Administration and Staff

Meet the Staff

Dr. Louis J. Agnese, Jr

Dr. Louis J. Agnese, Jr

PRESIDENT

Dr. Louis J. Agnese, Jr. is the second president in the history of Texas Health and Science University (THSU) in Austin, Texas. He succeeded Lisa Lin, who founded THSU in 1990 and retired in 2019. Dr. Agnese previously served as the eighth president of the University of the Incarnate Word (UIW), a private university in San Antonio. Upon his retirement from UIW in 2016, he was named President Emeritus and Emeritus member of the UIW Board of Trustees in honor of his historic 32-year tenure as president.

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His career as a teaching professional and higher education leader began at Gannon University in Erie, Pennsylvania. As director of the student personnel program at Gannon from 1976 to 1979, Dr. Agnese carried both advising responsibilities and a graduate teaching workload. From 1976 to 1981, he also reported directly to two vice presidents as the director of student living, with budgetary responsibility for Gannon’s security, maintenance, conference coordination, and food services areas. He moved to Sioux City, Iowa in 1981 to become vice president of Briar Cliff University. He managed 16 administrative units at Briar Cliff, served as a university spokesperson, liaised between the institution and its stakeholders, and assumed overall management duties in the president’s absence.

Dr. Agnese relocated to San Antonio in 1985 when he was named UIW president. At the time, UIW faced dwindling student enrollment, was limited to one location, had an $8 million annual budget, a $3 million endowment and was the 19th largest private university in Texas. By his retirement in 2016, UIW had grown into Texas’ largest Catholic university and the state’s third largest private university, with global enrollment increasing from 1,296 students to 11,422. Its annual budget had increased to nearly $220 million and its endowment to morethan $125 million. Today, Incarnate Word has nearly 40,000 living alumni, compared to 8,000 in 1985.

Under Dr. Agnese’s watch, UIW expanded to nine San Antonio locations; sites in Corpus Christi and Killeen, Texas; European Study Centers in Heidelberg, Germany, and Strasbourg, France; and two full campuses in Mexico where students can earn UIW degrees. Incarnate Word also created the first two Ph.D. degree programs as well as professional doctoral programs in several fields of study, including pharmacy, optometry, nursing practice, physical therapy and business administration. In addition, UIW established a school of medicine that beganoffering classes in 2017, becoming the first private medical school in San Antonio and just the sixth in the U.S. at a Catholic university.

Dr. Agnese’s also spearheaded the development of UIW’s international profile. By 2016, it had sister school agreements for reciprocal education with more than 140 institutions of higher learning in over 40 countries. Meanwhile, international students comprised more than ten percent of the student body and represented over 70 countries.

With a strong commitment to diversity and inclusion that mirrored UIW’s South Texas origins, the student body in 2016 was 60 percent Hispanic and African American, many of them first-generation college attendees. By his retirement, UIW conferred the most bachelor degrees to Hispanics among all private, not-for-profit universities in the U.S.

Dr. Agnese is the recipient of many professional and civic honors. They include honorary doctoral degrees from UIW and Woosong University in South Korea. Also, the Legacy Leaders Award from the San Antonio Business Journal; the Governor Dolph Briscoe Salute to Excellence Award; the Ford Salute to Education Lifetime Achievement Award; and the International Achievement Award from the San Antonio Council for International Visitors. In 2018, the Hispanic Sports Foundation honored Dr. Agnese by inducting him into the National Hispanic Heritage Hall of Honor for his service to education. Dr. Agnese holds the Ph.D. in Counselor Education from the University ofPittsburgh; an Education Specialist degree and a Master of Education in Counseling degree from Gannon University; and a bachelor’s degree from Saint Mary of the Plains College. Originally from New York City, Dr. Agnese is married and has two grown children.

Wen Huei Chen, M.Ed

Wen Huei Chen, M.Ed

VICE PRESIDENT OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

Master of Education, Human Perform and Health Promotion, University of New Orleans
Bachelor of Education, National Taiwan Normal University

Mr. Chen has many years of experience as a businessman and consultant to institutions of higher education. He combines his background in higher educational leadership with business acumen and an emphasis on organizational and personal success and achievement. He has served on the Development Board of the University of the Incarnate Word and on the Board of American First Bank in Houston.

Ronald W. Meyer, CPA

Ronald W. Meyer, CPA

CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER

B.B.A., Accounting, University of Texas at San Antonio

Mr. Meyer, a native of San Antonio, is a Certified Public Accountant who passed all four parts of the CPA examination on his first attempt in 1991. He joined a local public accounting firm the following summer. He is a member of the Austin Chapter of the Texas Society of Certified Public Accountants, and a frequent speaker for such groups as the Austin Young Lawyers Association, Southwest Region of the National Society of Professional Engineers, South Texas Youth Soccer Association, Texas Association of Builders, and the Texas Society of Professional Engineers. He is the founder and Managing Member of Ronald W. Meyer, P.L.L.C., based in Austin, Texas. His areas of responsibility include preparation or review for individual, corporate, partnership, estate, trust, homeowner association, and non-profit organization tax returns.  

Antonio Holloway, MBA, MS

Antonio Holloway, MBA, MS

VICE PRESIDENT OF OPERATIONS

M.S. Human Resource Management, Southern New Hampshire Univ., Concord, NH
M.B.A. Healthcare Management, Our Lady of the Lake – San Antonio, Texas
B.B.A. Finance, Wayland Baptist University, Plainview, Texas

Mr. Holloway’s professional career spans over thirty years in higher education, primarily in the area of Title IV financial aid administration where he has substantial knowledge in organizing and managing the operations and activities of federal, state, and private financial aid programs. He embraces the enrollment management concept where the enrollment management team (admissions, registrar, and financial aid) is an integral part of recruitment, enrollment growth, and retention. He has experience working with for-profit and private not-for-profit institutions. He is very active in training provided by the National Association of Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA) and The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB), where he has served before on committees with both organizations. He currently serves on a diversity and inclusion committee with the Texas Association of Financial Aid Administrators (TASFAA). In addition, he has over ten years of direct experience in Human Resources. He is a member of Delta Mu Delta and Kappa Gamma Pi honor societies.

Maoyi Cai, MD, MBA

Maoyi Cai, MD, MBA

ACADEMIC DEAN AND BIOMEDICAL SCIENC DIRECTOR (Austin Campus)

M.D., Education Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG), U.S.A. Medical Council of Canada (MCC), Canada
M.B.A., Texas Health and Science University
M.S. Biological Sciences, University of Texas at El Paso
Bachelor of Medicine, Clinical Medicine, Fu Dan University (formerly Shanghai Medical University, China)
*Teaching Specialization: Biological Sciences

Dr. Cai’s professional career in biomedical sciences spans nearly 30 years, and includes distinguished service in China, Canada, and the United States. After completing his Bachelor of Medicine degree he practiced as a physician in the Shanghai Medical University Hospital before immigrating to North America. Dr. Cai has served as a board member of the Acupuncture Committee of Alberta, Canada, and also as the Dean of Academic Affairs at Alberta College of Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine. He has taught a variety of biological science courses at colleges and universities in Mexico and Texas. He is a Diplomate of Oriental Medicine of the National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine. Dr. Cai joined the faculty of Texas Health and Science University in 2006. He has served as Academic Dean at Texas Health and Science University since 2008.

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