Cardiology fellow, emergency med chief resident, peds residents join faculty

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

Brandon W. Lennep, M.D.

Dr. Brandon W. Lennep, recently an advanced heart failure and transplant cardiology fellow at UMMC, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an assistant professor of medicine.

A 2013 graduate of the UMMC School of Medicine, Lennep had internal medicine residency training from 2013-16, cardiology and cardiovascular disease fellowship training from 2016-19 and advanced heart failure and transplant cardiology fellowship training from 2019-20 at UMMC.

An active member of the American College of Physicians, the American College of Cardiology and the Mississippi State Medical Association, Lennep has served as president of the ACP Fellows’ Council University of Mississippi Medical Center Chapter. A sub-investigator on four research studies, he is the author or coauthor of three abstracts accepted for oral presentation and four abstracts accepted for poster presentation at scientific meetings nationally and two manuscripts accepted for publication in peer-reviewed professional journals.

Tara Clare Lewis, M.D.

Dr. Tara Lewis, former chief resident in emergency medicine at UMMC, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an assistant professor of emergency medicine.

After obtaining her Associate’s Degree in nursing cum laude from Hinds Community College in 2007, Lewis served as a registered nurse in Labor and Delivery and in Women’s Urgent Care at UMMC from 2007-13 and in Labor and Delivery at St. Dominic Hospital from 2010-13, while concurrently earning her B.S.N. at Mississippi College in 2013. She then earned her M.D. in 2017 at UMMC, where she stayed for emergency medicine residency training from 2017-20.

She was an inductee into Alpha Omega Alpha and the Gold Humanism Honor Society at the Medical Center and was recognized as a research scholar during medical school and her residency. She received the inaugural Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award in 2017 after she aided in planning and organizing the first annual Wellness Day Retreat for the School of Medicine. She also received the UMMC School of Medicine Leadership Award in 2017, the Emergency Medicine Research Award in 2019 and the Excellence in Emergency Medicine Award in 2020.

A member of the American College of Emergency Physicians, Lewis is the author or coauthor of five oral and five poster presentations at scientific meetings, one article - “Precision Analysis of a Quantitative CT Liver Surface Nodularity Score” - published in the Journal of Abdominal Radiology, and one abstract - “Chronic Eosinophilic Pneumonia Mimicking COPD Exacerbation” - published in the Journal of the Mississippi State Medical Association. She has served as the resident representative to the Board of Directors for the Mississippi ACEP and has given eight invited lectures at UMMC.

Eric James Merkle, M.D.

Dr. Eric James Merkle, recently a pediatrics resident at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital, Regional One Health Medical Center, and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an assistant professor of pediatrics.

After receiving his B.S. in clinical engineering and biomolecular engineering summa cum laude from Mississippi State University in 2013, Merkle earned his M.D. at UMMC in 2017. He then had pediatrics residency training in Memphis from 2017-20.

An active member of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Merkle is the author or coauthor of one oral presentation and three posters presented at scientific meetings in the U.S. and France, and one abstract - “The Effect of Pediatric Early Warning System Scoring Upon Admission from the Pediatric Emergency Department on Emergency Response Calls” - published in the Journal of Investigative Medicine.

Jarrett Richard Morgan, M.D.

Dr. Jarrett Richard Morgan, chief resident in pediatrics at UMMC, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an assistant professor of medicine.

After receiving his B.S. magna cum laude from Belhaven University in 2010, Morgan earned his M.D. in 2015 at UMMC, where he had internal medicine and pediatrics residency training from 2015-19. He was chief resident in pediatrics from 2019-20.

An active member of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American College of Physicians, Morgan is a Gold Humanism Honor Society inductee who has authored or coauthored four articles in peer-reviewed professional publications and has given three presentations at scientific meetings.