Please join us in welcoming these recent additions to the College of Medicine faculty.
Department of Geriatrics
Shami Nandy, M.D.
Shami Nandy, M.D., has joined the Department of Geriatrics as an Assistant Professor. Dr. Nandy received her medical degree from Dhaka Medical College in Dhaka, Bangladesh, in 2009. She completed her family medicine residency at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in Monroe and then continued her training with a fellowship in geriatrics at UAMS. Dr. Nandy recently completed a case report, “Knowledge of Fall Risk Factors among Older Adults in South Central U.S.” She has been working as a geriatrician in Arkansas for the past year and now will be seeing patients at the Thomas and Lyon Longevity Clinic in the Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging. She will also serve on the Geriatrics consult service at UAMS and will be involved with clinical research on dementia.
Department of Internal Medicine
Auras Atreya, M.D., M.P.H.
Auras Atreya, M.D., M.P.H., has joined the Department of Internal Medicine as an Assistant Professor and electrophysiologist in the Division of Cardiology. Dr. Atreya received his medical degree from Kasturba Medical College, Manipal University, in India in 2009. He completed his residency in internal medicine at Baystate Medical Center/Tufts University School of Medicine in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 2014 and a fellowship in cardiovascular diseases at the University of Massachusetts Medical School-Baystate in 2017. During this time, he also received a Master of Public Health and a Graduate Certificate in Quality, Patient Safety and Outcomes Research from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Dr. Atreya continued his training at the University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor, completing a fellowship in clinical cardiac electrophysiology in 2019 and an interventional cardiology fellowship in 2020. Most recently, Dr. Atreya served as a consultant in electrophysiology and interventional cardiology at AIG Hospitals in Hyderabad, India.
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology
Maria Ruiz, D.O., M.S.
Maria Ruiz, D.O., M.S., has joined the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology as an Assistant professor in the Division of Gynecologic Oncology. Dr. Ruiz received her Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine from the Des Moines University College of Osteopathic Medicine, where she also received a Master of Science in Anatomy. She completed residency training in obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Missouri – Kansas City. She continued her training with a fellowship in gynecologic oncology at New York Presbyterian at Columbia University Medical Center and Weill Cornell Medical College.
Before joining UAMS, Dr. Ruiz practiced gynecologic oncology for two years at North Florida Hospital in Gainesville. Dr. Ruiz’s clinical interests include ovarian, uterine, vulvar, vaginal and cervical cancers. The use of germline, somatic, and molecular tumor testing to target treatment, along with robotic minimally invasive surgery to allow patients a faster recovery, are of particular interest. She has received a number of honors, including the 2017 American Association of Gynecologic Laparoscopists Recognition of Excellence in Minimally Invasive Gynecology Award and the 2018 Obstetrics & Gynecology Roy M. Pitkin Award.
Department of Pediatrics
Ellen van der Plas, Ph.D.
Ellen van der Plas, Ph.D., has joined the Department of Pediatrics as an Associate Professor in the Hematology and Oncology Section. Dr. van der Plas earned her bachelors and master’s degrees from Leiden University in the Netherlands before receiving her Ph.D. from the University of Iowa. She completed a post-doctoral fellowship with an emphasis on translational medicine at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto before joining the University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics as an Assistant Professor.
An avid researcher and educator, Dr. van der Plas investigates the developing brain and neurocognitive function in relation to brain structure. She is taking part in four concurrent research projects totaling more than $23 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health, the National Cancer Institute and other extramural sources.
Timothy R. Koscik, Ph.D.
Timothy R. Koscik, Ph.D., has joined the Department of Pediatrics as an Associate Professor in the Neurology Section. Dr. Koscik earned his Ph.D. at the University of Iowa and then completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Toronto, where he focused on neuroimaging and applying advanced statistical models to fMRI. Prior to joining the Department of Pediatrics, Dr. Koscik worked as a Research Assistant Professor at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine. For the last three years, he served as both research faculty and Director of the Iowa Neuroimage Processing Core.
Dr. Koscik is a member of several professional organizations and is a prolific researcher with dozens of publications, presentations and software applications to his credit. His primary area of study is seeking a greater understanding of the underlying pathology of Huntington’s disease with an emphasis on understanding the role of maladaptive development of the cerebral cortex through ultra-high-resolution imaging in postmortem specimens.
Department of Psychiatry
Holly Hunter, M.D.
Holly Hunter, M.D., has joined the Department of Psychiatry as an Assistant Professor. Dr. Hunter graduated from the UAMS College of Medicine in 2015. She completed her residency in psychiatry at UAMS, where she continued her training with a fellowship in child and adolescent psychiatry. Prior to joining the faculty, she practiced at Burrell Behavioral Health in Northwest Arkansas. Dr. Hunter will provide outpatient psychiatric consultation and medication management services in the Psychiatric Research Institute’s Child Study Center.
Maegan Calvert, Ph.D.
Maegan Calvert, Ph.D., has joined the Department of Psychiatry as an Assistant Professor. Dr. Hunter graduated from Eastern Michigan University with a bachelor’s in psychology. She received her doctorate and master’s in clinical psychology at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. She completed her clinical internship at the University of Mississippi and trained as a postdoctoral fellow in pediatric psychology at Children’s Medical Center in Dallas before coming to UAMS. A former trainee in the UAMS T32 National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Addiction Research Training Program, Dr. Calvert is a child behavioral neuroscientist in the Brain Imaging Research Center (BIRC). She is studying the effects of interpersonal trauma and caregiver mental health with co-occurring substance use on child brain development and subsequent social-emotional outcomes. She will lead the new Child Brain Imaging Program in the BIRC. Dr. Calvert also will provide psychological assessments and therapy for children and their families in the Psychiatric Research Institute’s Child Study Center.