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Mona N. Fouad, MD, MPH
CARES Program Co-Director

Dr. Fouad is Professor and Director of the Division of Preventive Medicine, Senior Associate Dean for Diversity and Inclusion in the UAB Heersink School of Medicine, Founding Director of the Minority Health & Health Disparities Research Center (MHRC), and the Edward E. Partridge, M.D., Endowed Chair for Cancer Disparity Research. A member of the National Academy of Medicine and a prominent leader in promoting diversity and justice in medical education, Dr. Fouad has been a driving force in the UAB Heersink School of Medicine in implementing policies and programs promoting equity. She co-leads the administrative unit and provides a direct line of communication to Dean Vickers and other UAB Heersink School of Medicine Senior Associate Deans.

Dr. Mona Fouad 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 recognized nationally as a leader in health disparities research and served as a member of the National Institutes of Health National Advisory Council on Minority Health and Health Disparities from 2008-2012. In 2017, Dr. Fouad was elected a member of the National Academy of Medicine. She 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’s career at UAB began in 1991 and has focused on the health of minority and underserved populations, including efforts to increase involvement of special and underrepresented populations in research. She has played a prominent leadership role, both regionally and nationally, in promoting diversity in medical education. Dr. Fouad has led in the efforts to promote minority students, researchers, and leaders through joint programs with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and other minority-serving academic institutions. She serves as PI of the NIA-funded UAB Research in Aging through Mentorship and Practice – Undergraduate Program (UAB RAMP-UP), whose goal is to reduce health disparities in aging through the strengthening of the MSTEM pipeline, and as PI of the NIDDK-funded UAB STEP-UP: Promoting Diversity through Mentored Research Experiences, whose goal is to enhance the diversity of the nation’s research workforce by providing mentored research training to promising undergraduate students from diverse backgrounds underrepresented in biomedical, clinical and behavioral research.

Gregory Payne, MD, PhD
CARES Program Implementation

Dr. Payne is a physician-scientist and has served as a DRIVEN Co-Director for 2 years. As an Assistant Professor in Cardiology in the UAB Heersink School of Medicine, Dr. Payne studies novel inflammatory pathways in cardiovascular disease. Dr. Payne’s research has been nationally recognized, and he is an inaugural recipient of the American Heart Association-Harold Amos Medical Faculty Development Program Career Development Award. As Associate Director of the NIH-Funded Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) and member of the Physician Scientist Development Office (PSDO) at UAB, Dr. Payne will build upon his leadership of the DRIVEN Micro-grant program to co-lead program implementation of UAB COVID-19 CARES.

As a physician-scientist, Dr. Payne’s career has been defined by his determination to understand the early mechanisms of vascular disease that ultimately lead to cardiovascular deaths. As a trainee of both Medical Scientist and Physician Scientist Training Programs, he has gained unique translational scientific skills to investigate vascular and cellular biology. As an academic cardiologist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), Dr. Payne cares for patients with a variety of cardiovascular diseases. Furthermore, he leads a translational research program investigating novel inflammatory pathways that contribute to cardiovascular and cardiopulmonary diseases. Specifically, his team aims to understand how fragmentation of the extracellular matrix contributes to cardiovascular inflammation and vascular endothelial dysfunction. Since 2019, Dr. Payne has helped co-direct the Translational Research Program for Complex Cardiopulmonary Diseases at UAB. Dr. Payne is also responsible for developing the next generation of physician-scientists as the Associate Director of the UAB NIH-funded Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP). Through the AHA, Dr. Payne has been involved with career development as a member of the ATVB Early Career Committee. He has also championed the need for diversity in research through his involvement with the AHA-sponsored Harold Amos Medical Faculty Development (AHA/AMFDP) and Supporting Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) programs.

Bertha Hidalgo, PhD
CARES Program Implementation

Dr. Hidalgo is a genetic epidemiologist and has served as a DRIVEN Co-Director for 2 years. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Faculty Scholar in the Center for the Study of Community Health. Her research focuses on health disparities related to cardiometabolic diseases, with a special focus on Latinx populations and epigenomics. She has received research funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, American Heart Association, and the NIH. She will co-lead program implementation with Dr. Payne in coordinating the solicitation, review process, and selection of “extra hands” awardees.

Dr. Bertha Hidalgo an Associate Professor with tenure in the Department of Epidemiology. She holds degrees from Stanford University, the University of Southern California and the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Her research focuses health disparities related to COVID-19, cardiometabolic diseases, with a special focus on Latino populations and genomics. Dr. Hidalgo has a highly productive record of peer-reviewed research in relevant research areas with publications as lead or co-lead author in high-impact journals including Nature Scientific Reports, Diabetes, American Journal of Public Health, with 65 publications in total as lead, co-author or senior author. She is in her sixth year on the faculty at UAB and has attained research funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, NIH, the American Heart Association, and internal funding from UAB. Dr. Hidalgo is the past chair of the Minority Affairs committee and currently on the Board of Directors for the American College of Epidemiology, as well as a member on the NHLBI Board of External Experts. Dr. Hidalgo is also recipient of the 2019 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Early Career Achievement Award. Most recently, Dr. Hidalgo was awarded funding for the American Heart Association Institute for Cardiovascular Precision Medicine grant opportunity to increase prevention of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease in millennial women within underrepresented ethnic and racial groups

Dr. Becky Reamey has over 18 years of experience in curriculum design, program management, and teaching. She has a background in higher education student development with an emphasis in professional and workforce development. Her post-doctoral work was done at the University of Alabama in the Division of Community Affairs, Center for Community-Based Partnerships. In her current role, Dr. Reamey has developed the LEAD leadership development program and the Grant Writing Intensive (GRIT) cohort program. Her vision for the first Translational Training Symposium brought together over 85 investigators from across the CCTS Partner Network to train, network, and collaborate. She has developed curriculum and learning outcomes for the three of the regularly scheduled seminar training series offered by CCTS. She regularly speaks to groups about networking, presentation skills, team dynamics, and preparing grants. As Deputy Director of COERE, Dr. Reamey is excited to work with many researchers across UAB for training, education, and learning health system.

Katherine Meese, PhD
CARES Program Evaluation 

Dr. Meese is an Assistant Professor and Program Director in UAB’s Department of Health Services Administration and Director of Wellness Research within UAB Medicine Office of Wellness. She also leads the National Center for Health Care Leadership Well-Being initiative as the inaugural Chair of the Well-Being Council. During the pandemic, she led UAB Medicine’s evaluation of employee well-being to identify specific needs for various employee sub-groups through an all-employee survey. This data was used to inform university-wide resources and policies, including increased childcare resources. Dr. Meese will co-lead program evaluation.

Katherine A. Meese, Ph.D is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Services Administration at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She also serves as the Director of Wellness Research in the UAB Medicine Office of Wellness, Director for the Center for Healthcare Management and Leadership, and Program Director for the Graduate Certificate in Healthcare Leadership.  She earned her Ph.D in Health Services Administration with a specialization in strategic management from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and joined the faculty in 2020. Dr. Meese has several years of industry experience which encompassed work in ten countries on four continents, including management within a large academic medical center. She has co-authored two textbooks for organizational behavior in health care with Dr. Nancy Borkowski that are used in healthcare management programs across the country. Her research has been published in Anesthesia & Analgesia, Health Services Management Research, Journal of Health Administration Education, Health Care Management Review, and various other journals. Her research interests are in organizational behavior, leadership, well-being, and delivery models that enhance organizational learning.