New faculty join UMMC academic ranks
Medical Center leadership is proud to announce the following additions to its faculty and leadership staff.
Dr. Tesia Hall-Hill
Dr. Tesia Hall-Hill, recently a practitioner in the primary care adult medicine outpatient clinic for the Jackson-Hinds Comprehensive Health Center in Jackson, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an assistant professor of family medicine in the School of Medicine.
Board-certified in family medicine, she earned her Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine degree in 2002 from Des Moines University College of Osteopathic Medicine in Iowa and completed her family medicine residency at UMMC.
She has also served as a family physician at Central Jackson Family Medical Clinic, family physician and clinical director for the southwest Robinson Road location of Central Mississippi Health Services, and primary care physician for the VA Medical Center, all in Jackson.
She is a member of the American Academy of Family Physicians, American College of Osteopathic Family Physicians and Mississippi Academy of Family Physicians.
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Dr. Kristel Holmblad
Dr. Kristel Holmblad, recently an associate professor in pediatric pulmonology at Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Springdale and Little Rock, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an assistant professor of pediatrics-pulmonary in the School of Medicine.
Holmblad earned the Master Public Health from St. George’s University in Grenada, West Indies, before receiving her medical degree there in 2009. After completing her residency at SUNY Upstate Medical University, she completed fellowship training at Nemours A.I. duPont Hospital for Children in the Department of Pediatrics’ Division of Pulmonology.
She has also served as a primary care pediatrician at the Onondaga Nation Clinic in Syracuse, New York; Valley Regional Hospital, Pediatric Associates in Claremont, New Hampshire; Eastside HealthPoint in Redmond, Washington; and Confluence Health Wenatchee Valley Medical Center in Moses Lake, Washington. She served as a pediatric pulmonologist at Valley Children’s Hospital in Madera, California.
Holmblad is a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Thoracic Society.
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Molly Smeltzer
Molly Smeltzer, a speech-language pathologist recently serving patients with head and neck cancer at the Cleveland Clinic Main Campus in Cleveland, Ohio, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an instructor of otolaryngology-head and neck surgery in the School of Medicine.
Smeltzer earned her Masters of Science in Communication Disorders from the University of Texas at Dallas in 2020. Following this, she completed a clinical fellowship in acute care at the Cleveland Clinic.
A member of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association with research experience, Smeltzer has a number of professional presentations and lectures to her credit. She is a recipient of the ASHA ACE Award in recognition of her commitment to lifelong learning.