Dr. Hugo Vilchis is the Director of the Border Epidemiology & Environmental Health Center at New Mexico State University. He is Associate Professor at New Mexico State University with the Health Science Department (College of Health and Social Services) and with the Molecular Biology Graduate program. He is also a Professor at El Colegio de Chihuahua and the Universidad Autónoma de Coahuila, higher education and research institutions in Mexico.

He obtained his medical degree from the National Autonomous University of Mexico in 1982 and his MPH from the School of Public Health of Mexico in 1985. Dr. Vilchis studied Epidemiology and Surveillance in Brazil in 1986.

Dr. Vilchis' public health career started in Mexico City in 1980 working for the General Directorate of Epidemiology, Mexican Secretary of Health. He was Department Chief of the National Immunization Programs in Mexico and during his tenure, children immunization rates rose to 90%. In 1989, he was appointed to the Pan American Health Organization, first as the National Advisor for the Immunization Program in Mexico and in 1992 as the Medical Epidemiologist of the Field Office in El Paso, Texas. In 1996, Dr. Vilchis joined New Mexico State University and the NM Office of Border Health, where he developed the Border Epidemiology & Environmental Health Center.

He has been working on many different projects involving epidemiology, surveillance, community health, and international health. Dr. Vilchis obtained his expertise working in the United States and Latin American countries like Mexico, Brazil, and Guatemala, among many others.