HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – The Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine Alumni Association recently appointed five local physicians to new roles on its board of directors.

Board-certified radiologist Robert J. Cure, M.D., begins a two-year term as president. Cure is a native of Gary, West Virginia, who graduated from the Marshall School of Medicine in 1998 and completed a transitional internship at Marshall prior to a diagnostic radiology residency at the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta. Cure joined Radiology Inc. in 2003, and serves as chief of the department of radiology at Three Rivers Medical Center in Louisa, Kentucky, while providing services at multiple hospitals across the tri-state. Cure replaces Krista L. Denning, M.D. (’04), as president. Denning continues her service as immediate past president.

Adam M. Franks, M.D., a board-certified family medicine physician with Marshall Health, has been appointed president-elect. He graduated from the Marshall School of Medicine in 1999, where he also completed an accelerated residency. After completing an advanced maternal care fellowship at the University of Tennessee in Memphis, Franks joined Marshall Family Medicine in 2002 and is a professor in the department of family and community health.

Andrea M. Lauffer, M.D., Dana S. Lycans, M.D., and Kelly E. Melvin, M.D., have each been appointed to serve a four-year term as members on the board of directors.

Lauffer is a 2010 graduate of the Marshall School of Medicine, where she also completed her internal medicine-pediatrics residency. After practicing hospital and outpatient medicine at St. Mary’s Medical Center for several years, Lauffer joined Marshall’s department of pediatrics as an assistant professor and pediatric hospital medicine specialist in July 2020 and also serves as the chief health officer for Cabell County Schools. Lauffer is a native of Hurricane, West Virginia.

Lycans graduated from the Marshall School of Medicine in 2013 and went on to complete his orthopaedic surgery residency at Marshall, followed by an orthopaedic sports medicine fellowship at the American Sports Medicine Institute in Birmingham, Alabama. Lycans returned to West Virginia in 2019 to join Marshall’s faculty as an assistant professor in the department of orthopaedic surgery, where he specializes in sports medicine and serves as a team physician for Marshall Athletics. Lycans is a native of Wayne, West Virginia.

Melvin (’05) is an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral medicine at the Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine. He joined Marshall’s faculty in 2012. He has served in multiple leadership roles within the department, including clerkship director and now serves as program director for the child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship. He was voted “Best Attending” by the Class of 2017 and “Best Mentor” by the Class of 2018.

Other board members include Nancy Norton, M.D. (’99), secretary/treasurer; Matthew Q. Christiansen, M.D. (’13); C. Andrew Gilliland, M.D. (’07); Robert A. Hess, M.D. (’84); Andrea L. Kellar, M.D. (’07); Adrienne M. Mays-Kingston, M.D. (’09); Justin M. Nolte, M.D. (’07); Gary J. Petty, M.D. (’92); Jay A. Shepherd, M.D. (’07); Friday G. Simpson, M.D. (’91); and Lucia I. Soltis, M.D. (’08).

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Date Posted: Tuesday, September 8, 2020