Career pivots lead SHRP Alumnus of the Year, Early Career Achievement awardees to UMMC

Dr. Lee Brown was used to a fixed daily routine when he stocked shelves in his previous profession – a life he once thought he’d keep for a lifetime. 

“I had a part-time job in retail that grew into full-time work, so I just continued with it without a degree,” said Brown, a Jasper, Alabama native whose education up to then consisted of a few semesters at a junior college. “At 21, I became the youngest store manager for the Hibbett chain of sporting goods stores.”

Brown, of Brandon, stayed in retail management until his late 30s, a time that had brought more than change in routines.

“With a wife and three-year-old child at home, the hours in retail got to be a bit too much,” he said. “A lot of people say this, but I had just a job and not a career. I was having something of a midlife crisis and needed something that I actually wanted. One of those things was a degree.” 

At 38, he made the switch to health care, due in part to his brother-in-law.

“He had completed the X-ray program when it was still housed at the Medical Center,” he said. “A big thing for me early on was when I found out you can do so many things with the X-ray certificate. You could go on to nuclear medicine – which is what I ended up doing – or you could go into medical sales, which is what he did. It opened up a lot of avenues besides just working in a hospital environment.”

Fifteen years later, Brown, title, is the 2026 School of Health Related Professions Alumnus of the Year.

SHRP recognized its 2026 alumni winners along with student and faculty award winners in a single ceremony Friday. Dr. Jay Garner, dean of SHRP, quoted poet and author Maya Angelou’s words about the beauty of butterflies and the changes they go through to achieve that beauty.

“The honors, the accomplishments, everything we get to celebrate today – that’s the butterfly,” Garner told students, faculty and others in attendance. “We don’t get to see the hard times, the struggles, the doubt. Today’s the day we get to celebrate our successes.” 

Brown credits the closeness of the department’s faculty for a whirlwind of events that has seen him merit some of the highest accolades a student and faculty member at SHRP can claim.

He completed a Bachelor of Science in radiologic sciences in 2013, then earned a post-graduate certificate in nuclear medicine technology a year later. Dr. Mark Gray, former radiologic sciences program chair, asked Brown to consider yet another life change – one he hadn’t dreamed of previously.

“He asked me if he wanted to teach – which is something I never envisioned myself doing,” he said. “At no point growing up did I ever think I wanted to be a teacher. I grew up wanting to actually fly planes and be a pilot.”

Initially, he said no. After all, he was in talks to take a job in nuclear medicine within the adult hospital.

“I’ll never forget he told me the nuclear medicine job will always be there, but this one won’t.

An early fear of public speaking gave way quickly to confidence in being a leader, thanks to his peers in the profession.

“The faculty was very welcoming and I felt secure with everyone around me,” he said. “They knew I didn’t know how to teach, but they had a degree of patience with me – always there to answer questions and always supportive. I watched how Dr. Gray did it, plus I was taught by Dr. Kristi Moore, now our department chair.”

Moore, who has now worked alongside Brown for 12 years, feels nothing but pride for Brown.

“His success is a direct reflection of his love of learning and his dedication to the profession,” Moore said. “He has a natural ability to take complex concepts and make them meaningful for students. And he puts in the time to truly master the material before stepping into the classroom.”

Brown added his formal master’s degree in 2016, in Health Informatics and Information Management, and earned a Doctor of Health Administration degree in 2020. He was selected as the Regions TEACH Prize Finalist in 2024 for SHRP and was named 2024 SHRP Teacher of the Year. He serves on the editorial review board for the American Society of Radiology Technologists and is a site visitor for the Joint Review Committee on Education Radiologic Technology.

Early Achievement Award

Forging a path to a health care career for Dr. Chelsey Stephens meant learning soft skills the hard way – by working with the public.

“I was very reserved and quiet as a child,” Stephens said. “Often, I’d hide behind my parents’ legs. After high school, I thought I wanted to be a teacher and not health care. Of course, all of that came full-circle later because I ended up doing both those things.”

Stephens, 36, a Morton native, started a general studies degree at Mississippi College before switching to health care with an associate of applied science at Hinds Community College. While at Hinds, she worked the counter at a McAlister’s Deli location in Brandon not just to make ends meet but to gain confidence interacting with others – including those who would later decide whether she was admitted into the Radiologic Sciences program at SHRP.

“Working that job helped me broaden the ability to talk with people daily,” Stephens said. “It gave me the confidence I needed to be sure radiologic sciences was what I wanted to do. To think later on I’d stand in front of a classroom and give a lecture – that was once way outside my personality.” 

Her Bachelor of Science in radiologic sciences and certificate in nuclear medicine technology led to work in both areas in Jackson hospitals, including UMMC. She returned to SHRP as full-time faculty in 2017 as an instructor in radiologic sciences and nuclear medicine technology.

The key skills she put to work was equal parts empathy and attention to fine detail.

“Working with patients was the best part of the job,” she said. “In nuclear medicine, the procedures can be anywhere from 30 minutes to four to five hours, which gave me a chance to connect with patients. Many times, I would see cancer patients who were fearful, especially when they heard the term ‘radiation.’ Sometimes, you have to take a minute and explain it in a way that eases a patient’s fears and helps them understand why we do what we do – to obtain an accurate diagnosis.”

She earned a Master of Science in health sciences in 2020 from UMMC, then a doctorate in education with an emphasis in higher education from the University of Mississippi in 2023.

In 2024 she was named director of assessment. She continues to teach courses in radiologic sciences and nuclear medicine technology.

She sees her current role as simply an outgrowth of teaching, but with a much broader scope.

“You pursue health care first and foremost to help people,” she said. “Then, in teaching, you help students take care of patients. For me, moving to academic affairs has been about learning more about the institution in order to make a larger difference.” 

Dr. Brittany Bush credits Stephens with passing along some of her quiet confidence.

“I owe so much of my own growth to Dr. Stephens,” said Bush, interim director and clinical coordinator in the Nuclear Medicine Technology program. “She guided my class success but also recognized my desire to teach before I fully voiced it to myself. I am now in the same role she once held, striving to support students the way she supported me.”