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Francisco Gonzalez Cigarroa (born December 7, 1957) is an American
transplant surgeon A transplant surgeon is a surgeon who performs organ transplants. Among the many organs that can be transplanted are: kidneys, livers, hearts, lungs, the pancreas, the intestine (especially the small intestine), and recently, faces, tracheal (wind ...
who served as chancellor of the
University of Texas System The University of Texas System (UT System) is an American government entity of the state of Texas that includes 13 higher educational institutions throughout the state including eight universities and five independent health institutions. The UT& ...
. As a
Mexican-American Mexican Americans ( es, mexicano-estadounidenses, , or ) are Americans of full or partial Mexican heritage. In 2019, Mexican Americans comprised 11.3% of the US population and 61.5% of all Hispanic and Latino Americans. In 2019, 71% of Mexica ...
, Cigarroa is also the first Hispanic to serve as president of the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UTHSCSA). Cigarroa currently serves as chairman of the Ford Foundation. He also serves as the head of pediatric transplant surgery at UTHSCSA. Born in the border city of Laredo in south Texas, Cigarroa graduated from
J. W. Nixon High School Joseph W. Nixon High School is a public high school located in South Texas. It was built in 1964 as the second high school in Laredo, Texas. The original high school in Laredo is Raymond & Tirza Martin High School, previously known as Lared ...
. In 1979, he earned a bachelor's degree from Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. He received his medical degree from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas in 1983. He was elected to
Alpha Omega Alpha Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society () is an honor society in the field of medicine. Alpha Omega Alpha currently has active Chapters in 132 LCME- accredited medical schools in the United States and Lebanon. It annually elects over 4,000 new ...
, a national
honor society In the United States, an honor society is a rank organization that recognizes excellence among peers. Numerous societies recognize various fields and circumstances. The Order of the Arrow, for example, is the National Honor Society of the Boy Sc ...
for medical students, residents, scientists, and physicians in the United States and Canada. During his twelve years of postgraduate training, Cigarroa was chief resident at
Massachusetts General Hospital Massachusetts General Hospital (Mass General or MGH) is the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School located in the West End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It is the third oldest general hospital in the United Stat ...
– the teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts – and completed pediatric surgery and transplant surgery fellowships at Johns Hopkins Hospital in
Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was d ...
, Maryland. In January 2009, Cigarroa was appointed chancellor of the University of Texas System. He is the first Hispanic to ever lead a major
university system A university system is a set of multiple affiliated universities and colleges that are usually geographically distributed. Typically, all member universities in a university system share a common component among all of their various names. Usually, ...
in the United States. Before this appointment he had been the first Hispanic president of the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. On July 1, 2010, Cigarroa began serving an elected six-year term as an Alumni Fellow to the Yale Corporation, the governing body of Yale University. In August 2011, Cigarroa presented to the University Board of Regents his Framework for Advancing Excellence designed to make the University of Texas System one of the top-ranked US educational systems of higher learning. The framework was unanimously approved by the Board of Regents and has since received national acclaim. In December 2011, Cigarroa was invited to the White House to share his program with US President Barack Obama and US Secretary of Education
Arne Duncan Arne Starkey Duncan (born November 6, 1964) is an American educator who served as United States Secretary of Education from 2009 to 2015 and as Chief Executive Officer of Chicago Public Schools from 2001 to 2008. A lifelong resident of Chicago, Du ...
. On February 10, 2014, Cigarroa announced his resignation from the UT System. He said that he had accomplished the goals that he put forth in 2009 and that his departure was unrelated to recent political dissent surrounding the system regents. His office forwarded third party letters of recommendations to the president's office at UT Austin, but he was not involved in overturning decisions made by the admissions committee. He played a leadership role in uncovering admission wrongdoings at UT Austin by commissioning the Kroll Report. He currently works as Director of Transplantation Services at the University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio.


References


External links


Official University of Texas System profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cigarroa, Francisco G. 1957 births American academics of Mexican descent American transplant surgeons Chancellors of the University of Texas System Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Harvard Medical School people J. W. Nixon High School alumni Johns Hopkins University people Living people People from Laredo, Texas People from San Antonio University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center alumni Yale University alumni Members of the National Academy of Medicine