New faculty join UMMC academic ranks

Published on Monday, October 10, 2022

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

Dr. Mary Katherine Hood

Dr. Mary Katherine Hood, recently a pediatric hospital medicine fellow at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an assistant professor of pediatrics in the School of Medicine.

Hood, who is board-certified in pediatrics, earned her medical degree in 2017 at the School of Medicine at UMMC. She completed her pediatric residency at UTHSC, training at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital and St. Jude Children’s Hospital.

Her passion for incorporating preventive care and counseling into the inpatient setting has led to several research and quality improvement projects. As a researcher, Hood has served as a principal investigator or co-investigator on several projects at UTHSC and at UMMC and has published her research most recently in Hospital Pediatrics.

Hood has taken on various leadership roles for professional committees and interest groups. She is a member of several professional organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, AAP Section on Hospital Medicine, and the American College of Physicians.

As a researcher, Hood has served as a principal investigator or co-investigator on several projects at UTHSC and at UMMC, and has been an invited co-presenter at numerous professional conferences.

Hood has led several community service projects, providing health care and other services, including organizing and fundraising for a medical mission trip to Nicaragua. As a hospitalist at an academic institution, she looks forward to utilizing resident and patient education to improve longitudinal health for Mississippians. 

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Dr. Nathan Ross

Dr. Nathan Ross, recently a neuropsychology fellow at Methodist Rehabilitation Center in Jackson, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an assistant professor of neurology in the School of Medicine.

Ross received his Master of Science in clinical mental health counseling in 2015 from Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas, and his PhD in psychology with an emphasis in counseling from the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg.

He completed his neuropsychology internship in 2020 at the G.V. (Sonny) Montgomery VA Medical Center in Jackson. He also completed externships at Southern Behavioral Medicine Associates in Hattiesburg and at USM.

Ross has been published in professional journals as the co-author of articles on such topics as vocational psychology and student veteran career development.

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Dr. Laveena Singla

Dr. Laveena Singla, who recently completed a two-year fellowship in Epilepsy and Clinical Neurophysiology/EEG at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in Pennsylvania, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an assistant professor of neurology in the School of Medicine.

Singla received her MBBS in 2010 from Government Medical College, Patiala, India, where she also did a year of internship in the Department of Pediatric Surgery. She completed an internship in internal medicine and her residency in neurology at the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta before her fellowship at UPMC.

For more than three years, she served as medical officer for the State Government of Punjab, India.

Board-certified in neurology and clinical neurophysiology, Singla is a member of the American Academy of Neurology, American Epilepsy Society, and American Clinical Neurophysiology Society.

Singla, who has a number of presentations and abstract publications to her credit, lists her primary research interest as epilepsy, with special interests in epilepsy surgery, epilepsy in pregnancy, and more.