NIH Health Disparities Interest Group Inaugural Workshop

Paula Braveman, M.D., M.P.H.
Dr. Paula Braveman is a professor of family and community medicine and founding director of the Center for Health Equity at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Braveman has studied and published extensively on health equity, health disparities, racism, and other social determinants of health. Throughout her career, she has collaborated with local, state, national, and international health agencies to see rigorous research translated into practice for greater health equity.

Janine Austin Clayton, M.D.
Dr. Janine Austin Clayton is the Associate Director for Research on Women’s Health and Director of the Office of Research on Women’s Health at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Dr. Clayton is the architect of the NIH policy requiring scientists to consider sex as a biological variable across the research spectrum, part of NIH’s initiative to enhance reproducibility through rigor and transparency. As co-chair of the NIH Working Group on Women in Biomedical Careers, Dr. Clayton also leads NIH’s efforts to advance women in science careers.

James Collins, Jr., M.D., M.P.H.
Dr. James Collins, Jr., is a professor of pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and the medical director of the neonatal intensive care unit and the associate director of the pediatric residency program at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago. Dr. Collins has authored numerous research articles and is a frequent lecturer on issues related to racial and ethnic group disparities in adverse birth outcomes.

Evelyn Gallego, M.B.A., M.P.H., CPHIMS
Ms. Evelyn Gallego is the CEO and founder of EMI Advisors LLC, whose mission is to deliver value-driven health data management advisory services to both government and commercial clients. Ms. Gallego provides specialized expertise in digital health interoperability and health policy, with a focus on alignment of regulatory, technical, and process improvement requirements. She is the program manager for the HL7 Gravity Project.

Rachel Gold, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Dr. Rachel Gold is an epidemiologist and health services researcher. Her work focuses on how health information technology can be harnessed to address health disparities experienced by patients served in safety net clinics, and the implementation methods needed to support clinics adopting such technologies. Dr. Gold currently has a joint appointment at the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research and OCHIN, where she is the lead research scientist and works to support research conducted in OCHIN’s member safety net clinics.

Scarlett Lin Gomez, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Dr. Scarlett Lin Gomez is a professor and vice chair for faculty development in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics and a member of the Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of California, San Francisco, where she is co-leader of the Cancer Control Program and a member of the Prostate Cancer Program Leadership Committee. Her research focuses primarily on cancer health disparities/inequities and aims to understand the multilevel drivers of those disparities.

Patricia Keenan, Ph.D.
Dr. Patricia Keenan is a senior researcher at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), where she has worked since 2014. Dr. Keenan currently leads AHRQ’s Social Determinants of Health Database project, funded by the Office of the Secretary-Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Trust Fund. Previously, she was deputy director of the Division of Health Policy at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. She has a Ph.D. in health policy from Harvard University.

Daphne Martschenko, Ph.D.
Dr. Daphne Martschenko is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics and a co-organizer of the international Race, Empire, and Education Research Collective. Dr. Martschenko’s research uses sociological approaches to investigate the ethical and social implications of genetics/genomics with a focus on race and racism.

Karen L. Parker, Ph.D., M.S.W.
Dr. Karen L. Parker is Director of the Sexual & Gender Minority Research Office (SGMRO) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Dr. Parker serves as co-chair of the trans-NIH Sexual and Gender Minority Research Coordinating Committee, the NIH SGM Research Working Group of the Council of Councils, and the NIH Office of the Director Equity Council. She also serves as executive director of the Department of Health and Human Services LGBTQI+ Coordinating Committee.

Jenny Tung, Ph.D.
Dr. Jenny Tung is a professor of evolutionary anthropology and biology at Duke University and director of the Department of Primate Behavior and Evolution at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. She is also an affiliate of the Duke Population Research Institute and the Duke Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development. Dr. Tung’s research focuses on the intersection between behavior, social structure, and genes, including how the social environment influences gene regulation, population genetic structure, and health and survival across the life course.

Monica Webb Hooper, Ph.D.
Dr. Monica Webb Hooper is Deputy Director of the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities. She works closely with the Director and leadership to oversee all aspects of the institute and to advance the mission of promoting the health of populations with health disparities and health equity.

Shannon Zenk, Ph.D., M.P.H., R.N., FAAN
Dr. Sharon Zenk is Director of the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR). She joined NINR in September 2020, following a 14-year career as a faculty member at the University of Illinois Chicago College of Nursing and Institute for Health Research and Policy. With a background in nursing and public health, Dr. Zenk’s research focuses on community environments as a social determinant of health and health inequities. She and her team conducted pioneering research on food deserts in the United States.

Constanza Camargo, Ph.D., M.S., M.H.A.
Dr. Constanza Camargo is an Earl Stadtman Tenure-Track Investigator in the Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics at the National Cancer Institute. Her research focuses on Helicobacter pylori infection, premalignant gastric lesions, and gastric cancer. Dr. Camargo’s program combines studies on cancer causation with projects that may have translational application for cancer screening, prevention, and treatment.

Kelvin Choi, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Dr. Kelvin Choi is a senior investigator and head of the Tobacco-Related Disparities and Control Lab at the Social and Behavioral Sciences Branch in the Division of Intramural Research at the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities. Dr. Choi’s research focuses on the interrelationship between social determinants and tobacco use in the U.S., factors that reduce or worsen tobacco use disparities, and the impact of tobacco control intervention on tobacco use disparities.

Sharon H. Jackson, M.D., FAAP
Dr. Sharon H. Jackson joined NIMHD’s Division of Intramural Research in 2013 as an investigator. Dr. Jackson is an active NIH intramural physician-scientist and maintains clinical responsibilities at the NIH Clinical Center. She has senior level expertise in immunology, pediatrics, and translational research. Dr. Jackson has leveraged her expertise in basic science, and her clinical experience, to transition to population research that examines the influence of social, behavioral and environmental factors on clinical outcomes.

Jenna Norton, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Dr. Jenna Norton is a program director at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, where she oversees community-based health equity research on kidney disease and urologic conditions, with emphasis on social determinants of health, population health, and health information technology.

Miya Whitaker, Psy.D., M.A.
Dr. Miya Whitaker is a health scientist administrator (program officer) in the Office of Research on Women’s Health at the National Institutes of Health. She leads the Research on the Health of Women of Understudied, Underrepresented and Underreported (U3) Populations Administrative Supplement Program. Dr. Whitaker is passionate about the advancement of integrated health equity solutions in minoritized communities with an emphasis on action on structural and social determinants of health.