Current Residents
RES-5 | RES-4 | RES-3 | RES-2 | RES-1 | Preliminary Residents | Research Lab Residents - PGY-2
RES-5
Jennifer Allison
Administrative Chief
What do you enjoy in your free time? Home improvement projects
What are your career goals? Minimally invasive
Why did you choose UTHSC for your residency? I knew I would get great experience taking care of a broad range of complicated surgical patients and I also love Elvis.
Emma Kelly
Administrative Chief
What do you enjoy in your free time? Exploring the Memphis food scene, swimming
What are your career goals? Exploring the Memphis food scene, swimming
Why did you choose UTHSC for your residency?
Well-rounded surgery exposure with the best operative trauma experience in the country
Angel Dono
What do you enjoy in your free time? Fix random stuff; Sports, especially soccer and tennis; Books, have a humongous pending list that grows every month; TV Shows/Movies have probably watch too many
What are your career goals Interested in Cardiothoracic and Trauma Surgery. I plan to fund a non-profit to bring resources back home and address surgical problems that would otherwise not be fixed.
Why did you choose UTHSC for your residency? UTHSC has such history for longer than 100 years, which is amazing. Much of the attending we interact are reference in the world, Trauma team at Regional One, Surg Onc team creating NCCN guidelines, a big transplant center and Le Bonheur recognized team to mention a few.
Allison Falcon
What do you enjoy in your free time? Working out, exploring the many Memphis breweries, hanging out with my chicken, Ginny
What are your career goals? General/acute care surgery in rural or underserved communities
Why did you choose UTHSC for your residency? Great exposure to all surgical fields and great vibes from the current residents (who've become some of my best friends) when I interviewed here.
Benjamin Lehrman
What do you enjoy in your free time? Running, cooking/baking, watching sports, hanging out with friends
What are your career goals? Fellowship in Trauma/Critical Care
Why did you choose UTHSC for your residency? I wanted a program that served a diverse population and featured multiple hospital systems. I liked that the UTHSC general surgery residency gives its residents appropriate autonomy for their level of training and has excellent opportunities in all areas of general surgery.
Renee "Muyoka" Maina
What do you enjoy in your free time?Running, yoga, gardening, hiking
What are your career goals?Surgical oncology, hepatobiliary surgery
Why did you choose UTHSC for your residency? Supportive resident community
Ashley Miller
What do you enjoy in your free time? Spending time with my family and friends, traveling the world, trying new restaurants, hiking, gardening, or doing just about any outdoor activity.
What are your career goals? To practice General Surgery in the US Army
Why did you choose UTHSC for your residency? 3 main reasons:
1) I wanted to train at a program with a very strong trauma experience so that I feel more comfortable managing trauma situations when I’m deployed in the future.
2) I think diversity is important and I wanted to train with a good mix of people which UTHSC provides including a large variety of races, ethnic backgrounds, religions and about a 50/50 split of men and women.
3) I grew up in Florida but my husband's family is in Tennessee and we wanted to be closer to them with a baby on the way. My daughter was born November of my intern year and gets to see her extended family much more often since we are much closer now.
RES-4
Megan Gross
What do you enjoy in your free time? Hiking, Backpacking, Making Pasta, and Sleeping
What are your career goals? Trauma or Transplant
Why did you choose UTHSC for your residency? For the operative experience and volume.
Maria Knaus
What do you enjoy in your free time? Play with my dogs and eat good food
What are your career goals? To become a pediatric surgeon and also the surgeon that other surgeons send their family to.
Why did you choose UTHSC for your residency? The wide breadth of experience residents get as part of their training and the patient population.
Devanshi Patel
What do you enjoy in your free time? Playing soccer, running, and being outside. Love to have friends over for dinners or backyard bonfire nights.
What are your career goals? I would like to pursue a path that would involve having a general practice with a focus on upper GI surgery.
Why did you choose UTHSC for your residency? The program at UT provides a lot of diversity in training. I wanted to be in a situation where I was confident leaving as a well rounded surgeon. The residents and faculty are also very supportive and genuinely look out for one another.
Maddison Porter
What do you enjoy in your free time? I enjoy running, wine tasting, and spending time with family and friends
What are your career goals? I wish to become a technically competent surgeon dedicated to serving my community
Why did you choose UTHSC for your residency? I chose UTHSC because I wanted a strong foundation in trauma and academic surgery. I was attracted to the cultural emphasis on work ethic, self-improvement, and dedication to the underserved of Memphis.
Aubrey Schachter
What do you enjoy in your free time? I love to take my dog to Shelby Farms Dog Park, try out new restaurants and bars in Memphis, and spend time with my co-residents! I am also learning to restore my Midtown home, and I always have a few projects going on.
Why did you choose UTHSC for your residency? I rotated at UTHSC as a medical student and got a great feel for the resident camaraderie. I also saw the experiences and opportunities residents have to both learn to manage patient care and to get into the operating room. Faculty and senior residents are supportive and eager to teach, and I felt welcome as a student.
Joseph Slaughter
What do you enjoy in your free time? Spending time with my family, working out, and reading.
What are your career goals? Academic Colorectal Surgery or Surgical Oncology.
Why did you choose UTHSC for your residency? I wanted to train at an old academic center with a rich history in surgery. UTHSC grants surgery residents access to all the competitive specialties and the appropriate mentorship to ensure a strong fellowship match. More importantly, the high case volumes, unique population, and autonomy in Memphis produces skilled surgeons.
Floyd Wilks, Jr.
What do you enjoy in your free time? I enjoy traveling to different countries, trying new foods, and cooking different recipes.
What are your career goals? Completion of General surgery training and pursuit of a fellowship in surgery, currently choosing which specialty. I have interest in surgical critical care, plastic surgery, and MIS.
Why did you choose UTHSC for your residency? UTHSC provides amazing surgical training with wide variety of cases and patients. Coming from an institution where treating the under resourced was a major part of the mission, UTHSC provides an opportunity to give back to that community during my surgical training.
Michael Wright
What do you enjoy in your free time? Cycling, Tennis, Grilling
What are your career goals? Vascular or Cardiothoracic Surgery Fellowship
Why did you choose UTHSC for your residency? For an intense and comprehensive training experience so that I could become a competent surgeon.
RES-3
Caitlin Black
What do you enjoy in your free time? Woodworking
What are your career goals? General Surgery/MIS/Colorectal
Why did you choose UTHSC for your residency? High-quality training in diverse populations
Ladd Caballero
What do you enjoy in your free time? Playing piano/keyboard with my band, video games, eating
What are your career goals? Vascular surgery or MIS
Why did you choose UTHSC for your residency? Close to home and family, well rounded residents and faculty who constantly push you to improve, growing/evolving
Linnea Cripe
What do you enjoy in your free time? Cycling, running, visiting breweries, buying too many house plants
What are your career goals? Surgical Oncology, Breast Surgery. Still working it out!
Why did you choose UTHSC for your residency? Great training, good mentorship
Andrew Fleming
What do you enjoy in your free time? In my free time, I enjoy rock climbing, music composition, reading history, cooking, running, and spending time with my wife, Hannah, and our son, Irvin. We have one cat, Hoshino.
What are your career goals? My first career goal is to be a safe and effective surgeon. After completing residency, I plan to pursue fellowship training in complex general surgical oncology in support of my second career goal of academic surgical oncology.
Why did you choose UTHSC for your residency? I chose UTHSC for my surgical training given the high operative volume, the emphasis on surgical critical care, and the high acuity of the pathologies we treat in Memphis. The UTHSC department of surgery offered the clinical autonomy and academic resources I need to support my career goals, and the comradery and confidence of the UTHSC surgery residents are something I looked up to during my medical school years.
Lillian Malach
What do you enjoy in your free time? Running and playing with my dogs
What are your career goals? General Surgery practice in Alabama
Why did you choose UTHSC for your residency? The variety of experiences and excellent training which prepares the residents for any fellowship or general practice they desire
Brenden Sheridan
What do you enjoy in your free time? Working out, Video games
What are your career goals? Thoracic
Why did you choose UTHSC for your residency? Academics, research, and fellowship opportunities
Kaushik Varadarajan
What do you enjoy in your free time? Cooking, Watching and playing basketball, Video games
What are your career goals? Career goal is to be a surgical oncologist at an academic institution and to work with medical students and residents
Why did you choose UTHSC for your residency? I chose UTHSC because of the chance to work in a new environment but with a similar patient population and diverse pathology and strong support for residents to pursue any career avenue.
Tari-Ann “Tariana” Yates
What do you enjoy in your free time? Church, hanging out with family, friends, and my dog Ms. Yola Baby, dancing , listening to music, and chilling.
What are your career goals? To be a solid, safe, and humble academic surgeon.
Why did you choose UTHSC for your residency? It is a strong operative program lead by great leadership and residents.
RES-2
Samantha Brashier
What do you enjoy in your free time? Spending time with my family, running, and listening to true crime podcasts.
What are your career goals? My career goals at this point in my training are simply to learn how to be a good physician and surgeon.
Why did you choose UTHSC for your residency? I chose to stay at UTHSC for residency due to my time here as a medical student. I wanted a residency with high operative volume with exposure to all surgical fields, diverse patient population, and residents/attendings I “fit” with – UTHSC checked all of those boxes for me.
Samantha Adrianna Kassner
What do you enjoy in your free time? Working out, biking, scuba diving
What are your career goals? I am interested in minimally invasive and bariatric surgery
Why did you choose UTHSC for your residency? I was most attracted to the apparent camaraderie between residents during interview day/social night, as well as the strong emphasis placed on generating well-rounded surgeons that are comfortable operating independently by the time they are finished with residency at UTHSC.
Kevin Lang
What do you enjoy in your free time? Working out, biking, scuba diving
What are your career goals? I am interested in minimally invasive and bariatric surgery
Why did you choose UTHSC for your residency? I was most attracted to the apparent camaraderie between residents during interview day/social night, as well as the strong emphasis placed on generating well-rounded surgeons that are comfortable operating independently by the time they are finished with residency at UTHSC.
Morgan Lynch
What do you enjoy in your free time: Reading, writing, films, fitness, and midnight snacks.
What are your career goals? Undecided! Interested in general, trauma, and colorectal surgery.
Why did you choose UTHSC for your residency? Excellent scope of training, great trauma exposure, and cool people.
Logan Meyer
What do you enjoy in your free time? Cross stitch, crossword puzzles, finding new restaurants, finding good banana pudding
What are your career goals? Don’t quite know yet
Why did you choose UTHSC for your residency? Depth and breadth of experiences. Amazing faculty and fellow residents
Meredith Perkins
What do you enjoy in your free time?Boating, cooking, trying new restaurants/breweries, exercising
What are your career goals? Interested in trauma
Why did you choose UTHSC for your residency? I’m a born and raised Memphian and I want to continue to serve my city throughout my surgical training
Jennifer Schadt
What do you enjoy in your free time? : I enjoy being active- running, rock climbing, hiking, & slacklining- and creative- knitting, painting, & embroidery- and just relaxing with a good book or tv show
What are your career goals? : I am undecided on a subspecialty, but I would like to be involved in global surgery, and would like to integrate narrative medicine and bioethics work throughout my career
Why did you choose UTHSC for your residency? : Mostly because it was the interview day I enjoyed the most, I felt really great vibes from everyone I met!
Michael Spinrad
What do you enjoy in your free time? Skiing, hiking, rock climbing, reading, boardgames, video games, oh and skiing.
What are your career goals? My current interest is in surgical oncology and HPB pathologies.
Why did you choose UTHSC for your residency? UTHSC has a great reputation for training skilled surgeons that get tremendous exposure to trauma and critical care, which is an excellent foundation to have for any surgeon. There's also plenty of opportunities for mentorship form surgeons the generally care about your education and will invest in your future.
RES-1
Jenna Davis
Medical School: University of Miami
What do you enjoy in your free time? Anything outdoors!
What are your career goals? Academic surgery, Surgical oncology
Why did you choose UTHSC for your residency? History of success in fellowship matches while also having a great breadth of experience
in general surgery. My partner is also from Memphis, and we were lucky enough to couples
match here!
Calvin Jung
Medical School: Mercer University School of Medicine - Macon Campus
What do you enjoy in your free time? Spending time with my fiancée and our orange tabby. Cheering for the Georgia Bulldogs.
What are your career goals? General surgery or Cardiac surgery
Why did you choose UTHSC for your residency? Broad exposure and excellent training.
Erin Koffman
Medical School: University of Toledo
What do you enjoy in your free time? finding new walking/ running trails
What are your career goals? For now, to be a teachable resident and a humanistic doctor. Eventually: to be involved
in global surgery.
Why did you choose UTHSC for your residency? I was looking for a program with high volume trauma, high complexity, and a group
of residents who genuinely liked to be around each other. Luckily all of that has
come true!
Emma Levine
What do you enjoy in your free time? Baking, cooking, reading dystopias, pelotoning, outdoor activites
What are your career goals? I'm currently leaning towards pediatric surgery, but am keeping an open mind. I know I want to be involved in global surgery! My research interests fall in the cross between our diabetic patients and surgical care
Why did you choose UTHSC for your residency? The minute I interviewed here I knew this was going to be the right spot. I could feel the support from attendings and within the residents. I felt that life outside the hospital was encouraged and celebrated while being somewhere with top notch pediatric surgery and trauma surgery training.
Jordan Pringle Williams
Medical School: Mercer University School of Medicine
What do you enjoy doing in your free time? Working out, running outdoors, watching football and soccer
What are your career goals? Private practice on the gulf coast of Florida
Why did you choose UTHSC for your residency? Good case numbers with early operative experience
Miranda Taggart
Medical School: University of Texas Medical Branch
What do you enjoy in your free time? Long walks, dancing to live music, spicy food, sunshine
What are your career goals? private practice general surgery with academic outreach, global surgery
Why did you choose UTHSC for your residency? High volume operative trauma, good vibes, culturally rich city with a lot of need
Bennett Thomas
Medical School: LSU Shreveport
What do you enjoy in your free time?I enjoy running, biking, hiking, exploring new national parks, and spending time with
friends and family.
What are your career goals? Still undecided
Why did you choose UTHSC for your residency? I did an away rotation here and really enjoyed how well the residents got along. I
saw that the residents here were able to match into great fellowships or graduate
and go directly into practice.
Preliminary Residents
Harrison Folse
Medical School: LSUHSC New Orleans
What do you enjoy in your free time? Binge Netflix and take care of all of my plants.
What are your career goals? Trauma or general surgery
Why did you choose UTHSC for your residency? The connection between all the residents was easy to see. Everyone is supportive
and wants to see you succeed.
Laura Gorenshtein
Medical School: Nova Southeastern University College of Osteopathic Medicine
What do you enjoy in your free time? Baking, spending time outdoors, and finding new restaurants/coffee shops
What are your career goals? To be a compassionate and skilled surgeon
Why did you choose UTHSC for your residency? I chose UTHSC because of the exposure to all surgical fields and high operative volume
Benson Joseph
Medical School: Meharry Medical College
What do you enjoy in your free time? I love working out and completing fitness challenges.
What are your career goals? I want to be surgeon, who provides service to the impoverished and participates in
global health care.
Why did you choose UTHSC for your residency? Serving under-resourced communities in need played a huge role in my desire to be
a physician. Being at UTHSC allows me to provide healthcare to the underserved and
culturally rich population in Memphis.
Rodeania Peart
What do you enjoy in your free time? Talking to my family, playing videos games, tending to my plants, and finding new restaurants to try in the Memphis area.
What are your career goals? To become a culturally competent and skilled surgeon dedicated to providing care to those who are underserved.
Why did you choose UTHSC for your residency? I wanted to join a program where I would gain a tremendous amount of experience and exposure. I wanted to be where I knew I would learn the most while feeling like I mattered both as an individual and as part of a team with my co-residents.
Carmen Zaldivar
Medical School: University of Arizona- Tucson
What do you enjoy in your free time? Hot Yoga, thrifting and sewing
What are your career goals? Trauma Surgery
Why did you choose UTHSC for your residency? For its Trauma center, the population it serves and faculty
Research Lab Residents - PGY-2
Daniel Gehle
Research Site: St. Jude Children's Hospital
What do you enjoy in your free time? Soccer, running, watching basketball, exploring the Memphis restaurant and brewery scene, hosting coresidents and friends for meals, spending time with my wife and dog
What are your career goals? Pediatric surgery
Why did you choose UTHSC for your residency? Large, busy program with early and high-volume operative experience, excellent pediatric surgery exposure, and collegial culture
Seyed “Soroosh” Noorbakhsh
Research Site: T32 at Emory University
Julia Pedo Freitas
Research Site: UTHSC Cancer Research Building (Dr. Shibata’s Lab)
What do you enjoy in your free time? Hiking, rock climbing, going to breweries, playing with my cats, board games with friends
What are your career goals? Currently undecided, considering surgical oncology, breast or trauma
Why did you choose UTHSC for your residency? I wanted a program where I would feel prepared to practice independently as a general surgeon without needing a fellowship if I decided to do so, while also providing an academic setting with the opportunity for research. Also the opportunity to train at one of the busiest trauma centers in the country!
Jessica Pollack
Research Site:University of Pennsylvania and Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
What do you enjoy in your free time? Cooking, indoor cycling, hiking
What are your career goals? Pediatric surgery
Why did you choose UTHSC for your residency? Excellent pediatric surgery department, operative experience
Nikia Toomey
Research Site: University of Pennsylvania and Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
Medical School: University of Central Florida COM
What do you enjoy in your free time? Fishing at the Florida Space Coast, car rebuilds, baking, spending time with family
What are your career goals? Cardiothoracic surgery and biomaterials research
Why did you choose UTHSC for your residency? critical care experience