Eric S.

About Eric S.

A compassionate and collaborative leader in the academic healthcare sector, Eric has spent most of his career serving in various leadership roles in the Texas Medical Center – the largest medical center in the world. With his graduate training in cardiovascular physiology, very early in his career (after caring for his first heart transplant patient), Eric began exploring theories of ethics in the healthcare domain and shifted the focus of his career toward public health, disease prevention, health policy, and law and medicine. After serving as manager for community health programs at the North Dakota State Department of Health, Eric was recruited to Baylor College of Medicine where he served as Executive Director for the international organization DOC (Doctors Ought to Care) which focused on pioneering strategies to unite medical students, residents, physicians and other health professionals in tackling the tobacco pandemic and other major public health challenges through multidisciplinary approaches in the clinic, classroom, and community. These strategies are outlined in a chapter by Blum and Solberg in the Fundamentals of Clinical Practice: A Textbook on the Patient, Doctor, and Society, 2nd edition (Mengel, Holleman and Fields, Eds, 2002).For more than 3 decades, Eric’s research investigated and uncovered controversial alliances that the world’s largest cigarette manufacturers developed with leading health and medical organizations, pharmaceutical companies, and hospitals and healthcare systems – relationships that were used by cigarette companies to perpetuate the tobacco pandemic over several decades, including some relationships that still exist today. This pioneering work revealed the tobacco industry’s marketing strategies in concert with healthcare organizations throughout the world, including details of the American Medical Association’s (AMA) 14-year research collaboration with six leading cigarette manufacturers. Eric’s work has been recognized by several honors and awards, and he continues to publish and lecture worldwide on topics related to tobacco control, public & population health, health policy and healthcare ethics.Eric always acknowledges and credits much of his success to those who have mentored him throughout his career – Alan Blum, M.D; John Mendelsohn, M.D; Charles (Mickey) LeMaistre, M.D; George Stancel, Ph.D; and Thomas Cole, Ph.D.See recent paper - Blum, A. and Solberg, E. Seeing COVID-19 through a cloud of cigarette smoke. The Cancer Letter, Vol. 46, No. 35; September 18, 2020.

Experience

1. Associate Vice Chancellor, Health Affairs

   The University of Texas System

   Jan 2023 — Present

   Eric serves as the Associate Vice Chancellor for the University of Texas System Office of Health Affairs and supports UT System’s health-related institutions in the areas of academic affairs and academic program development; faculty affairs, tenure, and endowed faculty appointments; research enhancing support and collaboration across institutions; and ongoing assessment and evaluation processes. He also serves as the primary liaison to the UT System Faculty Advisory Committee (and the Faculty Burnout Working Group), Student Advisory Committee, Advisory Committee on Library Affairs, the Office of Institutional Research and Accountability, the deans of medicine and nursing across UT System, and the Texas Medical Association’s Council on Medical Education.Prior to his service to UT System’s Office of Health Affairs, Eric served three major institutions within the Texas Medical Center over 30 years, including leadership roles at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and most recently serving as Senior Vice President for Academic & Research Affairs at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, where he also served as Associate Dean for their Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. He maintains an adjunct appointment of Associate Professor at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, McGovern Medical School.

Education

• Augsburg University

  Health & Wellness

• UTHealth Houston School of Public Health

  Health Policy

• University of Minnesota

  Cardiovascular Physiology