Melina Kibbe, MD became president of UTHealth Houston and assumed the Alkek-Williams Distinguished Chair in September 2025. Before this role, she served as a medical school dean and chief health affairs officer at a public academic institution. She is recognized nationally for her work in vascular surgery and previously served as chair of a department of surgery at a major university. Earlier in her career, she held senior research leadership roles within academic surgery and a multidisciplinary biomedical research institute. She earned her medical degree from the University of Chicago. She completed her internship, residency, and research fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, followed by a vascular surgery fellowship at Northwestern University. Her clinical practice includes open and endovascular procedures, and she is board-certified in general and vascular surgery with RVT and RPVI certifications.

Her research focuses on developing drug-eluting therapies for patients with vascular disease and examining how these treatments affect blood vessels. She has served as a principal investigator on research funded by several federal and national organizations. In addition, she has contributed as a co-investigator, consultant, or mentor on many other supported studies. She has held leadership roles in gene- and cell-based clinical trials for patients with critical limb ischemia and has guided trials in peripheral artery disease. Her work has resulted in more than ten patents or provisional patents. In 2009, her research contributions were recognized with a national early-career award for scientists and engineers.

She has held many leadership positions at the national level within academic surgery. She serves as editor-in-chief of a leading surgical journal and has previously been president of several professional surgical societies. She has also served in officer and committee leadership roles within major national organizations and remains actively involved in numerous professional groups. Her career accomplishments led to election into respected medical honor societies, including one of the nation’s highest advisory bodies in medicine.

She has also been a strong advocate for sex inclusion in biomedical research. Her publications examining sex bias in surgical research received national and international attention and led to interviews with major media outlets. This work contributed to policy discussions with federal agencies and supported legislative efforts to improve inclusive research practices across biomedical fields.

Her scholarly record includes more than 300 peer-reviewed publications and over 240 abstracts presented nationally and internationally. She has received numerous awards for leadership, service, equity, and education, including more than twenty honors for teaching excellence. Melina Kibbe, MD also co-founded a biomedical company focused on developing vascular devices and served as its chief medical officer. Born and raised in Southern California, she later completed executive leadership and management training to support her work in academic medicine.