New faculty join UMMC academic ranks

Published on Monday, March 20, 2023

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

Dr. Thiru Veveka Chinnadurai

Dr. Thiru Chinnadurai, who recently completed a fellowship in cardiovascular disease at Montefiore Medical Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an assistant professor of medicine-cardiology in the School of Medicine.

Chinnadurai earned his medical degree at the National University of Malaysia and served in the hospitals of the Ministry of Health, Malaysia. He has completed postgraduate internal medicine training through the Membership of the Royal College of Physicians of the United Kingdom.

In the United States, he has completed an internal medicine residency at Harlem Hospital Center in New York and a clinical research fellowship in heart failure at Montefiore Medical Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York.

Chinnadurai is board-certified in internal medicine and cardiovascular disease. He has co-authored of a number of peer-reviewed publications in the field of advanced heart failure, mechanical circulatory devices and cardiac transplantation. He treats all general cardiac conditions and is passionate about clinical research with a focus on improving cardiac outcomes within the local community.

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Emma Grace Olsen

Emma Grace Olsen, recently a speech-language pathologist at Manhattan Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Jackson, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an instructor of otolaryngology-head and neck surgery in the School of Medicine.

Olsen earned a BS in speech-language pathology at Mississippi University for Women in Columbus before completing her Master of Science in speech-language pathology in 2022 at MUW where she graduated summa cum laude and was named winner of the Joy R. Townsend Outstanding Graduate Student Award.

She has also served as a graduate student clinician at UMMC and at MUW.

Olsen, who has served as a presenter at a conference of the Mississippi Speech-Language-Hearing Association, has earned certification in a number of skills, including synchrony dysphagia solutions and Lee Silverman Voice Treatment LOUD, a research-based approach to improving the speech of people with Parkinson’s disease.

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Dr. Corbin A. Shields

Dr. Corbin A. Shields, recently a post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Emergency Medicine at UMMC, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an instructor of pharmacology/toxicology in the School of Medicine.

Shields earned his PhD in experimental therapeutics and pharmacology in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology at UMMC in 2021 after graduating with a degree in cellular and molecular biology from Belhaven University in Jackson.

His professional skills cover such areas as flow cytometry, fluorescent microscopy, and histology and renal pathological analysis. He is the co-author of a number of professional publications.

Shields has served frequently as a teacher and mentor to young students, and has been involved in community service for several years in the Jackson area.