Chiquita Collins, PhD, MA, to serve as inaugural vice president for diversity, equity and inclusion and chief diversity officer

Chiquita Collins, PhD, MA

Contact: Will Sansom, (210) 567-2579, sansom@uthscsa.edu

SAN ANTONIO (Feb. 18, 2022) — Chiquita A. Collins, PhD, MA, will serve as the inaugural, full-time vice president for diversity, equity and inclusion and chief diversity officer at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UT Health San Antonio). William L. Henrich, MD, MACP, president of the health science center, announced Dr. Collins’ promotion, which is effective March 1.

Dr. Collins has served in a part-time role as UT Health San Antonio’s associate vice president for inclusive excellence and health equity since October 2020 while also serving as the chief diversity officer and vice dean for inclusion and diversity in the Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long School of Medicine. “In both roles, she has worked to advance diversity and inclusion efforts in order to further define, assess and promote diversity and inclusive excellence, cultural competency proficiency and health equity across UT Health San Antonio,” Dr. Henrich said. “In this newly established institutional role of vice president, Dr. Collins will be integral to further advancing diversity, equity and inclusion in partnership with leaders and teams across all missions and schools.”

Illustration of a seamless pattern of many different people.During the past academic year, Dr. Collins launched a monthly lecture series that included distinguished physicians and scholars from diverse backgrounds across the country, delivering topics relevant to the entire campus. Through her partnership with the San Antonio Independent School District, CAST (Centers for Applied Science and Technology) Med High School was developed and established in 2019, intended for diverse, socioeconomically disadvantaged students. She also developed an evidence-based program that trained 40 diversity ambassadors in an intensive, six-week module to resolve microaggressions in real time. This program reached close to 1,000 participants during the 2020-21 academic year.

“A true testament to her achievements is the recognition by U.S. News & World Report in its first-ever rankings on diversity that the Long School of Medicine ranks 16th in the nation and first in Texas,” Dr. Henrich said. Dr. Collins was also instrumental in the university’s first campuswide diversity climate survey.

Website: Office for Inclusion and Diversity, Long School of Medicine

Dr. Collins is recognized at both state and national levels for her work in health disparities driven by underlying social and economic inequities. Her recent JAMA Health Reform publication (2021) on diversity is in the top 5% of all articles published by the JAMA network specialty journal. She is actively engaged in the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) and currently serves as chair of the AAMC Group on Diversity and Inclusion. She is immediate past chair of the Texas Medical Schools’ Diversity and Inclusion Consortium (2020-21) and serves on the board of directors of the national Healthcare Diversity Council.

Website: AAMC Group on Diversity and Inclusion

Dr. Collins earned her master’s and doctorate degrees in sociology from the University of Michigan. She completed postdoctoral training in the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Scholars Program at the University of California at Berkeley/UC San Francisco and received certification credentials from the AAMC Healthcare Executive Diversity and Inclusion Certificate (HEDIC) program.

She joined UT Health San Antonio in September 2017 after serving as the associate dean of diversity and cultural competency and assistant professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. At UT Health San Antonio, Dr. Collins serves as an associate professor/research within the Department of Population Health Sciences.

Dr. Henrich expressed gratitude to Amy Tawney, MBA, SPHR, SHRM-SCP, CPC, vice president and chief human resources officer, and the members of the search advisory committee who led the national search to fill this important position.


The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, also referred to as UT Health San Antonio, is one of the country’s leading health sciences universities and is designated as a Hispanic-Serving Institution by the U.S. Department of Education. With missions of teaching, research, patient care and community engagement, its schools of medicine, nursing, dentistry, health professions and graduate biomedical sciences have graduated 39,700 alumni who are leading change, advancing their fields, and renewing hope for patients and their families throughout South Texas and the world. To learn about the many ways “We make lives better®,” visit www.uthscsa.edu.

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