Scientist, longtime pediatrician join Medical Center faculty

Maryam Syed, Ph.D.

Dr. Maryam Syed, a researcher II at UMMC, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an assistant professor of cell and molecular biology.

After receiving her B.S. in biochemistry from Mississippi State University in 2011, Syed served as a research volunteer from 2011-12 at UMMC, where she became a graduate student in 2012 and earned her Ph.D. in biochemistry in 2018. She has served as a researcher II since 2018.

A Dean’s Scholar at UMMC, Syed is an active member of the American Physiological Society and the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. She is the author or coauthor of eight articles in peer-reviewed publications and 15 abstracts or posters presented at scientific meetings nationwide. Her research interests include the role of microRNA-21 in primary aldosteronism.

Kerry J. Yancy, M.D.

Dr. Kerry J. Yancy, co-founder of the Pediatric Emergency Medicine Department at Doctors Hospital at Renaissance, Edinburg, Texas/University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an assistant professor of pediatrics.

She has been at UMMC since May 2018, initially serving in a locum tenes position in the pediatric emergency department, before joining the faculty in January.

After receiving her B.A. in biology from Austin College, Sherman, Texas, in 1985, Yancy earned her M.D. at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, Dallas, in 1989. She completed a pediatrics residency from 1989-92 at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Medical Center, Bronx, New York, and a pediatric emergency medicine fellowship from 1992-94 at the University of Chicago Wyler Children’s Hospital.

Yancy joined the faculty of the Medical College of Wisconsin and Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, in 1994 as an assistant professor of pediatrics. She then served as an assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School and Children’s Medical Center from 1998-99. She was a staff physician in pediatric emergency medicine at the Cook Children’s Medical Center Emergency Department, Fort Worth, from 1999-2013.

Yancy also served as a "Designated Doctor for the State of Texas" from 2007-13, evaluating injured employees in the Texas Worker's Compensation system. She was a staff physician, clinical instructor of pediatric emergency medicine and assistant professor of emergency medicine at the Texas A&M College of Medicine at Driscoll Children's Hospital, Corpus Christi, from 2013-17, before joining Doctors Hospital at Renaissance.

A fellow of the American College of Emergency Physicians, she is an active member of the Wilderness Medical Society and Mensa. She is physician advisor for the Wilderness Training Center, teaching wilderness medicine and acting as an advisor for curriculum. She also has had volunteer leadership roles with several organizations in her community. She has been a board-certified lactation consultant since 2006.