APTR Elects New President

Laura Rudkin, PhD has been elected as the next APTR President. Dr. Rudkin will serve as President-Elect from 2013-2014 on the APTR executive Committee and will take office as President in 2014 through 2017.

Dr. Rudkin serves as Professor and Interim Chair of the Department of Preventive Medicine and Community Health (PMCH). Her passion for promoting population health and helping underserved communities is reflected in her scholarly, service and educational activities. She is a social epidemiologist and demographer with a primary research interest in the influence of social factors on health outcomes. Her educational research and program development activities focus on service learning, blended curricula, and the integration of public health and medicine.

Dr. Rudkin is Principal Investigator of the Primary Care Plus project, a five-year HRSA funded grant to integrate primary care and public health training in the medical school and the physician assistant studies program. Dr. Rudkin has served as Vice Chair for Education and Graduate Program Director in the Department of PMCH. She has led the expansion of public health educational opportunities at UTMB (e.g., MD-MPH, PhD-MPH, Public Health Track) and continues to direct the Public Health and Prevention Longitudinal Curriculum in the medical school. She was instrumental in the Department of PMCH receiving the 2012 Outstanding Educational Program Award from the Association for Prevention Teaching and Research. She is an elected member of the University of Texas Academy of Health Science Education and a UT Distinguished Teaching Professor.