Peds, maternal fetal med fellows, anesthesiology residents join faculty

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

Sarah Angela Adams, DO

Dr. Sarah Angela Adams, a pediatric anesthesiology fellow at UMMC, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an assistant professor of anesthesiology.

After receiving her BS in biological science cum laude from the University of Southern Mississippi in 2010, Adams earned her DO at the William Carey University College of Osteopathic Medicine in 2016. She then had an anesthesiology internship from 2016-17, an anesthesiology residency from 2017-20 and a pediatric anesthesiology fellowship at the Medical Center.

An active member of the Society for Pediatric Anesthesia, the American Society of Anesthesiologists and the American Osteopathic Association, Adams has given five presentations at scientific meetings or conferences internationally.

Sara T. Araji, MD

Dr. Sarah T. Araji, recently a maternal fetal medicine fellow at UMMC, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology.

After receiving her BS in biology from the American University of Beirut, Lebanon, in 2009, Araji earned her MD at the Lebanese American University School of Medicine, Lebanon, in 2013. She had residency training in obstetrics and gynecology from 2014-18 at Saint Joseph University Medical Center-New York Medical College, Paterson, New Jersey, where she was chief resident from 2017-18. She then had maternal fetal medicine fellowship training at UMMC from 2018-21 while earning her Master’s Degree in biomedical sciences and defended her thesis, "Hypertension, Maternal Mood and Inflammation During Pregnancy - No Clear Link Among Pregnant Mississippi Women."

An active member of the Society of Maternal Fetal Medicine and the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, where she presented her research work on multiple occasions, Araji's special interests in the field of MFM are cardio-obstetrics, prenatal diagnosis, genetics and ultrasound. Araji also speaks four languages, which is helpful in caring for Mississippi’s diverse population.

Matthew Blanchard, MD

Dr. Matthew Blanchard, an anesthesiology resident at UMMC, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an instructor in anesthesiology.

After receiving his BS in biological sciences from Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, in 2013, Blanchard earned his MD at LSU Health Sciences Center Shreveport in 2017. He has had residency training in anesthesiology at UMMC since 2017.

An active member of the American Society of Anesthesiologists, Blanchard served as secretary and as treasurer of the Anesthesia Interest Group at the LSU Health Sciences Center. He has given nine invited presentations at scientific meetings, and his quality improvement research interest is in ERAS Protocol for spine surgery.

Thomas David Buford, DO, PhD

Dr. Thomas David Buford, an anesthesiology resident at UMMC, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an instructor in anesthesiology.

After receiving his BS in biology in 1997 from the Mississippi University for Women, where he was a presidential scholar, and his Master of Combined Sciences in biology and chemistry in 2000 from Mississippi College, Buford served as an anesthesia technician at Baptist Health Systems Hospital for a year before earning his PhD in microbiology and immunology in 2005 at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis. He had a postdoctoral research fellowship at the University of Southern Mississippi’s Mississippi Functional Genomics Network from 2005-08 and joined the USM faculty, where he served more than four years as a molecular bioscience instructor. He earned his DO at the William Carey University College of Osteopathic Medicine in 2017 and has had residency training in anesthesiology at UMMC. He is chief fellow in the Interventional Pain Medicine Fellowship.

An active member of several professional organizations, including the American Osteopathic Association, the American Society of Microbiology and the Genetics Society of America, Buford has served on the Board of Directors of the Mississippi Osteopathic Medical Association. A Sigma Sigma Phi and an Omega Beta Iota inductee, he is a member of the American College of Osteopathic Family Physicians’ OFP Peer-Reviewed Journal Editorial Committee. The author or coauthor of four articles in peer-reviewed professional journals and three manuals, he has produced 14 abstracts, posters and presentations for scientific meetings internationally.