Vol. 13 | August 2022 – 5 minute read

Pictured above: Faculty members attend a Leadership Emerging in Academic Departments (LEAD) session. 

Jo-Ann Nesiama, M.D., Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Director of the Pediatric Emergency Medicine Fellowship Program, is the Faculty Senate President-Elect for 2022-2023. The Faculty Senate, composed of elected members from every department on the UT Southwestern campus, represents the faculty in communicating important matters to and from the administration.

As President-Elect, Dr. Nesiama will support the Faculty Senate President and represent the Faculty Senate to the Faculty Council with the past and current presidents. She will assume the role of Faculty Senate President in the academic year 2023-2024.   

Ambarish Pandey, M.D., Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine, led a team that was awarded the grand prize in the American Heart Association (AHA) Heart Failure Data Challenge. The six-month challenge asked researchers to test the relationships between heart failure and health disparities, social determinants of health, and structural determinants of health. 

Dr. Pandey’s team included UT Southwestern colleagues Shreya Rao, M.D., M.P.H., and Sandeep Das, M.D., M.P.H., M.B.A.; and Matthew W. Segar, M.D., M.S., of the Texas Heart Institute in Houston. Their project, Impact of Social and Structural Determinants of Health on Hospital Length of Stay Among Heart Failure Patients According to Race, leveraged AHA registry data to identify social determinants of health parameters significantly associated with prolonged length of stay following heart failure hospitalization.

COVID-19 curtailed our ability to meet in person for over two years, but it did not hinder our ability to recruit top-notch talent. Since the pandemic began, we have appointed nine new department chairs, retired one vice provost, and welcomed two new vice provosts. Two receptions in honor of our leaders took place last month.

The New Chairs' reception honoring Dr. Elan Louis, Chair of the Department of Neurology; Dr. Heakyung Kim, Chair of the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation; and Dr. Nader Pouratian, Chair of the Department of Neurological Surgery; took place July 18. The Chairs are pictured left alongside Dr. W. P. Andrew Lee, Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs, Provost, and Dean of the Medical School, who hosted the event, and Dr. Daniel K. Podolsky, President of UT Southwestern.

A reception honoring the 40-year career of Dr. David Russell, retired Vice Provost and Dean of Research and Professor Emeritus of Molecular Genetics, was held July 27. In the right photo, Dr. Russell stands with Dr. Gregory Fitz, Special Assistant to the President; Dr. Lee; Dr. Joan Conaway, Vice Provost and Dean of Basic Research; Dr. Charles Ginsburg, Vice Provost and Senior Associate Dean for Education; and Dr. Joseph Goldstein, Chair of the Department of Molecular Genetics; during the event.

Several key hires for the Peter O’Donnell Jr. School of Public Health (OSPH) have been made in recent months. Please join us in welcoming:

Tami Gurley, Ph.D., is Professor and inaugural Program Director for the Ph.D. in Health Economics and Policy. She joins us from the University of Kansas Medical Center, where she served as Ph.D. Program Director in the Department of Population Health since 2017. Dr. Gurley specializes in policy research using large databases including Medicaid claims data, controlled substance data, and tax return data. 

Kelseanna Hollis-Hansen, Ph.D., M.P.H., was recruited as Assistant Professor. Prior to joining UTSW, she was a postdoctoral fellow at the Steve Hicks School of Social Work at UT Austin. Her research focuses on designing and analyzing food retail interventions that aim to improve diet and increase food equity in underresourced communities.

Becca Henley, J.D., will be the inaugural Associate Dean for Student Affairs and Operations effective Aug. 15. She joins us from Southern Methodist University's Dedman School of Law, where she has served as Assistant Dean for Administration and Chief of Staff since 2015, overseeing administration and operations for the law school, which has approximately 800 students and a $49 million budget. At the OSPH, she will be responsible for leading student and administrative operations.

Sukh Makhnoon, Ph.D., M.P.H., was recruited as Assistant Professor. Prior to joining UTSW, she was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Behavioral Science at UT MD Anderson Cancer Center. Her research focuses on adherence to cancer genetic test-related recommendation, as well as written and familial communication of uncertain genetic test results.  

Megan Mullins, Ph.D., M.P.H., is Assistant Professor. She joins us from the University of Michigan’s Rogel Cancer Center, where she was a T32 fellow in cancer care delivery research and the inaugural Cancer Care Delivery Research Fellow at NRG Oncology. Dr. Mullins’ research program is focused on improving the quality and equity of cancer care for people with advanced stage cancers.

Peifeng Ruan, Ph.D., will start as Assistant Professor on Sept. 1. He joins us from the Yale School of Public Health, where he is a Postdoc Associate in the Department of Biostatistics. He is developing statistical methods and computational algorithms for multiomics data with an application in complex human diseases, such as cancer and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.

The Texas Library Coalition for United Action (TLCUA) Steering Committee has concluded negotiations with Elsevier, the world’s largest publisher of scientific journals. All TLCUA members, including UT Southwestern, received a discount on journal subscriptions – some as high as 30% – while still maintaining significant amounts of access to journals. 

Beyond initial cost savings, Elsevier agreed to a maximum annual increase of 2% over the course of the license agreement, with some years as low as 0%, which is significantly lower than the industry standard. This will allow UT Southwestern’s Library to provide for more requests of additions to its collection. 

Additionally, TLCUA and Elsevier have agreed to partner on a pilot project to revert ownership of journal articles to the original authors. Currently, authors transfer copyright of their work in exchange for that work being published. This pilot will provide for rights to go back to authors after a period that will be collaboratively determined with Elsevier. 

For more information, visit Library News or contact Jane Scott.

Underrepresented Minority (URM) Faculty Wellness Coaching

A cohort of peer URM faculty members from across departments will meet with a coach over six sessions to discuss the unique challenges URM faculty face.   

• Programs start Thursday, Aug. 11. Register to attend.

Creating Impactful Slide Presentations

Learn how to create a persuasive presentation layout and design simple and clean slides that showcase your research.  

• Thursday, Aug. 25, from 4-7 p.m. Register to attend. 

UT Southwestern Pitch Competition 2022

An opportunity for faculty, students, and staff to present their startup or early-stage technologies to leading investors, entrepreneurs, and representatives from the health care industry.  

• Submit your pitch by Friday, Aug. 26.  

Annual Performance Evaluation Deadline

By the end of the month, supervisors and managers must meet with their employees to discuss their FY22 annual performance review.

• FY22 nonfaculty performance evaluations are due Aug. 31.

UTSW-Parkland Health Equity Scholars Program

The program will provide resources to recruit and retain outstanding faculty committed to care for patients from underserved and disadvantaged populations. 

• Submit a nomination form by Monday, Oct. 3.  

For the sixth consecutive year, UT Southwestern’s William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital is the No. 1 Best Hospital in Dallas-Fort Worth and the No. 2 Best Hospital in Texas in the annual U.S. News & World Report rankings. Nine of our specialties earned recognition as being among the nation's top 50 – with five of those in the top 25.

We are grateful for the faculty who took time to vote for UT Southwestern. Read more about our nationally ranked specialties.

This edition of Academic Connections marks the one-year anniversary of this publication. Your continued engagement with this newsletter is much appreciated. We invite you to share how this newsletter supports your work and/or a topic you would like to see included in an upcoming issue.