Longtime surgeon, experienced nurse, epilepsy fellow join UMMC faculty

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

Scott Morris Berry, M.D.

Dr. Scott Morris Berry, a longtime attending surgeon and former chief of surgery at Baptist Medical Center, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an assistant professor of surgery.

After serving in the U.S. Navy as an air traffic controller on the U.S.S. Midway and obtaining the Commanding Officer’s Letter of Commendation for Community Service, Naval Air Training Command, Millington, Tennessee, Berry received his B.A. in physiology from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, in 1985 and earned his M.D. magna cum laude at the Loyola University Stritch School of Medicine, Maywood, Illinois, in 1989. He had general surgery residency training from 1989-92 and from 1994-95 and nutrition support fellowship training from 1992-94 at the University of Cincinnati, Ohio, where he was general surgery chief resident from 1995-96, and research fellowship training from 1992-94 at the Department of Veterans Affairs and University of Cincinnati Hospital.

Berry served as attending surgeon and partner in Jackson Surgical Group from 1996-98 and attending surgeon and partner in Surgical Clinic Associates from 1998-2017. Since 2014 he has been director of nutrition support services and breast center attending surgeon at Mississippi Baptist Medical Center, where he was appointed chief of surgery from 2014-17. He has been attending surgeon and owner of Medical IQ since 2017.

An active member of the American College of Surgeons, the Mont Reid Surgical Society, the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition and the Society for Parenteral Alimentation, Berry has participated in or as principal investigator for 22 scientific studies. Editor-in-chief of the fourth edition of the Mont Reid Surgical Handbook, he has authored or coauthored 21 book chapters, 12 articles in peer-reviewed journals and nine abstracts. Berry has given a dozen invited presentations at scientific meetings or conferences nationally.

Thomas Howington, M.S.N.

Thomas Howington, an experienced nurse with more than 12 years of experience in the medical field, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an instructor in nursing.

After receiving his Associates Degree in Nursing from Copiah-Lincoln Community College, Wesson, in 2007, Howington served as an emergency room nurse at Hardy Wilson Memorial Hospital, Hazlehurst, from 2007-13. He then provided end-of-life patient and family education and care at Deaconess Hospice in Brookhaven from 2013-15 before joining Copiah County Medical Center, Hazlehurst, as an emergency room nurse. Howington earned his M.S.N. at UMMC in 2018 and has worked in the Center for Advancement of Youth at UMMC.

An active member of the Mississippi Nurses Association and the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, Howington has been invited to speak to all incoming bachelors, masters, post masters and doctorate students at UMMC orientation.

Sameer Sharma, M.B.B.S.

Dr. Sameer Sharma, recently an epilepsy fellow at the University of Cincinnati, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an assistant professor of neurology.

After receiving his M.B.B.S. from the University College of Medical Sciences, India, in 2008, Sharma worked in endocrinology and neurosurgery in India before coming to the U.S. He completed a medicine internship from 2011-12, a neurology residency from 2012-15 and a vascular neurology fellowship from 2015-16 at State University of New York, Upstate University Hospital, and a neurocritical care fellowship from 2016-18, followed by an epilepsy fellowship at the University of Cincinnati.

An active member of the American Academy of Neurology, the Society of Critical Care Medicine and the Neurocritical Society, Sharma has authored or coauthored a dozen peer-reviewed journal articles and 13 peer-reviewed abstracts or poster presentations. He has delivered one invited presentation, “Early Nocturnal Detection of Wake-up Stroke Using EEG Methodology,” at a scientific meeting at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota.