Community Advisory Board

In March 2000, following almost two years of comprehensive public outreach activities, the University of Texas Medical Branch invited its first informal community advisory group to meet with scientists and safety experts serving on the peer-review committee evaluating UTMB’s plans for a proposed BSL4 facility. Subsequent to that meeting, university officials continued to keep participants (as well as 13,000 UTMB employees and the community at large) informed about developments related to the maximum-containment laboratory.

When UTMB began making plans to submit an application to the NIAID for National Laboratory funding, university leadership decided to reconstitute and reconvene the group. An invitation to meet with UTMB’s president and key administrators and faculty was extended to a larger and even more representative group of civic leaders, opinion leaders, and city and county officials. The meeting included a two-hour information session and tour, as well as a robust question-and-answer period.

Not surprisingly, Galvestonians’ questions focused primarily on the structural integrity of the proposed facility and the measures that would be taken to secure select agents. The participants generally expressed that they were satisfied with the answers to their questions and noted, almost to a person, that they appreciated the institution’s openness and believed UTMB officials when they said that the safety of employees and the community at large was and would remain paramount. Forty-nine individuals subsequently expressed their interest in serving on the Community Advisory Board.

UTMB considers this group an important means of keeping the Galveston community informed about its infectious diseases program and believes it will, in turn, ensure that UTMB remains aware of and responsive to the public’s issues and concerns.