Mona Fouad, MD, MPH

Director, Minority Health & Health Disparities Research Center
Leader, MHRC Participant Access Core
Co-principal Investigator, MHDRC
Professor, Division of Preventive Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham

Dr. Fouad is a Professor in the UAB Division of Preventive Medicine, Director of the UAB Minority Health and Research Center, and Senior Scientist in the Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Center for Aging at UAB.

Dr. Fouad is the Principal Investigator on numerous federal grants that bring to UAB over 40 million dollars plus 18 million in other grants where she is co-principal investigator. Most of these grants carry a common theme of improving health and preventing disease for minorities. She is the PI for the UAB Minority Screening Center of the NCI-funded “Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, Ovarian Cancer (PLCO) Screening Trial” and the National Lung Screening Trial (NLST). She is also the PI for the CDC-funded project entitled, “Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health by the Year 2010” and the Avon Foundation Breast Cancer Patient Navigation Project. These projects rely heavily on the active participation of the community through the establishment of community volunteers’ networks to improve health in the community. For example, the Community Health Advisor (CHA) model trains lay individuals in health promotion, disease prevention, the adoption of healthy behaviors, and the development of community resources towards improved health and decreased disparities. Through Dr. Fouad’s leadership, hundreds of CHAs, mostly but not exclusively older African-American women, have been trained to become advocates for health, and healthcare system navigators to eliminate health disparities in their communities.

Dr. Fouad also has played a prominent leadership role in the merging of 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 efforts, Dr. Fouad leads partnerships with Tuskegee University, Morehouse School of Medicine and multiple other HBCUs in Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi. Through these efforts, as well as by generously devoting time to trainees that she personally and successfully mentors, Dr. Fouad is making an enormous contribution to the next generation of leaders in the fight against health disparities.

Dr. Fouad’s long-standing efforts have been recognized nationally by receiving the American Medical Association’s (AMA) award in, 2005 in “Recognition of Excellence in Eliminating Health Disparities Award", and the Association of Academic Health Centers (AHC) Sullivan Best Practice Award in recognition of outstanding work to reduce health disparities in the United States, October 2004. She was also recognized by receiving the 2004 Odessa Woolfolk Community Service Award, April 2004. Ms. Woolfolk in one of the main founders of the Birmingham Civil Right Institute. In 2004, Dr. Fouad was appointed by the Governor of the State of Alabama to co-chair the Black Belt Action Commission (BBAC) Health Initiative.

Dr. Fouad is the founding Director of the Minority Health and Research Center, a developmental interdisciplinary campus-wide Center. This Center has Community Outreach as one of its major emphases and represents yet another milestone in a career that has a pioneering quality of combining traditional academic pursuits (research and education) with a major dedication to community service.

Through this work, Dr. Fouad has developed a strong interest in minority health specifically in the area of health disparities.