Dr. Menarvia Nixon Gaddis, a neurosurgeon, has joined the medical staff of Merit Health Central in Mississippi. Dr. Gaddis specializes in the diagnosis and surgical treatment of disorders of the nervous system, including trauma, tumors, infections of the brain or spine, and developmental and degenerative diseases of the spine. She completed her neurological surgical residency at Louisiana State University’s Health Science Center in Shreveport, Louisiana. She received her medical degree from Howard University College of Medicine in Washington, D.C., and has a bachelor’s degree also from Howard University. She serves as an HIV/AIDS peer educator and evaluater, and as a facilitator for the peer education training program for the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education.