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Fellows in the News: Dr. Garretson named to AMA Board of Trustees and more

August 1, 2024

Melissa J. Garretson, M.D., FAAP, of Fort Worth, Texas, was elected to a four-year term on the American Medical Association (AMA) Board of Trustees.

Dr. Garretson has served in the AMA House of Delegates, the AMA’s policy-making body, for more than 25 years and served as chair of the AAP delegation. She also has lent her expertise to the AMA Section Council on Emergency Medicine and the AMA Specialty and Service Society.

“Shaping the future of medicine is a responsibility that I will take on with great care,” Dr. Garretson said. “I will work tirelessly to address the issues important to physicians so that we can focus on what matters most — our patients.”

Dr. Garretson has more than two decades of experience as an emergency physician specializing in pediatric medicine. She serves in the emergency department at Cook Children’s, a regional referral center and a level 2 trauma center in Fort Worth. During the first five years of her career, she worked in a small group pediatric practice.

After moving to Texas, she joined the Tarrant County Medical Society and the Texas Medical Association (TMA). She also served as county medical society president, advanced public health through private partnerships as chair of the TMA Council on Health Promotion and represented her district on the TMA political action committee board.

At the AMA, she served on the Board of Trustees as the medical student trustee and as vice speaker of the Medical Student Section, as a delegate to the Resident and Fellow Section, and on the Young Physicians Section Governing Council as a delegate to the House of Delegates.

Dr. Garretson earned her undergraduate degree in biology and history with a minor in chemistry from Texas Christian University and graduated with honors as a Chancellor’s Scholar. She received her medical degree from Mayo Medical School, now the Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine.

Additional Fellows in the news

Toluwalasé A. Ajayi, M.D., FAAP, of San Diego, Calif., was named secretary of the American Medical Association Board of Trustees for 2024-’25.

Dr. Ajayi is a community pediatrician, adult and pediatric palliative medicine physician and a clinical translational researcher. She holds a joint faculty appointment at the University of California, San Diego in the departments of pediatrics and medicine and is the program director for the UC San Diego and Scripps Health Palliative Medicine Fellowship Program.

Sarah R. Carter, M.D., FAAP, of St. Cloud, Minn., was appointed to a four-year term on the Minnesota Board of Medical Practice. The board licenses and registers approximately 26,000 health care professionals while enforcing rules and regulations.

Dr. Carter is a pediatric hospitalist with CentraCare St. Cloud at its CentraCare Riverview Campus Clinic.

Eunice Huang, M.D., M.S., FAAP, of Nashville, Tenn., was named to a three-year term on the American Pediatric Surgical Association’s Board of Governors.

Dr. Huang is associate surgeon-in-chief at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt University. At Vanderbilt, she also serves as chief surgical quality and innovations officer; vice chair for surgical quality and patient safety for the Section of Surgical Services; vice chair of clinical services for the Department of Pediatric Surgery; and associate program director for the Pediatric Surgery Fellowship Program.

Jerome M. Larkin, M.D., FAAP, of Tiverton, R.I., was appointed director of the Rhode Island Department of Health.

Dr. Larkin previously served as medical director of inpatient infectious diseases consultation services at Rhode Island Hospital. He also was co-director of the Pediatric HIV Clinic at Hasbro Children’s Hospital and medical director of the Infectious Disease Clinic at Rhode Island Hospital.

Prashant V. Mahajan, M.D., M.P.H., M.B.A., FAAP, of Ann Arbor, Mich., was appointed chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine and the William G. Barsan Collegiate Professor of Emergency Medicine at the University of Michigan (UM) Medical School.

Dr. Mahajan joined the University of Michigan faculty in 2016 and has served as vice chair of the UM Department of Emergency Medicine and is a tenured professor and section chief of pediatric emergency medicine.

Harleen Marwah, M.D., M.S., FAAP, of Philadelphia, was appointed to the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council, which provides independent advice and recommendations on how to address current and historic environmental justice.

Dr. Marwah is a pediatric resident physician at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. She is the founding chair of Medical Students for a Sustainable Future, a community of medical students working to prevent and address the health harms of climate change.

Jessica N. Snowden, M.D., M.S., FAAP, of Little Rock, Ark., was named vice chancellor for research at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. She also will serve as a professor in the College of Medicine in the Department of Pediatrics.

Dr. Snowden currently serves as vice dean for research and chief of pediatric infectious diseases at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.

Mark Vranicar, M.D., FAAP, of Augusta, Ga., was named pediatric cardiology division chief at the Children’s Hospital of Georgia in Augusta.

Dr. Vranicar is a professor of pediatrics at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University. He joined the Children’s Hospital of Georgia in 2021 as director of the pediatric cardiac catheterization lab. He previously served as a pediatric interventional cardiologist at the University of Kentucky.

Fellows in the News acknowledges AAP members’ national and prominent awards, honors and appointments. Submit brief background information with academic titles and a high-resolution photo to Steve Schering at [email protected]; phone 630-626-6320. Publication is at the discretion of AAP News.

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