Award-Winning NIH Administrator Appointed Deputy
Director at National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities
Joyce A. Hunter, Ph.D., a cardiovascular physiologist and award-winning
administrator at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will serve
as deputy director, National Center on Minority Health and Health
Disparities (NCMHD), NIH.
“Dr. Hunter’s long experience in managing research programs at
the NIH make her perfectly suited to be my deputy and to direct
the day-to-day operations of the NCMHD,” said Dr. John Ruffin,
Director, NCMHD, NIH, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services,
Bethesda, MD. “Her hire marks a crucial step in fulfilling our
mission to promote minority health and to foster, coordinate, support
and assess the NIH effort to ultimately eliminate health disparities.
“I believe strongly in the NCMHD mission,” said Dr. Hunter. “I
plan to draw upon the almost 18 years of experience I have participating
in NIH extramural programs that fund research universities and
medical schools to help the NCMHD realize its vision to ensure
that all populations in America will have an equal opportunity
to live long, healthy and productive lives.”
Hunter is a recognized expert on NIH extramural policies and has
an extensive career in program and scientific review administration.
Prior to joining the NCMHD, Hunter served as deputy director in
the Division of Extramural Activities at the National Institute
of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), where she
coordinated scientific program policies that governed clinical
research. She began her NIH career at the National Heart, Lung,
and Blood Institute where she steadily progressed from being a
program officer to chief of the Vascular Research Training and
Career Development Group, a scientific review administrator, and
later, section chief of the Contracts, Clinical Studies and Training
Scientific Review Section.
Throughout her NIH career, Hunter has served as a member or chair
of many key extramural program management committees and workgroups,
including the NIH Response to the Office for Human Research Protections
for Tissue Specimen Coding, the development of the NIH-Veterans
Affairs Memorandum of Understanding on Tissue Banking and the Human
Subjects Protection Liaison Committee. Hunter gives presentations
and conducts workshops several times a year on behalf of the Office
of the Director, NIH, at regional, national and international meetings.
Her achievements have earned her the highest awards at the NIH
for leadership and service. She has on several occasions received
the NIH Director’s Award, NIH Award of Merit and the NIDDK
Merit Award. In addition, Hunter has received international
recognition from the Bolivian-American Medical Society, Inc., for
her work contributing to the development of minority scientists.
“Dr. Hunter is a great example of how people can grow professionally
within the NIH,” said Dr. Ruffin. “I hope that hiring a person
who has been able to move up the ranks from a program officer to
a deputy director of an Institute/Center sends a positive message
to the entire staff at the NIH.”
Hunter received a bachelor’s degree in biology from Dillard University
in New Orleans, LA. While attending Dillard, she participated in
the National Institute of General Medical Sciences-sponsored Minority
Biomedical Support Program. Hunter received her doctorate in physiology
from Howard University, Washington, D.C. As a pre-doctoral trainee
on a National Research Service Award Institutional Training Grant
she received specialty training in Cardiovascular (Cardiac Mechanics)
Physiology. She was also an American Physiological Society Porter
Fellow. Her research focused on the relationship between myocardial
wall stress and structure/function changes associated with left
ventricular hypertrophy resulting from induced renovascular hypertension.
“Hypertension is prevalent in my family. Growing up, everybody — aunts,
cousins — everybody had high blood pressure,” says Hunter. “My
brother, an athlete, was diagnosed with hypertension and started
medication at the age of 22. So, as a child I was fascinated with
the disease and wanted to find a cure for hypertension, which is
running rampant in many minority communities. These experiences
have driven my career path, guiding my academic work in cardiovascular
disease and my administrative work in eliminating health disparities.”
The NCMHD (http://www.ncmhd.nih.gov)
is a component of the NIH. The NCMHD promotes minority health and
leads, coordinates, supports and assesses the NIH effort to eliminate
health disparities. The NCMHD programs focus on expanding the nation’s
ability to conduct research and to build a diverse, culturally-competent
research workforce to eliminate health disparities.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) — The Nation's
Medical Research Agency — includes 27 Institutes and
Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services. It is the primary federal agency for conducting
and supporting basic, clinical and translational medical research,
and it investigates the causes, treatments, and cures for both
common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and
its programs, visit www.nih.gov.
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