Meet Melissa Pifko: Co-CLO at UTHealth Science Center at Houston

Covering corporate law depart­ments and in-house attorneys for Texas Lawyer and other ALM publications, reporter Kristen Rasmussen profiles Melissa Pifko, vice president and chief legal officer for health care and clinical affairs at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. UTHealth’s legal department is unique in that it is overseen by two top attorneys—Pifko and her colleague, Daniel Reat, vice president and chief legal officer for operations and business affairs, who was featured in this series in the May edition of Texas Lawyer.

UTHealth is the most comprehensive academic health center in the UT System and the U.S. Gulf Coast region. It includes schools of biomedical informatics, biomedical sciences, dentistry, nursing, public health and the John P. and Kathrine G. McGovern Medical School ­(formerly UTHealth Medical School). UTHealth also includes The University of Texas Harris County Psychiatric Center and a growing network of medical clinics throughout Houston and the region, as well as a robust research component that attracts physicians and scientists from around the world. UTHealth’s primary teaching hospitals are Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center, Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital and Harris Health System’s Lyndon B. Johnson Hospital.