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Faculty
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Dr. Philip C. Johnson, M.D.
SIGHT Faculty Sponsor
Philip C. Johnson, MD, FACP is a Professor and Vice Chairman of Internal Medicine and Director of the Division of General Medicine. Phil grew up in Houston and attributes his inspiration to be a physician to experiences he had in high school and college participating in the Amigos de las Americas program. This program sends youth to rural areas in Central and South America to participate in public health and community development programs. Phil had the opportunity to go from volunteer in Honduras to leadership roles on the field staff in Guatemala, Nicaragua, Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Paraguay.
After graduating from Vanderbilt University he attended medical school at Baylor College of Medicine. He completed internal medicine residency at Baylor in 1982. Phil did an Infectious Disease Fellowship at UT Houston, working with Drs. Herbert DuPont and Charles Ericsson to study the causes of traveler’s diarrhea. With them and others in Infectious Disease he studied the pathogenicity of Norwalk virus, Enteroadherent E. coli, and Aeromonas hydrophila.
He became an Assistant Professor in General Medicine in 1984 and Division Director in 1989. During this period of time he did research on the infections occurring in renal transplant recipients and fungal infections occurring in people with AIDS. He became a tenured professor in 1995. He was named a Vice Chairman of Internal Medicine in 2009.
Phil is married and has 3 children, Kara, Drew and Patrick who are all grown. With his wife, he has lead a dozen mission trips to Guatemala with his church. In 2006 they joined the Faith in Practice organization that sends week long medical trips to Guatemala. Phil and Linda have led 4 one week village trips that have cared for over 7,000 patients.
Phil has served as Chair of Amigos de las Americas, the Family Service Center, and is currently on the Board of Faith in Practice and the Texas Chapter of the American College of Physicians. Phil has been a student advisor with SIGHT since 2007. He participated as a physician on the trip to Santa Ana, Honduras in 2009.
Dr. Stanley Schultz, M.D.
GHI Faculty Sponsor
Stanley G. Schultz, M.D., is former dean of The University of Texas Medical School at Houston, Associate Dean for Institutional Advancement and professor in the Department of Integrative Biology and Pharmacology and in the Department of Internal Medicine.
A faculty member at the UT Medical School since 1979, Dr. Schultz is the former chairman of the Department of Physiology and Cell Biology (1979 – 1995). He is widely recognized as both an outstanding scientist and educator who has made numerous contributions to our understanding of intestinal ion transport. His early work demonstrated, for the first time, sodium-coupled sugar and amino acid absorption by the small intestine. These and subsequent findings established the “sodium-gradient” hypothesis, and provided the rationale for the later development of oral rehydration therapy. He was also one of the first to recognize the roles of paracellular pathways in epithelia and suggested, with colleagues, a cellular model for chloride secretion by epithelial cells that is now widely accepted.
A native of New York City, he graduated from Stuyvesant HS in 1949, received his baccalaureate, summa cum laude, from Columbia University in 1952, and his medical degree from New York University College of Medicine in 1956 (AOA). After serving an internship and residency in internal medicine, he became a fellow in cardiology and developed an interest in electrocardiography. This interest prompted him to learn more about membrane biophysics and led him to join the Biophysical Laboratories of the Harvard Medical School in the late 1950s.
In 1962, he was inducted into the Air Force as a captain in the Medical Corps and was stationed at the Brooks Aerospace School of Medicine in San Antonio, Texas, where he taught radiation biology, monitored research contracts, and conducted research regarding the biological effects of radiation. This work led to his lifelong interest in intestinal absorption.
Returning to Harvard as an Established Investigator of the American Heart Association in 1964, he was recruited within three years to join the Department of Physiology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine as an associate professor and was promoted to the rank of professor in 1970.
Since his arrival at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston, he has been recognized continually for his research, administrative leadership, and popularity among the students and faculty for his teaching abilities. In 1999, he received the President’s Scholar Award from the UT Health Science Center at Houston for his many teaching accomplishments.
He is author or coauthor of close to 200 published papers, and the author, coauthor or editor of 16 books.
A member of the American Physiological Society for the past three decades, Dr. Schultz served as president of that society from 1992-1993. Among his many editorial roles for professional journals in his field, he has served as editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Physiology and the Journal of Applied Physiology (sections on gastrointestinal physiology), Physiological Reviews, and News in Physiological Sciences. He is the recipient of the 1978 Hoffman-LaRoche Prize for Outstanding Contributions to Gastrointestinal Physiology as well as the 1999 Arthur C. Guyton Award, the 1999 Orr Reynolds Award and the 2003 Daggs Award from the American Physiological Society; the latter is the most prestigious award given by that society in recognition of life-time contributions to physiology and the society. In 2003, he was honored with the Solomon A. Berson Alumni Achievement Award for contributions to clinical science by the New York University College of Medicine and in 2004 Dr. Schultz was elected into membership of the European Academy of Sciences. On January 31, 2007, he received the 2006 Prince Mahidol Award in Medicine from the King of Thailand in Bangkok in recognition of his work that established the scientific foundation of oral rehydration therapy (ORT); ORT has been credited with saving over 50 million lives of patients suffering from dehydration due to diarrheal diseases during the past three decades. In September 2007, he received the “Seeds of Hope” award from RESULTS for his contributions benefiting child health (ORT is estimated to have saved the lives of more than 25 million children under the age of 4 since 1975). He has received numerous awards from students in recognition of his teaching ability.
SIGHT Officer Team 2009
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Thida Thant President MSII Thida.M.Thant@uth.tmc.edu |
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Eric Crowell Vice-President MSII Eric.L.Crowell@uth.tmc.edu |
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Lisa Osterhout MSI Summer Coordinator MSII Lisa.M.Osterhout@uth.tmc.edu |
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Jennifer Hau Local Initiative MSII Jennifer.T.Hau@uth.tmc.edu |
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Denise Fraga MSIV Elective Coordinator MSII Denise.N.Fraga@uth.tmc.edu |
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Anthony Burton Spring Break Coordinator MSII Christian.A.Burton@uth.tmc.edu |
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Shelley Scerbo Spring Break Coordinator MSII Michelle.L.Scerbo@uth.tmc.edu |
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Natalia Vasco Spring Break Coordinator MSII Natalia.Vasco@uth.tmc.edu |
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Moreko Griggs Web/IT MSII Moreko.A.Griggs@uth.tmc.edu |
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Carlye Schulte Web/IT assistant MSIII Carlye.K.Schulte@uth.tmc.edu |











