speaker biographies
November 16-17, 2005

Ron Anderson, M.D., is President and Chief Executive Officer of the Dallas County Hospital District, also known as the Parkland Health & Hospital System. He took this position in 1982, previously serving as Parkland 's Medical Director for Ambulatory Care and Emergency Services. Dr. Anderson remains on the faculty at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center as professor of Internal Medicine, and also continues to see patients.

In 1985, Dr. Anderson served on the executive committee of the State Task Force on Indigent Health Care and was appointed Co-Chair of the Attorney General's Task Force to study non-for-profit hospitals and unsponsored charity care. He also served as a member of Governor Richard's Health Policy Task Force. Dr. Anderson is former a chairman of: the Dallas-Fort Worth Hospital Council, the Texas Association of Public and Non-Profit Hospitals, the Texas Board of Health, the National Association of Public Hospitals, and the National Public health and Hospital Institute.

Dr. Anderson received his B.S. from Southwest State University and his M.D. from the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center.

 

Margaret Keliher, J.D., was the first female to be elected to a four-year term as County Judge for Dallas County . Just prior to this election in 2002, she was appointed to an unexpired term as Dallas County Judge by the Dallas County Commissioners Court . Previously, she served as Judge of the 44 th District Court of Dallas County , where the 2001 Dallas Bar Association Judicial Evaluation ranked her as one of the hardest-working Civil District Court Judges. Initially, Judge Keliher worked as a Certified Public Accountant, and later served as a member of the Dallas County District Attorney's office as a felony prosecutor, followed by work at a local law firm handling commercial and business litigation.

Judge Keliher has served on the Dallas County Mental Health Mental Retardation Board, the Dallas Children's Theater Guild, the Volunteer Center of Dallas, and Attorneys Serving the Community. She has also served as a member of the Committee for a Qualified Judiciary, chaired the Visiting Judges sub-committee of the Dallas Bar Association, and serves on the Executive Board for SMU's Dedman School of Law.

Judge Keliher received her B.S. in Accounting from the University of Virginia and her J.D. from Southern Methodist University School of Law.

 

Kern Wildenthal, M.D., Ph.D., has been President of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas since 1986. Previous to this position, he was the dean of the Medical School at Southwestern. He is the Philip O'Bryan Montgomery, Jr., M.D. Distinguished Presidential Chair in Academic Administration and the Carolyn P. and Frank M. Ryburn, Jr. Distinguished Chair in Basic Research in Heart Disease. Following residencies in internal medicine, Dr. Wildenthal held fellowships in cardiology at UT Southwestern and at the National Heart Institute for the National Institutes of Health, and also in cell physiology at Strangeways Research Laboratory in Cambridge . At UT Southwestern, he has combined careers in clinical medicine, education, basic research, and institutional administration.

Dr. Wildenthal has been awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship, and has served as Chairman for the International Society for Heart Research, American Section; the American heart Association, Basic Science council; and the Association of Academic Health Center, Council on Science Policy. Dr. Wildenthal received his M.D. from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas and his Ph. D. from the University of Cambridge in England .