2020 TEXAS LAUREATE BIOS
Abe Delgado, MD, FACP
Dr. Delgado is a native Texan, raised in Dallas. He is a second generation American and the grandson of Mexican immigrants. He was valedictorian of his class at North Dallas High School. He graduated from Rice University with a B.A. degree in Behavioral Science in 1971 and from Baylor College of Medicine with a medical degree in 1974. After a Family Medicine internship and work in outpatient general practice he entered internal medicine residency at the Central Texas Medical Foundation (CTMF) in Austin finishing in 1981. He served as Chief Resident in the program.
In 2007 he completed a Certificate in Medical and Healthcare Management from Rice University Executive Education.
His practice of medicine was primarily conducted first at Austin Regional Clinic (ARC) and from 1985 to 1990 in Dallas at the Samuell Clinic and at St. Paul Medical Center. Dr. Delgado returned to Austin and ARC in 1991. In Austin Dr. Delgado taught and supervised CTMF residents and in 1996 began to precept University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) students in his practice. In Dallas he served as inpatient attending at St. Paul Hospital. In 2000 he received a Teacher of Distinction award from the University of Texas Medical Branch. While at ARC, he served as Chief of Medicine from 1995 to 2000. He was Seton Network Chief of Medicine from 1998 to 1999. He began service on the Executive Board of the Travis County Medical Society in 1999 ending in 2001.
In mid 2000 Dr. Delgado left ARC and began work as a staff physician at the Central Texas VA Austin Outpatient Clinic. He continued to precept UTMB students and supervise residents from the CTMF Internal Medicine program. In 2003 he was awarded an American College of Physicians (ACP) Certificate for Community-Based Teaching. In 2003 and 2004 he received Department of Veteran Affairs Special Contribution Awards.
In 2002 Dr. Delgado was elected to Fellowship in the ACP. In 2002 he was elected to the Board of the Texas Chapter ACP serving until 2006. From 2004 to 2005 he served as President of Texas Chapter ACP Services. He subsequently served as chair of the Texas ACP Quality Committee and as chair and member of the Health and Public Policy Committee. He served on several Texas Medical Association committees as Texas ACP representative.
In mid 2005 Dr. Delgado was selected to be Medical Director of Texas Medical Foundation (TMF). At that time TMF was the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services Quality Improvement and Utilization Review Organization for the state of Texas. Dr. Delgado served as TMF Medical Director for two years until mid 2007.
In mid 2007 Dr. Delgado returned to the Central Texas VA as Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of the Austin VA Outpatient Clinic. Dr. Delgado was responsible for continuation and expansion of services as well as planning for construction of a new Austin VA Clinic. The award winning new Austin VA Clinic was completed on schedule and within budget in 2013. As CMO Dr. Delgado continued to support the use of the Austin VA Clinic as a teaching site for medical residents. Dr. Delgado retired from the VA in 2016.
Dr. Delgado wishes to express his gratitude for his grand- parents’ courage immigrating to this great and wonderful country and for his parents for their support and encouragement. Dr. Delgado wishes to thank his wife of 40 years, Deborah, and his two children for their support and encouragement throughout his career. He also wishes to thank his colleagues at the Texas Chapter ACP for this honor and those teachers and friends in and out of medicine who have made his path possible.
Susan Miller, MD, MPH, FACP, FAAFP
Dr. Susan Miller received her B.S. degree in biochemistry (1979) and medical diploma at the University of Missouri-Columbia (1983). She completed her residency training in Family Medicine at the University of Texas – Health Science Center in Houston, Texas (1986) followed by an MPH degree in international health (1989).
Dr. Miller served as one of the original faculty of Thomas Street Clinic (1988), soon becoming the Medical Director. Thomas Street Clinic continues to serve the indigent HIV population of Harris County and is staffed by physicians from Baylor College of Medicine and the University of Texas – Houston. Dr. Miller had dual faculty appointments in Family Medicine and General Internal Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, became the Acting Section Chief in General Internal Medicina (1999). She was also a faculty member in the Baylor College of Medicine Center for Ethics and Health Policy.
Dr. Miller is currently Department Chair of Family Medicine at Houston Methodist Hospital (HMH) and is the John S. Dunn, Sr. Research Chair in General Internal Medicine. She is a Professor in the Department of Family Medicine, a Professor of Clinical Medicine in the Houston Methodist Academic Institute, and an Associate Professor at Weill Medical College of Cornell University.
Dr. Miller is the Senior Chair of the Institutional Review Board of the Methodist Hospital Research Institute and the Director of the Chao Program for International Research Ethics.
Dr. Miller has a long-standing passion for vulnerable populations experiencing health care disparities. Her public health and research advocacy includes work in Russia, Ukraine, Cameroon, India, Peru and Honduras. Additionally, she is the Chair of the Executive Advisory Board for the CITI Program (https://about.citiprogram.org/en/homepage/). Her ongoing academic interests encompass bioethics, the Role of Medicine during the Holocaust, research ethics and research compliance. Dr. Miller is honored to serve as a Board Member for the Maimonides Institute for Medicine, Ethics and the Holocaust (https://mimeh.org/) as well as serving as an editor of the English translation of the Polish Journal “Medical Review – Auschwitz.”
Dr. Miller precepts residents and medical students at Denver Harbor Clinic and is a Board Member of this federally-qualified health center (https://denverharborclinic.org/). Furthermore, Dr. Miller treats patients in her HMH faculty practice, and Chairs multiple Methodist Hospital Committees. In 2019, Dr. Miller was honored as one of the hundred notable physicians from the first century of Houston Methodist Hospital.
Jan Patterson, MD, MS, MACP, FIDSA, FSHEA
Dr. Patterson graduated from UT Medical School at Houston, completed her residency in internal medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and a fellowship in infectious diseases Yale University School of Medicine. She completed a Masters in Health Care Management at the Harvard School of Public Health and a fellowship in integrative medicine from the University of Arizona. Dr. Patterson has more than 30 years of experience in the field of infection prevention, healthcare epidemiology, and quality improvement and has numerous publications in these areas.
She completed the UT System Clinical Safety & Effectiveness Course, a project-based health system improvement course, in 2008 and since that time has been the course director for the UT Health San Antonio Clinical Safety & Effectiveness Course, overseeing 26 cohorts, more than 700 interprofessional graduates and 250 health care improvement projects.
Dr. Patterson is a Past President of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America, and served on the Board of Directors for the Infectious Diseases Society of America. She has also served on the CDC Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee (HICPAC). She has been a speaker for Texas ACP events such as the Annual Meeting and a recent webinar on COVID Vaccine. She and Dr. Tom Patterson have served as co-chairs for the Texas ACP Annual Meeting.
Dr. Patterson has been a consultant to the South Texas Regional Advisory Council for infectious diseases emergency preparedness since 2001. She worked in Toronto during the 2003 SARS I pandemic there, and was involved in leading University Health System efforts during the 2009 H1N1 pandemic. She is part of the COVID-19 Response team at UT Health San Antonio, providing consultation and leadership regarding testing, policy, PPE, and patient care issues.
Jan Patterson is a native of Fort Worth, Texas and has been married to Dr. Tom Patterson for 36 years. She is the mother of two sons and two dogs, and enjoys gardening and essential oils in her spare time.
Thomas Patterson, MD, FACP, FIDSA
Dr. Thomas F. Patterson received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Baylor University and his Medical Doctor from the UT McGovern Medical School in Houston. He completed his internship and residency at Vanderbilt University Medical School and Yale-New Haven Hospital, and a fellowship in infectious diseases at Yale University School of Medicine.
Dr. Patterson is a Professor of Medicine and Chief, Division of Infectious Diseases and Director of the San Antonio Center for Medical Mycology and serves as the Vice-Chair for Faculty Development in the Department of Medicine.
His clinical and research interests focus on the diagnosis and treatment of fungal diseases particularly in immunocompromised hosts. He has been involved in developing new antifungal drugs and in clinical trials of new antifungal compounds and is funded by the NIH and industry for grants and contracts on drug and diagnostic development.
During the COVID-19 pandemic Dr. Patterson is leading the UT Health San Antonio Division of Infectious Diseases efforts in clinical management of COVID-19 care and is the UTHSA principal investigator for the Adaptive COVID-19 Treatment Trial (ACTT) conducted at University Hospital supported by the NIH to develop safe and effective therapies against COVID-19. He and his team have been one of the leading enrolling sites for those trials. He was awarded the UTHSA Presidential Distinguished Research Scholar award. He served as a member of the San Antonio Mayor’s Health Transition Team, is co-chair of the UTHSA President’s Vaccine Task Force and has conducted numerous media interviews to address community concerns during the pandemic.
Dr. Patterson has published and lectured extensively with over 300 peer reviewed publications, chapters, books and reviews. He has served as member of the American Board of Internal Medicine, Subspecialty Committee for Infectious Diseases and is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and the Infectious Diseases Society of America, Past-President of the Texas Infectious Disease Society, and past-President, International Immunocompromised Host Society. He has served as a past co-chair, with his wife Dr. Jan Patterson, of the Texas ACP Annual Meeting program committee and has spoken at Texas ACP meetings.
He is an avid sports fan, enjoys running, cooking, gardening, and (pre-COVID!) travel!
LeChauncy Woodard, MD, MPH, FACP
LeChauncy Woodard, MD, MPH is a general internist and Professor in the Department of Health Systems and Population Health Science at the University of Houston College of Medicine. She also serves as the Founding Director of the Humana Integrated Health Systems Sciences Institute, a partnership between the University of Houston and Humana, Inc. The institute’s goal is to advance the next generation of health professionals through interdisciplinary training with a focus on social needs, risk factors and determinants of health, and expanded use of value-based payment models.
As a clinician educator and health services researcher, Dr. Woodard has extensive experience in interprofessional team-based care, quality improvement, and patient safety. She is also an adjunct faculty member at Baylor College of Medicine and the Center for Innovations in Quality, Effectiveness, and Safety, where she served as principal investigator on several federally funded grants, including the Houston VA Center of Excellence in Primary Care Education, an interprofessional training program that integrated trainees from medicine, mental health, nursing, social work, and pharmacy to care for high-complexity Veteran patients. Dr. Woodard’s research focuses on performance measurement and improving quality of care for chronically ill, multimorbid adults through team-based behavioral health interventions to enhance collaborative goal setting.
She has been active in the fight against COVID-19, leading efforts to develop contact tracing curricula that has been accessed by approximately 20,000 learners nationally and also as a collaborator on the University of Houston team participating in the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Community Engagement Alliance (CEAL) against COVID-19. Dr. Woodard is a longstanding member of the American College of Physicians, having served in several leadership positions in the state of Texas including past president of Texas ACP services, Southeast Director, Chair of the Committee on Quality, and Chair of the Texas ACP annual meeting.
Dr. Woodard is committed to advancing the University of Houston’s mission to address health disparities and increase the value of health care for patients both locally and nationally. Dr. Woodard shares two children Jack and Catherine with her husband Steven Solari.