{"id":133000,"date":"2026-06-10T09:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T14:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/?p=133000"},"modified":"2026-06-05T14:48:20","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T19:48:20","slug":"department-says-goodbye-to-three-faculty-members","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2026\/06\/10\/department-says-goodbye-to-three-faculty-members\/","title":{"rendered":"Department says goodbye to three faculty members"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Three faculty members who are leaving the department gathered with colleagues at a farewell reception June 3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mary Edgerton, MD, PhD, a professor in the department, is retiring; two associate professors, Ana Yuil-Valdes, MD, and Jie Chen, MD, PhD, are leaving for other positions. The three were given bags with Nebraska-themed gifts, and they shared cake and conversation with many of the people they\u2019ve worked with at UNMC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Edgerton\u2019s career has taken some twists and turns. She was a Marshall Scholar to the United Kingdom, where she completed a PhD in biophysics, using mathematical models to study membrane-bound reactions in Archaebacteria. She completed two postdoctoral fellowships in the U.S., then went to work for two of the largest oil and gas companies in their refinery research facilities where she developed mathematical models of catalytic processes. After nine years of research, Dr. Edgerton attended medical school, followed by an anatomic and clinical pathology residency and a surgical pathology fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania. She was on the faculty at Vanderbilt University, H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center, and the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center before coming here in 2023. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Edgerton plans a nice, slow start to her retirement. \u201cI plan to stay in my pajamas for three weeks,\u201d she said. But soon she\u2019ll head home to the family ranch in south Texas to plan her oldest daughter\u2019s wedding. And in January, she\u2019s traveling to Antarctica, the only continent she hasn\u2019t visited before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When she\u2019s not traveling, she likes to garden and paint. \u201cI may try writing. I like to tell people I\u2019m going to write the story of my life, and I\u2019m not changing any names, because there\u2019s no innocent to protect. I have a few ideas for some novels. I\u2019m a storyteller.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She also works as an adjunct professor, \u201cand I\u2019ve been talking to some people in the data aggregation area about putting in a grant. So I\u2019m not quite quitting.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had a wonderful time here,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Yuil-Valdes came to UNMC in 2015 for a fellowship in surgical pathology, followed by a hematopathology fellowship before joining the department\u2019s faculty. She is joining the faculty at the Cleveland Clinic. The move allows her to rejoin her husband, who had taken a job in Ohio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to great to be back as a family. Because being apart is difficult,\u201d she said. \u201cAt the Cleveland Clinic, my main area will be cytopathology, so I will keep working with cytology.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m thankful to UNMC, because everything that I\u2019ve been achieving in my professional life the last 11 years, I owe that to UNMC. And I think I am what I am today because of everything I\u2019ve done at UNMC. And I would be thankful for that. I need to acknowledge that. This was my first job as a faculty member.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Chen, who came to UNMC in 2019 after completing a fellowship in neuropathology at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, is leaving for Emory University in Atlanta, where she will continue working in neuropathology. \u201cThey have a higher volume (of cases) there, so that\u2019s the main reason. I can focus on neuropathology\u2014it\u2019s more specialized.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But leaving is still hard. \u201cI have been here seven years, since before the pandemic. This is my first job. I graduated from my fellowship and directly came here. I\u2019ve learned a lot. Most of the time I enjoyed my work. That\u2019s why I stayed here for a long time\u2014I enjoyed it, teaching the residents. I liked working with my colleagues. The students were so wonderful. I\u2019ve enjoyed my life here.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Three faculty members who are leaving the Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology gathered with colleagues at a farewell reception June 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