Chang Named VP for International Programs

Hui-Ming Chang, M.D., has been promoted to vice president for international programs and special advisor to the president of The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.

Hui-Ming Chang, M.D.

“When I started at the UT Health Science Center,” Chang said, “I did a lot of work with international faculty and people from other countries on sabbatical. I also offered help to international students.”

UT Health Science Center President James T. Willerson, M. D., recognized the value of Chang’s efforts and established the Office of International Programs in 2001, to serve as a conduit for the university’s international affiliations. He appointed Chang as its director.

“I was a one-man band,” Chang said. She now has a staff of two additional people, with hopes of adding others to the expanding multi-tasked section.

Chang is officially involved in many activities between the health science center and other schools, with visiting scientists’ activities and international meetings. She also assists the U.S. State Department with facilitating the visits of international dignitaries.

In 2005, Chang instituted the annual International Programs Award to recognize faculty or students from any of the health science center’s schools. The program awards monetary prizes to those submitting proposals deemed by judges the most worthy projects, such as study in Africa dealing with HIV or a local research project. The program gave its first awards in September 2005.

Chang herself emigrated from Taiwan in 1981. She subsequently joined the faculty of Harvard Medical School’s Massachusetts General Hospital in anesthesiology. She also holds master’s degrees in public health in epidemiology and in physiology from Harvard’s School of Public Health.

At the UT Health Science Center since 1993, she has done biomedical research and has served as an educator in epidemiology, as well as pain and palliative care. She also has served on the board of directors of the American Academy of Pain Medicine.

Chang extols the Texas Medical Center, the largest in the world. “Where else can you find every medical specialty and facility within a few city blocks? Other well-known medical centers cannot compare.”

By Gretchen Truitt