Our Team

Education: West Virginia University School of Pharmacy
Post-graduate training: UPMC St. Margaret
Rotations offered: Acute Care Family Medicine

Dr. Brandon E. Brown is a general and interventional cardiologist with MUSC Health Heart & Vascular. A graduate of Wofford College, he earned his medical degree at The University of South Carolina School of Medicine in Columbia, SC. His internal medicine residency was completed at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, NC, and he completed his fellowship training in cardiovascular medicine at the Gill Heart Institute at the University of Kentucky Chandler Medical Center. Dr. Brown completed an additional year of fellowship training in Interventional Cardiology at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Dr. Brown has 15 years experience in cardiovascular care, with special interest in management of coronary artery disease, complex coronary intervention, and preventive cardiology. He has extensive clinical research experience and places a high priority on practicing evidence-based medicine. Dr. Brown is a member of the American College of Cardiology and board certified in both Cardiovascular Medicine and Interventional Cardiology.

When not in the office, Dr. Brown enjoys spending time with his family, listening to music, playing golf and participating in CrossFit.

Dr. Alexei DeCastro completed his family medicine residency training at McLeod Health in Florence, South Carolina in 2005. He then served in the United States Air Force in both primary care and aerospace medicine at Barksdale AFB in Shreveport, Louisiana from 2005 to 2009. He deployed to Iraq in 2008 and served as the chief physician of the intermediate care ward in the busiest trauma center of the region. He still currently serves as a flight surgeon in the USAF Reserve at Joint Base Charleston. Additionally, he completed a sports medicine fellowship at the Southern Illinois School of Medicine in 2009. He then returned to Charleston, SC with his family and worked in urgent care prior to joining MUSC in 2012.

Dr. DeCastro has extensive training in the non-operative management of musculoskeletal problems, from acute injury through rehabilitation, and is trained in the use of musculoskeletal ultrasound for diagnostic and treatment purposes. His main areas of interest are sports medicine, sports-related concussions, musculoskeletal ultrasound, and medical education. He also serves as team physician for the Charleston Battery, Charleston RiverDogs, College of Charleston athletics, SC Stingrays, and tournament physician for professional tennis with the WTA at the Volvo Car Open.

Vanessa Diaz, M.D. MSCR, received her medical degree from the University of Miami (Florida) and completed residency in Savannah, Georgia. She joined our research division as a faculty member in 2004 after completing a two-year faculty development fellowship at MUSC that included obtaining her Master's of Science in Clinical Research.

Dr. Diaz serves as ICCE Chief for primacy care and is medical director for care coordination for primary care. Her research interests include Latino health, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and women's health issues. A native of Panama, Dr. Diaz is fluent in Spanish.

Dr. Kristen Hood Watson currently serves as Associate Dean for Clinical Education, where she oversees the clinical training experience for students in the College of Medicine. Prior to this, she served as Family Medicine Clerkship Director and Director of Medical Education for the Department of Family Medicine. Dr. Hood Watson formerly held another Dean's Office role as Assistant Dean for Resident Inclusion.

Dr. Hood Watson's passion for medical education began during residency, where she served as Chief Resident and completed the academic track, laying the foundation for a career dedicated to training future physicians. As faculty, she became actively engaged with the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine (STFM), completing the Medical Student Education Development Institute and demonstrating progressive leadership by serving as co-chair and then chair of the Conference on Medical Student Education. She further contributed to the organization's mission by serving on the steering committee for medical education. From an interdisciplinary perspective, Dr. Hood Watson has served on the Alliance for Clinical Education committee, collaborating across specialties to advance clinical teaching. This work has included a collaborative presentation at AAMC's Learn, Serve, Lead conference and serving as first author of a chapter in the Guidebook for Clerkship Directors.

Dr. Kern serves as the Senior Associate Dean for Medical Education with oversight of curriculum and assessment, program evaluation, quality improvement and accreditation, student affairs and admissions at the Charleston and AnMed medical school campuses. She also serves as the Assistant Dean for Patient Safety and Simulation with administrative oversight of the MUSC Health Care Simulation Center and the Center for Clinical Assessment and Teaching (CCAT). With 25 years of experience in medical student and interprofessional education, Dr. Kern has a strong interest in education innovation, education governance and the use of AI in teaching, learning and precision medical education.

Clinical Focus: Dr. Marrison is a family medicine physician with expertise in cancer survivorship. She leads onco-primary care services at Hollings Cancer Center.

Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine

Dr. Nicholas Shungu is a family medicine physician at MUSC Health who strives to provide compassionate and high quality care to patients of all ages and backgrounds. His clinical interests include chronic disease management, self-care, care for underserved populations, and medical student education. He provides office-based procedures including trigger point injections, joint injections, long-term contraception, and treatment of warts and calluses. He has a special interest in care for adolescents and individuals with HIV.

Dr. Shungu attended Duke University for college and received his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania. He completed his residency in family medicine at Thomas Jefferson University, where he also served as chief resident. He practiced in Philadelphia and Chapel Hill before relocating to Charleston. While practicing in North Carolina, he was recognized with the UNC Health Care and UNC Faculty Physicians Award for Carolina Care Excellence. He has also been the recipient of the Thomas Jefferson University Department of Family Medicine Faculty Teaching Award.

Dr. Shungu is committed to addressing healthcare disparities through patient care, teaching, and research. He loves to learn from and grow with his patients. His favorite part of practicing medicine are the relationships he is able to establish with a diverse group of people. He is proudly Safe Zone trained.

Terrence E. "Terry" Steyer, M.D., is a graduate of Allegheny College (BS in Mathematics) and Case Western Reserve University (MD). He completed his family medicine residency training at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center and the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program at the University of Michigan. Dr. Steyer began his academic career at the Medical University of South Carolina, serving as the director of the Trident – MUSC Transitional Year Residency and director of a medical school course on evidence-based medicine.

In 2009, he was recruited to the Medical College of Georgia – University of Georgia Medical Partnership where he served as the founding chair of the Department of Clinical Sciences. In this role, Dr. Steyer developed and managed the third- and fourth-year medical school curriculum for a new branch campus of the Medical College of Georgia.

Dr. Steyer was recruited back to MUSC in 2014 to serve as chair of the Department of Family Medicine and was named the first Gregory-Chandler Endowed Chair in Family Medicine in 2015. In 2017, he was named chief of the Primary Care Integrated Center for Clinical Excellence (ICCE) and President of Carolina Family Care. In these roles, Dr. Steyer has served as leader of primary care efforts across MUSC Health. In 2021, he was elected by his peers to serve as president of MUSC Physicians, the faculty group practice. He was appointed Interim Dean of the College of Medicine in April of 2022 and, following a national search, was elected Dean of the College of Medicine and Vice President for Medical Affairs by the MUSC Board of Trustees in December of 2022.

Dr. Steyer is an active member of the American Academy of Family Physicians and the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine, for which he served as National President 2009-10. He is an active researcher in the area of health care policy and leadership development for health care professionals. His current work includes research on the evolution of primary care medicine at MUSC.

He is married to Kelly Clifton Steyer, an RN, and has two college-aged sons.