Melanoma Speaker Series May 21 to Feature UAMS Cancer Surgeon Kent Westbrook, M.D.
| LITTLE ROCK – Kent Westbrook, M.D., a surgeon at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), will be the featured speaker at the second annual Colonel William “Randy” Holland Memorial Speaker Series on Melanoma on May 21.
Westbrook will present “Melanoma: Diagnosis and Treatment” at noon May 21 in the Pauly Auditorium (Room G219) of the UAMS College of Public Health. Co-founder of the UAMS Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, Westbrook is a distinguished professor of surgery in the UAMS College of Medicine.
The Holland Memorial Speaker Series honors the memory of retired Arkansas Army National Guard Col. William “Randy” Holland. Friends and family of Holland established the lecture series in 2008 to honor him and the many UAMS physicians, nurses and staff members at UAMS who treated and assisted him during his three-year battle with cancer.
Holland was diagnosed with Stage IV malignant metastasized melanoma in February 2005. He died in 2007.
Holland enjoyed a 42-year career with the Arkansas Army National Guard, having enlisted on his 17th birthday. He was soon named a lieutenant, obtained a degree in geography from Arkansas State Teacher’s College (now the University of Central Arkansas) and graduated from helicopter flight school.
He later became a full-time instructor pilot and the state area command aviation officer. Holland retired in 2005 as a colonel, having amassed more than 4,700 flight hours and numerous awards and honors.
The Holland Memorial Speaker Series is offered in conjunction with the UAMS Department of Dermatology, the UAMS College of Medicine, the Arkansas Central Cancer Registry and the Arkansas Cancer Coalition.
UAMS is the state’s only comprehensive academic health center, with colleges of Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Health Related Professions and Public Health; a graduate school; a 540,000-square-foot hospital; six centers of excellence and a statewide network of regional centers. UAMS has 2,775 students and 748 medical residents. Its centers of excellence include the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, the Jackson T. Stephens Spine & Neurosciences Institute, the Myeloma Institute for Research and Therapy, the Harvey & Bernice Jones Eye Institute, the Psychiatric Research Institute and the Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging. It is the state’s largest public employer with more than 10,000 employees, including nearly 1,150 physicians who provide medical care to patients at UAMS, Arkansas Children’s Hospital, the VA Medical Center and UAMS’ Area Health Education Centers throughout the state. Visit www.uams.edu or uamshealth.com.