HJAR Mar/Apr 2026

32 MAR / APR 2026  I  HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF ARKANSAS   Healthcare Briefs admissions or scholarship selection committee within each college. UAMS College of Nursing Receives 10-Year Accreditation for Nurse Anesthesia Program UAMS College of Nursing’s Nurse Anesthe- sia Program was awarded continued accredita- tion for a 10-year term through the Council on Accreditation of Nurse Anesthesia Educational Programs (COA). The COA is the only organization recognized by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation and the U.S. Department of Education to accredit the 154 nurse anesthesia educational programs located in the United States. This marks the first time the Nurse Anesthesia Program has received its continued accredita- tion, which is awarded to established programs that have demonstrated a record of achievement and stability. The UAMS program welcomed its first students in 2020 after receiving an initial five- year accreditation — the maximum awarded for new programs. The College of Nursing also recently received accreditation renewals through the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education for its Bachelor of Science in Nursing, Master of Nursing Science, and Doctor of Nursing Practice degree programs and the postgraduate advanced practice regis- tered nurse (APRN) certificate program for the maximum term of 10 years. Radiation Oncologist Sondos Alkhatib, MD, Joins UAMS Fellowship-trained, board-certified radiation oncologist Sondos Alkhatib, MD, has joined UAMS as an assistant professor in the radiation oncology department in the UAMS College of Medicine. Alkhatib specializes in the treatment of gyneco- logic and breast cancers. She is certified by the American Board of Radiology and the Jordanian Board of Radiation Oncology. Alkhatib completed her residency in radiation oncology at Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, where she was chief resident. She earned her medical degree from the University of Jordan School of Medicine in Amman, Jordan. She com- pleted an earlier residency in radiation oncology at King Hussein Cancer Center, also in Amman. Alkhatib completed a specialized gynecologic brachytherapy fellowship at Baylor Health System in Houston through the American Brachytherapy Society “300 in 10” fellowship program. Alkhatib has received multiple honors for her clinical, research, and global health contributions, including the Global Health Scholar Award from the American Society of Radiation Oncology. She has authored numerous peer-reviewed publica- tions in leading oncology journals. Alkhatib sees patients at the UAMS Radiation Oncology Center and is accepting new patients. UAMS Appoints Associate Deans in College of Nursing Nickolas Zaller, PhD, and Tracie Seidl, MPA, have been appointed as associate deans in the UAMS College of Nursing. Zaller, an internationally known addiction researcher, was hired as the College of Nursing’s associate dean for research. The appointment marks his return to UAMS after serving from 2024– 25 as senior director for research and evaluation at the Health Alliance for Violence Intervention, a national organization that supports hospital- based violence intervention programs. Zaller’s previous stint at UAMS began in 2014 when he was hired as an associate professor in the Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health. In the ensuing decade, he went on to serve in a vari- ety of roles at the university, including as director of the UAMS Office of Global Health; as co-direc- tor of the College of Public Health’s Rural and Global Public Health Program; and as founding director of the college’s Southern Public Health Criminal Justice Research Center. Zaller earned his bachelor’s degree in microbi- ology and East Asian studies from the University of Kansas in 1999. He lived in China for a year as a Fulbright Scholar before completing a doctor- ate in public health at the Johns Hopkins Bloom- berg School of Public Health in 2004. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship in sub- stance use and HIV and related infections at The Miriam Hospital, a teaching hospital of the Alp- ert Medical School of Brown University. Zaller later was appointed to the faculty at the Center for AIDS Research at Brown University, where he served until he came to UAMS. Seidl, a UAMS employee for more than 20 years, was named as the College of Nursing’s associate dean for finance and administration. Her experience is in managing budgets, health- care compliance, and program development. She arrived at UAMS in 2004 and held roles as a project specialist, grant administrator, and department compliance manager. Most recently, Nickolas Zaller, PhD Tracie Seidl, MPA Sondos Alkhatib, MD