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UTHSC-H: Bioterrorism Experts

 

Contact for all faculty/staff experts from The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (except where noted) should be through the Media Hotline, available on a 24/7 basis, at 713-500-3030; fax to 713-500-3037; or, email to the Director of Media Relations at David.R.Bates@uth.tmc.edu.

Bioterrorism/Chemical Terror

S. Ward Casscells III, M.D.—UT-Houston's vice president for biotechnology; the John Edward Tyson Distinguished Professor of Medicine and Professor of Cardiology, The University of Texas Medical School at Houston. Casscells is a medical advisor to the Houston Task Force on Terrorism. He is creator of the Defense of Houston organization and one of the leaders of the U.S. Army-sponsored DREAMS project. Casscells is the first civilian to receive the General Maxwell Thurman Award , which honors a national leader who has made a substantial contribution toward the use of advanced technologies to improve emergency medical care.

Carlos Hamilton Jr., M.D.—Executive Vice President for Clinical Affairs at UT-Houston. Hamilton is a member of the advisory steering committee to the Houston Medical Strike Team and the Houston Task Force on Terrorism. As Harris County Medical Society president, he arranged a meeting between physicians and the strike team (EMS, police, firefighters, etc.) in 1999. In January 2000 they did a nerve gas drill at Ben Taub Hospital, discovering that Houston's eight major emergency hospitals needed much new equipment. Hamilton led a plan to raise $5 million locally, then to ask Congress for matching funds to properly equip hospitals to react to bioterrorism.

Mary desVignes-Kendrick, M.D.— deputy director of the Center for Biosecurity and Public Health Preparedness, develops and conducts training, research, and consultation for the public health workforce in areas including first response, risk communications, border health security, emergency preparedness and policy formation. She most recently served for 12 years as director of the City of Houston Department of Health and Human Services, where she successfully led efforts to expand epidemiological services for new disease trends such as West Nile Virus, food borne illnesses and potential incidents of bioterrorism.

Scott Lillibridge, M.D.—Director of the Center for Biosecurity and Public Health Preparedness, UT-Houston; Professor of epidemiology, UT-Houston School of Public Health. Lillibridge is an expert in bioterrorism preparedness and is the first director of the newly established Center for Biosecurity and Public Health Preparedness. He joins UT-Houston from the staff of U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson, where he worked to improve readiness for anthrax and small pox attack. Previously, he was director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Program where he aided in public health assessments of the poison gas attack that killed 12 people in the Tokyo subway and the Timothy McVeigh bombing in Oklahoma City in 1995. He has worked in more than 12 nations on emergency public health issues following the wake of civil wars and other types of disasters.

Specific Bioterrorism Agents & Diseases

Theresa Koehler, Ph.D.—Associate professor of microbiology and molecular genetics at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston. She studies the genetics, physiology and virulence in the gene expression of Bacillus anthracis, the bacterium that causes the disease anthrax. Her work is focused on the pathogenesis of anthrax, host-parasite relationship and signal transduction. She has recently been quoted in major U.S. newspapers from coast to coast and appeared on ABC's "Good Morning America" program, as well as Canada's Discovery Channel.

James Steele, D.V.M.—emeritus professor at The University of Texas School of Public Health at Houston and an internationally known expert in the field of zoonoses (transmission of disease from animals to humans). Steele helped establish protocols for the CDC, WHO and the UN Food and Agricultural Organization. In a 50-year career, he has extensively written and reviewed scholarly material on anthrax, smallpox and other deadly diseases.

Hazardous Material

Robert Emery, Dr.P.H., CHP, CIH, CSP, RBP—UT-Houston's Assistant Vice President for Environmental Health & Safety; Chair of the University Safety Council; Associate Professor of Occupational Health.

\   INFECTIOUS DISEASE Charles D. Ericsson, M.D.— Professor and head of clinical infectious diseases and director of the Travel Medicine Clinic at the UT-Houston Medical School. See also Dr. James Steele (above). See also Drs. Joseph B. McCormick and Susan P. Fisher-Hoch (below)   TRAUMA TREATMENT mass casualties (specialist in emergency room care, burn treatment, poison treatment, etc.) - James H. "Red" Duke, M.D.—Professor of Surgery, J.B. Holmes Professor of Clinical Sciences, UT-Houston Medical School; Medical Director of Life Flight, Memorial Hermann Hospital; Chairman, Southeast Texas Trauma Regional Area Council. Dr. "Red" Duke is a legendary and instantly recognized authority in trauma care-not just locally, but across the United States. He is a member of the Houston Task Force on Terrorism and one of the leaders of the DREAMS program.   TRAUMATIC LOSS Camille Lloyd, Ph.D.—Professor in the Dept. of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Director of the Student Counseling Service at UT-Houston. Her special expertise is how employees and professional colleagues might react to the traumatic loss or injury of co-workers.   OTHER PSYCHOLOGICAL PROBLEMS & TREATMENT To arrange a news media interview with these experts on staff at The University of Texas-Harris County Psychiatric Center, contact public information director Geri Konigsberg at: 713-741-7879. Dr. Andrew Harper—Associate Professor of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, UT-Houston Medical School. Harper can discuss post-traumatic stress as well as children's issues. Dr. Sonja Randle—Assistant Professor and Director, Child/Adolescent Outpatient Services, UT-Houston Medical School, she is an excellent resource on child psychology and parental loss issues.   EXPERTS IN REGIONAL HISTORY AND CULTURE Dr Joseph B. McCormick, M.D.—assistant dean of the UTSPH Regional Campus Program in Brownsville, and his wife, Dr. Susan P. Fisher-Hoch, M.D., —Both spent four years working in Pakistan, have traveled to Northern Pakistan on a number of occasions as well as Afghanistan. They did research at the Aga Khan University in Karachi and have worked on broad public health issues, as well as hemorrhagic fevers, that occur in that entire region. Both worked for years at the Centers for Disease Control and McCormick served as chief of the Special Pathogens Branch of the CDC.