The adjunct faculty of the NIMHD/DIR includes three tenured investigators, two tenure-track Stadtman investigators, and one senior level assistant clinical investigator. A brief description of the adjunct faculty is provided below: Fasil Tekola Ayele, M.P.H., Ph.D. is an Earl Stadman Tenure-Track Investigator, jointly supported by NIMHD and NICHD/DIPHR/DIR. He was recently appointed as an Adjunct Investigator/Postdoctoral IRTA fellow to the NIMHD/DIR. Dr. Tekola's research interests are in the area of genetic and chronic disease (i.e., diabetes and cardiovascular) epidemiology, the early origins of health disparity and population health; more globally. Dr. Tekola received his Ph.D. in Genetic Epidemiology from the Brighton and Sussex Medical School, Universities of Brighton and Sussex, UK in 2010. Chandra Jackson, Ph.D. M.S. is an Earl Stadman Tenure-Track Investigator, jointly supported by NIMHD and NIEHS. She was recently appointed as an Adjunct Investigator to the NIMHD/DIR. Dr. Jackson's research interests are dietary and lifestyle factors (e.g. sleep) as major, modifiable contributors to racial/ethnic and socioeconomic health disparities in chronic diseases related to the cardiovascular system. Dr. Jackson received her Ph.D. in Epidemiology from the Johns Hopkins University in 2012. Anne Sumner, M.D. is a Senior Investigator and Chief, Section on Ethnicity and Health, Diabetes, Endocrinology, and Obesity Branch, NIDDK. She was appointed as an Adjunct Investigator for the NIMHD/DIR in 2015. Her research interests include design of screening tests and early interventions to decrease the impact of the diabetes and heart disease epidemic that is now occurring in populations of African descent worldwide. Michele Evans, M.D. is the Deputy Scientific Director, Senior Investigator and Chief, Disparities Research Section, Laboratory of Epidemiology and Population Sciences, NIA. She was appointed as an Adjunct Investigator to the NIMHD/DIR in 2016. Dr. Evans's research interests include investigating the role of oxidative stress in populations at risk for health disparities, with particular interest in studying damage-associated molecular pattern (DAMPS). In addition, her work explores the role of circulating mitochondrial DNA in the inflammatory state, aging, and health disparities associated conditions. Tiffany Powell-Wiley, M.D., M.P.H. is an Assistant Clinical Investigator, Social Determinants of Obesity and Cardiovascular Risk, NHLBI. She was appointed as an Adjunct Investigator for the NIMHD/DIR 2016. She is now a Stadtman Fellow. Dr. Powell-Wiley's research interests include investigating the social determinants of obesity and obesity-related cardiovascular risk factors that contribute to racial and ethnic disparities in cardiovascular disease. Also, exploring the relationship between neighborhood environment and the development of obesity in an effort to improve the design of an intervention targeting obesity and CV risk. Kevin Gardner, M.D., Ph.D. is a Senior Investigator in the Genetics Branch, Center for Cancer Research, NCI. His laboratory studies chromatin-based mechanisms of transcriptional control and how they govern gene expression programs in response to extrinsic and intrinsic environmental clues during health and disease. To accomplish this, his lab has focused on the mechanisms of gene regulatory control by transcriptional co-regulators. Generically these are transcriptional regulators that do not bind to DNA specifically but are recruited to gene regulatory regions by DNA-specific transcription factors to change or modify chromatin accessibility to facilitate or prevent the assembly of the basal transcriptional machinery that controls gene expression. Thus a major research focus in the lab is the role of epigenetic modifications in the control of gene expression and cellular phenotypic change. His group studies several different cellular systems that are relevant to lymphoid and epithelial malignancies. The most recent concentration has been on gene regulatory processes important in the evolution of leukemia and the mechanisms of breast cancer tumor initiation and progression. Using these approaches, in combination with his perspective as a pathologist, he has developed a research program that incorporates molecular, biochemical, and cell biological methodology with genome-wide bioinformatics and computational technology. Publications for the Adjunct Faculty may be viewed from this link https://nimhd.nih.gov/programs/intramural/adjunct-faculty/
