Five Blacks Elected Members of the Institute of Medicine

Although no official data is available by race, JBHE research has shown that blacks have almost no presence among the memberships of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering.

But the third branch of the National Academies, the Institute of Medicine, appears to have a larger representation of African Americans. Again, while there is no official data by race on the 1,517 members of the Institute of Medicine, JBHE research has found that five of the 65 new inductees to the institute are black.

Here are brief biographies of the five new black members of the Institute of Medicine:

Lucile L. Adams-Campbell is an epidemiologist who specializes in community health research, interventions, and outreach. She is associate director for minority health and health disparities research at Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

Lisa A. Cooper is a professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. She is an epidemiologist whose research involves doctor/patient relationships and racial disparities in health.

James E.K. Hildreth is the director of the Center for AIDS Health Disparities Research and professor of internal medicine at Meharry Medical College in Nashville. He also is an adjunct professor of pharmacology and molecular sciences at Johns Hopkins.

Juanita L. Merchant is a professor of internal medicine and molecular and integrative physiology at the University of Michigan. She received her medical training and holds a Ph.D. from Yale University.

Olufunmilayo I. Olopade is the Walter L. Palmer Distinguished Service Professor in Medicine and Human Genetics and founding director of the Center for Clinical Cancer Genetics at the University of Chicago.

Copyright © 2008. The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. All rights reserved.