NIMHD Director’s Seminar Series
November 2019

The National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities is pleased to welcome Dr. Denise Dillard as the next NIMHD Director’s Seminar Series speaker. Dr. Dillard will speak on “Genetic Research with Alaska Native People: Lessons and Future Possibilities.”

The objectives of Dr. Dillard’s presentation will include

• Lessons learned over a decade of engaging with the Alaska Native community about the ethical, legal, and social implications of genetic research
• Findings from recent and current genetic research underway by Southcentral Foundation, a tribal health organization in Anchorage, Alaska
• Thoughts about how to increase the participation of individuals from groups typically underrepresented in genetic research

Denise Dillard, Ph.D., is an Inupiaq Eskimo, born and raised in Alaska. She is the director of research for Southcentral Foundation, a tribal health organization which provides primary health care services for 65,000 Alaska Native and American Indian people. She interfaces directly with tribal leadership as they consider approval of research occurring in southcentral Alaska and has expanded the Southcentral Foundation Research Department from a staff of 10 to 25 employees, of which 75% are Alaska Native or American Indian. She has led a diverse portfolio of studies to address the wide-ranging health and research needs of the community served. She has served as the principal investigator (PI) of projects focused on behavioral health, diabetes, and cancer screening, as well as the ethics and translational potential of research in which genetic and biological samples are collected. She has co-led several pharmacogenetic studies as part of the Northwest Pharmacogenetic Research Network and is the current co-PI of an R01 study, which will examine how diet and the CPT1A genetic variant interact to affect the health of Alaska Native infants. In 2015, Dr. Dillard was nominated by the King Island Tribal Council to serve on the National Institutes of Health Tribal Advisory Committee, first as the Alaska delegate and now as a Member at Large.

Additional Information:

There is limited parking on the NIH campus. The closest Metro is Medical Center. NIH Campus shuttle service is available from the metro for NIH employees and visitor. Please allow adequate time for security check. The seminar will be videocast and made available in the NIH Video archives and on the NIMHD website after the seminar. Sign language interpreters will be provided. Individuals with disabilities who need reasonable accommodation to participate should contact Edgar Dews at 301-402-1366 or the Federal Relay at 1-800-877-8339.