Surgery, neurology departments, School of Nursing add new faculty

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

Debi Lane Fatherree, M.S.N.

Debi Lane Fatherree, an assistant professor of nursing at Belhaven University, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an instructor in nursing in the School of Nursing.

After receiving her associate degree in nursing from Alcorn State University in 1988, Fatherree served as a staff nurse and woman’s center coordinator at Natchez Regional Medical Center from 1988-97 and as a perinatal educator from 1997-2011 and as director of clinical education from 2011-15 at Women’s Hospital of Flowood. She concurrently earned her B.S.N. at the Mississippi University for Women in 2013 and her M.S.N. at UMMC in 2015. She served as an assistant professor of nursing at Belhaven from 2015-19.

Manasa Gunturu, M.D.

Dr. Manasa Gunturu, recently a neuro-ophthalmology fellow at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an assistant professor of neurology.

After receiving her medical degree from Maharajah’s Institute of Medical Sciences, Vizianagaram, India, in 2010, Gunturu was a house officer at Andhra Medical College, India, from 2010-11 before coming to the U.S. She had neurology residency training at UMMC from 2014-18 and her neuro-ophthalmology fellowship at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, Miami, Florida, from 2018-19.​

Gunturu is an active member of the North American Neuro-Ophthalmology Society and the American Academy of Neurology. She has authored and presented several publications and posters at national meetings. Her research interests include​ idiopathic intracranial hypertension and optic neuropathies.

Brian C. Hanks, D.V.M

Dr. Brian C. Hanks, director of veterinary services and principal surgeon at the Sinclair Research Center, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an assistant professor of surgery.

After receiving his B.S. in chemistry and biology summa cum laude from Delta State University in 2001, Hanks earned his D.V.M magna cum laude at Mississippi State University in 2005. He was a visiting research associate for Johnson and Johnson Inc.-McNeil Nutritionals from 2005-06. He then had residency training in laboratory animal comparative medicine at the University of Missouri from 2006-09.

In 2009 he joined the Sinclair Research Center, where he served as principal surgeon, senior staff veterinarian/manager and director of veterinary services from 2009-18, followed by a brief stint with the Food and Drug Administration as the chief primate veterinary medical officer at NCTR.

An active member of the Association of Primate Veterinarians, the American Veterinary Medical Association, the American Association of Laboratory Animal Science and the Academy of Surgical Research, Hanks has authored or coauthored three articles in peer-reviewed publications and five abstracts and posters presented at scientific meetings. He has given nine invited presentations.

Praise Matemavi, D.O.

Dr. Praise Matemavi, recently an abdominal transplant surgery fellow at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an assistant professor of surgery.

After receiving her associate degree in nursing from Lake Michigan College, Benton Harbor, Michigan, in 2003, Matemavi served as an R.N. in the Cardiac Telemetry Unit at Memorial Hospital of South Bend, Indiana, from 2003-06. She concurrently earned her Bachelors in Applied Science at Siena Heights University, Adrian, Michigan, in 2006 and her D.O. at the Michigan State College of Osteopathic Medicine, East Lansing, in 2010.

She then had a general surgery internship at Sinai Grace Hospital – Detroit Medical Center, Michigan, from 2010-11; a general surgery residency at New York Presbyterian Queens Hospital, Flushing, from 2011-17; and an abdominal transplant surgery fellowship at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, from 2017-19.

A  member of the American Society of Transplant Surgeons, the Association of Women Surgeons and the American College of Surgeons, Matemavi has authored or co-authored 13 articles in peer-reviewed professional publications and presentations given at scientific meetings nationally. Her academic interests include immunosuppression withdrawal in renal transplant patients, improving renal graft survival in African-Americans, living donor renal transplant in African-Americans and on the African continent, and HIV nephropathy and renal transplantation in HIV nephropathy.