LINC Research Council

Rebecca Moote, PharmD, MSc, BCPS, FNAP serves as Assistant Director for Research and Scholarship for Linking Interprofessional Networks for Collaboration (LINC) at UT Health San Antonio. Dr. Moote is a Clinical Professor at the University of Texas College of Pharmacy and has an adjunct appointment with the Department of Medicine at UT Health San Antonio. She also serves as the co-Division Head of the Pharmacotherapy & Translational Sciences Division for the UT College of Pharmacy. Dr. Moote received her Doctor of Pharmacy in 2007 from The University of Texas at Austin and her Master of Science in Pharmacy and Advanced Practice Pharmacotherapy Specialty Residency at the UT Health San Antonio in 2009. She started her academic career at Regis University in Denver Colorado where she was promoted to Associate Professor. Dr. Moote maintains an active practice as a clinical internal medicine pharmacist at University Hospital.

 

Dr. Moote has been involved in interprofessional education as part of her teaching, service, and research since 2009. She has created IPE teaching materials and curricula for orientation events, palliative care and medical surgical simulations, co-curricular experiences, and UT Health San Antonio’s LINC Clinical IPE Experience. She has received grant funding for interprofessional projects, including most recently from the Board of Pharmaceutical Specialties to explore the impact of pharmacist board certification on interprofessional collaborative practice. She has multiple publications in interprofessional education as well as two book chapters and has presented her work on interprofessional education at a national level. Dr. Moote serves as an associate editor for the Journal of Interprofessional Education and Practice, the official journal of the National Academies of Practice. ×

Dr. Sherri Cervantez, M.D. is a faculty member at UT Health San Antonio with a joint appointment to the Division of Hematology and Oncology and the Division of Geriatrics, Gerontology, and Palliative Medicine. She earned her B.S. in neuroscience and behavioral biology from Emory University. She received her medical doctorate from Virginia Commonwealth University and completed her residency in internal medicine at West Virginia University. She completed a Hospice and Palliative Medicine fellowship at Virginia Commonwealth University before completing her hematology and oncology fellowship at UT Health San Antonio. She joined UT Health San Antonio MD Anderson Cancer Center in 2017 as Director of Palliative Oncology. Her clinical interests include lung cancers, head and neck cancers, and palliative oncology. Her implementation research focuses on early integration of palliative care and best practices for interdisciplinary teams through quality improvement practices and team communication. ×

Dr. Rekha Kar, Ph.D.,  Associate Professor/Clinical in the Department of Cell Systems and Anatomy at UT Health San Antonio, has made significant contributions to health professions education through her leadership in teaching gross anatomy across multiple programs (medical, physical therapy, occupational therapy, physician assistant, and graduate). She has served as lecturer, course director, and mentor in the CSA Master’s program. Dr. Kar has received multiple honors for teaching and scholarship, including the UT Health San Antonio Presidential Award for Emerging Excellence in Teaching and the LSOM AES STAR Educator Award. Her work integrates interprofessional education (IPE) into anatomy curricula and emphasizes innovation in teaching tools. She led the LINC seed grant initiative, and her educational leadership has been recognized statewide and nationally, including election to the Kenneth I. Shine Academy of Health Science Education and selection as a program reviewer for Commission on Accreditation in Physical Therapy Education (CAPTE). ×

Noorpreet Kaur, B.D.S, M.P.H, is an Assistant Clinical Professor at the UT Health San Antonio School of Dentistry, where her work focuses on interprofessional education, emerging technologies, and oral health systems innovation, and the integration of XR and AI into dental education. She is a core member of the Special Needs Dental Clinic, where she contributes to curriculum design, research, clinical education, and federally funded program development.

Dr. Kaur’s current research explores the use of virtual reality (VR), artificial intelligence (AI), and simulation-based learning to enhance interprofessional clinical training and improve access to care. She is a co-investigator on multiple HRSA-funded initiatives, leading curriculum development and interprofessional training across dentistry and speech-language pathology. She has co-authored national curriculum content and published peer-reviewed presentations and journals on smart content delivery, sensory-adapted care environments, and ChatGPT application in pediatric dentistry.

Dr. Kaur holds an MPH in Global Health Leadership from New York University and a BDS from Kurukshetra University. She currently serves as the Vice President for the Academy of Dentistry for Persons with Disabilities (ADPD) Affiliate Board of the Special Care Dentistry Association (SCDA). She has presented at national and international conferences at ADEA, SCDA, and IMSH, and is committed to advancing collaborative care models and digital innovation in health professions education. ×

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. ×

Jinjiao Wang, PhD, RN, MPhil, is a nurse scientist, educator, and innovator dedicated to improving home- and community-based care for older adults. She brings a strong interdisciplinary and translational focus to her research, grounded in both clinical relevance and systems innovation.

Dr. Jinjiao Wang is an award-winning gerontological nurse scientist with an immense interest and commitment to improving the care older adults receive at home, such as home health care. Dr. Wang is the 5th nurse in the U.S. to receive the prestigious Paul Beeson Emerging Leaders in Aging award from the National Institute on Aging. The project – called HomeMed-APD – focuses on medication safety, optimization and deprescribing for older home health care patients with dementia.

Prior to joining UT Health San Antonio, Dr. Wang served as an Associate Professor and the inaugural Postdoctoral Program Director at the University of Rochester School of Nursing. Her work is driven by a core belief in the transformative power of nursing to enhance the lives and well-being of older adults in the community.

Dr. Wang has secured over $1.6 million in research funding from federal and national organizations. She is Principal Investigator of a National Institute on Aging Beeson K76 Career Development Award (1K76AG083276-01A1), and holds leadership roles in projects funded by the U.S. Deprescribing Research Network (1R24AG064025, Subaward PI), the Alliance for Home Health Quality and Innovation (2021 PI), and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (R01HS028637, Site PI and Co-Investigator). Her funded research focuses on the use of data science and innovative care intervention design to improve home-based geriatric care, with a strong emphasis on medication safety and optimization.

Dr. Wang has authored 47 peer-reviewed publications in leading journals of aging and health services research and has presented at more than 40 national and international conferences. She also serves as Co-Editor-in-Chief of JMIR Aging, where she has led the journal to an impact factor of 5.0 and a #1 ranking among 57 gerontology journals, per Clarivate 2024. ×

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