Heather Green Wooten, Ph.D.

Heather Green Wooten, Ph.D.

Dr. Heather Green Wooten is a prominent Texas medical historian, Wooten previously served on the faculty of the Institute for the Medical Humanities at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB-Galveston) where she taught courses in medical history and medical ethics.   She has authored or co-authored four books related to epidemics and medical care in Texas.  Her first book, The Polio Years in Texas:  Battling a Terrifying Unknown (2010) was a recipient of the TSHA Mary M. Hughes Research Fellowship, the T. R. Fehrenbach Book Award, and the Ottis Lock Endowment awarded by the East Texas Historical Association.  Publications also include Old Red:  Pioneering Medical Education in Texas (2012) for the TSHA Fred Rider Cotten Popular History Series; and Skilled Hands: Surgery at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston (2016), co-authored with William Henry Kellar.  Wooten also serves as Project Director for the Handbook of Texas Medicine, the first online encyclopedia in the nation devoted to the history of medicine.  She is an active member of regional and state historical organizations, including service on the TSHA Board of Directors, as Executive Director of TSHA (2020-2022), and is a past president of the East Texas Historical Association.  She was elected an ETHA Fellow in 2019.  A native of West Texas, Wooten received her Ph.D. in the Medical Humanities from UTMB-Galveston in 2006.  She currently resides in Kemah with her husband, Kevin and beloved Labrador, Lily.