Advancing careers with help from the MAO

The MGH Multicultural Affairs Office (MAO) established the Minority Faculty Development Awards program to aid researchers like Sherri-Ann M. Burnett-Bowie, MD, MPH.

In 2005, Burnett-Bowie, a member of the MGH Endocrine Unit, received a Physician-Scientist Development Award through the program, which was established to advance the careers of junior faculty underrepresented in the field of medicine. The funding from the four-year grant enabled Burnett-Bowie to begin a clinical study exploring the relationship between low levels of vitamin D and the risk of developing diabetes, work that has important implications for future research on the disease. According to Burnett-Bowie, that support has made a significant impact on her career and has enabled her to receive additional funding from the National Institutes of Health. "Without the award, I simply would not have been able to conduct the study,"she says.

The Minority Faculty Development Awards program Ð funded by the President's Office, the Massachusetts General Physicians Organization (MGPO) and the MGH Executive Committee on Research — also offers a separate Clinician-Teacher Development Award for faculty pursuing the clinician-teacher track. On Sept. 5, current and past recipients of the Physician-Development Award and the Clinician-Teacher Development Award gathered for an event in the Trustees Room celebrating the awards program.

The event featured special recognition of current and past recipients of both awards. Recipients of the Clinician-Teacher Development Award were Alexy Arauz-Boudreau, MD; Juan Carl Pallais, MD, MPH; Bisola Ojikutu, MD, MPH; Marcela Del Carmen, MD, MPH; Rocio Hurtado, MD; Elliot Melendez, MD; and Celina Mankey, MD. Recipients of the Physician-Scientist Development Award were Burnett-Bowie; Jose Florez, MD, PhD; Miguel Rivera, MD; William Curry, MD; Aaron Styer, MD; and Karleyton Evans, MD, MSc. For more information about the Minority Faculty Development Awards or other MAO initiatives, visit www.mgh.harvard.edu/mao.

Back row, from left, Winfred Williams, MD, co-chair of the MAO Advisory Board; Burnett-Bowie; Styer; Rivera; Pallais; and Curry. Front row, from left, Florez; Del Carmen; Arauz-Boudreau; Evans; Mankey; and Ernesto Gonzalez, MD, associate director of MAO.