Amelie Ramirez Elected President and David Daniel Elected Vice President of TAMEST Board of Directors
The TAMEST Board of Directors has elected Amelie G. Ramirez, Dr.P.H., Professor and Interim Chair of Epidemiology and Biostatistics and Director of the Institute for Health Promotion Research at UT Health San Antonio, to serve as President of the Board for a two-year term. Dr. Ramirez is a member of the National Academy of Medicine.
David E. Daniel, Ph.D., President Emeritus of The University of Texas at Dallas, has been elected Vice President of the Board of Directors for a two-year term. Dr. Daniel is a member of the National Academy of Engineering.
The TAMEST Board President and Vice President help coordinate and guide the TAMEST Board of Directors in planning strategy, programs, and communications. TAMEST is Texas’ premier scientific organization, bringing together the state’s best and brightest scientists and researchers. TAMEST membership includes all Texas-based members of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine and the state’s Nobel Laureates.
The TAMEST Board gives special thanks to outgoing Board President Gordon R. England (NAE), who served as president for the past two years. Both the board and staff recognize and appreciate his outstanding leadership.
Amelie G. Ramirez, Dr.P.H., M.P.H. (NAM)
Dr. Amelie G. Ramirez is an internationally recognized health disparities researcher at UT Health San Antonio. She has 30 years of experience conducting behavioral and communications projects to reduce cancer, increase screening rates and clinical trial participation, prove the efficacy of patient navigation for cancer patients, prevent tobacco use, and improve healthy lifestyles among U.S. Latinos.
Dr. Ramirez currently directs the Salud America! national multimedia program to empower its vast network of 200,000 community leaders to drive healthy policy and system changes to promote health equity and support for Latino families (follow @SaludAmerica on Twitter). Dr. Ramirez also directs Quitxt, a bilingual tobacco-cessation service for young Latino adults using mobile-phone text messages; the service yielded a strong 21% quit rate among enrollees at follow-up. She also has trained/mentored 250+ Latinos in health fields, and leads the Éxito! training program to help master’s-level students and professionals pursue a doctoral degree and cancer research career.
Dr. Ramirez is a Susan G. Komen Scholar and is on the scientific advisory board for LIVESTRONG.Her recognitions include: 2007 election to the National Academy of Medicine; 2011 White House “Champion of Change”; 2014 APHA Everett M. Rogers Public Health Communication Award; and 2018 Icons in Healthcare Award from CentroMed. In Texas, Dr. Ramirez is on the San Antonio Mayor’s Fitness Council and had served as TAMEST Board Vice President before becoming Board President. Dr. Ramirez, a native of Laredo, Texas, earned M.P.H. and Dr.P.H. degrees from UT Health Science Center at the Houston School of Public Health.
David E. Daniel, Ph.D. (NAE)
Dr. David E. Daniel is President Emeritus of The University of Texas at Dallas. He earned B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, and served on the faculty at UT Austin from 1981 to 1996. His research focused on environmental controls for contaminated land and groundwater. He has published over 100 technical articles and authored or edited five books. From 1996 until 2005, he served as Head of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and then as Dean of Engineering at the University of Illinois.
From 2005 to 2015 he served as President of The University of Texas at Dallas and oversaw a doubling of enrollment, trebling of research expenditures, successful completion of a $200 million campaign, and construction of more than $1 billion in new campus buildings and infrastructure.
From 2015 to 2018 he served as Deputy Chancellor and Chief Operating Officer of The University of Texas System in Austin.
Honors include the Normal Medal, Croes Medal, Middlebrooks Award, Presidents Award, Opal Award for Education, and Geotechnical Hero’s Award from the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) in 2000.
Past service includes chairing the External Review Panel for ASCE to investigate the causes of the levee failures and flooding of New Orleans as a result of Hurricane Katrina, and service on the NAE panel that investigated the causes for the blowout and explosion of Deepwater Horizon.
ABOUT TAMEST:
TAMEST is composed of all Texas-based members of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, the Royal Society and the state’s Nobel Laureates. Our mission is to bring together the state’s brightest minds in medicine, engineering, science and technology to foster collaboration, and to advance research, innovation and business in Texas. We aim to make Texas a premier destination for innovation and world-class research in medicine, engineering, science and technology. We work to improve the lives of our citizens and grow the economy.
