Distinguished Service Award
🏅 Honoring Outstanding Community Leadership
Each year, the Rotary Club of El Paso presents the Distinguished Service Award, our highest honor recognizing a local leader who exemplifies selfless service, integrity, and an enduring commitment to the betterment of our community.
2026 Honoree: Dr. Richard Lange
Richard Lange, M.D., M.B.A., is president of Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso. Texas Tech Health El Paso is the fourth and newest university in the Texas Tech University System. Before coming to Texas Tech Health El Paso, Dr. Lange served as vice chairman of medicine and director of educational programs at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center (UTHSC) at San Antonio since 2008. A tenured professor at UTHSC at San Antonio, he was formerly tenured and continues to hold a faculty appointment at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
Dr. Lange obtained his B.S. in biochemistry from the University of North Texas and M.D. from the University of Texas (UT) Southwestern Medical School in Dallas.
After completing his internship and residency training at Johns Hopkins Hospital, he returned to UT Southwestern for fellowship training in cardiology. He subsequently joined its faculty, where he became director of the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory. At UT Southwestern, he served for many years as the fellowship program director, held the Jonsson-Rogers Chair in Cardiology and was director of the Bernard and Audre Rapoport Center for Cardiovascular Research.
In January 2004, he returned to Johns Hopkins Hospital to serve as chief of Clinical Cardiology and the E. Cowles Andrus Professor and obtained his M.B.A.
He has been president of the American Heart Association Texas affiliate and an active and productive clinical investigator, publishing more than 300 journal articles and book chapters dealing with ischemic heart disease, valvular heart disease, and congenital heart disease in adults. He is on the editorial board of numerous journals and has served on several national writing guideline committees and the FDA Circulatory System Devices panel. He has received numerous teaching awards from students, residents, and fellows at UT Southwestern, Johns Hopkins, and UTHSC at San Antonio. He is credited with the first medical podcast, PodMED, which has been produced weekly in collaboration with Johns Hopkins for the past nine years.
🗓️ Luncheon Date: 06/18/2026
Location: The Foundation Room of the El Paso Community Foundation, 333 N Oregon St
Please RSVP – Meal prices are $50 for non-Rotarians. Please pay in advance here.
ℹ️ About the Distinguished Service Award
The Rotary Club of El Paso’s top annual recognition is heavily oriented toward community service, with criteria including:
Long-time resident of El Paso and well-known in the community for making significant contributions to the betterment of the city and/or an important segment of its population
Contributions can be easily identified and recognized
Actions in the public sphere are in general concert with the Four-Way Test
Integrity and character of the highest order