New faculty join UMMC academic ranks

Published on Monday, November 8, 2021

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

Dr. Dora Maria Pelletier

Dr. Dora Maria Pelletier, recently a clinical associate in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Division of Spine Surgery, at the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an assistant professor of orthopedic surgery.

Pelletier earned a Master of Science degree from McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, and a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia, before completing her residency in orthopaedic surgery at Northern Ontario School of Medicine in 2019.

She also did a spine fellowship and then, a year later, an AO spine fellowship, both at the University of Toronto Spine Program.

Her research projects have included “Characterizing L4 and L5 Lumbar Spine Fractures for Operative vs Non-Operative Management,” “Tripolar Revision Technique for Failed Charnley Low Friction Arthroplasty,” and “Cortical Bone Trajectories in the Lumbar Spine.”

Dr. Jared Marks

Dr. Jared Marks, recently a clinical associate in The Johns Hopkins Hospital Department of Neurosurgery, in Baltimore, Maryland, has joined the Medical Center faculty as associate professor in the Department of Neurosurgery.

A neurosurgeon with a clinical focus on spinal surgery, Marks treats degenerative changes in the spine, as well as spine tumors and spinal trauma; he performs a broad range and neurosurgical procedures.

Marks received his medical degree in 2005 from the Temple University School of Medicine in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and completed his residency at UMMC. He served as an instructor in the Department of Neurosurgery at UMMC for one year, until 2012, and was an assistant professor for six years, until 2018.

He also did a fellowship in complex spinal surgery at The Johns Hopkins Hospital from 2014 to 2015 in Baltimore, Maryland, and worked at the Johns Hopkins Suburban Hospital Department of Neurosurgery in Bethesda, Maryland, from 2019 to 2021 as a clinical associate.

Marks has performed research in the Division of Neurology at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania; the Department of Oral Medicine/Pathology and the Department of Neuroscience, both at the University of Pittsburgh; and in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the West Virginia University School of Medicine.

He is the coauthor of numerous published articles in professional journals.

Dr. Jerry David Monroe

Dr. Jerry David Monroe, recently a postdoctoral researcher at UMMC, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an instructor in the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology.

Monroe, who holds a juris doctor degree from Marquette University Law School in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, earned his PhD in biological sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 2012.

At Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, he was a postdoctoral researcher and biology instructor for six years. He was a member of the adjunct Faculty at Western Kentucky before performing postdoctoral research at UMMC.

His research has included investigations of anti-cancer and chemotherapy drugs. Monroe has made numerous presentations at various institutions or professional meetings, including at UMMC, the Kentucky Academy of Sciences, Western Kentucky University, the National IDeA Symposium of Biomedical Research Excellence, and others.

He has been the lead author of articles published in such professional publications as Cells, the Journal of Clinical Neuroscience and the International Journal of Developmental Neuroscience.