The Department of Pathology is pleased to announce some exciting changes to the leadership team of our department's residency programs. Effective January 1, 2025, current Associate Program Director, Rance Chadwick Siniard, M.D., Assistant Professor, Laboratory Medicine, will serve alongside Brandi McCleskey, M.D., Vice Chair for Education and current Residency Program Director, as Co-Program Director of the UAB Department of Pathology Residency Training Program. In the next academic year, effective July 1, 2025, Siniard will assume the role of Residency Program Director and McCleskey will serve as Associate Program Director.

Siniard has been an asset to the Department of Pathology since 2015 when he trained as a transfusion medicine fellow. Upon completion of two fellowships at UAB, Siniard joined the department as faculty in 2020. He began serving as Associate Program Director for Clinical Pathology Pathology in 2021. Later in the year, he was awarded the Shu T. Huang Award for Excellence.

"Siniard's teaching and mentorship expertise is extensive," said Cristina Magi-Galluzzi, M.D., Ph.D., Robert and Ruth Anderson Endowed Chair in Pathology. "In fact, his current research interests are focused on tracking and improving metrics associated with graduate medical education. We know he will be a wonderful fit for the UAB Pathology Residency Program."

McCleskey has served in the role of Residency Program Director since October 2020 when she worked alongside previous director James "Rob" Hackey, M.D. McCleskey joined UAB in 2012 as a resident in Anatomic and Clinical Pathology. She completed her fellowship in Forensic Pathology in 2016 at UAB and joined the Department of Pathology as an assistant professor in 2017. She was promoted to associate professor in 2022, received tenure this year, and was recently named Vice Chair for Education. In 2021, McCleskey received the Heersink School of Medicine Dean's Excellence Junior Award in Mentorship.