Adekanmbi, Victor MD, PhD
Assistant Professor

RESEARCH

Abbey Berenson MD, PhD
Professor
Obstetrics and Gynecology

Shannon M. Clark MD
Professor
Obstetrics and Gynecology

Nadia Garces MA
Research Coordinator
Obstetrics and Gynecology

Nadia was born and raised in the Rio Grande Valley. She has a degree of Medical Assistant and 15 years of experience with nonprofits, and three years working with our school-based program. Helping others in the community is her passion and calling. As a research coordinator, she works closely with the team to make sure we are successfully implementing strategies for our CPRIT project, “School-Based Human Papillomavirus Vaccine Program.” Nadia works with school nurses, parent educators, and principals from the Middle School that she oversees and vendor (Pro-Care) coordinating monthly vaccine clinics. She is responsible for data collection, data input, documenting the students who started the first dose or finished the second and third doses of their mandatory vaccines and HPV. Nadia also works on parent education and helps the Project Manager with Spanish presentations for parents. In addition, she assists the Program Director, coordinates events, and creates flyers for the school nurses and staff in charge of the school website to have that information ready for parents. Nadia is also responsible for record reconciliation and making phone calls to parents of students pending vaccines to verify whether they are up to date and give them information about vaccines and our upcoming events.

Fangjian Guo MD, PhD
Assistant Professor

RESEARCH

Jane Montealegre, PhD
Assistant Professor
Pediatrics

Jane Montealegre, PhD is a Behavioral Epidemiologist in Baylor College of Medicine with research interests in health disparities, access to and utilization of preventive healthcare services among immigrants and racial/ethnic minorities, and epidemiological methods to access hard-to-reach populations.

Kathleen Schmeler, MD
Professor
Gynecologic Oncology and Reproductive Medicine

Kathleen Schmeler, MD is a Professor in the Department of Gynecologic Oncology and Reproductive Medicine at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and the Chief of Service, ad interim, of the Gynecologic Oncology service at our partner public institution, Lyndon B. Johnson (LBJ) Hospital.

Ananth Kumar Kammala PHD
Assistant Professor
Obstetrics and Gynecology

My interest in research began as an undergraduate student in Pharmaceutical sciences while in the pharmacology lab recording smooth muscle contractions. However, it was not until I started my master’s in pharmacology that the desire to understand the basic mechanisms of drug actions and different phases of drug development took off. My passion was to establish pharmacokinetic parameters of ayurvedic formulations of the Indian system of medicine. Later, I had an opportunity with Traditional Chinese medicine at Hong Kong Baptist University. I have worked in Immunology to understand the mechanism of mast cells responses in Anaphylaxis and Allergic asthma at Michigan State University. Dr. Menon's Lab provided me with an amazing opportunity to establish the pharmacokinetic parameters for the exosomes which is a novel drug delivery system to treat preterm birth delivery. This research will allow for a better understanding of novel drug therapeutics which crosses the blood-brain barrier or blood-placenta barrier and provide the foundation for the development of novel therapies for preterm birth.

BIO  |  RESEARCH

Maria Lincoln MED
Research Coordinator
Obstetrics and Gynecology

Maria F. Lincoln is the Research Coordinator for the School-Based Human Papilloma Virus program from the Rio Grande Valley. She has been part of this program and University for more than two years. Maria has a major in Communication Sciences and Disorders and a minor in Psychology from Texas A&M University- Kingsville, and a Master of Education in Special Education from The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. As a research coordinator, she works closely with the team to ensure we are doing a great job implementing strategies for our CPRIT project, “School-Based Human Papillomavirus Vaccine Program”. Maria works with school nurses, parent educators, and principals from the Middle School that she oversees and vendor (Pro-Care) when it comes to coordinating monthly vaccine clinics. She is responsible for data collection, data input, documenting of students who started the first dose or finished the second and third doses of their mandatory vaccines and HPV. Maria also works on parent education and helps the Project Manager with Spanish presentations for parents. In addition, she assists the Program Director with data entry for the team’s daily activity tracking sheets, coordinates events, creates flyers for the school nurses and staff, and is in charge of the school website so that they can have that information ready for parents. Maria is responsible for record reconciliation and making phone calls to parents of students’ pending vaccines to verify if they are up to date if not, and to give them information about vaccines and our events.

Maria Jibaja-Weiss, M.Ed, E.dD
Director
Office of Outreach and Health Disparities

Maria Jibaja-Weiss, M.Ed, E.dD is the Director Office of Outreach and Health Disparities at Baylor College of Medicine, Dan L Duncan Cancer Center.

Ramkumar Menon, PhD
Professor
Obstetrics and Gynecology

Jesus Moralez, MPH
Compliance Manager
Obstetrics and Gynecology

Jesus Moralez has 7 years of public health experience in areas of chronic disease and disease prevention. He is a Texas A&M University alumnus with a master’s degree in Public Health. His academic interests include research in effective methods for chronic disease prevention and behavioral health promotion. As the compliance manager, Jesus assists with preparing forms for submission to the Institutional Review Board (IRB) and keeping up with regulatory IRB and school board requirements related to the program at all school districts involved with this proposal. He assists our Regional Research Manager with the preparation of quarterly and annual reports as per funding requirements. He serves as a liaison between partner organizations for the transference and the subsequent cleaning, management, and pooling of data. He participates in team meetings and prepares data for progress reports and publications. He also assists with the preparation of flyers and other educational materials for distribution at educational/vaccination events. Jesus helps implement quality improvement activities. He assists the Project Manager full-time with the dissemination and implementation of the project at the different middle schools described in this project. Jesus schedules meetings, educational sessions, and vaccination events; recruits and provides a follow-up with students, conducts investigations, and makes process recommendations for the six school districts. He helps with project tasks, including project coordination and completing study-related data collection and documentation, e.g., policies and procedures for team members.

Tatiana Nanovskaya PhD
Associate Professor
Obstetrics and Gynecology

Gayle Olson MD
Professor
Obstetrics and Gynecology

Luis D. Pacheco Md
Professor
Obstetrics and Gynecology

CLINICAL | RESEARCH

Martin Quintanilla
Data Coordinator
Obstetrics and Gynecology

Martin Quintanilla has a bachelor’s in Health Medical Management. He is the new Data coordinator for the RGV team, based out of Galveston. His duties consist of reconciling the students’ records who have had vaccines into the system and ensuring we have the correct and most updated information on each record. He also assists in helping with the teams’ goal to help vaccinate the students and keep them up to date. He helps assist the Project’s team by working at the school districts. He helps the Project Manager with the dissemination and implementation of the Project at the different middle schools. Martin is responsible for scheduling meetings, educational sessions, and events, recruiting and follow-up with students, conducting investigations and making process recommendations for the school districts. Additionally, he helps with project tasks, including project coordination and completing study-related data collection and documentation, e.g., policies and procedures for team members.

Richard Rupp, MD
Professor
Pediatrics

Richard Rupp, MD is a Professor in the Department of Pediatrics and Director of the Division of Adolescent and Behavioral Health. He is also the Director of Clinical Trials Program for UTMB’s Sealy Institute for Vaccine Sciences and serves as Medical Director of Teen Health Center, Inc. (school‐based clinics providing quality, affordable medical and mental health care for ages 0–21 years).

Lauren Richardson, PhD
Assistant Professor
Obstetrics and Gynecology

My research focuses on bridging the gap between bench-to-bedside research by merging advanced engineering and biology concepts. The goal of my research is twofold. One, to utilize microfluidic devices to collect underutilized biological fluids for biomarker screening, and two, to develop novel organ-on-chip devices that physiologically recreate in utero organs and organ systems. These devices are primed to replace traditional research approaches, limit animal models for research, and speed up preclinical experiments to get the drugs to clinical trials at a much faster pace.
  Research

Iris Rivera
Research Coordinator

Obstetrics and GynecologyIris Rivera is our Research Coordinator and administrative support. She has been working with the program since 2018 in the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology at UTMB. She graduated from Ashford University with a Bachelor of Arts in Marketing and Public Relations. Under the Program Director, she assists the Research Program Manager and Compliance Manager, as well as the rest of the team members. She ensures the team has all the necessary tools to collaborate in the program and remain in compliance with all IRB’s requirements.

Erik Rytting PhD
Associate Professor
Obstetrics and Gynecology

Surendra Sharma MD, PhD
Professor

RESEARCH

Iris Tijerina, MPH
Regional Research Program Manager
Obstetrics and Gynecology

Iris L. Tijerina, MPH is our Regional Research Program Manager in the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology at UTMB. She has 7 years of experience in research, public health, and a concentration on Health Promotion and Community Health Science. She graduated from Texas A&M University with a Master’s in Public Health. She works with the Program Director, Compliance Manager, and project team members. She oversees all data collection and participates in program implementation and evaluation activities for six school districts. She participates in team meetings and submits data for progress reports and publications. Iris handles issues with scheduling outreach activities for educational sessions and determining students’ eligibility for HPV vaccination and follow-up. She reviews vaccination data and helps schedule and/or navigates appointments for students to complete HPV vaccination. Iris also oversees the activities at the 16 middle schools in six school districts across four counties in the RGV with an estimated current enrollment of 11,162 students. In her role, she develops research strategies, design methods for evaluating the effectiveness of the projects, oversees coordinators’ tasks, and is responsible for research, planning, and implementing new approaches to reach goals and objectives.

Kathleen Vincent, MD
Professor
Obstetrics and Gynecology

Xiao-ming wang PhD, MS
Assistant Professor
Obstetrics and Gynecology

Yong-fang Kuo, PhD 
Professor and Director
Office of Biostatistics

Yong-fang Kuo, PhD is a Professor of Biostatistics in the Department of Preventive Medicine and Community Health and Director of Office Biostatistics. She has broad experience in studying healthcare utilization, healthcare delivery systems, and health outcomes.   Research

Yuanyi Zhang PHD
Biostatistician
Obstetrics and Gynecology

Yuanyi Zhang is a biostatistician in the Office of Biostatistics at UTMB. He graduated from UT Dallas with a PhD in computer science. He has more than 10 years of experience in database development and management,  data warehouse design and development, cloud computing, public health, and concentration on health education, promotion, and prevention (especially for rural, underserved, and underrepresented populations). He works together with the field team and the data management team on the implementation of an ETL-based data warehouse with data collection interfaces, data pipeline with ETL (Extract, Transform and Load) functions, automated quality control processes, and standardized reporting tools by using SQL Server, Redcap, ASP.NET, and Python, etc. The data warehouse serves as the data management solution for the program with security controls and regulatory compliances.