Department of Geriatrics
Amyleigh Overton-McCoy, Ph.D., GNP-BC, APRN, has joined the Department of Geriatrics as an Assistant Professor and Director of the UAMS Centers on Aging, overseeing diverse services for seniors at seven locations across the state for the Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging. Dr. Overton-McCoy previously served in the UAMS College of Nursing and as Associate Director for the Texarkana Regional Center on Aging since 2002.
Dr. Overton-McCoy received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing and Master of Science in Nursing as a Geriatric Nurse Practitioner at UAMS. She received her doctorate in psychology at Capella University in 2010.
Dr. Overton-McCoy has presented and published on a wide range of topics including food insecurity, improving rural health care and telemedicine, and Tai Chi. She has received and contributed to several grants including awards for the United Way Texarkana, Schmieding Caregiver Classes, DHS Choices in Living Resource Center Lifespan Respite Training, and DHS Opioid Prevention for Aging and Longevity.
She has received numerous honors including the Top 100 Nurses-State of Arkansas Inaugural Induction in 2017, AY Magazine Readers’ Choice Best Health Care Professional-Geriatrics in 2016, and the American College of Physicians Raise the Rates Champion from 2014-present. She is active in numerous community and professional organizations.
Maneetha Kodali, M.D., has joined the Department of Geriatrics as an Assistant Professor. Dr. Kodali earned her medical degree at Osmania Medical College in Hyderabad, Telangana, India. She completed her family medicine residency at UAMS in 2017 and continued her training with a geriatrics fellowship in 2018. She served as a clinical instructor and completed a second year fellowship this year. She has received many academic honors, including the Medical Knowledge Award during her residency in 2015 and 2016. She is the co-author of a published paper on the association of chronic pulmonary disease with mild cognitive impairment and dementia. She is certified by the American Board of Family Medicine.
Erona Reza, M.D., has joined the Department of Geriatrics as an Instructor. Dr. Reza received her medical degree from Dhaka Medical College in Dhaka, Bangladesh, in 2001. She completed her residency in family medicine at the University of Ottawa in Ontario, Canada, where she also obtained a Master of Science in cellular and molecular medicine. She practiced in Ottawa and Windsor, Ontario, prior to coming to UAMS for her fellowship in geriatric medicine. She recently received the Bailey Geriatrics Scholar Award for her academic accomplishments. Her clinical interests include complex conditions of elevated blood pressure in mature adults, with a focus on novel approaches for treating resistant hypertension. She is an experienced clinical educator of residents and medical students and has served as a supervising physician for nurse practitioners.
Department of Internal Medicine
Lakshmi Menon, M.D., has joined the Department of Internal Medicine as an Assistant Professor in the Division of Endocrinology. She received her medical degree from the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences in 2013. Dr. Menon came to UAMS for her residency in internal medicine in 2014-2017, followed by a fellowship in endocrinology, which she completed in July.
Kristen Shealy, M.D., has joined the Department of Internal Medicine as an Assistant Professor in the Division of General Internal Medicine. Dr. Shealy received her medical degree at the University of Alabama School of Medicine in Birmingham in 2015. She completed her residency in internal medicine at Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans.
Akash Mukherjee, M.D., has joined the Department of Internal Medicine as an Assistant Professor in the Division of Hematology and Oncology. He received his medical degree from Maulana Azad Medical College in New Delhi, India, in 2011. Dr. Mukherjee completed his residency in internal medicine at Georgetown University/Washington Hospital Center in Washington, D.C., in 2015. He continued his training with a fellowship in hematology/oncology at Houston Medical Hospital in 2015-2018, followed by an extended fellowship in stem cell transplantation and cellular therapy at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.
Mathew Kottarathara, M.D., has joined the Department of Internal Medicine as an Assistant Professor and hospitalist in the Division of Hematology and Oncology, Myeloma Section. Dr. Kottarathara received his medical degree at the Pushpagiri Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Centre in Thiruvalla, Kerala, India. He completed his residency training at Jamaica Hospital Medical Center in Jamaica, New York, this year.
Richa Parikh, M.D., has joined the Department of Internal Medicine as an Assistant Professor and hospitalist in the Division of Hematology and Oncology, Myeloma Section. Dr. Parikh received her medical degree from the Grant Government Medical College & Sir J.J. Group of Hospitals in Mumbai, India, 2014. She came to UAMS for her internal medicine residency in 2016.
Guido J.K. Tricot, M.D., Ph.D., has rejoined the Department of Internal Medicine as a Professor in the Division of Hematology and Oncology, Myeloma Section. Dr. Tricot initially practiced at UAMS in 1993-1997 and returned to the faculty in 2000 to serve as Director of Clinical Research for myeloma until 2007. While at UAMS he became internationally renowned for his role in developing the Total Therapy Approach, one of the most effective first-line therapies for multiple myeloma.
Dr. Tricot received his medical and doctoral degrees at the University of Leuven in Belgium and later served on the faculties of the Division of Hematology/Department of Medicine at the University of Leuven and in the Department of Medicine and Pathology at Indiana University in Indianapolis.
After his time at UAMS, he launched the Utah Blood and Marrow Transplant and Myeloma Program at the University of Utah’s Huntsman Cancer Institute. He went on to serve at the Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Iowa Health Care in Iowa City. Read more about Dr. Tricot in the UAMS Newsroom.
Nadia Alqurini, M.D., has joined the Department of Internal Medicine as an Assistant Professor in the Division of Hospital Medicine. Dr. Alqurini received her medical degree at the University of Jordan in Amman in 2009. She completed her residency in internal medicine and a fellowship in nephrology at the University of Jordan Hospital. She came to UAMS to complete a fellowship in nephrology in 2017.
Sara Mohammed, M.D., has joined the Department of Internal Medicine as an Assistant Professor in the Division of Hospital Medicine. She received her medical degree from the University of Khartoum Faculty of Medicine in Sudan in 2005. She completed her residency at the Federal Ministry of Health in Khartoum and then served as a research and primary care provider. She went on to serve as a general practitioner at the Al Fouad Specialized Hospital in Khartoum and at Al Noor Hospital in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Dr. Mohammed was a visiting observer physician at Case Medical Center in Cleveland, Ohio, and at the Cleveland Clinic in West Lake, Ohio, in 2011. From 2012 to 2015 she was a medical practitioner in an urgent care clinic at Al Noor Hospital in Abu Dhabi. She also completed an externship at St. John Hospital in Detroit during this time. Dr. Mohammed most recently completed an internal medicine residency at the Marshfield Medical Center in Marshfield, Wisconsin.
Sagarika Sabbagh, D.O., has joined the Department of Internal Medicine as an Assistant Professor in the Division of Hospital Medicine. Dr. Sabbagh received her Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine in Suwanee, Georgia, in 2013. She completed her residency in internal medicine at the Franciscan St. James Hospital in Olympia Fields, Illinois. Dr. Sabbagh most recently served as a hospitalist at the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit and St. Joseph Mercy Ann Arbor Hospital in Ypsilanti, Michigan.
Roshen Mathew, M.D., has joined the Department of Internal Medicine as an Instructor and Interventional Pulmonary Fellow in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine. Dr. Mathew received his medical degree at Sri Siddhartha Medical College in Tumkur, India, in 2005. He completed his internal medicine residency at St. Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital in New York. Dr. Mathew continued his training with a pulmonary and critical care fellowship at Montefiore Medical Center (University Hospital of Albert Einstein College of Medicine) in 2012-2015. Dr. Mathew served as a physician with Pulmonary and Sleep Associates of Huntsville, Alabama, and as a Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine-Huntsville after completing his fellowship.
Department of Neurology
Syed Ali, M.D., has joined the Department of Neurology as an Assistant Professor. Dr. Ali received his medical degree from Aga Khan University in Pakistan in 2009. He continued his training with a clinical research fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School before coming to UAMS for his neurology residency. He went on to complete a fellowship in vascular neurology at the University of California, San Diego in 2019.
Dr. Ali received significant awards and honors during his residency including the Medical Student Teaching Award in 2016 and Best Research Abstract Award for 2017-2018. He has worked with nationally renowned vascular neurologists and has produced a number of publications relating to stroke. He joins UAMS as a generalist in neurology with expertise in treating stroke patients.
Department of Ophthalmology
Valeriy Lyzogubov, M.D., Ph.D., has rejoined the Department of Ophthalmology as an Instructor focusing on vision research. Dr. Lyzogubov received his medical degree from the Dnipropetrovsk Medical Institute in the Ukraine in 1992 and his doctorate in cytology and histology from Dnipropetrovsk National University in 2003. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Louisiana State University’s Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge in 2005-2006 and came to UAMS for a postdoctoral fellowship in the Jones Eye Institute in 2006-2008. Dr. Lyzogubov served as an Instructor in the Department of Ophthalmology, focusing on research into the etiopathology of retinal disorders, from 2009 to 2015 and as an Instructor working in the UAMS Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute from 2015 to 2019.
Department of Radiology
Kevin Wong, D.O., has joined the Department of Radiology as an Assistant Professor in the divisions of Pediatric Radiology and Pediatric Interventional Radiology. Dr. Wong received his medical degree from Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine in New York in 2012. He completed a residency in diagnostic radiology at Michigan State University in 2017 and continued his training at Phoenix Children’s Hospital in Arizona, completing fellowships in diagnostic pediatric radiology in 2018 and pediatric interventional radiology in 2019.
Department of Surgery
Sagar T. Mehta, M.D., has joined the Department of Surgery as an Assistant Professor in the Division of Pediatric Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. Dr. Mehta received his medical degree at the University of Missouri-Kansas City in 2011. He completed his general surgery residency, plastic and reconstructive surgery residency and a fellowship in craniofacial surgery at the University of Utah Hospitals Affiliates. Dr. Mehta was a clinical instructor at the University of Cincinnati Health prior to coming to UAMS. He will see patients at Arkansas Children’s Hospital and at UAMS.