“Drs. Eary, Larrison, Morgan, and Zinn each bring unique experiences to the table. They have fresh ideas, creativity and a renewed enthusiasm. I'm really looking forward to the positive changes they will bring to Radiology,” said Cheri L. Canon, M.D., FACR, chair of the Department of Radiology.
Desiree E. Morgan, M.D.Desiree E. Morgan, M.D. is the newly appointed vice chair of Education and program director of the Diagnostic Radiology Residency Program. Since joining the faculty in 1993, Morgan has mentored numerous medical students, residents, and junior faculty in a variety of preclinical and clinical research endeavors. Additionally, she was the associate residency program Director from 1998 to 2001. Prior to being appointed the vice chair of education, Morgan served as the department’s vice chair of clinical research, where her duties centered on facilitating scholarly achievement and fostering collaborative research involving state of the art clinical imaging for physicians at all levels of training. She is a member of the Abdominal Imaging section and her clinical subspecialty focus in general is gastrointestinal radiology. Morgan has won numerous teaching awards including the School of Medicine Argus Awards, Outstanding Faculty Lecturer Medical Student Radiology Elective awards and Department of Radiology Teacher of the Year Distinguished Faculty Award. She is a 10-time recipient of the Top Ten Faculty Award for Excellence in Resident Education, and most recently she served as the Society of Abdominal Radiology Igor Laufer Traveling Professor, an honor reserved for outstanding physician educators.
Janet F. Eary, M.D.Janet F. Eary, M.D., is the vice chair of Clinical Research and director of the Advanced Imaging Facility. Eary is a molecular imaging specialist, with training in pathology and nuclear medicine. She has special interests in Positron Emission Tomography (PET), translational research in advanced imaging and experimental therapy. Although she has worked primarily with problems in cancer, she has participated extensively in studies in many other disciplines. Eary is an experienced principal investigator and collaborator in biomedical research, an academic clinician and career mentor to a number of individuals from many areas in biomedicine. Currently she has a focus in imaging with biologically specific PET imaging agents and assists other investigators with conduct of studies, supervising imaging and image analysis. 
Matthew C. Larrison, M.D.Matthew C. Larrison, M.D., is vice chair of Quality Control and Patient Safety. He completed his undergraduate training at Troy University in Troy, Alabama, followed by medical school at the UAB School of Medicine, where he also completed his residency training in diagnostic radiology. After completing his residency, Larrison pursued a one- year fellowship with Radiology Associates of Birmingham specializing in musculoskeletal imaging. Upon completion of his fellowship, he joined the musculoskeletal imaging section at UAB.Larrison served as the MSK Imaging Fellowship Director from 2009 until 2013 and also served as director of Radiology at UAB Highlands Hospital from September 2010 until June 2012. He has served as chief of the Musculoskeletal Imaging Section for the past five years.
Kurt R. Zinn, DVM, MS, Ph.D.Kurt R. Zinn, DVM, MS, Ph.D., is the vice chair of Translational Research. He completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Missouri-Columbia, followed by veterinary school and graduate school at UMC where he earned master’s degree in chemistry and doctorate in biochemistry. He joined the UAB faculty in 1995 after nine years at the UMC Research Reactor, where he developed methods for producing high specific activity radionuclides, including Cu-64.Zinn is director of both the Laboratory of Multimodality Imaging and the Small Animal Imaging Shared Facility. He has served as a member of the Radioisotope and Radiation Safety Committee since 1997 and as chair of the committee since 2008. Zinn serves as director of Radiology’s Division of Advanced Medical Imaging Research, formed in 2009 in recognition of the department’s expanding research enterprise. He is chair of the Cyclotron Task Force, a group providing oversight for developing new facilities and infrastructure for PET tracers. Dr. Zinn is a member of the UAB Graduate Faculty and provides research training for graduate students.
In his new role, Zinn will focus on expanding the research pipeline for molecular imaging, among other activities. He is actively developing molecular imaging approaches for cancer diagnosis and treatment monitoring, emphasizing research for translation to human clinical trials. Several trials have been completed while new phase I clinical studies are in progress based on his research efforts.