By UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS MEDICAL BRANCH

Eighty nine physician assistant students donned their white coats recently and took their professional oath in a ceremony on the Galveston Campus. The University of Texas Medical Branch Physician Assistant White Coat Ceremony has become a tradition in the program. It recognizes the transition of new students into the physician assistant program, into the profession and into their future career as a physician assistant.

Clayton to direct John Sealy modernization
 

Amber Clayton will be the medical branch’s Health System’s special projects director for the John Sealy Hospital modernization project that is about to start. Clayton, who has been at the medical branch for 17 years, has served as a project development and support manager.

Solis promoted in health information management

Julie Solis recently was promoted to director of the medical branch’s Health Information Management department, where she had been serving as interim director. Solis joined the medical branch more than 20 years ago and has managed the release of information and birth certificate registration processes since 2002.

Cedillo director of pastoral care

The Rev. José Cedillo has been named director of Pastoral Care at the medical branch. Cedillo, who is an ordained bishop with the Church of God, previously was at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Of historical note

In 1949, Herman A. Barnett became the first African American in Texas admitted to a medical school. Under an agreement, Barnett was enrolled at Texas State University for Negroes (now Texas Southern University) but attended classes at the medical branch. He officially enrolled at the medical branch the next year after the Department of Veterans Affairs, which was paying for Barnett’s tuition, refused to recognize the previous arrangement. Barnett, a former Tuskegee Airman, graduated in 1953, eventually becoming chief of surgery at several Houston hospitals. He later became the first African American member of the Texas Board of Medical Examiners and the first African American elected president of the Houston Independent School District board of trustees. The medical branch honored Barnett with the Ashbel Smith Distinguished Alumnus Award, the school’s highest alumni honor, and established the Herman Barnett Distinguished Endowed Professorship in Microbiology and Immunology.