20th Annual Texas Conference on Health Disparities
"20 Years of Institutional Impact: Building Partnerships for Achieving Healthy Communities and Workforce Excellence "
June 5 &6
The University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth
June 5, 2025 | |||
7:30 a.m. – 8:30 a.m. | Registration and Light Breakfast | MET 109-111 | |
8:30 a.m. – 8:35 a.m. | Conference Welcome | Riyaz Basha, Ph.D. Professor & Director of Research, IHD, HSC | MET 125 |
8:35 a.m. – 8:50 a.m. | Institute for Health Disparities (IHD) Welcome | Jamboor K. Vishwanatha, Ph.D. Executive Director & Vice President, IHD, HSC | MET 125 |
8:50 a.m.- 9:00 a.m. | Institutional Welcome | Kirk Calhoun, M.D., FACP, Interim President, HSC | MET125 |
9:00 a.m. - 9:10 a.m. | Welcome from VPR | Dimitrios Karamichos, Ph.D., Vice President, Research and Graduate Studies, HSC | MET 125 |
9:10 a.m. - 9:15 a.m. | Introduction to Keynote Speaker | Harlan P. Jones, Ph.D. Professor & Director, IHD, HSC | MET 125 |
9:15 a.m. - 10:15 a.m. | Keynote: Large-Scale Biobanks and Health Policy Research for Healthy Communities | Jose A. Pagan, Ph.D. Professor and Chair, Department of Public Health Policy and Management, School of Global Public Health, New York University New York, NY | MET 125 |
Break | |||
SESSION 1: Establishing and Sustaining Community Partnerships at the heart of Improving Health for All | |||
10:30 a.m. | Session Introduction | Harlan P. Jones, Ph.D. Professor & Director, IHD, HSC | |
10:30 – 11:15 a.m. | Rural Health: Challenges and Opportunities | Vasan Ramachandran, MD, FACC, FAHA, Professor and Dean UT School of Public Health San Antonio San Antonio, TX | MET 125 |
11:15 - 12:00 p.m. | Improving Urban Health for All: An Urban Planning Perspective | Deden Rukmana, Ph.D., Professor and Director, Master of City and Regional Planning Program UT Arlington Arlington TX | MET 125 |
12:00 - 1:30 p.m. | Round Table Lunch Discussions: | Embracing AI/ML in Community Health | EAD 406 |
Clinical Trial Recruitment | EAD 506 | ||
Stakeholder Engagement | EAD 514 | ||
Workforce Development | EAD 703 | ||
SESSION 2: Building Consortia to Broaden Stakeholder Engagement for Healthy Communities | |||
1:30 p.m. | Session Introduction | Mark Cunningham, Ph.D., MBA | MET 125 |
1:30– 2:15 p.m. | Why do we make it so hard? Engaging the Patient as a Stakeholder in Cancer Clinical Trials | David Gerber, M.D., Professor & Co-Director, Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center, Office of Education and Training, UT Southwestern Medical Center Dallas, TX | MET 125 |
2:15 - 3:00 p.m. | Building Consortia: Lessons Learned the Last 20 Years | Upender Manne, MS, Ph.D., Director, Translational Anatomic Pathology Co-Director, UAB Tissue Biorepository University of Alabama at Birmingham Birmingham, AL | MET 125 |
3:00 - 3:45 p.m. | Panel Discussion: | Moderator: Marcela Nava, Ph.D., MPP, MSSW Assistant Professor, School of Social Work UT Arlington Arlington, TX. Panelists: Linda Fulmer, Executive Director, Healthy Tarrant County Collaboration; Jesse Herrera, CEO & Co-Founder of CoAct; Brenda Patton, Texas Health Community Hope | MET 125 |
3:45 - 5:00 p.m. | Poster Session | Veda Womack, PA-C & Harlan Jones, Ph.D. | EAD 255 |
5:00 p.m. | Adjourn | ||
June 6, 2025 | |||
7:30 – 8:30 a.m. | Registration and Light Breakfast | MET 109-111 | |
SESSION 3: Charting Path Forward: Capitalizing on Lessons Learned to Meet Community Health Needs for the Future | |||
8:30 – 9:15 a.m. | Implementing an Educational Intervention for Preventive Care in Rural Communities: Lessons Learned from an Innovative Academic-Community Partnership | Ranjita Misra, Ph.D., MS, FASHA, Program Director, School of Public Health Social and Behavioral Sciences, West Virginia University Health Sciences, Morgantown, WV | MET 125 |
9:15 - 10:00 a.m. | Illness Related Financial Burden and Retention in Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder | Douglas Thornton, Ph.D., Pharm.D., BCPS, Associate Professor, Department of Pharmaceutical Health Outcomes and Policy Director, The Prescription Drug Misuse Education and Research (PREMIER) Center University of Houston, College of Pharmacy Houston, TX | MET 125 |
10:10 a.m. | BREAK | ||
10: 30-11:20 a.m. | Panel Discussion: Multi-Sector Approaches to Tackling Social Determinants of Health | All Speakers and Panelists, Moderator: Malinee Neelamegam, Ph.D. | MET125 |
11:20 - 12:00 p.m. | Poster Awards and Special Recognition | Veda Womack, PA-C & Harlan Jones, Ph.D. | MET 125 |
12:00 p.m. | Wrap-up & Adjourn | Jamboor Vishwanatha, Ph.D. & Riyaz Basha, Ph.D. | MET 125 |