Project Management Team

Dr. Serag is an assistant professor at the Department of Population Health and Health Disparities at School of Public and Population Health. He is the Co-PI of Diabetes Prevention Program and Diabetes Self-Management Education and Support projects at UTMB. Dr. Serag is a fellow of UTMB’s Center for Global and Community 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. Dr. Serag has an extensive experience working across cultures. He served as the global coordinator of People's Health Movement, a worldwide network of civil society organizations, academic institutes, and health activists. He was also the director of the Health Policy and Systems Program of the Association of Health and Environmental Development, a prominent think-tank group in Egypt. Dr. Serag's teaching, research, and public health practice interests are health system policies, health disparities, and rights-approach for community empowerment.

Dr. Sallam is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Population Health and Health Disparities at School of Public and Population Health. She is the Director of the diabetes prevention program (DPP) at UTMB. Dr. Sallam received her MD/PhD from the Faculty of Medicine, Suez Canal University, Ismailia, Egypt. She has over 20 years of research and education experience in the fields of gastrointestinal motility, diabetes and obesity. As a lifestyle coach, Dr. Sallam delivers the CDC-accredited DPP to people with prediabetes. She succeeded to have UTMB’s DPP receive full recognition from CDC, making UTMB the first academic institution in the greater Houston area to receive such honor. As a Master Trainer SelectTM, she trains lifestyle coaches. As a certified diabetes care and education specialist, she developed the Intensive Diabetes Self-Management Education and Support (iDSMES) program providing prolonged coaching for people with diabetes. Dr. Sallam’s is passionate about helping more people with prediabetes or diabetes achieve their lifestyle goals.

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 is also an assistant professor at the Department of Family Medicine. In this UTMB’s Diabetes Prevention and Care program, she is responsible for survey design, patient recruitment, data collection and analysis, website management, student and trainee advising, and production of reports. She is also a State-Certified Community Health Worker (CHW), CHW Instructor, Long-Term Care Ombudsman, and CASA Volunteer. Her main focus is to integrate public health measures into healthcare settings and to advocate for people with limited access to public health and clinical care.