January 14, 2005

BIRMINGHAM, AL — Dr. Mona Fouad, founding director of the Minority Health and Research Center at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), recently received the Sullivan Best Practice Award in Reducing Health Disparities in the United States. The national award was presented at the annual meeting of the Association of Academic Health Centers.

The award was created to recognize those who work toward eliminating health disparities among racial and ethnic minorities.

Fouad is the principal investigator on more than $40 million in federal grants that seek to improve health and prevent disease for minorities. The projects rely heavily on the establishment of community partnerships. She also has been a leader in the merging of efforts by UAB and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUAs) to train minority researchers and leaders in the national effort to eliminate health disparities. She is an organizer of the 1st Annual Minority Research Day to be held in Birmingham on April 18, for faculty, post-graduates and graduate students at UAB, HBCUAs and Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta.

Fouad, an associate professor of medicine in the Division of Preventive Medicine at UAB, joined the faculty in 1993 as research assistant professor. She also is director of the Recruitment and Retention Shared Facility.

She received her medical degree in 1977 from the Alexandria (Egypt) University School of Medicine, and the master’s in public health degree in 1986 from UAB.