Administration
Michael Waldrum, MD, MSc, MBA
Chief Executive Officer of ECU Health
Dean of the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University
Dr. Michael Waldrum, a Nashville, Tennessee native, is chief executive officer (CEO) of ECU Health. Waldrum is a specialist in critical care medicine and pulmonology and is trained in internal medicine. He has expertise in clinical effectiveness, information system and health care management in academic organizations.
Waldrum has significant expertise and experience managing the clinical operations of hospitals and clinics. Before coming to eastern North Carolina, he served as the president and CEO of The University of Arizona Health Network. Prior to that he was the CEO of the University of Alabama Hospital at Birmingham (UAB) and vice president of the UAB Health system. He also served as chief operating officer and chief information officer of the UAB Health System.
Waldrum is a member of the CaroNova Board of Directors, the NC East Alliance Board of Directors and the Greenville Pitt County Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors. Waldrum also serves as the chair of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) Board of Directors where he has held board leadership positions since 2020.
Waldrum graduated from the University of The South Sewanee in Tennessee with a BA in English and the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine. He completed his residency at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, received a Master’s Degree in epidemiology from Harvard School of Public Health and earned his MBA from the University of Michigan.
Jason Higginson, MD, MA, FAAP
Executive Dean
Dr. Jason Higginson was named executive dean of the Brody School of Medicine and Chief Health Officer ECU Health in June 2021. HE also serves as a practicing physician in the neonatal intensive care unit of ECU Health Medical Center and as a professor for pediatrics and bioethics and interdisciplinary studies at Brody.
He earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from UCLA, a master’s degree in bioethics and health policy from Loyola University Chicago, graduated with distinction from the Naval War College Command and Staff program and is also a graduate of National Defense University’s Joint Forces Staff College. He received his Doctor of Medicine from the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He completed his general pediatrics training at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland and went on to complete a fellowship in neonatal-perinatal medicine at the National Capitol Consortium and National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland.
Prior to his appointment as executive dean Dr. Higginson served the Brody School of Medicine in many roles including as chair of the school’s Department of Pediatrics, Pediatrician-in-Chief of Maynard Children’s Hospital, chief of neonatology, and medical director for the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and Newborn Medicine.
Dr. Higginson came to Brody in 2012 after 13 years of active duty in the U.S. Navy. He continued to serve in the U.S. Navy Reserve as a captain until his retirement in 2025. He served as the commanding officer of Navy Reserve Navy Medical Readiness and Training Command, Bethesda at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Bethesda, Maryland, and the Chair of the Medical Executive Committee for the U.S. Navy Reserve and was a member of the Navy Operational Medicine Advisory Council.
Michelle Brooks, MSN, RN
Executive Vice Dean, Brody School of Medicine
East Carolina University
After three and a half years as the chief of staff to the vice chancellor, health sciences division, Brooks was appointed executive vice dean of the Brody School of Medicine in 2022. As an advisor to the executive dean, she provides coordination and oversight of core initiatives, oversees operational and administrative functions and serves as the university’s legislative liaison, focusing on health care and health care workforce issues at the state and federal level.
Brooks joined ECU in 2013 as the director of strategic initiatives in the Office of the Chancellor, where her primary role was to develop and implement strategies to impact public policy and funding that supported key university initiatives.
A long-time resident of Greenville, Brooks enjoyed a 30-year career at ECU Health (formerly Vidant Health), where she served in a variety of positions from bedside nursing to executive leadership.
Brooks earned a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Master of Science in Nursing from East Carolina University.
Brooks earned her Master of Science in Nursing from East Carolina University.
Senior Leadership
L. Lorraine Basnight, MD
Associate Dean for Continuing Medical Education
Kori L Brewer, PhD
Director of Foundational Science Integration
Nicholas Broskey, PhD
Interim Director, East Carolina Diabetes and Obesity Institute
Mary Catherine Turner, MD, FACP, FAAP
Associate Dean of Graduate Medical Education
John Cavanagh, PhD
Associate Dean of Research and Chair of Foundational Sciences
James P Coleman, PhD
Director of Course and Grading Architecture
Cassandra Dixon, PhD
Associate Dean, Office of Student Success and Wellness
David L. Eldridge, MD
Senior Associate Dean of Academic Affairs
Sheena Eagan, PhD
Director of Medical Humanities Distinction Track in Medical Education
Melissa Eakes
Director, Business and Administrative Affairs
Allison Flowers, EdD, MAEd
Associate Dean, Office of Faculty Affairs & Leadership Development
Jason Foltz, DO
Chief Medical Officer, ECU Health Physicians
Richard Franklin, PhD
Assistant Dean for Graduate Studies
Leekemase (Kema) Gadson, EdD
Associate Dean for Student Affairs, Foundational Sciences
Amanda Higginson, MD
Associate Dean for Student Affairs, Clinical Sciences
Shaundreal Jamison, MD
Interim Associate Dean of Admissions
Jennifer Parker-Cote, MD
Assistant Dean of Clinical Simulation
Sy Saeed, MD
Director, ECU Center for Telepsychiatry and e-Behavioral Health; Executive Director, North Carolina Statewide Telepsychiatry Program (NC-STeP)
Joel Stocks, CPA
Associate Vice Chancellor, ECU Health Financial Management & Reporting and Executive Treasurer, ECU Foundation, Inc
David Tulis, PhD
Director of the Research Distinction Track in Medical Education
Dmitry Tumin, PhD
Associate Dean of Clinical and Educational Scholarship
Alyssa Spence
Director, North Carolina Agromedicine Institute
Krista Wilhelm
Director, Alumni Affairs
Robert Carroll, PhD
Associate Dean of Undergraduate Medical Education (Interim)
Emmanuel Zervos, MD, FACS
Executive Director, ECU Health Cancer Care
Afrah Ali, MBBS
Associate Dean of Clinical Simulation