Farhat To Direct NIMHD Office

Dr. Tilda Farhat has been named director of the Office of Strategic Planning, Legislation and Scientific Policy at the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities. The office will soon be called the Office of Science Policy, Planning, Evaluation and Reporting.

Farhat will oversee NIMHD’s science policy, scientific reporting, strategic planning, program evaluation, data management and analyses. She will collaborate with staff across NIMHD to uncover scientific gaps, identify research opportunities and facilitate informed decision-making to promote minority health and health disparities research. 

Prior to this role, she has served as a health scientist administrator and lead for the data, analysis, resources and evaluation team in the office.

Farhat came to NIMHD from the National Cancer Institute, where, as a program director at the Center to Reduce Cancer Health Disparities, she managed a portfolio of biomedical and behavioral research programs designed to reduce disparities in cancer prevention, diagnosis, treatment and survivorship. She also provided expertise in monitoring and evaluation of program performance and effectiveness in addressing cancer health disparities. 

Prior to NCI, her research at NICHD’s Division of Intramural Population Health Research examined adolescent and young adult health nationally and internationally through an ecological and developmental perspective.

Farhat’s research and areas of interest focus on behavioral and social epidemiology, intervention research for behavior change, adolescent and young adult health, social, ecological and developmental perspectives on health and health disparities, as well as global health. Her public health programmatic and research experience ranges from conducting nationally representative, population-based surveillance and cohort studies examining multilevel influences on health and health disparities, to developing and evaluating interventions to improve health.

Farhat received her Ph.D. in health behavior from the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and completed a fellowship in population studies at UNC’s Carolina Population Center. She also earned certificates in international development (UNC) and population policy communication (Population Reference Bureau). 

Farhat received an M.P.H. in epidemiology and biostatistics and a B.S. in environmental health from the American University of Beirut.