Advancement Council
The purpose of the School of Applied Computational Sciences Advancement Council (SACSAC) is to provide advice, advocacy, guidance and support to the School of Applied Computational Sciences (SACS) at Meharry Medical College (MMC).
The SACSAC is comprised of computing and technology professionals representing industry, business, government agencies, institutions of higher learning, data science leaders in several industries, and Meharry Medical College alumni.
Membership
Dr. Lyndon Mitnaul Secretary
Senior Director, Regeneron Genetics Center
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
New York City, N.Y.
Eric Floyd, MS, MBA, Ph.D.
Chief Executive Officer
Floyd Strategic Regulatory Consulting
New York, N.Y.
Gina Lawrence, MSDS ’24
Chief of Operations
Jackson County, Missouri Prosecutor’s Office
Kansas City, Mo.
Jeremy C. Smith
Governor’s Chair, University of Tennessee, and
Director of the UT/ORNL Center
for Molecular Biophysics
Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Tenn.
Juan McGruder, Ph.D.
Senior Vice President for Institutional Advancement
jmcgruder@mmc.edu
Rodney Cotton
Board Member, Advisor,
C-Suite Executive – Orchard, Roche, Community Health
Carmel, Ind.
Troy Tazbaz
Director, Digital Health Center of Excellence, Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH)
Office of Strategic Partnerships & Technology Innovation (OST), U.S. Food and Drug Administration
Director, Digital Health Center of Excellence, Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH)
Office of Strategic Partnerships & Technology Innovation (OST), U.S. Food and Drug Administration
Roles and Objectives
- Assist SACS with advocacy and with solicitation of funding towards a scholarship endowment fund for students;
- Assist with fundraising toward ongoing scholarships that can be dispensed while growing the scholarship endowment fund;
- Advise on the advancement of the SACS and its academic programs;
- Serve as a liaison for SACS with businesses, communities, industries and government agencies.
Specific objectives of the SACSAC include but are not limited to the following:
- To evaluate the status and progress of the SACS in terms of its own stated purposes and objectives, as well as in terms of the overall mission of MMC, and with respect to peers and the state-of-the-art in the health care and technology arenas;
- To represent the frontiers of computing and technology as viewed from academia, industry and government agencies;
- To share long-range projections relevant to computing and technology, including health care technology, thus identifying opportunities and possible future courses of action for SACS;
- To provide objective and constructive advice to the president of MMC and the dean of SACS, or their designees, regarding programmatic and operational developments within SACS;
- To advance SACS’s mission of excellence in teaching, research and service by providing advocacy for SACS in philanthropic giving, faculty and student recruiting, research sponsorship, and within the professional circles represented on the Advancement Council;
- To evaluate the curricula of SACS programs and assist in ensuring the educational objectives of the programs meet the needs of their respective constituencies;
- To aid in a continuous evaluation of the current job market and trends in the computing and technology arena;
- To assist in the placement of SACS interns and graduates; and
- To provide feedback on SACS continuous improvement plan for both internal and external accreditation purposes.