Lab to Eliminate Disparities

Wei-Chen (Miso) Lee

WEI-CHEN (MISO) LEE, PhD, MSPH, MJur  received her PhD in Health Services Research (HSR) from Texas A&M Health Science Center, her Master of Jurisprudence from Texas A&M School of Law, and her Mast of Science in Public Health from National Taiwan University College of Public Health. Currently, Dr. Lee is the quantitative research assistant professor at the Department of Family Medicine. Her research is focused on examining health disparities that disproportionately affect racial minorities, rural populations, and low income individuals and identifying strategies to address disparities found such as Community Health Worker Model, smartphone app, CDC-Recognized Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP), and Medicare-covered Diabetes Self-Management Training (DSMT). She is also a certified State-Certified Community Health Worker (CHW), Community Health Worker Instructor (CHWI), Long-Term Care Ombudsman, and CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate) Volunteer. Both doing research and serving in communities allow her to better understand the health issues and make a profound contribution in eliminating health disparities. At her leisure, she likes playing with her cat, Mr. Reef Meow.

Hanaa Sallam

HANAA SALLAM, MD, PhD, CDCES is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Endocrinology, Department of Internal Medicine, at UTMB. She received her MD/PhD from the Faculty of Medicine, Suez Canal University, Ismailia, Egypt, and is currently an Assistant Professor of Physiology at the same institution. She has over 20 years of research and education experience in the fields of gastrointestinal motility, diabetes, and obesity. Dr. Sallam has over 35 publications in peer-reviewed journals. She is the Co-PI and director of the Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) and Diabetes Self-Management Education and Support projects at UTMB. She is a lifestyle coach, Master Trainer Select^TM, and Certified Diabetes Care and Education Specialist. She succeeded in having UTMB’s DPP receive full Plus recognition from CDC, making UTMB the first academic institution in the greater Houston area to receive such an honor, and maintained it despite the pandemic. Dr. Sallam is passionate about helping more people with prediabetes or diabetes achieve their lifestyle goals

Hani Serag

HANI SERAG, MD, MPH  is a physician and a public health researcher. He is currently an assistant professor at the Department of Internal Medicine – Division of Endocrinology, an adjunct assistant professor at the Department of Global Health and Emerging Diseases of the School of Public and Population Health, an adjunct assistant professor at the Department of Pediatrics, and an associate member of the Graduate Faculty at the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB).  Dr. Serag focuses on enhancing the responsiveness of health systems, specifically through incorporating preventive measures for chronic health conditions into clinical settings. He is currently the Principal Investigator of the Diabetes Prevention and Control Programs focusing on diabetes prevention and diabetes self-management education. He is also the project director of HIV routine screening at the Emergency department. Both programs are supported by the Texas Department of State Health Services.  Dr. Serag is the convener of the UTMB Annual Conference on Migration and Health and the director of UTMB global health sites in the Middle East and North Africa, providing quality training opportunities for UTMB students abroad. Dr. Serag's teaching, research, and public health practice interests are health system policies, health disparities, and rights-approach for community empowerment. He has sound experience in working in different settings and across cultures. Before joining UTMB, Dr. Serag served as the global coordinator of the People's Health Movement (2006-2015), a worldwide network of civil society organizations, academic institutes, and health activists. He is currently the Co-Chair of the Global Steering Council of the PHM. From 2005-2008, he led the civil society engagement with the WHO Commission on Social Determinants of Health. Between 2000-2009, he served as the Health Policy and Systems Program director at the Association for Health and Environmental Development, a leading think-tank group in Egypt.