Medicine, pathology chairs, primary care physician join UMMC faculty

Medical Center leadership is proud to announce the following additions to its faculty and leadership staff.

Timothy Craig Allen, M.D., J.D.

Dr. Timothy Craig Allen, professor of pathology and director of anatomic pathology at the University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, and deputy medical examiner of Galveston County, has joined the Medical Center faculty as professor and chair of pathology.

After receiving his B.S. in biology from Texas A&M University, College Station, in 1980, Allen earned his M.D. at the Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, in 1984. He had an internship in obstetrics and gynecology from 1984-85, a residency in anatomic and clinical pathology from 1985-89 and a fellowship in pulmonary pathology from 2002-04 at Baylor College of Medicine Affiliated Hospitals. In 1998 he earned his J.D. cum laude at the University of Chicago Law School.

Allen joined the Baylor College of Medicine faculty in 1990 as an assistant professor of pathology and served until 1995. After obtaining his law degree, Allen served as an associate, litigation section, for BakerBotts LLP, Houston, from 1998-2001 and as an associate, health law section, for Vinson & Elkins, LLP, Houston, from 2001-02. He returned to medicine and joined the faculty of the University of Texas Health Sciences Center at Tyler in 2004 as an associate professor of pathology and became professor of pathology there in 2007. In 2013 he joined the University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, and earned tenure in 2017. He served as director of anatomic pathology at UT-Galveston and deputy medical examiner for Galveston County from 2014-17.

Immediate past president of the Pulmonary Pathology Society, governor of the College of American Pathologists and immediate past president of the Texas Society of Pathologists, Allen is an active member of several other professional organizations, including the International Academy of Pathology and the Association of Molecular Pathology. He is a diplomat of the American Board of Pathology and a fellow of the College of American Pathologists and the American Society for Clinical Pathology.

Allen has organized 11 scientific sessions internationally and nationally and has chaired or served as a discussion leader for many of them. A member of the editorial board of the Archives of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and the American Journal of Clinical Pathology, Allen has served as a journal reviewer for 11 leading scientific publications. He has authored or coauthored more than 115 articles in peer-reviewed journals, 22 books, more than 330 book chapters and more than 95 abstracts.

An internationally sought speaker, Allen has given more than 50 invited lectures at symposia and conferences and more than 50 invited off-campus lectures nationally. His research interests include pulmonary pathology, mesothelioma, lung cancer biomarkers, medical humanities and medical jurisprudence.

Javed Butler, M.B.B.S.

Dr. Javed Butler, a professor of physiology, has joined the Medical Center faculty as professor and chairman of the Department of Medicine. Prior to joining UMMC, he was Charles A. Gargano Professor and director of the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine and co-director of the Heart Institute at Stony Brook University, New York. He had served as the director for heart failure research at Emory University and director of the heart and heart-lung transplant programs at Vanderbilt University prior to that.

He received his medical degree from Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan. He then completed residency training and chief residency in internal medicine/primary care at Yale University, cardiology fellowship and advanced heart failure and transplant fellowships at Vanderbilt University and cardiac imaging fellowship at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston. He has completed his Master of Public Health degree from Harvard University and his Master in Business Administration degree from Emory University.

Butler is board-certified in cardiovascular medicine and advanced heart failure and transplant medicine. His research interests focus on clinical trials in patients with heart failure. He serves on several national committees for the American College of Cardiology, the American Heart Association and the National Institutes of Health, and serves on the Heart Failure Society of America Board of Directors. He is the recipient of the Simon Dack Award by the American College of Cardiology and the Time, Feeling and Focus Award by the American Heart Association.

Butler has authored more than 450 peer-reviewed publications. He serves on the editorial board of several peer reviewed cardiovascular journals, including the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Circulation and the European Journal of Heart Failure. He has been cited numerous times in America’s Best Doctors list.

Rhonda Odom-Funches, M.D.

Dr. Rhonda Odom-Funches, a primary care physician at Jackson Hinds Comprehensive Health, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an assistant professor of family medicine.

After receiving her B.S. in chemistry in 1997 and attending graduate school at Jackson State University, Odom-Funches earned her M.D. in 2002 at UMMC, where she completed a family medicine internship in 2003 and a family medicine residency in 2007. She also completed training for wound care and hyperbaric medicine in 2009 at the International ATMO Center, San Antonio, Texas.

She has worked at Central Jackson Family Clinic from 2003-05, providing primary care. After completing residency, she became the owner and primary operator of Grace and Mercy Family Medical Clinic, PLLC from 2008-13. During this time, she also provided wound care services at the Baptist Wound Care Center. After this, she worked in primary care at the Jackson VA Medical Center. Her most recent employment as at the Jackson Hinds Comprehensive Health Center South Clinic from 2014-17.

The author or coauthor of three articles published in peer-reviewed scientific journals, Odom-Funches is certified by the American Board of Family Medicine.