Leadership is built long before the difficult decisions arrive. This week’s Open Gates session welcomed Dr. Patrice Buckner Jackson for a conversation on building healthy, sustainable teams. Faculty, and staff, explored how shared purpose, trust, and intentional leadership create stronger teams.

Dr. Patrice Buckner Jackson brought a four-hour workshop on team capacity to Open Gates this week. Groups wrote their own mission statements before tackling a single problem, then used them to decide between competing demands that all arrived labeled urgent.

14 confirmed cyclospora cases in Galveston County. Dr. Philip Keiser, our Associate Dean for Public Health Practice and the county's Local Health Authority, says wash produce, cook fresh herbs and greens, and wash hands before food prep. www.kwbu.org/news-from-ac...

Galveston County health officials investigate rise in cyclospora cases

Health officials reported 14 confirmed cyclosporiasis cases in Galveston County with four other potential cases under investigation as of Monday.

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More than 3,500 people attended Galveston ISD’s Back to School Fair. Amber Anthony and Jackie Riggs packed donated supplies, and Amber later volunteered at the fair. Krista Bohn and Claire Hallmark also supported the effort. Special shoutout to Claire, one of our MPH alumni! 📚

Who controls genetic data after a consumer submits a DNA sample? Dr. Alberto Aparicio examines privacy, consent, family implications and biological-age testing while previewing UTMB’s Fall 2026 genomics ethics course. Explore the story at utmb.us/gak

Dr. Soham Al Snih’s new five-year professorship recognizes nearly three decades of aging research and mentorship. She plans to use much of its support to help students attend scientific meetings and publish their work. Read the story at utmb.us/gae

Reaching a seminar means trusting building engineers, elevator inspectors and crosswalk signals you never think about. Dr. Jacob Moses used that to introduce Science and Technology Studies, and to preview BHH 6312 this fall. Full recap — utmb.us/gac

The details of a medical visit can be hard to remember once a patient gets home. Dr. Meredith Masel shares how the Oliver Center tests audio recordings and other patient-centered programs, gathers feedback, fixes problems and builds on what works. Watch: utmb.us/g76

Seventeen undergraduates spent seven weeks in Galveston turning real biomedical data into eight research posters, from kidney transplant rejection to the bloodwork of research macaques. Meet the 2026 cohort at UTMB's Summer Institute in Biostatistics and Data Science. utmb.us/g9k

Artificial intelligence is making diagnosis faster, but UTMB bioethicist Dr. Jacob Moses says the human side of medicine still matters. He explains why AI should strengthen trust, ethics, and privacy rather than replace physicians. utmb.us/g9c

Klarisa Lopez studied how medical interpretation shapes patient care, a question she had lived as an ER scribe and as the family member who interpreted for her grandmother. Her MPH capstone reviewed the research and surveyed Spanish-speaking patients across two Texas counties. utmb.us/g8s

🏆 The Sealy Center on Aging is proud to share that Neil Mehta, PhD, Associate Dean for Research, Professor and Inaugural Chair, Department of Epidemiology, has been appointed to the Sheridan Lorenz Distinguished Professorship in Aging and Health at UTMB. utmb.us/g7c

Congratulations to Dr. Mehta on Distinguished Research Professorship

The Sealy Center on Aging is proud to share that Neil K. Mehta, PhD MA MSc, Associate Dean for Research, Professor and Inaugural Chair, Department of Epidemiology, has been appointed to the Sheridan L...

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The Principles of Aviation and Space Medicine course paused mid-session at Space Center Houston this week to watch a graduate of the UTMB Residency in Aerospace Medicine launch to the space station — then heard from medical leaders at six commercial spaceflight companies. utmb.us/g7z

Dr. Cara Pennel helped build the UTMB School of Public and Population Health, led it through accreditation, and joined the UT System's Shine Academy in 2025. She's the latest honoree in our From the Dean faculty excellence series. More on her work in Galveston and beyond at utmb.us/g7v

When U.S. life expectancy stalled, many blamed opioids. Dr. Neil Mehta's research pointed to slowing progress against heart disease. He now chairs Epidemiology at SPPH and is this year's Excellence in Research winner. www.utmb.edu/spph/about-u...

Many of Dr. Soham Al Snih's former trainees now publish as her co-authors. Over two decades at UTMB she's mentored fellows, doctoral and medical students, and international scholars. She's this year's Excellence in Mentoring Award winner. www.utmb.edu/spph/about-u...

Dr. Kyriakos Markides built the Hispanic EPESE study and founded the Journal of Aging and Health. Cyprus elected him to its national academy last fall. He's this year's Lifetime Achievement in Research winner. www.utmb.edu/spph/about-u...

Monserrat Hinojosa, MPH, studied more than 3 million patient records and found higher rates of heart disease, diabetes, pneumonia and malnutrition among people with chronic kidney disease and latent tuberculosis infection. She also asks who never reaches the dataset. utmb.us/g5x

How does a growing department know it is moving in the right direction? Dr. Meredith Masel shares how faculty input and lessons from peer population health leaders help PHHD assess its priorities and prepare for growth. Watch utmb.us/g3p

The new issue of UTMB Magazine is here! A PhD student connects moderate leisure-time activity to lower stroke odds, a master's student helps track flu that jumps between animals and people, and a professor's new book revisits 19th-century medical history. Read it at www.utmb.edu/magazine

Our team spent this week in Bonita Springs with public health schools from across the U.S. at the 2026 ASPPH Sections Retreat. We talked through using AI responsibly in the classroom, the future of the MPH, and what public health practice means today. A full roster, every section represented.

Griffin Baillargeon completed his Master's in Biostatistics and Data Science at UTMB. For his capstone, he and mentor Dr. Jeong Hoon Jang built a method to responsibly bring external data into clinical trials. He now works as a data analyst at UTMB Correctional Managed Care. utmb.us/g1q

Dr. Vibhuti Gupta received the UT System Rising STARs award, funding his new DIVA-AI Laboratory at UTMB. The lab is building multimodal AI models to unify patient data across imaging, genomics, wearables, and clinical records. utmb.us/g0z

Get to Know Us begins a new faculty feature with Meredith Masel, PhD, whose work centers patient safety, communication, and self-management. In this video, she shares what newer population health departments can learn from established peers. Watch utmb.us/g0x

A nineteenth-century medical manual had a section on what to do at the birth of "monsters." That passage launched a decade of research. Dr. Miriam Rich's first book, Monstrous Conceptions, traces that history. Columbia University Press, July 2026. utmb.us/g0n @columbiaup.bsky.social

Dr. Muhammad Amith won the Analytics Track Best Paper Award at IEEE ICHI 2026 in Minneapolis this week. His paper on Ontokeeper-Desktop, a biomedical ontology evaluation tool, was co-authored with researchers at UT Health and Mayo Clinic. zhang-informatics.github.io/ICHI2026/awa...

Recent UTMB MD/MPH graduate Helen-Margaret Onuorah used federal data to compare rural and urban nursing home ratings across Texas. Her Daily Yonder article grew out of her practicum, with mentorship from Dr. Brian Downer. dailyyonder.com/in-texas-rur...

SPPH administrative team members held their first staff development activity yesterday with an afternoon of bowling. Thank you to our admins for the work you do every day!

Did you miss our first annual Schoeni TRENDS Lecture featuring @marasheftel.bsky.social and Neil Mehta of @utmbspph.bsky.social? You can view it now on our YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/watch?v=JL5c... or on our website at micda.isr.umich.edu/programs/the...

1st Annual Schoeni TRENDS Lecture

The Schoeni TRENDS lecture is an annual lecture on late-life health trends in memory of Robert F. Schoeni, who founded and organized MiCDA’s TRENDS network for nearly two decades. The TRENDS lecture…

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Congratulations to our MD/MPH graduates, who celebrated commencement with the JSSOM Class of 2026 on May 30! A special congratulations to Shilpa Rajagopal, MD, MPH, class speaker and recipient of the Gold-Headed Cane Award, UTMB’s highest recognition for a medical student.