LINC Faculty Council

The LINC Faculty Council is comprised of five faculty representatives, one chosen by each school. These faculty members devote 20% of their time to advance interprofessional education (IPE) at UT Health San Antonio through LINC. LINC Faculty Council members’ contributions to QEP goals stem from the acquisition and dissemination of IPE knowledge, both internally and externally, and each Council member leads a specific Initiative. LINC Faculty Council Initiatives include faculty and staff members who have been recruited to contribute to charges based on their interests, experiences, and dedication to IPE through university service.

Collectively, the LINC Faculty Council, and the teams of faculty and staff they lead, are guided by charges designed to advance QEP goals focused on cultivating IPE knowledge & skills and increasing IPE opportunities for learners. Charges include identifying best practices in didactic IPE, clinical IPE, and co-curricular IPE and disseminating findings; conducting environmental scans of UT Health San Antonio to track IPE activities learners may be exposed to throughout their education/training; implementing university-wide IPE experiences for all students at UT Health San Antonio; supporting development of program-specific IPE plans within respective schools; and, exploring extramural funding opportunities to support LINC Faculty Council activities/projects.

Contributions to Collaborative Scholarship

Click here to view a summary of scholarly dissemination products from the LINC Faculty Council.

Moshtagh Farokhi, D.D.S., M.P.H.
Leader, LINC Didactic IPE Initiative
Professor/Clinical, School of Dentistry
Dental Director, San Antonio Refugee Health Clinic
farokhi@uthscsa.edu

Moshtagh Farokhi, D.D.S., M.P.H., leads the LINC Faculty Council’s Didactic IPE Initiative. Dr. Farokhi brings private practice and teaching experience to her research at the UT Health San Antonio School of Dentistry. Her interests lie at the intersection of disease prevention, health promotion, and community engagement, with a focus on IPE, social determinants of health, refugee health, acculturation, and service learning. Her teaching is founded on principles of active learning and critical thinking, with an emphasis on cultural humility and empathy. Dr. Farokhi collaborates with various professions and partners within local community organizations, such as the Center for Refugee Services and Edgewood Independent School District, to address health disparities. She was recently appointed as a member of the UT System Shine Academy of Health Science Education. Dr. Farokhi was part of the QEP development team that pre-dated LINC, and she has represented the School of Dentistry on the LINC Faculty Council since June 2018. In 2021, Dr. Farokhi received the Academy of General Dentistry’s highest honor of Lifelong Learning and Service Recognition or LLSR, for her commitment to lifelong learning and service to the community and organized dentistry.

Rekha Kar Rekha Kar, Ph.D.
Leader, LINC Faculty & Staff Development Initiative
Associate Professor/Clinical,
Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences
karr@uthscsa.edu

Rekha Kar, Ph,D. is an Associate Professor/Clinical in the department of Cell Systems and Anatomy at UT Health San Antonio. Her contributions to the educational enterprise of the UT Health San Antonio have included teaching gross human anatomy to students in different programs (medical, physical therapy, occupational therapy, physician assistant and graduate school) as a lecturer and course director, as well as serving as a mentor and advisor to students in the anatomical sciences Master’s degree program of Cell System and Anatomy (CSA). She received several recognitions for teaching and scholarship including the Excellence in Health Professional Student Education Award: Department of Cell Systems & Anatomy, UT Health San Antonio Presidential award for Emerging excellence in Teaching, LSOM Academy of Educational Scholars (AES) 2022 STAR Educator award. She was selected as a fellow of the LSOM AES in 2021 and was inducted as a member of AES in 2022. Her educational research projects are highly collaborative, and they draw faculty from several programs of our institution. One major project, funded by the Linking Interprofessional Networks for Collaboration (LINC) initiative of our institution, is to promote interprofessional education (IPE) core competencies. A second area of focus is the development of innovative anatomical teaching tools designed around advanced technologies including 3D printing and the Anatomage virtual dissection table. She serves in several departmental, institutional committees and in committees of national organizations including the Ambassador Committee of the American Association for Anatomy and the Career Development Committee of the American Association of Clinical Anatomist (AACA).

Temple Ratcliffe, MD, FACPTemple A. Ratcliffe, M.D., M.S.-H.P.Ed.
Leader, LINC Clinical IPE Initiative
Associate Professor/Clinical, Long School of Medicine
ratcliffe@uthscsa.edu

Temple Ratcliffe, M.D., MS-HPEd, leads the LINC Faculty Council’s Clinical IPE Initiative, which spearheads the Clinical IPE Track within the LINC Faculty & Staff Development Program. Dr. Ratcliffe is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Texas Health San Antonio, and he serves as Director of the Internal Medicine Clerkship at the Long School of Medicine. His teaching has been recognized by numerous awards, including the UT Presidential Teaching Excellence Award. He is also a Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation Faculty Scholar and inductee in the Gold Humanism Honor Society. His current scholarly areas of interest include IPE, clinical reasoning, and learner assessment. Dr. Ratcliffe has represented the Long School of Medicine on the LINC Faculty Council since June 2018.

Catherine Torrington EatonCathy Torrington Eaton, PhD, CCC-SLP
Leader, LINC Clinical Research Initiative
Assistant Professor, School of Health Professions
torringtonea@uthscsa.edu

Dr. Cathy Torrington Eaton, PhD, CCC-SLP is an Assistant Professor and certified speech-language pathologist (SLP) with the Department of Communication Sciences in the School of Health Professions at UT Health. Her research and scientific interests center on the neurorehabilitation of patients with aphasia, communication partner training, goal writing in speech-language pathology and teaching and learning in graduate education.  She plays a vital role in clinical training programs that prepare graduate SLP clinicians as well as students across healthcare professions to work with adult patients with communication disorders. Dr. Eaton is very active in the aphasia community, serving pivotal roles as the director of San Antonio Network for Aphasia (SANA), the UT Health Aphasia Summer Program, and the Communication Clinic at the Glen Biggs Institute of Alzheimer’s and Neurodegenerative Disease. She has been an invited speaker at local, national and international conferences, and is a champion of health care accessibility, interprofessional collaboration, and communication quality of life.

School of Nursing Representative

Past Members

We would like to express our sincere appreciation for the exceptional contributions of our former LINC Faculty Council members:

Dr. Lark Ford, Ph.D., M.A., M.S.N., RN, School of Nursing representative from 2018 to 2021.

Dr. Keith Krolick, Ph.D., Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences representative from 2018 to 2022.

Dr. Gretchel Gealogo Brown, Ph.D., RN, School of Nursing representative from 2021 to 2022.

Dr. Meredith Quinene, D.H.Sc., M.P.A.S., PA-C, School of Health Professions representative from 2019 to 2023.

Dr. Kathleen Stevens, Ed.D., RN, ANEF, FAAN, School of Nursing representative from 2022 to 2024.