Newsmakers for December 2016
Brown holding Brekken Ob/Gyn professorship
Dr. Charles E. Brown, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, has been selected to hold the Alvin “Bud” Brekken Professorship in Obstetrics and Gynecology.
Dr. Brown, who has a distinguished career as a teacher of residents, fellows, and medical students, recently returned to UT Southwestern to lead the Maternal-Fetal Medicine Fellowship Program. He previously had been a faculty member (1985-1994) and was recruited back to the Medical Center after service that included being the Residency Program Director at the Seton Hospitals in Austin (2009-2014).
Dr. Brown earned his medical degree from Tulane University School of Medicine in 1980 before his residency work at UT Medical Branch Hospitals. He completed a Fellowship at UT Southwestern in 1986 in maternal-fetal medicine.
Veterinarian Pritt serving national association
Dr. Stacy L. Pritt, D.V.M, M.S., M.B.A., has been elected to serve a two-year term as Vice President of the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) by the organization’s House of Delegates. Dr. Pritt was elected to the position during the organization’s regular annual session in San Antonio.
At UT Southwestern, Dr. Pritt oversees animal welfare and regulatory compliance as Director of the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC). As vice president of the AVMA, one of Pritt’s roles will be to serve as the organization’s liaison to the Student AVMA and Student Chapters of the AVMA. She will also serve as a voting member of the AVMA Board of Directors.
Prior to earning her D.V.M. degree from Washington State University, Dr. Pritt received a bachelor’s degree in biology from the California State Polytechnic University at Pomona. She is president of the Women’s Veterinary Leadership Development Initiative and a member of the AVMA Political Action Committee Board. Pritt is a nationally recognized authority on animal program regulatory compliance, and frequently speaks on topics related to leadership development, gender bias in leadership, and career options within veterinary medicine.
Dr. Pritt has been on faculty at the Harvard Medical School, where she served as Associate Director for Animal Care, Training, and Operations and was the Director of Regulatory Compliance and Animal Welfare at Covance, Inc.
Smith selected to hold Perkins biomedical endowment
Dr. Dean P. Smith, Professor of Pharmacology and of Neuroscience, has been selected to hold the John P. Perkins, Ph.D., Distinguished Professorship in Biomedical Science.
Dr. Smith joined the UT Southwestern faculty in 1993 and has been a Professor since 2011. His current research involves biochemical and neuronal mechanisms mediating olfactory behavior using using a combination of genetics, biochemistry, electrophysiology, cell biology, and molecular biology to undertake a molecular dissection of the chemosensory behavior in Drosophila. His laboratory also is focusing on pheromone signal transduction and how these special odorants elicit behavioral responses.
Dr. Smith earned his M.D. from Utah College of Medicine in 1986 and his doctorate in biology and neuroscience from the University of California at San Diego in 1992. At UCSD, Dr. Smith studied under renowned molecular geneticist and neurobiologist Dr. Charles Zuker. Since 2009, he has been a member of the UT Southwestern Academy of Teachers (SWAT).
In 2004, Dr. Smith received the British Royal Entomological Society Award for best manuscript published in Insect Molecular Biology.
Vongpatanasin honored with Coe professorship
Dr. Wanpen Vongpatanasin, Professor of Internal Medicine, has been appointed as holder of the Fredric L. Coe Professorship in Nephrolithiasis Research in Mineral Metabolism.
Dr. Vongpatanasin directs UT Southwestern’s Hypertension Section and its Hypertension Fellowship Program and serves as an attending physician in internal medicine and cardiology at Zale Lipshy University Hospital and at Parkland Memorial Hospital.
Since 2010, Dr. Vongpatanasin also has held the Norman and Audrey Kaplan Chair in Hypertension Research. She specializes in caring for patients with persistent high blood pressure, also known as resistant hypertension. Her laboratory has performed studies for participants with hypertension or autonomic dysfunction. Her primary research interest is in the area of neural control of blood pressure and the influence of various hormones and antihypertensive agents on the autonomic control of blood pressure.
Dr. Vongpatanasin serves as Associate Editor of the medical journal Circulation and has published numerous original research articles and scholarly reviews in numerous professional publications.
Dr. Vongpatanasin earned her medical degree at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand, in 1990. She then completed her internship and residency in internal medicine and a Fellowship in cardiology, all at UT Southwestern.
