Governor Abbott appoints Jennifer Gonzalez to advisory committee

Governor Greg Abbott has appointed Jennifer “Jenn” Gonzalez, Ph.D., to the Advisory Committee to the Texas Board of Criminal Justice on Offenders with Medical or Mental Impairments. Her term is set to expire on February 1, 2029. The Committee advises the board and the director of the Texas Correctional Office on Offenders with Medical or Mental Impairments on matters related to offenders with medical or mental impairments and performs other duties imposed by the board.

Jennifer “Jenn” Gonzalez, Ph.D., of Dallas, is the senior vice president of population health at the Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute for Texas and an adjunct associate professor and former tenured faculty member of epidemiology at the UTHealth School of Public Health. She serves as a board member of the Housing and Health Services Coordination Council, study section member for the National Institutes of Health, and associate editor for the American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse. Additionally, she is a former chair of the Dallas County Criminal Justice Advisory Board Research Committee and a former member of both the North Central Texas Council of Governments Policy Development Committee and the National Academies Forum on Global Violence Prevention.

Gonzalez received a Bachelor of Arts in Criminal Justice and Sociology from the University of North Carolina Wilmington, a Master of Science in Criminal Justice from the University of Cincinnati, and a Doctor of Philosophy in Epidemiology from the University of Florida.