Dr. Jewel Mullen Tapped To Dual Medical Roles In Austin

AUSTIN, TX — Ascension Seton and Dell Medical School at The University of Texas at Austin have appointed Dr. Jewel Mullen to serve in a dual role in health equity initiatives at both organizations, officials announced Tuesday.

To that end, Mullen will serve as Director of Health Equity at Ascension Seton and Associate Dean for Health Equity at Dell Med. At Ascension Seton, she will serve as an adviser for policies and procedures to meet health equity goals across the health system. In addition, she will support the continued integration of the Dell Med and Ascension Seton systems and serve as an adviser to the newly established Ascension Texas Council on Racial and Health Equity, which will be co-chaired by the Ascension Seton Chief Medical Officer and Chief Advocacy Officer.

The council is composed of Ascension Texas leaders, nurses and social workers, with a goal of eliminating racial and ethnic health disparities among patients.

“We are honored for Dr. Mullen to serve both Ascension Seton and Dell Medical School, applying her extensive expertise to both local and global issues,” Andy Davis, president and CEO of Ascension Texas, said in a prepared statement. “Dr. Mullen has been asked to think innovatively to help establish new ways of systematically addressing gaps in our health system, supporting our mission to care for all, including the poor and vulnerable.”

Mullen also serves as the Associate Dean for Health Equity at Dell Med, as well as an associate professor in the school’s population health and internal medicine departments. In her Dell Med role, she is responsible for building connections and establishing a shared vision, both within the medical school and across organizations throughout Travis County. Dr. Mullen collaborates with colleagues in education, public health, aging, housing, and other services and systems, in addition to Dell Med’s clinical staff.

“If we want to improve health in our community, we need to focus on equity in access and quality,” Clay Johnston, M.D., Ph.D., dean of Dell Med, said in a prepared statement. “Dr. Mullen is the perfect person to lead this effort by building links within Dell Med and Ascension Seton, as well as across organizations and systems throughout Austin and Travis County.”

Mullen is recognized nationally and internationally as a leader in building effective community-based chronic disease prevention programs, and for her commitment to improving individual and population health by strengthening coordination between community, public health and health care systems. She has a diverse background in working at state and national levels, including as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and as Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Public Health.

“I am inspired to align Ascension Seton’s and Dell Med’s commitments to health care quality and improving the health and well-being of our communities,” Mullen said. “Doing so is key to health equity – assuring a just opportunity for everyone to be as healthy as possible.”

Mullen is an internist, epidemiologist and public health physician leader. She is board certified in internal medicine and received her bachelor’s degree and Master of Public Health from Yale University, where she also completed a post-doctoral fellowship in psychosocial epidemiology. She graduated from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, where she was elected to Alpha Omega Alpha national medical honor society and completed her residency at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. She also holds a Master of Public Administration from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

About Ascension Texas

In Texas, Ascension operates Ascension Providence and Ascension Seton, which includes Dell Children’s Medical Center, the region’s only comprehensive children’s hospital and pediatric Level I trauma center, and Dell Seton Medical Center at The University of Texas, the region’s only Level I trauma center for adults.

Ascension Seton partners with Dell Medical School at The University of Texas at Austin and shares a common vision of transforming healthcare through a focus on quality and value. Serving Texas for 115 years, Ascension is a faith-based healthcare organization committed to delivering compassionate, personalized care to all, with special attention to persons living in poverty and those most vulnerable. Ascension is one of the leading non-profit and Catholic health systems in the U.S., operating more than 2,600 sites of care – including 151 hospitals and more than 50 senior living facilities in 22 states and the District of Columbia.

For more information, visit www.dellchildrens.net, www.providence.net and www.seton.net.