Posted on April 28, 2004 at 12:18 p.m.

BIRMINGHAM, AL — Mona Fouad, M.D., UAB associate professor of preventive medicine, will receive the 2004 Odessa Woolfolk Community Service Award at 11:30 a.m. Friday, April 30, during the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) faculty convocation ceremony to be held in the Alys Stephens Center Sirote Theatre. The award was created to recognize faculty who render outstanding service to UAB’s community.

Fouad, director of the UAB Minority Health and Research Center and associate scientist in the Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Center for Aging at UAB, is the principal investigator on more than $40 million in federal research grants, most of which are directed at improving health and preventing disease for minorities.

Her career exemplifies a pioneering quality of combining traditional academic pursuits in research and education with a major dedication to community service. A letter nominating her for this award noted: “Dr. Fouad’s extraordinary work directly addresses racial/ethnic disparities in health care delivery, disease prevention, education and research. She has actively and successfully promoted the participation of minority populations in research … by building strong and lasting ties between UAB and the community it serves, ties that directly enrich the community as much as they serve the generation of new knowledge.”

Several of the projects Fouad directs rely heavily on community volunteer networks to improve health in their own communities. For example, the community health advisor (CHA) model trains lay individuals in health promotion, disease prevention, the adoption of healthy behaviors, as well as the development of community resources toward improved health and decreased disparities. Through Fouad’s leadership, hundreds of CHAs, mostly African-American women, have been trained to help eliminate health disparities in their own communities.

Fouad also has played a prominent leadership role in merging efforts of UAB and historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) to train minority researchers and leaders in the national effort to eliminate health disparities. Through formalized agreements and federally funded grants, she leads partnerships with Tuskegee University, Morehouse School of Medicine and multiple other HBCUs in Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi.

For her long-standing efforts, UAB named Fouad the founding director of the Minority Health and Research Center, a developmental interdisciplinary campuswide center that has community outreach as one of its major emphases.

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Image Size: 353 pixels by 480 pixels (1.2" by 1.6") Resolution: 300 dpi Format: JPEG (Grayscale) File Size: 92 KB Download Now! Caption: Mona Fouad, M.D. (pictured)), UAB associate professor of preventive medicine.