Graduate Stories

When he chose pediatrics for his residency, Dr. Josh Iles knew years of child care awaited him. But the birth of Ian, Isaac and Isabella made his profession all the more personal.

Starting in March, when Iles matched into the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, everything went rapid fire. Within days, he and his wife, Elizabeth, bought their first home and moved to Clinton.

The triplets arrived April 28 as he finished requirements for his M.D. The boys came home the week of Commencement and Isabella should follow just as Iles starts his residency.

How’s he managing?

“I think when you’re faced with all those things, you just do them,” he said, eyes red from too little sleep.

The babies, born at the Winfred L. Wiser Hospital for Women and Infants, join a family already tight with the Medical Center. Elizabeth graduated from the occupational therapy program and Iles’ father, Larry, is associate director of campus police.  — JM

Mississippi is “kind of like home now” for Rajni Malik. But after nearly 10 years settling into the Magnolia State, the health informatics and information management student might leave home once Commencement is completed.

Born and raised in the Indian state of Punjab where she graduated high school, Malik was still a teenager when she moved to the U.S. with her parents and two siblings to be closer to other family members.

“I always knew I wanted to do something in health care or the medical field,” she said.

That desire, coupled with an interest in technology, eventually led her to pursue an HIIM degree in the School of Health Related Professions. With it, she hopes to land a career in the growing movement for electronic health records.

“EHR provides more safety for patients. They’re more secure, more accessible; multiple providers can look at it and there is less chance of losing them.”

With another brother and sister still in India, she says she might move back there someday. In the meantime, with a job offer in Texas to consider, she may soon find a new place to call home.  — MW

Jennifer Bain credits one of her least-favorite childhood memories for driving her success in the School of Dentistry.

Raised on a farm in Simpson County, Bain remembers having to clean droppings from the walls of layered chicken houses in the brutal heat of Mississippi summers. But she said such experiences helped reinforce the strong work ethic her parents nurtured in her.

“My parents didn’t have a lot, but what they got, they worked hard for,” she said. “I knew I had to put in an effort, because nothing’s given to you.”

Dr. J. David Duncan, associate dean for student affairs in the school, said despite Bain’s modest upbringing – or perhaps because of it – she has become “the most prolific student-researcher in dental school.” The first in her family to graduate from a four-year college, Bain also is the first to pursue a career in health care; she plans to get her specialty in periodontics and Ph.D. in clinical research at the University of Alabama-Birmingham.

But first, Bain and her husband, Jacob, will do some deep-sea fishing.

“I’ve been saving for four years for an Alaskan cruise,” she said, “and this may be the only chance I have to take it.”   — BC

When nurses became a source of friendship and comfort during her recovery from a pit bull attack and three reconstructive surgeries when she was 8, Danielle Barrier knew what she wanted in life.

What was uncertain was what specialty of nursing best fit her personality and talents. Barrier, who competed in Miss Mississippi last year, is, well, spunky.

The Starkville native reached a crossroads her first year in nursing school: she lost her first patient and questioned whether her career choice would be too difficult emotionally.

She was contemplating her future when she came upon a mother with her little boy who had an IV pole.

“It was obvious he was going through chemotherapy. I remember talking to them and before he left he gave me a big hug,” Barrier said. “The mother told me I would make a great nurse and I had a gift.”

That’s when Barrier knew pediatric nursing was her calling. After graduation, she will become a nurse on the 4th floor of the Blair E. Batson Hospital for Children.  — PSG

While having two terminal degrees is not that unusual, getting them at the same time is a little more rare. John Ma received both the M.D. and the Ph.D. at the same time.

The son of Dr. Tangeng Ma, assistant professor of pharmacology, John Ma was always interested in both clinical sciences and the basic sciences.

“The M.D./Ph.D. program bridged the gap for me.”

John Ma’s faculty advisor, Dr. Victor Davidson, professor of biochemistry, says Ma was a “joy to have in the lab.” Davidson said John Ma was “one of the best, most enthusiastic students I ever had.” Together, student and advisor wrote eight articles published in peer-reviewed journals. John Ma was first author on many of them.

Ma plans to do either a preliminary residency in medicine or radiation-oncology. — JQ

 

2009-05-26 00:00:00 18921