At the start of this year, we all had an idea of what we thought this chief year would be. Now standing here at the end, we can confidently say that it has been so much more than what we could have imagined, truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
We had lofty goals, not dissimilar to those of prior chiefs, with the ultimate objective of leaving the program a stronger and better place than how we inherited it. One theme we were determined to permeate through the entire year to achieve these goals is “intentionality”. It was with this mindset that we focused our efforts on many things in several facets of the program, including coffee cart wellness rounds, morning report structure, social media presence, collecting pagers for protected conference time, rebuilding the Residents-As-Teachers curriculum, trying out multiple (and we mean multiple) modalities for conference attendance tracking until finding one that was effective, and recruiting (and wow, look at that 2025-2026 intern class!).
Reflecting on the year though, those achievements were only possible with the help of the village of people who supported us in accomplishing them. The mentorship, love, support shown to us by Dr. Thigpen, Dr. Hall, and all of the program leadership is something that we will cherish for the rest of our lives. But this year would be nothing without the incredible residents from whom we have learned so much. We’ve seen them stretch to be better versions of themselves, rise to help their co-residents, and be vulnerable confiding in us for the betterment of the program and patient care.
We’re sure when people looked at the four of us on our first day many of them thought, “Wow, four chiefs that all want to do cardiology… yeah, okay, that’s gonna go well…” But, some would say, the bond we’ve made this year has been so special and is one that we will hold onto forever (but definitely through the next three years). We will be eternally grateful for the privilege of serving this program and its people and allowing us to grow with you.
Mari, Preston, Raina, and Steven
Dr. Mari Young will be starting fellowship in Cardiology at UMMC in July.
Dr. Preston Bell will be starting fellowship in Cardiology at UMMC in July.
Dr. Raina Muthukumaru will be starting fellowship in Cardiology at UMMC in July.
Dr. Steven Billingsley will be starting fellowship in Cardiology at UMMC in July.
Progress Notes 