2026 MAR. EDITION
Welcome to this month’s edition of the Pulse as we celebrate another successful Match Day! This was our largest class yet at the Tilman J. Fertitta Family College of Medicine as we continue to build on our momentum. I am very proud to report that 100% of our students matched this year and will be beginning their residency journeys at prestigious programs and in very competitive specialties. Like last year, around two-thirds of our (soon-to-be) physicians matched into specialties that deliver primary care, and about two-thirds will be staying in Texas for their residency training. Following last year’s trend, many will be staying close to the Medical School in the Houston area and the Texas Medical Center and will train in world-class facilities. No matter where they go, however, I am confident that they will carry Cougar pride and our deep-abiding concern for the well-being of our communities with them. I’d like to congratulate our students on not just the Match results, but on all the work they have put in the last four years. Seeing the culmination of that determined training in our Match Day celebration, shared with family, friends, faculty and staff, was a powerful moment for all who attended.
- Jon McCullers
The Fertitta College of Medicine celebrated it’s third Match Day — and its largest by far. All 51 students in the class matched, with nearly 70% staying in Texas and 65% going into primary care. Several students matched with prestigious residency programs in 13 other states, including Stanford University in California, the University of Michigan and the Mayo Clinic’s campus in Florida. Learn more about this year’s Match Day!
The Office of Community Health has moved to Health 2, 8th floor. The Community Health team will retain a landing space in the 1300 suite for on-site meetings at the college.
Recently at HCA Kingwood, Jerome Crowder, Ph.D., Ken Janda, JD, and LaShaune Johnson, Ph.D., led a high‑impact discussion on health disparities in emergency medicine outcomes, engaging faculty and learners around how non-medical, structural, and community factors influence acute care delivery. The session combined clinical relevance with systems‑level insight, reinforcing the role of academic–clinical partnerships in advancing equitable care.
The facilitators’ complementary expertise—medical anthropology, community‑accountable health systems, and community‑engaged research—created a practical and accessible framework for understanding disparities while emphasizing actionable approaches for trainees and clinical teams. Discussion centered on recognizing inequities at the bedside, understanding upstream drivers and aligning institutional practices with community needs.
This session is particularly timely for Graduate Medical Education (GME). Health disparities education is now explicitly reflected in ACGME resident survey items and evolving milestone assessments, making equity‑focused training a clear accreditation and perceived‑value priority for residency programs. Delivering structured, clinically grounded content in this area directly supports GME partners in meeting these expectations while enhancing trainee preparedness.
Overall, the Kingwood session represents a strong example of value‑added engagement with clinical partners, advancing institutional priorities in education, equity, and accreditation alignment.
During a busy travel season, Ben King, Ph.D., M.P.H., while presenting a talk titled "Healthcare Interactions, Diagnoses, and Service Utilization Preceding Cardiovascular Mortality Associated with Homelessness" at the American Heart Association (AHA) Epidemiology and Prevention | Lifestyle and Cardiometabolic Health conference, ran into several unexpecting College of Medicine students. Raymond Truong, Andy Castaneda and Amanda Dike, without realizing, were attending the same conference all the way across the country in Boston!
Raymond Truong on presented his research at the national AHA EPI Lifestyle Scientific Sessions 2026 in Boston! His project, 'Greater Cardiovascular Risk Is Associated with Higher Liver Dysfunction: An NHANES Analysis Using FIB-4 and PREVENT Equations,' explores the link between liver fibrosis markers and 10-year cardiovascular disease risk in a nationally representative sample. This work was conducted in collaboration with his mentors at the Stanford Cardiovascular Institute. We're proud to see our students conducting impactful, population-level research.
Amy Amspoker, Ph.D., has joined the Department of Health Systems and Population Health Sciences and the Humana Integrated Health Systems Sciences Institute as a biostatistics faculty member. Dr. Amspoker comes to us from Baylor College of Medicine and the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center, where she has served as an Associate Professor and held leadership roles in the Center for Innovations in Quality, Effectiveness, and Safety. She has deep expertise in implementation science, telehealth, rural health, psychometrics, study design, and quantitative methods. She has a continuously funded research portfolio and a strong track record of mentoring trainees and collaborating across disciplines, and I hope you will reach out to welcome her and explore opportunities to work together.
Katrina Hughes, M.D., has joined the Department of Biomedical Sciences as an adjunct faculty member. She previously served as an Assistant Professor of Radiology at McGovern Medical School and holds extensive training across Diagnostic Radiology, Internal Medicine–Pediatrics, and a Pediatric Radiology fellowship at Texas Children’s Hospital. Hughes will serve as an essential partner in integrating radiology throughout our curriculum, spanning both Phase 1 and Phase 2.
Dr. Harsh Pathak is a board-certified emergency physician and educator serving the greater Houston area. Pathak currently serves as the emergency medicine clerkship director at the Tilman J. Fertitta Family College of Medicine and is Core Faculty and Research Director for HCA Healthcare Graduate Medical Education in Houston. He is committed to advancing emergency medicine through resident education, evidence-based practice, clinical process improvement, and innovation in patient care.
Donald A. Briscoe, M.D., FAAFP co-authored four simulation cases for the on-line Transition to Residency Compendium, a resource available for use by medical schools across the country for their Transition to Residency (TTR) courses. Congratulations to Dr. Briscoe on this amazing achievement.
The College of Medicine received official news this month that the office of continuing medical education (CME) received its self-study report back from the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME). The self-study process is a significant and rigorous undertaking, and we are proud to share that the Office of Continuing Medical Education was found compliant in all areas and has been granted full accreditation through 2030.
David Buck, M.D., M.P.H., associate dean for community health presented at the 2026 Faculty for Homeless & Inclusion Health International Conference in London. Buck joined an international group of experts addressing critical issues in homeless and inclusion health, highlighting the importance of community-focused care and health equity. We are proud to see UH faculty contributing to global conversations that advance health for vulnerable populations.
One of his fellow researchers, Dr. Nick Maquire, Professor (Enterprise) in Clinical Psychology, University of Southampton, Centre for Homelessness Research, will be presenting a Grand Rounds at our College of Medicine on May 12!
We continue to grow our dynamic team of consummate professionals. Let us welcome the newest members to join our college:
Congratulations to Dana Gazda, registrar for the College of Medicine, and Ivy Wilcox, assistant director in the office of scholarships and financial aid, who recently attended the 2026 Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) Health Professions Financial Aid and Student Records Administration Joint Meeting in Miami. The meeting brought together leaders in academic administration to discuss the evolving student aid landscape, academic calendars, and reporting requirements that support medical students across the country. We are proud to see our staff engaging in national conversations that strengthen student support and administrative excellence.
The annual TAAHP (Texas Association for Advisors of Health Professions) conference brings together advisors and health professions schools from across Texas to collaborate, share insights, and improve the training of future health professionals. This year the Fertitta College of Medicine hosted several hundred eager attendees as they learned and shared new best practices.
The Family Care Center attended an EGG Hunt Community Event hosted by Houston Parks and Recreation, DTC Family First, and the Houston Health Department on Saturday, March 14. Over 500 community members participated in an Easter Egg hunt, arts & crafts, and pictures with the Easter Bunny!
Rebecca Negri has been promoted to Senior Manager of Marketing & Communications. She will continue coordinating outreach events while taking on an expanded focus on marketing and communications strategy.
Jeri Parker has been promoted to Credentialing and Revenue Cycle Operations Manager. She will continue to lead credentialing and provider enrollment, provide eligibility training, and assist with referral troubleshooting.
Kudos to Wendy Fitzgerald, Sophia Eloufir and David Curtis, Ph.D., on their incredible work relating to the college receiving full accreditation from the ACCME. The amount of research, dedication and time that was put into this effort has paid off and we’d like to thank these individuals for all of their hard work.
Cori Grant, Ph.D., M.B.A., M.S., partnered on a grant application to the Department of State Health Services (DSHS) for FCC, and we were awarded $650,000 in funding. The award supports new incubator services and will cover funding for the providers we are actively recruiting for: OB/GYN, pediatrics, a nurse practitioner, and a clinical support role.
The University of Houston’s Tilman J. Fertitta Family College of Medicine has received a planned estate gift commitment estimated at $2.1 million to establish a scholarship endowment, expanding access to medical education and strengthening the pipeline of physicians who will serve communities across Texas and beyond. The commitment creates the Bob Diehl and Teresa Evans Diehl Scholarship Endowment, which will provide scholarships for full-time medical students. Learn more about the impact this will have on our college.
Do you have something you’d like to share college wide? Please open a Zendesk ticket select the Marketing Request Form and provide details in the description for consideration in next month’s edition of The Pulse.
