NATIONAL LEADER IN HEALTH DISPARITIES JOINS THE ICRG SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY BOARD

Joyce (Joy) Balls-Berry, PhD, associate professor of neurology at Washington University School of Medicine and core leader for the newly established Health Disparities and Equity Core in the Knight ADRC, has joined the ICRG’s Scientific Advisory Board (SAB). The SAB provides the ICRG with intellectual leadership on the direction of the grants program and serves as the firewall to ensure that there is no undue influence on research from industry funding.

Prior to joining Washington University School of Medicine, Balls-Berry was an assistant professor of epidemiology and senior associate consultant at Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science. She completed her formal education at Xavier University of Louisiana with graduate training at Washington University School of Medicine and The University of Toledo. Balls-Berry completed a post-doctoral research fellowship in health equity, epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of Florida.

Her work as a scientist centers on increasing awareness of the importance of community-patient engagement in research to increase health equity in minority and under-resourced communities. Recently, she completed a PCORI project to expand the efforts of the Minority Women in Research Network, which she established in 2011. The network’s mission is to promote community-patient engagement in research conducted by minority women scientists interested in research collaborations, academic scholarship, innovation and dissemination. As an educator, Balls-Berry received the Mayo Clinic Teacher of Year for the Graduate School and Educator of the Year for the Center for Clinical and Translational Science awards. The faculty and the student body vote on these awards. Recently, she shared her story of living with dyslexia and handling personal challenges as TEDx Talk.