Obstetrics & Gynecology Residency Program
Find out about the Obstetrics & Gynecology Residency Program from our residents and faculty.
Learn more about residencies and fellowships at the University of South Alabama and life on the Gulf Coast.
Thanks for considering an OB/GYN residency at the University of South Alabama College
of Medicine.
We offer a remarkable experience for our residents, and we are looking for candidates who want to grow from that experience into physicians who make a difference in the world.
USA Health includes Children & Women’s Hospital, a freestanding hospital with a Level 3 neonatal intensive care unit, University Hospital with a Level 1 trauma, stroke, and burn care center, and Mitchell Cancer Institute, a freestanding cancer and research center. Here we serve a remarkably diverse patient base, and we pride ourselves on attracting a similarly diverse class of residents.
Our residents receive education and training in patient care, surgery including robotic training, and inpatient and outpatient management of acute obstetric and gynecologic conditions. Didactics include weekly grand rounds, monthly morbidity and mortality conference, and weekly didactic presentations resulting in well-trained and well-prepared OB-GYN specialists. While most of our residents choose to enter private practice, opportunities for preparing for fellowships are readily available.
Participation in research and teaching experiences prepare those who are interested in sub-specialty training and academic medicine. Our residents have the opportunity to work directly with an array of subspecialty experts. A 1:1 resident/faculty ratio results in close contact with faculty who provide both clinical supervision and expertise as well as rewarding mentorship. We see a high volume of OB and GYN patients, many of them high acuity. Our service area includes some of the sickest and most disenfranchised patients in the developed world, an issue we work diligently to alleviate.
Residency is not all about work and we pride ourselves on building friendships within the large USA family. Mobile is a wonderful place to live with many cultural and recreational opportunities that provide a wide variety of activities. A port city full of arts, sports, universities, festivities, and beach access. Mobile pride’s itself as the birthplace of Mardi Gras and enjoys having a variety of events on a regular basis.
After enjoying four years of training in Mobile, you can leave our residency program ready to serve patients anywhere in the world — whether you choose a sophisticated urban environment or mission work in a low-resource setting.
While residents work closely with attending staff, the residents themselves govern many aspects of the program, setting schedules and rotations and developing their leadership skills. We are always looking for new initiatives and programs to make the lives of our residents and our patients better and more fulfilling.
We invite you to consider becoming part of the USA team.
Tracy Roth, M.D.
Program Director
The OB/GYN residency program at the University of South Alabama is a fully accredited 4-year residency providing training in the full spectrum of the specialty. The program is based at USA Health Children's & Women's Hospital (CW), which is part of a larger integrated system consisting of two acute care facilities (the University Hospital or UH and CW) as well as an academic cancer and oncology research center. In addition, residents participate in surgical cases with our Gyn oncologists and REI physicians at an affiliated community hospital across the street from CW.
The residency has 4 residents at each level. The faculty consists of full-time attendings as well as private clinical physicians. Full time faculty includes 7 OB/GYN specialists, 3 Maternal-Fetal Medicine, 4 Gynecologic Oncologists, and 1 Urogynecologist. In addition, there are 3 Reproductive endocrinologists at the adjacent facility. Two of our OB/GYN specialists are Peds and Adolescent Gynecology certified. The OB/GYN department is supported by multiple nurse practitioners in both the inpatient and outpatient setting.
Residents obtain a broad primary care experience through a clinic set-up to emulate a private practice model. Patients are followed in the same resident's continuity clinic throughout their residency to allow for the development of a long term patient-physician relationship and continuity of care.
We pride ourselves on our diversity with 30% minority residents, something we are actively seeking to continue. We also want to increase our diversity specifically in underrepresented in medicine (URM). In order to achieve this we will continue to provide a holistic application review, promote health disparities activities within the program and curriculum, and promote unconscious bias, racial literacy, etc. activity within the program and curriculum.
Our mission is to train the next generation of Obstetricians and Gynecologists to make a meaningful difference in the lives of our patients on the Gulf Coast and beyond by promoting discovery, quality, and lifelong learning to advance women's health.
- Provide exceptional medical, surgical and clinical training for physicians specializing in obstetrics and gynecology to become future leaders in women’s health along the Gulf Coast and beyond.
- Provide an environment that promotes high quality and innovative patient-centered care as well as inquiry and scholarship across the patient care continuum.
- Promote lifelong learning throughout the residency and beyond by supporting faculty and graduate development.
Our OBGYN Department recognizes the importance of emphasizing diversity, equity, and inclusion in our student body, residents, faculty, and staff, and we have initiatives to support these efforts. We plan to continue our work with our University’s DEI office in creating more opportunities. To better serve our very diverse community and our future OBGYNs, our Department:
- Uses a holistic review of every OBGYN residency applicant by the same 3 member committee
- Conducts “cold” interviews of our residency applicants (only the applicant’s name, hometown, institution, and hobbies are shared with our interviewers)
- Recognizes and values diversity of experience, including “distance traveled”
- Requires only passing of USMLE Step 1 and 2 exams
- Trains our faculty and residents in unconscious and implicit bias as well as microaggressions
- Serves two Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) clinics:
- Mostellar Medical Clinic in Bayou Le Batre, AL (a fishing village)
- Franklin Medical Clinic in Mobile
- Conducts research that focuses on racial bias, access to care, social determinants of health, and health disparities
- Partners with USA medical student interest groups with focuses on DEI efforts
Typical resident experience for the 2019 graduating class is:
| Obstetrics | |
|---|---|
| Spontaneous Delivery | 253 |
| Operative Vaginal Delivery | 26 |
| Cesarean Delivery | 193 |
| Gynecology | |
|---|---|
| Abdominal Hysterectomy | 43 |
| Vaginal Hysterectomy | 24 |
| Laparoscopic Hysterectomy (includes Robotic Hysterectomy) | 50 |
| Incontinence and Pelvic Floor | 54 |
| Operative Laparoscopy | 91 |
| Hysteroscopy | 40 |
| Surgery for Invasive Cancer | 69 |
The Obstetrics and Gynecology Residency at the University of South Alabama utilizes the Council on Resident Education in Obstetrics and Gynecology (CREOG) objectives as a model to ensure a comprehensive education in the specialty. This is done using a combination of clinical and surgical teaching, formal didactic sessions, surgical simulations, organized rounds, and impromptu talks. In addition, the residents have access to both online and hardbound textbooks, resources, prologs, online question bank and clinical case-based educational software to round out self-study educational time. A sample day is described below:
Fridays are reserved for academic time for residents and some faculty:
7:30-8:30am Grand Rounds (M&M replaces grand rounds every 4th Friday)
8:30-9am Resident meeting with Dr. Pierce
9-9:30am Resident lecture on assigned topic
9:30-10:15am Faculty OB/GYN lecture
10:15-11am Faculty subspecialist lecture
11-12pm Gyn oncology tumor board
Fetal board
Gyn preoperative conference
12-1pm Wellness lunch (monthly)
- First Friday of every month is Sim lab time followed by Resident Research Curriculum.
- Every September the residents spend all four Fridays in the Anatomy Lab for dissections
with an anatomist and faculty from the department.
- Every time there is a fifth Friday in a month, residents have didactic time free from
responsibilities for medical/dental appointments and other important life tasks.
- Journal club occurs monthly (virtually at the moment) jointly hosted by the department and Mobile OB/GYN Society. We are excited to add a cooking club component to our journal club this year to promote healthy bodies and a healthy planet by increasing our knowledge of plant based meals. We can’t wait to tell you more about this!
Rotations
| PGY 1 | Number of Block(s) |
|---|---|
| OB/GYN Introduction ("Buddy" Block) | 1 |
| Labor & Delivery | 3 |
| Gynecology | 3 |
| Ultrasound | 1 |
| High-Risk Obstetrics | 1 |
| Night Float | 3 |
| Oncology | 1 |
| PGY 2 | Number of Block(s) |
|---|---|
| Labor & Delivery | 3 |
| Gynecology | 1 |
| High-Risk Obstetrics | 2 |
| Night Float | 3 |
| Oncology | 2 |
| Reproductive Endocrinology | 1 |
| PGY 3 | Number of Block(s) |
|---|---|
| Labor & Delivery | 2 |
| Gynecology | 3 |
| High-Risk Obstetrics | 1 |
| Night Float | 2 |
| Oncology | 1 |
| Reproductive Endocrinology | 1 |
| Elective | 1 |
| PGY 4 | Number of Block(s) |
|---|---|
| Labor & Delivery | 1 |
| Gynecology | 3 |
| High-Risk Obstetrics | 2 |
| Night Float | 1 |
| Oncology | 2 |
| Reproductive Endocrinology | 1 |
| Private Gynecology/Ambulatory | 1 |
* All electives must be approved by the program director.
PGY IV
- Alexandra Berger, D.O., Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine, New York, New York
- Christine Hude, M.D., Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine, Rochester, Minnesota
- Jonathan Jones, M.D., Frederick P. Whiddon College of Medicine, Mobile, Alabama
- Audrey Murphy, M.D., Frederick P. Whiddon College of Medicine, Mobile, Alabama
PGY III
- Hannah Alford, M.D., East Tennessee State University Quillen College of Medicine, Johnson City, Tennessee
- Grant Barry, D.O., Lincoln Memorial University / DeBusk College of Osteopathic Medicine, Harrogate, Tennessee
- Hayden Kassels, M.D., Frederick P. Whiddon College of Medicine, Mobile, Alabama
- Sara Stringfellow, M.D., Frederick P. Whiddon College of Medicine, Mobile, Alabama
PGY II
- Kendal Dekle-Garrison, M.D., Frederick P. Whiddon College of Medicine, Mobile, Alabama
- Angela Mosley-Johnson, M.D., Frederick P. Whiddon College of Medicine, Mobile, Alabama
- Paige Pettus, M.D., Louisiana State University School of Medicine, New Orleans, Louisiana
- Macy Vickers, M.D., Frederick P. Whiddon College of Medicine, Mobile, Alabama
PGY I
- Courtney Bryant Perkins, M.D., Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine, Miami, Florida
- Meghan McNeely, M.D., Louisiana State University School of Medicine, New Orleans, Louisiana
- Cody Roberts, M.D., Frederick P. Whiddon College of Medicine, Mobile, Alabama
- Natalie Seman, M.D., Augusta University / Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, Georgia
Program Director: Tracy Roth, M.D.
Associate Program Director: Craig Sherman, M.D.
Assistant Program Director: Candice Holliday, J.D., M.D.
Program Coordinator: Shavella Kelly
Email: skelly@health.southalabama.edu
Address: 251 Cox St, Suite 100, Mobile, AL 36604
Telephone: (251) 415-1557 • Fax: (251) 415-1552