Investiture Tim Mercer, M.D., MPH of JP’s Peace, Love & Happiness Family Foundation Endowed Chair in Population Health Tuesday, September 13, 2022 | 4 Ceremonyp.m.
Assistant Professor, Department of Population Health, Dell Medical School
Welcome and Opening Remarks
Associate Vice President of the Health Enterprise and Chief Business Officer, Dell Medical School
Interim Vice President for Medical Affairs, UT Austin Keynote
Chief, Division of Global Health, Dell Medical School
C. Martin Harris, M.D., MBA
Presentation of Medallion and Closing Remarks
C. Martin Harris, M.D., MBA
Program
Assistant Professor, Department of Internal Medicine, Dell Medical School
Tim Mercer, M.D., MPH
Locally, he leads a variety of efforts to enhance access to care and improve health outcomes among people experiencing homelessness and other vulnerable populations.
– Tim Mercer, M.D., MPH
Tim Mercer, M.D., MPH, is the chief of the Division of Global Health at Dell Medical School, an assistant professor in the departments of Population Health and Internal Medicine, and the inaugural holder of the JP’s Peace, Love & Happiness Family Foundation Endowed Chair in the Department of Population Health. He is a primary care physician for the Health Care for the Homeless program with CommUnityCare, Austin’s largest federally qualified health center. His interests include solving health system challenges to improve access, quality and equity in health for vulnerable populations globally and locally. He leads a program that brings Dell Medical School faculty, residents and students to Kenya to care for vulnerable people and learn life-changing lessons about health equity. He is building a similar program in Mexico to strengthen primary health care and address chronic diseases in low-income, rural communities in the state of Puebla and generate shared lessons for improving the health of populations on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border.
He is the director of the Mobile Medical and Mental Health Care Team, or M3 Team, which is an innovative, mobile, integrated care team that focuses on people with chronic homelessness and serious mental illnesses, substance use disorders and chronic medical conditions.
He has been integral to Dell Med’s COVID-19 response, leading the school’s campaign to test, treat and vaccinate Central Texans experiencing homelessness, as well as developing an elective to teach Dell Med students how to care for vulnerable populations during a pandemic.
Tim Mercer, M.D., MPH
“People experiencing homelessness and other vulnerable populations require innovative care models to address their health and social needs. This endowment will allow Dell Med to make a permanent commitment to taking responsibility for the health and well-being of this population in our community.”
In March 2021, the DeJorias and their family foundation gave $2 million to create an endowment that provides ongoing support for Dell Med’s faculty leader and programs improving health for people experiencing homelessness or housing insecurity, as well as other vulnerable populations. This generous endowment is not the first time Dell Med benefited from the DeJorias’ generosity. Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, the foundation gave to Dell Med to support health care for people experiencing homelessness, including COVID-19 treatment, testing and contact tracing. And it donated 20,000 surgical masks and 1,000 rapid COVID-19 tests to aid mobile testing teams caring for people without homes, as well as meals for vaccination staff at UT Health Austin, our clinical practice.
In 2011, John Paul signed the Giving Pledge as a public commitment to donate the majority of his wealth to charitable causes. That same year, he founded JP’s Peace, Love & Happiness Foundation with his family to invest in charities that share the core values of his companies — social responsibility and sustainability. Together, the DeJorias are contributing to a sustainable planet by investing in people, protecting animals, and conserving the environment.
John Paul DeJoria co-founded John Paul Mitchell Systems in 1980 and helped turn it into the world’s largest privately owned salon hair care company. He then went on to co-found Patrón Spirits Company.
About JP’s Peace, Love & Happiness Family Foundation
The foundation is based in Austin and has global reach through partners located around the world. The investments of the foundation are driven by the unique interests and personal relationships of the DeJoria family. John Paul supports veterans’ causes, protects waterways and animals, and helped launch the organization Mobile Loaves & Fishes for people experiencing homelessness, as he once did.
Eloise DeJoria uses her time and talents to help people lead healthy, fulfilled lives. She focuses her philanthropic efforts on recovery programs, the arts and promoting the well-being of women and girls.
The JP’s Peace, Love & Happiness Family Foundation Endowed Chair supports the continuation and expansion of Dell Med’s street medicine programs, research and training the next generation of doctors skilled at caring for vulnerable populations.
History of the Endowed Chair
Today, holding an endowed chair remains one of the highest honors in academia — and recognizes excellence in research, education and care. These prestigious positions are made possible by generous donors who have invested in ensuring visionary health transformation and leadership at Dell Medical School.
Endowed chairs are a powerful tradition with a lasting legacy. Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of King Henry VII, established the first named chair in England in 1502 at Cambridge and Oxford universities. Five centuries later, her endowed gift continues to support distinguished faculty members.
Medallions are presented to endowed chairholders during a formal investiture ceremony. The medallion serves as a tribute to the generosity of the donors and to the outstanding accomplishments of the chairholder.
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Our Mission Revolutionize how people get and stay healthy by: Improving health in our community as a model for the nation; Evolving new models of personcentered, multidisciplinary care that reward value; Accelerating innovation and research to improve health; Educating leaders who transform health care; and Redesigning the academic health environment to better serve society
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Our Vision A vital, inclusive health ecosystem: • Vital: Vigorous, animated, full of life and energy, dynamic • Inclusive: Open to everyone • Ecosystem: The complex of a community and its environment functioning as a system
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