Community Health and Research Administration Team

Jana L. Casteel is the associate research finance director for the Office of Community Health and Research at the UAMS Northwest Regional Campus. Ms. Casteel holds a master’s degree in health services administration from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and a bachelor’s in community health education from the University of Central Arkansas. She began her health care administration career at UAMS in 2001, and for more than 18 years, held various positions within the institution — director of finance for the Myeloma Institute, fiscal officer for the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement, and program manager for the Institute on Aging. Before joining the the Office of Community Health and Research, she held the position of Manager — Finance and Grants at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. Ms. Casteel has extensive experience in financial management and reporting as well as pre- and post-award grants/contracts management, primarily in the healthcare setting.  It is Ms. Casteel’s professional goal to use her knowledge and skills to help leverage sustainable community-based healthcare programs for the citizens of northwest Arkansas.

Email: JLCasteel@uams.edu 

Whitney Parker holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism with an emphasis in public relations from San Diego State University. She has extensive experience in coordinating client transactions involving many moving parts and collaborating with a variety of internal team members. In her current role with UAMS, she manages office functionality as well as the administrative team, and is the primary contact between the department and other UAMS departments. Ms. Parker enjoys conducting research, analyzing information and processes in order to develop more effective strategies and policies for the department. It is through this position that Ms. Parker hopes to create a highly functioning, collaborative and organized work environment, where all members of the team feel involved and welcomed.

Email: WParker2@uams.edu

Karen Barnes is an Executive Assistant at UAMS Office of Community Health and Research. She attended the University of Arkansas-Monticello. Ms. Barnes has extensive experience supporting academic leaders in the University of Arkansas System, as well as C-suite executives of several Fortune 500 companies in Arkansas. She is a Dale Carnegie graduate. In her current role at UAMS, Ms. Barnes’ goal is to support the mission and research of the UAMS Office of Community Health and Research for a more healthy and inclusive community.

Email: KSBarnes@uams.edu

Email: ABCleek@uams.edu

Carri Lynn George is a program manager in the Office of Community Health and Research at UAMS. She earned her bachelor’s degree in English at the College of William & Mary. Ms. George has more than 30 years’ experience developing, implementing and managing programs designed to increase access for and inclusion of people with disabilities. She has worked at the national, regional and local levels as a trainer, technical assistance provider, project director, writer and advocate. She is skilled in facilitating work groups and is able to communicate in Spanish and American Sign Language. She plans to continue working to remove barriers to full inclusion for under-represented populations and addressing systemic factors that contribute to disparities in health, education and employment.

Email: CLGeorge2@uams.edu

Tesse Graham-Livingston has a master’s degree in social work. She currently serves as a program manager in the Office of Community Health and Research at UAMS. Prior to joining UAMS, she spent a decade working as data outcomes specialist at a federally qualified health center (FQHC). She has extensive experience working on the development and implementation of large-scale health initiatives with minority and underserved populations including Hispanic/Latino and Pacific Islander communities. Ms. Graham-Livingston has experience with qualitative and quantitative data analysis and funding proposal development.

Email: TGrahamLivingston@uams.edu

Email: RHarton@uams.edu

Email: GHawkins@uams.edu

Email: MIngram@uams.edu

Michael Mellinger holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Marshall University located in West Virginia. He is currently the budget department analyst for the Office of Community Health and Research at the UAMS Northwest Regional Campus. He possesses six years of experience working with financial data, spreadsheet management, problem analysis, and procurement and logistics for projects.

Email: MDMellinger@uams.edu

Joy Moix is a business administrator in the Office of Community Health and Research. She is responsible for a variety of tasks to ensure the smooth daily operation of the Office of Community Health and Research. Duties include supporting senior staff, managing files and data, monitoring day-to-day Office of Community Health and Research operations, interacting with external partners, improving employee performance, negotiating contracts, and analyzing financial data.  She has over 15 years of experience In business operations and accounting, as well as negotiation; contract and grant accounting; grant and contract budget closeout procedures; fund allocation; time and effort tracking; accounts payable tracking; payments and account reconciliation; state and federal government reporting; purchasing; inventory control; and staff management and training.

Email: MoixJoy@uams.edu

Josh Rice, B.A., is a research project manager for the Office of Community Health and Research. In 2017, Josh moved from Fayetteville, Arkansas, to Columbia, Missouri, to begin working in medical research at the University of Missouri, School of Medicine. Josh’s experience with research grew with MU Center for Precision Medicine, which he managed until summer of 2021, when Josh returned to home — to northwest Arkansas. Josh obtained a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Arkansas with emphasis on international politics and pre-law. Josh has over five years of experience in the field, and started his career with UAMS by applying his experiences managing a culturally and educationally diverse basic science research lab to helping to provide healthy foods to food insecure rural Arkansans with T2D, and in leading and assisting with departmental projects to improve operations for the Office of Community Health and Research. This work encompasses a broad variety of operations, ranging from investigating, coordinating, and launching the Tango Gift Cards program to the design and implementation of the logistical research arm for the aforementioned NIH R01 food delivery project. Josh hopes to continually diversify the projects and teams that he is working closely with, and to better familiarize himself with a wider scope of the needs of the Office of Community Health and Research and those of the diverse Arkansas communities that it serves. This — Josh does with aim to continually gain a more insightful perspective, and thereby yield more impactful improvements to the various projects that serve these growing Arkansas communities.

Email: JTRice@uams.edu

Reade Zodrow is a program manager for the UAMS Northwest Regional Campus. Reade received a Master of Business Administration and a graduate certificate in health care administration. He has worked in healthcare administration for 7 years and has experience in developing clinical budgets and benchmarking, managing and forming collaborations between organizations and departments, and implementing continuing medical education activities for clinicians and students. With his experience, Mr. Zodrow plans to continue expanding UAMS’ impact in northwest Arkansas.

Email: RDZodrow@uams.edu