Inez Cruz Profile

Inez Cruz, PhD, LMSW

Director, Community Partnerships and Engagement

Dr. Cruz focuses on community engagement through community brokering and qualitative methods that promote community-based participatory research, focusing on research that navigates relationships between healthcare providers/clinicians and underserved communities that are overcoming poverty and living with chronic illnesses in both urban and rural settings. 


Dritana Marko Serbo Profile

Dritana Marko Serbo, MD, MSc

Director, Research and Laboratory Operations

As the Director of Research and Lab Operations for the SPH, Dr. Marko is responsible for the oversight, supervision, management, and coordination of activities related to all aspects of the development, operation, funding, governance, and evaluation of the RURAL Cohort Study and the Cardiovascular and Pulmonary responses to Stressors (CaPS) Laboratory, under the portfolio of the Dean.  Dr. Marko completed her MD from the University of Tirana, Albania and her MSc in Health Economics and Healthcare Management from the University Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, Spain. She brings twenty-five years of experience in the public health field. Prior to joining UT Health School of Public Health San Antonio, she was an Assistant Professor in the Institute for Health Policy at the UTHealth Houston School of Public Health. Her research has focused on population-based health surveys, having managed the two rounds of the Health of Houston Survey, the largest survey of adults and children in the Houston area. 


Michelle Lopez Profile

Michelle Lopez

Senior Manager, Research Operations

Michelle Lopez is a San Antonio Native and earned her Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration from Texas A&M San Antonio in 2020. She started at UT Health San Antonio in July 2008. Lopez exhibits a strong sense of devotion to the research operations at UT Heath San Antonio and this experience gave her a deep appreciation for how the university’s research enterprise has improved the quality of life in our region, one project at a time.


Rachel Langey Profile

Rachel Langey

Project Manager – Senior


Sarah Platz Profile

Sarah Platz, MPH

Research Area Specialist

Sara Platz, MPH, is a Research Area Specialist at the Study Coordinating Center. She received a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology and Health Policy & Management from Providence College and a Master of Public Health degree from the Boston University School of Public Health. Platz feels that the RURAL study aligns with her passions for health equity, health policy, and increasing the delivery of primary care to underserved populations.


Sarah Zieminski Profile

Sarah Zieminski

Research Coordinator – Senior