San José Clinic announces new president, CEO

HOUSTON — Margo Melchor-Hernandez, RDH, MEd, EdD, is the new president and CEO of San José Clinic.

Melchor-Hernandez brings over 25 years of experience in healthcare services and administration, emphasizing community outreach, particularly to underserved communities.

She and her husband, John, are devout Catholics, parishioners of the Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart, and long-time volunteers and donors to the clinic. She has served in leadership roles as a clinic board member, program committee member and currently nominating committee chair. Her relationship with the clinic began over 30 years ago through the positions she held within the Greater Houston Dental Hygienists’ Society, Houston Hispanic Dental Association and as a student at UTHealth School of Dentistry.

Previously, Melchor-Hernandez was a professor and director of Community Outreach at UTHealth Houston, School of Dentistry, where she served as an educator and community advocate supporting Greater Houston and the surrounding areas. She also managed clinical volunteers, taught multiple predoctoral, dental hygiene and post-graduate courses, and launched a variety of community outreach programs.

One of her proudest accomplishments was the implementation of Give Vets A Smile, a collaboration created with the School of Nursing Veteran program in 2015. The program was created to provide palliative, urgent and therapeutic dental services to veterans, a population often encountering barriers to governmental resources/assistance after serving.

Following that program launch, Melchor-Hernandez also implemented and led Give Kids A Smile, a national outreach event implemented in Houston, which provides oral health promotion to underserved children with community partners, such as San José Clinic, CHRISTUS Healthcare Foundation, Communities in Schools-Houston and Mission of Yahweh.