Speakers

Keynote Speaker

Michael R. Dobbs, MD, MHCM is Vice-dean of Clinical Affairs and a tenured Professor and Chair of Neurology at UTRGV. He is also module co-director for Mind, Brain, and Behavior in the 2^nd year medical student curriculum. As Chief Medical Officer at UT Health RGV, Dobbs shares oversight of the practice plan and the medical staff and he is currently working on long-term clinical strategy for UT Health RGV.

He moved to UTRGV from the University of Kentucky where he served as an Associate Dean responsible for clinical and statewide initiatives, Associate Chief Medical officer, and Interim Chair of Neurology. A stroke neurologist, he founded and built the 34 hospital UK Healthcare/Norton Healthcare Stroke Network that continues to grow and bring life-saving treatments to underserved regions. He led a team that created a novel data management system, the Kentucky-Appalachian Stroke Registry, which fuels clinical trials and original publications. He helped to create the sub-specialty of Clinical Neurotoxicology, and his textbook Clinical Neurotoxicology—Syndromes, Substances, Environments is a leading reference text in the field. He also holds a patent for a dermatitis treatment that made it to the veterinary market and has provided relief to millions of small animals as “Genesis Topical Spray.”

He has taught in the classroom on topics as wide-ranging as financial management and art history. He holds degrees from the University of Kentucky and Harvard. He served with distinction in the US Air Force. In his spare time, he loves to be with his family and paint landscapes.

Dr. Yen Dang is an Associate Professor of Pharmacy Practice and Administration and Director of Global Health at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES) School of Pharmacy and Health Professions. She earned her Doctor of Pharmacy from the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia and completed a specialized PGY-2 residency in ambulatory care at Temple University School of Pharmacy. Her practice site is located at Chesapeake Healthcare in Princess Anne and Pocomoke, MD. Dr. Dang is an immunization provider and serves on the Maryland Statewide Advisory Commission on Immunization and Maryland Medicaid P&T Committee. She received the Excellence in Innovation Award from the Maryland Pharmacists Association, and the Top 100 Women and Leading 50 Women in Maryland from the Daily Record.

Dr. John Thomas is an assistant professor at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine (UTRGV SOM), in the Department of Human Genetics. Dr. Thomas began working with RNA viruses in 1999, and developed a novel approach for designing live, recombinant viral vectors while a graduate student in the laboratory of Dr. Hans Heidner at The University of Texas – San Antonio.

After graduation, he earned his doctorate degree from the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas, where he worked on replication-competent viral vectors as vaccine platforms against anthrax and plague, and characterization of select agent pathology in animal models of infection. Following completion of his postdoctoral training at the CDC and The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas working with hemorrhagic fever viruses, he served as a lead scientist for vaccine development in the private sector for three years.

Dr. Thomas joined the faculty of UTRGV in 2014, and his research has focused on understanding Zika virus pathogenesis using the laboratory opossum, and surveillance of arboviral and rickettsial transmission in south Texas. He was named the winner of the S.E. Sulkin Award for Excellence in Research Microbiology in 2007 by the American Society for Microbiology, and currently serves as the laboratory director for the newly-formed UT Health RGV Clinical Laboratory in Edinburg, Texas.

To date, his laboratory has tested over 60,000 samples for COVID19 in support of the local, state, and federal response to the coronavirus pandemic, and his current research is centered on examining human genetic susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2, and evaluation of novel therapeutic modalities directed against the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

John E. Morley, MB, BCh, is a Professor at Saint Louis University School of Medicine. He retired as the Director of the Division of Geriatric Medicine on June 30, 2019 after 30 years of service.

He has edited more than 20 books, and published more than 1400 papers, with major research emphases on the role of neuropeptides in the modulation of hormonal responses and behavior and on nutrition, geriatric assessments, sarcopenia, cachexia diabetes and hormones in the elderly.

Dr. Rebekah Gee is an Obstetrician/Gynecologist and CEO of Health Care Services for LSU Health. She is the former Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health, the state’s largest agency with a budget of $14 billion. Her oversight responsibilities included public health and other direct service programs for citizens in need such as behavioral health, developmental disabilities, aging and adult services, emergency preparedness, and the Medicaid program. In addition, she is a trained policy expert who has served in numerous state and national policy roles. Prior to her role as Secretary, she served as the director for the Birth Outcomes Initiative, which led the charge to decrease infant mortality and prematurity statewide. In 2017 Dr. Gee was elected to the National Academy of Medicine.

She is the mother of five energetic children and lives in New Orleans, where she continues to see patients.

Mrs. Rivera was born and raised in Edinburg, Texas. She graduated with a Bachelor in Social Work Degree from The University of Texas-Pan American (UTPA) where she also went on to receive her Master of Science in Social Work. Mrs. Rivera began her career working in the non-profit sector with adolescents that were at-risk for dropping out of school due to social and/or economic issues. After eight years of servicing this population, she moved on to a supervisory role for employees working for the same agency for seven years; at the same time, she was also a field instructor for interns in the social work and rehabilitation departments at UTPA and The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV). Mrs. Rivera wanted to experience other social work opportunities and started teaching as an adjunct lecturer at UTRGV through the social work department.

After leaving the non-profit sector, she opted to work in a field that was foreign to her, so she became a social worker for a local hospital. It was a new world filled with education and insight to a completely different population. Mrs. Rivera was working with people from the community of all economic statuses facing illnesses that were curable or terminal.

Mrs. Rivera decided to work with UTRGV once again, this time, through The School of Medicine. Her reasons are highly connected to her experience at the hospital. Although, patients were her primary concern, she often worried about the physicians due to the high demands set forth. Mrs. Rivera’s goal is to provide students with the opportunity to release stressors that may inhibit them from receiving qualitative education due to current or past traumas, tension, or anxiety.

Mrs. Rivera’s zeal in the field of mental health is to alleviate adverse childhood experiences that continue to take a toll in one’s adult life. She continues to pursue learning opportunities by enhancing her knowledge in this specialty. Mrs. Rivera recently became one out of five certified Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapist in her local area while also holding a certification as a Certified Clinical Trauma Professional. Mrs. Rivera believes that therapy empowers people to find their inner strength to deal with concerns, which leads to self-gratification, comfort, and healing.