Our Board
Emeritus
Charlotte Scott, PhD, Retired
Kim D. Slocum
Donald B. Wagner, LFACHE
Our team
Privacy · Copyright © 2024 Texas Health Institute. All rights reserved.
Charlotte Scott, PhD, Retired
Kim D. Slocum
Donald B. Wagner, LFACHE
Our team
Privacy · Copyright © 2024 Texas Health Institute. All rights reserved.
Sandy Tovar is a pediatric nurse practitioner and a certified asthma educator at the Allergy & Asthma Center in McAllen, Texas. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Texas at Austin in 1981, her Master of Science in Nursing from Texas A&M University Corpus Christi, formerly Corpus Christi State University, in 1988, and her Doctor of Nursing Practice from The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston in 2017. She is an adjunct professor at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston Cizik School of Nursing.
Her involvement in health policy began while she was an undergraduate nursing student, volunteering with her state representative at the capitol. During her professional career, she has held leadership positions representing nursing on numerous local, state, and national committees. Tovar is actively involved in legislative issues and health policy. Currently, she is the chair of Texas Nurses Association’s (TNA’s) Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (APRN) committee and serves on TNA’s Policy Council.
Tovar shares her clinical knowledge about allergic conditions and asthma by lecturing to professional organizations, providers, educators, school nurses, students, and parents. She an active member in her community serving on Doctor’s Hospital at Renaissance Asthma Management Committee.
In 2017, she was awarded the Community Health and Service Award by the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston Cizik School of Nursing.
Daniel Crowe is a physician executive, diabetologist, and a leader in changing the paradigm for managing chronic pain and addiction. Crowe formally served as the managing principal for Health Management Associates’ Austin office. Prior to that, he was senior medical director with Superior Health Plan, the Texas subsidiary of Centene. At Superior, he led efforts to integrate physical health and mental health and to address the complex needs of those with multiple chronic diseases and substance use disorders. Prior to that he was chief medical officer of CommUnityCare in Austin, TX, a Federally Qualified Health Center providing care for the underserved in Central Texas at 22 sites throughout the Greater Austin area. Before moving to Austin, Crowe was head of the diabetes program at Southboro Medical Group in the Greater Metro Boston area where he was also assistant medical director. He was a member of the Clinical Advisory Board for the Journal of Diabetes Science and Technology and has been a long-time member of the Diabetes Technology Society. He is a graduate of the IHI’s Innovation College and has worked on health care reform in New England and in Texas. He is a Lean Six Sigma Greenbelt and is experienced in using the IHI’s Model for Improvement. In their spare time, he and his wife perform jazz and enjoy the outdoors together
Ankit Sanghavi currently serves as the executive director of Texas Health Institute. Previously, he served as the director of community and oral health program at THI. Sanghavi provides leadership and direction on all Texas Health Institute initiatives and develops collaborative efforts with its local, state, and national partners. He earned a Master of Public Health from Texas A&M University in 2014 and Bachelor of Dental Surgery from Maharashtra University of Health Sciences India in 2011. His professional interests are research, innovation, and data in public health and health care.
Camille D. Miller is the former president and CEO of Texas Health Institute; she served in that position from 1996 to September 16, 2017. After completing bachelor’s and master’s degrees in sociology and social work, Miller gained extensive experience in planning, researching, and developing state policy to address health and human services issues. She serves on numerous boards throughout the state of Texas. In 2009, she received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Texas Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers, and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Association of Social Workers. In May 2010, she was granted the Honorary degree of Doctor of Public Service by the Board of Regents of the University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth, Texas. Most recently Miller was appointed to the MPH/DrPH Advisory Council at the University of North Texas Health Science Center School of Public Health, 2015. She is also a member of the Public Health Transformation Sentinel Network of the National Association of County & City Health Officials.
Carol Paret is the chief community benefits officer for Memorial Hermann Hospital System and CEO of Memorial Hermann Community Benefit Corporation. In addition to overseeing Memorial Hermann’s community efforts, she is the privacy and security officer and is accountable for the medical records function, continuing medical education, and a large family practice residency program. She did her undergraduate work at University of Houston and her graduate studies at University of Texas School of Public Health in Houston. Her career in health care began with a community health planning emphasis and for the past 30 years she has been with Memorial Hermann Healthcare System. Paret is currently serving as past board chairman of Gateway to Care, a collaborative involving 165+ agencies whose mission is to improve access to care for Houston’s uninsured and the Provider Health Network, a project access model for specialty care.
George T. Roberts, Jr., has served as the chief executive officer of the Northeast Texas Public Health District since November 2006. The Northeast Texas Public Health District is a local health department and is a political subdivision under the State of Texas established by the City of Tyler and Smith County. The health district provides services for community transformation, disease surveillance, environmental health, immunization, tuberculosis control, public health emergency preparedness, regional laboratory, Tyler Animal Control, vital statistics, and WIC Program. The health district primarily serves Tyler and Smith County but also provides some services in 20 counties in East Texas. The WIC Program serves a 20 county area and public health emergency preparedness serves a seven county region.
Roberts has over 30 years of health care experience, the majority of which was spent in hospital administration, having previously served at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, Mother Frances Hospital in Tyler, and Henderson Memorial Hospital in Henderson, Texas. He received his Bachelor of Business Administration from SMU in Dallas and a master’s degree in health administration from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri. He currently serves on the Texas Health Institute Board of Directors and as the past chairman of the Texas Cardiovascular Disease and Stroke Partnership. He has recently served in a leadership capacity for Tyler’s Fit City Challenge which seeks to make Tyler a Fit City, “one step, one bite, and one health conscious decision at a time.” Roberts is active in a number of church, Tyler community, and statewide efforts. He is married to Leslie Griffiths Roberts, and they have 2 children—Claire and Travis.
Jamie Freeny is a dedicated public health practitioner with a desire to make a difference for the health and wellbeing of children and adolescents. She earned her Doctorate in Public Health with a focus on child and adolescent mental health from the UT Health School of Public Health. Her areas of research include adverse childhood experiences, adolescent mental health, trauma-informed care, and collaborative engagement. Freeny currently serves as the director of the Center for School Behavioral Health at Mental Health America of Greater Houston, which works collaboratively with school districts, public and nonprofit child-serving organizations, institutions of higher learning, and community stakeholders to develop and implement equitable projects and policies that promote the well-being of school-age youth. She has spent the last 15 years working through health care systems, residential behavioral health centers, and nonprofit organizations to educate and advocate for adolescent mental health. Freeny has presented on various topics to professional audiences including adverse childhood experiences, child trauma, and equity in school mental health and has galvanized systems change through an equitable and trauma-informed lens. She was awarded the 2021 Child Advocate of the Year for the State of Texas and has been invited as a child mental health expert to provide education and testimony on behalf of proposed legislation and national and local policy.
Tonya Fuqua received a DDS degree from the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio and continues to hone her skills through postgraduate study. She holds professional membership in the American College of Dentists, Children’s Oral Health Coalition of Tarrant County, American Dental Association, Texas Dental Association, and Fort Worth District Dental Society. She is a former member of the U.S. Air Force, where she served as an active duty dental officer at Kelly Air Force Base in San Antonio.
In addition to passion for serving her patients, Fuqua dedicates a great deal of her time to serving the community. Her most significant accomplishment may be the founding and managing of Save a Smile, a nonprofit dental program that serves low-income children in our community. Led by Cook Children’s Medical Center, Save a Smile provides thousands of dollars of need-based services each year for children who might otherwise go without dental care. She works to enlists volunteer dentists and coordinates with Communities in Schools to deliver a truly unparalleled dental outreach program that has so far touched the lives of over 36,000 young people throughout Tarrant County. She resides in Keller with her husband and two daughters.
Shawn Gibbs is dean of the Texas A&M University School of Public Health. Gibbs has over a hundred articles in industrial hygiene and environmental exposure assessment, focusing on disrupting transmission of highly infectious diseases. He is a member of USEPA Board of Scientific Counselors for Homeland Security. He was a U.S. Faculty Fulbright Scholar to Egypt and has been PI of three Fulbright Junior Faculty Development Programs (Egypt and Libya). His research helped to determine national policies, procedure, and best practices for response to Ebola virus disease, COVID-19, and other highly infectious diseases.
Gibbs has held roles in organizations such as National Ebola Training and Education Center, Hispanic Health Disparities Research Center, NIOSH funded Central States Center for Agricultural Safety and Health, and director of research for the CDC/DHHS funded Nebraska Biocontainment Unit. Gibbs is heavily involved in national worker training programs in Hazardous Materials Disaster Preparedness Training and Hazardous Waste Worker Training. He is a national leader in the research, training, and policy related to national and international responses to highly infectious disease outbreaks, including developing procedures for aeromedical evacuation isolation.
Alexia Green is a professor of nursing and dean emeriti at Texas Tech University Health Science Center. She recently served (2015-2020) as a visiting professor at the University of New Mexico and as project director for the Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Collaborative at UNM. Green also served (2014-2022) as a consultant to the Center to Champion Nursing in America where she worked to advance the Campaign for Nursing’s Future across the United States. This entailed working with states to achieve recommendations made by the National Academies of Medicine’s “The Future of Nursing 2020-2030: Charting a Path to Achieve Health Equity.” She has been actively engaged in teaching systems leadership, quality improvement sciences, patient safety, population health and health policy leadership for many years.
The governor appointed her to the board of directors of the Texas Institute of Health Care Quality and Efficiency (2012-2015) and the Texas Health Care Policy Council (2006-2010). She was the only nurse to serve on either of these important policy councils during this timeframe. Green is a past co-chair of the Texas Center for Nursing Workforce Studies Advisory Committee, working with a team of other nurse leaders to provide sound evidence-based data for use in policy making by state legislators. She is a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing and a Robert Wood Johnson Executive Nurse Leader Fellow (2001). She has led multiple community and statewide coalitions during her career, including obtaining grant funding for these initiatives with agencies such as the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Labor, and the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration.
John Hellerstedt is currently the principle at Hellerstedt Consulting LLC and an adjunct assistant clinical professor at Texas A&M University Medical School. Previously, he served as the commissioner and chief executive officer for the Texas Department of State Health Services. Prior to his role as the commissioner, Hellerstedt held various positions with Seton Family of Hospitals, Dell Children’s Medical Center of Central Texas, and Texas Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program. Hellerstedt holds a Bachelor of Science in chemistry from Allegheny College and a Doctor of Medicine from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
Kim Jones is the nutrition data professional and pricing specialist for Deli Management Inc., the parent company for Jason’s Deli. She has worked for the brand for 26 years in a variety of positions, including ones in operations and training.
Throughout her career with Jason’s Deli, food—the quality of and education about—has been a passion. She has created numerous continuing education seminars about food, nutrition, and healthy living for Jason’s Deli management teams as well as for families of employees. These seminars have been presented to hundreds of customers as well as their companies across the country.
Jones is a graduate of The University of North Texas and is also a board member of the Jason’s Deli Family Fund—a not-for-profit organization created to help assist Jason’s Deli Team Members during catastrophic events in their lives. Previously, she spent time working in operations management for Applebee’s International, Red Lobster, and various other full-service dining establishments.
Donna Meyer is a specialist in community health. She uses her doctorate in public health to provide leadership for developing programs and services which focus on improving the health of local and global communities. This includes developing innovative care management strategies for the underserved in communities in the U.S. and Mexico and working with communities to develop and organize integrated community delivery programs that are affordable and sustainable retail models. Her specialty is measuring community health outcomes and comparative effectiveness research.
Meyer currently serves as an adjunct associate professor at Saint Louis University’s College for Public Health and Social Justice in the Department of Health Management and Policy where she teaches evidence based community health and social justice and social ethics. She also provides consulting services in community benefit and in socially responsible investing.
Meyer is retired from CHRISTUS Health; a Texas-based Catholic health system. During her tenure she served as a health care administrator and for more than ten years, she provided corporate leadership for community health services. She serves on the Board of Directors for and actively participates with the Interfaith Center for Corporate Responsibility. She recently helped found and serves on the Board of Directors of the Isaiah Funds, investment tools designed to help faith-based institutional investors effectively and securely supply capital for post-disaster economic rebuilding. She serves on the Boards of Directors of a number of health-related organizations including Texas Health Institute and Adelaide Lafón, a large medical home operation in Mexico. She is also a member the University of Texas Conflict of Interest Committee and of the advisory committee for the Certificate Program in Community Benefit at Saint Louis University School of Public Health. Meyer is a fellow of the American College of Health Care Executives; she earned her BS and MS from the University of Minnesota and her doctorate from The University of Texas School of Public Health.
Michael Monopoli serves as vice president for grant strategy for CareQuest Institute for Oral Health. In this role, Monopoli leads the organization’s strategic philanthropic grant making activities to promote healthy communities and improve the overall system to create better oral health for all.
Monopoli leverages his expertise to collaborate with grantees and partners on a systems change approach to local, state, and national investment to strengthen communities and promote health equity. Prior to joining CareQuest Institute, he held a number of senior roles with the DentaQuest Partnership and Delta Dental of Massachusetts, an affiliate of CareQuest Institute. He also previously served as dental director at the Office of Oral Health for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.
Monopoli is a past president of the American Association of Public Health Dentistry and is a Fellow of the American College of Dentists. He also serves on the boards of directors of the Forsyth Institute and the Cambridge Health Alliance Foundation. He serves on advisory councils of the Forsyth School of Dental Hygiene at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Allied Health Sciences and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.
Monopoli earned his Doctor of Dental Medicine degree from Tufts University School of Dental Medicine and two master’s degrees from Harvard University Chan School of Public Health. He also completed a fellowship in geriatric dentistry at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Kimberly Wolf is a managing director in Accenture’s Health Technology Strategy and Advisory practice. She has spent her career focused on supporting health organizations through the definition and implementation of strategic transformations to their core business using new IT concepts around digital and cloud. She has helped organizations tackle business problems for everything from product and contract strategy to claims administration and clinical programs, innovating with various technology solutions.
Through her exposure to the entire health value chain, Wolf has developed a passion for identifying opportunities to drive change into the health of her community. She is focused on partnering with government program payers to meet the unique needs of their members, especially around health equity. Wolf is a graduate of Rice University and now resides in Austin.