Office of the Executive VP for Research and Innovation

Welcome to the Office of Research and Innovation at The Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center. Established in 1969, TTUHSC is comprehensive health sciences center and multi-campus institution including locations in Lubbock, Amarillo, Abilene, Midland-Odessa, and Dallas. We are comprised of six schools: Medicine, Pharmacy, Nursing, Health Professions, Public Health, and Biomedical Sciences. The Office of Research and Innovation partners with the Offices of Academic Affairs and Clinical Affairs to achieve the major objective of providing quality academic, research, patient care, and community service programs to meet the health care needs of West Texas, an area that includes 121 counties and that represents 50% of the land mass and 9.4% of the total population of the State of Texas.

Our Mission is to enrich the lives of others by educating students to become collaborative health care professionals, providing excellent patient care, and advancing knowledge through innovative research.

Our Vision is a healthier future with access to quality care for every Texan.

The Office of Research and Innovation staff are dedicated to supporting the research and development needs of our TTUHSC community, with the ultimate goal of translating groundbreaking scientific discoveries into improved health care through widespread dissemination to the scientific community and creation of new inventions and approaches to achieve optimal patient outcomes.

Lance R. McMahon, Ph.D., is the Executive Vice President for Research and Innovation at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center. He is currently Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences in the Jerry H. Hodge School of Pharmacy and Professor of Medical Education in the School of Medicine. He is chair of the TTUHSC Research Council, member of the Texas Tech Research Park Board, and member of the Steering Committee of the Center for Translational Neuroscience and Therapeutics. Dr. McMahon is committed to TTUHSC’s vision to transform healthcare through innovation and collaboration, focusing on advancements in cancer, neuroscience, infectious disease, and cardiometabolic disorders.

Dr. McMahon serves on the Department of Defense Chronic Pain Management Programmatic Panel of the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program, and he has served as regular and ad hoc study section member of the National Institutes of Health Center for Scientific Review.  He has secured $23M in NIH funding for his research in behavioral pharmacology and central nervous system (CNS) drug discovery and development and has published 133 peer-reviewed publications focusing on drugs acting upon the CNS. He has held leadership positions within the American Society of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics and the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists, and has served as editor for peer-reviewed journals. Dr. McMahon received his PhD degree from the Department of Psychology at Texas A&M University.

Dr. McMahon builds strategic research partnerships by fostering a collegial spirit, shared vision, and strategic investment of university funds. TTUHSC is a Hispanic-serving, Carnegie-classified research university, and is proud of its world-class faculty and doctoral trainees who have worked together to secure TTUHSC’s position as a global leader in academic health-related research.