Recently, the Department of Surgery named four professors to newly established professorships as well as one professor to a newly established chair. The below professorships and chairs are listed in alphabetical order of the holding faculty member.
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James P. Hayes, Jr. Endowed Professorship in Gastrointestinal Oncology
Associate Professor and Director of the Division of Surgical Oncology Vikas Dudeja, M.D., is the holder of the James P. Hayes, Jr. Endowed Professorship in Gastrointestinal Oncology.Dudeja has spent the last 14 years evaluating the pathobiology of pancreatic cancer and devising strategies to address its progression and metastases. He is an expert in the immune and stromal biology of pancreatic and other hepatobiliary malignancies.
His research has been supported by grant funding from the NIH, Department of Defense, VA Merit Program, and society foundations including the Society of Surgical Oncology and National Pancreas Foundation.
The professorship namesake, James Hayes, was an integral part of the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center at UAB and passed away in 2008 after a courageous battle against colon cancer. Hayes joined the Cancer Center Supporters Board in 1988 and was president from 1994 to 1996. Hayes passionately encouraged others to become involved and contribute to advance scientific understanding of the disease.
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Brigham Family Endowed Professorship in Trauma and Acute Care Surgery
The new Brigham Family Endowed Professorship in Trauma and Acute Care Surgery is held by Professor and Director of the Division of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery Jeff Kerby, M.D., Ph.D.Kerby completed his surgical residency in general surgery as well as his postdoctoral research at UAB. Following surgical training, Dr. Kerby served in the United States Air Force as an active duty surgeon until 2003, deploying as a combat trauma surgeon in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in 2002.
Kerby returned to UAB in 2003. Since his return, he has served as a clinically active trauma and acute care surgeon and was the chief of general surgery at the Birmingham VA Medical Center from 2009 through 2014, prior to assuming current leadership role. He has established military-civilian partnerships between UAB and the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Army.
Kerby’s clinical interests include trauma, critical care, and emergency general surgery. He has been continuously extramurally funded, primarily through NIH and DoD sources, since 2004. He has a strong history of trauma research, particularly in the area of large-scale clinical trials for trauma.
The professorship namesake, The Brigham Family, has made substantial philanthropic contributions to the field of surgery and the growth of the Department of Surgery at UAB. In 2018, Tommy Brigham, president and CEO of ARK Real Estate Strategies, was named a 2018 Honorary Alumni by UAB, and he is a current member of the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center at UAB Advisory Board. He is also a member of the UAB Athletics Campaign Committee and played a key role in bringing back UAB Football in the fall of 2017, as well as serving as vice president of the UAB Athletic Foundation and a member of the Foundation's Executive Committee.
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Arnold G. Diethelm Endowed Chair in Transplantation Surgery
Mark H. Deierhoi Endowed Professor in Surgery Jayme Locke, M.D., MPH, has been named the Arnold G. Diethelm Endowed Chair in Transplantation Surgery. Locke also serves as the director of the UAB Comprehensive Transplant Institute (CTI) as well as the director of the Division of Transplantation.Locke is an abdominal transplant surgeon who specializes in innovative strategies for the transplantation of incompatible organs, disparities in access to and outcomes after solid organ transplantation, and transplantation of HIV-infected end-stage patients. Her research interests include complex statistical analysis and modeling of transplant outcomes and behavioral research focused on health disparities.
Locke is the recipient of numerous honors, including Society of Transplantation Clinical Science Investigator Award 2020, Association for Clinical & Translational Science (ACTS) Distinguished Investigator Award: Translation into Public Benefit and Policy 2018, the Birmingham Business Journal’s Top 40 under 40 Award 2015, and was named one of AL.com’s 2015 Women Who Shape the State. She has received more than $10.5 million in R01 funding over the last four years.
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Vera Hauptfeld-Dolejsek, Ph.D., Endowed Professorship in Transplant Immunology
Associate Professor of Surgery Paige Porrett, M.D., Ph.D., now holds the Vera Hauptfeld-Dolejsek, Ph.D., Endowed Professorship in Transplant Immunology.Porrett is currently the co-director of the Pre-College Research Internship for Students from Minority Backgrounds (PRISM) program and the director of Vascular Composite Allograft Transplantation as well as Clinical and Translational Research in the UAB CTI.
Porrett’s NIH-funded immunology laboratory studies maternal immune cell fate and function during pregnancy in both human and animal models. She is a national and international leader in the field of uterus transplantation and started the first uterus transplant program in the southeast at UAB.
Professor Hauptfeld-Dolejsek joined UAB in 2005 and is the director and clinical consultant of the CTI’s Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics Laboratory. She has authored more than 60 articles in peer-reviewed journals.
As a director of the UAB Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics Laboratory, she brought her knowledge to improve the laboratory’s support and services for solid organ and bone marrow transplant programs at UAB, the Veterans Affairs Hospital and Children’s Hospital of Alabama.
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Mark H. Deierhoi, M.D., Endowed Professorship
Professor Carlton Young, M.D., is the second holder of the Mark H. Deierhoi, M.D., Endowed Professorship. Director of the Division of Transplantation and the CTI Jayme Locke, M.D., MPH, held the professorship as well.Young is the director of Kidney Transplantation at the Birmingham Veterans Affairs Hospital as well as the director of Pediatric Renal Transplantation at Children’s of Alabama. He is also the assistant dean for Medical Student Diversity and Inclusion. He has mentored numerous fellows, surgical residents, medical students, and undergraduate students.
Young’s interests include defining and addressing disparity in access to care as well as outcomes seen among minority populations. His clinical research focuses on kidney and pancreas transplant recipients. He is also involved in research pertaining to under-represented minorities in medicine, their access to and retention in medical school. Lastly, he has active clinical research pertaining to vascular access outcomes.
Deierhoi joined the faculty at UAB in 1986 and was instrumental in the rich history of transplantation at UAB and the state of Alabama. Deierhoi primarily served in the kidney transplant program where he performed roughly 2,500 kidney transplants at UAB over the course of his 34-year career. He has left an indelible mark on practitioners, surgeons, transplanters, trainees and patients across the globe.
“Each of these professors is so deserving of their new titles,” said Herb Chen, M.D., FACS, Fay Fletcher Kerner Endowed Chair of the Department of Surgery. “These professorships and chair were established in honor of their namesakes–those surgeons who have made a great impact in their field, at our institution, and across the globe. I know each of these individuals who now holds a professorship or chair, will continue to carry out these established legacies.”
The department thanks the generosity of the namesake professorships and chairs, which will assist UAB in recruiting faculty to further expand the department’s clinical, educational, and research efforts. These gifts will have an enduring effect on the lives of the many patients who will benefit from the clinical services and discoveries that will be made at UAB.