Representatives of multiple schools, departments acclaimed
Published on Monday, March 31, 2025
By: Gary Pettus, gpettus@umc.edu
Medical Center faculty and staff often are recognized regionally, nationally and internationally for their academic or medical achievements. These accolades place UMMC among health science centers worldwide.
Garner, Parekh collect MAS honors
A Medical Center faculty member, Dr. Angelia “Angie” D. Garner, and a UMMC graduate student, Amisha Parekh, were honored during the annual meeting of the Mississippi Academy of Sciences, March 20-21 in Biloxi.
Garner, professor of dental hygiene in the School of Dentistry, received the 2025 Peeler Dudley Award for her contributions to the academy.
Parekh, a fourth-year student in the School of Graduate Studies in the Health Sciences, won first place in the Three-Minute Thesis student research competition of the Mississippi IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence.
As a Peeler Dudley Award recipient, Garner has demonstrated a strong commitment to service and leadership within the organization, as stated on the MAS website.
The award is named in honor of the late UMMC professor emeritus of neurosurgery and director of the department’s research laboratory, who served as the MAS executive director for several years.
“I am truly honored,” Garner said. “The Mississippi Academy of Sciences has so many wonderful and talented researchers and clinicians who are members and who give countless hours of their time and effort.
“It’s a place where not only those from Mississippi’s major institutions gather to share their research but also others from industry and institutions such as Harvard and Stanford. It is a joy to see the students presenting their projects with such enthusiasm and pride.
“They are the reason most of us come back year after year, because they are our future clinicians and researchers.”
Garner is the president-elect of MAS and has served the academy in other leadership roles. At UMMC, she earned her MS in clinical health sciences in 2008 and her PhD in clinical health sciences in 2014.
At the MAS meeting, Parekh presented her dissertation research, which was conducted under the guidance of Dr. Michael Roach, professor of biomedical materials science in the UMMC School of Dentistry.
“It is an impressive feat to efficiently communicate your research idea to a wide audience consisting of clinical and basic science research faculty in only three minutes,” Roach said, referring to Parekh’s INBRE presentation.
“Amisha is quickly emerging as an independent young investigator with excellent communication skills. We look forward to her bright future. It has been an honor to serve as her research mentor within our Biomedical Materials Science PhD program.”
As described on its website, INBRE is a network of colleges and universities whose mission is to engage researchers and students in biomedical research projects that will increase the state’s research competitiveness, while also making an impact on the health of its citizens.
“Communicating science with simplicity is just as important as conducting it,” Parekh said. “I’m honored to share my research with a broader audience and grateful for the opportunity to represent the incredible work being done at UMMC.
“A heartfelt thank-you to my mentor, Dr. Michael Roach, whose guidance has been instrumental throughout my journey.”
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McDaniel attains AAAS fellow status
Dr. Larry S. McDaniel, UMMC professor of cell and molecular biology, has been elected to the rank of fellow by the Council of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
AAAS fellows are chosen based on their “efforts on behalf of the advancement of science, or its applications, are scientifically or socially distinguished,” the organization states.
McDaniel, who is also director of the Center for Immunology and Microbial Research at UMMC, is being honored for his contributions to the fields of microbial pathogenesis and immunology.
“It is an exceptional honor to be recognized by colleagues for establishing that immunity to the pneumococcus could be elicited by proteins and not only by the capsular polysaccharide,” McDaniel said.
McDaniel earned his MS in microbiology in 1978 at what is now the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, and his PhD in microbiology at the University of Oklahoma in 1981.
He has also held other academic appointments at UMMC, including chair of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, as well as positions at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
McDaniel has served as president of the Mississippi Academy of Sciences. A founding editor of mBio, he has served as editor, reviewer or member of the publication committee for a number of other professional journals and as a member of a variety of other scientific organizations. He is the holder of several U.S. patents.
The coauthor of several book chapters, he has an extensive list of research publications and presentations to his credit.
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Monger earns award named for Fannie Lou Hamer
Dr. Mauda Monger, UMMC assistant professor of population health science, received the Fannie Lou Hamer Community Organizer Award from the city of Jackson during the recent 2025 Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. Life and Legacy Celebration.
The award is named in honor of Fannie Lou Hamer, an African American civil rights activist and Mississippi native who led voting drives and co-founded the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party in the 1960s.
“I am deeply grateful for the privilege of being recognized alongside the legacies of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Fannie Lou Hamer; it is nothing short of a divine blessing,” Monger said.
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.
She is the founder and CEO of the SHE Project, an organization focused on empowering women and girls in marginalized communities.
She has also served as 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 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.
She currently serves as the director for the Center for HIV Research, Education and Policy in the Myrlie Evers-Williams Institute for the Elimination of Health Disparities.
Monger is also the recipient of the 2023 Changemaker of the Year Award from the Mississippi Center for Justice, and the 2023 John Dixon Community Service Award from the Jackson branch of the NAACP.