New faculty join UMMC academic ranks

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

Dr. Kelly A. Brister

Dr. Kelly A. Brister, who recently completed a colorectal surgery fellowship at the University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine in Tampa, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an assistant professor of surgery in the Division of Surgical Oncology.

She earned her medical degree from the School of Medicine at UMMC in 2015. She completed her general surgery residency in 2020 at the Medical Center, where he was an administrative chief resident, before completing her fellowship at USF. She has completed certification for robotic surgery through the da Vinci Surgical System.

Brister is a member of several professional organizations, including the American College of Surgeons, American Medical Association, Mississippi State Medical Association and American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons.

Dr. Maria Clarissa Tio

Dr. Maria Clarissa Tio, recently a clinical and research fellow in the combined Nephrology Fellowship program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an assistant professor of medicine.

She graduated with her medical degree in 2015 from Duke-National University of Singapore Graduate Medical School. She also earned a Master of Public Health in Clinical Effectiveness at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston.

She completed her postdoctoral training in internal medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.

Tio has co-authored several peer-reviewed research articles. Among her many honors is the American Kidney Fund Clinical Scientist in Nephrology grant, which was awarded to her in 2020.

Her research interests include crystalline nephropathies, specifically the roles of uric acid and oxalate in chronic kidney disease progression.

A member of the American Society of Nephrology, Tio is also interested in the interplay among heart failure with preserved ejection fraction, obesity and chronic kidney disease.

Dr. Wambui Waruingi

Dr. Wambui Waruingi, recently medical director for Anthem Inc. in the Greater St. Louis, Missouri, area, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an assistant professor of pediatrics, neonatology.

She earned a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery from the University of Nairobi in Kenya before doing a post-doctoral research fellowship in immunology and infectious diseases at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts and a residency in internal medicine/pediatrics at Case Western Reserve, MetroHealth Hospital in Cleveland Ohio. Waruingi also did a fellowship in neonatology at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation/Case Western Reserve, MetroHealth Hospital.

She has a Master of Science in Clinical and Translational Research, Clinical Epidemiology and Clinical Effectiveness from the University of Cincinnati; a PhD in public Health Sciences, Epidemiology, Health Management and Policy from St. Louis University, and a Certificate in Global Health Practice from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She has pursued but not completed her Executive Master’s in Health Administration at St. Louis University.

Waruingi also staffed several hospitals while at St. Louis University. She has served as a neonatologist at Sheridan Healthcare, Lovelace Women’s Hospital in Albuquerque, New Mexico; a staff neonatologist at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center in Cincinnati, Ohio; and assistant professor at Indiana University, The Women’s Hospital, Newburgh, Indiana.

Board-certified in neonatology and pediatrics, she is the lead author or co-author of several articles published in professional journals. Her many academic awards and honors include the Hospital Medicine Travel Award from the American Academy of Pediatrics; and the Arnold P. Gold Award for Teaching and Clinical Excellence at Case Western Reserve University.