New faculty join UMMC academic ranks

Published on Monday, July 17, 2023

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

Dr. Derrick Burgess

Dr. Derrick Burgess, recently the sports medicine and sports performance medical director at South Central Orthopaedics in Laurel, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an assistant professor of orthopaedic surgery in the School of Medicine.

A board-certified orthopaedic surgeon specializing in sports medicine, Burgess practiced in Laurel for nine years, serving there as chair of the Department of Surgery and medical staff president at South Central Regional Medical Center. 

He earned his medical degree at Howard University College of Medicine in Washington, D.C., in 2006 and completed his residency in orthopaedic surgery at the university’s hospital. Burgess, who was recognized with several academic honors,  also completed a fellowship at Cincinnati SportsMedicine and Orthopaedic Center in Ohio.

He has also served as an assistant team physician for the NFL’s Cincinnati Bengals; chair of the Department of Surgery and medical staff president at South Central Regional Medical Center in Laurel; head orthopaedic surgeon and team physician for Jackson State University; team physician for several high schools; and adjunct faculty member at UMMC.

A member of several professional organizations, Burgess has made a number of research presentations at regional and national level professional conferences, including the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons Meeting.

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Dr. Ji Li

Dr. Ji Li, recently a professor of surgery in the Morsani College of Medicine at the University of South Florida in Tampa, has joined the Medical Center faculty as a professor of physiology and biophysics in the School of Medicine.

He has also joined the Mississippi Center for Heart Research at UMMC as co-director.

In China, Li earned his PhD in cell biology at Lanzhou University and did postdoctoral studies in molecular medicine at Sichuan University. He was a visiting fellow at the National Institute on Aging-National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, and was a postdoctoral scholar in physiology at Yale University.

His many professional appointments include director of the Center for Cardiovascular Research and Alternative Medicine at the University of Wyoming, where he also served as an assistant professor in the Division of Pharmaceutical Sciences; associate director of the Mississippi Center for Heart Research at UMMC, where he also served as an associate professor of physiology and biophysics, from 2015 to 2019; and assistant professor of pharmacology and toxicology in the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University of Buffalo-SUNY in New York.

Li’s grant/fellowship support is extensive; he has received several awards in excess of $1 million and he has been recognized with numerous honors for his research achievements.

The co-author of more than 100 peer-reviewed publications and three book chapters, he has also co-authored two dozen invited peer reviews. He has been part of more than 130 conference presentations and published abstracts, and has made numerous invited presentations at national conferences and seminars, as well as at  educational institutions.

Li serves as editor or editorial board member for a variety of professional journals, as well as a reviewer, and on several grant review panels.

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Dr. Laura “Lollie” Vaughan-Robinson

Dr. Laura “Lollie” Vaughan-Robinson, recently an associate professor in the Department of Communicative Disorders at Jackson State University and a PRN speech-language pathologist at UMMC, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an associate professor of otolaryngology-head and neck surgery in the School of Medicine.

She earned her Master of Science, majoring in communication sciences and disorders, at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth in 1998; and her PhD in Hearing, Speech and Language Sciences at Ohio University in Athens in 2005.

Certified in clinical competence in speech-language pathology, Vaughan-Robinson also served at one time as graduate program director in the Department of Communicative Disorders at JSU, among other roles there. Previously, she was also an adjunct professor at Mississippi University for Women; the University of Alabama; and the University of Mississippi, where she also served for a time as an assistant professor of communicative disorders.

She has also served as a PRN speech-language pathologist at Restore Therapy Services, and as a speech-language pathologist at Bowie Speech & Hearing Inc. in Fort Worth.

Vaughan-Robinson has a variety of professional publications, presentations and invited speaking engagements to her credit. Her areas of interest are neurogenic communication disorders and dysphagia in the geriatric population, health literacy, and accessibility.