Preventive medicine pair join UMMC faculty

The Medical Center is proud to announce the following additions to its faculty and leadership staff.

Desiree B. Pendergrass, M.D.

D. Pendergrass

Dr. Desiree B. Pendergrass, associate professor of pediatrics at Texas Tech University Health Science Center, Lubbock, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an associate professor of preventive medicine and pediatrics in the School of Medicine with a secondary appointment in the John D. Bower School of Population Health.

After receiving her B.A. in chemistry from Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, in 1983, Pendergrass earned her M.D. in 1987 at the University of Texas McGovern School of Medicine in Houston. She completed a pediatric internship at the University of Missouri, Columbia in 1988, a pediatric residency at the University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma City, in 1990, and a preventive medicine residency from 1992-94 at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, where she also earned her M.P.H.

Pendergrass served as director of child health policy in the Bureau of Children's Health at the Texas Department of Health from 1994-2000 before joining the Texas Medical Foundation as an associate clinical coordinator. In 2003, she became manager of the Child Medical Policy and Provider Relations Unit for the Department of State Health Services and in 2006 became manager of the Policy and Program Development Branch of the unit. She joined the Texas Tech University Health Science Center faculty in 2007 and became an associate professor of pediatrics in 2016. Pendergrass also was appointed to the clinical faculty of the Texas Department of State Health Services Preventive Medicine Residency in 2013.

An active member of several professional societies, including the American College of Preventive Medicine and the American Academy of Pediatrics, Pendergrass has served on a number of committees for the Texas Tech University Health Science Center and the Texas Pediatric Society, among other organizations. She has given five invited presentations in Texas and is the author or coauthor of six monographs on clinical quality improvement and a peer-reviewed article in Texas Medicine.
 

Peter William Pendergrass, M.D.

P. Pendergrass

Dr. Peter William Pendergrass, regional medical director and residency program director for the Texas Department of State Health Services, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an associate professor of preventive medicine in the School of Medicine with a secondary appointment in the John D. Bower School of Population Health.

After receiving his B.A. in economics and biology from Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas, in 1980, Pendergrass earned his M.D. at the University of Texas McGovern School of Medicine, Houston, in 1986. He completed an internship in internal medicine in 1988 at the University of Missouri-Columbia, an internal medicine residency in 1990 and an endocrinology fellowship in 1992 at the University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma City, and a preventive medicine residency in 1994 at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, where he also earned his M.P.H.

Pendergrass served as coordinator of the Bureau of Family and Personal Health Services for the San Antonio Metropolitan Health District from 1994-96 and was a physician consultant for the Texas Medical Foundation from 1995-2005. He also served as bureau chief of the Bureau of Communicable Disease Control for the Texas Department of Health from 1998-2000. He became regional medical director at the Texas Department of State Health Services in 2006 and program director for the general preventive medicine and public health residency in 2012.

An active member of the American College of Preventive Medicine and the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, Pendergrass has served on a number of committees for both organizations and the Texas Department of State Health Services and Health Care Financing Administration, among others. He has given 20 invited presentations at the local, state or national level and is the author or coauthor of a dozen articles in peer-reviewed professional publications.