Faculty and Staff

Dr. Brown is a Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Gastroenterology and Heptology at the Medical University of South Carolina. He did a two year Gastroenterology Fellowship at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, MD while on active duty with the U.S. Navy. He is board certified in internal medicine and gastroenterology.

Prior to coming to MUSC, Dr. Brown worked for several years at Wright.

State University School of Medicine and the Kettering Medical Center where he held several key positions including Chairman of the Department of Medicine and President of the Medical Staff.

Dr. Brown is a member of several gastroenterology organizations including the American Gastroenterological Association, American College of Gastroenterology, and the American Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy.

Dr. Brown's clinical interests are Esophageal Diseases, Colorectal Cancer Screening, and Gastrointestinal Motility.

Dr. Donald Castell is a 1960 graduate of the George Washington University School of Medicine, and served as a medical officer in the U.S. Navy from 1959 to 1979. Before retiring with the rank of captain, he spent his last four years of active service as Chairman of Medicine at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. He has held faculty positions at George Washington University School of Medicine, the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bowman Gray School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, NC and Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, PA.

From April, 1992 - September, 2001 he was the Kimbel Professor and Chairman of the Department of Medicine at Graduate Hospital in Philadelphia, PA and Professor of Medicine. In October, 2001 Dr. Castell joined the faculty of the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston where he is Professor of Medicine and Director of the Esophageal Disorders Program. Dr. Castell was President of the American Gastroenterological Association from 1998 - 1999.

Dr. Castell is internationally recognized as a leading authority on diseases of the esophagus and esophageal function, and has authored or co-authored more than 500 scientific publications. He is also the editor and principal contributor of The Esophagus, the primary text on this subject, a definitive 714-page text published by Little, Brown, and Company. The second edition of The Esophagus was released in the Spring of 1995. The third edition of The Esophagus was published in 1999. The fourth edition of The Esophagus was published in 2004.

Dr. Comerford is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Divison of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the Medical University of South Carolina. Dr. Comerford graduated from the U. S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland in 1983 and served on active duty with the U. S. Navy until 1993. Upon completion of his active duty, he attended medical school here at the Medical University of South Carolina, receiving his M. D. degree in 1997. He completed his Residency at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota in 2000 and then completed a three year Gastroenterology Fellowship at the University of Virginia Health System in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2003. Dr. Comerford is board certified in Internal Medicine.

Dr. Comerford is a member of several professional organizations including Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of America, American Gastroenterological Association, American College of Gastroenterology, American Medical Association, and American College of Physicians-American Society of Internal Medicine.

He has received several honors/awards during his career including the Department of Medicine's "Attitude, Commitment, and Excellence Award" from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, the American College of Gastroenterology Fellow Clinical Research Award, and the American College of Gastroenterology/Centocor IBD Abstract Award.

Dr Cotton was born in England, where his father was a rural family physician. He graduated in 1963 from Cambridge University and St. Thomas Hospital Medical School (London). He developed the Endoscopy Laboratory at St. Thomas' Hospital whilst still officially in training, and brought ERCP back from Japan in 1971. His group pioneered many diagnostic and therapeutic endoscopy procedures, particularly ERCP (sphincterotomy and stenting) and was very active in teaching.

Dr. Cotton has been active in many National and International organizations, and has given invited lectures and demonstrations in 47 countries. He helped form the British Society for Digestive Endoscopy, and served the British Society of Gastroenterology as its vice president and treasurer. He was secretary of the European Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, and president of the Pancreatic Society of Great Britain. He was elected Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (London) in 1978, Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons (Glasgow) in 1997, and Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons (London) in 2002. He is an honorary member of the British Society of Gastroenterology, the Hong Kong Society for Digestive Endoscopy, and the South African Gastroenterology Society. Dr Cotton was awarded the Rudolph Schindler award of the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy in 2004.

His bibliography includes more than 840 publications, including more than 250 original contributions in peer reviewed journals, and eight books. "Practical Gastrointestinal Endoscopy" (co-authored by Christopher Williams) is the standard teaching text, currently in its 5th Edition (with CDRoms), and has been translated into eight languages. He has been on the editorial boards of 12 gastroenterology journals, and was the first international editor of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy.

Dr. Dantzler is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Divison of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the Medical University of South Carolina. Dr. Dantzler graduated from The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina in Charleston, South Carolina in 1993. He attended medical school here at the Medical University of South Carolina, receiving his M. D. degree in 1997 and served on active duty with the U. S. Air Force until 2007.

He completed his Residency at David Grant Medical Center at Travis AFB and then completed a three year Gastroenterology Fellowship at the San Antonio Uniformed Services Health Education Consortium in San Antonio, Texas in 2003. He was on the faculty at Wilford Hall Medical Center, Lackland AFB, Texas for 4 years before joining the faculty at MUSC. Dr. Dantzler is board certified in Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology.

Dr. Dantzler is a member of several professional organizations including American Medical Association, American College of Physicians, America College of Gastroenterology, American Gastroenterological Association, American Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, South Carolina Medical Association, and the Charleston County Medical Society.

Dr. DeLegge is a Professor of Medicine in the Digestive Disease Center as well as Director of the Digestive Disease Service Line. He is also the Director for the section of nutrition and the Medical Director of Nutrition for the Medical University of South Carolina. Dr. DeLegge is also the Chairman of the Nutrition Committee, the Pharmacy and Therapeutics committee, and the Dietetic Internship Program.

Dr. DeLegge is board certified in internal medicine, gastroenterology and nutrition. He manages patients with complex medical problems such as malabsorption and short bowel syndrome. He also is the specialist for placement of feeding tubes in the gastrointestinal tract, and the subsequent management of those patients. His nutrition research focuses on nutritional assessment, parenteral nutrition and enteral nutrition.

Dr. DeLegge is also very active in gastroenterology. In additional to the diagnostic and therapeutic endoscopic procedures, he is also very active in the fields of hemorrhoid treatment, gastrointestinal fistula treatment, gastrointestinal stenting, endoscopic treatment of GERD and Barrett's esophagus, and stricture/achalasia dilation. He is very active in the development of new endocopic techniques, especially in the field of the endoscopic management of obesity.

Dr. Hawes is a Professor of Medicine in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the Medical University of South Carolina. Dr. Hawes grew up in Bloomington, Indiana. He attended Indiana University for his undergraduate education receiving an A.B. in Chemistry in 1976, graduating Phi Beta Kappa. He attended Indiana University School of Medicine, graduating in 1980. He then completed a three-year residency in Internal Medicine and a two-year fellowship in Gastroenterology at Indiana University Hospitals under the guidance of Glen Lehman.

Dr. Hawes then spent a year in London, England doing an Advanced Endoscopy Fellowship concentrating on ERCP and endoscopic laser therapy under the direction of Peter B. Cotton and Steve Bown. He returned to Indiana University and served on the faculty in the Department of Medicine in the Division of Gastroenterology from 1986-1994. During this time, he was promoted from Assistant to Associate and ultimately to Full Professor in July of 1994.

In July of 1994, Dr. Hawes joined with Peter Cotton and moved to Charleston, South Carolina to help establish a Digestive Disease Center. The center is designed to facilitate the integration of GI medicine, surgery, and radiology into an integrated unit to promote patient care, research, and technology development to treat patients with digestive diseases.

Dr. Hawes is the 2005-2006 President of the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy.

Dr. Hoffman is a Professor of Medicine in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the Medical University of South Carolina. She received her M.D. degree from the University of Kentucky College of Medicine in 1983 and completed her Gastroenterology Fellowship at the Medical University of South Carolina in 1989. She is board certified in Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology. Dr. Hoffman is the chief of endoscopic ultrasound, Section Leader of GI Malignancy for the DDC, and head of the GI Focus Group for the Hollings Cancer Center.

Dr. Hoffman is a member of several organizations, including the American Gastroenterological Association; American Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy; American College of Gastroenterology; American College of Physicians; American Endosonography Club; Charleston Medical Society; Southern Medical Association; and the South Carolina Gastroenterology Association. Additionally, Dr. Hoffman has received numerous honors, including Faculty Excellence Award; Top 20 Female Physicians-Southern Woman to Woman; Who's Who/Physicians of the Southeast; American Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy Audio/Visual Award; America's Top Doctors; and Best Doctors.

Dr. Hoffman's clinical interests are endoscopic ultrasound, capsule endoscopy, laser therapy and therapeutic endoscopy. Her clinical research interests are in tumor-host interactions and prevention and control.

Dr. Lawrence is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Divison of Gastroterology and Heptology at the Medical University of South Carolina. Dr. Lawrence undertook his undergraduate studies at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. Dr. Lawrence earned his M.D. at the University of Mississippi Medical Center where he graduated cum laude. He completed his internship and residency in Internal Medicine at Georgetown University Medical Center followed by a three year Gastroenterology fellowship at the University of Virginia Health System. Dr. Lawrence then did an additional year of advanced training in therapeutic endoscopy at Maine Medical Center. He is board certified in internal medicine and gastroenterology.

Dr. Lawrence is a member of several organizations including the American College of Physicians/American Board of Internal Medicine; Crohn's & Colitis Foundation; American College of Gastroenterology; American Gastroenterological Association; and American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy. He has also been elected for membership in Alpha Omega Alpha (a national honor medical society) and Phi Kappa Phi National Honor Society. Dr. Lawrence's clinical interests include endoscopic therapy of pancreatic stones, endoscopic palliation of pancreaticobiliary malignancy, and other diseases of the pancreas and biliary systems. Other interests include inflammatory bowel disease.

Dr. Payne is the Director of the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the Medical University of South Carolina. He earned his M.D. at the University of Kansas, following which he completed an internship and residency in Internal Medicine and a Fellowship in Gastroenterology, also at the University of Kansas. He is board certified in internal medicine and gastroenterology.

Dr. Payne is a member of several organizations, including, the American Gastroenterological Association; American Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy; and American College of Gastroenterology. He is also a member of MUSC's Mission Based Management Committee, the Department of Medicine Compliance Committee, and the Conscious Sedation Committee.

Dr. Payne's clinical interests include advanced endoscopy, pancreatobiliary endoscopy, hepatology and clinical service management and administration.

Dr. Romagnuolo, M.D., is an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, and is cross-appointed to the Department of Biometry, Bioinformatics and Epidemiology, at the Medical University of South Carolina. He is also the Director of Clinical Research for Gastroenterology and Hepatology. Dr. Romagnuolo received his medical degree (M.D.) from the University of Toronto in 1994. Dr. Romagnuolo has also completed an MSc degree in Epidemiology and Biostatistics and a two-year advanced endoscopy fellowship, including ERCP (endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography) and endoscopic ultrasound (EUS), at McGill University and the Medical University of South Carolina. He is ABIM board certified in Gastroenterology.

Dr. Romagnuolo is a member of several organizations, including the Canadian Medical Association; Canadian Association of Gastroenterology (CAG); American Gastroenterological Association (AGA); American Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE); American College of Gastroenterology (ACG); and the American College of Physicians (ACP). He sat on the Randomized Controlled Trials Committee of the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR), the ASGE Research Committee, and the CAG endoscopy committee. He was co-director of the international ASGE postgraduate endoscopy course (2006) and was on the scientific organizing committee for the World Congress of Gastroenterology in 2005. He is also on the following MUSC Committees: Co-chair, Digestive Disease Center Research Committee; Member, GI/Hepatology Fellowship Education Committee; and was a member of three Master's Thesis Committees. He is a member of the ASGE Quality (in Endoscopy) Task Force.

Dr. Romagnuolo has received numerous awards and honors during his career, including Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (FRCPC); Fellow of the ASGE; Fellow of the ACG; Endoscopy Clinical Research Fellowship from Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research (AHFMR); Young Investigator Award from CAG and CIHR; and Population Health Young Investigator Award from AHFMR. He was recently named the recipient of the prestigious ASGE Mid-career Endoscopic Mentoring Award for 2008.

Dr. Romagnuolo's research interests are in clinical trials, economic analysis, and outcomes research in endoscopy, especially ERCP and EUS, biliopancreatic diseases, gastrointestinal malignancy and NOTES. He has over 50 peer-reviewed publications, in addition to five book chapters and over 100 abstracts.

Dr. Smolka is Professor of Medicine in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the Medical University of South Carolina. He earned his PhD in Physiology and Biophysics in 1982 at the University of Alabama, Birmingham. Following postdoctoral studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, he was appointed Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine at UCLA in 1984. Dr. Smolka was appointed Associate Professor in the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology at MUSC in 1992, and tenured full Professor in the Department of Medicine at MUSC in 2001.

Dr. Smolka is Course Director of the First Year Curriculum in the College of Graduate Studies. He is a member of several organizations including the American Gastroenterological Association; American Association for the Advancement of Science; American Society for Cell Biology; and the Parietal Cell Club (President, 1993). Additionally, he is a member of Hollings Cancer Center at MUSC, and a past Universities Space Research Association Scholar and member of the NASA Biotechnology Fundamentals Study Section.

Dr. Smolka's current research interests include molecular structure-function relationships in the gastric proton pump; pathophysiology of Helicobacter pylori infection of the gastric mucosa, and proteomic analysis of esophageal cancers. Previous research at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama, focused on bioseparations technology, including microgravity cell electrophoresis (a sample of his blood was processed in earth orbit on Skylab II), and modification of cell electrophoretic mobility using synthetic polymeric microspheres. Dr. Smolka has published extensively (47 papers, 15 book chapters, and 55 abstracts), and since 1984 has been Principal Investigator on five major National Institutes of Health grant awards, and one NASA award. His present research funding extends to 2009.

Dr. Marcelo Vela is an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC). He received his B.Sc. in Medical Sciences and M.D. degree from the Francisco Marroquin University in Guatemala. He completed his Medical Residency and a one year Clinical Research Fellowship in Esophageal Diseases at the MCP-Hahnemann School of Medicine. This was followed by a three year Gastroenterology Fellowship at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation in Cleveland, OH. He will graduate from MUSC's M.S. in Clinical Research program in 2006. Dr. Vela is board certified in internal medicine and gastroenterology.

Dr. Marcelo Vela is a member of several professional organizations, including the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA), American College of Gastroenterology, Gastroenterology Research Group, and the South Carolina Gastroenterology Association. He has served on the AGA's Clinical Practice and Young Gastroenterologist Committees, and is currently a member of MUSC's GI Fellowship Education Committee and the Committee on Minority Recruitment and Retention.

Dr. Marcelo Vela has received several honors/awards, including the 2005 REGAL (Research Excellence in Gastroenterology and Liver Diseases) Award, the 2002 American Gastroenterological Association Clinical Scholar Award, and the 2001 American College of Gastroenterology Astra-Zeneca Senior Fellow Award.

Dr. Marcelo Vela's clinical interests are esophageal and swallowing disorders and endoscopy. His research efforts have been concentrated in the use of multichannel intraluminal impedance monitoring, alone and in combination with manometry and pHmetry, for gastroesophageal reflux detection and esophageal function measurement. He has also devoted time to studying the long-term effects of achalasia treatments. He has published over 15 papers in peer-reviewed journals and 5 book chapters.

Dr. Stacie Vela is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at MUSC starting July 1, 2008. Dr. Vela attended the University of California, Los Angeles from 1994-1998 earning her Bachelor of Science degree in Biology. She then obtained her Doctorate of Medicine in 2002 from The Ohio State University College of Medicine. Dr. Vela then did internship and residency training at University Hospitals of Cleveland/Case Western Reserve University. She completed postdoctoral training in Gastroenterology with specialty training in Endoscopic Ultrasound at MUSC.

Dr. Stacie Vela is a member of the American Gastroenterological Association, the American College of Gastroenterology, and the American Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopists (ASGE). She has been honored appointment to the ASGE Post Graduate Education Committee and ASGE Diversity Committee for the past two years.

Dr. Willner is an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the Medical University of South Carolina. He is also the Director of the Fellowship Training Program for Gastroenterology and Hepatology.

Dr. Willner completed his medical degree (M.D.) at the SUNY Health Science Center in Syracuse, NY in 1990. He then completed a two year Fellowship in Gastroenterology at the New York Medical College in Valhalla, NY in 1995, followed by a one year Fellowship in Liver Disease at the University of Tennessee in 1996. He is board certified in internal medicine and gastroenterology.

Dr. Willner is a member of several professional organizations, including the American Association for the Study of Liver Disease; European Association for the Study of the Liver; American College of Physicians; American Medical Association; and the American College of Gastroenterology. Additionally, Dr. Willner was awarded the Department of Internal Medicine Attending of the Year in 2000.

Dr. Willner's clinical interests include liver disease, treatment of portal hypertension, and viral hepatitis.