Contact Information
The Faculty Development Program welcomes your comments. What topics would you like to see Faculty Development offer? Please send us your suggestions for future programs.
Phone: 713-792-8061
Fax: 713-563-3071
E-mail: FacDev@mdanderson.org
Mailing address:
Faculty Development
M. D. Anderson Cancer Center
PO Box 301402, Unit 1426
Houston, TX 77230-1402
Download Career Advice Policy (doc).
Meet the Faculty Development Staff
Janis Apted is associate vice president of Faculty Development. She has an MLS from McGill University and over 25 years of experience in information access and management, organizational, professional and faculty development, and strategic and planned change in academic, international and corporate institutions. Ms. Apted's previous positions have been with the University of Michigan, the Houston Academy of Medicine - Texas Medical Center Library, McGill University, Royal Society of Medicine in England and the World Health Organization in Switzerland and Tunisia.
Brenda Alexander, the senior administrative assistant for the department of Faculty Development, has worked at M. D. Anderson Cancer Center since 1998. Joining Faculty Development in December 2001, Ms. Alexander is instrumental in ensuring the success of our various programs by coordinating business-related and other operational activities.
Melanie Black is a project director for Faculty Development. She has been with M. D. Anderson Cancer Center since late 2005. She earned her MBA from a consortium campus (CIMBA) in Asolo, Italy, and has been working in the area of organizational development and training for more than six years in both consulting and the energy industry. She is responsible for developing and managing projects and curricula that support our faculty’s career and personal development.
David M. Ford, Ed.D., currently serves as program director of The Classrooms of the 21st Century, Faculty Development's Teaching Skills Program, as well as the Teaching Scholars Program for M. D. Anderson's postdoctoral fellows. He joined the department in 2000. Dr. Ford has served as principal, educator and director of on-line training. He holds superintendent, mid-manager, guidance and teacher certification in Texas and Illinois. He earned a doctorate in education from the University of Houston in Educational Leadership and Cultural Studies in 1993. He currently serves as a board member to the Houston Independent School District Advisory Board for Professional Development Services.
Janice Simon CPO® is the senior education specialist in Faculty Development. She came to M. D. Anderson Cancer Center early in 2000 from her former post at the Galveston Independent School District. For nearly five years, she served as the school district's coordinator of media and curriculum services. Prior to working at Galveston I.S.D., Ms. Simon was a newspaper journalist in Oklahoma and Galveston for more than nine years. She earned her Master of Arts degree from the University of Houston-Clear Lake.
Victoria Thompson, Dr.P.H. was brought in as a project director for Faculty Development in January 2007. Dr. Thompson joins us from a Houston-based technology company that develops video games for health and Baylor College of Medicine where, for nearly seven years, she worked in project management and behavioral nutrition research. She redesigned the intranet website of Faculty Development along with designing and launching the website for the Office of Women Faculty Programs. In addition to other responsibilities, she collaborates with the office of Women Faculty Programs, Faculty Health and other faculty career and professional development programs. She earned her master's degree in nutrition from Pennsylvania State University and her doctorate in public health from The University of Texas Health Science Center School of Public Health.