Mona Fouad, M.D., MPH
Mona Fouad, MD, MPH is Professor of Medicine, Director of the Division of Preventive Medicine, Edward E. Partridge, M.D., Endowed Chair for Cancer Disparity Research, and Senior Associate Dean for Diversity and Inclusion in the Heersink School of Medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Dr. Fouad is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and is recognized nationally as a leader in health disparities research. She served as a member of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Advisory Council on Minority Health and Health Disparities from 2008-2012. Also. Dr. Fouad was selected as the UAB 2018 Distinguished Faculty Lecturer for advancing the frontiers of science and outstanding contributions to education, research and public service. Dr. Fouad obtained her MD from Alexandria University School of Medicine in Alexandria, Egypt, and her MPH from the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Public Health.
Dr. Fouad has contributed to the science of health disparities through major studies to identify variability in cancer care and outcomes based on race, gender, age, and social determinants of health. She has developed nationally emulated models in recruitment and retention of minorities in clinical trials and innovative community-based approaches to reducing racial disparities in breast and cervical cancer, and chronic diseases prevention and control. Further, Dr. Fouad understands the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion in healthcare and health research. To that end, she has led several research, education, mentoring, and training efforts aimed at increasing diversity, promoting a diverse workforce, and health equity.
Timothy Turner, PhD
Dr. Timothy Turner is Associate VP for Research in the Center for Biomedical Research at Tuskegee University (TU). He received his B.S. degree in biology from Jackson State University, Jackson MS. His cancer research career started at the University of California, Berkeley where he received his PhD in Endocrinology and Tumor Biology. Dr. Turner conducted postdoctoral training in Developmental Biology in the Department of Pathology at the University of California at San Francisco and in Molecular Biology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). His research interests focus on identifying and disrupting signaling mechanisms involved the progression of prostate cancer to its invasive and metastatic stages.
Over his career, Dr. Turner has been the recipient of several research, education, and community honors and awards. In addition to being one of the multiple PIs (MPI) on the UAB/TU FIRST Partnership, he is a MPI on the Morehouse School of Medicine/Tuskegee University/University of Alabama at Birmingham O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center U54 Cancer Partnership, and MPI on the TU Center for Biomedical Research/Research Centers in Minority Institutions. In his position as Associate VP for Research, his mandate is to increase the biomedical and health disparity research on Tuskegee’s campus. He plans to use his extensive scientific expertise and administrative leadership experience to support, guide and assist TU’s scientists in taking their research ideas and turning them into actuality.
Raegan Durant, M.D., MPH
Dr. Durant is a Professor of Medicine in the Division of Preventive Medicine in the Heersink School of Medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). He is a Montgomery, Alabama native and attended college at Howard University. He attended the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, MD, followed by residency training in Internal Medicine at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, NC. Dr. Durant completed a general internal medicine fellowship at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and the Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA.
During his fellowship, he also received a Master’s degree in Public Health from the Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Durant is also the Associate Dean of Diversity and Inclusion at the Heersink School of Medicine at UAB. As a clinician investigator, Dr. Durant’s research is focused on racial disparities in cardiovascular disease outcomes, minority participation in clinical trials, and diversification of the health disparities research workforce. In addition to his research, Dr. Durant serves as Medical Director at Cooper Green Mercy Health Services Authority.
