Staff

David L. Smith, M.D.

Dr. David L. Smith was born in Oxford, Mississippi, and spent his early years in Coffeeville, Mississippi. His father was a land appraiser and did much of the work in appraising land for the Grenada Lake Dam project.

Dr. Smith spent his junior high and high school years in Texarkana, Arkansas, but returned to spend the summers in Coffeeville. He attended Ole Miss as a University Scholar. Completing his undergraduate requirements, he then attended the University of Mississippi School of Medicine for two years and then transferred to Duke where he obtained his M.D. degree. He completed his house officer work and Infectious Disease fellowship at Duke. During that time he was also a Robert Wood Johnson Scholar.

Dr. Smith served on the faculties of several medical schools, most recently as Professor of Medicine at UMC. He established community-based infectious disease programs in both Oklahoma and Kansas City. He built one of the largest infectious disease consultative groups in the country in Kansas City, which was unique for its combination of patient care, research and education. Dr. Smith was twice President of the Kansas City Southwest Clinical Society, the oldest private postgraduate medical education organization west of the Mississippi.

He has published extensively and has conducted more than 300 research studies. He is listed in Best Doctors in the United States and is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and of the Infectious Disease Society of America.

Dr. Smith guided and developed the community-based Infectious Disease Program at UMC for River Oaks and Rankin from July 2004 through July 2006 Prior to joining the Center of Infectious Disease Excellence at River Oaks.

To view Dr. David Smith’s Curriculum Vita, click here.

Connie Brinson

Connie Brinson is a native Mississippian, who spent her early childhood years in south Mississippi, Birmingham, Alabama, and New Orleans, Louisiana. In 1961, her father, Ronald Sanford began work with General Electric Company and the family settled in the Jackson, Mississippi area. Mrs. Sanford died at age 59 after serving more than thirty years as manager of General Electric Company in Jackson, MS. Ms. Brinson, like Dr. Smith had connections in Texarkana, Arkansas and spent many cherished summers there. In the third grade, Ms. Brinson found a love of science and entertained thoughts of growing up to become a doctor or nurse.

Her first job began in the fall of the sixth grade. She was accepted into the candy-striper program under the directions of Sister Mary Vera at St. Dominic Hospital in Jackson, Mississippi. The time spent at St. Dominic hospital with the staff, fostered the deepest respect and love for medicine and the people that dedicate themselves selfishly to the care of others. As one of the youngest recipients of National Merit’s Who’s Who in America, she listed medicine as her career of choice.

Ms. Brinson has always been very artistically inclined and has shown her personal artwork in many galleries in the past. From 1979 to 1989 she taught art privately and reveled in the success of her students as they placed at state levels and received several ribbons. Some of her students placed first. Ms. Brinson believes that art and medicine are close relatives to one another. She found A&P could be thought of from an artistic point of view and the visualization process aided the mastery of such subjects.

Ms. Brinson attended the Nursing Allied Health Center and completed her studies in 1991. While there, she was an honor student and received, “The Most Outstanding Nursing Student” award, the highest honor a nursing student can receive. Ms. Brinson also served as President of NHOSA. As an entrepreneur she has excelled in many endeavors.

As founder of her own children’s line of products in 1984, she found herself at the International Tradeshow at the Jacob Javits Center in New York in 1987. This was the beginning of her interest in international business. At the tradeshow, she was approached by the Ogar of Saudia Arabia and was asked to do business in that country. It would be those connections that would allow her travel to Europe and Italy on other business ventures. It also, would uniquely add to the ability to do travel medicine from a perspective of the traveler. During the tragic attack on New York in September, 2001 she and her daughter were in Venice, Italy.

It was at that time Ms. Brinson made the decision to return to Mississippi and open a bed and breakfast. The renovations were completed in 2002 and the Baylis Mansion was born. Although, entering into a new chapter of her life, Ms. Brinson still did not stray from her nursing, as she did nursing work at night. In 2003 she received the Bush Presidential Award for entrepreneurial leadership and served on the Chamber Board.

In 2005, Hurricane Katrina brought devastation to the area and to the biking trail that had once brought the Baylis Mansion business. Due to the after effects of Katrina the Baylis Mansions and stores were permanently closed. Ms. Brinson then began work with Dr. Smith at the end of 2006 as a part-time employee and became full-time in 2007.

“I feel my life experience has brought me to this very unique place, a place where I can share my love of medicine, and the arts have found a home. This is a perfect place to give and serve others. My goal is make a positive difference in the lives of those who walk through the doors of The Center of Infectious Disease Excellence, The MRSA Clinic of Mississippi and The Travel Medicine Clinic of Mississippi. Under Dr. Smith’s direction I have been given the opportunity to expand my abilities and I will forever be grateful for his brilliant guidance and teaching. Life has offered me many opportunities to do many things but through it all, nursing and the love of people has been my anchor,” Ms. Brinson stated.