Hand Fellowship Faculty

William B. Geissler, MD
Professor
Director, Fellowship Program

Dr. Geissler received his MD degree from Tulane University Medical School in New Orleans, LA in 1985. From there, he completed his internship and orthopaedic surgery residency at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. During that period, Dr. Geissler completed AO Trauma Fellowship in Aura, Switzerland concentrating on upper extremity.

Dr. Geissler then completed a one-year fellowship in Advanced Arthroscopy in Sports Medicine in Richmond, VA. He then returned to the University of Mississippi Medical Center and completed a second one-year fellowship in Hand and Upper Extremity Surgery.

Dr. Geissler has severed as faculty, moderator, and chairman in multiple arthroscopic and upper extremity courses both throughout the country as well as internationally. He has four published textbooks, three on advanced wrist surgery and one on athletic injuries to the upper extremity.

Dr. Geissler is the Alan E. Freeland Chairman of Hand Surgery, Professor and Chief of the Division of Hand and Upper Extremity Surgery in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and Rehabilitation at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. In addition, he serves as Chief of the Section of Arthroscopic Surgery and Sports Medicine for the department. Dr. Geissler is the Program Director for the Hand and Upper Extremity Fellowship for the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery.

Dr. Geissler joined the department of orthopaedic surgery at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in 1992 specializing in shoulder and elbow surgery, hand surgery and advanced arthroscopic surgery. His particular interests include upper extremity joint replacement, upper extremity trauma reconstruction, and arthroscopic surgery.

Mark A. Dodson, MD
Assistant Professor

Dr. Mark A. Dodson, recently a partner at Mid State Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Center in the Alexandria, Louisiana, area for 27 years, joined the Medical Center faculty in 2023 as an assistant professor of orthopaedic surgery in the School of Medicine.

Dodson earned his medical degree in 1990 at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis. He completed a residency in orthopaedic surgery at the Alton Ochsner Medical Foundation, and a hand and upper extremity surgery fellowship In the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and Rehabilitation at UMMC.

Board-certified in orthopaedic surgery, Dodson has also served in the U.S. Army Medical Corps, and as a clinical assistant professor at the Tulane University Department of Orthopaedic Surgery in New Orleans.

He has held several leadership positions in the Louisiana Orthopaedic Association and is a member of several other professional organizations, including the American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons, American Society for Surgery of the Hand, and American Foundation for Surgery of the Hand.

Dodson has participated in a number of professional presentations and is involved in several research projects. He has been awarded a patent for a modular distal radius retractor and related method.