AUSTIN, Texas – The Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academy of Sciences has appointed Dr. Octavio N. Martinez, Jr., executive director of the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health, to its Roundtable on the Promotion of Health Equity and the Elimination of Health Disparities.
This roundtable was created to encourage and promote dialogue on racial and ethnic disparities in health and health care in the U.S. The group will also discuss the development of programs and strategies to reduce such disparities and identify emerging leadership in this field.
Martinez is well-versed on this topic and in 2012 co-authored “Enhancing the Delivery of Health Care: Eliminating Health Disparities through a Culturally & Linguistically Centered Integrated Health Care Approach.” The report is based on research conducted by the Hogg Foundation and proceedings from the 2011 national consensus meeting titled, “Eliminating Behavioral Health Disparities through the Integration of Behavioral Health and Primary Care Services for Racial and Ethnic Minority Populations and Those with Limited English Proficiency.” The research was partly funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Minority Health, of which Martinez was the principal investigator.
Martinez previously served on the IOM’s consensus committee on the mental health workforce for geriatric populations and is currently serving on the IOM’s national consensus committee on the governance and financing of graduate medical education.
Along with his position at the Hogg Foundation, Martinez serves as an associate vice president for the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement at The University of Texas at Austin, a clinical professor in the School of Social Work at The University of Texas at Austin and as an adjunct professor of psychiatry at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.
Before leading the Hogg Foundation, Martinez was a clinical psychiatrist at the Albemarle Mental Health Center and an associate professor at the Brody School of Medicine in North Carolina. Prior to that, he was an assistant professor and psychiatrist at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.
Martinez is a diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology and has a master’s degree in public health from Harvard University’s School of Public Health, a doctor’s degree in medicine from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, and master’s and bachelor’s degrees in business administration with a concentration in finance from The University of Texas at Austin.
The Hogg Foundation advances recovery and wellness in Texas by funding mental health services, policy analysis, research and public education. The foundation was created in 1940 by the children of former Texas Gov. James S. Hogg and is part of the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement at The University of Texas at Austin.
