Department of Anesthesiology
Sarah Margaret “Maggie” Coffield, D.O., has joined the Department of Anesthesiology as an Assistant Professor in the Division of Pediatric Anesthesia. Dr. Coffield received her medical degree from the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine. She interned at UAMS in 2014-2015 and completed her anesthesiology residency at UAMS in 2015-2018. Dr. Coffield most recently completed a pediatric anesthesiology fellowship at Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago. She has received academic scholarships and served as the Residency Improvement Committee Representative for the Anesthesiology Residency Program Class of 2014-2018.
Matthew Williams, M.D., has joined the Department of Anesthesiology as an Instructor and Fellow in Obstetric Anesthesiology. Dr. Williams received his medical degree from the College of Medicine in 2015 and completed his residency in anesthesiology at UAMS in June 2019.
Department of Internal Medicine
Angel López-Candales, M.D., has joined the Department of Internal Medicine as a Professor and non-invasive cardiologist in the Division of Cardiology. Dr. López-Candales received his medical degree from the University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine, Rio Piedras Campus, in 1986. He completed his internship and internal medicine residency at the Veterans Administration Hospital in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He continued his training with research and clinical fellowships in cardiology at Jewish Hospital of St. Louis and Washington University School of Medicine, where he went on to serve as an Instructor and then Assistant Professor.
Dr. López-Candales was recruited to the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1996. He directed the Coronary Care Unit at Buffalo General Hospital from 1996 to 2001 and directed the Outpatient Inotrope Infusion Unit from 1997 to 2001. Dr. López-Candales held numerous cardiology leadership positions while on the faculty at the University of Pittsburgh in 2001-2011 and the University of Cincinnati in 2011-2014. He was recruited to the University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine, San Juan, in 2014, and served in multiple leadership positions, including Chief of the Cardiovascular Medicine Division, Program Director of the Cardiology Training Program, Internal Medicine Residency Research Faculty Coordinator and Vice Chair of Research, prior to his recruitment to UAMS.
Subodh Devabhaktuni, M.D., has joined the Department of Internal Medicine as an Assistant Professor and electrophysiologist in the Division of Cardiology. Dr. Devabhaktuni received his medical degree from the Guntur Medical College in Andhra Pradesh, India. He completed his residency in internal medicine and fellowship in cardiology at the University of Nevada School of Medicine in Las Vegas, where he also served as Chief Resident and then as Chief Fellow for Cardiology. Dr. Devabhaktuni continued his training at the Indiana University School of Medicine, where he completed a fellowship in clinical cardiac electrophysiology and then served as Chief Cardiac Electrophysiology Fellow.
Ram Thotakura, M.D., has joined the Department of Internal Medicine as an Assistant Professor in the Hospital Medicine Division. Dr. Thotakura received his medical degree at the Siddhartha Medical College of Vijayawada, India. He completed his residency in internal medicine at the State University of New York in Buffalo. He served as Medical Co-Director of the Buffalo General Medical Center Hospitalist Group before coming to Little Rock to practice as a direct care hospitalist with the Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System. He completed a nephrology fellowship this year and will spend part of his clinical time on the Nephrology Service.
Hazel Kathryn Liverett, M.D., has joined the Department of Internal Medicine as an Assistant Professor in the Division of Infectious Disease. Dr. Liverett received her medical degree from the College of Medicine in 2005 and stayed at UAMS for her residency in internal medicine/pediatrics. She completed a fellowship in adult and pediatric infectious diseases at UAMS, Arkansas Children’s Hospital and the John L. McClellan Memorial Veterans Hospital in 2013. Dr. Liverett practiced as an infectious disease specialist at National Park Medical Center in Hot Springs, Arkansas, prior to her recruitment to UAMS.
Jose Caceres, M.D., has joined the Department of Internal Medicine as an Assistant Professor and interventional pulmonologist in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care. Dr. Caceres received his medical degree from the Universidad Nacional Pedro Henriquez Urena in the Dominican Republic. He completed his residency in internal medicine at the Jacobi Medical Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, New York. He continued his training with a pulmonary and critical care medicine fellowship at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. He came to UAMS in 2018 for his fellowship in interventional pulmonology.
Department of Neurobiology and Developmental Sciences
Edgar Meyer, Ph.D., has joined the Department of Neurobiology and Developmental Sciences as an Assistant Professor. Dr. Meyer received bachelor’s degrees in classical studies and biology at Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi, and a master’s degree in teaching at Delta State University in Cleveland, Mississippi. He received his doctorate in clinical anatomy at the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) in Jackson in 2019. While in graduate school Dr. Meyer assisted in teaching several medical student and graduate school courses. For his dissertation research, he developed stereoscopic and non-stereoscopic models of the middle and inner ear to assess the effectiveness of either visualization format in improving short- and long-term retention of knowledge for first-year medical students. UMMC highlighted Dr. Meyer in an online feature for his leadership roles, service, and passion for anatomy and teaching.
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology
Kathryn C. Stambough, M.D., has joined the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology as an Assistant Professor in the Division of Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology. A native of Little Rock, Dr. Stambough received her medical degree from Washington University in St. Louis in 2011 and continued there for her residency in OB/GYN, serving as Chief Administrative Resident in 2014-2015. She continued her training with a fellowship in pediatric and adolescent gynecology at Texas Children’s Hospital/Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. Dr. Stambough is a Fellow of both the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology and the North American Society of Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology.
Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery
David Walker, M.D., has joined the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery as an Assistant Professor. An Otologist/neurotologist, Dr. Walker specializes in disorders of the middle and inner ear and treating hearing loss, including cochlear implantation. He received his medical degree from Rush University in Chicago and completed his residency in otolaryngology-head and neck surgery at the University of Chicago. He continued his training with a fellowship in otology, neurotology and skull base surgery at the Michigan Ear Institute in Farmington Hills, Michigan.
Tina Ipe, M.D., M.P.H., has joined the Department of Pathology as an Associate Professor and Medical Director for the UAMS Blood Bank and Transfusion Division. Dr. Ipe received her medical degree from the University of Virginia and completed her residency in clinical pathology and fellowship in transfusion medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to joining UAMS, Dr. Ipe served as Medical Director of Donor Services and Associate Medical Director of Transfusion Medicine and Blood Banking at Houston Methodist Hospital in Texas.
Luis F. Carrillo, M.D., has joined the Department of Pathology as an Assistant Professor in the Division of Hematopathology. Dr. Carrillo received his medical degree from the Universidad Catolica de Santa Maria in Arequipa, Peru. He completed his residency in anatomic and clinical pathology and fellowship in hematopathology at the Medical College of Wisconsin and Affiliated Hospitals in Milwaukee.
Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology
Yuet-Kin “Ricky” Leung, Ph.D., has joined the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology as an Associate Professor. Dr. Leung received his doctorate in biochemistry from The Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2001 and completed his postdoctoral fellowship at University of Massachusetts Medical School, where his research focused on the contribution of estrogen receptor beta to prostate cancer.
Dr. Leung began his faculty career as an Assistant Professor in the Division of Environmental Genetics and Molecular Toxicology, Department of Environmental Health, at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine in 2005, rising to the rank of tenure-track Associate Professor. He directed the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences-funded Integrative Technologies Support Core of the Center for Environmental Genetics at University of Cincinnati. Dr. Leung is an established investigator in the field of hormone regulation of cancer and is an expert on the developmental origin of cancer risk and the impact of environmental estrogens/endocrine disruption on epigenetics reprogramming. He is a full member of the American Association for Cancer Research and is Co-investigator on two National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences-funded projects.
Department of Radiation Oncology
Faraz Kalantari, Ph.D., has joined the Department of Radiation Oncology as an Assistant Professor. Dr. Kalantari received a bachelor’s degree in atomic and molecular physics at Kharazmi University in Iran in 2004 and a master’s degree in medical physics in 2007 at Tarbiat Modares University in Tehran, where he later earned his doctorate in medical physics in 2012. He worked for three years as a medical physicist and instructor in the Department of Nuclear Medicine at Tehran University of Medical Sciences. Dr. Kalantari moved to the United States in 2012 to join the University of Houston, Biomedical Engineering Department, as a postdoctoral researcher. He continued his training with a second postdoctoral fellowship in 2014 at UT Southwestern, in the Medical Physics Section of the Radiation Oncology Department. He completed a residency in medical physics at UT Southwestern in June 2019. Dr. Kalantari’s research interests include 3D and 4D medical image reconstruction and image guided radiation therapy (IGRT). He is passionate about educational outreach as well as providing high-quality care for cancer patients.
Gary Lewis, M.D., has joined the Department of Radiation Oncology as an Assistant Professor. Dr. Lewis completed his undergraduate training in biomedical engineering at the University of Pennsylvania. He received his medical degree from Drexel University College of Medicine in Philadelphia. Dr. Lewis completed residency training in radiation oncology at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, with rotations at MD Anderson Cancer Center and Houston Methodist Hospital. Dr. Lewis will focus on clinical research and clinical trial development in addition to clinical care.
Katy A. Marino, M.D., has joined the Department of Surgery as an Assistant Professor in the Division of Thoracic Surgery. Dr. Marino received her medical degree from Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, Shreveport in 2012. She completed her general surgery internship and residency at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis and a fellowship in cardiothoracic surgery at the University of Louisville in Kentucky. Dr. Marino will see patients in the Surgical Oncology Clinic at the UAMS Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute. Her clinical practice focuses on minimally invasive surgery of both benign and malignant diseases of the lungs, esophagus, mediastinum and chest wall.