UTMB’s Professor Suresh K. Bhavnani named 2025 Presidential Leadership Scholar

Dr. Suresh K. Bhavnani, a professor of biomedical informatics in the Department of Biostatistics & Data Science in the School of Public and Population Health at the University of Texas Medical Branch, has been named one of 57 scholars who will form the Presidential Leadership Scholars' 10th annual class.

For the past decade, Presidential Leadership Scholars has brought together more than 500 diverse, established leaders to collaborate and make a difference in the world as they learn about leadership through the lens of the presidential experiences of George W. Bush, William J. Clinton, George H.W. Bush, and Lyndon B. Johnson.

The Presidential Leadership Scholars program is a partnership among the presidential centers of George W. Bush, William J. Clinton, George H.W. Bush, and Lyndon B. Johnson. The organization choose scholars based on their leadership growth potential and the strength of their personal leadership projects aimed at addressing a critical challenge or need in a community, profession, or organization.

Bhavnani, who obtained his PhD in Computational Design and Human-Computer Interaction from Carnegie Mellon University, develops and uses human-centered AI methods to analyze biomedical data, with the goal of translating the results into public health policies, and clinical decision-support systems.

"It's an honor of a lifetime to be part of the 2025 Class of Presidential Leadership Scholars," said Bhavnani. "I am eager to learn from civic leaders how to translate our AI research results into public health policies that can improve the lives of Americans."

Over a period of 6 months scholars will work on a civic-minded project intended to solve a problem or pressing issue in their community, country, or the world. Bhavnani has proposed to redefine U.S. health equity policies that are based on a few sociodemographic variables like race and income, to be more need-based using social determinants of health, guided by human-centered AI.

"Race and income are proxies for need, not the needs themselves," Bhavnani said. "I believe health equity policies based on such sociodemographic variables can be made more precise and therefore more efficient in their use of limited federal and state resources. This opportunity will enable me to work closely with civic leaders in the PLS program, policy analysts from Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy, and the Houston Health Department to learn how to make such changes to public health policies. Our NIH AIM-AHEAD grant in collaboration with Texas Southern University has been critical in helping us conduct the research to motivate this change."

Over the course of the program, the chosen scholars will travel to each participating presidential center to learn from former presidents, key former administration officials, business and civic leaders, and leading academics. They will study and put into practice varying approaches to leadership and exchange ideas to help strengthen their impact.

"This is an outstanding national-level achievement by Dr. Bhavnani," said Dr. Jochen Reiser, president of UTMB. "The program will help him develop the civic leadership skills to bridge the results generated from AI with public health policies, critical to medical research institutions around the world."

Scholars have consistently reported remarkable growth in skills, responsibilities, and opportunities for impact since the program began in 2015. For example, 96% of Scholars said their confidence in how they lead social change has improved as a result of PLS, and 97% of Scholars reported they are inspired to accomplish more since beginning the program.

The 2025 Class of Presidential Leadership Scholars is available online. The 2025 program will begin on Jan. 29.