Date:  Oct. 9, 2006
Contacts:  Marie Michnich, Director
IOM Health Policy Educational Programs and Fellowships
202-334-1506; e-mail mmichnich@nas.edu
Christine Stencel, Media Relations Officer
Office of News and Public Information
202-334-2138; e-mail <news@nas.edu>

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

LISA BARCELLOS AND RODERICK KING NAMED AS INAUGURAL IOM ANNIVERSARY FELLOWS

WASHINGTON -- The Institute of Medicine has named two outstanding scientists as the first IOM Anniversary Fellows: Lisa F. Barcellos, assistant professor of epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, and Roderick K. King, senior faculty, Massachusetts General Hospital and instructor, department of social medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston.  Barcellos and King -- the first fellows to be selected through the new program created in 2005 to celebrate IOM’s 35th anniversary -- will be recognized at IOM’s annual meeting on Oct. 9.

The IOM Anniversary Fellows Program enables talented, early-career health science scholars to contribute to the work of IOM and to further their careers as future leaders in health and science policy.  For a two-year period, fellows are expected to devote between 10 percent and 20 percent of their time to participating actively in the work of an IOM study committee or roundtable while they continue work at their main academic posts.  Each fellow receives a research stipend of $25,000.

For the past 10 years, Barcellos, a genetic epidemiologist, has participated in the design, implementation, and interpretation of human genetic disease studies.  She has developed a strong research program funded by the National Institutes of Health that focuses on identifying genetic, social, and environmental risk factors for autoimmune diseases.  She is a co-investigator for the International Multiple Sclerosis Genetics Consortium as well as a member of the Kaiser Permanente Autoimmune Disease Research Group and of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society Task Force on Prospective Studies of Risk Factors in Multiple Sclerosis.  She also serves as a consultant for Celera Diagnostics of Alameda, Calif., the March of Dimes California Birth Defects Monitoring Program in Berkeley, and the Kaiser Permanente Program in Genes, Environment, and Health. 

Barcellos earned her doctoral degree in immunology from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1996.  She was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society in 1997.  During her postdoctoral work at the University of California, San Francisco, she received a training award through the Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women’s Health program sponsored by the National Institutes of Health.

King’s academic work and research interests focus on public health, disparities in health care, and leadership development in community-based organizations.  He is director of the Oral Health Foundation of Massachusetts and president of the Next Generation Consulting Group, which cultivates social entrepreneurship to build healthy communities.  As the former New England regional director for the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration -- the youngest regional director ever appointed -- he developed a performance evaluation system for the organization’s grants program and HRSA’s first Balanced Score Card, a management tool to help organizations assess their overall performance.  He also served as a commander in the U.S. Public Health Service of the Department of Health and Human Services. 

King earned his bachelor’s degree from Johns Hopkins University in 1987 and his medical degree from Cornell University Medical College in 1992.  In 1995 he received the Teachers for Africa Award from the International Foundation for Education and Self-Help and served as a senior lecturer at the University of Cape Coast, Ghana, providing instruction in public health to individuals caring for populations in rural areas.  He was selected in 1997 for the Minority Health Fellowship Program sponsored by the Commonwealth Fund and Harvard University and led a project to evaluate whether the U.S. Child Death Review could be used as an injury surveillance tool.

Supported by grants from the William Randolph Hearst Foundations and sanofi-aventis, the IOM Anniversary Fellows Program is open to social, clinical, and biological scientists who hold nontenured faculty positions in any university.  Fellows are selected on the basis of their professional accomplishments, potential for leadership in health policy, letters of recommendation, and expertise in an area of relevance to the IOM.  Fellows must be nominated by an IOM member.  Application packets and inquiries about the program should be directed to Marie E. Michnich, director, health policy educational programs and fellowships, at tel. 202-334-1506 or e-mail mmichnich@nas.edu.

Established in 1970 under the charter of the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine provides independent, objective, evidence-based advice to policymakers, health professionals, the private sector, and the public.  The National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, and National Research Council make up the National Academies.

[ This news release is available at HTTP://NATIONAL-ACADEMIES.ORG ]