Audiologist, data scientist, chief resident join UMMC faculty

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

Mary Lauren Brunson, Au.D.

Dr. Mary Lauren Brunson has joined the Medical Center faculty as an assistant professor of otolaryngology and communicative sciences.

After receiving her Bachelor of Science degree in communicative sciences disorders from the University of Mississippi in 2012, Brunson earned her Master of Science in early oral intervention in 2014 before going on to receive her Doctorate of Audiology from the University of Southern Mississippi in 2018. She recently completed her training in pediatric audiology at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital in Memphis.

Brunson is a Fellow of the American Academy of Audiology and holds a Certificate of Clinical Competence from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.

Loretta R. Cain, Ph.D.

Dr. Loretta R. Cain, a biostatistician in the John D. Bower School of Population Health at UMMC, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an assistant professor of data science.

After receiving her B.S. in chemistry from Tougaloo College in 2005, Cain earned her M.P.H. in epidemiology and biostatistics at Jackson State University in 2008 and her Ph.D. in epidemiology and biostatistics at West Virginia University in 2011. She served as a statistician in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Chicago from 2011-15 before joining Blue Cross Blue Shield of Mississippi as a health data analyst. She then joined the School of Population Health in 2016.

She has been an online adjunct faculty member since 2011 at both Grand Canyon University and Purdue Global. Since 2014, she also has served as an online contributing faculty member for the Ph.D. Public Health Research Program in the College of Health Sciences at Walden University.

Cain has been a reviewer of Nephrology Dialysis Transplantation for BMC Public Health and has made scientific presentations at the North American Primary Research Group annual meeting, American Heart Association Scientific Sessions, EpiLifestyle Scientific Sessions, and the American Public Health Association. She is the author or coauthor of 12 articles in peer-reviewed publications that address health outcomes in minority, rural and low-income populations.

Elizabeth Jane Clair, D.O.

Dr. Elizabeth Jane Clair, a former chief resident in the Department of Emergency Medicine at UMMC, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an assistant professor of emergency medicine.

After receiving her B.S. in biological sciences from Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, in 2009, Clair served as a clinical assistant at the Christus Cabrini Surgery Center in Alexandria, Louisiana before earning her D.O. at the William Carey University College of Osteopathic Medicine in 2015. She was an emergency medicine resident at UMMC from 2015-17 and served as chief resident from 2017-18.

An active member of several professional organizations, including the American Academy of Emergency Medicine, the American College of Emergency Physicians and the American Osteopathic Association, Clair has served on numerous academic committees.