Marcel Blanchard is UTMB’s associate vice president for Utilities Operations within Business Operations and Facilities. His responsibilities include supervising a team of support engineers for capital programs and maintenance support, district energy operations, the campus sustainability program, as well as the business management of two service centers.

UTMB Police Chief Tom Engells joined UTMB in 2010 and is responsible for the delivery of comprehensive police and progressive security services for UTMB and the Galveston National Laboratory.

Thomas Ksiazek, DVM, PhD, is a world-renowned virus expert with 40 years of experience on the front lines of some of the worst outbreaks the world has ever seen. He currently serves as director of high-containment laboratory operations for the Galveston National Laboratory, as well as professor in the departments of Pathology and Microbiology and Immunology.

Since joining UTMB in 2010, Katrina Lambrecht has overseen a host of mission critical initiatives, including the university’s involvement in the Texas Healthcare Transformation and Quality Improvement Program (1115 Waiver) and the integration of the Angleton Danbury Campus with UTMB. In addition to her role as vice president of Institutional Strategic Initiatives, Lambrecht was named vice president and administrator of the Angleton Danbury Campus in January.

Amy Lussier joined UTMB in 2013 as director of Health System Special Projects, serving as a liaison between UTMB and the construction design teams for the League City Campus, Clinical Services Wing and Jennie Sealy Hospital. She recently began her new role as associate vice president of Health System Operations, where her areas of responsibility include the League City Hospital and Perioperative and Endoscopy Services, while continuing her work in the activation of the new facilities.

Philesha Evans has worked at UTMB her entire adult life and has taken on a number of roles and projects since starting off in the Transportation Department and transferring to Human Resources in 1996. She took the time to talk to us about her first impressions of UTMB as a child and the future of UTMB, as well as her extensive shoe collection.

Sheila Lidstone serves as chief of staff to UTMB President David L. Callender. A fifth-generation BOI, she graduated from Ball High School and completed her undergraduate and graduate degrees at the University of Houston—the first in her family to complete college.

Mike Shriner joined UTMB in 1993 and is the vice president of Business Operations and Facilities. In his role, he oversees more than 400 employees working in various support areas, including Property Services, Design and Construction Services, Supply Chain, Campus Planning, Real Estate, Utilities, Environmental Health and Safety, Institutional Emergency Preparedness and Auxiliary Services.

Betsy Clardy joined UTMB as vice president and chief development officer in 2008. In her role, she has led development efforts to secure philanthropic funding to support UTMB’s priority research, education and patient care initiatives. This includes the largest campaign in UTMB’s 125-year history, “Working Wonders—The Campaign for UTMB Health.”

As vice president of Budget and Analysis, Celia Bailey-Ochoa assumes responsibility for UTMB’s overall budget process. She plays a vital role in ensuring coordination of budget and planning efforts across UTMB’s Health System, Academic Enterprise and Institutional Support departments, as well as coordinating UTMB’s legislative appropriations requests.

Ann Varghese, director of Ambulatory Operations at UTMB Health’s Angleton Danbury Campus, joined the Angleton Danbury Medical Center in 2004 and held a variety of positions, including director of Managed Care and Rehab Services and assistant administrator. In August 2014, she made the transition to UTMB employment as the associate administrator for the ADC.

James LeDuc, Ph.D., is the director of the Galveston National Laboratory, one of the largest active biocontainment facilities on a U.S. academic campus. LeDuc joined UTMB in late 2006 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, where he was the influenza coordinator and director of the Division of Viral and Rickettsial Diseases. With more than four decades of experience working in the fields of biodefense and public health, LeDuc’s work has taken him around the world.

Deb McGrew has been at UTMB since 2013 and serves as vice president and chief operating officer of the UTMB Health System. She is responsible for leading, planning and integrating numerous aspects of the Health System, including its hospitals, clinics and ancillary services, as well as Correctional Managed Care.

Jeremy Brynes joined UTMB as associate vice president for Health System Business Development in July 2014. Prior to that, Brynes served as the assistant administrator and director of business development for Memorial Hermann Northwest Hospital, where he oversaw a number of health service lines and was involved in the strategic planning process. Under his leadership, patient satisfaction and physician satisfaction rates increased above the 90th percentile.

As the vice president for offender health services and the chief physician executive for UTMB’s Correctional Managed Care (CMC) program, Dr. Owen Murray oversees the medical, mental health and dental services for more than 120,000 offenders within the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ)—that’s 80 percent of the state’s inmate population.

Kathryn A. Cunningham, Ph.D., serves as the Chauncey D. Leake Distinguished Professor of Pharmacology, the director of the UTMB Center for Addiction Research, and the vice chair of the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology. Cunningham is known as a mentor and a world leader in cutting-edge research in neuropsychopharmacology. She has pioneered the investigation of complex interactions among behavior, neurobiology and drug abuse.

David W. Niesel, Ph.D., has been at UTMB since 1983 and was appointed dean of UTMB’s Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences in March 2014. As the outgoing and passionate chairman of the Department of Microbiology & Immunology for 10 years, he saw the department rise to a top 5 ranking in NIH funding among microbiology and immunology departments nationally.

Dr. Ben Raimer isn’t new to UTMB – in fact, he’s worn numerous academic and administrative hats in Galveston over the past four decades. As a tenured professor in the departments of Pediatrics, Family Medicine and Preventive Medicine and Community Health, Raimer was most recently appointed as senior vice president for the Office of Health Policy and Legislative Affairs in 2008.

Dr. Selwyn O. Rogers, surgeon and public health expert, joined UTMB as vice president and chief medical officer in December 2014. He also serves as assistant dean for clinical affairs in the School of Medicine. Rogers provides leadership for the quality, safety, service, efficiency and outcomes of UTMB’s clinical services.