Health Policy and Ethics
Moderator:
Natalia Rodriguez, MPH
Natalia Rodriguez is a public health professional working in the space of infectious diseases. Her work is currently focused on helping priority populations reach better outcomes through health communication strategies to support national HIV initiatives. In 2021, she was appointed an Ambassador for The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Let’s Stop HIV Together campaign. She is a graduate of the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, where she earned her Master’s in Public Health in Epidemiology with a concentration in Public Health Informatics. Natalia has served as Board Member for the Houston Global Health Collaborative for three years, former Conference Co-Chair for the HGHC Conference in 2020, and Public Relations Chair for the 2019 HGHC Conference.
Speakers:
Theresa Tran, MD
Theresa Tran, MD, MBA, FACEP, is a board-certified emergency physician with expertise in health policy and management. Dr. Tran’s global health interest began while she was a college sophomore when she founded the Roatan Health Assistance Project. This 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization sent pre-med students to volunteer at a clinic in Honduras. Since then, Dr. Tran has led a community health worker-focused social entrepreneurship program in Rwanda, cared for patients in Bolivia and Vietnam, and taught a trauma course (Collaborative Acute Trauma Care, or CATC) in Vietnam. Her current projects focus on improving bystander CPR rates in Texas’s Rio Grande Valley and implementing a traumatic brain injury resuscitation protocol for first responders and community physicians in Vietnam. She is also the Associate Vice President for Population Health and Advocacy at UTHealth Houston and the Assistant Dean for Population Health and Advocacy at the UTHealth Houston School of Public Health. She continues to care for patients in Houston as a board-certified emergency physician.
Youmna Sherif, MD
Youmna Sherif is a resident in the global surgery track at the Baylor College of Medicine. Her interests include global surgery education, ethics of global surgery, surgical capacity building, and surgical infrastructure. In pursuit of these interests, she has engaged in global surgery work in Egypt, Malawi, Turkey, and Uganda. She has worked with community partners in these nations and performed research on the structure of global surgery education, bioethics, and surgical standards.
Rola El-Serag, MD
Rola El-Serag, M.D., is the L.E. and Virginia Simmons Senior Fellow in Health Policy and director of the Center for Health & Biosciences. She was previously the medical director of the Women Veterans Health Program at the Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center and an associate professor of medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. She served as an expert educator in women’s health within the Department of Veterans Affairs, both locally and nationally, as well as an advocate for female veteran health. Her work at the VA focused on program development, improving the quality of health care, expanding health care services, reducing gender disparities, and changing institutional culture by educating employees and patients about women’s health issues and gaps in care. El-Serag has received multiple teaching and clinical awards, including the Norton Rose Fulbright Faculty Excellence Award and the Women of Excellence Award at Baylor College of Medicine. She received her medical degree from the Tufts University School of Medicine and completed residency in internal medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in 2002.
Adam Gibson, JD
Adam Gibson is Manager for Texas Children’s Global Health. He earned a Doctorate of Jurisprudence from South Texas College of Law and a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies from the University of St. Thomas, both in Houston. He previously held positions as Vice President & COO at Salvex, Director of Business Development at Rottet Studio, Vice President of International Business at Greater Houston Partnership, and Deputy Director at the Bilateral Chamber of Commerce. He also served as Executive Director of the Houston World Trade Center and World Energy Cities Partnership. Adam currently serves on the President’s Advisory Board at the University of St. Thomas in Houston and the Board of Directors of Baylor College of Medicine Children’s Foundation – Uganda in Kampala. He has held numerous board of directors positions for community, education, and arts organizations, including Houston Export Academy at Houston Community College, Lawndale Art Center, and Museum of Fine Arts Houston’s Design Council. He is also a graduate of the Center for Houston’s Future.