TCOM professor appointed to state council overseeing opioid settlement funds

Dr. John Mills, Associate Professor at the Texas College of Osteopathic MedicineJohn Mills, DO, a long-time HSC faculty member, has been appointed to serve on the Texas Opioid Abatement Fund Council by Governor Greg Abbott.

Drug overdose deaths increased 34 percent in Texas from 2019 to 2020. The Council’s duties include developing the approved Texas list of abatement strategies based on the existing national list of opioid abatement strategies and approving expenditures and the release of funds acquired through legal settlements with the manufactures of opioids. The terms expire at the pleasure of the Governor.

“It is vitally important that we ensure this money is spent on strategies that actually improve lives and reduce the number of deaths caused by addiction,” Dr. Mills said. “Overdose death is an enormous problem that had not gone away.”

Dr. Mills, an Associate Professor at the Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine, founded the university’s correctional medicine program that provides much-needed medical care for the Federal Bureau of Prisons. An ardent supporter of HSC, Dr. Mills has created five endowed scholarships to support the education of the university’s students.

Also appointed to the Council were Ron Enriquezan Austin Police Department detective, and Katherine Yoder, Vice President of Government Relations with Parkland Health and Hospital System.

Recent News

Processed With Lensa With Pt12 Filter
  • Research
|Mar 28, 2024

Dr. Steven Romero receives American Physiological Society award for excellence in research

Dr. Steven Romero, associate professor of Physiology and Anatomy at the School of Biomedical Sciences at The University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth, was named the 2024 Henry Pickering Bowditch Award Lecturer by the American Physiological Society. The lectureship is awarded to ...
Screenshot 2024 03 28 At 8.50.12 am
  • Our People
|Mar 28, 2024

Physical therapy student lands prestigious role in national organization

When Jonathan Hansen was an undergraduate intern at Texas Health Arlington Memorial Hospital, he encountered a man who had just suffered a stroke. The patient’s right side was completely paralyzed. Hansen, now a first-year student in The University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Wort...
Jackie In Dc
  • Our People
|Mar 27, 2024

Personalized Health and Well-Being student repays generosity through advocacy

In 2019, The University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth student Jacqueline Green said she felt hopeless. She became pregnant while experiencing hard financial times, and she didn’t have insurance. Compounding her stress was terrible grief. Her mother-in-law suddenly passed away,...
Image1 3
  • Our People
|Mar 26, 2024

The first licensed DO in Chile is a TCOM graduate and an unlikely osteopathic physician

If you’re looking for the unlikeliest of people to practice osteopathic medicine, osteopathy, or osteopathic manipulative treatment then look no further than Patrick Wedlake, DO. So, how did a self-described “hippie from California,” end up becoming the first licensed osteopathic physician in ...