Eli Heath
STUDENT REGENT
Eli Heath was appointed as Student Regent for the Board of Regents of the Texas Tech University System (TTU System) on May 30, 2025, by Gov. Greg Abbott. Heath serves on the Academic, Clinical and Student Affairs Committee. His one-year term began on June 1, 2025, and will expire on May 31, 2026.
Heath is an undergraduate in the Honors College at Texas Tech University (TTU). He is pursuing a bachelor’s degree from the Department of Chemical Engineering in the Edward E. Whitacre College of Engineering (Whitacre College of Engineering), with minors in bioengineering, biology and chemistry. He is a National Merit Scholar and graduated at the top of his class from Flower Mound High School in Flower Mound, Texas.
Heath served in multiple sessions of the TTU Student Government Association, during which he authored and passed legislation on a wide range of issues, including transportation reform, academic policy and student representation in city governance. For his impact, he was named the 60th Session’s Senator of the Year. Heath currently serves on the Student Board of Directors for the Texas Tech University System Health Policy and Public Health Think Tank, shaping innovative policy approaches to critical regional health challenges.
Equally committed to service, Heath coordinates weekly free medical clinics, helping to provide care to homeless and low-income individuals residing in Lubbock. He is also a mentor with the Bayless Elementary Mentoring Program, an Honors College Ambassador and a volunteer Health Unit Assistant at University Medical Center.
Heath's active involvement in research spans both laboratory science and population health at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center. He serves as a research intern in the lab of Sharilyn Almodovar, Ph.D., in the Department of Immunology and Molecular Microbiology, where he investigates the role of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in pulmonary vascular pathogenesis. His collaborative research, funded by the National Institutes of Health, has been featured in international peer-reviewed scientific journals and several national and regional conferences. As a project lead for research under Duke Appiah, Ph.D., MPH, in the Department of Public Health, Heath leads public health studies on cardiovascular disease risk in the underserved communities of West Texas. During the summer of 2025, he continued his research efforts at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center as an intern in the Therapeutics Discovery Division.
Heath has earned multiple awards and scholarships at TTU, including the Undergraduate Outstanding Performance Award from the College of Arts & Sciences, the Texas Tech Volunteer of the Year from University Student Housing and the James E. Sowell Endowed Engineering Scholarship from the Whitacre College of Engineering, which supported his study abroad experience in Rome, Italy in the summer of 2024. He was also recognized among the Top Ten First-Year Students by TTU’s Mortar Board Forum Chapter and has been named to the President’s List every semester.
Heath is the 20th student to serve on the Board of Regents and the seventh student from TTU to hold the position.