Qualenta Forrest has been named vice president of human resources for the CHI St. Vincent health system. She will be responsible for recruitment, talent management, employee engagement, regulatory compliance, compensation and other HR functions.
“We’re fortunate at CHI St. Vincent to have an incredible staff committed to our healing ministry across Central and Southwest Arkansas,” said CHI St. Vincent CEO Chad Aduddell. “We look forward to the vision and leadership Qualenta now brings as we make sure they feel celebrated as well and we continue to recruit the very best healthcare professionals to deliver exceptional care in our communities.”
Forrest most recently served as the associate chief people officer for the Medical University of South Carolina, and she previously worked as division HR director for CHI St. Luke’s Health System in Texas.
A native of Jacksonville, Forrest has bachelor’s degrees from the University of Arkansas in Spanish and law enforcement and a law degree from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock’s William H. Bowen School of Law.
Rhonda Dixon, an advanced practice registered nurse, began practicing this month at Conway Regional Health System’s Prince Street Clinic. Dixon is a graduate of the University of Central Arkansas, where she achieved her master’s degree in nursing.
UAMS
Dr. Victoria Flynn, Dr. Amy Grooms, Dr. Srinivasa Gokarakonda and Dr. Molly Reeves are psychiatrists who have recently joined the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock.
Flynn and Grooms, who have joined the Walker Family Clinic in the UAMS Psychiatric Research Institute, are assistant professors in the Department of Psychiatry in the UAMS College of Medicine.
Flynn completed her medical degree and residency at UAMS.
Grooms completed her medical degree at UAMS and her residency at Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University in Providence. She most recently served as a consult liaison psychiatrist with the Miriam Hospital’s Department of Psychiatry and as an outpatient psychiatrist with Gateway Healthcare, both in Rhode Island.
Gokarakonda and Reeves are assistant professors in the Department of Psychiatry and work in the UAMS outpatient Child Study Center. Gokarakonda also sees patients in the Center for Addiction Services & Treatment in the UAMS Psychiatric Research Institute.
Gokarakonda completed a residency in psychiatry at UAMS in 2017 and a fellowship in child and adolescent psychiatry in 2019.
Reeves graduated from the UAMS College of Medicine in 2013 and completed a residency in psychiatry at the University of Texas for Health Sciences in San Antonio, Texas. She completed a fellowship in child and adolescent psychiatry at the University of Alabama in Birmingham in 2018.
Dr. Matthew Nix, an associate professor at UAMS and medical director for the UAMS Family Medical Center in Texarkana, is the new president of the Arkansas chapter of the American Academy of Family Physicians.
See more of this week’s Movers & Shakers, and submit your own announcement at ArkansasBusiness.com/Movers.
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