Rheumatology fellow, radiology residents among new faculty hires

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

James Daniel Carson, M.D.

Dr. James Daniel Carson, chief resident in diagnostic radiology at Baptist Memorial Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an instructor in radiology.

After receiving his B.S. with University Honors in biology magna cum laude from the University of Memphis in 2010, Carson earned his M.D. in 2015 at UMMC, where he was a research scholar. Following a yearlong preliminary internal medicine internship at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, Carson had residency training in diagnostic radiology at Baptist Memorial Hospital from 2016-20. He was concurrently employed by Mid-South Imaging, Germantown, Tennessee, from 2018-20 and by Radiology Physicians of New Albany from 2018-20.

An active member of the Radiological Society of North America and the American Medical Association, Carson is the coauthor of a pair of articles published in peer-reviewed journals, 11 abstracts and scientific presentations and four scientific posters.

Elena Lauren Dent, Ph.D.

Dr. Elena Lauren Dent, recently a graduate student at UMMC, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an instructor in preventive medicine.

After receiving her B.S. in nutrition from Mississippi State University in 2008, Dent completed a one-year dietetic internship at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, TN before earning a M.S. in biomedical sciences in 2015 and a Ph.D. in physiology & biophysics in 2020 at UMMC.

Dent practiced as a clinical dietitian and certified diabetes educator in Columbus and New Albany from 2009-13 and in Tupelo from 2012-15. As a graduate student, Dent was principal investigator of an AHA predoctoral fellowship award, “Renal Hemodynamic Mechanisms of Hypertension during Autoimmunity.”

An active member of several professional societies, including the American Society of Nephrology and the American Physiological Society, she is the coauthor of five articles published in peer-reviewed professional journals.  She has made professional contributions as an invited speaker at scientific meetings and local media.

Macalaster James Deveney, D.O.

Dr. Macalaster James Deveney, recently a radiology resident at the University of South Alabama Medical Center, Mobile, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an instructor in radiology.

After receiving his B.S. in biology magna cum laude from Delta State University in 2008, Deveney earned his D.O. at the Kansas City University of Medicine in 2014. He then had internal medicine residency training from 2014-16 and a radiology residency from 2016-20 at USA Medical Center.

His research interests include breast imaging and TIRADS reporting system quality improvement.

Cathy Patricia LeeChing, M.D.

Dr. Cathy Patricia LeeChing, recently a rheumatology fellow at the Jefferson Lupus Center, Department of Medicine, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an assistant professor of medicine.

After earning her M.D. at Universidad Catolica de Santiago de Guayaquil, Ecuador, where she was medical school salutatorian, in 2011, LeeChing had residency training in internal medicine from 2014-17 at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Florida; a rheumatology fellowship from 2017-19 at Thomas Jefferson University; and a lupus fellowship at the Jefferson Lupus Center from 2019-20. She has also had observerships at leading health care institutions in Ecuador, Miami and Philadelphia and a rheumatology elective in the Immunology and Rheumatology Department at the Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, California.

An active member of the American College of Rheumatology, LeeChing has coauthored four articles in peer-reviewed professional publications and has given eight presentations at scientific meetings nationally and internationally.