Project Team
Team Leaders
Dr. Lichorad has expertise in women’s health services and is board-certified with the American Board of Family Medicine and a member of the American Academy of Family Physicians. Dr. Lichorad is an Assistant Professor of Family and Community Medicine and Faculty Physician, School of Medicine, Texas A&M Health Science Center. She is the Principal Investigator/Program Director for the breast and cervical cancer prevention grant. Dr. Lichorad has primary responsibility for women’s health services at Texas A&M Health Family Care and oversees the development of the simulation training modules for training of the resident physicians and nursing students.
Dr. Vargas is a Clinical Assistant Professor at the Texas A&M School of Nursing. She has been a registered nurse for 38 years and a family nurse practitioner for 10 years. Dr. Vargas serves as Principal Investigator for our CPRIT grant, where she oversees and serves as a preceptor for nursing and nurse practitioner students in direct patient care during grant-supported rural well-woman clinics. Dr. Vargas is also fully bilingual in both English and Spanish.
Dr. Bolin has expertise in chronic disease management research and methods, rural health research and policy, healthcare delivery in special populations and legal and regulatory aspects of healthcare. Dr. Bolin is a Professor in the Health Policy and Management Department, School of Public Health at Texas A&M University System Health Science Center, and the Director of the Southwest Rural Health Research Center. Dr. Bolin is also a cancer survivor. She serves as the Co-Principal Investigator on the Women's Health grant.
Dr. McKnight currently serves as Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Primary Care and Rural Medicine within the Texas A&M University School of Medicine, Director of Residency Recruitment for the Texas A&M Family Medicine Residency program, and Medical Director of the Texas A&M Human Clinical Research Facility . He is a team leader for Texas C-STEP, a cancer prevention, screening, and education collaborative for rural and underserved populations across central and eastern Texas. Jason is board certified in family medicine and has been named a Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians. Prior to medical school at the University of Texas Health Science Center-Houston Medical School (McGovern Medical School), he completed graduate training in nutrition, metabolomics, and amino acid biochemistry from Texas A&M University. Jason’s primary appointment is for clinical and medical education, in which he provides care in both the inpatient and outpatient setting in Bryan-College Station, and trains medical students and resident physicians in undergraduate and graduate medical education. He also has teaching responsibilities at the graduate level, lecturing frequently about the responsible conduct of research and advising on graduate student committees. In 2023, Jason was elected to the Texas A&M University School of Medicine Academy of Distinguished Medical Educators. In addition to his education appointment, he has service obligations to the University including serving as physician member of the Institutional Review Board (IRB). Jason is the current Chair of the Texas Medical Association Committee on Rural Health and consults with the Texas Department of State Health Services as a member of the Cancer Alliance of Texas. Finally, Jason conducts lung, colorectal, and liver cancer prevention services and research in rural and underserved populations through grant support from CPRIT. His projects have aided thousands of rural and underserved patients by giving them access to free cancer screening services such as colonoscopy, fecal immunochemical testing (FIT), low-dose lung CT scans, Hepatitis C screening, and liver imaging/diagnostics. Individuals have also received education on appropriate cancer screening, cancer risk reduction, tobacco cessation counselling, and free nicotine replacement therapy as part of Texas C-STEP’s initiatives. A vast number of communities and medical providers in central and eastern Texas have been provided education services and healthcare system navigation assistance from Texas C-STEP, all thanks to CPRIT’s funding support. Growing up in an economically disadvantaged rural community in deep east Texas, Jason has always been passionate about rural healthcare, improving access to high-quality medical care, and improving rural health outcomes.
Dr. Pope is an Assistant Professor in the School of Medicine, Texas A&M Health Science Center, Family Medicine Residency Program. Dr. Pope is Board Certified in Family Medicine and has been a faculty member of the Department of Family & Community Medicine since 1996. He serves as a contracted provider for Hospice Brazos Valley and is a member of the American Association for Primary Care Endoscopy and the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine. Dr. Pope is involved in community outreach and is the recipient of the Texas A&M Health Science Center President's Award for Excellence in Community Outreach. Dr. Pope is also fluent in Spanish.
Dr. Colwell is a Professor of Health Behavior at the Texas A&M School of Public Health. He has over 30 years of experience researching smoking and vaping among adolescents and young adults as well as tobacco use in sub-Saharan Africa. Among other projects, he serves as an Investigator on the Lung Cancer screening grant from the Cancer Prevention & Research Institute of Texas.
Faculty
Dr. Williamson is a Clinical Associate Professor and Associate Program Director at the Texas A&M Health Family Care Family Medicine Residency Program. He is a full spectrum family physician who performs endoscopy, women’s health services, medication for opioid use disorder, and inpatient care while training the next generation of physicians to do the same for rural America. Dr. Williamson is a Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians and provides clinical services in breast, cervical and colorectal cancer screening and prevention through our Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) grants.
Dr. O’Briant is a doctorally prepared FNP Clinical Assistant Professor at the Texas A&M School of Nursing. She assists in coordinating comprehensive cancer screening at well-woman clinics, where she trains students in direct patient care before, during and after the procedures. Ms. O’Briant has been a registered nurse for 19 years and a family nurse practitioner for 11 years.
Dr. Hare is a doctorally prepared family nurse practitioner and Clinical Assistant Professor at the Texas A&M School of Nursing. As the program coordinator for the MSN-FNP program, her responsibilities include program oversight and course coordination of family nurse practitioner students during their program with an emphasis on primary care and rural healthcare. Dr. Hare has been a registered nurse since 1982 and a family nurse practitioner since 1997.
Dr. Page is an Assistant Professor at the Texas A&M School of Nursing. She has been a registered nurse for 33 years and a Certified Nurse Midwife for 26 years. Dr. Page supervises nursing and nurse practitioner students for training in direct patient care before, during and after well-woman clinic procedures.
Support Team
Natasha (Tasha) Johnson, MBA, is the Financial Coordinator for Texas C-STEP, where she monitors grant expenditures, prepares and analyzes financial data, and assists the SPH evaluation team with achieving goals and objectives. Tasha has more than 15 years of project management and financial experience.
Sandy Huelsebusch, BBA, is the Program Manager for Texas C-STEP where she will be responsible for providing day to day project supervision and management and assistance with communications and reporting. She has over 10 years of experience in project management, previously working with Dr. Joseph Sharkey in community-based participatory research, working with Promotoras and focused on the Lower Rio Grande Valley and assisting the SPH evaluation team with achieving goals and objectives.
Lindsey Prihoda, MHA-PM, MPH, is the Program Manager for the CPRIT and HRSA grants within the Primary Care and Rural Medicine through the School of Medicine. She is passionate about working within cancer research, prevention, and education targeting vulnerable populations within underserved Texas communities. Lindsey is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor of Arts in Biology. She obtained both a Master’s in Public Health and a Master’s in Healthcare Administration with a primary focus in Project Management from West Coast University. She has over 15 years of experience in infectious disease and oncology, focusing on best practices within patient care and delivery.
Scott Horel, MAG, an employee of the Texas A&M School of Public Health, is the Data Manager for Texas C-STEP. He is responsible for data management, queries and retrieval, and generating de-identified data sets to support reporting. Scott has more than 20 years of experience developing, maintaining, and analyzing datasets.
Marivel Sanchez, MPH, is a Program Coordinator for Texas C-STEP and the National Community Health Worker Training Center. Marivel holds an MPH degree in Health Promotion and Community Health Sciences, from Texas A&M School of Public Health. Marivel will assist in coordinating the training and community outreach activities of our C-STEP community health workers.
Carina Aguilar, BS, is a Program Assistant for Texas CSTEP with the Texas A&M School of Public Health. Carina holds a Bachelor of Science in Public Health from Sam Houston State University. She assists with community outreach and education as well as coordinating outreach activity for the Communit Health Worker team. She previously worked as a Bilingual Family Home Educator for the HIPPY program with Texas A&M School of Nursing providing education to parents to prepare their pre-school aged children for succes in school.
Mayra Mendoza, BS, is a bilingual Program Coordinator for Texas C-Step with the College of Medicine Primary Care and Rural Medicine Department. Mayra brings more than ten years-experience serving vulnerable populations and high-risk patients through the local women’s clinics. In her current role at Texas A&M Health, she plays an important part in improving the lives of individuals, by bridging the patient's healthcare needs with access to cancer screenings and a network of primary care providers.
Irene Bessette is a bilingual Community Health Worker for Texas C-STEP at Texas A&M Health Family Care. After more than a decade working with the Health and Human Services Commission, Irene became a certified Community Health Worker, advocate, and educator for community members. In her role, she supports patient health and wellness, educating and navigating them to important cancer screenings.
Ruth Jolly, RN, a licensed nurse since 2010, works at Texas A&M Health Family Care. She provides direct patient care to C-STEP clients before, during and after colonoscopy (including administering sedation) and assists the physicians in follow-up care.
Wen Hsin (Minnie) Chen, MSc, serves as a doctoral-level Research Assistant in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Texas A&M School of Public Health. She assists the Texas C-STEP project with data management, statistical analysis, reporting and evaluation, and product development.
Hannah League, MPH, serves as a doctoral-level Research Assistant in the Department of Health Behavior at the Texas A&M School of Public Health. She assists the Texas C-STEP project, focusing on improving outreach methods, establishing stakeholder partnerships, and increasing accessibility to smoking cessation and lung cancer screening services for low-income and/or uninsured Texans. Hannah holds a MPH in Health Policy and Management from Texas A&M University and previously worked to facilitate connections with state and national organizations to promote advocacy for national health centers and rural communities.
Araceli Arroniz, BS, serves as a Graduate Research Assistant in the Department of Health Behavior at the Texas A&M School of Public Health. She assists the Texas C-STEP project with data management regarding LDCT and CO monitoring. Araceli holds a BS degree from The University of Texas at El Paso with a previous experience in patient care.