Register now: Tools for Teaching in Medical Education

The Office of Faculty Affairs and Faculty Development invites Whiddon College of Medicine faculty and residents to register for the Tools for Teaching in Medical Education program.  

This six-session course will be offered on Tuesday afternoons from 2 to 4 p.m. in the Strada Patient Care Center first-floor conference room.

• Aug. 15: Backward Course Design: Part 1
• Aug. 29: Backward Course Design: Part 2
• Sept. 12: Interactive & Active Learning: Technology in the Classroom
• Sept. 26: Assessment Design & Feedback
• Oct. 10: Writing & Analyzing Exam Questions
• Oct. 24: Small Group/Bedside Teaching

Sessions will be taught by faculty and staff from the Whiddon College of Medicine and USA Health. Two hours CME per session will be provided.

Contact Amanda Arnold at akarnold@southalabama.edu for more information or to register. Space is limited.

Meet a Med Student: Ben Loftis

Ben Loftis 

Age: 24

Class: 2026

Hometown: Montgomery, Alabama

Undergraduate education: B.S. in biomedical sciences, Auburn University 

What do you enjoy most about being a medical student at the Whiddon College of Medicine?
The community. Everyone supports each other and has made this journey so much easier. The faculty and my fellow classmates have made the last year better than I could have imagined when I first started. I can’t wait to see what the rest of my years at South will be like.

Are you involved in any research, organizations or other initiatives at the College of Medicine?
Physician wellness and burnout research, orientation leader, wellness house leader, Culinary and Lifestyle Medicine Interest Group

What are your interests and hobbies?
I love to bake bread, play pickleball, and try new restaurants around town.

What is something unique about you?
I ran into the doorframe so much as a child there is a permanent knot on my forehead.

Basic medical sciences student presents research at international conference

Ashley Camp

Ashley Camp, a second-year student in the Basic Medical Sciences Graduate Program at the Whiddon College of Medicine, was selected to present her research at the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB) annual conference in Potomac, Maryland, this summer.    

The presentation focused on genomic editing of human HEK-293 cells, generating lines recapitulating pathogenic variant of PPP2R5D, associated with Jordan’s Syndrome, which revealed altered signaling pathways that coordinated cell growth.  

Identified in 2014, Jordan’s Syndrome causes severe developmental disorders in children identified with mutations in certain genes. Some variants of these genes are associated with developmental delays and autism, among other health issues.   

Camp, who is in the graduate program’s molecular, cell and cancer track, conducts research in the lab of Richard Honkanen, Ph.D., professor and chair of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.  

She earned an undergraduate degree from Point Park University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and a master’s degree from the University of South Alabama.   

Founded in 1906, the ASBMB has a long history of advancing the mechanistic understanding of nature through promotion of the highest-quality research in biochemistry and molecular biology. The society is committed to advancing scientific knowledge by publishing and reporting on significant and enduring research.  

Pre-orientation course prepares medical students for academic success

Incoming students take part in a pre-orientation course designed to help them achieve academic excellence in medical school.

The Office of Academic Success at the Whiddon College of Medicine offered a pre-orientation course for incoming medical students titled Rx For Success: Achieving Academic Excellence in Medical School. Forty-seven students participated in the course, which ran July 17-20 with Zoom and in-person sections.

David S. Williams, Ph.D., M.P.A., with M2 facilitators

Emi Ferderber, Shalin Patel and Cana Brown.

Students were taught how to create implementation plans for evidence-based learning strategies, time-management, and organization skills essential to success in medical school. Additionally, they reflected on the importance of collaboration, teamwork and professional behavior as they begin their medical school journey.

The culminating assignment was to create individual learning plans using learning science and self-assessments to help them set and achieve their goals throughout the year. 

“It was great having our first-year students online and on campus to help build community,” said David S. Williams, Ph.D., M.P.A., assistant dean for institutional and academic success. “We look forward to supporting all of our medical school students with these new programs and resources as we embark on this new academic year.”

Second-year medical students Emi Ferderber, Shalin Patel and Cana Brown helped Williams facilitate the course, including teaching a full lesson on communication and professionalism. 

The Office of Academic Success plans to offer the pre-orientation course each summer. 

Incoming first-year students collaborate during a session. 

Breast cancer specialist joins interdisciplinary clinical oncology faculty

Ayesha Munir, M.D., a hematologist/medical oncologist with an interest in health disparities, has joined the USA Health Mitchell Cancer Institute as a breast cancer specialist and an assistant professor of interdisciplinary clinical oncology.

Munir comes to USA Health from Medstar Health Georgetown University Hospital/Washington Hospital Center in Washington, D.C., where she served as the chief hematology/oncology fellow. She says her passion for treating cancer patients was sparked during her medical school days in Pakistan.

“The way this field has evolved over decades and the fact that it has so much potential to change the disease dynamics and landscape for cancers with its research and science have always intrigued me,” she said. “I love to practice oncology to give patients battling with cancer the hope of better survival outcomes with newer treatments and drugs, and to continue to work on other aggressive and rarer tumors to bring about the same or better outcomes in the future.”

Munir will focus on the treatment of breast cancer and will see patients at the main Mitchell Cancer Institute location in Mobile.

Breast cancer is the second most common cancer among U.S. women behind skin cancer. Death rates from breast cancer have decreased steadily in the past three decades because of earlier diagnoses through screening and increased awareness, along with improvements in cancer treatment. However, Black women are more likely to die from breast cancer than any other race or ethnic group, in part because one in five Black women with breast cancer have the triple-negative type, which tends to grow and spread faster and has fewer treatment options.

Munir said her research interests include quality improvement projects related to health inequity and research that aims at increasing educational awareness in medical oncology. She has been a co-author on several peer-reviewed journal articles on such topics as acute myeloid leukemia, lung adenocarcinoma, and renal cell carcinoma.

Munir said she wanted to join an academic health system to complement her career path. “I am interested in teaching and mentoring, and also wanted to invest my time in the research aspect of medical oncology,” she said.

Munir earned her medical degree from Aga Khan University Medical College in Pakistan and completed a residency in internal medicine at Albany Medical Center in Albany, N.Y. She recently completed her fellowship in hematology/oncology in Washington, D.C.