Global Health

Philip Keiser, MD

Director
Dr. Keiser primary interest is in the care and treatment of HIV and its related infections. He has been actively treating HIV infected individuals for over 20 years. He is the Chairman of the Texas AIDS Drug Assistance Program Advisory Board in the Principal Investigator for the Texas Oklahoma AIDS Education Center. Dr Keiser has been actively involved in HIV clinical research and has been an investigator in over 50 clinical trials. Since 2006, Dr Keiser has been involved in the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief and has been involved in HIV clinical care, teaching and research in Kenya. He has an active clinical research program that is centered on the outcomes of patients treated with anti-retroviral medications in Central Kenya.

Tomiko Fisher, MBA

Director, Texas AHEC East & Center for Global & Community Health
Tomiko joined the team during November of 2020 as the program manager for Texas AHEC East. Compassion, curiosity, and courage are words that describe Tomiko’s approach to assisting medically underserved and rural communities throughout East Texas. She is responsible for personnel, operational, and financial management of Texas AHEC East to help ensure the delivery of competent, customer-focused, and efficient services for our stakeholders. Tomiko will use her extensive grant and project management experience to assist with administrative and operational needs for UTMB and our regional centers. She enjoys Texas’ sunshine and its diverse culture.

Matthew Dacso, MD, MSc

Academic Partnerships
Dr. Dacso is a board-certified Physician and an Associate Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine. He earned his M.D. degree from UTMB and completed his Residency and Internship at the Warren Alpert School of Medicine at Brown University. He holds a master's degree in International Development Studies from the University of London School of Oriental and African Studies. Prior to joining the UTMB faculty, Dr. Dacso served as a clinician-educator with the Botswana-UPenn Partnership in Gaborone, Botswana. There, he managed a continuing education outreach program to district hospitals, assisted in the development of national treatment guidelines for acute and chronic HIV comorbidities, and provided support to the University of Botswana medicine residency training program. His research interests include interprofessional global health education, ethics of short-term global health experiences, global health preparation/mentorship, and research training/capacity-building. 

Michael Goodman, PhD, DrPH

Research and Education
Dr. Michael Goodman, originally from North Carolina, meandered into the field of public health after witnessing the effects of HIV on family systems and children in Malawi. His research interests include health systems strengthening to improve delivery and utilization of HIV treatment, adverse childhood experiences and their contribution to population health, determinants of family and community violence, and community-based interventions to improve the welfare of vulnerable children and families in sub-Saharan Africa. He earned a Master’s in Divinity at Emory University before graduating from the University of Texas School of Public Health with a Master’s and Doctorate in Public Health.

Wei-Chen (Miso) Lee, PhD

Population Health Research
Dr. Lee is an analytical, solution-focused health services researcher with more than 10 years of experience in studying the health of vulnerable populations. She employs the triad framework—access to, cost of, and quality of care—to address healthcare disparities against the aging population, rural residents, and racial minorities. With her outstanding research experiences, she was honored to have been selected as one of the 2018 National Rural Health Fellows, and 2019-2021 Editorial Member of The Journal of Rural Health and Texas Public Health Journal. She is also an active State-Certified Community Health Worker (CHW), CHW Instructor, and Long-Term Care Ombudsman. Her other current research interests include assessing the impacts of innovative interventions such as CHW services and electronic medical records (EMR).

Premal Patel, MD, MSc

Student Performance Evaluation
Dr. Patel is a board-certified Physician and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine. She is co-coordinator of the Global Health Inter-Professional Core Course. She earned an M.D. degree from UTMB and completed her Residency and Internship from the Warren Alpert School of Brown University. She has received accreditation though the American Academy of HIV Medicine as an HIV Specialist. She also holds a master's degree in Human Rights from the London School of Economics. Dr. Patel's special interests include HIV/AIDS in the developing and developed world, HIV and Hepatitis B Co-infection, Preventive Care for HIV-Infected Patients, HIV Drug Resistance, and education in HIV and global health. In addition to presenting at AIDS 2010, she has had many accepted abstracts to international HIV conferences. Prior to joining UTMB, Dr. Patel served as an internist in the Pediatric AIDS Corps in Gaborone, Botswana through the Baylor International Pediatric AIDS Initiative and Baylor College of Medicine. Her activities included coordinating the Adult HIV clinic, HIV related journal club, sputum induction program for TB diagnosis, developing preventive care guidelines for HIV infected patients and teaching rotating students, residents and fellows.

Hani Serag, MD, MPH

Global Health Partnerships
Dr. Serag is a physician a public health researcher. His previous work includes serving as global coordinator of the People's Health Movement (PHM is a global network of civil society organizations, academic institutes and health activists) and as the director of Health Policy and Systems Program of the Association Health and Environmental Development (a leading civil society organizations in Egypt). Dr. Serag has participated in designing and setting methodologies for several research projects (including surveys at national levels and comparative studies across countries). He has been involved in a wide range of educational and training activities in both the public and global health fields. He has planned, developed curricula for, and taught more than 30 training courses. Most of these courses target public health practitioners, especially from the nonprofit sector, and focus on health system research (regional and national training courses) and global health (on regional and global levels). He is also an experienced leader in fundraising and resource mobilization.

Bradley Brock

Coordinator II
Bradley joined the Center in November 2015 with a background in education, information technology, and private practice medical administration. His experiences allow him to function in a capacity that will be able to handle a wide variety of projects and tasks. With a strong interest in community outreach and support, volunteering, and a positive attitude he hopes to make a positive impact in the Global Health department at UTMB.

Dylan Lancaster, MHP

Communications
Dylan coordinates communications for the Center, as well as its parent department of Health Policy & Legislative Affairs. He facilitates agreements with foreign institutions so that our students/faculty can visit, as well as doing special projects for the President. Previously, he led the 1115 Waiver UTMB Health Tips campaign, which uses text messaging and social media for patient education and engagement. Dylan received his Master’s in Health Promotion from the University of Delaware where he was responsible for the Get Up and Do Something Campaign and spearheaded several local government program evaluations ranging from Food Policy at State Parks to Early Hearing Detection and Intervention for newborns.