(as prepared)

Welcome

Thank you, General Murray. It is a pleasure to be here with you today to kick off a summit that brings together academic, clinical and military experts focused on research that will continue to save lives and improve the care of those who serve our country.

As you move through today’s sessions, I have no doubt that the great minds who are sharing ideas and research with one another here today will propose meaningful next steps and new ideas for us to explore together.

This forum is another example of the important partnership between the UT System and the Army Futures Command. When the Army selected Austin—and specifically, the UT System Building—for its AFC headquarters, it cited the desire for proximity to innovative academic and research partners.

Introduction

Thank you Robert, for that introduction, for your leadership of TxEDC, and for being such a great partner to the University of Texas System.  Thanks to Chairman Daniel and everyone at the Texas Workforce Commission as well.

Texas’s greatest strength is its people, and we all want to make the most of that strength by making sure Texas workers – and by extension, Texas enterprises and organizations of all kinds – can compete, win, and prosper.

(as prepared)

Thank you, Montez, for the introduction and for inviting me to participate today.  It’s a pleasure to virtually be with you all.

President Jackson and I connected when he reached out through Linkedin, and I look forward to seeing all of you in person when that’s a thing again.  I wanted to provide a little background today on the UT System and how I think about and approach my job as Chancellor.

I’ve been in higher education for more than thirty years.  I’m not sure I remember why I got into it – I started my career on Wall Street – but I can tell you why I stayed.

INTRODUCTION

Thank you, Chairman Eltife. And thank you, Madame Chairman and members of the Senate Finance Committee. I am JB Milliken and it is my honor to join you on behalf of The University  of Texas System.

The people of the state of Texas, through their elected leaders, have made significant investments in public higher education, which has been key to our state’s success. Last session, your support of funding formulas, along with enrollment growth, was critical. Your creation of new mission specific formulas that recognize the success of our health-related institutions was another important move. And your strategic investment in the Child Mental Health Consortium has been a game changer.