlier, Davis quickly determined that surgery presented too many risks.

“I wanted to find the treatment that was the safest and least stressful overall,” said Davis, professor and chairman of the Department of Urology in the UAMS College of Medicine. Surgery could have increased Crocker’s risk of a second stroke, so Davis recommended a course of radiation therapy instead.

Plus, radiation presented the definite possibility of a cure.

A resident of Clinton, Crocker was already confident in the ability of UAMS doctors to successfully treat the most complex medical conditions. When he fell to the floor of his garage unconscious in 2015, Crocker’s wife, Vonda, quickly called emergency medical services. They, in turn, alerted the emergency department at the Ozark Health Medical Center, a partner in the UAMS-led statewide stroke program AR Saves.

AR Saves, which stands for Stroke Assistance through Virtual Emergency Support, began at UAMS in 2008 and has grown to include 54 partner sites throughout Arkansas. It uses a high-speed video communications system to help provide immediate, life-saving treatments to stroke patients by enabling a stroke neurologist to evaluate whether emergency room physicians should use a powerful blood thinner known as t-PA within the critical three-hour period following the first signs of stroke.

After receiving the drug, Crocker’s cramped arm began to relax and he was transferred by ambulance to the UAMS hospital where he underwent a brain scan, was administered more t-PA and had two clots removed from his brain. In fewer than 24 hours, he was forming complete sentences and on the road to recovery.

Now, however, Crocker was facing a new challenge with his diagnosis of prostate cancer and he was trusting fellow Army veteran Davis to determine the best course of treatment. Davis, an Iraq war veteran who underwent military training at Fort Lewis and holds the rank of colonel in the U.S. Army Retired Reserve, assured Crocker that radiation therapy was the best choice to maintain his quality of life, as well as kill the cancer cells in the prostate and any malignant cells that might be adjacent to it.

Crocker began his round of 28 treatments in late 2017 at the UAMS Radiation Oncology Center under the supervision of Sanjay Maraboyina, M.D., assistant professor in the Radiation Oncology Department in the UAMS College of Medicine.

“When I first met with Mr. Crocker, I told him that recent clinical studies have shown a five-week course of treatment to be just as safe and effective as the typical eight-week regimen. It’s also more convenient for patients, who have to come in every day for treatment. I want to be sure our patients have access to the latest advancements, because this is truly what sets UAMS apart from other cancer centers,” Maraboyina said.

Although he is still experiencing some side effects related to the hormone therapy necessary to reduce his testosterone level, Crocker is back to his active lifestyle. Left unchecked, testosterone can stimulate prostate cancer cells to grow.

“Mr. Crocker had a fierce determination throughout his treatment and approached every obstacle related to his health in much the same way he has his military career. Together with his team of doctors, he was determined to beat prostate cancer,” Maraboyina said.

With a European vacation and reunion of his West Point class coming up, Crocker shows no signs of slowing down and is thankful he does not have to.

“Dr. Davis gave me clear and logical reasons for the treatment I needed, and the staff at the UAMS Radiation Oncology Center was first class in every respect. I couldn’t be happier,” he said.

By Susan Van Dusen |May 29th, 2018 |

A University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) professor of neurobiology recently co-authored a Kentucky Law Review article that offers insights into the nature of criminal intent and urges the court system to admit more expert testimony into trials regarding the subject.

In “Actus Reus, Mens Rea, and Brain Science: What Do Volition and Intent Really Mean?,” Edgar Garcia-Rill, Ph.D., and the late Erica Beecher-Monas, J.D., give the example of someone walking along a sidewalk while in conversation yet being ‘preconscious’ of traffic and other pedestrians so as to allow for safe navigation.

The co-authors conclude that “we are ‘conscious’ while performing the movement and that the activity preceding the intent is a manifestation of ‘our preconscious awareness.’ That is, we are preconscious to the performance of our movements, and therefore responsible for all of our actions. And yes, free will is alive and well.”

Studies by the late researcher Benjamin Libet in the early 1980s have suggested that one’s voluntary movements begin “unconsciously” because brain waves are manifested in advance of the subjective “will” to move. This led to the suggestion that there is no free will. Libet surmised that individuals still have the ability to stop actions or movements of which they are not fully conscious.  This became known as “free won’t.”

However, Garcia-Rill has been working on the brain regions that further preconscious awareness, and such activity is present in a person’s brain while conscious (not when one is unconscious) but the person is just not paying attention to it, thus the name “preconscious awareness.”

Garcia-Rill is director of the UAMS Center for Translational Neuroscience, funded by the National Institute for General Medical Sciences’ IDeA Program. Beecher-Monas was a professor of law at Wayne State University until her death in the summer of 2017.

Garcia-Rill and Beecher-Monas argue that the legal concepts of criminal act and criminal intent are outmoded.

“The legal meaning of choice, intent and volition originated not from empirical studies about human brains and behavior, but from ungrounded beliefs about human nature,” the authors state. “The law still operates on outdated, 19^th century assumptions about how human beings function.”

Refusing to admit expert testimony about mental illness is contributing to the complex problem of mental illness among prison inmates and failing to protect society when the convicted are released, Garcia-Rill and Beecher-Monas argue.

“Judges should instead admit expert testimony so the jury can perform its interpretive and evaluative functions,” they conclude.

The article and the edition of Kentucky Law Review in which it was published were dedicated to the family of Beecher-Monas.

“Through a protracted illness, she worked doggedly on this article that stands as a legacy to a unique law professor,” Garcia-Rill stated in a dedication. “It is to the more informed decision-making, the more humane policy drafting, and the more relevant law enactment, that Erica devoted her life.  And she did so with the same love and commitment she had for her children and grandchildren, to whom this article and entire issue is dedicated.”

By Ben Boulden | May 23rd, 2018 |

Rarely are child temper tantrums a sign of success, but this is one of those circumstances.

The WISE program – Together, We Inspire Smart Eating – has been working to introduce fresh fruits and vegetables into the diets of Arkansas children since 2011.

“Parents come into the program thinking, ‘oh, my child won’t eat that,’ but then we hear stories about kids throwing fits in the grocery store aisles, not because they want candy, but because they want green beans. Those are their own kind of success story,” said Leanne Whiteside-Mansell, Ed.D., principal investigator for WISE and a professor in the Department of Family & Preventive Medicine in the College of Medicine.

The WISE program recently welcomed another – more formal – acknowledgement of its success: The Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior recognized a report about WISE with its 2018 Best GEM (Great Educational Materials) award.

The journal’s committee selected finalists for the recognition, which was voted on by its board of editors. The award recognizes innovativeness/creativity, quality of design, quality of writing and presentation and quality of evaluation. The report was titled “Together We Inspire Smart Eating: A Preschool Curriculum for Obesity Prevention in Low-Income Families,” by Whiteside-Mansell and Taren M. Swindle, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Department of Family & Preventive Medicine.

WISE is for children age 3-8 to establish healthy early eating habits and encounter a variety of fruits and vegetables – with the ultimate aim of combating childhood and adult obesity. It includes a classroom curriculum, educator training and parent education outreach materials. There are versions of the program for pre-K and kindergarten through first grade.

WISE is organized around eight monthly units. Windy Wise, a barn owl puppet, brings letters from farms to the classroom to introduce the featured fruits and vegetables to children: apples, tomatoes, broccoli, sweet peppers, carrots, berries, greens and green beans. Activities throughout the month allow the children to explore the food and use it in recipes.

The program also includes educator training and parent engagement through backpack letters from the farmer and a Facebook and Pinterest page. Windy Wise’s branded logo is printed on utensils used by educators in the classroom and is featured on cardboard cutouts in participating grocery stores.

The program is specifically designed to be effective with high-risk children from resource-poor backgrounds. It is being used in 147 classrooms in Arkansas and 30 classrooms in Louisiana.

Whiteside-Mansell and Swindle have made some interesting discoveries during their time on the project. During their preliminary research before designing the curriculum, they found that 25 percent of Head Start children hadn’t had an apple at home. Among the educators, many lacked food as children, and 33 percent reported still experiencing bouts of food insecurity.

With this context in mind, the WISE program encourages families and educators alike to cultivate healthy food habits such as allowing kids to decide how much to eat, so they only eat when they are hungry and are not urged to “clean their plates” or “make happy plates.” Kids are also encouraged to play with their food and see it transform, which makes them more likely to try unfamiliar foods.

“When we go for classroom visits, that cue to ‘make a happy plate’ still frequently comes up. At first we didn’t understand why, because we cover the negative results of that in the training, but once we surveyed our educators and found their history – and for some, current struggles – with food insecurity, it made more sense. In certain cultures, and the South is one of them, that is a hard habit to break,” Swindle said.

The curriculum is also organized to be budget-sensitive and value the educator’s time. For example, many of the food activities include math or reading or other activities that educators are required to include in their classroom time.

“We’ve tried to make it something that helps educators meet their goals, not something that needs to be tacked on as an additional requirement or afterthought. It can’t compete with other requirements,” Whiteside-Mansell said.

The program also emphasizes the connection between food, people and the land, instead of the abstract notion of food coming from stores or restaurants. The letters from farmers that introduce the foods and communicate with parents feature a variety of types of farming families – from small, backyard-gardens to large-scale family farms and everything in between.

“We’ve documented positive changes in the behavior of children, teachers and parents. We feel that Windy Wise is helping change the culture in the places she visits, and we’re happy to have some of that recognized with the award,” Whiteside-Mansell said.

WISE is a project of the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine Research and Evaluation Division (RED), which Whiteside-Mansell directs.

Funding for WISE comes from grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture, UAMS Translational Research Institute, National Institutes of Health National Center for Research Resources and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences.

By Amy Widner | May 22nd, 2018 |

Rarely are child temper tantrums a sign of success, but this is one of those circumstances. The WISE program – Together, We Inspire Smart Eating – has been working to introduce fresh fruits and vegetables into the diets of Arkansas children since 2011. “Parents come into the program thinking, ‘oh, my child won’t eat that,’ but then we hear stories about kids throwing fits in the grocery store aisles, not because they want candy, but because they want green beans. Those are their own kind of success story,” said Leanne Whiteside-Mansell, Ed.D., principal investigator for WISE and a professor in the Department of Family & Preventive Medicine in the College of Medicine.

The WISE program recently welcomed another – more formal – acknowledgement of its success: The Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior recognized a report about WISE with its 2018 Best GEM (Great Educational Materials) award. The journal’s committee selected finalists for the recognition, which was voted on by its board of editors. The award recognizes innovativeness/creativity, quality of design, quality of writing and presentation and quality of evaluation. The report was titled “Together We Inspire Smart Eating: A Preschool Curriculum for Obesity Prevention in Low-Income Families,” by Whiteside-Mansell and Taren M. Swindle, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Department of Family & Preventive Medicine. WISE is for children age 3-8 to establish healthy early eating habits and encounter a variety of fruits and vegetables – with the ultimate aim of combating childhood and adult obesity. It includes a classroom curriculum, educator training and parent education outreach materials. There are versions of the program for pre-K and kindergarten through first grade.

WISE is organized around eight monthly units. Windy Wise, a barn owl puppet, brings letters from farms to the classroom to introduce the featured fruits and vegetables to children: apples, tomatoes, broccoli, sweet peppers, carrots, berries, greens and green beans. Activities throughout the month allow the children to explore the food and use it in recipes. The program also includes educator training and parent engagement through backpack letters from the farmer and a Facebook and Pinterest page. Windy Wise’s branded logo is printed on utensils used by educators in the classroom and is featured on cardboard cutouts in participating grocery stores. The program is specifically designed to be effective with high-risk children from resource-poor backgrounds. It is being used in 147 classrooms in Arkansas and 30 classrooms in Louisiana. Whiteside-Mansell and Swindle have made some interesting discoveries during their time on the project. During their preliminary research before designing the curriculum, they found that 25 percent of Head Start children hadn’t had an apple at home. Among the educators, many lacked food as children, and 33 percent reported still experiencing bouts of food insecurity. With this context in mind, the WISE program encourages families and educators alike to cultivate healthy food habits such as allowing kids to decide how much to eat, so they only eat when they are hungry and are not urged to “clean their plates” or “make happy plates.” Kids are also encouraged to play with their food and see it transform, which makes them more likely to try unfamiliar foods.

“When we go for classroom visits, that cue to ‘make a happy plate’ still frequently comes up. At first we didn’t understand why, because we cover the negative results of that in the training, but once we surveyed our educators and found their history – and for some, current struggles – with food insecurity, it made more sense. In certain cultures, and the South is one of them, that is a hard habit to break,” Swindle said. The curriculum is also organized to be budget-sensitive and value the educator’s time. For example, many of the food activities include math or reading or other activities that educators are required to include in their classroom time. “We’ve tried to make it something that helps educators meet their goals, not something that needs to be tacked on as an additional requirement or afterthought. It can’t compete with other requirements,” Whiteside-Mansell said. The program also emphasizes the connection between food, people and the land, instead of the abstract notion of food coming from stores or restaurants. The letters from farmers that introduce the foods and communicate with parents feature a variety of types of farming families – from small, backyard-gardens to large-scale family farms and everything in between. “We’ve documented positive changes in the behavior of children, teachers and parents. We feel that Windy Wise is helping change the culture in the places she visits, and we’re happy to have some of that recognized with the award,” Whiteside-Mansell said. WISE is a project of the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine Research and Evaluation Division (RED), which Whiteside-Mansell directs. Funding for WISE comes from grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture, UAMS Translational Research Institute, National Institutes of Health National Center for Research Resources and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences.

By Amy Widner | May 22nd, 2018

LITTLE ROCK — University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) researchers led by Sue Griffin, Ph.D., Professor and Vice Chairman for Research of The Donald W. Reynolds Department of Geriatrics, have found a way to illustrate how a protein known to be a risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease interacts with DNA.

Sue Griffin, Ph.D., is an internationally known Alzheimer’s disease researcher at UAMS. The findings were published February 2018 in Alzheimer’s and Dementia, the Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association.

Apolipoprotein E, more commonly known as ApoE, is a protein in the body responsible for carrying cholesterol and other fats through the bloodstream and is the main protein for supplying lipids to brain cells. Everyone has two copies of the gene for ApoE, one inherited from each parent.

Most people have two copies of ApoE3, considered to be associated with average risk for development of Alzheimer’s. But 10-15 percent of the population has at least one copy of the gene for ApoE4. That population is three times as likely to develop Alzheimer’s, and will tend to develop symptoms at an earlier age. The risk increases to 12 times for those who have two copies of ApoE4.

Abnormal clusters of plaques and tangles are the characteristic finding in Alzheimer’s. Griffin’s group noticed that patient carriers of ApoE4 had significantly more of these plaques and tangles built up between and within nerve cells, along with fewer nerve cells. She said the discovery of more plaques and tangles in people with two copies of ApoE4 gets scientists closer to answering the question: Why are people with the ApoE4 gene at a higher risk?

Griffin and graduate student Paul Parcon were discussing their ideas over lunch one day when Parcon, an M.D. Ph.D. candidate, suggested the problem might be caused by a disruption of autophagy, the process by which cells get rid of proteins that are no longer needed.

“In Alzheimer’s, it’s pretty clear that autophagy has failed,” Griffin said. “Because there’s more buildup of tangles inside and plaques outside the nerve cells. The waste is just not being eliminated.”

Parcon and Griffin began looking at what could be causing that failure. Griffin said that three proteins are necessary for autophagy, all three of these proteins are made from an interaction between a transcription factor and a specific DNA sequence, and Parcon proposed that this interaction could be affected by ApoE4.

“We proposed that ApoE4 competes with the transcription factor — the final piece needed for autophagy— to block the process,” Griffin said. “This explained why those who have two copies of ApoE4 have more plaques and tangles, and why they were more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease at an earlier age.”

Meenakshisundaram Balasubramaniam, Ph.D., a computational biologist and postdoctoral fellow at the lab of Robert J. Shmookler-Reis, D. Phil., in the College of Medicine’s Department of Geriatrics, is a co-author with Griffin, Reis,  Parcon and Ayyadeva. Balasubramaniam told them he could simulate what was happening at the molecular level by using advanced computational tools running on high-performance super computers.

“This research is a perfect example of interdisciplinary work,” Balasubramaniam said. “Biology, computational modeling followed by experimental validation came together to understand molecular mechanism of ApoE4.”

Balasubramaniam says they not only predicted the ApoE4 interaction in the simulation, they proved it using the experimental approach in the research paper.

The researchers hope this finding will be the first step in developing a drug that would treat those with Alzheimer’s disease. “Now that we know it is the ApoE4 protein that is interacting with the DNA, we may be able to model a molecule to block that interaction so that the cells may then function normally,” Parcon said.

UAMS is the state’s only comprehensive academic health center, with colleges of Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Health Professions and Public Health; a graduate school; a hospital; a northwest Arkansas regional campus; a statewide network of regional centers; and seven institutes: the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, the Jackson T. Stephens Spine & Neurosciences Institute, the Myeloma Institute, the Harvey & Bernice Jones Eye Institute, the Psychiatric Research Institute, the Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging and the Translational Research Institute. It is the only adult Level 1 trauma center in the state. UAMS has 3,021 students, 789 medical residents and two dental residents. It is the state’s largest public employer with more than 10,000 employees, including about 1,000 physicians and other professionals who provide care to patients at UAMS, Arkansas Children’s Hospital, the VA Medical Center and UAMS regional centers throughout the state. Visit www.uams.edu or www.uamshealth.com. Find us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or Instagram.

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By Katrina Dupins| May 21st, 2018

Degrees and certificates were awarded to 969 graduates of the University of Arkansas Medical Sciences’ (UAMS) five colleges and graduate school May 19 during a commencement ceremony at Verizon Arena in North Little Rock.

Degrees were presented to 157 in the College of Medicine; 282 in the College of Nursing; 111 in the College of Pharmacy; 54 in the Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health; 57 in the Graduate School; and 308 in the College of Health Professions.

Interim UAMS Chancellor Stephanie Gardner, Pharm.D., Ed.D., presented the Chancellor’s Award to Joseph H. Bates, M.D., professor and associate dean for Public Health Practice in the UAMS Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health.

The award is presented to a person whose service to UAMS is deserving of special recognition. Previous recipients include Sam M. Dixon, former U.S. Sen. Dale Bumpers, Jack Stephens, Lawrence Schmieding and Willard and Pat Walker.

Bates is recognized internationally for his research that greatly improved the understanding and treatment of tuberculosis. He spent 35 years at UAMS, including 21 years as vice chair for the UAMS College of Medicine’s Department of Internal Medicine.

Upon his retirement from UAMS in 1998, Bates became deputy health officer and chief science officer for the Arkansas Department of Health. He was instrumental in establishing the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement and the UAMS Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health.

Jerad Gardner, M.D., and Lanita White, Pharm.D., were the Chancellor’s Teaching Awards recipients. The awards program was established in 2004 to recognize excellence in teaching among faculty at UAMS.

White was the recipient of the Chancellor’s Award for Society and Health Education Excellence. The award recognizes the design and implementation of courses or activities that advance the topics of society and health. It can be through areas of cultural awareness, health care economics, health equity, health literacy, health systems, interprofessional education, collaborative practice, public and population health, patient- and family-centered care or educational scholarship.

White is an assistant professor in the College of Pharmacy. She directs the UAMS 12th Street Health & Wellness Center, a student-led, interprofessional clinic that offers free health screenings and wellness services to Little Rock’s underserved neighborhoods and populations.

The center provides an opportunity for students from all UAMS colleges to volunteer, work with students from various health care professions and provide care to those most in need, all under the supervision of faculty and licensed volunteers. Last year, more than 1,000 UAMS students volunteered at the center.

White was a finalist for the Arkansas Business Health Care Heroes Award in Innovation in 2016. She also won the Arkansas Medical, Dental and Pharmaceutical Association’s Dr. Jocelyn Elders Living Legend Award that year.

Gardner was the recipient of the Chancellor’s Award for Teaching Excellence. It recognizes direct teaching, mentoring or educational scholarship between a faculty member and any learner. It can be in all settings, including the classroom, online, clinic or laboratory.

Gardner, an associate professor in the College of Medicine’s departments of Pathology and Dermatology, is known nationwide for his presence, teaching and patient advocacy on various social media outlets.

His efforts have garnered him numerous awards and praises, including the College of American Pathologists Resident Advocate Award in 2015. He is the youngest recipient of the award. In 2017, he was named a Top Five Honoree on the American Society for Clinical Pathology’s “40 Under 40” list.

During commencement, degrees and certificates conferred include the doctor of philosophy, doctor of medicine, doctor of pharmacy, doctor of nursing practice, master of science, master of nursing science, bachelor of science in nursing, master of public health, doctor of public health, certificate in clinical and translational science, master of health administration, postbaccalaureate certificate in public health and a variety of degrees in allied health disciplines including certificates, associate and bachelor of science degrees, postbaccalaureate certificates, master of imaging sciences, master of physician assistant studies and doctor of audiology.

The following are College of Medicine graduates who authorized the release of their name and hometown. Graduates are divided by hometown unless otherwise noted.

UAMS College of Medicine

The following graduates received their Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) degree.

Adona

Samantha Jolly

Alma

Kristen Crumley

Arkadelphia

Cody McLeod

Olivia Ragni

Batesville

Emily Barrett

Meredith McKinney

Benton

Ryan James

Christopher Martindale

Bentonville

Fabiola Obregon

Ankur Pradhan

Michael Severson

Cabot

Marissa De La Paz

Calico Rock

Chad Cragle

Camden

Barrett Burger

Clarksville

Joseph Plugge

Conway

Caroline Arnold

Steven James

Jacob Leffert

Crawfordsville

Jesse Wray

Dumas

Erin Creighton

Julie Sherrill

Fayetteville

Dennis Berry

Mikaila Calcagni

Nikhil Kamath

Rebecca Moore

Fort Smith

Thanh Dai

Breandan Kelly

Madison Lampkin

Cassandra Lautredou

Steven Mehl

Erik Meyers

Sean Parham

Jimmy Vo

Guy

Jason Stevenson

Hazen

Shannon Petrus

Hot Springs

Karen Hall

Jessica Hook

Allison Hudgens

Adam Price

Zachary Tilley

Jonesboro

Michael May

Lincoln

Taylor Salyer

Little Rock

Jonathan Aronson

Ryan Banning

Andrew Bradsher

Tess Coker

Matthew Dinehart

Davis Fleming

Savannah Fletcher

Claire Foster

AjaNia Hearne

Charles Lavender

Curtis Lowery

Christopher Moutos

Upton Siddons

Kirby Von Edwins

Brooke Wilson

Melissa Winter

Monticello

Steven Sadler Morrison Jr.

Morrilton

Emily Holthoff

Mountain Home

Gladys Zimmerman

Nashville

John Johnson

Kiley Jones

Paragould

Amy Fletcher

Pine Bluff

Lauren Taylor

Rogers

Jasmine Haller

Christopher Sonntag

Royal

Drake Hardy

Russellville

Blake Hollowoa

Hans Wang

Sheridan

Tracy Kaufman

Springdale

Sarah Carlock

Wilson Huett

Chelsea Wolfe

Van Buren

Aaron Owen

Martin Tremwel

White Hall

LeQuan Dang

Wynne

Morgan Benefield

Out of State

San Diego, California

Rebecca Elinger

Denver, Colorado

Alex Lencioni

Urbana, Illinois

Hannah Radecki

Shawnee, Kansas

Christopher Wallace

Bernie, Missouri

Grant Cagle

Lamar, Missouri

Jackson Boice

Las Vegas, Nevada

Paul Parcon

Bartlesville, Oklahoma

Jonathan Hester

Brentwood, Tennessee

Alexander Croft

Jackson, Tennessee

Kaleb Wolfe

Houston, Texas

Aneel Henry

Texarkana, Texas

Nupur Lala

By Lee Hogan | May 21st, 2018 |

More than 145 family physicians, nurses, pharmacists and physical therapists learned updates on marijuana and medicine, fibromyalgia, sleep apnea and common orthopaedic issues at the 40^th Annual Family Medicine Intensive Review Course May 10 – 12 at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS). The conference was produced by the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine’s Community Health and Education division.

The conference offered 23 hours of continuing education on medical issues that family practice deals with regularly such as vaccinations, smoking cessation, streamlining clinic operations and prescribing opioids. Amy Mullins, M.D., medical director for the American Academy of Family Physicians, kicked off the first day with an update on the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015.

Jerad Gardner, M.D., a dermatopathologist at UAMS who lectures internationally on bone and soft tissue tumors, skin disease and professional use of social media, spoke on how physicians can use social media to communicate with their patients.

“I was impressed by Dr. Gardner’s impact using social networks. Some are called to medical missions to another country, a free clinic or making house calls to the poor. He paints with a broader brush the power of social media to connect with and encourage people with rare conditions,” said Jack Blackshear, M.D., who has attended the conference for five years.

The last day included orthopedic topics ranging from neck pain to tingling and numbness in the hand, and some of the attendees practiced joint injections with a hands-on workshop afterward with John Bracey, M.D., instructing on hand and shoulder injections and Michael Cassat, M.D., focusing on knee injections.

Everyone has an answer to the question of how they ended up at UAMS. Faculty, staff and students heard four unique perspectives May 2 at an event honoring Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders.

The lunchtime symposium, sponsored by the UAMS Center for Diversity Affairs and the Chancellor’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee, brought together a College of Pharmacy professor, a College of Medicine assistant professor and a UAMS nurse from China, and an Asian-American medical student with a Filipino background to discuss their journeys to Arkansas and UAMS.

It was part of UAMS’ celebration of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, recognized in May.

Shi J. Liu, Ph.D., professor in the College of Pharmacy’s Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, shared that his parents were from Canton, China, and his hometown, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, is a sister city of Little Rock. Liu, who said his friends call him Jesse, said although his hometown is in Taiwan, he is Chinese.

“I am Chinese, not Taiwanese,” he said. “I am Chinese and from Taiwan, just like there are Americans from New York or Arkansas.”

Liu, who completed two degrees in Taiwan before coming to the U.S. to complete his doctorate at Duke University and eventually end up at UAMS, encouraged the audience to never stop learning in life.

“Acquire as much as you can,” said Liu.

Yinyan Wu, R.N., a medical oncology nurse at UAMS, said her parents instilled in her a similar reverence for education that Liu mentioned.

Working-class farmers from Hunai, they told her an education could provide a better life for her. She came to the U.S. so her husband could complete a postdoctoral program. She stayed home to care for their two children.

When her husband finished his first postdoctorate, the family moved to Indiana for his second postdoctoral program. There, she began nursing school. The family was forced to live apart the last year of her nursing program when her husband accepted a job in Pine Bluff.

He and the couple’s son moved back to Arkansas, while she and her daughter remained in Indiana. Wu said it was the hardest year of her life. Her alarm was set for midnight every night. She would wake up and study for multiple hours, more if there was a test the next day. All the while, half of her family was hundreds of miles away in Arkansas.

The story has a happy ending, though. Once she finished school, she and her daughter rejoined the rest of the family in Pine Bluff. She’s been at UAMS since 2017.

“I’m very happy to be here and working at UAMS,” said Wu. “Never stop learning, never give up on your dreams and always work hard.”

It was hard for Jia Liu, Ph.D, an assistant professor in the College of Medicine’s Department of Microbiology and Immunology, an only child from Tianjin, China, to leave her family for the U.S., but ultimately she did to follow her dreams.

Still, she said she’s not forgotten her ancestry or the people who allowed her to become who she is today.

“I am still me and proud to be Chinese,” she said. “It is still at the root of who I am.”

Michael Occidental, a second-year UAMS medical student, went through a period when he resented his culture because of his treatment in school.

Occidental’s parents came to the U.S. from the Philippines. His mother, a nurse, came first to Jersey City, New Jersey, and then his father, an anesthesiologist, a year later.

To practice in America, his father required a certification, which meant he had to complete a multi-year residency. It sent him to Mississippi for several years, early in Occidental’s life.

“Starting out, we didn’t have much,” he said. “We lived in a small house, and my mom worked multiple jobs.”

In school, Occidental said he was just “another face in the crowd,” as the area he and his mother lived in, just minutes from New York City, had a vibrant Asian presence and culture.

When his dad got a job at UAMS and the entire family moved to Arkansas, Occidental said he experienced “a culture shock.”

“I went from a face in the crowd to the only Asian child in the school,” he said. “Kids can be vicious, too, with people who are different. I got picked on a lot for being who I was.”

Occidental said it caused him to resent his culture for years. That was until he went to college and was able to meet other Asian-American students with similar experiences.

“It allowed me to become secure with my heritage and find my place in society,” he said.

Occidental’s story sparked interest between him and Billy Thomas, M.D., M.P.H., vice chancellor for diversity and inclusion and director of the Center for Diversity Affairs, in starting an awareness group for Asian students at UAMS.

By Lee Hogan| May 16th, 2018|

John Lee, of Little Rock, first noticed the small twitch in his fingers about seven years ago. He was in his 50s and Parkinson’s disease was at the top of his mind when he asked his primary care physician about it.

“My brother and my cousin both have it,” Lee said. “They’re younger than me.”

Lee’s uncle and grandfather were also diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.

“With that kind of family history, you get a twitch and you start to wonder.”

At the initial visit to his doctor, Lee went through a series of cognitive and movement tests.

“He told me I was just a little nervous and prescribed me medication that would help me calm down,” Lee said.

The medication alleviated some of the symptoms, but Lee said it never really went away. He went back to his doctor two years later and this time his doctor referred Lee to Tuhin Virmani, M.D., Ph.D., co-director of the UAMS Movement Disorders Program and assistant professor in the Department of Neurology. Virmani diagnosed Lee with Parkinson’s disease.

Parkinson’s is a degenerative disease of the central nervous system that leads to a deficiency of dopamine, a chemical in the brain important for movement, but patients with Parkinson’s have a wide range of symptoms that include changes in mood, sleep patterns, constipation, urinary changes and even memory. Most patients, Virmani says, are diagnosed in their late 50s and 60s. Many factors that happen over a lifetime eventually lead to development of the disease. While there is a genetic component, primarily in young onset Parkinson’s disease, many are diagnosed with no family history.

Since his diagnosis, Lee, a musician and broadcasting veteran, has been keeping busy voicing TV and radio commercials with Ron Sherman Productions in Little Rock. When he’s not working, he likes to make sure he’s active.

“I try to exercise as much as possible,” Lee said.

Exercise has been shown to potentially slow down the progression of Parkinson’s. So in addition to taking care of his six-acre property, Lee spends time playing drums (to keep his legs and arms busy) or singing and playing any of the variety of instruments he keeps in his music room.

The medication he takes, carbidopa/levodopa (or Sinemet), helps give the brain back the dopamine it is missing. Sinemet is the gold standard treatment for Parkinson’s patients, Virmani says, but it’s only one of the many treatments available for people in different stages of the disease. There is also deep brain stimulator surgery for people with more advanced disease. Lee visits Virmani every six months.

“He assesses my movements, asks me questions and has me memorize things,” Lee said. Then he laughs, “I’m terrible at memorizing. So I’m not sure what he can tell from that.”

He’s also a research participant in Virmani’s Gait Laboratory. Virmani studies a phenomenon in Parkinson’s disease where patients feel like their feet are “stuck or glued” to the ground, known as freezing of gait.

For the study, Virmani has patients walk on a mat so that he can objectively assess how their walking patterns change as the disease progresses.

“About 50-60 percent of patients with Parkinson’s develop freezing of gait,” Virmani said. “We’re trying to figure out why some do and others do not. Learning more about freezing of gait will help us develop therapies on how to slow its progression or prevent it from happening.”

Virmani says freezing of gait can cause a patient to lose his or her center of gravity, resulting in falls.

There is no cure for Parkinson’s disease, but Virmani stresses to his patients they can still live fulfilling lives decades after their diagnosis.

“They can still be functional members of society,” Virmani said. “And that’s our goal: to keep them as functional as possible for as long as possible.”

By Katrina Dupins | May 14th, 2018