Cardiac electrophysiologist, clinical skills center director, audiologist, researcher join UMMC faculty

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

James Michael Bensler, M.D.

Dr. James Michael Bensler, a cardiac electrophysiologist and chief of cardiology at Mississippi Baptist Medical Center/Baptist Memorial-Jackson, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an assistant professor of medicine.

After receiving his B.S. in biological sciences from the University of Denver, Colorado, in 1999, Bensler earned his M.D. at the University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, in 2003. He had internal medicine residency training from 2003-06 at the University of Washington and adult cardiology and clinical cardiac electrophysiology fellowships from 2006-10 at St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital/Texas Heart Institute.

Bensler joined Mississippi Baptist Medical Center/Baptist Memorial-Jackson in 2010 as medical director of electrophysiology and served as a cardiac electrophysiologist for Baptist Cardiology, Baptist Heart, the Jackson Heart Clinic and, for a brief time, Cardiovascular Consultants of Nevada/Health Care Partners of Nevada in Las Vegas. He served as chief of cardiology at Mississippi Baptist Medical Center from 2017-19.

The author or coauthor of seven articles in peer-reviewed publications, Bensler is a fellow of the American College of Cardiology and of the Heart Rhythm Society, a Phi Beta Kappa and Alpha Omega Alpha inductee, and an active member of the American Society of Echocardiography, the American College of Cardiology and the American College of Physicians.

Alaina Rose Herrington, M.S.N., R.N.

Alaina Rose Herrington, director of the Judith Gore Gearhart Clinical Skills Center in the School of Medicine at UMMC, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an assistant professor of nursing.

After receiving her B.S.N. from the University of Southern Mississippi in 2004, Herrington came to UMMC as a staff nurse in the Inpatient Surgery Center. In 2006, she became an orthopaedic coordinator at UMMC, then served the Medical Center as a human resources service partner from 2010-13. She joined Hinds Community College as its simulation center director and received her M.S.N. from UMMC in 2014. She returned to the Medical Center in 2018 as founding director of the Mississippi Academy for Simulation Training. She is working on her D.N.P. in health systems and administration at Samford University and plans to graduate in May 2020.

A Society for Simulation in Healthcare accreditation site reviewer since 2016, Herrington has authored or coauthored 18 articles in peer-reviewed publications and 36 abstracts or presentations at scientific meetings. She has served as principal investigator of scientific projects totaling $65,000 in funding. An active member of the National League of Nursing, the International Nursing Association for Clinical Simulation and Learning and the Society of Simulation Healthcare, Herrington has given more than 20 invited presentations nationally and internationally.

Samuel Jameson, M.D.

Dr. Samuel Jameson, a researcher at UMMC since 2016, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an instructor in population health sciences in the John D. Bower School of Population Health.

After receiving his B.A. in African and African diaspora studies and his B.S.P.H. in global and community health in 2010, Jameson earned his M.S.P.H. in parasitology in 2011 at the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, where he also obtained his Ph.D. in tropical medicine in 2017.

Jameson served as a field research assistant from 2011-12 and as a scientific research analyst from 2012-15 at Tulane University. After a short stint as a visiting scientist in biology at Colorado Mesa University, he joined UMMC as a researcher in 2016 and has worked for Dr. Leandro Mena since 2017.

An adjunct professor in the Department of Tropical Medicine at Tulane since 2017, Jameson has given three invited presentations and has contributed to 17 research posters presented at scientific meetings nationally. The author or coauthor of seven articles in peer-reviewed publications and one textbook chapter, he obtained a Gates Foundation grant to study new mosquito control approaches.

Beth W. King, Au.D.

Dr. Beth W. King, lead audiologist at Professional Audiological Services, Memphis, Tennessee, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an assistant professor of otolaryngology.

After receiving her B.S. in communication sciences and disorders from the University of Mississippi in 2010, King earned her Au.D. at the Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine in 2014. She then joined Professional Audiological Services as its lead audiologist and also served in private practice with various ear, nose and throat clinics and schools in the Memphis area, including LeBonheur Children’s Hospital, the Shelby County School System, Municipal School Systems, the Memphis Oral School for the Deaf, the Tennessee School for the Deaf and the West Tennessee School for the Deaf.

A fellow of the American Academy of Audiology, King is an inductee of the Phi Kappa Phi, Alpha Lambda Delta and Gamma Beta Phi honor societies.