Curriculum and Residency Management Administrators Team
Dr. Gibson-Oliver (she/her) is the Program Director of the UAMS Little Rock Family Medicine residency program. She joined our faculty as Associate Director in 2020 and has a faculty appointment of Assistant Professor. She is a graduate of the Association of Family Medicine Residency Directors’ National Institute for Program Director Development and the winner of the 2024 New Faculty Scholar Award from the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine, along with the 2024 UAMS Excellence in Mentoring Award (Clinical Emerging Faculty category). In addition, the AAMC Southern Group on Educational Affairs has presented her with the 2024 M. Brownell Anderson Award that is designed to identify and support emerging educators on their career trajectory. Dr. Gibson-Oliver is one of the inaugural faculty co-chairs of the UAMS Graduate Medical Education Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee, which is tasked with recruiting and retaining a more diverse resident and fellow cohort and improving the clinical learning environment experience across campus for trainees that are underrepresented in medicine. In 2023, she was named a UAMS Phenomenal Woman, one of the Best Women in Health Care by AY Magazine, and a Top Doc by Little Rock Soirée for the second year in a row. While a resident in our program, she earned the distinctions of serving as chief resident, resident council secretary, resident council co-chair, and achieving the top in-training exam score among her classmates for all three years. She also won the Outstanding Resident Award and the TOP Award for professionalism. Originally from Colorado, Dr. Gibson-Oliver graduated from the Caribbean Medical University in Curaçao and earned an MBA from Davenport University. Her clinical interests include lifestyle and preventive medicine, women’s and adolescent health, health equity, and healthcare for underserved and historically marginalized communities. Outside of the office, she enjoys practicing yoga, baking, sewing, and exploring the world with her family.
Dr. Bryant is the Associate Director of the residency program, having served as Assistant Director since joining the faculty in 2022. His faculty appointment is as Assistant Professor, and he is co-chair/faculty sponsor for the Walk with a Doc program. In 2024, he was accepted into the STFM Leadership through Scholarship Fellowship Program. Dr. Bryant won the UAMS Excellence in Mentoring Award in 2023 and participated in a campus-wide panel on the subject of increasing the number of Black men in medicine. While in our residency program, he served as Chief Resident and won the Outstanding Resident Award, the STAR Professionalism Award, and the 2021 National Institute of Health/National Medical Association Academic Medicine Fellow/Traveling Award. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of South Florida and completed medical school at the American University of Antigua. Dr. Bryant’s clinical interests include improving health literacy and health equity for the underserved and historically marginalized communities, along with women's health, lifestyle medicine, and preventive medicine. When he’s not working, he enjoys spending time with family and friends, watching sports, traveling, and playing pool.
Jennilee Foster joined us as the UAMS Little Rock Family Medicine Residency Coordinator in 2024, but her considerable experience at UAMS goes back to 2018. Before that, she gained administrative experience in various federal agencies and universities for 20 years. When she isn't in the office, she enjoys sewing, writing letters, and hoarding pens.
Faculty
Dr. Yas Jaganath joined our faculty as an assistant professor in 2021 and practices in Little Rock, Helena, and the House Calls Program. He graduated from our residency program where he served as a chief resident and was awarded the STAR Professionalism Award and the STFM (Society of Teachers of Family Medicine) Resident Teacher Award. He has a Master of Public Health with a concentration in Humanitarian Health, and a Certificate in Gerontology from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. He also completed a post-doctoral fellowship in HIV and Tuberculosis with the UNAIDS Center for the AIDS program of Research in South Africa, where he worked with the pediatric population in the city he grew up in. Dr. Jaganath holds licensure in Arkansas and South Africa. He is passionate about providing personalized care to his patients. During his free time, he enjoys spending time with his family and friends.
Dr. Jarrett joined the DFPM faculty in 2008. For 15 years, she was a member of the management team of the UAMS Little Rock Family Medicine residency program, where she was the Assistant Director and also the DFPM Director of Education and Communications. In 2023, she was named Director of the brand new DFPM Office of Communication and Departmental Relations and Co-Director of the DFPM Office of Leadership and Professional Development. Dr. Jarrett is the recipient of the UAMS College of Medicine Dean's Educational Excellence Award, the Dr. Edith Irby Jones Excellence in Diversity and Inclusion Award, and the UAMS College of Medicine MVP Award. In 2024, she was selected as co-editor for the STFM Education Column, which spotlights educational innovations in Family Medicine. In 2023, she was awarded the Sandra L. Panther Fellowship in the History of Medicine from the American Academy of Family Physicians. Over the years, she has made presentations at conferences everywhere from New York to Denver to Saskatchewan. She holds the rank of Associate Professor and is a member of the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine, the American Educational Research Association, and Mensa International. Dr. Jarrett's master's degree is in journalism/mass communication and her doctorate is in higher education. When she isn't working, she enjoys writing about classic films. She has had five publications (so far!) in the international journal Films of the Golden Age -- biographical essays on William Boyd, George Macready, Micky Moore, and Jack Doyle, and an analysis of the 1943 film The Seventh Victim. Her publications in Classic Images include profiles of actors Richard Todd, Ray Dixon, Frank Albertson, and Dan Frazer, along with World War I ace/actor Charles Nungesser and director Carl Theodor Dreyer.
Dr. Kelley is the Director of the DFPM Division of Undergraduate Education. He joined our faculty in 2022 at the rank of Associate Professor and has extensive teaching experience, including service as clerkship director and division head for education. His multiple teaching awards include the Stanton L. Young Master Teacher Award, the Dewayne Edwards Excellence in Teaching Award, and the Aesculapian Award. He received the Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award in 2024. Dr. Kelley is an AAFP Fellow and has given numerous national presentations. Originally from Colorado, he graduated from the Loyola University Stritch School of Medicine in Chicago and completed his training at the La Grange Family Medicine Residency. His clinical interests include women’s health, pediatric care, and preventive health across the lifespan. Outside of the office, Dr. Kelley enjoys baking, home improvement, and being active with his family.
Dr. López-González joined our faculty in 2023 soon after she graduated from our residency program. During her time in training, she served as Chief Resident and won multiple awards including Outstanding Resident, the AFMRD Resident Scholarship Award, the TOP Outstanding Professional Award, the STAR Professionalism Award, the Medical Knowledge Award, and recognition for serving as a Community Medical Liaison. Her clinical interests include chronic disease management, geriatrics, and inpatient medicine. Dr. López-González is from Caguas, Puerto Rico, and she attended medical school at the University of Medicine and Health Sciences in St. Kitts. Outside of work, she enjoys cooking, baking, learning from art and history, and trying new restaurants with her husband. She also enjoys visiting museums with her husband and daughter.
Dr. Nelsen -- long-time Family Medicine faculty member (since 1995), and graduate of the UAMS Little Rock Family Medicine residency program (1981) and UAMS College of Medicine (1978) -- retired from a full-time status in September 2024. He will continue precepting in the clinic for one half-day each week and also will work with the informatics fellows at ACH. Dr. Nelsen's other plans include traveling, tutoring math and science at Central High, building another guitar, and playing more music. He has been playing at local nursing homes several times per month. Dr. Nelsen built an impressive career in Family Medicine as an informaticist, teacher, mentor, administrator, and clinician in Arkansas for the most part, with some time in Minnesota. His Arkansas experience includes service in DeQueen, Arkansas, where he was Chief of Staff, Chief of Obstetrics, and a private practitioner. Along the way, he spent time as a Fellow in Faculty Development and Clinical Investigation at the University of Minnesota, where he earned a master’s degree in Family and Community Medicine. He won the UAMS Educational Excellence Award and the DFPM Family Medicine Outstanding Teaching Award in two years, back to back. He also won the DFPM Master Educator Award in 2022 -- and this not a full recounting of his accomplishments by any means. We are glad that he will still be working with us on a part-time basis.
Dr. Sakariya joined as faculty in 2018 and has been the Medical Director of the Family Medical Center since June 2022. She has years of experience as a family physician in addition to experience as a clinical researcher on topics such as decreasing overweight and obesity rates, the effects of smoking on pregnancy and offspring, and curriculum development on the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases. Her clinical interests include preventive medicine, chronic disease management, and women’s health. She has a special interest in procedures in Family Medicine and supervises the procedures clinic at the FMC. Dr. Sakariya graduated from medical school in India, then went on to earn a Master of Public Health from California State University, Long Beach. She completed her Family Medicine residency at UND, Bismarck. In her free time, she likes cooking, exercising, home improvement, spending time with her friends and family, and traveling.
Dr. Stone is the director of the DFPM Division of Medical Student Education and an experienced family physician with an interest in underserved populations and in chronic care. He completed an intensive course at the Institute for International Medicine to study public health challenges of the developing world and has worked in public health settings in Honduras and Cuba. Dr. Stone also worked at an FQHC (Federally Qualified Health Center) in East Harlem, New York, where he managed methadone maintenance therapy for patients with opiate addiction. He is a graduate of the UAMS medical school and the UAMS Northwest Family Medicine residency program. His MPH is from the State University of New York in Brooklyn.
Adjunct Faculty
Dr. Bala is a board-certified family and preventive medicine physician, an epidemiologist, and the Deputy Chief Medical Officer at the Arkansas Department of Health (ADH). He joined the DFPM in 2013 and currently serves as an adjunct Clinical Associate Professor and precepts residents and medical students in the FMC. He obtained his medical degree from India and completed his Family Medicine residency at our program, where he was a chief resident. He obtained his Master of Public Health with emphasis in Epidemiology from the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. He further obtained his Doctorate in Public Health with emphasis in Health Policy and Epidemiology from UAMS. Dr. Bala completed a fellowship at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Preventive Medicine Residency and Fellowship Program, and became board-certified in Preventive Medicine. He is also board-certified in Obesity Medicine and Lifestyle Medicine. Besides serving as the ADH Deputy Chief Medical Officer, he is also the State Chronic Disease Director, overseeing and providing medical guidance to chronic disease programs such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer, tobacco, substance use, nutrition and physical activity across the state through the ADH’s local health units. Additionally, he serves as an adjunct Associate Professor at the Department of Epidemiology in the UAMS College of Public Health. He is widely published both in national and international journals, and has obtained numerous awards for his work. These include the Director’s Science Award for his contribution to the ADH, the Chronic Disease Champion by the National Association of Chronic Disease Directors, and the Physician Volunteer of the Year award for his work at the Harmony Health Clinic, which serves the uninsured and underinsured residents of central Arkansas. Dr. Bala also is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of the Arkansas Medical Society, and is currently serving as the 73rd President of the Arkansas Chapter of the American Academy of Family Physicians.
Research and Evaluation Division Community Research Group Faculty
Get more information about the faculty in our Community Research Group.