People: Faculty News


Tennessee to the World, Graduates Head to Armed Forces

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Emily McCulley grew up in Memphis, about as far from a coastal naval base as you can get. Then she enrolled in medical school and started asking a different kind of question. “I kind of wanted more out of life,” she says. “Adventure.” This spring, Emily McCulley, MD, crossed the commencement stage at the University… Read More


Chattanooga Native Dr. Benjamin C. Smith Named Chair of Emergency Medicine

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Headshot of Dr. Benjamin Smith

The University of Tennessee Health Sciences College of Medicine – Chattanooga has named Benjamin C. Smith, MD, chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine. Dr. Smith steps into the role after serving as interim chair of the department since January 2025. Dr. Smith has played a key role in training future emergency physicians since the… Read More


PA Students Put Tennessee First

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UT Health Sciences PA students pose for a group photo with Chancellor Peter Buckley in front of the Capitol Building.

A new generation of Physician Assistants trained at UT Health Sciences are heading toward the communities that need them most. The bus pulled out of Memphis before sunrise. A few students dozed in the early dark, heads tilted toward windows as the highway unspooled west to east. In the quiet, a voice carried from the front.  “What are you doing?”  Another student… Read More


Rooted in Tennessee: Pediatric Surgeon Brings a Lifetime of Commitment to Chattanooga Community

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Dr. Dave Battacharya sits in a room with medical equipment.

For S. Dave Bhattacharya, MD, medicine was never a distant goal. It was a part of his everyday life. Just before he was born, his father, Syamal Bhattacharya, joined the University of Tennessee Health Sciences in 1979, spending decades as a researcher in the Departments of Neurology and Surgery, and he’s still a faculty member… Read More


Caring for Memphis: 63% of Memphis Top Doctors Affiliated with UT Health Sciences

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Dr. Jason Yaun

When parents take their children to see Jason Yaun, MD, at the outpatient pediatric clinic at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital, they are witnessing the University of Tennessee Health Sciences’ vast network of clinical partnerships in action. From pediatricians at Le Bonheur, to emergency physicians at the Trauma Center at Regional One Health, to physicians and… Read More


‘We Are on a Roll,’ Chancellor Buckley Says at Town Hall

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Dr. Karla Leeper speaks at the town hall, seated between Chancellor Peter Buckley and Raaj Kurapati

Executive leadership at the University of Tennessee Health Sciences held a town hall Thursday on the Memphis campus to discuss the university’s momentum, pay raises for employees, a refresh to the university’s branding and other updates. “We are on a roll, and we’ve got great momentum,” Chancellor Peter Buckley, MD, told the faculty and staff… Read More


Leading the Fight: Dr. Kenneth Ataga’s Mission to Advance Sickle Cell Care

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Portrait of Dr. Kenneth Ataga

When Kenneth Ataga, MD, talks about his work, his focus is always on his patients. He has spent more than two decades caring for people with sickle cell disease and searching for better treatments for the condition that often causes unpredictable pain, threatens organs, and shortens lives. “I was attracted to medicine because I wanted… Read More


A Legacy of the Heart: ‘Cancer Care is All I Ever Wanted to Do,’ Veteran Surgery Professor Says

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Dr. Martin Fleming at surgery clerkship orientation

Martin Fleming, MD, chief of the Division of Surgical Oncology in the College of Medicine at the University of Tennessee Health Sciences, remembers going door-to-door in Memphis as early as age 6 or 7 with his mother, a survivor of osteogenic carcinoma, to collect money for the American Cancer Society. His father, the late Irvin… Read More