McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics celebrated the Class of 2026 graduates during our annual Commencement Ceremony on May 12. The school honored 70 graduates from summer 2025, fall 2025, and spring 2026 as they walked the stage. Here is a list of the graduates that participated in the ceremony.

Professor Robert Murphy, MD was named the 2025-2026 John P. McGovern Teaching Award winner. He was selected by the students for his excellence in education and this is his second time earning the award.

Our 2026 Distinguished Alumni Award recipient attended the ceremony as he was also hooded for earning his Doctorate in Health Informatics (DHI) degree. Aiman Alrawabdeh, DHI ’25 earned the award after he played a pivotal role in the historic release of the first-ever Arabic variant of Logical Observation Identifiers Names and Codes (LOINC), a global standard for identifying medical laboratory observations.

Please help us congratulate our awardees and the new group of McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics alumni. Our school is very proud of their achievements, and it was an honor to recognize each graduate. Please visit the McWilliams Graduation website to find photos and the recording of the 2026 ceremony.

Members of the McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics Community have recently achieved noteworthy accomplishments. We want to recognize and applaud these individuals.

Digital Accessibility

Recent federal updates have extended the digital accessibility compliance deadline to April 26, 2027, allowing UTHealth Houston additional time to advance digital accessibility initiatives across the university.

UTHealth Houston launched the Digital Accessibility Hub to ensure university digital content, including digital documents, emails, online course materials, websites and more, meets accessibility standards and can be fully accessed and used by all audiences.

At McWilliams, the Educational Technology team is working with course instructors to review and improve Canvas content accessibility. More accessibility educational materials and training opportunities will be shared with faculty and staff through various venues including the MSBMI website, Canvas courses, and the monthly newsletter.

Click here to access the Canvas Course Accessibility Checklist.

For individual assistance with accessibility, faculty and staff can contact [email protected] (please make sure to copy the MBSMI Educational Technology Team at [email protected]).

Brandon Kennedy (https://libcal.library.tmc.edu/appointments/brandon_kennedy) and Sonya Fogg (https://libcal.library.tmc.edu/appointments/SonyaFogg) are the Liaison librarians for MSBMI. Students and faculty can use the appointment links above to schedule consultations with a librarian.

The following TMC Library resources are available to MSBMI students and faculty:

• Updated library orientation videos: YouTube Playlist
• Libguides customized for MSBMI students and faculty:
  https://libguides.library.tmc.edu/McWilliamsBMI
• Citation Management Software Guide:
  https://libguides.library.tmc.edu/CitationManagement
• A library guide on Artificial Intelligence that points to organizations that have guides and advice for ethical use of AI, and also a list of publisher policies.

May is national Mental Health Awareness Month. As such, UTHealth Houston wants to remind our community of the importance of support. Please remember that there are robust, safe, and confidential mental wellness services available to our students, trainees, faculty, and staff.

For more information, read this UTHealth Houston article.

The Laredo Area Community Foundation manages multiple funds and scholarships for students living in that region of Texas. We encourage all eligible, working students in Laredo and Webb County to apply by the June 15^th deadline.

For more information or to submit an application, visit this website:
https://www.laredofoundation.org/scholarship-working-students.html.

Save the date for the annual University of Texas System Real Health AI Symposium. This year’s event will take place on October 7 and 8 in Austin. Stay tuned for registration information and visit the symposium website to learn more: https://www.utsystem.edu/ai-symposium.

UTHealth Houston’s Community Action Poverty Simulator (CAPS) is a live action experience that aims to provide students with a better understanding of the pragmatic realities of poverty that their patients, clients, and colleagues may face. The list of this live simulation dates for fall 2026 are provided below.

For more information or to confirm your desire to participate, please email Jamie Alford ([email protected]) from the UTHealth Houston School of Public Health.

• Several McWilliams faculty members & researchers contributed to a new study that indicates the risk of Alzheimer’s disease significantly decreases in older adults who receive a higher dose of the influenza vaccine compared to the standard dose. Click here to read the story and learn more.

Visit our website for a full list of research seminar dates and access to recordings for past seminars.