Elizabeth D. Ennis, M.D., FACP

Group Chief Medical Officer
Designated Institutional Official
 

Elizabeth D. Ennis, M.D., FACP, is the Designated Institutional Official (DIO) of Graduate Medical Education at Baptist Health and the Group Chief Medical Officer of the five Baptist Health acute care hospitals in central Alabama. Over the years, Dr. Ennis has held multiple leadership roles in Graduate Medical Education serving both as a faculty member and program director before assuming the DIO position. In her CMO role, Dr. Ennis is intensely focused on quality improvement, patient safety, peer review and other physician related operational activities.

Dr. Ennis is currently board certified in Internal Medicine as well as Endocrinology, Diabetes & Metabolism. She received her medical degree from The University of South Alabama College of Medicine and completed her residency and fellowship at the University of Alabama Hospitals (UAB). Dr. Ennis has held leadership positions in local, state and national organizations, has authored peer-reviewed endocrinology publications and has served as the principal investigator for numerous clinical research studies.

Erin Townsley, M.D., FACP

Internal Medicine Program Director

Dr. Townsley loves internal medicine and trainees! She is from Trussville, Alabama - a suburb of Birmingham. Her mom was a Spanish professor for over 30 years at Samford University, which is where Dr. Townsley completed her undergraduate degrees in Spanish and Biology. She attended the University of Alabama School of Medicine (UAB Heersink School of Medicine) for medical school and completed her post-graduate training in internal medicine at this program - called Baptist Health System at the time. She has been teaching faculty at Baptist Health since completing residency in 2008, and the rest is history. She has served in all aspects of resident training both as Transitional Year Associate Program Director, Internal Medicine Associate Program Director, and Continuity Clinic Director for many years before assuming the role of Program Director of the IM program in 2019. She has navigated the residency with great leadership through COVID and changing ACGME requirements. She is a fierce advocate for residents and works to ensure excellent clinical training and curricular development. You will see Dr. Townsley in all practice sites - she attends in clinic, supervises the inpatient medicine teaching service, and maintains a faculty practice clinic. Her educational interests are mentoring and board preparation. Clinically she enjoys teaching on diabetes, obesity, and preventive care. When not at Princeton or Grandview, you can find her at local youth sports events with her 2 elementary aged boys and her husband who is a cardiac anesthesiologist by day and the boys’ basketball coach by night.

Kenny J. Murray, M.D., MPH

Associate Program Director

Dr. Murray is a graduate of the University of Alabama School of Medicine and the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Public Health. He completed his Internal Medicine residency at Baptist Health in Birmingham, AL. He served as Chief Resident and has been a member of the teaching faculty since 2015. Dr. Murray has been a practicing hospitalist and supervises and mentors residents in the inpatient and outpatient settings. He champions our ethics curriculum, and leads ethics focused morning reports and didactic conferences. His clinical interests include sepsis, quality/process improvement, and palliative care.

Aashka Patel, MD

Transitional Year Associate Program Director

Dr. Patel is the Associate Program Director for the Baptist Health Transitional Year Program. She also serves as core faculty for the Internal Medicine program. Dr. Patel attended the University of Alabama at Birmingham for both her undergraduate and medical school degrees. She completed her Internal Medicine residency at Baptist Health in Birmingham, AL. She served as a Chief Resident and has been a member of the teaching faculty since 2024. Dr. Patel serves as one of the academic hospitalists and enjoys teaching and mentoring residents. She is also actively involved with the American College of Physicians (ACP) at both state and national levels. In her free time, Dr. Patel enjoys spending time with her family, traveling, and doing jigsaw puzzles.

Allison Rogers, M.D.

Internal Medicine Core Faculty

Dr. Rogers serves as Internal Medicine core faculty. Originally from Madison, MS, she attended the University of Alabama for her undergraduate degree in communication studies. She graduated from the University Of Mississippi School Of Medicine in 2015 with selections to both AOA and Gold Humanism Honor Society. She then completed her internal medicine residency at the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 2018 where she received the Housestaff Spirit Award voted on by her co-residents and led the Resident Wellness Committee. She is involved with the Alabama ACP regional meeting planning committee and enjoys helping residents prepare and submit abstracts to local, regional, and national meetings. Dr. Rogers is the co-chair of the AL Early Career Physicians and recently piloted a program within the ACP to connect newly graduating residents with a mentor in their area of interest. Her favorite things to teach at BBH are the clinic small group sessions on Tuesday mornings at Princeton and morning report at Grandview on Wednesdays at noon. When asked what the best part of the program is, Dr. Rogers says it is the genuinely wonderful people she gets to work with every day - residents, staff, students and faculty - towards the common goal of serving patients. Dr. Rogers is board certified in Internal Medicine and achieved status as Fellow of the ACP in 2021.

She is married with a daughter, son, and dog. She lives in Homewood and her hobbies include book club, thrifting/dumpster diving, and getting involved in her local community through PTO and her church.

Lauren Pacheco, M.D.

Internal Medicine Core Faculty

Dr. Pacheco is the Program Director for the BBH Transitional Year Program. She also serves as core faculty for the Internal Medicine program as well as director of the mentorship program that includes both Transitional Year and Internal Medicine residents.

Born and raised in Arkansas, Dr. Pacheco attended the University of Arkansas for her undergraduate degree in biology followed by medical school at University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences where she graduated in 2016 and was selected to AOA. She then completed her internal medicine residency at University of Alabama at Birmingham in 2019 during which she led the Resident Wellness Committee and was awarded the Housestaff Spirit award voted on by her colleagues. Dr. Pacheco serves nationally as the ACP's Wellbeing Champion representing the state of Alabama. She is passionate about medical education, curriculum development, mentorship, and physician wellness. She created the Clinician Educator elective within the IM curriculum to further share her love of teaching with residents wanting to foster their skills in this area. Another recent project she has spearheaded has been improving the didactic curriculum specifically focusing on high quality lectures and board relevant content. Her hobbies include spending time with her husband and children, going to the lake, watching any Arkansas Razorback sport, and eating at the amazing restaurants Birmingham has to offer.

Pegah Kannar, MD

Internal Medicine Core Faculty

Dr. Kannar grew up in many parts of Alabama (really, ask her and she will recount it) and calls it home. She completed medical school at University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine and residency training at East Alabama Health Internal Medicine. To say she has a passion to learn is an understatement.

When she isn’t taming feral cats or forgetting passwords to everything, she is learning to navigate new realms of mom-dom and resident training while continuing to train herself. She hopes to bring the same enthusiasm to BBH for Internal Medicine that her previous attendings exhibited for their interests in point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS), outpatient primary care, patient/personal education, hospital medicine and high quality patient care.

Mark Wilson, MD

Internal Medicine Core Faculty

Dr. Mark Wilson grew up in Charlotte, N.C. He earned an engineering degree from Georgia Tech and then his medical degree from UNC Chapel Hill. He received his residency training at Emory University (Atlanta) and Carolinas Medical Center (Charlotte). Following residency training, he moved to Birmingham to join the staff of Cooper Green Mercy Hospital, the county’s public hospital. During his twenty years at Cooper Green, he practiced inpatient and outpatient medicine, and supervised UAB School of Medicine students and residents during their clinical rotations there. He also served in several medical staff leadership roles. He is board certified in Internal Medicine.

Dr. Wilson left Cooper Green when he was appointed Jefferson County (Alabama) Health Officer and head of the Jefferson County of Health. During his twelve years as Health Officer, worked with community partners to bring about policy change and new initiatives, including statewide naloxone and fentanyl test strips access laws, local indoor smoke-free ordinances, the Red Rock Trail System to promote outdoor physical activity, the Recovery Resource Center to assist people with addiction, a Nurse-Family Partnership to improve maternal and infant health, a Hospital-linked Violence Intervention Program to address gun violence, and Cool Green Trees, an organization that plants trees in urban heat islands. He also led the county public health response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dr. Wilson loves working with residents and medical students, and he has a particular interest in patient care for underserved populations. He and his wife have three grown children and two grandchildren. His activities outside of work include gardening, long distance running, playing the ‘cello and planting trees.

Luke Etheridge, DO

Internal Medicine Core Faculty

Dr. Etheridge serves as Internal Medicine core faculty. He is originally from Fairhope, AL and graduated from Birmingham-Southern College with a degree in biology. He attended medical school at VCOM-Auburn and went on to complete IM residency here at Baptist Health. He served as chief resident for the 2024-2025 academic year and has since stayed on faculty as an academic hospitalist. He has a special interest in procedural skills in the hospital and leads simulation labs to improve resident confidence and proficiency in various procedures. Outside of the hospital, he enjoys spending time with his wife, son, and dog and enjoys playing soccer, golfing, fishing, and experiencing the great food, drink, and entertainment Birmingham has to offer.

Gorman Jones, M.D., FACP

Internal Medicine Core Faculty

Dr. Gorman Jones is the Medical Director of the Baptist Health Foundation Clinic. A native of Sheffield, Alabama, he attended the University of Alabama where he received a B.S. in Business Administration with a major in accounting and a Master of Tax Accounting. He subsequently made a major career change and attended medical school at the University of Alabama School of Medicine and completed his residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. As a resident, he won the Ben Friedman Award for Outstanding Teaching by a Resident. He has extensive experience in both inpatient and ambulatory medicine and is a Fellow in the American College of Physicians. Outside of medicine, he enjoys classical music and plays the organ and harp and is a Francophile. He is not as fluent in French as he wishes.