Immunology chair assumes presidency; SON faculty earns president's award; dermatology residents garner Caldwell honor

SSCI selects UMMC Immunology chair for presidency

Dr. Gailen Marshall Jr., R. Faser Triplett Sr., M.D. Chair of Allergy and Immunology at UMMC, has been elected 2019-20 president of the Southern Society for Clinical Investigation.

Marshall was chosen during the organization’s annual meeting in New Orleans last February.

Marshall is also professor of medicine, pediatrics, pathology and population health; executive director of the new Mississippi Clinical Research and Trials Center; vice chair for research; director of the Division of Allergy, Asthma and Clinical Immunology; and chief of the Laboratory of Behavioral Immunology Research at UMMC.

Founded in 1946 and based in Dora, Alabama, the SSCI works to advance medical research and promote careers in academic medicine. It is focused on the academic development of trainees and junior faculty.

Marshall, who has been a member of the society since 2005, received both his Ph.D. in Immunology and his M.D. from the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. He began internal medicine training at the University of Iowa and completed his residency, chief residency and allergy-immunology fellowship at the University of Tennessee at Memphis.

He has been a featured speaker in regional, national and international venues. Among the multiple journals he contributes to is the Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, which he serves as editor-in-chief.

Assistant professor earns MLA President’s Award

Elizabeth Hinton, assistant professor of academic information services and scientist-educator in the School of Nursing, received the Medical Library Association’s 2019 President’s Award during the MLA’s annual meeting May 5 in Chicago, Illinois.

One of the association’s highest honors, the President’s Award is given by the MLA’s officers and members of its Board of Directors to recognize an important contribution that has enhanced the profession of health sciences librarianship and/or furthered the objectives of the association.

Hinton was honored for her work on MLA’s Education Steering Committee, the oversight and coordinating body for MLA education. The group played an instrumental role in furthering MLA’s goal of becoming the “learning destination for health information professionals” by expanding the quality, quantity, variety and reach of educational offerings.

Dermatology resident receives Caldwell Award

Dr. Chelsea Mockbee, a third-year dermatology resident who served as chief resident for 2018-19, is winner of the Robert S. Caldwell, M.D. Award bestowed by the Medical Assurance Company of Mississippi.

The honor recognizes the accomplishments, dedication, hard work and determination of a senior-level UMMC resident and comes with a $1,000 cash prize. The company has presented UMMC's top resident with the award since 1982. It is named for a Tupelo surgeon who was a founding member of the MACM board of directors.

Mockbee will join the UMMC dermatology faculty in August.

Dr. Robert Brodell, chair of dermatology, said Mockbee is “richly deserving” of the honor.

“She has the ability to model herself after the best qualities of a number of our faculty members,” Brodell said. “She sees both sides of issues, has a mature outlook on life and has the willingness to put the needs of others ahead of her own.”

For two consecutive years, Mockbee received the Resident Professionalism Award for the Department of Dermatology. She is involved in didactic lectures for residents and medical students and has organized complex resident schedules to mesh with “an even more complex faculty schedule,” Brodell said.

“She is becoming our occupational skin disease, contact dermatitis and patch-testing specialist of the future,” he said.