Professor
UT Southwestern Medical Center
Catherine Y. Spong, M.D., is Professor and Chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at UT Southwestern Medical Center.
She previously served as Vice Chair for the Department and Chief of the Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine. Dr. Spong specializes in prematurity, fetal complications, and improving outcomes in children. Her clinical responsibilities are in the Parkland Health and Hospital System.
Dr. Spong received her medical degree from the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) in 1991. After serving as Chief Resident in Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, she began her career at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) as a Maternal-Fetal Medicine Fellow, which also included clinical work at Georgetown University. Then, she became a Clinical Associate and Senior Staff Fellow at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the NICHD's intramural research program. There, she directed a lab, the Unit on Perinatal and Developmental Neurobiology, that focused on neuroprotective peptides and fetal development utilizing models of fetal alcohol syndrome and Down syndrome. In 2000, she joined NICHD's extramural program.
Over a career that spanned 23 years, Dr. Spong served in many capacities at NIH, including as NICHD's Deputy Director, Acting Director, Associate Director for Extramural Research and Director of the Division of Extramural Research, and Chief of the Pregnancy and Perinatology Branch. She was the Chair of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Federal Task Force on Research Specific to Pregnant Women and Lactating Women. In 2018, she joined the faculty at UT Southwestern as Chief of the Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine.
Among Dr. Spong's areas of expertise are maternal and child health, emphasizing prematurity, fetal complications, and improving child outcomes. One of her major research interests has been the developing fetus. She holds several patents for neuroprotective agents that help prevent fetal injury. Other research interests include improving the understanding of stillbirth, fetal surgery for myelomeningocele, zika in pregnancy, and the human placenta. During her tenure at NICHD, she launched the Human Placenta Project. She is a passionate advocate for inclusion in research for under represented groups.
Dr. Spong is board-certified in maternal-fetal medicine and obstetrics and gynecology. She is an Editor of William's Obstetrics, Management of High Risk Pregnancy, Protocols for High-Risk Pregnancies, and Stillbirth: Prediction, Prevention and Management. She has received numerous research awards, including the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine Achievement Award, the UMKC Alumnus of the Year Award, several NIH director's Awards, and a Surgeon General's Certificate of Appreciation for work on prematurity. She has published more than 270 peer-reviewed papers and been featured on national television and radio, including The CBS Early Show, the Diane Rehm Show, NPR's All Things Considered, CNN, and Voice of America, where she discussed women's health and pregnancy topics.
Professor, Division Chief
UT Southwestern Medical Center
Lance Terada, M.D., is a Professor of Internal Medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center, Chief of its Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, and holder of the Dr. Carey G. King, Jr. and Dr. Henry M. Winans, Sr. Chair in Internal Medicine. His clinical interests include general pulmonology and pulmonary disorders.
Originally from Honolulu, Dr. Terada received his bachelor’s degree in biophysics from Amherst College in Massachusetts, and his medical degree from the University of Hawaii. His clinical training in internal medicine was at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, followed by both clinical and research fellowships in pulmonary sciences at the University of Colorado in Denver, where he also served as a faculty member.
He is certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine in internal medicine (1986), pulmonary medicine (1988), and critical care medicine (2010). He joined UT Southwestern in 1999.Dr. Terada’s research focuses on several areas of cellular signaling which control basic mechanical and cell fate decision programs.
He is a member of several professional organizations, including the American Federation for Medical Research, American Psychological Society, American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and the American Thoracic Society.
Dr. Terada’s awards and honors include an Established Investigator Award from the American Heart Association, an Individual Investigator Award from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, membership in the Sigma Xi Scientific Research Honor Society, and the Faculty Teaching Excellence Award from UTSW’s Pulmonary and Critical Care Fellowship. He has been named a Texas Super Doctor by Texas Monthly every year since 2012.
Dean, EVP Academic Affairs
UT Southwestern Medical Center
W. P. Andrew Lee, M.D., an international leader in hand transplantation, joined UT Southwestern as Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs, Provost, and Dean, UT Southwestern Medical School in February 2019. Dr. Lee is responsible for advancing the academic mission of UT Southwestern’s four degree-granting schools, while leading a faculty of approximately 3,400. He also oversees the more than $640 million in annual biomedical research funding awarded to faculty.
Prior to joining UTSW, Dr. Lee served as Director (Chair) of the Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. His research has focused on tolerance strategy for vascularized composite allo-transplantation (VCA) to ameliorate the need for long-term systemic immunosuppression. Dr. Lee established multidisciplinary programs for hand transplantation at Johns Hopkins and University of Pittsburgh using an immunomodulatory protocol based upon his laboratory investigation, and led surgical teams that performed the first double hand transplant (2009) and first above-elbow arm transplant (2010) in the United States, as well as the world’s first total penis and scrotum transplant (2018).
He received his undergraduate degree from Harvard College and completed medical school and a general surgery residency at Johns Hopkins, followed by plastic surgery training at Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Lee was on the faculty at Harvard Medical School, the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He has served as the President of the American Society for Surgery of the Hand, Chair of the American Board of Plastic Surgery, President of the American Society for Reconstructive Transplantation, President of the American Association for Hand Surgery, and President of the American Association of Plastic Surgeons.