Distinguished Award Recipients
Two Faculty Members Awarded Prestigious TTU System Chancellor’s Council Distinguished Teaching and Research Awards
EL PASO, Texas — Texas Tech Health El Paso gastroenterologist and researcher Irene Sarosiek, M.D., AGAF, FACG, CCRP, has a photo in her office she looks at every day. She and fellow gastroenterologist and researcher Richard McCallum, M.D., pose with a patient who is living a better life, thanks to the research that brought the three of them together.
On March 5, Dr. Sarosiek, professor of medicine, was honored with the prestigious Texas Tech University System Chancellor’s Council Distinguished Research Award for her gastroenterology research. Also honored that day was pediatrics professor Sitratullah Olawunmi Maiyegun M.D., FAAP, MRCP (UK), who received the Chancellor’s Council Distinguished Teaching Award.
“Pediatrics is a rewarding profession in which we have the training and opportunity to improve the quality of life of our patients, and that can be tremendously satisfying,” Dr. Maiyegun said. “I teach my students that we are compared to superheroes during emergencies, with the power to save lives, comfort the family and heal the sick. That’s happening each day in our community.”
The TTU System presents the awards annually to educators who demonstrate a profound impact on their students and research.
TTU System Chancellor Tedd L. Mitchell, M.D., and TTUHSC El Paso President Richard Lange, M.D., M.B.A., honored Dr. Sarosiek and Dr. Maiyegun during the ceremony on the Texas Tech Health El Paso campus.
“Through the generous support of our Chancellor’s Council partners, I’m honored to recognize and present our distinguished faculty with this year’s teaching and research awards,” said Dr. Mitchell. “It’s with great pride we celebrate these leaders for their careers dedicated to excellence in research and providing an unrivaled educational experience to our leaders of tomorrow.”
A path to stomach relief
Dr. Sarosiek has spent nearly 30 years researching gastroparesis, a stomach ailment that disrupts the stomach's ability to propel food through the digestive system. It’s a serious, life-altering condition that affects about 5% of the population. Their work has been supported with millions of dollars in grants, including over $8 million from the National Institutes of Health.
The research is particularly important because of the prevalence of gastroparesis in our Borderplex, which has high rates of obesity and diabetes. People with diabetes are at higher risk for gastroparesis. In El Paso, 11% of adults have diabetes, compared to 8.5% in the United States overall.
“When someone suffers from gastroparesis, their quality of life is often below zero,” said Dr. Sarosiek, noting that it’s often difficult for patients to go to school or attend work, leading to a range of socioeconomic issues. “By implanting a device that stimulates the stomach, we can offer them hope and the most predictable treatment option for the drug-refractory gastroparesis symptoms.”
The gastric stimulator created through her research sends small electrical currents, signaling the brain to reduce nausea. When combined with surgery that widens the lower part of the stomach so it can empty into the small intestine, over 70% of treated patients reported improved symptoms and quality of life, a key measure of success.
Nearly 15 years before Dr. Sarosiek arrived at Texas Tech Health El Paso in 2009, she moved to the U.S. from Poland with her husband, children, and a language barrier.
“I didn’t speak a word of English,” said Dr. Sarosiek, who left her position as an attending physician at the Polish Medical University of Bialystok, her alma mater. “I arrived, and no one knew me, no one needed me. Now I look at the work I’ve been a part of, and I am very proud.”
Dr. Sarosiek landed at the University of Kansas Medical Center where she started collaborating with Dr. McCallum. She tells her students , residents and GI fellows they will learn something that’s not in the books, thanks to the opportunity to conduct research in our uniquely diverse Borderplex.
“We work with patients with Hispanic genetics, and that population is different from other areas,” Dr. Sarosiek said. “We collect the data here, but we put it on a global platform. We are changing science and the lives of our patients with this research.”
Mentoring tomorrow’s health care heroes
If there’s one word Dr. Maiyegun had to pick to describe her life’s work as a pediatrician and Texas Tech Health El Paso faculty member, it would be advocacy.
As a pediatric professor sharing her journey, including the challenges and rewards that came with it, she mentors students and advocates for children across our Borderplex. She was honored with the Chancellor’s Council Distinguished Teaching Award for her leadership and expertise in teaching and scholarly activities, her clinical practice, promoting pediatric advocacy, and her collaborations with other institutions.
“It’s extremely fulfilling when you see a child you have a clinical encounter with grow from newborn to adolescent stage and beyond,” Dr. Maiyegun said. “One of the most important things I can teach as I mentor students is how to have a significant impact on our patients and their families.”
One way Dr. Maiyegun advocates for the smallest of patients is through child maltreatment prevention. Her work focuses on preventing all types of physical and emotional mistreatment, sexual abuse, neglect, negligence and exploitation.
“We have an opportunity to make a difference in every moment we have with our pediatric patients and their families,” Dr. Maiyegun said. “As a mentor, I need to show our future doctors how to do that.”
Dr. Maiyegun’s path started in 1979 at the College of Medicine of the University of Lagos, Nigeria, with her basic medical degree in 1984 and pediatric residency training at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital with FMCPed (Nigeria). She received her postgraduate diploma (MRCPCH) in general pediatrics in 1998 at Bury General Hospital, Greater Manchester, United Kingdom; and State of Kuwait, before arriving at Texas Tech Health El Paso to complete her pediatric residency in 2005. She was board-certified in general pediatrics in 2008. She became a faculty member in 2009.
In 2010, she completed a mini fellowship in child abuse pediatrics at the University of Texas at San Antonio and the Center for Miracles’ Child Abuse Division. She has also served as the director of Child Advocacy Research and Education (CARE) as an advocate for children.
More importantly to her, Dr. Maiyegun has shared the challenges and rewards of being a doctor on a personal level as she mentored future doctors at Texas Tech Health El Paso for the past 18 years. She said physicians face many challenges, including long working hours, keeping up to date with health care technology and research, and the emotional impact of difficult conversations with patients and their families.
“It’s important for me to teach essentials like awareness of work-life balance to avoid burnout,” Dr. Maiyegun said.
About the Chancellor’s Council Distinguished Teaching and Research Awards
The Chancellor’s Council fosters innovation and success across the TTU System through their annual gifts. Their prestigious Distinguished Teaching and Research Awards are the highest faculty and researcher honors bestowed by the TTU System. Since the honors were established in 2001, 249 faculty have received awards totaling nearly $1.5 million.
About Texas Tech Health El Paso
Texas Tech Health El Paso is the only health sciences center on the U.S.-Mexico border and serves 108 counties in West Texas that have been historically underserved. It’s a designated Title V Hispanic-Serving Institution, preparing the next generation of health care heroes, 48% of whom identify as Hispanic and are often first-generation students.
Established as an independent university in 2013, Texas Tech Health El Paso is a proudly diverse and uniquely innovative destination for education and research.
With a mission of eliminating health care barriers and creating life-changing educational opportunities for Borderplex residents, Texas Tech Health El Paso has graduated over 2,400 doctors, nurses and researchers over the past decade, and will add dentists to its alumni beginning in 2025. For more information, visit ttuhscepimpact.org.