New faculty join UMMC academic ranks

Published on Monday, February 13, 2023

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

Dr. Xiaochen He

Dr. Xiaochen He, recently a post-doctoral fellow in physiology and biophysics at UMMC, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an instructor in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics in the School of Medicine.

Xiaochen, who earned his PhD in medical pharmacology at UMMC in 2017, has also been a researcher in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics and, then, a post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the Medical Center. He completed his Master of Science degree in biological sciences at Mississippi College in Clinton.

Xiaochen has received numerous honors and awards for academic achievement, scholarship and research. An ad hoc peer reviewer for a variety of national and international journals, he is a member of the American Heart Association, American Physiological Society, and Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi.

Xiaochen is the co-author of 30 professional publications and 20 abstracts. His current research is supported by the American Heart Association.

—  —  —

Dr. Sung-Ho Huh

Dr. Sung-Ho Huh, recently an assistant professor of neurological sciences at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an assistant professor otolaryngology-head and neck surgery in the School of Medicine.

Sung-Ho received his Master of Science degree from the Graduate School of Biotechnology at Korea University in Seoul before obtaining his PhD in 2009 from the Program in Molecular Cell Biology at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.

At Washington University, he did post-doctoral studies in the Department of Developmental Biology, where he also served as a research instructor. He has more than 20 years of teaching and mentoring experience.

Sung-Ho, who has received a number of scholarships and travel awards, has earned a variety of research grants and is the co-author of more than two dozen publications and manuscripts.

—  —  —

Dr. Arnita F. Norwood

Dr. Arnita F. Norwood, a principal investigator for the All of Us Research Program for the Jackson-Hinds Comprehensive Health Center in Jackson, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an assistant professor of medicine in the School of Medicine.

Norwood earned a Master of Public Health in international health at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and a Master of Public Health in nutrition at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill before completing her PhD in nutrition at UNC.

Norwood first joined the Medical Center in 2012 and served in various roles in the Jackson Heart Study; she continues working in the JHS.

Her professional experience includes work with the Mississippi Roadmap to Health Equity, the landmark Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study at UMMC, Jackson State University’s College of Public Service, the Hinds County Human Resource Agency, and the Department of Food Science, Nutrition and Health Promotion at Mississippi State University.

Norwood has engaged in a dietetics supervised practice at the Prospect Hill Community Health Center in North Carolina, UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill, and the High Point Regional Hospital in North Carolina.

The winner of several professional and academic awards and honors, she has made a variety of invited presentations and is the co-author of a number of peer-reviewed articles and referred conference abstracts. Norwood has served as co-investigator of numerous supported research projects, in addition to her current position with the All of Us Research Program.

She is a member of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, National Organization of Blacks in Dietetics and Nutrition, Mississippi Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, American Heart Association, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation New Connections Network, Network of Minority Health Research Investigators, and Diabetes Coalition of Mississippi.