Endodontist, nurse-midwife join Medical Center faculty

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

Janice Taleff Scaggs, D.N.P.

Dr. Janice Taleff Scaggs, a certified nurse-midwife, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an assistant professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Scaggs grew up in Meridian, moved to North Carolina in 1987 and completed a master’s degree in nursing with a midwifery concentration at East Carolina University. She returned to Mississippi in 2016 and recently completed a doctorate in nursing practice from the University of Southern Mississippi, where she was inducted into USM’s Graduate School Hall of Fame.

Scaggs is a member of several professional organizations, including the American College of Nurse-Midwives and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. She has previous clinical and teaching experience at Duke, Vanderbilt and East Carolina University, as well as in private practice. She is an author or co-author of several peer-reviewed publications and is a peer reviewer for the Advanced Life Support in Obstetrics Provider Manual.

She has given presentations at numerous national professional nursing and medical conferences on topics including interdisciplinary education, family-centered care, non-pharmacologic support for labor and birth, labor dystocia and obstetric emergencies. She is serving as project lead for the Mississippi Perinatal Quality Collaborative Initiative to Support Vaginal Births and Reduce Unnecessary Primary Cesarean Births.

James Dustin Watts, D.M.D.

Dr. James Dustin Watts, an endodontist with Highland Endodontics in Flowood/Madison and a recently retired lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force Reserves, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an associate professor of dentistry.

After receiving his B.S. from Belhaven College in 1994, Watts earned his D.M.D. at UMMC in 2000. He was then assigned to the 86th Dental Squadron as a general dental officer from 2000-03 and to the 81st Dental Squadron as a general dental officer from 2003-05. He had residency training in endodontics while with the 59th Dental Squadron from 2005-07 and served as chief of endodontics and support flight commander with the 79th Dental Squadron from 2007-10.

He served as deputy director of education and training in the Department of Endodontics at Keesler Air Force Base from 2010-20 and was the owner and a practicing endodontist at Lakeland Endodontics, Flowood, from 2010-19.

A former president of the Fourth District of the Mississippi Dental Association and of the Jackson Dental Society, Watts is an active member of the American Dental Association and the American Association of Endodontists. He is the author or coauthor of three articles in peer-reviewed professional publications.