New faculty join UMMC academic ranks

Published on Tuesday, May 30, 2023

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

Dr. Mauda Monger

Dr. Mauda L. Monger, recently COO of My Brother’s Keeper Inc., has joined the Medical Center faculty as an assistant professor of population health science in the School of Population Health.

Monger earned her Master of Public Health in health policy and management at Jackson State University in 2007, and her Doctorate of Philosophy in urban higher education leadership at JSU in 2019.

Her previous roles include project manager/coordinator in the Office of Communicable Diseases-HIV/AIDS Surveillance Branch for the Mississippi State Department of Health; project/grant manager in the Division of Infectious Disease at UMMC; director of health education for the Mississippi AIDS Education Training Center (AETC) in the Division of Infectious Diseases at UMMC; and fellow advisor in the Center for Health Equity Research at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.

In 2019, she joined My Brother’s Keeper, a nationwide community-based organization committed to eliminating health disparities in minority communities.

During her previous time at UMMC, she secured more than $2.5 million for the AETC and served as a member of the Institutional Climate Committee. She also organized and planned the Office of National AIDS Policy’s Southern Summit for Mississippi and secured funds to plan and organize a statewide HIV peer navigator program.

Monger has made a variety of invited lectures and presentations and is the co-author of numerous abstracts and professional publications. She is a member of professional organizations that include the Mississippi Public Health Association and the Mississippi HIV/AIDS Care and Services Planning Council. She is also a reviewer for the Journal of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care.

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Dr. Gopinath Perumal

Dr. Gopinath Perumal, recently a clinical instructor in pediatric cardiothoracic surgery at Texas Children’s Hospital, Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an assistant professor of surgery-pediatric and congenital heart in the School of Medicine.

Perumal earned his MBBS (MD equivalent) at Coimbatore Medical College in Coimbatore, India, in 2005. He also completed a residency in general surgery at Calicut Medical College in Kozhikode, Kerala, India, followed by a cardiothoracic surgery residency at Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute of Medical Sciences and Technology in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India. He has completed fellowships in congenital heart surgery at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead in Sydney, Australia; and at Queensland Children’s Hospital in Brisbane, Australia.

Perumal has held numerous other surgeon’s, faculty and administrative roles, or completed advanced fellowships at such institutions as Railway Hospital and Aster MIMS in India; the Prince Charles Hospital and University of Queensland in Brisbane; the Children’s Hospital at Westmead; and the University of California, San Francisco; covering the entire spectrum of congenital heart surgery including neonates, adult congenital heart disease, pediatric VAD implantation and heart transplantation.

A Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh, Scotland, Perumal is the coauthor of several research publications.

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Dr. Rodney Rocconi

Dr. Rodney Rocconi, who recently served dual roles in a partnership between the University at Alabama at Birmingham and Infirmary Cancer Care (ICC) in Mobile, Alabama, has joined the Medical Center faculty as director of the UMMC Cancer Center and Research Institute.

After receiving his undergraduate degree from the University of Mississippi, he received his medical degree from UAB, where he also completed his residency in obstetrics and gynecology and a fellowship in gynecologic oncology.

He started his medical career at the University of South Alabama Mitchell Cancer Institute in Mobile, where over a 15-year span, he held a variety of leadership appointments including chief of gynecologic oncology, associate director of clinical trials, Elsie Cole Chair of Oncology Research and interim director of the Mitchell Cancer Institute.

He was most recently the associate director of ICC, director of research at ICC and professor of gynecologic oncology at UAB, where he was also senior scientist at both the Center for Clinical & Translational Science and Center for Women’s Reproductive Health.

Rocconi, whose major research interests include overcoming racial inequities in gynecologic cancers, has made significant contributions to the body of knowledge in cancer research. He holds eight patents on the detection and treatment of cancers. During his 16 years as a medical center researcher, instructor and practitioner, his research program has been supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health/National Cancer Institute, U.S. Department of Defense, Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute and foundation grants, for more than $6 million in external funding.

Rocconi has served as principal investigator on 70 clinical trials and published more than 117 manuscripts, with several more pending. He also has held numerous national leadership roles in oncology professional societies such as the American Society of Clinical Oncology and Society of Gynecologic Oncology.