McWilliams listening tour focuses on collaborative opportunities

(Photo by UTHealth Houston)

President Melina R. Kibbe, MD, continued her university-wide listening tour March 2 with a visit to McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics at UTHealth Houston. Discussions centered on expanding collaborative opportunities and strengthening the school’s position as a leader in biomedical informatics.

Kicking off the visit was a guided tour of the school’s spaces in University Center Tower with Jiajie Zhang, PhD, dean and The Glassell Family Foundation Distinguished Chair at McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics.

Kibbe met with department chairs, faculty, and staff, hearing various perspectives on the school’s experiences and aspirations. She also toured its computational research centers and learned more about informatics’ growing impact on health care.

During a standing-room-only hybrid town hall session, where members shared appreciation for the school and provided a deeper look at its distinctive makeup of primarily online learners, the president emphasized the purpose of her visit and desire to “listen and learn” from the entire school community, stressing that “We are going to…work together to shape our collective vision for the future.”

A focus on collaboration

A central theme that bubbled to the surface was the desire for further collaboration.

Students discussed the need for opportunities to collaborate with professionals in the industry sector or to foster innovative ideas by way of independent projects. Faculty and staff highlighted unique ways the school collaborates internally with UTHealth Houston enterprise teams or systemwide with strategic initiatives like The University of Texas Health Intelligence Platform.
 
Fourth-year PhD student Keith Sanders applauded the university for being a catalyst that has allowed him to meet peers and colleagues across the other six UTHealth Houston schools.

“I’ve gotten the chance to learn from different institutions and apply my learning to their projects and their fields,” Sanders said. “I think that collaboration is amazing, and I can’t imagine getting something like that anywhere else.”

Keisha Smoke, academic achievement coordinator in the Office of Academic Affairs, added, “Continuing to offer additional partnerships and collaborations with external organizations and other schools gives our students a plethora of options for their practicum experiences.” 

Building on the discussion, Kibbe encouraged broader partnership by asking, “Why wouldn’t researchers from the other six schools want to collaborate with you, particularly if it’s an AI-based aim or an informatics component within a research grant?”

Using the strategic plan to shape the future of AI

Kibbe reinforced that AI’s role in advancing research, education, and clinical innovation will be defined through a collaborative, university-wide planning process. She added that beginning in April, Michael Patriarca, MBA, MS, will serve as executive vice president and chief business affairs and strategy officer. His first responsibility will be to lead the implementation of a comprehensive strategic plan to align priorities, guide investment, and position UTHealth Houston at the forefront of emerging technologies, including AI.

Alumni perspective, research Infrastructure showcase strengths

Angie Hayes, DHI ’23, MS ’19, a two-time alumna and current assistant professor, shared her academic and career perspectives during the conversation with the president.

Providing key insights about the school, Hayes noted that many applied students study remotely, while the research program remains the only fully on-campus offering. “I am very proud of our school, particularly the resources we provide on both the applied and research sides,” Hayes said.

Those resources were further underscored in discussions about the Biomedical Informatics Group – Analytics Research Center, housed within the McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics.

Rene Plascencia, senior project manager, described how the center provides students and researchers access to real clinical data — more than 15 million unique patient records — a resource few institutions can match. “With support, there is an opportunity to scale-up BIG-Arc’s infrastructure and services,” Plascencia said.

Beyond infrastructure, participants also pointed to the culture of opportunity those resources help create. A strength identified during the town hall was the depth and breadth of support available to faculty and students. Evan Yu, Student Governance Organization president, emphasized that while the school already offers substantial resources, there remains tremendous potential for growth through cross-school collaboration and independent research initiatives.

“Despite the vast amount of resources that have already been discussed today, there are a lot of ideas across schools… opportunities just for students to explore through independent research projects,” Yu said. “In today’s academic journeys, we really want to foster innovative ideas. I think there’s a lot of opportunities.”

That forward-looking spirit framed the broader impact of the listening tour. For many within McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics, the conversations with Kibbe underscored the momentum already building across research, education, and innovation, and pointed to the school’s growing impact within UTHealth Houston and across the Texas Medical Center and beyond.