SRPH dean to receive UTB/TSC honor Friday

Ciro Sumaya, M.D., M.P.H.T.M., founding dean of the Texas A&M Health Science Center School of Rural Public Health, will be honored with the Distinguished Alumnus Award by The University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College on Friday.

Dr. Sumaya and Dr. Ruben Gallegos, executive director of International Educational Services, will be honored with the Distinguished Alumnus Award at 6 p.m. at the Science and Engineering Technology Building Lecture Hall at UTB/TSC. Dr. Sumaya also will speak at the Spring Commencement at 9 a.m. the following day (May 10) on the Student Union Lawn.

Holder of the HSC-SRPH Cox Endowed Chair in Medicine, Dr. Sumaya was born in Brownsville and valedictorian of the Brownsville High School Class of 1959. He attended Texas Southmost College from May 1959 to August 1960.

A 1962 Phi Beta Kappa graduate with high honors from The University of Texas at Austin, Dr. Sumaya earned his M.D. from The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston in 1966. He also has a Master in Public Health and Tropical Medicine from Tulane University School of Medicine and School of Public Health in New Orleans.