Nelda Wray, MD, MPH

Dr. Nelda P. Wray joined Houston Methodist Research Institute in 2008 as a research scientist and full member. She is an award-winning researcher who has held numerous state- and federally-appointed advisory roles, including the National Advisory Council for the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (appointed by Donna Shalala, Secretary of Health and Human Services) and the Texas Board on Aging (appointed by Governor George W. Bush). Dr. Wray has also been a member of the National Advisory Committees for the VA Health Services Research and Development Service and the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program.

Dr. Wray's experience includes six years as Chief of General Medicine at VA Medical Center in Houston; eight years as Director, and an additional eight years as Director Emeritus, of the Houston Center for Quality of Care and Utilization Studies: a VA Health Services Research & Development Center of Excellence; Chief Research and Development Officer for the Department of Veterans Affairs in Washington, DC; and professorships in Medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and Baylor College of Medicine, where she was also Chief of Health Services Research. In 2000, she received the VA Under Secretary for Health’s Award for Outstanding Lifetime Achievement in Health Services Research, and in 2002, the Michael E. DeBakey MD Award for Excellence in Research from Baylor College of Medicine.

Dr. Wray is an internationally recognized authority in health policy research, specifically for her use of electronic data to monitor and improve healthcare. Most recently, her work has been in the area of improving the evidence base for surgical procedures by exploring ways to foster rigorous collection of patient outcome data.