Faculty Profiles
Osama Mikhail
, Ph.D.
Senior Vice President, Strategic Planning
University of Texas, Health Science Center at Houston
Professor, Management & Policy Sciences
Director, Fleming Center for Healthcare Management
University of Texas, School of Public Health
Dr. Mikhail currently serves as Senior Vice President, Strategic Planning at the University of Texas, Health Science Center-Houston. He is also a professor of management and policy sciences and director of the Fleming Center for Healthcare Management at the University of Texas, School of Public Health, having joined the School in 1989. At the School, Dr. Mikhail teaches courses in health care finance, planning and management, and advises students in both the master’s and doctoral programs. From 1989 until January 2007, Dr. Mikhail also served in a number of capacities at St. Luke’s Episcopal Health System in Houston, including Chief Planning and Chief Strategic Officer – most recently as Senior Vice President, Planning, Development & Academic Affairs with oversight responsibility for Kelsey-Seybold Management Services and Episcopal Health Charities. Under St. Luke’s affiliation agreement with Baylor College of Medicine, Dr. Mikhail chaired the Joint Management Council in 2004-05.
Dr. Mikhail started his professional career in 1973 as a senior operations research analyst and project manager for Continental Bank in Chicago. He later served as director, financial systems and assistant vice president for product development at Mellon bank in Pittsburgh, and as a corporate planner for the Mead Corporation in Dayton, Ohio. In 1981 he was appointed director of strategic planning for Eli Lilly International in Indianapolis, Indiana, and in 1985 joined the Sisters of Charity Health Care System in Houston as senior vice president, corporate strategy.
Dr. Mikhail received a B.S. in math/physics from the American University of Beirut in Lebanon, an M.B.A. in finance from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, and an M.S. and Ph.D. in industrial administration/systems sciences from the Graduate school of Industrial Administration at Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh.
Dr. Mikhail has been a consultant to a number of healthcare organizations including Duke and Vanderbilt University Medical Centers, Westchester Medical Center in New York and to a number of physician groups in the Houston area. During 2006 and 2007, Dr. Mikhail served as project director, curriculum development for the Center for Healthcare Governance (an AHA affiliate). He has also served as president of the board of Northwest Assistance Ministries, a community-based organization providing health and social services to northwest Houston, and as a board member and board chairman of Tanox, Inc., a public (NASDAQ) biotech company headquartered in Houston and acquired by Genentech in August 2007.
James Langabeer II, PhD, CMA
James Langabeer is an Associate Professor at the University of Texas School of Public Health, where he teaches courses in healthcare management and finance. Prior to this, Dr. Langabeer was the deputy controller at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, where he was responsible for developing business plans, financial models, process re-engineering, and business systems development. Prior to this, he was the executive vice president for strategy and operations for a boutique consulting and technology firm based in Cambridge, Massachusetts for six years, which was later acquired by Oracle. There, he was responsible for leading consulting engagements focused on planning, optimization, and effectiveness for major clients such as Johnson & Johnson, Baxter Healthcare, Wendy’s, 20th Century Fox, and Welch’s. Langabeer spent several years in senior operations management positions with a Fortune 200 firm and was a director of business affairs at the UT Medical Branch Hospitals in Galveston. He has served on the graduate faculty at Boston University in the department of administrative sciences and the University of Houston department of business management.
His research focuses on the role of information systems, strategic planning, financial management, and governance in healthcare organizations. Dr. Langabeer has a BBA from the University of Texas at San Antonio, an MBA from Baylor University, and a doctorate in administration from the University of Houston. Dr. Langabeer is also a Certified Management Accountant and a Fellow in the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society.
Professor Langabeer is the author of four books, including Healthcare Operations Management (Jones & Bartlett Publishers) and Competitive Business Strategy for Teaching Hospitals (Greenwood Press). He has been published in over thirty leading journals.
Jami DelliFraine, Ph.D.
Jami DelliFraine is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Management, Policy, and Community Health in the School of Public Health at the University of Texas, Houston. Her research focuses on the organization and management of non-profit hospitals, including safety-net hospitals and rural hospitals. She has published her research in journals such as Health Care Management Review, Hospital Topics, Health Marketing Quarterly and Journal of Health Care Finance. Some of her research is currently supported by the Center for Rural Pennsylvania and the National Institute of Mental Health. She teaches Quality Management, Management of Health Services Organizations, and Understanding Organizational Behavior in Health Services Organizations. She graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2004 with a Ph.D. in Health Services Organization and Research.
Elizabeth Gammon, C.P.A., Ph.D.
Elizabeth Gammon is a Faculty Associate in the Division of Management, Policy, and Community Health in the School of Public Health at the University of Texas, Houston where she teaches healthcare financial management.
Elizabeth’s early professional experience was in accounting and finance. She was employed during her C.P.A. residency by an international accounting firm. Following completion of that residency, she spent three years at a Fortune 500 company specializing in insurance and financial services. Her career focus, however, has been health care administration. She was employed by M.D. Anderson Cancer Center for over 16 years. Included in the positions she held was Director of Financial Resources Assessment and Planning for the Cancer Center for five years. For the last ten years of her tenure at the Cancer Center she was Division Administrator for the Division of Cancer Prevention and Population Sciences. In this position, she received the Rogers Award for Excellence in Administration. Concurrently, from 1994 through 2002, Elizabeth was a faculty member of the Texas Woman’s University, Master of Health Care Administration program. She taught courses in management of health services organizations, financial management, advanced financial management, financial accounting and cost accounting for healthcare.
Her research interests include economic costs of research misconduct, financial management of publicly funded health care entities, health economics, and efficiency in health care research administration.
