UT Tyler Office of Marketing and Communications

UT Tyler Names Unified Research, Graduate School Leadership

January 27, 2021

The University of Texas at Tyler named Steven Idell, MD, PhD, as senior vice president for research and dean of the graduate school. Kouider Mokhtari, PhD, has been named associate vice president for research and associate dean of the graduate school.

“One of the key benefits of the unification of UT Tyler and The University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler has been enhancing the life-impacting research conducted by our faculty and graduate students,” said UT Tyler President Kirk A. Calhoun, MD, FACP. “Steve and Kouider both have a consistent track record of shepherding remarkable research and promoting academic excellence.”

The unification of UT Tyler and The University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler (UTHSCT) catapults the university into the prestigious Carnegie R2 classification, based on the combined research expenditures and the doctoral degree production. This signifies the central importance of research in the institution’s mission to improve educational and healthcare outcomes for East Texas and beyond. The institutions have a combined research portfolio of $30 million. The combined academic programs serve more than 2,500 graduate students.

“Bringing together the intellectual firepower of the hundreds of PhD faculty researchers at our institutions will create a synergy that will lead to real discoveries advancing medicine and other critical disciplines,” said Julie V. Philley, MD, executive vice president for health affairs. “Add the proposed medical school, and this is exciting progress for all of East Texas.”

Previously Idell was senior vice president for research and dean of the School of Medical Biological Sciences at UTHSCT. He is internationally known for his research into the causes and treatment of pulmonary fibrosis, or lung scarring. Idell is board certified in internal medicine and pulmonary disease by the American Board of Internal Medicine. Idell also is a fellow of the American College of Chest Physicians and the American College of Physicians and is a past president of the Texas Thoracic Society. He has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health for more than 30 years with projects culminating in clinical trial testing of new therapeutics.

Mokhtari was previously associate provost for research and scholarship for UT Tyler. Kouider Mokhtari is the Anderson-Vukelja-Wright Endowed Professor of Literacy Education. His research is aimed at advancing literacy instruction and increasing students' literacy achievement outcomes. Mokhtari was the recipient of the 2018 President’s Scholarly Achievement Award and the 2014 International Reading Association John C. Manning Public School Service Award.

In his role as senior vice president of research, Idell will report directly to President Calhoun, working closely with Philley and Amir Mirmiran, PhD, executive vice president for academic affairs and provost. For his dean responsibilities, Idell will report to Mirmiran. Alecia Wolf, PhD, will continue to serve as the assistant dean of the graduate school at UT Tyler.

“Aligning research and graduate education elevates support of our faculty and graduate students with their research,” said Mirmiran. “I am confident this leadership team will continue to facilitate superior scholarship.”

With a mission to improve educational and healthcare outcomes for East Texas and beyond, UT Tyler offers more than 80 undergraduate and graduate programs to 10,000 students. Through its alignment with UT Health Science Center at Tyler and UT Health East Texas, UT Tyler has unified these entities to serve Texas with innovative medical research, medical education and excellent patient care. Classified by Carnegie as a doctoral research institution and by U.S. News & World Report as a national university, UT Tyler has campuses in Tyler, Longview, Palestine and Houston.