Announcement

September 23, 2021

Judy and Peter Blum Kovler Fellowship Program to Support NIMHD’s Efforts to Address Minority Health and Health Disparities

The National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) is pleased to announce the recipient of its Judy and Peter Blum Kovler Foundation Intramural Fellowship award.

Following a national search and highly selective competition, Gargya Malla, M.D., M.P.H., Ph.D. was selected for this prestigious honor. Dr. Malla recently completed her Ph.D. in epidemiology from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She will work within NIMHD’s Intramural Program, which leverages expertise around social determinants of health, social-behavioral sciences, population epidemiology, genetics, digital interventions and mechanisms of health disparities.

Dr. Malla’s research focuses on social determinants of cardiovascular disease and includes a multilevel framework that assesses individual factors (e.g., education, race/ethnicity), as well as contextual and structural factors (e.g., rurality, built environment) as determinants of cardiovascular conditions (e.g., coronary heart disease, heart failure and stroke). She has also contributed to several other research projects focused on multilevel influences on health.

The fellowship provides one year of mentorship and training from NIMHD’s leadership and minority health and health disparities researchers. In addition, Dr. Malla will work with the Community Engagement Alliance (CEAL) Against COVID-19 Disparities initiative—an NIH-wide effort led by NIMHD and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) that focuses on community-based research, outreach and community engagement efforts to reach ethnic and racial minority communities affected disproportionately by the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Malla will begin her appointment in September 2021.

The Intramural Fellow will also:

• Engage with and leverage the NIMHD intramural program research, taking advantage of opportunities to conduct research on COVID-19.
• Focus on outreach, education and engagement with community-based organizations and key stakeholders to support the science and dissemination of research and best practices in addressing minority health and health disparities.

The Judy and Peter Blum Kovler Foundation was founded in 1957 and is based in Washington, DC. The Foundation gives primarily for social services, Jewish welfare funds, higher education, health services and medical research, and cultural programs. It also supports youth and child welfare agencies and public interest and civic affairs groups. The Judy and Peter Blum Kovler Foundation provided funding to the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH), enabling NIMHD to bestow the award to a deserving scientist. Judy Lansing Kovler, Ph.D., is a member of the FNIH Board of Directors.

Page updated September 23, 2021