People in the news - July 2015

Dr. Walter J. Koroshetz

Koroshetz is selected to direct NIH's NINDS

Dr. Walter J. Koroshetz has been chosen to direct NIH's National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), after previously holding the posts of deputy and acting directors. He is the NIH point person for traumatic brain injury research and serves as an ex officio member of Fogarty's Advisory Board.

NIH appoints minority, health disparities director

Dr. Eliseo J. Pérez-Stable has been named director of the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD). A longtime NIH grantee, his support has included a grant through Fogarty's tobacco program. His most recent positions, at the University of California San Francisco, have included professor of medicine, chief of the Division of General Internal Medicine and director of the Center for Aging in Diverse Communities.

Dr. Eliseo J. Pérez-Stable

Dr. Peter H. Kilmarx

Fogarty welcomes CDC's Kilmarx as deputy director

Dr. Peter H. Kilmarx has joined Fogarty as its new deputy director. Most recently the CDC country director in Zimbabwe, he has been involved with the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the President's Malaria Initiative (PMI). He earlier held CDC positions in Botswana and Thailand and has been principal investigator on numerous tuberculosis and HIV clinical trials. He is a Captain in the Commissioned Corps of the U.S. Public Health Service.

• Read the full article, Dr Peter Kilmarx appointed Fogarty Deputy Director.

NIH's NIDA honors four global health scientists

The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) has recognized four researchers for their contributions to international drug abuse research and training.

Named for Excellence in Mentoring was Dr. Robert E. Booth, at the University of Colorado Denver, who has studied intravenous drug users in Ukraine.

Dr. Viviana E. Horigian, of the University of Miami, was recognized for Excellence in International Leadership. Her research has included drug abuse and problem behavior of minority youth in Argentina. Her current focus is family therapy for minority youth who abuse drugs and present problem behavior.

For Excellence in Collaborative Research, NIDA named Drs. Hendrée E. Jones and Gabriele Fischer. Jones is executive director of Horizons at the University of North Carolina, and Fischer is a professor at the Medical University of Vienna. They have partnered on numerous studies in the U.S. and Austria, examining maternal and neonatal impacts of opioids. In one recent multisite trial, they showed that newborns of mothers taking the opioid treatment buprenorphine had diminished withdrawal symptoms after birth compared with newborns of mothers on methadone. These findings have set the stage for a re-examination of 40 years of advice that pregnant women dependent on opioids should receive methadone during pregnancy.

Dr. Robert E. Booth

Dr. Hendrée E. Jones

Dr. Viviana E. Horigian

Dr. Gabriele Fischer