March 20, 2024

When did you join UTHealth Houston? What brought you here?
I joined UTHealth in March 1993. I was contacted by a former coworker about a project management opportunity.

Tell us about your work history here.
Over the years, my office has been in six different buildings. As a project manager, some of the more notable projects included leading the redesign of the first floor and basement of McGovern Medical School after Tropical Storm Allison. Later, there were the new facilities, where I led the programming (which is the definition phase of what spaces will be in the building). Those facilities were the Medical School Expansion, School of Dentistry, Behavioral and Biomedical Science Building, and the Dunn Behavioral Sciences Center. When I became manager of Facilities Planning, I added responsibilities such as Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board project approvals and assisting with description of projects for legislative approval and external space leases.

As director of Facilities Planning, I became the facilities leader for the Harris County Psychiatric Center (HCPC). My newest position is director of Facilities and Support Services, which entails providing facilities support for HCPC and the Dunn Behavioral Sciences Building. In addition to facilities services, it includes dietary, housekeeping, laundry and linen, contract services, and our in-house Stores department.

What are you most proud of accomplishing?
In 2002, I wrote an email to the facilities staff and other friends throughout the university. The email shared my reflections on my personal journey in coming to realize the significance of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. It was well received in my immediate circle and was then published in a newsletter. It generated a number of enlightening conversations and emails.

My most proud accomplishment while a project manager was the construction of the temporary gross anatomy lab at the Operations Center Building after Tropical Storm Allison. Once the decision was made to move forward with the temporary location, we had four months to construct the facility. This required working 24-hour shifts during certain periods of time and 16-hour shifts most other days. We finished the $4,000,000 project in time for the spring semester as requested.

What do you enjoy most about your work?
As director of Facilities and Support Services for the Dunn Behavioral Sciences Campus, I enjoy working with the different staff to provide the patient care environment they need to provide excellent patient care.

Why have you stayed?
I’ve stayed at UT because of the people and the university’s mission. I’ve stayed because I’ve had great bosses, or at a minimum, good bosses. I’ve been very lucky to be a part of great teams. And I can’t stress enough how much I’ve enjoyed the customers that I’ve worked with over the years while doing projects.

When you are not at work, how do you spend your time?
I like spending my leisure time outdoors, especially if I’m fishing. One of my other pastimes is tinkering with several inventions. I go to bed with visions of appearing on “Shark Tank” dancing through my head. My wife and I are celebrating our 40^th wedding anniversary this year. So, we fashion ourselves as marriage counselors and like to watch “Married at First Sight” and tell the couples on the TV everything they are doing mostly wrong in their marriage.