Meet Our Team

Program Coordinator

Tammy Denton RN, CDE
Tammy has been a part of the Surgical Weight Loss Team since 2008. In addition to her role as coordinator and educator for the Surgical Weight Loss program, Tammy is also a certified diabetes educator. As a nurse she assists in providing education to ensure individuals are well informed as to the procedure they are pursuing along with obtaining a through health assessment that promotes a culture of safety within the program.

She also assists in center development, managing the accreditation process and ensuring continuous compliance with MBSAQIP requirements, maintaining relevant policies and procedures, patient education, outcomes data collection, quality improvement efforts, and education of relevant staffing the various aspects of the metabolic and bariatric surgery patient with a focus on patient safety.

Clinical Educator & Insurance Specialist

Rayetta Parker, R.N.
Rayetta Parker earned her Associate Degree in Nursing from Shawnee State University in 1991. She has been employed with King’s Daughters since June 1991 and has worked in the Surgical Weight Loss Program since March 2004. She provides education to the patients from the time of their initial visit, and throughout the process to surgery. Rayetta helps to cover a 24-hour nurse on-call option for all post-op patients. She is responsible for completing a chart audit on 100 percent of patients prior to their surgery, verifying that all testing has been completed and that any abnormal test results have been addressed, prior to insurance submission.

Behavioral Health Specialist

Lisa Huff, MSW, LCSW
Lisa is a licensed clinical social worker who has been with our program since 2004. Lisa initially provided contract services to meet insurance requirements for the completion of the psychiatric assessment, but quickly learned that the behavioral health component of weight loss surgery was as important as the tool of the procedure itself. Unlike most programs, Lisa is a full time employee of the surgical weight loss team and has regular contact and intervention with her patients. In addition to the initial psychiatric assessment, Lisa also provides all patients with education in regards to emotional eating as well as learning new and breaking old eating behaviors. Her group class also offers a discussion on possible post surgery complications including relationship challenges, mental health changes, self esteem and transfer addiction. Lisa feels that the behavioral health education helps her patients become more psychologically prepared for this journey, thus helping improve their chances for long term success. Lisa works as a multidisciplinary piece of the team and is able to offer psychological guidance and support both pre-operatively and post operatively.

Registered Dietitian

Christine Shoemaker, R.D.
Our registered dietitians use their expertise to provide valuable nutrition education. Program participants receive nutrition-focused assessments and continuing education for the life of their surgical weight loss journey. Nutrition education has an essential role in the degree of success patients see before and after surgery. Our dietitians focus on the patient’s individual nutritional needs to influence healthy lifestyle changes for life-long weight loss success.