Ma Featured at Inaugural Seminar on AAPI Health Disparities, Sept. 23

On Thursday, Sept. 23, the NIH Asian Pacific Islander health scientific interest group (AAPI-HSIG) will host its inaugural seminar, “Health Disparities Research: Addressing Multilevel Social Determinants of Health in Asian American and Pacific Islander Populations,” at 11 a.m. ET. 

The virtual seminar will feature a lecture by Dr. Grace X. Ma, founding director of the Center for Asian Health (CAH). NIMHD director Dr. Eliseo J. Pérez-Stable will open the seminar, which is co-sponsored by NCI’s integrative medicine cancer health disparities working group. Dr. Dan Xi, program director at NCI who led efforts to establish AAPI-HSIG, will give a brief introduction of the mission, goals and vision of the group.

A pioneer in cancer and health disparities research, Ma has extensive experience conducting health system and population- and community-health research. She has made critical contributions toward reducing health disparities and improving health equity for underserved and racial/ethnic minority populations. She serves as associate dean for health disparities and Laura H. Carnell professor at Lewis Katz School of Medicine and Fox Chase Cancer Center at Temple University. 

In establishing CAH in 2000, Ma founded one of the nation’s first centers dedicated to reducing health disparities in underserved AAPI populations. 

To attend the webinar, register at https://cbiit.webex.com/cbiit/onstage/g.php?MTID=e66f9e8bd429a1c90c078345fc9d12ae5. The event is open to the public. 

AAPI-HSIG, newly established in 2021, is open to all participants in the intramural and extramural community, as well as HHS staff, who have an interest in research relating to the health of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, including Native Hawaiian populations. The group provides a forum to foster scientific communication, share and disseminate information, facilitate collaborations, provide education and training, assess the AAPI-health research funding portfolio and make recommendations to advance the NIH mission and improve the health and well-being of AAPI populations. 

For more information, visit https://oir.nih.gov/sigs/AAPI-HSIG. Questions? Contact Xi at xida@mail.nih.gov.