Gifts From the Heart:
Impact Starts
Here
Bilingual community health workers known as promotores are the heart of Texas Tech Health El Paso’s preventive health programs. In April, the Underserved Communities Foundation granted $10,000 to support our promotores’ efforts to improve our residents’ long-term health and well-being.
Partnerships That Transform Lives
By Christopher Rosenbluth
In 2025, generous donors across our Borderplex strengthened Texas Tech Health El Paso’s mission. These pages highlight gifts supporting an array of critical initiatives, including health education, Alzheimer’s research, special needs dental care, mental health care for persons experiencing homelessness and scholarships for our future health care heroes.
Trusted Voices: Promotores Deliver Vital Health Education to Underserved Areas
The ADP Foundation, AT&T and the Underserved Communities Foundation are expanding the reach of Texas Tech Health El Paso’s Promotores de Salud program. With a combined $115,000 in funding from these partners, the program trains bilingual community health workers who serve as essential, trusted links between the university and El Paso’s underserved neighborhoods
“By expanding our reach, we’ll provide families with critical health education,” said Alyssa C. Benavides, Ph.D., M.P.A., the program’s director. “This includes strategies for managing chronic conditions and information on services available through the Texas Tech Dental Oral Health Clinic and the future Fox Cancer Center. Our trained promotores will also support patients as they navigate the health care system.”
The promotores have also partnered with El Paso Water to address misinformation about the city’s drinking water. The effort counters predatory sales tactics targeting vulnerable families with unnecessary water filtration systems.
Thanks to the investments of our community partners, the promotores are improving health in our Borderplex, one conversation at a time.
In our Center of Emphasis in Neurosciences, Dr. Subodh Kumar studies biomarkers that could be used for early detection of Alzheimer’s. Our Borderplex offers biomedical researchers like Dr. Kumar the opportunity to collect much-needed data on Hispanic populations.
A New Hope: Marsh Foundation Boosts Alzheimer's Research
The Edward N. and Margaret G. Marsh Foundation is boosting its support of Alzheimer’s research at Texas Tech Health El Paso with a $55,000 grant awarded to Subodh Kumar, Ph.D., M.S., an assistant professor in the Center of Emphasis in Neurosciences. The foundation aims to advance innovation in neurodegenerative disease research, particularly within the Hispanic population disproportionately affected by Alzheimer’s.
Dr. Kumar is studying ways to detect early warning signs of Alzheimer’s in the blood without the need for invasive tests. “Most Alzheimer’s biomarker research has concentrated on white Caucasians. This lack of diversity means we don’t know whether existing biomarkers are as effective for Hispanic patients,” Dr. Kumar said. “El Paso County’s predominantly Hispanic population provides a unique opportunity to address this gap.”
This award marks the fifth time the Marsh Foundation has invested in our Alzheimer’s initiatives, solidifying their commitment to a healthier future for our community.
Smiling Bright
New Program Advances Specialized Dental Care for Special Needs Patients
Hunt School of Dental Medicine faculty and students have made the Texas Tech Dental Oral Health Clinic a place where everyone can show their all-star smiles.
With a $25,000 grant from the Dental Trade Alliance Foundation, the Hunt School of Dental Medicine launched “Special Care, Healthy Smiles,” a series of workshops providing oral health education to adults and children with intellectual and developmental disabilities, as well as their family members and the health care professionals who work with them. The program addresses a critical gap in dental care for the estimated 21,000 El Paso residents with these disabilities, many of whom face unique oral health challenges. The award supports bilingual education materials, hygiene kits for patients, outreach efforts, and a screen-and-clean event at our Oral Health Clinic.
Beyond improving oral health, the initiative offers vital training for dental students, who are learning to provide compassionate, specialized care. To facilitate this training, the Oral Health Clinic offers special needs dental suites equipped with customized dental tools and calming lighting. One suite is equipped with a specialized chair for patients who use wheelchairs. One suite was established thanks to a generous gift from Bank of America El Paso, and a second suite was made possible by Ethos Financial, along with its president and CEO, Inaam Ziyadeh.
Wilma Luquis-Aponte, D.M.D., Ph.D., special needs care education director at the Hunt School of Dental Medicine, said: “Our goal is to create a welcoming dental home for this underserved community, helping patients and caregivers build confidence and maintain lifelong good oral health practices.”
Stronger Together: Bank of America, Reach Resilience Help Expand Vital Mental Health Services to Homeless El Pasoans
Anthony Lerma, right, who receives mental health care from Texas Tech Health El Paso physician residents through Project Opportunity, said, “It’s been amazing. I enjoy visiting my doctor; she’s given me hope for a future that I thought was completely lost.”
With support from Reach Resilience and Bank of America, Texas Tech Health El Paso and the Opportunity Center for the Homeless launched Project Opportunity. The pilot program embeds psychiatric services into shelters to address one of the most urgent needs among El Paso’s homeless population: mental health care.
Reach Resilience provided $280,000 to fund two psychiatry residents and two Opportunity Center case managers for one year. Bank of America further strengthened the program by awarding its second $25,000 gift to Project Opportunity. To date, BofA’s $50,000 commitment has helped us expand access and sustain the program, allowing partners like Reach Resilience to join our efforts.
Psychiatry residents provide on-site evaluations, therapy and medication management for adult residents at the Opportunity Center’s primary shelter. Case managers connect participants with community resources, housing and employment support. The Reach Resilient grant will also support the hiring of a patient navigator to address challenges such as medication adherence and engaging loved ones as a support system for patients, ensuring that the city’s most vulnerable residents have a pathway to heathy minds and brighter futures.
“To partner with Texas Tech Health El Paso on these initiatives is our next miracle,” said Ray Tullius, Opportunity Center for the Homeless founder and executive director. “The common denominator through this partnership is ‘hope.’”
Texas Tech Health El Paso Magazine, Fall 2025