Ruiz, Donovan stepping down from chair positions

With more than 52 years of service between them, two founding chairs of Medical School departments are retiring from their positions this summer.

Dr. Richard Ruiz, chair of the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences since its inception – 37 years ago, is stepping down effective Aug. 31.

“I am proud of what we have accomplished for The University of Texas over these last 37 years, and I am excited about our future,” said Ruiz, the holder of the John S. Dunn Distinguished University Chair in Ophthalmology.

Dr. William Donovan, chair of the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation since its establishment in 1993, also is retiring as chair Aug. 31.

“I have enjoyed my tenure as chairman and am proud of the accomplishments the department as a whole has made in all of the four pillars of academic life: teaching, research, patient care, and administration,” he said. “I credit a lot of our success to the formation of collegial partnerships, particularly the PM&R Alliance between UT and Baylor College of Medicine in 1995.”

Both Ruiz and Donovan plan to stay on faculty in part-time positions in support of the departments they built.

“On behalf of the Medical School community, I thank both of these outstanding leaders for their service and contributions to our school. They have created excellent departments and laid the groundwork for future greatness,” said Dean Giuseppe Colasurdo. “I look forward to their continued help in nurturing students, faculty, and residents.”

-D. Brown

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Student wins Howard Hughes training fellowship

Kari Wellnitz, an entering third-year medical student, has received one of 68 Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Research Training fellowships.

The fellowship is a one-year award, with a stipend of $27,000, which allows students to implement a research plan and work at a lab. Wellnitz will study the effects of diabetes on the heart, working with mentor Dr. Heinrich Taegtmeyer, professor of internal medicine in the Division of Cardiology, with whom she worked during the 2007 Summer Research Program.

“I found the work under way in the lab fascinating and enjoyed my time there so much that I decided to pursue funding so I would be able to devote a full year to research,” she explained.

Wellnitz is focusing on diabetes due to its prevalence – more than 20 million Americans have type 2 diabetes, and an estimated one out of three adults will have type 2 diabetes by 2050 if the present trend continues.

“Patients with type 2 diabetes develop congestive heart failure at a rate 250 percent times that of non-diabetics as the result of the metabolic derangements underlying this disease,” Wellnitz said. “Because of these staggering statistics, it is of vital importance that the mechanisms modulating remodeling and protein turnover in the diabetic heart are understood.”

Wellnitz’s project will focus on autophagy, an important pathway for the degradation and recycling of organelles and long-lived proteins by the lysosome, determining if it is increased in the hearts of patients with Type 2 diabetes. “Additionally, I will determine whether this change in the level of autophagy plays a protective role in modulating diabetes-induced cellular damage in the heart,” she said.

Wellnitz, who is originally from Bismarck, N.D., and graduated from the University of Kansas, said this fellowship will help her pursue a career in academic medicine.

“This fellowship is an incredible opportunity for me,” she said. “My ultimate goal is to have a career in academic medicine that allows me to be involved in both direct patient care and translational research; this fellowship is an important first step along that path. I am excited to have the opportunity to spend a year working on a fascinating project and to then be able to share my findings at the HHMI Meeting of Medical Fellows and Research Scholars in May 2009. This fellowship will help me develop connections with established researchers and other research-oriented medical students.”

-D. Brown

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Oakes wins national teaching award

Because of her drive to take risks in teaching, Dr. Joanne Oakes, assistant professor of emergency medicine, has been awarded with a 2008 National Faculty Teaching Award from the American College of Physicians (ACEP).

ACEP makes the selection of this award based on dedication and innovation in teaching. Oakes is the course director for the MS1 Introduction to Clinical Medicine, co-course director for the MS1 Clinical Applications, an MS2 Ethics small group facilitator, and she participates in all the teaching activities of the emergency medicine residency. She has served as the associate residency director for emergency medicine since 2003.

Oakes said her teaching style focuses on engaging the learner and keeping the process interesting and fun. “In my teaching, I aim to create a safe environment to explore all the possibilities yet take risks in learning and in teaching,” she said. “When students are challenged and take risks in synthesizing what they know, they achieve more than they ever thought possible.”

Oakes will be recognized at the Fellow Convocation and Awards Ceremony at the ACEP’s Scientific Assembly in October.

“Each year, only a few of the several hundred nominees receive this coveted award. This is quite an accomplishment for Dr. Oakes and a proud day for our department and our school,” said Dr. Brent King, chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine.

“I was humbled and honored to represent our department and our specialty with this award,” she said. “I am very excited about the ongoing creative educational initiatives in our Department of Emergency Medicine and the collaborative initiatives within our medical school. I am very blessed to have tremendous support, idea sharing, and collaboration from my EM colleagues, my husband Dr. David Robinson, my department chairman Dr. Brent King, Dr. Patricia Butler, Dr. Allison Ownby, the Skills Center staff, and all the first-year course directors with whom I work closely.”

Oakes has been on faculty at the Medical School since 2002 and graduated from The University of Texas Southwestern Medical School.

“This is a very exciting time to be at UT Houston,” she said. “Our University's commitment to providing the best educational opportunities possible for our students is unparalleled. Our residents and students inspire me every day, as they are a group of creative, passionate, smart, and caring individuals who will undoubtedly change the face of medicine, provide fantastic patient care, be advocates of patients and of medicine, and will ultimately change the world for the better. Being a teacher is a two-way street, and I thank the residents and students for their feedback. I have learned from them, and their feedback has helped create some of the educational programs now in place. I am honored to work with such talented individuals. They are the reason I love my job so much.”

-D. Brown

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