Geriatrics Fellowship
Faculty
Irene Hamrick, MD
Associate Professor & Geriatrics Division Director
Geriatric Fellowship Director
Dr. Hamrick received her medical degree from East Carolina University School of Medicine after completing a nursing degree at Western Carolina University. She did her residency in Family Medicine and fellowship in geriatrics, also at East Carolina University. She joined the geriatrics faculty after completing her fellowship in 1999. She has been involved in quality improvement on the department and medical school level. Her special interest in computers has led to the development of a computer simulated home visit, geriatric templates for our electronic health records and national presentations on EHRs and PDAs. Her clinical and research interests include osteoporosis, nutrition, dementia, and home visits. Her husband is a child and adolescent psychiatrist with ECU. Their two sons born in 1981 and 1983 are a computer engineer and an artist. Her outside interests include jogging, knitting, traveling and snow skiing.
hamricki@ecu.edu
Kenneth Steinweg, MD
Professor & Interim Chairman
Department of Family Medicine
Dr. Steinweg completed medical school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and went on to complete a family medicine residency at Womack Army Hospital at Fort Bragg, NC. Following graduation he remained in the Army for twenty-five years initially serving in the Womack Army Hospital residency program as a faculty member and became the residency program director there in 1980. He was reassigned in 1983 to Tripler Army Medical Center in Hawaii as the Chief of the Family Medicine Department and director of the family medicine program there until returning to North Carolina in 1986 to complete an Army sponsored geriatric fellowship at the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University. Following this graduation he returned to the Army and Fort Bragg as Chief of the Department of Family Medicine and director of the residency program. During this twelve year period of time Dr. Steinweg was active in family medicine resident teaching, patient care, and research.
While assigned to Fort Bragg, Dr. Steinweg deployed in Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm in Iraq as the Commander, 5th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital during 1990-1991. Upon return he was assigned to the Army Surgeon General’s office as Ambulatory Care Consultant and then Chief, Clinical Policy Division for the Army Surgeon General. Dr. Steinweg was selected to attend the Army War College and then was served as the Commander, Ft. Leonard Wood Army Community Hospital in Fort Leonard, Wood, MO.
Dr. Steinweg retired from the Army in 1996 and returned to the Brody School of Medicine as the Director of the Geriatric Division and program director for the geriatric fellowship where he was active in family medicine and geriatric fellowship teaching. He has been or currently is the medical director of several nursing homes and home health agencies. He served on the Board of Directors of the American Medical Directors Association and currently the Board of Directors of the North Carolina Academy of Family Physicians. Dr. Steinweg became the interim chair, Department of Family Medicine in 2008, and then Chair, Department of Family Medicine at the Brody School of Medicine in 2009. His clinical and research interests include curriculum development, long-term care, dementia, and osteoporosis. Dr. Steinweg’s spouse Sue, currently teaches at ECU in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction and they have two children, Emily and Megan. Dr. Steinweg has three grandchildren.
steinwegk@ecu.edu
Emily Bray, MD
Clinic Director
Clinical Associate Professor
Dr. Bray graduated from medical school at the University of Illinois in Chicago. After her residency in family medicine, she helped found a community health center in Chicago which specialized in serving the underserved. After a geriatrics fellowship at Rush Presbyterian St. Luke’s hospital, she moved with her family to rural Maine and practice the full range of family medicine in a small mountain community. She has been practicing and teaching at ECU since 1997 and enjoys the opportunity to learn again by “teaching” students, residents, pharmacists, and fellows. While spending most of her clinical time in geriatrics, she has a strong professional interest in community medicine. Dr. Bray enjoys traveling with her husband, dabbling in art and her weekend home on the river. She is most proud of her two adult daughters, one a choreographer and the other who is studying to become a physician.
braye@ecu.edu
Maria Knupp
Physician Extender
Maria Knupp is a family nurse practitioner who graduated from the UNC Graduate Nursing School's FNP Program at Chapel Hill, NC. Prior to becoming a member of our geriatric faculty, she has worked in a variety of settings to include private practice as a nurse practitioner; teaching registered nurses for a total of 17 years at community colleges in Eastern North Carolina and for a total of 6 years at UNC Chapel Hill and ECU. She became a registered nurse after training at the University of Maryland School of Nursing at Baltimore, Maryland in 1973. As she continued her education, she completed a MSN at the University of Maryland Graduate School of Nursing, a Geriatric Nurse Practitioner Certificate at SUNY at Buffalo, and a flight nurse certification through the Air Force. Working with elderly is her favorite clinical calling. She enjoys sharing and learning with, for , and from all types of learners, including her patients at the nursing home. Research interests include polypharmacy, osteoporosis, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, depression, and dementia. Maria Knupp has numerous hobbies to include throwing and selling her pottery, painting, gardening, reading, learning languages, and traveling. She is married to Charles L. Knupp who has been a hematologist with ECU School of Medicine for 25 years. Her two children live close by. Her son works as a structural engineer in Raleigh, NC and her daughter is now studying to become a physician.
Tae Joon Lee, MD
Clinical Assistant Professor
Dr. Lee received his medical degree at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He completed his family medicine residency in 2004 and geriatrics fellowship training in 2005 at Swedish Family Medicine Residency in Seattle, Washington. He coordinates geriatrics teaching for the resident physicians at the local teaching nursing home where he serves as the medical director. His interests include nursing home patient care and medical direction. He is also heavily involved in creating and maintaining a geriatrics course website. His wife and two boys love Greenville and you may find them on the local tennis courts or parks after work.
leetae@ecu.edu
Ann Marie Nye, PharmD
Adjunct Assistant Professor
Dr. Nye received her Doctor of Pharmacy in 2001 and a Certificate in Aging Studies in 2000 from Virginia Commonwealth University Medical College of Virginia. After completing a geriatric pharmacy residency at the University of Texas and Audie Murphy Veteran's Hospital, she joined the faculty of Campbell University as an assistant professor of pharmacy practice and the Geriatric Division at ECU in 2002. She is a Certified Geriatric Pharmacist and Fellow of the American Society of Consultant Pharmacists. Her primary clinical role is providing patient care at Golden Living Center, a teaching nursing home. She also conducts a geriatric pharmacotherapy clinic and provides medication counseling. Her clinical interests include management of multiple medications and chronic disease. She is the director of a one year pharmacy residency which emphasizes geriatrics. Dr. Nye precepts pharmacy students and residents in the nursing home and geriatric clinic. She has worked on research on predictors of success in pharmacy school, the economics of administering medications in the nursing home, drugs for weight gain, osteoporosis medications, and use of the electronic medical record. Her husband is the Coordinator of Distance Education at Pitt County Community College. They spend time with their yellow lab Daisy and work on home improvement projects.
nyea@ecu.edu
Stanley P. Oakley, Jr., MD, FAPA
Associate Professor
Dr. Oakley was born and raised in Charlotte, North Carolina. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, where he was a Morehead Scholar. He received his Medical Degree and Residency Training in Psychiatric Medicine from East Carolina University School of Medicine. He then completed a Fellowship in Forensic Psychiatric and Geriatric Psychiatry at Hillcrest Hospital, Adelaide, South Australia. Following his return from Australia, Dr. Oakley joined the faculty at East Carolina University School of Medicine and is the former Director of Residency Training. He is currently an Associate Professor and Director of Continuing Medical Education. He is Board Certified in General Adult and Geriatric Psychiatry and his interests include geriatric psychiatry, student health psychiatry and medical education.
