Dr. William C. Little, a nationally recognized cardiologist with research interest in cardiac function, joined the University of Mississippi School of Medicine as professor and chair of the Department of Medicine.
Little earned his B.A. in physics at Oberlin College in Ohio, and his M.D. from Ohio State University College of Medicine. He completed an internal medicine residency at the University of Virginia Hospital, followed by a cardiology fellowship at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
He is board certified in internal medicine, cardiovascular disease and interventional cardiology.
Following faculty positions at UAB and the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, in 1986 he moved to Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. There he served as the McMichael Professor and Chief of Cardiology, vice chair of the Department of Internal Medicine, and vice chair and head of the finance committee of Wake Forest University Physicians. In addition, he served as the director of the Heart Center, associate chief of professional service, and member of the North Carolina Baptist Hospital Board of Trustees.
Little’s research has been National Institutes of Health funded since 1985 and has resulted in 250 peer-reviewed publications. His contributions have been recognized by election to the American Society of Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians, as well as the Lamport Award for Cardiovascular Research from the American Physiological Society, the Harrison Award of the Southern Society for Clinical Investigation, and the 2010 Laennec Master Clinician Award of the American Heart Association.
Little is the chair of the Cardiovascular Disease Board and member of the Board of Directors of the American Board of Internal Medicine and serves on the steering committee of several international clinical trials.
He succeeds Dr. Shirley Schlessinger, who served as interim chair of the department the past three years.