About Us - Center for Rural Health in South Texas

Vision

We envision thriving, vibrant, resilient, and healthy rural communities in South Texas with authentic community-owned research, binational partnerships, and transformative, culturally rooted, whole-person, healthcare models that address the unique intersection of chronic disease, emerging infections, and sociocultural environments — the region will serve as a national model for addressing complex rural health challenges in under-resourced populations.

Mission

To advance rural health in South Texas through community-driven innovation, integrative healthcare, and cross-border collaborations; to strengthen social systems and health-promoting environments, and leverage cultural drivers to develop regional capacity and workforce required for unique community needs; to translate evidence into practice and policy through sustained academic-community partnerships.

Values

Our core values include the following:

Community: Community partnership, cultural humility, and co-leadership, as well as co-governance (center decisions and priorities are made with rural communities).
Whole Health: Whole-person, family-centered, whole-community, whole-system, place-based health
Health Opportunity: Commitment to research and interventions that address the root causes of health disparities rather than symptoms
Rooted Innovation: Science in service of action, with learning health ecosystems that prioritize evidence-driven practice, effective implementation, real-world impact, and policy change rather than publications alone
Cross-border Research: Binational stewardship with sustainability of rural resources
Preparedness and Resilience: Capacity first: Investing early and heavily in local workforce, leadership, and data capacity in rural communities (not just at the university) to address emerging health threats, from novel infectious diseases to climate change impact, through surveillance, education, and adaptable healthcare infrastructure

Contact Us

publichealth@uthscsa.edu

Leadership

Vasan Ramachandran, MD, is the founding dean of the Kate Marmion School of Public Health and a professor of medicine, population health, and public health at the University of Texas at San Antonio. A cardiologist and epidemiologist, he previously led the Framingham Heart Study and now directs the Risk Underlying Rural Areas Longitudinal (RURAL) Study, a landmark NIH-funded project investigating cardiovascular and health disparities in underserved rural regions like the Mississippi Delta and Appalachia.

His expertise on rural health inequities and non-medical drivers of health directly informs CRHeST’s mission. With deep experience in community-engaged research, biomarker discovery, and health system transformation, Ramachandran brings a commitment to place-based solutions and bridging gaps in care to South Texas’s unique border and rural challenges.