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The UTHSC College of Medicine Internal Medicine Residency Program Announces Internal Medicine Chief Residents for 2018-2019 Academic Year

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Pictured from left are Chris Jackson, MD, James Earl Corley III, MD, Malia Willis, MD, Manyoo Agarwal, MD, and Natalie Dunlap, DO. (Photo by Allen Gillespie/UTHSC).

The University of Tennessee Health Science Center Internal Medicine Residency Program has announced Manyoo Agarwal, MD, James Earl Corley III, MD, Natalie Dunlap, DO, Chris Jackson, MD, and Malia Willis, MD, as the Chief Resident class for the 2018-2019 academic year.

Each year, the internal medicine residency program selects five residents from a rising class of approximately 40 residents to serve in the capacity of chief residents in the year following completion of their traditional three years of training in internal medicine or four years of training in medicine and pediatrics.

In the field of internal medicine, selection as a chief resident is considered a high honor and represents recognition by the program of the resident’s high level of achievement, outstanding leadership, and potential to be a leader in his or her future career. Notable past UTHSC internal medicine chief residents include Phil Lieberman (past president of the American Academy of Allergy and Immunology), Stacey Headley (former division chief of pulmonary and critical care medicine at Methodist University Hospital) and Tim Decha-Umphai (current VAMC-Memphis medicine service section chief of quality and safety). “Residents selected to this position are physicians who have demonstrated the potential to be prominent leaders of medicine in the future. Our hope is that the department’s investment in these individuals as leaders and their service in this role allow them to cultivate their skills in such a way that turns that potential into reality,” said Kim Huch, MD, program director.

“With a second-year class full of outstanding clinicians, teachers, and researchers, it was a difficult task to choose only five residents to serve as future chief residents,” Dr. Huch said. “The residents tapped for the position were those who best embodied the program’s mission of training internists who achieve excellence while caring with compassion.”

As chief residents, these physicians will be tasked with a vast array of activities throughout the year, with the ultimate goal of providing the most enriching training environment available to the 157 internal medicine and medicine-pediatrics program residents. “With four outstanding training sites, the UTHSC internal medicine residency program has an enormous number of great training opportunities available to it. The chief residents are key to helping the program harness and capitalize upon those potential benefits,” said Alex Woods, MD, current chief resident posted at Baptist Memorial Hospital-Memphis.

The program expresses great confidence in this group of future chiefs, noting that each has common qualities necessary for success as chief residents, while also having individual strengths that harmonize. “These residents are well suited for future success. They are all well respected by their peers and faculty alike for their excellence in patient care, resident education, and professionalism, which is the essential foundation needed to build a great year,” said Andrew Han, MD, current chief resident posted at VAMC-Memphis. Notable individual strengths include Natalie Dunlap’s familiarity with the combined medicine-pediatrics residency program and experience working with the UTHSC Graduate Medical Education Council, James Earl Corley’s outgoing personality that gained acclaim on the “Amazing Race,” Malia Willis’ time spent in the biomedical industry, Chris Jackson’s service as vice chairman of the program’s Resident Education Committee, and the research expertise of Manyoo Agarwal.

“We feel that this future class of chief residents is extremely well rounded, and we’re excited to see how the program will grow as they join the residency program leadership team,” Dr. Huch said.

This class of chief residents will assume rising chief resident duties on July 1, 2017, and chief resident duties on July 1, 2018.