Our Speakers

Sheriff Charles Blackwood

Sheriff Orange County Sheriff’s Office

Linda C. Cendales, MD

Associate Professor of Surgery and Orthopaedic Surgery
Duke University Medical Center

Dr. Cendales, the only person in the United States to have completed formal fellowship training in both Hand and Microsurgery and Transplant Surgery, is a Duke Health Scholar and the Director of the Vascularized Composite Allotransplantation at Duke University Medical Center. Vascularized composite allotransplantation (VCA) is the transplantation of multiple tissues, such as skin, muscle, bone, nerves, and tendons, as a functional unit (e.g., hand). Dr. Cendales helped organize the first VCA team in the U.S. and participated in the country’s first two hand transplants. She was subsequently the first surgeon accepted into the Transplant Surgery and Immunobiology Fellowship at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). During her time at the NIH, Dr. Cendales established and published a model of VCA in nonhuman primates and has one of the largest experiences in VCA in non-human primates reported in the scientific literature. She organized the first international symposium on VCA histopathology at the International Banff Conferences on Allograft Pathology, leading to the published classification system now used as a standard for clinical reporting of rejection worldwide.

Prior to joining Duke, Dr. Cendales established the VCA program at Emory University and led the multi-disciplinary team that performed Georgia’s first hand transplant in March 2011. While at Duke, she established the VCA program and led the multi-disciplinary team that performed North Carolina’s first unilateral and the first bilateral hand transplants in May 2016 and in November 2018, respectively. Dr. Cendales is the Principal Investigator of clinical and translational studies in VCA funded by the Department of Defense. Dr. Cendales is the Past-President of the International Society of Vascularized Composite Allotransplantation Society (ISVCA), the past Chair of the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network / United Network for Organ Sharing (OPTN/UNOS) Vascularized Composite Allograft (VCA) Committee, an Associate Editor of the American Journal of Transplantation and of Clinical Transplantation, the Past-Chair of the American Transplant Congress, the Past-Chair of the American Society of Transplantation VCA Advisory Board, she is a Council at Large of the American Society of Transplant Surgeons, a past Member at Large of the Board of Directors of the OPTN and of UNOS and is currently the Secretary of the OPTN and of UNOS. She has co-authored numerous scientific manuscripts, abstracts, and invited publications. Similarly, Dr. Cendales has made countless presentations at national and international meetings.

Abby Coffey, MPH, CHES

Contract Coordinator and Comprehensive Suicide Prevention (CSP) Evaluator
NC Division of Public Health, Injury and Violence Prevention Branch

Abby Coffey is the Contract Coordinator and Comprehensive Suicide Prevention (CSP) Evaluator in the NC Injury and Violence Prevention Branch. Part of her work is focused on managing state contracts about injury and violence prevention topics, including rape and sexual assault, suicide, overdose, and other core injuries. She also works to evaluate the programs and activities of the Comprehensive Suicide Prevention grant given to North Carolina. This includes having developed effective practices and procedures to evaluate the CSP grant, which includes five activities and seven individual strategies, each requiring process and outcome evaluation and local, state, and federal reporting requirements. In addition to her evaluation duties on the CSP team, she is the program manager for the Faith Leaders for Life and Start with Veterans programs, which target disproportionately affected populations to disseminate gatekeeper trainings and connect at-risk individuals to life-saving care. Her background is in public health, with specific training and expertise in community health practices and mental health prevention and intervention.

Nicole Cook, MSN APRN AGCNS-BC CEN CCRN TCRN

Nicole Cook is a Trauma Clinical Nurse Specialist with nearly 20 years of nursing experience, including Med-Surg, Stepdown, Neuro and Surgical Trauma ICU, and Emergency Department. She is currently employed at WakeMed Health and Hospitals in Raleigh, North Carolina, where she oversees the clinical activities, outcomes and performance improvement for the organization’s Level 1 trauma program. She is actively engaged at the bedside throughout the trajectory of care from the emergency department to discharge. Nicole is a published author and has presented at the state, national, and international level on a variety of emergency and critical care topics. She is passionate about the creation of best practices surrounding trauma resuscitation, and ensuring those she teaches are able to translate her lessons into everyday practice. She is a Trauma Nursing Core Course (TNCC) director and Advanced Trauma Care for Nurses (ATCN) faculty, and has her CEN, CCRN, and TCRN.

Sandeep Dhanjal

Dian (Dede) Dugan, MPA, MA, NCC, LCMHCS

Dede Dugan is a Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor Supervisor and a Certified Clinical Trauma Professional. She has a BA in Classical Studies from Wake Forest University, an MS in Public Administration (MPA) from Troy University, and an MA in Counseling from Gordon-Conwell.

As a mental health clinician, Dede has worked as a private practitioner as well as in the public realm. She spent 5 years as a therapist on the psychology staff of Central Regional Hospital, where she served as an individual and group therapist for adult patients with Serious and Persistent Mental Illness and substance abuse issues. In 2014, she began her work with UNC as a clinical instructor in the Department of Psychiatry at WakeBrook, and later Wake Encompass and STEP clinics, again focused on SPMI, substance abuse, and at Encompass, first episode psychosis. In these clinics, she provided individual, group, couples, and family therapy.

For the last year, Dede has been a clinical instructor/trauma specialist at UNC’s Department of Emergency Services with the SANE and Trauma Resilience Programs. In this capacity, she provides supportive interventions for men and women at risk of developing PTSD due to sexual and/or physical trauma.

COL Matthew Eckert, M.D., FACS

Asst Professor of Surgery
US Army / UNC Acute Care Surgery

COL Matthew Eckert, MD, FACS, Senior Military Officer, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill – US Army Military Civilian Partnership; Surgeon, Joint Medical Unit

Dr. Eckert is a trauma/surgical critical care physician in the US Army Medical Corps. He received his medical degree from Loyola University Chicago and completed general surgery training and research at Madigan Army Medical Center, Tacoma, WA. Dr. Eckert completed his Acute Care Surgery fellowship at Vanderbilt University. He has served in a variety of military clinical, educational, and leadership roles. His research portfolio is focused upon combat casualty care with grant support from the NIH, CDMRP, TATRC, and industry partnerships.

• Surgeon, Joint Medical Unit / Joint Special Operations Command 2014-present
• Trauma Medical Director, Madigan Army Medical Center 2014-2020
• Associate Program Director, General Surgery Residency 2014-2020
• Director, Surgical Research, Madigan Army Medical Center 2014-2020
• Chief, General Surgery, Madigan Army Medical Center 2015-2017
• Commander, 102nd Forward Surgical Team, JBLM 2012-2014
• Chief, Trauma, Bastion Role III Hospital, Helmand AFG 2011-2012

David, Meredith, and Lee Fitch

Special Guests: Trauma Survivor

Meredith and David Fitch are parents of Lee (age 12) and Virginia (age 14).  David is a native Chapel Hillian and the family is deeply rooted in this community.  On March 5, 2021, this family’s life forever changed when Lee was hit by a vehicle while riding his bike in a downtown neighborhood.

Deb Flowers, MSN, CPNP-PC, SANE-A, SANE-P

Medical Services Coordinator, Child Maltreatment Medical Consultant
Child Advocacy Centers of North Carolina & Southmountain Children and Family Services & UNC Department of Pediatrics

Deb Flowers has been a nurse for 37.5 years, with the last 12 years working as a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner. She worked in the UNC Emergency Department for 19 years, where she worked as a staff nurse, assistant manager, and co-coordinator of the Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner Program. Deb transferred to the UNC Department of Pediatrics – NC Child Medical Evaluation Program in December 2006 and performed program coordination and nurse consultant responsibilities for the Program for 12.5 years. She also was a medical consultant for the UNC Beacon Child Abuse Team. Deb retired from UNC after 31.5 years in June 2019. She continues to work in child maltreatment by performing medical evaluations for DSS and law enforcement at the Moore County and Harnett County Child Advocacy Centers. Deb also works part-time with the Child Advocacy Centers of North Carolina as the Medical Services Coordinator. She returned part-time to UNC last year and takes inpatient calls providing child abuse consultations. Deb continues to develop and deliver training for sexual assault nurse examiners and in child maltreatment

Jared Gallaher, MD, MPH, FACS

Assistant Professor of Surgery
UNC School of Medicine

Jared Gallaher, MD, MPH, FACS, is an Assistant Professor of Surgery in the Division of General and Acute Care Surgery at UNC in Chapel Hill, NC. He also has an adjunct appointment in the UNC Gilings School of Global Public Health and co-teaches a course there each spring on cost-effectiveness analysis. Dr. Gallaher graduated from Wake Forest School of Medicine in 2011 and completed his MPH at UNC Gilings School of Global Public Health in 2016. After finishing his General Surgery Residency at UNC in 2018, he completed his Surgical Critical Care Fellowship at Oregon Health Sciences University in 2019 and then returned to UNC to join the faculty in the Department of Surgery. His research focuses on global health in Malawi, especially in the fields of trauma, general surgery, and burn, and he serves as the co-director of the Malawi Surgical Initiative at UNC. He has also published clinical research on trauma and ECMO in the United States.

Shana Geary, MPH

NC DHHS/DPH
Epidemiologist

Shana Geary is an epidemiologist within the Injury and Violence Prevention Branch at the NC Division of Public Health, where she provides support with data analysis, injury surveillance, and data dissemination and works closely with the North Carolina Violent Death Reporting System. Shana has over five years of experience in applied epidemiology and public health surveillance working within state departments of health. Shana serves on several state and national workgroups focused on injury and violence surveillance and prevention. She is passionate about health equity, surveillance and systems thinking, and using informatics to improve data communication and access to public health data.

David G. Jacobs, MD

Physician
Atrium Health
David G. Jacobs, MD, is a trauma and acute-care surgeon and the Vice-Chair of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for the Department of Surgery at Atrium Health-Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, North Carolina. He also serves as the Medical Director of Atrium’s Hospital-Based Violence Intervention Program. He completed his medical education in New York City (Weill-Cornell Medical College) and his surgical training in Philadelphia (Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania) and in Cleveland (Case Western Reserve University Affiliated Hospitals). He also completed a research fellowship in Pediatric Surgery in Toronto (Sick Children’s Hospital) and a Trauma Surgery/Surgical Critical Care fellowship in Baltimore (Maryland Institute for Emergency Medical Services Systems-MIEMSS). Dr. Jacobs’ current responsibilities include teaching, research, patient care, and way too many administrative tasks. Closely related to his career as a trauma surgeon is his interest in violence prevention, reflecting his belief that today’s surgeons must also address the ethical, social, and political issues that so greatly affect the overall health and well-being of the patients for whom they provide care.

John Paul Jameson, PhD, Licensed Psychologist

Professor
Appalachian State University

Dr. JP Jameson is a Professor of Psychology at Appalachian State University and a Licensed Clinical Psychologist in North Carolina. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 2009, completed a predoctoral internship at the Salem VA Medical Center, and completed a post-doctoral residency at the Baylor College of Medicine and Michael DeBakey VA Medical Center in Houston, Texas. His research and clinical interests focus on the prediction and prevention of suicide through means safety interventions. Dr. Jameson is a master trainer in Counseling on Access to Lethal Means (CALM), a suicide prevention protocol aimed at reducing access to the most lethal suicide methods for at-risk individuals. More recently, he joined CALM America as the chief operating officer. Additionally, he is involved in numerous community-based research projects, both locally and regionally. He also directs the Assessment, Support, and Counseling (ASC) Center, a school-based mental health program operating in area school systems that provide mental health services for K-12 students free of charge.

Robyn Jordan MD, PhD

Dr. Jordan is a Board-Certified Psychiatrist and Addiction Medicine Specialist and is an Associate Professor in the UNC School of Medicine. She is the medical director of the UNC Addiction Medicine Program and serves as the Program Director for the UNC Addiction Medicine Fellowship. Dr. Jordan has led initiatives such as suboxone initiation in the UNC emergency department and developed an inpatient consult service for patients hospitalized with infection from IV drug use, reducing hospital readmissions for this population by 50%. She is now leading the NC STAR network, a statewide Hub and Spoke model for connecting addiction treatment providers across NC. Dr. Jordan remains committed to finding innovative ways to bring addiction treatment to the citizens of North Carolina.

Cherilyn Ariel Marrs, DNP, APRN, FNP-BC, FNP-C

Nurse Practitioner, UNC Acute and General Surgery

Ariel Marrs, DNP, is a trauma nurse practitioner at UNC Hospital. She received her Master of Science in Nursing degree and Doctor of Nursing Practice degree at Frontier Nursing University. Her Doctoral project focused on adequately screening and treating mental health disorders in underserved populations of North Carolina. Prior to becoming a nurse practitioner in the Department of Acute and General Surgery at UNC, she worked 6 years as a trauma nurse at UNC Hospital and 2 years as a primary care provider. Ariel has served on many committees at UNC, and most recently has helped implement the Trauma Resilience and Recovery Program at UNC, a multidisciplinary clinical service designed to address the mental health needs of patients with traumatic injuries.

Doug Moats

Corporal
Orange County Sheriff’s Office

Doug Moats serves as a corporal in the patrol division of the Orange County Sheriff’s Office (OCSO). Moats grew up in Madison, WV, where his interest in emergency services surfaced at a young age. At 13, he started working with a private ambulance company, and throughout high school, he served as a volunteer firefighter.

Corporal Moats trained as a paramedic at West Virginia State College (now University) and has over 30 years of emergency medical service, including positions with Duke Life Flight, Orange County EMS, and Carolina Air Care.

At the Sheriff’s Office, Corporal Moats is a field training officer. He is also a CPR and a Stop the Bleed instructor. He won a lifesaving award in 2014 for his work with an intoxicated person with diabetes who stopped breathing in the OCSO detention center. He won a second lifesaving award in 2022 when he used supplies from the trauma kit, which he will be presenting about at this conference, to stabilize a gunshot victim’s sucking chest wounds in the field. In his spare time, Moats serves locally as a volunteer with the Eno Fire Station.

Paul Morea, LCSW

Manager-Psychiatric Emergency Service

Dr. Motameni

Dr. Motameni is board-certified in general surgery and surgical critical care with clinical interests in general and trauma surgery. He joins WakeMed after finishing his surgical critical care fellowship at University of Louisville and working at the Robley Rex VA Medical Center in Louisville, KY. Dr. Motameni earned his medical degree from the East Carolina University Brody School of Medicine in Greenville, NC, and completed his residency and internship programs at Vidant Medical Center in Greenville, NC.

Dr. Motameni is a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha (AOA) and The Arnold P. Gold Foundation honor medical societies. His research work has been published in journals such as Annals of Surgery, Journal of American College of Surgeons and Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery. He has contributed to multiple surgical textbooks.

In his free time, Dr. Motameni enjoys traveling and reading.

Paul Perryman, MSN, MS, RN, NE-BC

Associate Director, Inpatient Psychiatry
UNC Medical Center

Paul is a second career nurse after being a middle school and high school science teacher. In 2008, Paul began his nursing career in a medical step down unit and progressed to the Cardiothoracic ICU, where he advanced through the clinical ladder over the course of 5 years. In 2016, eager for an opportunity to lead a team of nurses, Paul took a step outside his critical care box towards Inpatient Psychiatry. During his time there, he has managed Geropsychiatry, Adult Crisis, and Perinatal Psychiatry units, as well as the Electroconvulsive Therapy Clinic. In 2020, Paul was given the opportunity to serve in his current role as the Associate Director for Inpatient Psychiatry at UNC Hospitals with a primary responsibility at the Chapel Hill Campus. During his time in Psychiatry, Paul has served as Co-Chair for the Workplace Safety Program Council, started a Behavioral Response Team Oversight Committee and coordinated the opening of a COIVD Psychiatric Unit.

Scott Proescholdbell, MPH

Injury Epidemiologist and Unit Manager
NC Department of Health and Human Services

Mr. Proescholdbell joined the Injury and Violence Prevention Branch (IVPB) at the North Carolina Division of Public Health in 2008 to head the Injury Epidemiology, Surveillance and Informatics Unit, where he is the Principal Investigator of the NC Violent Death Reporting System (NC-VDRS), NC Overdose Data to Action (NC-OD2A) and NC Firearm Injury Surveillance Through Emergency Rooms (NC-FASTER) CDC cooperative agreements. He serves on several state and national workgroups addressing drug overdose, injury, and violence. He has an Adjunct Faculty appointment with the Department of Epidemiology at UNC Gilling’s School of Global Public Health at UNC.

Carolyn S. Quinsey, MD

Clinical Assistant Professor
UNC School of Medicine / Department of Neurosurgery

Dr. Carolyn Quinsey is an Associate Professor of Pediatric Neurosurgery at UNC, specializing in minimally invasive surgery and neuroendoscopy. She completed her neurosurgical residency at UNC, and her pediatric neurosurgery fellowship at Oregon Health Science University.

Dr. Quinsey is devoted to training the next generation of neurosurgeons both in the United States and abroad. She is currently the associate program director of the UNC Department of Neurosurgery where she directs the skull base lab for residents. She travels to Africa regularly and is currently developing a program to train neurosurgeons in Malawi. Dr. Quinsey’s international public health initiative is to provide ongoing education in subspecialty areas, and to help doctors in Africa find the resources and support they need to provide self-sustaining neurosurgical care.

Mark Stover, BS, NRP, FP-C

Flight Paramedic
UNC Carolina Air Care

Over a career much longer than he will admit, Mark Stover has been involved in numerous types of EMS and rescue systems, including ocean rescue, urban fire department-based EMS and rescue, rural EMS, critical care transport, hazardous materials team operations, and flight medicine. During those years, Mark has served in the capacity of paramedic crew chief, field training officer, departmental supervisor, state training coordinator, and paramedic educator. He now functions in direct patient care in the critical care transport setting, the primary reason he became a paramedic to begin with. Currently, Mark is a member of Carolina Air Care at the University of North Carolina Health Care, where he functions as a flight paramedic.

Shiva Zargham, MD, MsC

Assistant Professor of Pediatrics Division of Pediatric Emergency Medicine
UNC Medical Center

Shiva Zargham is a pediatric emergency medicine physician and assistant professor of pediatrics at UNC-Chapel Hill. She attended both medical school and residency at East Carolina University. She stayed an additional two years on faculty at ECU as a pediatric chief resident and then serving as assistant program director of the pediatric residency. She then went on to University of Louisville for her pediatric emergency medicine fellowship and masters in clinical investigation. She has been at UNC-CH for over 3.5 years working in the pediatric emergency department and pediatric urgent care. Her focus is on debriefing after clinical events, simulation and education.