January 12, 2001
Ruffin Sworn-in as New NIH Center Head
John Ruffin, Ph.D., was sworn-in Jan. 9 as the first Director of the newly-established National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NCMHD) at the National Institutes of Health. The new center will conduct and support research, training, dissemination of information, and other programs about minority health conditions and about populations with health disparities.
The new center will continue the legacy of the NIH Office of Research on Minority Health in partnering with the NIH institutes and other centers to support programs of health disparities research with a focus on basic and clinical research, training, and the dissemination of health information. In particular, the NCMHD will serve as the focal point for coordinating and focusing the minority health disparities research and other health disparities research programs at the NIH into a national health research agenda.
In 1990, Dr. Ruffin was appointed as the first Associate Director for Research on Minority Health at the NIH. Dr. Ruffin received his Baccalaureate Degree from Dillard University (New Orleans) and Master's Degree from Atlanta University. He earned a Ph.D. at Kansas State University (Manhattan) in Systematic and Developmental Biology, followed by Postdoctoral Studies at Harvard University.
