UT School of Public Health professors appointed
to state health committee
Hector Balcazar, Ph.D. and regional dean for the El Paso Regional Campus.
Linda Lloyd, Ph.D., associate professor of community health and associate dean for public health practice at Houston main campus.
John Herbold, Ph.D., D.V.M., M.P.H., associate professor of epidemiology at the San Antonio Regional Campus.
HOUSTON – (Feb. 4, 2009) –Three professors from The University of Texas School of Public Health have been appointed to serve on the Texas State Preventive Health Advisory Committee (SPHAC) with the Department of State Health Services (DSHS).
Beginning their terms immediately are Hector Balcazar, Ph.D., regional dean and professor of health promotion and behavioral sciences at the UT School of Public Health El Paso Regional Campus; Linda Lloyd, Ph.D., associate professor of community health and associate dean for public health practice at the UT School of Public Health at the Houston main campus; and John Herbold, Ph.D., D.V.M., M.P.H., associate professor of epidemiology at the UT School of Public Health San Antonio Regional Campus. Herbold is also the director of the Centers for Disease Control-funded Center for Biosecurity and Public Health Preparedness. The UT School of Public Health is part of The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.
The professors were appointed by David L. Lakey, M.D., commissioner of the DSHS. Balcazar will serve as the school’s representative through December 2010. Herbold and Lloyd will serve as consumers representing the general public through December 2014.
“I am very enthusiastic about this appointment to serve as the School of Public Health’s member of the State Preventive Health Advisory Committee. The UT Health Science Center at Houston and our School of Public Health are very committed to move forward an exciting and promising agenda of prevention for the state of Texas through research, education and service. I am delighted for this opportunity to work directly with the Texas Department of State Health Services in advancing prevention in the realm of public health,” says Balcazar.
The committee will make recommendations to the DSHS regarding the development and implementation of a state health plan. This will include assessing public health and making recommendations on preventive health services, comprehensive public health services and emergency medical services, outlined in the U.S. Code on Public Health and Welfare, to carry out in Texas.
Committee members will also collect and report data and make recommendations for the use of funds allocated to the state to carry out the state plan.