“On Monday I informed University of Houston President Dr. Renu Khator that I plan to step down from the position of Founding Dean of the Tilman J. Fertitta Family College of Medicine and retire after 45 years of working fulltime as a physician. She made that announcement to the broader UH community yesterday, and she will soon appoint a search committee to help identify a new Dean to lead our college.
I have enjoyed a wonderful and varied career practicing family medicine in rural, urban, and global settings; training two generations of physicians and other health professionals; conducting research to discover new knowledge, and leading two medical school departments as chair, two medical schools as dean, and several health care organizations including a large teaching hospital. But I believe that the most exciting and rewarding part of my career has been the opportunity to lead the planning, implementation and launch of our College of Medicine. It has been a real joy to be able to design the kind of medical school that I thought our state needed, get broad buy in for that vision, develop a plan, identify the funding, recruit the faculty, build the curriculum, design a building, and recruit the medical students for this new medical school.
This has been a team effort, and I am grateful to a multitude of individuals who contributed to make this a reality: the UH Board of Regents, President Khator and her cabinet, academic leaders across the University who contributed to the planning, state legislators, donors, the outstanding College of Medicine faculty we have been fortunate to recruit, our dedicated staff, and our amazing students who were willing to take a risk in coming to a new and different kind of medical school. Each one of you has made, and will continue to make, important contributions to this college and its mission.
I have told Dr. Khator that I will be happy to continue in my current position until the new Dean has been recruited and is onsite. I am fully committed to leading the college through the upcoming LCME accreditation survey, celebrating the graduation of our first class of students in May, and continuing to grow and improve our medical school. I will remain “all in” as your leader until a new Dean arrives. I believe that great things are ahead for our college in the days to come, and I am excited to continue to work towards our mission of improving the health and health care of the population of this great city, state and beyond during my remaining time here. And I am confident that I can count on each of you to continue to contribute to this important mission.”
- Steve Spann
Fertitta Family College of Medicine faculty, staff and students attended the Hispanic American Medical Association of Houston (HAMAH) Gala and Scholarship Awards. The event celebrated two of our College of Medicine students, M4 Brandon Gonzalez and M2 Amacalli Tejeda, who received scholarships. The purpose of HAMAH is to increase the number of Hispanic students who are committed to increasing health equity and plan to successfully graduate from medical school, a health professions school or graduate school in science.
The Fertitta Family College of Medicine’s offices of Outreach and Student Pathways and Student Affairs attended the Girls Inc. BOLD Leaders Summit. The event was a fun-filled and educational one-day event for girls aged 13-18 and their parents, addressing topics such as healthy living, community and civic engagement. M2 Stephanie Sanchez gave a presentation on “What is Your Skin Telling you?” that discussed skin function and health. Alechia Abioye, director of Student Affairs, led a hands-on activity on making safe, at-home scrubs.
Health Career Collaborative (HCC) kicked off at Austin High School with 20 tenth grade students. HCC is a national program that is led by medical students and exposes high school students from underrepresented backgrounds to health-related careers in medicine. Project goals are to encourage graduation and provide students access to a diverse range of health-related careers by providing mentorship and an engaging health curriculum with project-based learning.
Lani Ackerman, M.D. clinical professor for Clinical Sciences, is director of Electives and the interim director of Advanced Clerkships.
Jorge Gonzales, Ph.D., clinical professor for Behavioral and Social Sciences is a clinical child and adolescent psychologist at the Family Care Clinic.
Researchers at the University of Houston have secured a $1.5 million grant from the National Academy of Sciences to develop a public health data system to address health equity challenges in Houston’s medically underserved neighborhoods in times of natural disaster.
Omolola E. Adepoju, Ph.D., M.P.H. and team will work with community leaders to develop a climate and health dashboard where people can post pictures and thoughts from previous natural disasters, like Hurricane Harvey, and share their experiences. Initially, the project will focus on the Third Ward, Fifth Ward and Kashmere Gardens neighborhoods while others could be added in the coming years.
Full StoryWe continue to grow our dynamic team of consummate professionals. Let us welcome the newest members to join our college:
The Healthy Connections/Household Centered Care program attended the Third Ward National Night Out at Emancipation Park on November 3. Daniella Hernandez, Miriam Rodriguez and Linda Civallero spoke to attendees about the opportunity to receive home visits from a community health worker, as well as medical, nursing and social work students to help address social or health care challenges.
The Humana Institute, Household Centered Care, and student organization My Doctor is a Black Woman, hosted third through fifth graders from Thompson Elementary and Lockhart Elementary in Third Ward for “Doctor for a Day”. The 30 visiting students donned their lab coats and experienced STEM through the perspective of medical students who guided them through lessons on exercise physiology, human anatomy using the Anatomage table and heart sounds with “Harvey” in CCASEL. The students also received hands-on training in compressions (CPR) for emergencies. Both medical students and elementary students alike were engaged in this educational and fun-filled day.
The Fertitta Family College of Medicine Household-Centered Care’s Poverty Simulation was this month, and students navigated their community, their neighborhood and their community services for their families while living in poverty. Throughout the sessions, they became sensitized to the realities of poverty and gained an understanding of how poverty affects health. During this journey they were joined by students of the Andy and Barbara Gessner College of Nursing and the Graduate College of Social Work.
The countdown is on for our LCME survey visit. Our students have recently completed a follow-up survey to re-examine some of the issues that were raised in their Independent Student Analysis (ISA) survey from earlier this year. This survey will help us to assess whether the ideas and actions that came from our faculty and staff retreat have helped us to better meet the needs of the students.
Other activities taking place at this time include ongoing reviews and editing of our Data Collection Instrument (DCI). We are also preparing for a mock survey visit, which we will conduct in January as a practice run for the official LCME visit scheduled for March.
LeChauncy Woodard, M.D., M.P.H. clinical professor at the University of Houston Tilman J. Fertitta Family College of Medicine and founding director of the Humana Integrated Health System Sciences Institute, has been awarded Mastership in the American College of Physicians (ACP), the national organization of internal medicine physicians. Only 1-2% of ACP’s 161,000 members have obtained Masterships, putting Woodard in exclusive company.
The American College of Physicians is the largest medical-specialty society in the world. Each year, it confers Mastership on a select few candidates in recognition of outstanding and extraordinary career accomplishments, including teaching, research and practice in clinical medicine, contributions to preventative medicine and improvements in the delivery of health care. Those selected are considered “citizen physicians,” educational innovators, humanists and learner-teachers who inspire others to seek high standards and excellence in their profession.
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Hosted by Healthy Start and Molina Healthcare, the Healthy Women’s Expo was a health and resource fair focusing on pregnant and postpartum women and their young families. Medical Assistant Ashlei Phillips and Pooja Patel M.D., M.P.H., M.M.S., FACOG, had the opportunity to provide blood pressure screenings and talk to attendees about the Family Care Center.
Brian Reed, M.D., and LeChauncy Woodard, M.D., M.P.H., attended St. Mary’s of the Purification’s Health Fair and provided blood pressure, hearing and vision screenings to church members before and after services. Members also had the chance to learn more about the Family Care Center and the benefits it provides.
At the University of Houston, we care about you. In addition to you practicing self-care, we believe in the strength of a community that cares for our fellow Coogs. We have a number of resources to support your mental health and overall wellness. Learn more about our available resources here.
Need Support Now?
If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call CAPS crisis support 24/7 at 713-743-5454, or for the National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline call or text 988, or chat online at 988 Lifeline Chat and Text.
Do you have something you’d like to share college wide? Email uhcomcom@central.uh.edu with details for consideration in next month’s edition of The Pulse.
