Dr. Waridibo Allison
Professor, Health Administration & Health Policy
Education & Experience:
Dr. Allison is the rare physician-scientist-executive and was recruited to UNT Health
as the inaugural Vice President of Health Policy and founding Executive Director of
the Center for Health Policy in 2022. She attended Imperial College School of Medicine,
London, completed internal medicine residency at New York Presbyterian/Weill Cornell
Medical Center and infectious disease fellowship at NYU. She holds a PhD in Public
Health and Community Medicine from the Kirby Institute, University of New South Wales,
Australia. She is elected to fellowship of both the American College of Physicians
and the Infectious Disease Society of America. Dr. Allison is an American Association
for Physician Leadership Certified Physician Executive (CPE).
Teaching Areas & Public Health Interests:
Dr. Allison is committed to mentorship, teaching and support of the next generation
of staff, faculty and students across the spectrum of health care service and public
health service delivery with teaching activities focused on telementoring, research
and career development mentoring. She was a 2024 Finalist for the Presidential Awards
for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring – the Nation’s highest
honors for mentors who work with underrepresented groups to develop fully the Nation’s
human resources in STEM.
Professional Activities & Awards:
Dr. Allison demonstrates an exceptionally skilled background in public health, population
health, health policy, epidemiology, research methods, tailored training and technical
assistance, health systems research, community-engagement, implementation science,
rigorous evaluation, strategic dissemination and large multi-site program coordination/administration.
Over the last seven years (since 2017) she has been awarded an approximate total of
16.7 million dollars in extramural research funding, 6.7 million of that in the last
3 years since arrival at UNT Health in 2022. As principal and co-investigator in multiple
studies Dr. Allison has been central to conceptualization, implementation, analysis,
interpretation and dissemination of the results. She is additionally an effective
collaborator, building bilateral collaborative relationships that are mutually beneficial
and respectful of all participants with capacity building when necessary. Dr. Allison
maintains clinical practice activity and board certification in Infectious Disease
and is fully clinically credentialled through UNT Health. She is Clinical Director
of the regional UNT Health South Central AIDS Education Center.
Scholarly Interests:
Dr. Allison is passionate about leveraging health, education and policy solutions
in order to transform access to health care, in order to impact health for communities
locally, regionally, nationally and globally. She has successfully secured close to
a decade of continuous federal funding for her work which includes directing a designated
Special Project of National Significance to Cure hepatitis C in people with HIV, the
national Rural Telementoring Training Center, a project to integrate the National
HIV Curriculum e-Learning Platform into Health Care Professions Programs and two AIDS
Education Training Center regional partner sites. Dr. Allison has national reputation
in the area of telementoring. Dr. Allison has served at the state level on the Texas
Health and Human Services Commission’s e-Health Advisory Committee (eHAC) since 2023.
eHAC was established in July 2016 to advise the Texas Health and Human Services executive
commissioner and HHS agencies on strategic planning, policy, rules and services related
to the use of health information technology, health information exchange systems,
telemedicine, telehealth and home telemonitoring services. In 2023/24, Dr. Allison
served on the Texas Department of State Health Services Viral Hepatitis Elimination
Plan (VHEP) Steering Committee and Texas Department of State Health Services Viral
Hepatitis Elimination Plan (VHEP) Policy Committee. This critical state public health
plan will be released in 2025. At a national level Dr. Allison had a formal advocacy
role as Advocacy Liaison for the Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA) from
2020 – 2022 tasked with increasing member engagement in IDSA & HIV Medical Association
(HIVMA) advocacy initiatives as part of an advanced leadership corp.