PRESIDENT CLINTON APPOINTS EIGHT MEMBERS TO THE U.S. SECTION OF THE
UNITED
STATES-MEXICO BORDER HEALTH COMMISSION
The President today announced the appointment
of Amanda Aguirre,
Jeffrey Brandon, Carlos Rene Gonzales, Rosemarie Marshall Johnson,
Laurance
N. Nickey, Blair Sadler, Catherine Torres, and Paul Villas as Members
of
the U.S. Section of the United States-Mexico Border Health
Commission.
The
appointees are joined by William Reynolds Archer, Diana M. Bonta,
James
L.
Schamadan, and J. Alex Valdez, the principal state health officials
from
the four U.S. border states of Texas, California, Arizona, and New
Mexico
respectively. Secretary Donna E. Shalala will serve as the Chair
of the
U.S. Section.
Ms. Amanda Aguirre, of Yuma, Arizona, is the
Executive Director of the
Western Arizona Area Health Education Center and the Director of
College
Services for South Yuma County at Arizona Western College. She
has been
active for more than fifteen years in addressing U.S.-Mexico Border
health
care issues and has coordinated and participated in several binational
conferences. Her early professional training included a clinical
internship at the Center for Developmental Disabilities, Children's
Hospital in Los Angeles, California. Ms. Aguirre received her B.S.
in
chemistry from Universidad de Sonora, Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico, and
her
M.A. in human nutrition from California State University-Los Angeles.
Dr. Jeffrey Brandon, of Las Cruces, New
Mexico, is the Associate Dean
of the College of Health and Social Services at New Mexico State
University. Previously, he was Department Head for Health Science at
the
College and served on the faculty of the University of New
Orleans-Lakefront. Dr. Brandon is highly involved in
professional
associations, university committees, and local public service.
Dr. Brandon
received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. from Southern Illinois University
at
Carbondale.
Dr. Carlos Rene Gonzales, of Patagonia,
Arizona,
is a rural family
physician at the Patagonia Family Health Center and a clinical
lecturer
in
the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of
Arizona-Tucson College of Medicine. Dr. Gonzalez has served as
a
consultant and community medical director in various capacities in
addition
to continuing his work as a hands-on primary care provider. In
1997, he
was named Arizona Family Physician of the Year. Dr. Gonzales
received his
B.A. from Carleton College and his M.D. from the University of
Arizona-Tuscon.
Dr. Rosemarie Marshall Johnson, of San Diego,
California, is the Vice
Speaker of the House of the California Medical Association and an
Associate
Clinical Professor of Anesthesiology at the School of Medicine at the
University of California at San Diego. She has taught at
Georgetown
University, Walter Reed Army Hospital, Bethesda Naval Hospital, and
the
University of California. She has also held appointments at
several
California hospitals and served in numerous professional
organizations,
including as President of the San Diego County
Medical Society and as of the California Society of
Anesthesiologists.
Dr.
Johnson received her B.A. from Mount Holyoke College and her M.D. from
Georgetown University.
Dr. Laurance N. Nickey, of El Paso, Texas,
is the former President of
the Paso Del Norte Health Foundation. He is the former Director
of the El
Paso City/County Health and Environmental District. Dr. Nickey
was in
private pediatric practice from 1960 to 1983. He was Vice
Chairman
of the
Texas Board of Health for five years and was local campaign chairman
for
the March of Dimes. Dr. Nickey is a past president of several
organizations including the Southwest Medical Association, the Texas
Pediatric Society, and the U.S.-Mexico Border Health
Association.
He
received the Nathan David Award for the American Medical Association
presented in Washington, D.C. in 1995 for outstanding career service
along
the U.S.-Mexico Border. Dr. Nickey received his M.D. from Baylor
University, College of Medicine.
Mr. Blair L. Sadler, of La Jolla, California,
has served as the
President and Chief Executive Officer of Children?s Hospital and
Health
Center of San Diego since 1980. Prior to his appointment at Children?s
Hospital, Mr. Sadler serves as Vice President and Director of the
hospital
and clinics at Scripps Clinical and Research Foundation for three
years.
He served as a law clerk with the Superior Court of Pennsylvania and
as a
medical-legal specialist for the National Institutes of Health.
While on
the faculty at Yale Medical School, Mr. Sadler served as Co-Director
of the
Trauma Program and helped design a two-year curriculum to train
physician
assistants. Concurrently, he was an assistant professor of law
for three
years. After Yale, Mr. Sadler served for four years as Assistant Vice
President at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in Princeton, New
Jersey,
the largest foundation specializing in health care. He
administered
the
Foundation?s first national program, awarding forty-four grants in
thirty-two states to improve emergency medical systems. Mr.
Sadler
graduated from Amherst College with a bachelor?s degree in economics
and
received his J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
Dr. Catherine Torres, of Albuquerque, New
Mexico,
is a pediatrician
for the First Step Pediatric Center at memorial Medical Center in Las
Cruces, New Mexico. After completing two years of a surgical residency
at
the College of Medicine-Tulsa in Tulsa, Oklahoma, she decided to
pursue
a
medical career in pediatrics. At St. Joseph?s Hospital and
Medical
Center
in Phoenix, Arizona, she completed her pediatric residency in
1995.
Dr.
Torres is also a part of a medical mobile unit team that delivers
indigent
health care to the rural areas of Las Cruces, which happens to be
along
the
U.S./Mexican Border. Practicing at the First Step Pediatric
Center
allows
Dr. Torres to pursue a personal crusade in providing quality health
care to
the indigent population. In 1985, she received her Bachelor?s degree
in
Biochemistry and received her medical degree in 1990 at the University
of
New Mexico.
Dr. Paul Villas, of Edinburg, Texas, is the
Executive Director of the
Texas-Mexico Border Health Office out of the University of Texas
System.
He is also an Associate Professor of Health
and Kinesiology at the
University of Texas at Texas-Pan American. He has taught at
several
universities, is involved in numerous professional associations, and
is the
author of dozens of professional publications. Dr. Villas
received
his
B.A. from the College of Santa Fe, his M.S. from the University of
Southern
Mississippi, and his D.Ed. from the University of Tennessee.
The Government of the United States and the
Government of Mexico have
initiated discussions on the creation of the United States-Mexico
Border
Health Commission and seek to conclude an agreement in the coming
year.
The
appointment of members of the U.S. Section will allow the U.S. Section
to
move forward with its planning efforts in anticipation of the
binational
commission. The Commission was authorized by the United
States-Mexico
Border Health Commission Act (Public Law 103-400), and is charged with
finding ways to improve the health status of Americans living along
the
border.
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