2017 Presidential Award winners recognized

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Linked by what President William L. Henrich, M.D., MACP, called a common “desire to contribute in a unique and meaningful way for the benefit of others,” 19 members of the faculty and staff were honored March 6 with Presidential Awards from UT Health San Antonio.

Byron Hepburn, M.D., Major General USAF (Ret), director of the Military Health Institute, stepped in and served as emcee of the ceremony for President Henrich.

“There would be no UT Health without the efforts of individuals, like our awardees tonight, who give of themselves in the selfless service of others,” Dr. Hepburn said. “We are very proud to honor you tonight.”

On behalf of the president, Dr. Hepburn also thanked the selection committees chaired by Jacqueline Mok, Ph.D., vice president for academic, faculty and students affairs, and Maritza Ramirez from the Office of Human Resources.

The winners were acknowledged with a congratulatory Senate Proclamation from the state of Texas by state Sen. Jose Menendez of San Antonio as well as a monetary gift.

The winners are:

Distinguished Senior Research Scholar:

  • Tyler Curiel, M.D., M.P.H., professor, Daisy M. Skinner President’s Chair in Cancer Immunology, Division of Hematology/Oncology, Department of Medicine; professor, Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics, Joe R. & Teresa Lozano Long School of Medicine

Distinguished Junior Research Scholar:

  • Andrew D. J. Meyer, M.D., M.S., assistant professor, Division of Critical Care, Department of Pediatrics, Joe R. & Teresa Lozano Long School of Medicine

Distinguished Service to the Institution:

  • Kimatha Oxford Grice, O.T.D., OTR, CHT, associate professor and Distinguished Teaching Professor, Department of Occupational Therapy, School of Health Professions

Teaching Excellence Awards:

  • Maria Danet Lapiz Bluhm, Ph.D., RN, associate professor, School of Nursing
  • Sean E. Garcia, M.D., FHM, associate professor, Division of General and Hospital Medicine, Department of Medicine, Joe R. & Teresa Lozano Long School of Medicine
  • Eileen M. Lafer, Ph.D., professor, Department of Biochemistry and Structural Biology, director, Center for Macromolecular Interactions, Joe R. & Teresa Lozano Long School of Medicine
  • James Lechleiter, Ph.D., professor, Department of Cell Systems and Anatomy, Joe R. & Teresa Lozano Long School of Medicine
  • Mark T. Nadeau, M.D., M.B.A., FAAFP, professor/clinical, residency program director, Department of Family and Community Medicine, Joe R. & Teresa Lozano Long School of Medicine
  • Diane Sullivan, D.D.S., assistant professor, Department of Comprehensive Dentistry, School of Dentistry

Clinical Excellence Awards:

  • Gregory Bowling, M.D., associate professor, Division of General and Hospital Medicine, Department of Medicine, Joe R. & Teresa Lozano Long School of Medicine
  • Richard Crownover, M.D., Ph.D., professor and residency program director, Department of Radiation Oncology, Joe R. & Teresa Lozano Long School of Medicine
  • Sylvia Leal-Castañon, M.D., associate professor/clinical, Department of Pediatrics – Ambulatory Care, Joe R. & Teresa Lozano Long School of Medicine
  • Neela K. Patel, M.D., M.P.H., CMD, associate professor, chief, Division of Geriatrics & Palliative Care, Department of Family & Community Medicine, Joe R. & Teresa Lozano Long School of Medicine; medical director, UT Medicine Senior Health Clinic & Acute Care for Elders & Palliative Care Program, Christus Santa Rosa Hospital in the Medical Center

Employee Excellence Awards:

  • Herlinda Howard, business administrator, Office of the Vice President for Academic, Faculty and Student Affairs, Briscoe Library
  • Beth Payne, M.A.Ed., C-TAGME, LSSBB, director, academic programs, associate program director, Department of Pediatrics, Joe R. & Teresa Lozano Long School of Medicine
  • Leonard Rodriguez, senior public safety officer, UT Police
  • Mary Rowe, associate administrator, research program, Department of Medicine, Joe R. & Teresa Lozano Long School of Medicine
  • Melanie Stone, M.P.H., M.Ed., assistant director for Community Service Learning, Center for Medical Humanities & Ethics, Joe R. & Teresa Lozano Long School of Medicine
  • Christine Trevino, business administrator, Barshop Institute, Joe R. & Teresa Lozano Long School of Medicine

View the awards video

View the awards program

Salud America! gets $1.5M to fight Latino child obesity

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Salud America! gets 1-year grant to develop culturally tailored content to fuel healthy changes that reduce Latino childhood obesity

Salud America! The RWJF Research Network to Prevent Obesity Among Latino Children has received a one-year, $1.5 million grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) to develop culturally tailored educational content and tools that empower people to work for policy changes to help Latino children grow up healthy.

Salud America!, established in 2007 and based at UT Health San Antonio, has a national online network of 100,000 parents, school and academic personnel, and community leaders who support its mission: “Promote a healthy weight for Latino children by communicating good health and driving people to start healthy changes in their schools and communities.”

The new funding will allow Salud America! to expand its network and engage members with enhanced educational content—multimedia role model stories, social media events, online resources, digital action campaigns, and marketing—geared toward healthy change. In addition to reducing Latino childhood obesity, Salud America! will expand work to improve Latino family support, mental health, and early childhood development.

“We are excited by RWJF’s ongoing support, and are excited to continue to push the boundaries of communication to empower Latino leaders and families toward developing healthy children with a healthy weight,” said Amelie G. Ramirez, Dr.P.H., director of Salud America!

More than 38 percent of Latino children ages 2-19 are overweight or obese, compared to 28.5 percent of white youth and 35.2 percent of black youth. Latino children also face barriers in access to healthy foods and drinks, physical activity, social services, mental health care and proper early childhood development.

Salud America! was established to address these challenges.

In its first few years, the program developed the first-ever coordinated agenda for research on Latino childhood obesity, funded 20 research grantees who identified promising obesity-prevention strategies, and created an award-winning website with multimedia content that has been recognized by the AVA Digital Awards, Communicator Awards, Telly Awards, Aurora Awards, Digital Health Awards, HERMES Awards, Davey Awards, and W³ Awards.

More recently the network has developed foundational research on obesity among Latino children and helped raise awareness of shared use agreements among state PTA organizations and healthier food marketing among state grocery store associations. The program also developed Salud Report Cards, a web tool with localized data and research on equity, obesity, grocery stores, parks, primary care, insurance, etc.

With the new funding, effective Feb. 15, 2017, to Feb. 14, 2018, Salud America! will:

Enhance its digital footprint. Launched in 2014, the Salud America! website maps the latest healthy changes, resources, and stories and videos of role models who’ve created change in cities, schools, states and the nation. The program will work with consultants to enhance the website and fuel targeted content aligning with early childhood development, mental health, and family and social support, in addition to our ongoing focus on Better Food in the Neighborhood, Active Spaces, Healthier Schools and Healthy Weight by Kindergarten.

Develop new action campaigns. Salud America! will create new campaigns to encourage its network to take action and share information. Campaigns include grassroots systems-change experiments with community and school groups, video voting contests, member recognition awards, trainings and more.

Expand communications. Salud America! will enhance engagement with its network in a variety of ways, including e-communication, social media posts (via @SaludToday), and social media events, such as the #SaludTues tweetchats. These offerings will expand to include webinars, and geo-targeted social media awareness campaigns.

The program also will closely monitor its communications and evaluate its effect on developing change agents and motivating grassroots policy and environmental change.

“We believe our content will continue to connect with and empower Latinos to get involved in building a culture of health where everyone can live healthy lives,” Ramirez said.

About UT Health San Antonio

For current news from the UT Health Science Center San Antonio, now called UT Health San Antonio™, please visit our online newsroom, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.

The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, with missions of teaching, research and healing, is one of the country’s leading health sciences universities and is now called UT Health San Antonio™. UT Health’s schools of medicine, nursing, dentistry, health professions and graduate biomedical sciences have produced more than 33,000 alumni who are advancing their fields throughout the world. With four campuses in San Antonio and Laredo, UT Health has a FY 2017 revenue operating budget of $806.6 million and is the primary driver of its community’s $37 billion biomedical and health care industry. For more information on the many ways “We make lives better®,” visit www.uthscsa.edu.

More from the Institute for Health Promotion Research (IHPR)

For current news from the IHPR at UT Health San Antonio, please visit our blog or follow us on Twitter @SaludToday.

Salud America! The RWJF Research Network to Prevent Obesity Among Latino Children

Salud America! is a nonprofit network launched in 2007 that develops multimedia communications to educate and motivate its national online network—more than 100,000 parents, teachers, academics, healthcare providers, and community leaders—to take action to reduce Latino childhood obesity and build a culture of health. The network was created and funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and is directed by Dr. Amelie G. Ramirez, a health disparities researcher and director of the Institute for Health Promotion Research at UT Health San Antonio. Visit Salud America! at http://www.communitycommons.org/groups/salud-america/. Follow Salud America! on social media via its @SaludToday handle on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and WordPress.

About the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF)

For more than 40 years the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has worked to improve health and health care. We are striving to build a national Culture of Health that will enable all to live longer, healthier lives now and for generations to come. For more information, visit www.rwjf.org. Follow the Foundation on Twitter or on Facebook.

Addiction research meeting features aspiring scientists

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Opioids

International meeting in San Antonio trains researchers, showcases new treatment approaches

Drug addiction remains one of the most challenging public health issues of our time, and opioid abuse has reached epidemic proportions in the U.S., resulting in significant morbidity and mortality and costing the U.S. economy an estimated $50 billion to $60 billion annually.

On March 4-5, UT Health San Antonio is again hosting the annual meeting of Behavior, Biology & Chemistry: Translational Research in Addiction (BBC). The BBC meeting brings together nearly 200 researchers, educators and clinicians to explore new approaches to treating addiction.

The meeting provides travel fellowships (this year nearly 70) to young scientists from Texas and across the U.S. to attend the meeting, interact with leaders in the field, and present their data. This year’s meeting includes a symposium on opioid addiction as well as an invited lecture by journalist Sam Quinones, acclaimed author of Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic.

The BBC meeting is supported, in part, by a grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institutes of Health, and is hosted by the Addiction Research, Treatment and Training Center of Excellence at UT Health San Antonio. This year is the ninth annual meeting of the BBC.

“We believe that the BBC meeting underscores the growing prominence of addiction research and education at UT Health San Antonio,” Charles France, Ph.D., the Robert A. Welch Distinguished University Chair in Chemistry of pharmacology at UT Health, wrote in a letter announcing the conference. “Importantly, the BBC involves participation by many aspiring young scientists from across the U.S., including high school students from San Antonio.”

The BBC meeting and San Antonio are playing a crucial role in developing new treatments and educating the next generation of addiction researchers, he said.

Laredo regional campus joins in Washington Birthday celebration

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Washington Birthday float, Laredo

For the first time ever, the UT Health San Antonio Regional Campus–Laredo participated in the Washington Birthday Celebration Grand Parade, part of Laredo’s grandest civic celebration.

The Anheuser-Busch Washington’s Birthday Parade, held Feb. 18,  featured more than 180 entries and a huge crowd of spectators. The Regional Campus–Laredo proudly showcased all the academic opportunities and community resources it has to offer. The parade float also promoted the new logo for UT Health San Antonio.

Military Health Institute launches new website

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The Military Health Institute, established at UT Health San Antonio in 2014 and led by Byron Hepburn, M.D., Major General USAF (Ret), has launched a new website to communicate its mission to internal and external audiences.

The purpose of the site is to provide an overview of the institute’s mission to improve the health of our nation’s active and retired military and their families. The institute encourages  alliances among academia, the military and the VA  for purposes of conducting research on military issues that have dual impact on civilian populations.

One example of this is a project initiated by PI, Brian Eastridge, called RemTORN, which stands for Remote Trauma Outcomes Research Network. The goal of the study is to develop and implement a research platform to study the impact of pre-hospital time, diagnostics and therapeutics on outcomes subsequent to injury in remote settings. Studies indicate that many lives are lost in transit before full medical care can be administered, whether that be from Uvalde to San Antonio (120 miles) or on a  battle field between Baghram and Jalalabad, the same distance. Addressing the issue from a military perspective has civilian applications.

In 2016, Department of Defense grants to UT Health San Antonio totaled $12.3 million, a net increase of almost $4 million from 2015.  In the Long School of Medicine, the basic science departments received $2.4 million in FY 2016 compared to $174,000 in FY 2015.

The institute currently maintains partnerships with the Department of Defense, Veterans Administration, UT  System and industry partners and foundations. Additionally, the Military Health Institute hosts a distinguished lecture series, a post-doc fellowship, pilot research projects and sponsors a military health student group.  To reach out with any questions or inquiries, send an email to mhi@uthscsa.edu.

Check out the new site today by clicking here.

Faculty member to head Special Care Dentistry Association

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Jeffery L. Hicks, D.D.S.
Jeffery L. Hicks, D.D.S.

Jeffery L. Hicks, D.D.S., FAAHD, DABSCD, professor of comprehensive dentistry in the School of Dentistry, has been elected president of the Special Care Dentistry Association (SCDA) for 2017-18. The organization represents more than 700 dentists and dental hygienists who care for patients with special needs.

Dr. Hicks obtained his dental degree from UT Health San Antonio School of Dentistry in 1979. He completed a general practice residency at the Audie L. Murphy Memorial VA Hospital in San Antonio in 1980. He has served in a variety of roles for the dental school, director of both the Advanced Education Program in General Dentistry and the Advanced Education in General Practice Residency program.

The SCDA serves as a resource to all oral health care professionals who serve or are interested in serving patients with special needs through education and networking to increase access to oral healthcare for patients.

As president, Dr. Hicks will oversee this organization and the convening and conduct of the SCDA 2018 annual meeting to be held in March 2018 in Seattle, Washington.