Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Accelerates Drive to Diversity, Announces First Biomedical Laureates
Two Will Join Faculty; Additional to Be Announced
Less than eight months after unveiling its Biomedical Laureates Program, the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai announced today the first Laureates to join its academic faculty, delivering on an institutional commitment to drive diversity and enhance mentorship opportunities. Both Laureates will start in July.
Announcements of additional Laureate appointments will be forthcoming. Icahn Mount Sinai will select a total of four Laureates per year, two in basic science and two in translational or clinical science.
“The premise of the Biomedical Laureates Program is that a diversity of perspectives will enhance both the quality of academic research we put forth and the capacity of our basic, translational, and clinical investigators to effectively solve complex problems,” says Eric J. Nestler, MD, PhD, Nash Family Professor of Neuroscience, Director of The Friedman Brain Institute, and Dean for Academic and Scientific Affairs, and an early champion of the Biomedical Laureates Program.
“Being selected as a Mount Sinai Laureate is a great honor and privilege,” says Kecia N. Carroll, MD, MPH, one of the newly appointed Laureates. Dr. Carroll is the incoming Chief of the Division of General Pediatrics; Professor of Pediatrics, and Environmental Medicine and Public Health; and a board certified general pediatrician, clinical investigator, and epidemiologist. “Throughout my career, I have worked to make advances around equity, mentorship, and creating inclusive spaces where individuals from diverse backgrounds can thrive and have healthy experiences as they pursue their education, training, or advance in their careers. To join Mount Sinai’s academic community, with its laser-focused commitment to diversity and inclusion, will provide a wonderful opportunity to drive further momentum towards these important goals,” says Dr. Carroll.
Most recently on faculty at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Dr. Carroll brings her distinguished accomplishments in pediatrics as well as her deep commitment to mentorship to Mount Sinai. She is a former recipient of early investigator awards from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Parker B. Francis Fellowship Program. Dr. Carroll’s current NIH-funded research program investigates how environmental exposures influence childhood asthma risk.
“We are thrilled to welcome Dr. Carroll, who has worked brilliantly as an investigator and a clinician while leading a way forward as an educator who deeply values the importance of mentorship,” says Lisa Satlin, MD, Chair, Jack and Lucy Clark Department of Pediatrics at Icahn Mount Sinai.
“Dr. Carroll’s selection as an inaugural Laureate for this flagship program speaks to her many contributions to research elucidating the root causes of childhood asthma, as she seeks to find not only risks but to identify modifiable factors that can prevent the development of chronic respiratory disorders. We are excited she will continue this work at Mount Sinai, which promises to significantly improve the health of our patients and communities.” says Rosalind Wright, MD, MPH, the Horace W. Goldsmith Professor of Children’s Health Research and Pediatrics at Icahn Mount Sinai.
The second appointee, Shameeke Taylor, MD, MPH, will be the first junior faculty member to become a Laureate. Dr. Taylor graduated from Icahn Mount Sinai’s Global Health Fellowship last year, and is currently completing his second year of a National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute National Service Award (T32) Fellowship.
Dr. Taylor was awarded the Blue Ribbon Award for exemplary scholarship in education research through the Institute for Medical Education at Mount Sinai for an education project he developed in the Dominican Republic to improve the knowledge base around head and neck trauma at a regional hospital. As an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine, he will focus his research on predicting and assessing outcomes after traumatic brain injury, particularly in older adults.
“I am honored to have been chosen for the Laureates Program and thrilled to continue my early research career at Mount Sinai and to join its first-class research faculty,” says Dr. Taylor.
“The aims of the Laureate program are strongly aligned with my own professional and personal goals. As I grow as a researcher and emergency medicine physician, I hope to mentor and support young minority physicians and researchers. In collaboration with the Institute for Health Equity Research, one of my initial projects will involve investigating the intersection of disability and race in health care and evaluating opportunities to improve the access to and delivery of their medical care.”
About the Mount Sinai Health System
Mount Sinai Health System is one of the largest academic medical systems in the New York metro area, with 48,000 employees working across eight hospitals, more than 400 outpatient practices, more than 600 research and clinical labs, a school of nursing, and a leading school of medicine and graduate education. Mount Sinai advances health for all people, everywhere, by taking on the most complex health care challenges of our time—discovering and applying new scientific learning and knowledge; developing safer, more effective treatments; educating the next generation of medical leaders and innovators; and supporting local communities by delivering high-quality care to all who need it.
Through the integration of its hospitals, labs, and schools, Mount Sinai offers comprehensive health care solutions from birth through geriatrics, leveraging innovative approaches such as artificial intelligence and informatics while keeping patients’ medical and emotional needs at the center of all treatment. The Health System includes approximately 9,000 primary and specialty care physicians and 11 free-standing joint-venture centers throughout the five boroughs of New York City, Westchester, Long Island, and Florida. Hospitals within the System are consistently ranked by Newsweek’s® “The World’s Best Smart Hospitals, Best in State Hospitals, World Best Hospitals and Best Specialty Hospitals” and by U.S. News & World Report's® “Best Hospitals” and “Best Children’s Hospitals.” The Mount Sinai Hospital is on the U.S. News & World Report® “Best Hospitals” Honor Roll for 2024-2025.
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May 07, 2018 View All Press Releases