Speakers
Keynote Speaker: Dr. Stephen Chao, MD
Stephen Chao, MD is a family physician at Legacy Community Health Services, a federally qualified health center in Houston, Texas. He is currently also a clinical assistant professor of family medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, and was previously on the faculty at Baylor College of Medicine as well. Born and raised in Houston, Texas, he attended Rice University, graduating with degrees in Biochemistry and Health Policy. He received his medical degree from the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, is a past president of the Chinese American Doctors Association of Houston, is the current vice-president of Health Care For All Texas, and also presently serves on the board of Physicians for a National Health Program.
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Dr. Chao completed his family medicine residency training at UT Health San Antonio and is committed to caring for the underserved residents of Houston and Harris County. His interests include care for immigrant and refugee populations, community health, and public policy. He believes in providing health care for all.
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He also serves or has served on the boards of Refugee Services of Texas-Houston, OCA- Greater Houston, Light and Salt Association, Eastside Promotoras de la Buena Salud, and the San Antonio Healthcare-NOW Coalition.
Nikhil Dhawan, MD
Nikhil Dhawan is a clinical assistant professor at University Health Science Center San Antonio. He went to University of Texas at Austin majoring in Philosophy and Psychology, Baylor College of Medicine for medical school, and University of Michigan for psychiatry residency. He's worked as a consult-liaison psychiatrist, electroconvulsive therapy psychiatrist, and now as an inpatient psychiatrist. He has won a number of teaching awards.
Dr. Wendy Kang, MD, JD
Wendy Kang was born in Taiwan, raised in Ohio, and educated in Texas. Her undergraduate degree from the University of Texas at Austin was in Microbiology & French, 1975. Her medical school training was at UT Southwestern Medical School, 1980. She did her Anesthesiology Residency at Parkland Memorial Hospital, Dallas, TX in 1983. Private Practice total of 10 years at Baylor Hospital in Dallas and East Texas. Assistant Professorship at Southwestern while studying part-time for Juris Doctorate at SMU School of Law in Dallas; passed TX State Bar in 1993 and put myself onto Inactive Status, preferring to take care of patients rather than clients. Associate Professorship in 1997 at Univ. Pittsburgh Medical Center in Pain Medicine. Came to UTHSCSA, San Antonio, in 2002, and served as Chair of Residency Education Committee. Professorship in 2007. In current good standing as Diplomate of the American Board of Anesthesiology with Maintenance of Board Certification in Anesthesiology (active until 2026); Added Certification in Pain Medicine (Anesthesiology) but voluntary lapse in 2018. Medical privileges at University Hospital and Audie Murphy VA hospital. She currently enjoys teaching enthusiastic learners in Medicine, regional anesthesia, and orthopaedic anesthesia while, also being a continuous learner as a 39 year physician anesthesiologist.
Dr. Danet Lapiz-Bluhm, PhD, RN, MSCI
Dr. Bluhm is a registered nurse of Asia-Pacific heritage with a graduate degree in neuroscience. Having been raised in the Philippines and educated in different parts of the world, she has seen how stress and trauma transcend social boundaries and affect health. This has influenced her program of science which involves biopsychosocial studies in vulnerable populations.
She has had a track record research on animal models for neuropsychiatric disorders, investigating their neurobiological, behavioral, and neurocognitive components in relation to stress. At the School of Nursing, she has been engaged in translational clinical research on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as well as education-based and community service-based diversity research. She is very involved in community projects to improve health among minority populations, especially Asian Americans. Her main goal is to inform the development of interventions to treat, or even prevent, the negative consequences of trauma exposure among vulnerable individuals.
Dr. Emily Wang, MD
Dr. Wang is an Associate Professor/Clinical at the University of Texas Health at San Antonio (UTHSA) in the Division of General and Hospital Medicine. She received a B.A. degree in molecular cell biology at University of California at Berkeley and returned to Texas at UTHSA for medical school and Internal Medicine residency from 1996-2003. I practiced as a private practice hospitalist in Austin and returned to UTHSA to pursue a career in academic medicine. Her interest is in teamwork and collegiality across specialties: with a focus on medicine consultation/co-management, perioperative medicine, internist in the transitions of care, particularly in the emergency room as the admitting physician or triagist and have published in these areas. She is also actively involved in undergraduate and graduate medical education with classroom and clinical-based teaching of medical students and residents.
Dr. Kanapa Kornsawad, MD
Kanapa Kornsawad, M.D., Assistant Professor/Clinical at UT Health San Antonio, is a board-certified internal medicine physician. Dr. Kornsawad graduated from Chulalongkorn University medical school in Thailand. She completed her Internal Medicine residency at UTHSA in 2013. Dr. Kornsawad joined hospital medicine division after graduating to pursue her career in academic medicine. She has a strong interests in improving care for patients, interprofessional education, professionalism and humanism in medicine. She is working on the collaborative care project to help improve patient care and enhance interprofessional education. Dr. Kornsawad has received teaching awards from both medical students and residents. In 2017, she was chosen by medical students to be inducted in Gold Humanism Honor Society where she is now serving as a faculty advisor for UTHSA chapter.
Dr. Alice Gong, MD
Dr. Alice Gong is a professor in the Division of Neonatology at UT Health San Antonio where she has been on faculty since 1985. She holds the Rita & William Head Distinguished Professor of Environmental and Developmental Neonatology and is the Medical Director of the PREMIEre (premature infant neurodevelopmental) program. She received her medical degree from University of Mississippi school of medicine and trained in pediatrics at UTMB-Galveston and SUNY Buffalo New York where she also completed her neonatology fellowship.
Dr. Gong has had a distinguished career, receiving numerous awards for advocacy on behalf of newborns, children, and families. Among her many achievements, she helped pass legislation mandating lifesaving newborn screening for critical congenital heart disease in Texas. She co-led with Dr. Charleta Guillory, the Texas Pulse Oximetry Project (TXPOP), providing training and a toolkit of resources used statewide for CCHD screening. For her efforts, she received the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Special Achievement Award in 2014. Other past awards include the 2017 Health Care Hero from San Antonio Business Journal, the 2013 Gold-Level TMA Award for Excellence in Academic Medicine, and the 2012 and 2013 Texas Pediatric Society Executive Board Award.
Dr. Gong has served on the Texas Newborn Screening Advisory Committee, the Texas Collaborative for Healthy Mothers and Babies, TMA Council on Science and Public Health, and as Vice Chair for the March of Dimes’ State Advocacy and Government Affairs. Dr. Gong has also made significant contributions to the understanding of neonatology, newborn screening, and breastfeeding through 70 scholarly publications, hundreds of presentations, and decades spent educating new generations of medical students and pediatricians.
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Dr. Robert Hsu, MD
Dr. Robert Hsu is an Internal Medicine resident at the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Hospital. He received his MD at Tulane University in New Orleans, LA. He served on APAMSA’s National Board for 4 years from 2012-2016 including serving as National Vice President and served as his local chapter president at Tulane; he currently serves an Emeritus Advisor for the National Board. He has significant experience working with immigrant and APIA community through his experiences in residency, medical school, and AmeriCorps (which he did for two years after college) and is focused on bringing awareness to many of the socioeconomic barriers faced in these communities in the context of the physician-patient relationship. Dr. Hsu plans to pursue hematology/oncology fellowship at University of Southern California and enjoys long distance running during his free time.
Dr. Susan Kim, DO
Dr. Susan Kim, D.O. is a board-certified faculty physician in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R), as well as Electrodiagnostic Medicine and Musculoskeletal Ultrasound. She has worked in Quality Improvement and Risk Management at Arbour Hospital in Massachusetts and in Technical Services at Zymed Laboratories in California for several years prior to her career in medicine. Dr. Kim graduated from Touro University College of Osteopathic Medicine in California. She completed her residency in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at UT Health San Antonio (UTHSA), and stayed on as a faculty member. Dr. Kim is a member of AAPM&R (American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation), AANEM (American Association of Neuromuscular and Electrodiagnostic Medicine) and AIUM (American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine). As the Director of Anatomy and Musculoskeletal Lecture Modules, she incorporated ultrasound guided injection workshops into cadaver dissection lab sessions for the PM&R Department. Her current interests include exploring ultrasound guided percutaneous tenotomy as a feasible treatment option for chronic tendinopathy and exploring a protocol for Ultrasound Assisted Intra-thecal Baclofen testing in spastic patients at STVHCS.
