New faculty join UMMC academic ranks

Published on Monday, August 7, 2023

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

Mckenzi Bynum

Mckenzi Bynum, who recently earned her Master of Science in Leadership at Belhaven University in Jackson, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an instructor in dental hygiene in the School of Dentistry. 

Bynum, who earned a Bachelor of Science in dental hygiene at UMMC, was employed for four years in Jackson-area dental practices beginning in 2019. At Southern Family Dental in Byram, she served as clinical team leader. 

A licensed dental hygienist, she is a member of the Mississippi Dental Hygienists’ Association and is licensed in Basic Life Support (CPR). Her community service is extensive and includes participating in efforts to provide free dental care to the underserved. 

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Lacey T. Gentry

Lacey T. Gentry, recently director of nursing instruction at Northwest Mississippi Community College in Senatobia, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an assistant professor of nursing and director of instruction in the School of Nursing.  

Gentry who will earn her Doctor of Nursing Practice from Samford University in Homewood, Alabama, in April 2024, received her Master of Science in Nursing from Mississippi University for Women in Columbus. 

For four years, she served as team coordinator/home care nurse at Baptist Memorial Home Care and Hospice in Mississippi and, for two years, as a family nurse practitioner at Ear, Nose, and Throat Consultants of North Mississippi. She joined the faculty of Northwest Mississippi Community College in 2000, serving as medical-surgical course coordinator for 10 years before becoming director of nursing instruction. 

Gentry received a governor’s appointment to the Mississippi Board of Nursing in 2021 and serves as an Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing Site Visitor.  

Her professional memberships cover the Nurse Leadership Institute, Mississippi Council of Associate Degree Nursing Program, Mississippi Council for Deans and Directors of Schools of Nursing Associate Degree Nursing Council, Mississippi Organization for Associate Degree Nursing, and Sigma Theta Tau. 

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Dr. Mrinal Shukla

Dr. Mrinal Shukla, recently an assistant professor of surgery and director of clinical quality at the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an associate professor of surgery-vascular in the School of Medicine.  

Shukla earned his medical degree at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, in 2011 before completing his residency in general surgery at Memorial University Medical Center at Mercer University in Savannah, Georgia.  

The winner of a number of academic and teaching honors, he also completed a fellowship in vascular surgery at the University of Vermont in Burlington, where he served as a clinical instructor before joining the Medical College of Georgia. 

In Augusta, Shukla also served as staff vascular surgeon at Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center and as associate program director of the general surgery residency program at the Medical College of Georgia. 

He has made more than 40 oral and poster presentations at national, regional and state-level meetings and is the co-author of more than a dozen publications in peer-reviewed journals and a book chapter.  

Shukla is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons and the Society of Vascular Surgery; he is a member and/or fellow of a variety of other scientific and professional societies.