News
Early in her undergraduate years of college, Elena Shelepak had several career paths in mind. She was good at biology and curious about genetics. During freshman year, she took a few psychology courses. Criminal justice also piqued her interest.
The University of Kentucky College of Medicine is excited to announce the appointment of faculty members Sarah Marks, MD, MA, and Jordan Clay, MD, to serve on its committees. The electeds have been endorsed by the College of Medicine acting dean and Faculty Council. They will serve three-year terms on their respective committees.
Dr. Marks has been appointed to the College of Medicine Admissions Committee. Dr. Clay has been appointed to the College of Medicine Medical Student Curriculum Committee.
The UK College of Medicine Office of Faculty Affairs and Development is pleased to announce that Caryn Sorge, MD, and Rachèle Yadon, MD, have been selected as fellows for the 2022 Bluegrass Higher Education Consortium Academic Leadership Academy (BHEC-ALA).
The University of Kentucky College of Medicine is pleased to announce the faculty, staff, and learner winners of the inaugural Mission, Vision, Pillar, and Enabler Awards.
A new division has been established in the UK College of Medicine Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology to improve the coordination of care in labor and delivery.
Assistant professor Andrea Tucker, MD, collaborated with department chair Wendy Hansen, MD, knowing that laborist services would be crucial for ensuring safe, quality care for patients and enhanced mentorship for future physicians.
Dr. Tucker spearheaded efforts to create a laborist division, which was officially established in July 2021.
Graduates say the online certificate program is “1,000-percent worth doing.”
Cathryn Benson, APRN, has worked 13 years in health care, most recently in hospital medicine and anesthesia. She wanted to learn how she could further help her patients with nutrition, but as a mom who worked 14-hour days, she never thought additional schooling would be an option.
Then she heard about an online program offering flexible scheduling and a well-rounded nutrition-related curriculum – that was also, conveniently, run on the University of Kentucky’s campus.
As a former college basketball player, March has always been exciting for Rachel Potter. This year, as she prepares to graduate from the University of Kentucky College of Medicine, the month holds even more significance.
Instead of March Madness, Potter’s focus is on Match Day, an annual celebration recognizing medical students across the country as they simultaneously learn which residency program they “matched into” and will pursue.
Potter is excited to reach this pivotal career milestone, which she compares to college basketball’s Selection Sunday.
Housed in the UK College of Medicine Department of Toxicology and Cancer Biology is a new professional master’s degree program that is the only one of its kind in the state of Kentucky, and the fifth of its kind in the country.
And due to its unique educational experience and strong curriculum, this new program is seeing a jump in its number of students.
Sylvia Ofei, MD, MPH, is an assistant professor of pediatrics and a gastroenterologist in the division of gastroenterology, hepatology, and nutrition. She also serves as the medical director for patient experience at Kentucky Children’s Hospital. For National Nutrition Month in March, Dr. Ofei shares more about the important role nutrition plays in her practice, as well as some helpful tips for incorporating nutrition into your daily routine.
Q: How does nutrition play a part in your job as a physician?
Kimberly Kaiser, MD, is an associate professor of orthopaedic surgery and sports medicine and family and community medicine at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine. She is also one of the physicians who provides care for the UK women’s basketball team. In the following Q&A, she shares more about her clinical expertise, her passion for sports medicine, and why her experience with UK Athletics has been so rewarding.
Q: As a team physician, what are your roles with the basketball team?
Whether it was pediatric neurology, pediatric surgery, or pediatric emergency medicine, Lily Weddle, MD, found a recurring theme in the clinical rotations she enjoyed most during medical school – they allowed her to help children. It became obvious to her that for residency, pediatrics was her ultimate specialty.
Driven by her strong faith, Dr. Weddle says it is her calling to be there for children in their ultimate time of need. Today, she has found a way to answer that call, both during and outside of work.
Urim Geleta is only into her senior year of her undergraduate degree, yet she has already played a key role in neuroscience research at UK.
Frédérique Yiannikouris, PhD, is an assistant professor of pharmacology and nutritional sciences and serves as a member of the nutritional sciences curriculum committee in the department. She has co-organized the University of Kentucky’s Healthy Hearts for Women (HHW) Symposium since its beginning in 2015. She is also actively involved in Women in Medicine and Science (WIMS) as a co-chair in memberships and nomination subcommittee, member of the executive committee, and participant in the mentoring program.
Q: What are your current research interests?
Josie (Jodi) Llanora is a third-year medical student at the UK College of Medicine-Lexington Campus. In the following Q&A, she shares her inspiration for pursuing medical school and how involvement in organizations at the college has fueled her passion for medicine.
Q: Where are you in your medical training?
Q: What do you hope to accomplish with an education at the College of Medicine?
When Elizabeth Rhodus, PhD, was 16 years old, she suffered a near-fatal car accident, which left her with significant injuries that included fractures around her eye socket. Dr. Rhodus had already struggled with eye muscle problems that this accident only exacerbated.
The rural Kentucky native was admitted to UK HealthCare and along her journey, was treated by an ophthalmologist who not only provided her with exceptional care, but who also became an influential figure in her own path to a career in academic medicine.
Since he was a graduate student, Patrick Hannon, PhD, has had his eyes set on a prestigious National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant that he knew, if he received it, would enable him to make a tremendous impact in his career goal of advancing reproductive care for women.
Dr. Hannon, now an assistant professor in the UK College of Medicine Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, was elated to find out that this winter, he achieved his longtime goal.
Anna Cox was a couple of years out of college in 2018, a mathematical economics graduate from the University of Kentucky who had just landed a job as a logistics broker, when a moment of tear-inducing pain sent her to the emergency room.
UK HealthCare physicians and staff delivered her with some alarming news – her pain might be caused by cancer.
“Wait, I’m never sick,” Cox thought in disbelief. She was 23 years old without any known health issues and the whole world ahead of her. She didn’t even have a primary care physician. Quite frankly, she didn’t know what to do next.
Martha Sim, MD, a graduate student at the College of Medicine, knew it was possible she would witness a pandemic in her lifetime, but she did not expect it to happen so early in her research career. Yet in 2020, COVID-19 spread rapidly across the globe.
Lindsay Ragsdale, MD, FAAP, FAAHPM, is an associate professor of pediatrics at the UK College of Medicine. For UK HealthCare, she is division chief of pediatric palliative care, program officer for provider experience, and was recently named interim chief medical officer at Kentucky Children’s Hospital (KCH).
In this Q&A, she shares her experience working with her team to build a successful pediatric vaccine clinic at UK, why she feels so connected to Kentucky, and what she cherishes about being a physician and educator.