By 2006, over 40,000 Texas health care professionals will have attended TCGEC offerings. Contact Dr. Robert E. Roush at the TCGEC for a listing of CME programs. Phone, (713) 798-4611; Fax, (713) 794-7092; or e-mail him at, rroush@bcm.tmc.edu

The goals of the TCGEC are to:

• offer educational programs for faculty and community practitioners of designated health professions;
• expand minority faculty recruitment and career development in geriatrics;
• initiate a student enrichment program to foster student interest and support student development in the field of aging;
• provide technical assistance and consultation services regarding the coordination of statewide projects in geriatrics and gerontology;
• sustain an information network for the identification of distribution of resources essential to the support of educational programs in geriatrics and gerontology throughout the state via the Texas Alliance of GECs.

In conjunction with the Texas Mexico Border Health Coordination Office at UT-Pan American University in Edinburg, the 21st Professional Development Institute was held November 1-3, 2000, at The Sheraton Fiesta Hotel on South Padre Island, Texas. The 22nd PDI was held October 25-26, 2001 in Galveston. The 23rd and 24th PDIs were held in Galveston in October 2002 and February 2004, respectively. The 25th PDI was held April 7-9, 2004 in Houston, Texas. Pending Congressional budget allocations for the national GEC program, which were eliminated for the FY'06 federal budget, the next PDI will be held in the fall of 2006. 

Enrollees complete a three-part professional development program including a personal action plan that adds some new dimension to the courses they teach or to the clinical services in which they work with older people. It is through this process of ongoing professional development that we impact the quality of lives of older Texans. Now enrollees can take the PDI online. See the distance learning link on the previous page or contact Mehrnaz Gill, MS, TCGEC Distance Learning Coordinator, at mgill@bcm.tmc.edu.

To find out how you can become an enrollee in 2006, please click on any of the institutions highlighted on the previous page and send any e-mail message to the co-project director who will contact you. You may also call us at Baylor College of Medicine's Huffington Center on Aging at (713) 798-4611. For information on the national GEC network, contact Dr. Joan Weiss at the Bureau of Health Professions (301) 443-6887.

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