President’s Cabinet Awards 

Angela Shepherd, MD
Diana Browning
Ambulatory Operations

The Family Medicine Clinic on Stewart Road will provide training for medical assistants in order to provide a higher level of service to patients. Serving as a communication bridge between patients and staff, these "health coaches" will work collaboratively with physicians, nurses and other health care professionals to provide a medical home and care coordination for patients through one-on-one interaction and follow-up support

Robert Trevino
Lorena Serenil
Joshalyn Toliver
Community Health Program

Diabetics confront many challenges in their daily lives, including how and when to test their blood glucose levels. The UTMB Community Health Program will teach economically disadvantaged participants the skills they need to manage testing as an integral part of their daily routine. Additionally, ID bracelets imprinted with basic blood glucose ranges will be distributed. Since testing supplies are a hidden cost of disease management, this program will provide a limited amount of free testing supplies and list resources for obtaining supplies at little or no cost.

David Darrow
Walter J. Meyer, III, MD
Psychiatry/Behavioral Science

In an effort to lower the no-show rate and improve the management and coordination of patients at St. Vincent's Clinic, this program will create a Community Health Worker position. The CHW will be trained to effectively coordinate and follow patients and, with the help of medical students, facilitate basic health disease management classes. A member of the community will be chosen for this position in order to minimize social and cultural barriers, which will allow root-cause analysis on lack of follow-up to easily take place.

William J. Calhoun, MD
Internal Medicine

A critical shortage of Clinical Research Coordinators hampers clinical and translational research at UTMB. To increase the availability of well-educated and trained CRCs, this joint venture with Galveston College will support the development of a one-year curriculum and class to prepare candidates to take and pass one of two national certification examinations. Scholarship funds for interested students also will be made available through this program.

Gibran Khurshid, MD
Ophthalmology

The most common irreversible cause of blindness, diabetic retinopathy, is a prevalent condition in our community. To optimize ophthalmic care to Galveston County residents, this award will outfit the St. Vincent's Eye Clinic with the tools and medicine necessary to treat the disease or perform surgery at no cost to economically disadvantaged patients.

Jaymee Mayo
Transplant Services

To celebrate those who have given the gift of life at UTMB, an engravable metal tree sculpture will be installed to recognize organ donors. Donors from the past five years will be recognized by name on individual leaves of the metal sculpture; the names and dates of prior donors will be displayed on a digital frame next to the sculpture. It is hoped this memorial will subtly encourage potential donors and honor those who have given of so unselfishly of themselves.