Courtesy of UNTHSC
The University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth has named Waridibo Allison as the vice president of health policy and founding director of the new Center for Health Policy within the Division of Research and Innovation.
Allison also will serve as an associate professor in the Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine in the Department of Medical Education. She will begin March 15.
“We are fortunate to have attracted such an experienced and talented academic with an impressive depth and breadth of leadership, research, and clinical experience to our institution,” says Brian Gladue, executive vice president for research and innovation, in a statement. “I am thrilled to welcome Dr. Allison to the HSC community.”
Allison currently serves as associate professor of infectious disease in the Department of Medicine at UT Health San Antonio. She also is the director of the UT Health San Antonio Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes and South Central AIDS Education Training Center programs, and is medical director at the San Antonio AIDS Foundation.
Allison is also the principal investigator and program director of two multi-million-dollar U.S. federal Health Resources and Services Administration funded projects. She leads a special project of national significance for “Curing Hepatitis C among People of Color Living with HIV” and a project establishing a national Rural Telementoring Training Center.
“When I interviewed for this position, as a value-based organization, the HSC’s values shone through with everyone I met and everything I saw and resonated with my own values which my leadership philosophy is based on,” Allison says. “I am excited to join the HSC team and to work at the interface of health policy, research, education, and community. The translation of research into policy is not seamlessly or easily integrated into academic medical centers or intuitive for researchers, clinicians, and public health professionals. Yet, it is essential for lasting, necessary change, and health equity.”
Allison earned a bachelor’s of science at Dundee University in Scotland, attended Imperial College School of Medicine in London, and completed internal medicine residency at New York Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center. Allison completed an infectious disease fellowship at New York University. She also holds a doctorate in public health and community medicine from the Kirby Institute at the University of New South Wales in Australia.