Board President
Betty J. Edwards, MD

Dr. Betty Edwards is a practicing obstetrician and gynecologist and serves as a clinical professor at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. With multiple degrees from UT Austin and UT Galveston, Dr. Edwards has taught OB/GYN students since 1980 and previously served as director of the Family Birthing Center in Houston.

Dr. Edwards’ prior department roles have included executive leadership of the OB/GYN department at Houston Northwest Medical Center. She further helped direct the OB/GYN clinics, emergency room, and labor and delivery departments at UT Medical Branch.

In addition to her teaching and practice roles, Dr. Edwards has facilitated a number of health-related organizations as board member or advocate, including the Texas Medical Association, Harris County Medical Society, the Museum of Medical and Health Sciences, the Houston Academy of Medicine, and the Texas Association of Obstetrics and Gynecology. She is also a member of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the Royal Society of Medicine, and the American Medical Association.


Board Secretary
Janet Realini, MD, MPH

Dr. Realini received her medical degree at the University of California San Francisco and completed her Family Medicine residency at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. She completed her Masters in Public Health at the University of Texas School of Public Health, and she is board certified in Family Medicine.

At the San Antonio Metropolitan Health District, Dr. Realini serves as Medical Director of Family Planning, and Medical Director of Project WORTH, the City of San Antonio’s innovative teen pregnancy prevention program. She is also the author of the sexuality education curriculum entitled BIG DECISIONS.

Dr. Realini is Clinical Professor of Family and Community Medicine at the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, and Adjunct Professor of Public Health at the UT Houston School of Public Health. She has been Chair of the Residency Review Committee (RRC) and a director of the American Board of Family Practice. She served as past Program Director of the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio Family Practice Residency Program. Her professional interests are in the areas of family planning and teen pregnancy prevention.


Board Treasurer
Jacqueline Crespo Perry, BSN, RN

Jacqueline Crespo Perry is president of the Houston chapter of the National Association of Hispanic Nurses and serves as a resident nurse at Houston’s LBJ Hospital. A graduate of the University of Texas at Houston’s Health Science Center School of Nursing, Ms. Perry has been an instrumental contributor to the Houston and Texas nursing communities.

Ms. Perry’s contributions include creation of the Nurses Helping Nurses program, which assists Hispanic and foreign-educated nurses receive their registered nurse licenses in Texas. She also mentors Hispanic students interested in nursing careers and consults with health-care organizations about developing nurse recruitment programs for minorities.

In recent years, Ms. Perry has been recognized for her contributions to the local health community. In 2005 she received the Henrietta Villaescusa Community Service Award for minority health advocacy, and in 2003 she was honored in the Houston Chronicle’s Salute to Nurses. She serves on a variety of nursing-related boards and committees, including the Consortium to Advance Nursing Diversity and Opportunity, the East Side Mobile Resources Collaborative’s free clinic board at Galena Park, and the CNA program at Houston Community College-Southeast.

Ms. Perry has been a contributing writer for publications including NurseWeek, Advance for Nurses, and Minority Nurse. She frequently serves as a public speaker, having addressed the UT Houston Health Science Center School of Nursing, the University of Texas at Austin, the National Association of Hispanic Nurses, and local high schools as part of her nursing advocacy.


Member
Dianna Burns-Banks, MD

Member
The Hon. Jessica Farrar

Jessica Farrar is currently in her 13th year as State Representative for District 148. She was first elected to the Texas House of Representatives in 1994 at the age of 27, and she is the longest serving Hispanic female from Houston in the lower chamber of the Texas Legislature.

Rep. Farrar grew up in Houston and received a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Houston in 1995. She is a partner at Farrar Architects, a firm she shares with her father. She is married to Major Marco Sanchez, and the two live in Lindale with their dog Vecina.

She currently serves on the powerful House Committee on State Affairs and the House Committee on Juvenile Justice and Family Issues. Past assignments have included the House Committees on Corrections, County Affairs, Agriculture and Livestock, and Appropriations, of which she was a member from 1995-2003.

In addition, Rep. Farrar serves as Vice-Chair of the House Democratic Caucus, she is the founder and Vice-Chair of the Women's Health Caucus, and she is also the founder and Secretary of the House Environmental Caucus. She previously served as Secretary of the Mexican American Legislative Caucus (MALC) and Vice-Chair of the Legislative Study Group (LSG).

Rep. Farrar founded a non-profit mentorship and educational program for Latina college students known as Latinas on the Rise in 1998, and she currently serves on the board of the organization. She also co-founded the Texas Women's Health Foundation in 2007, a non-partisan non-profit aimed at de-politicizing women's health issues, and she serves as an ex-officio member of its board.

In addition to her work in women's health, Rep. Farrar works extensively on issues related to children's healthcare, education, the environment, taxes, homeowner rights, homeland and border security, domestic violence, sexual assault, reproductive rights, cantinas, insurance coverage, discrimination, victim's rights, and juvenile justice.


Member
R. Michelle Schmidt, MD, MPH


Member
Hon. Senfronia Thompson

Rep. Thompson's legacy is one built from strong principles of faith, an unwavering defense of freedom, and a staunch belief in fairness. She exemplifies the American ideal that one person can make a difference. Texas native Senfronia Thompson was born in Booth, Texas, and raised in Houston. She represents Northeast Houston and Humble.

Dean of women legislators, Rep. Thompson has served longer in the Legislature than any other woman or African-American in Texas history. A Houston attorney, Ms. Thompson is currently serving her 18th term in the Texas House of Representatives.

Rep. Thompson currently chairs the Texas Legislative Black Caucus and co-chairs the Women´s Health Caucus. She is also a member of the Democratic National Committee, a state director of Women in Government, and a member of the Energy Council. She serves on the House Committees on Insurance and Licensing and Administrative Procedures. For 12 years, she chaired one of the Legislature's busiest committees, the House Judicial Affairs Committees. In 1987, she chaired the first standing committee in the Legislature to have a female majority.

Rep. Thompson has authored and passed more than 200 Texas laws, including Texas´ first alimony law, the James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Act, laws prohibiting racial profiling, the state minimum wage, the Durable Power of Attorney Act, the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act, the Sexual Assault Program Fund, the Model School Records Flagging Act, the Uniform Child Custody & Jurisdiction Enforcement Act, contraceptive parity, and scores of other reforms benefiting women, children and the elderly. Rep. Thompson pushed through major reforms in child support enforcement, simplified probate proceedings, and complete overhauls of statutes dealing with statutory county courts and municipal courts. In 2005, she passed legislation requiring free testing for the human papilloma virus (HPV), an early indicator of cervical cancer, for women who have health insurance. During this past legislative session Rep. Thompson joint-authored a major Cancer Research bill and worked hard to combat Human trafficking problems.

Among many other honors, in 2005, Rep. Thompson was presented with the Matt Garcia Award by the Mexican-American Legislative Caucus; PinkDome.com named her one of the Top 2 House members. In 2001, Rep. Thompson was one of Texas Monthly´s "Top 10 Legislators"; AP named her one of 6 lawmakers "Who Rocked the Legislature." In 2003, she was selected one of the Top 5 House members by Gallery Watch; Nation magazine named her one of 8 legislators in the country "who could teach Congressional Democrats." She was selected as an Eleanor Roosevelt Fellow by the Center for Policy Alternatives and in the past has been named one of the Top 3 legislators in family law. She is the only recipient of the Legislative Black Caucus´ Rosa Parks Award.

Rep. Thompson has been in the forefront of every campaign against discrimination for the last four decades. Ms. Thompson has among the highest ranks of any legislator for her voting record on issues of concern to women, minorities, labor, consumers, reform advocates, domestic violence victims, the elderly, teachers and civil libertarians.

A former public school teacher, Ms. Thompson firmly believes in the value of public education; she has a Bachelor of Science degree in biology, a Master's degree in Education, a law degree, and a Masters of Law in international law. For many years, she has served on the advisory board of the United Negro College Fund. Ms. Thompson has two adult children and one grandson.

Member
Edward P. Tyson, MD

For seven years Dr. Tyson was a faculty member at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center and the OU Medical School in the Division of Adolescent Medicine with the Department of Pediatrics. As Director of the Adolescent Clinics at Children’s Hospital of Oklahoma he taught medical students, residents, and others in the health professions about adolescents and other areas of particular interest to him. In addition to adolescent medicine, Dr. Tyson was also considered the expert at the OUHSC in several other areas, including the evaluation and treatment of eating disorders and in a form of child abuse called Munchausen By Proxy.

Dr. Tyson returned in the fall of 2002 to Austin—a town he has always loved—where he had been in practice before going to OU. Dr. Tyson continues his faculty appointments with the Department of Pediatrics at the OSU College of Osteopathic Medicine in Tulsa and at UT in Austin. In the Department of Kinesiology and Health Education at the UT, he lectures frequently and co-teaches a course on adolescent risk-taking behavior. Dr. Tyson especially enjoys teaching the community and other professionals about the issues his patients face and does so whenever he gets the chance.

Dr. Tyson describes himself as an advocate for adolescents and has been a member of many different professional and civic organizations that affect the healthcare and status of teens and young adults. It seems he has always had an interest in that age group: before his career in medicine, Dr. Tyson was a swim coach and high school teacher in Houston where he taught biology and physical science for over four years. In Austin, he was physician for the Travis County Juvenile Court Home for six years and served on the Board of Directors of the Travis County Mental Health Association and the Texas Comprehensive School Health Initiative. For the Texas Medical Association, he served as its representative to the Texas Education Agency, a member of its Adolescent Health Task Force, and was a primary author of the TMA’s position papers on Teen Sexuality and Substance Abuse. He was also on the Texas Education Agency’s HIV/AIDS Education Review Panel. As a member of the faculty of the Family Practice Residency Training Program at Brackenridge Hospital he helped train residents in all aspects of Family Practice, but especially in the care of young adults. Dr. Tyson is Board Certified and fellowship-trained in Adolescent Medicine Family Practice and is also Board Certified in Family Practice. He is a Fellow of both the Society for Adolescent Medicine and the American Academy of Family Physicians.

In addition to the all of the above, Dr. Tyson has been interested in the treatment of non-surgical orthopedic and sports-related injuries. He has been on faculty at the OU School of Physical Therapy where he helped teach Spinal Dysfunction. He has been an instructor in a post-graduate program in Orthopedic Physical Therapy with Douglas D. Kelsey, PhD, PT, OCS. Along with Dr. Kelsey he is co-patent holder on the "Newton", a special machine which provides bodyweight support to patients with orthopedic injuries, promoting faster recovery and allowing them to train with activities such as walking, running, and jumping as part of their rehabilitation. Dr. Tyson is a co-investigator in a NIH grant with the University of Texas Medical School at Houston’s Department of Internal Medicine, using the Newton to treat patients with osteoarthritis of the knee.

Over the past 15 years, Dr. Tyson has focused more and more of his efforts on the evaluation and treatment of eating disorders. While at OU he had the only clinic in the area for outpatient medical and psychological treatment of eating disorders. He realized the large and growing need for help with this problem but also the scarcity of resources for help. To rectify this, he is committed to educate the community and other professionals as well as his patients and their families about this problem, eager to speak to whomever will listen. Dr. Tyson believes that people with eating disorders need very thorough medical care and skilled therapy for the emotional issues that are always present. Besides a great deal of medical training in eating disorders, Dr. Tyson has also had over 17 years of training in psychotherapy. While he usually incorporates the skills of other therapists for treatment of his patients, Dr. Tyson is eager and able to address those issues as well with his patients and their families. Because of his interest in and dedication to these patients, Dr. Tyson has focused his private practice primarily on the treatment of eating disorders. Through his efforts he hopes to not only provide highly competent care but also to generate widespread compassion and understanding for those struggling with this difficulty.

Member
E. Linda Villarreal, MD