History | NIMHD

Important Events in NIMHD History

1990 — The Office of Minority Programs (OMP) was established in the NIH Office of the Director, at the request of then Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Dr. Louis Sullivan. Dr. John Ruffin was appointed Associate Director of Minority Programs to direct the OMP.

1991 — The OMP convened an advisory Fact-Finding Team (FFT) to conduct three regional conferences with grassroots constituencies. The FFT issued a report with 13 recommendations from the community that guided the initial efforts of the OMP.

1992 — The Minority Health Initiative (MHI), the centerpiece of the OMP agenda, was launched in response to the FFT’s recommendations, and initially funded at $45 million. This multi-year biomedical and behavioral research and research training program is a partnership with the NIH Institutes and Centers. The OMP co-funded various projects including: 1) interventions to improve prenatal health and reduce infant mortality; 2) studies of childhood and adolescent lead poisoning; 3) HIV infection and AIDS; 4) alcohol and drug use studies; 5) research in adult populations focused on cancer, diabetes, obesity, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, mental disorders, asthma, visual impairments, and alcohol abuse; and 6) training for faculty and for students at all stages of the educational pipeline — from precollege and undergraduate through graduate and postdoctoral levels.

1992 — The OMP initiated a study with the National Academy of Sciences designed to present an overview of NIH extramural research training programs for minority students and to assess the feasibility of conducting a trans-NIH assessment of these programs.

1993 — Public Law 103-43, the Health Revitalization Act of 1993, established the Office of Research on Minority Health (ORMH) in the Office of the Director, NIH. Dr. John Ruffin was appointed as the Associate Director for Research on Minority Health.

1994 — The National Conference on Minority Health Research and Research Training was held in Chicago.

1996 — Conferences were held in Honolulu, Hawaii; Miami, Florida; and Puerto Rico to inform ORMH constituencies of the progress made, to solicit feedback on those achievements, and to obtain information on the needs of minority populations.

1997 — The Advisory Committee on Research on Minority Health was established to provide advice to the Director, ORMH, and to the Director, NIH, regarding research and research training with respect to minority health issues.

1998 — The first meeting of the Advisory Committee on Minority Health was held.

2000 — The ORMH celebrated its 10th anniversary with a conference entitled Closing the Minority Health Gap: 10 Years of Progress and Challenge in Eliminating Health Disparities.

2000 — The National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NCMHD) was established by the passage of the Minority Health and Health Disparities Research and Education Act of 2000, Public Law 106-525, which was signed by the President of the United States, William Jefferson Clinton, on November 22, 2000. The bill was introduced into the Congress by Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts.

2001 — Dr. John Ruffin was sworn in as the first director of the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities.

2001 — Programs mandated by Congress were implemented to expand the infrastructure of Institutions committed to health disparities research and to encourage the recruitment and retention of highly qualified minority and other scientists in the fields of biomedical, clinical, behavioral, and health services research: 1) the Endowment Program, 2) the Loan Repayment Program for Health Disparities Research, and 3) the Extramural Clinical Research Loan Repayment Program for Individuals from Disadvantaged Backgrounds.

2002 — The Congressionally mandated program, Centers of Excellence program was launched, referred to as Project EXPORT — Partnerships for Community Outreach, Research on Health Disparities and Training.

2002 — The first meeting of the National Advisory Council on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NACMHD) was convened.

2002 — The NCMHD assumed responsibility for the Research Infrastructure in Minority Institutions Program (RIMI), which was established by its predecessor ORMH, in partnership with the National Center for Research Resources.

2003 — The first NIH Strategic Research Plan and Budget to Reduce and Ultimately Eliminate Health Disparities was issued.

2005 — The NCMHD assumed responsibility for the Minority International Research Training Program (MIRT) which was established by its predecessor ORMH in partnership with Fogarty International Center (FIC). The program was renamed to be more consistent with the mission of the NCMHD to the Minority Health and Health Disparities International Research Training (MHIRT) program.

2005 — The NCMHD Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) program was established. This program supports community-based participatory research intervention studies to reduce health disparities caused by diseases or conditions affecting minority and other health disparity communities.

2005 — The National Research Council of the National Academies released the report Assessment of NIH Minority Research and Training Programs: Phase 3. The report was the culmination of a series of assessments and analyses of the NIH minority research and training programs initiated by the ORMH, the predecessor to the NCMHD. This report examined the effectiveness of the programs and provided recommendations for improvement.

2006 — The Institute of Medicine of the National Academies issued the report Examining the Health Disparities Research Plan of the National Institutes of Health: Unfinished Business. The NCMHD requested this report to assess the adequacy of the NIH Health Disparities Strategic Plan in achieving the goals and objectives, to evaluate the adequacy of coordination among the NIH Institutes and Centers in developing the strategic plan, and to obtain recommendations to help NIH achieve the objectives of the strategic plan.

2007 — The NCMHD Centers of Excellence in Partnerships for Community Outreach, Research on Health Disparities and Training (Project EXPORT), was re-competed for the first time. The program was also renamed the NCMHD Centers of Excellence program.

2008 — NCMHD hosted the first NIH Science of Eliminating Health Disparities Summit on December 16-18, 2008. The summit attracted more than 4,000 participants including scientists, health care practitioners, policy makers, community leaders, and students who work or have an interest in eliminating health disparities. Acclaimed poet Maya Angelou spoke at the opening ceremony.

2008 — NIH Director Dr. Elias Zerhouni approved an Intramural Research Program (IRP) for the NCMHD. Acting NIH Director Dr. Raynard Kington announced the creation of the NCMHD IRP at the NIH Science of Eliminating Health Disparities Summit.

2009 — NCMHD launched its Health Disparities Research on Minority and Underserved Populations program. This Research Project Grant (R01) funds original and innovative research addressing elements that support the advancement of research to eliminate health disparities.

2009 — NCMHD launched the NIH Health Disparities Seminar Series in July 2009. The monthly lecture series brings national and international health disparities experts including NIH and federal agency partners to the NIH to share information about advances, gaps, and current issues related to health disparities research.

2009 — The NCMHD Disparities Research and Education Advancing our Mission (DREAM) program was launched as a component of the NCMHD Intramural Research Program.

2009 — The Research Infrastructure in Minority Institutions (RIMI) program was renamed the Building Research Infrastructure and Capacity (BRIC) program to be more consistent with the mission of NCMHD.

2009 — NCMHD partnered with the NIH Office of Intramural Research to sponsor the 2009 NIH J. Edward Rall Cultural Lecture as part of the NIH Wednesday Afternoon Lecture Series, featuring Dr. Maya Angelou.

2009 — NCMHD, in partnership with the HHS Office of Minority Health and the U.S. Department of Education formalized the Federal Collaboration on Health Disparities Research (FCHDR) comprised of 14 federal executive departments. FCHDR promotes enhanced coordination of efforts to improve the health of health disparity populations. NCMHD co-leads FCHDR.

2010 — NCMHD was re-designated to the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) with the passing of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. In addition, the Research Endowment program was expanded to include NIMHD Centers of Excellence as eligible institutions.

2010 — NIMHD launched a two-week intensive Translational Health Disparities Course: Integrating Principles of Science, Practice, and Policy in Health Disparities Research.

2010 — NIMHD launched a Faith-based Initiative on Health Disparities and a Social Determinants of Health Initiative.

2011 — NIMHD established the Scientific Education Initiative, which supports educational, mentoring, and career development programs for individuals from health disparity populations that are underrepresented in the research sciences.

2011 — NIMHD launched the Resource-Related Minority Health and Health Disparities Research Initiative to support minority health and health disparities research activities using a cooperative agreement which requires substantial federal scientific or programmatic involvement.

2011 — NIMHD appointed William G. Coleman, Jr., Ph.D., as the NIMHD's first permanent scientific director and the first African American scientific director in the history of the NIH Intramural Research Program.

2011 — NIMHD assumed responsibility for the Research Centers in Minority Institutions (RCMI) program formerly administered by the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR).

2012 — NIMHD organized the first-ever “NIH Minority Health Promotion Day” on April 19, 2012 in honor of National Minority Health Month working with the other NIH ICs and other federal agencies.

2012 — NIMHD established its Transdisciplinary Collaborative Centers for Health Disparities Research Program to support transdisciplinary coalitions of academic institutions, community organizations, service providers and systems, government agencies, and other stakeholders focused on select topics related to health disparities.

2012 — NIMHD hosted the 2012 Science of Eliminating Health Disparities Summit from December 17-19, 2012, a partnership with the NIH Institutes and Centers, the HHS agencies, and 14 of the 15 federal executive departments. Rescheduled due to Hurricane Sandy in October 2012, the summit attracted thousands of participants. Major highlights included a portrait unveiling for former Congressman Louis Stokes and dedication of the Summit to the late Senator Arlen Specter.

2013 — NIMHD held the third Translational Health Disparities Course: Integrating Principles of Science, Practice, and Policy in Health Disparities Research. NIMHD selected 90 scholars from 450 applications — the largest class and number of applications to date.

2013 — NIMHD launched The Health Disparities Pulse, a newsletter for the health disparities community covering a wide array of topics, issues, and information pertaining to minority health and health disparities research and activities.

March 31, 2014 — John Ruffin, Ph.D., retired as the first Director of NIMHD. Yvonne T. Maddox, Ph.D., became Acting Director of NIMHD.

2014 — NIMHD held the fourth Translational Health Disparities Course: Integrating Principles of Science, Practice, and Policy in Health Disparities Research. NIMHD selected 92 scholars from 325 applications.

2014 — NIMHD launched the System-Level Health Services and Policy Research on Health Disparities program to support original and innovative system-level health services or policy research directed toward eliminating health disparities.

2014 — NIMHD signed onto the parent trans-NIH RO1 research project grant program to expand opportunities for investigator-initiated research in health disparities.

2014 — NIMHD cosponsors the NIH Medical Research Scholars Program, a comprehensive, year-long residential research enrichment program for medical, dental, and veterinary students located on the NIH campus in Bethesda, Maryland.

2014 — NIMHD held an American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) research forum that featured presentations from several prominent NIH-funded AI/AN researchers and a panel discussion on the challenges in conducting biomedical research and developing a research career. 

2015 — NIMHD commemorates its fifth anniversary.

2015 — NIMHD partnered with the National Hispanic Medical Association to host a Consensus Summit on Building Diversity in Medicine and Research where participants shared lessons learned, discussed best practices, and established innovative strategies and recommendations for next steps toward enhancing workforce diversity in medicine and biomedical and behavioral research.

2015 — In recognition of National Minority Health Month in April, NIMHD hosted several events under the theme, “30 Years of Advancing Health Equity; The Heckler Report: A Force for Ending Health Disparities in America,” to mark the 30th anniversary of the Report of the Secretary’s Task Force on Black and Minority Health. NIH director Dr. Francis Collins hosted Valerie Jarrett, senior advisor to President Barack Obama and assistant to the President for intergovernmental affairs and public engagement, for a conversation in Masur Auditorium. The first NIMHD Health Disparities Science Café: Effectively Communicating and Disseminating Science to Inform Public Health Policy—was held in the Clinical Center atrium as part of NIH Minority Health Promotion Day. There were also exhibitors from NIH institutes and centers, the HHS Office of Minority Health Resource Center, and three local NIMHD grantees.

2015 — NIMHD and the American College of Surgeons hosted a Symposium on Disparities in Surgical Care and Outcomes to assess the current state of the science and develop a research agenda for addressing the disparities in surgical care, outcomes and treatment.

2015 — NIMHD partners with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and other Federal agencies to promote physical activity and nutrition among Latino youth through Fuel Up to Play 60 en Español, a program coordinated by the GENYOUth through a collaboration between the National Football League, the National Dairy Council and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

2015 — NIMHD and the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc., launched an educational outreach initiative titled Brother, You’re On My Mind (BYOMM): Changing the National Dialogue Regarding Mental Health Among African-American Men. The focus is to raise awareness about the mental health challenges associated with stress and depression that affect African-American men and their families.

September 1, 2015 — Eliseo J. Pérez-Stable, M.D., became second director of NIMHD.

2016 — NIMHD held the institute’s first Health Disparities Research Institute (HDRI), designed to create a path towards the independent-investigator career track.  HDRI replaces the institute’s original course, established in 2010, and aims to help participants understand the intersections between science, policy and practice and to learn about methods and cutting edge issues in the science of minority health and health disparities.  NIMHD selected 51 scholars from over 500 applications.  Scholars from 22 states and one U.S. territory, ranging in discipline from M.D. and Ph.D. to R.N. and Pharm. D., made up the cohort.

2016 — NIMHD Director Eliseo J. Pérez-Stable, M.D., announced the formal designation of sexual and gender minorities (SGMs) as a health disparity population for NIH research with support from Andrew Bindman, M.D., director of Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. The term SGM encompasses lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender populations, as well as those whose sexual orientation, gender identity and expressions, or reproductive development varies from traditional, societal, cultural, or physiological norms.

2016 — NIMHD released a new funding opportunity announcement (FOA) for its flagship program Research Centers in Minority Institutions (RCMI).  The new FOA capitalizes on the program’s capacity to generate new scientific discoveries in minority health and health disparities research and to stimulate the next generation of researchers from underrepresented populations in institutions that are committed to this mission.

2017 — Every April, NIMHD joins the HHS Office of Minority Health and other sister agencies to recognize National Minority Health Month. NIMHD held its inaugural Minority Health 5K Walk/Run at NIH on April 12 in celebration of National Minority Health Month.

2017 — NIMHD hosted a Fireside Chat with NIH Director Dr. Francis S. Collins and the family of former U.S. Congressman Louis Stokes about his life and legacy, in recognition of his autobiography, The Gentleman from Ohio.  In 1990, Stokes was instrumental in launching NIH’s Office of Minority Programs, later named the Office of Research on Minority Health, and finally NIMHD.

2017 — NIMHD launched the William G. Coleman Jr., Ph.D., Minority Health and Health Disparities Research Innovation Award, announcing three postdoctoral fellows within the NIH Intramural Research Program  The competitive award seeks to support innovative research ideas and concepts – proposing potential for high impact in areas of minority health and health disparities research.

2017 — NIMHD has organized minority health and health disparities research around three research interest areas: Clinical and Health Services Research, Integrative Biological and Behavioral Sciences, and Community Health and Population Sciences. Each research area focuses on impacting the health determinants that contribute to poor health outcomes and to health disparity conditions.

2017 — NIMHD announced the appointment of Dr. Anna María Nápoles, Ph.D., M.P.H., as scientific director of its Division of Intramural Research (DIR), making her the first Latina named to the position at the National Institutes of Health. She replaced Dr. William Coleman, Jr.

2017 — NIMHD hosted the workshop Addressing Health Disparities through the Utilization of Health Information Technology, on May 11 and 12 to facilitate discussion around how technology can be better leveraged in a way that is beneficial to all populations.  NIMHD also hosted the workshop Structural Racism/Discrimination: Impact on Minority Health and Health Disparities, on May 22 and 23. The goal of this workshop was to identify and understand how to systematically incorporate the construct of structural racism/discrimination into minority health and health disparities.

2018 — The NIMHD Scientific Advancement Plan was established to improve health equity by advancing the science of minority health and health disparities. The Scientific Advancement Plan outlines NIMHD's approach to champion the fields of minority health and health disparities research to both contribute to and benefit from these advances in the interest of health disparity populations and to foster the next generation of researchers to lead discoveries that will promote health equity.

2018 — NIMHD establishes three research areas within the Intramural Research Program: Population and Community Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences and Genomic Sciences. The IRP research agenda addresses a wide array of health problems that disproportionately affect health disparity populations. Current efforts focus on three disease areas that have significant health disparities: cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and cancer.

2018 — NIMHD re-launched their Director’s Seminar Series to stimulate dialogue on scientific issues affecting minority health and health disparities science. The forum highlights novel research discoveries by prominent researchers who are advancing the science of minority health and health disparities.

2018 — In collaboration with the Association of American Medical Colleges, leaders of NIMHD gathered to address barriers contributing to the lack of diversity in the biomedical workforce. A 3-phase approach brought together officials from NIH, academia and leading medical associations. The third and final phase of the 3-phase approach will place an emphasis on forming an innovative process to produce deliverables and establishing realistic target dates for their completion.

2019 — The AJPH supplement, New Perspectives to Advance Minority Health and Health Disparities Research, featured 30 research strategies from NIMHD as part of a science visioning process to transform the field with a new paradigm to stimulate research.  

2019 — The U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams and Director, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Minority Health CAPT Felecia Collins (promoted to RADM in 2020), kicked off NIMHD’s National Minority Health Month 5K to recognize the importance of building awareness about health disparities and to encourage action through education, early detection, and control of disease complications.  

2019 — NIMHD co-hosted a historic visit by researchers from the University of Guam that included randomized clinical trial protocol training for nursing students at the NIH Clinical Center; presentations from the NIMHD intramural research program investigators; and networking and discussion on building capacity for population health research in the U.S. Affiliated Pacific Islands, Pacific Islands Cohort on Cardiometabolic Health.

2020 — NIMHD hosted the 10th Anniversary Scientific Symposium: Innovations to Promote Health Equity, a day-long scientific symposium featuring innovative discoveries, prominent researchers, and strategic discussions on minority health and health disparities, on March 3, 2020.

2020 — NIMHD launched the PhenX Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) Assessments Collection, within the PhenX Toolkit. This expanded collection provides a common method to help measure and study factors that shape behaviors and health outcomes across public health research studies.  

2020 — NIMHD appointed Dr. Monica Webb Hooper to the position of Deputy Director.  

2021 — NIMHD Director, Dr. Eliseo J. Pérez-Stable, and Dr. Gary H. Gibbons, director, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) were awarded the Samuel J. Heyman Service to America (the Sammies) COVID-19 Response Medal. The award honored their work spearheading two outreach programs—RADx-UP and the Community Engagement Alliance (CEAL) Against Covid-19 Disparities. These programs coordinate community-based research and leadership to reduce the disparate levels of COVID-19 associated morbidity and mortality experienced by underserved and vulnerable communities.  The COVID-19 Response medal was added to the Sammies to recognize the extraordinary efforts led by federal workers in response to the pandemic.

2022 — An NIMHD-funded study offered the first comprehensive, county-level estimates of life expectancy in the US and highlighted important differences among racial and ethnic groups. The study was carried out by the Global Burden of Disease U.S. Health Disparities Collaborators at NIH (a team of researchers from NIMHD, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute; National Cancer Institute; National Institute on Aging; National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases; Office of Disease Prevention; and Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research) and a partnership with the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.

2023 — Findings from an NIMHD-funded study showed that racial and ethnic health disparities cost the U.S. economy $451 billion in 2018, a 41% increase from the previous estimate of $320 billion in 2014. The study is the first to estimate the total economic burden of health disparities for five racial and ethnic minority groups nationally and for all 50 states and the District of Columbia.  It is also the first to estimate the economic burden of health disparities by educational levels as a marker of socioeconomic status, which totaled $978 billion for persons with less than a college degree in 2018. The study was conducted by NIMHD researchers along with Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Uniformed Services University, TALV Corp, and the National Urban League.

2023 — NIMHD awarded grants to six institutions through the John Lewis NIMHD Research Endowment Program, established through the John Lewis NIMHD Research Endowment Revitalization Act of 2021 (Public Lae 117-104). The program supports health disparities research capacity and infrastructure at grantee institutions.  

2025 — Dr. Monica Webb Hooper appointed Acting Director, NIMHD 

NIMHD Legislative History

1990 — The Office of Minority Programs (OMP) was established in the NIH Office of the Director, at the request of Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Dr. Louis Sullivan. Dr. John Ruffin was appointed Associate Director of Minority Programs to direct the OMP.  

1992 — The Minority Health Initiative (MHI) was launched. This multi-year, biomedical and behavioral research and research training program co-funded various projects including: 1) interventions to improve prenatal health and reduce infant mortality; 2) studies of childhood and adolescent lead poisoning; 3) HIV infection and AIDS; 4) alcohol and drug use studies; 5) cancer, diabetes, obesity, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, mental disorders, asthma, visual impairments, and alcohol abuse in adults; and 6) training for faculty and students at all stages of the educational pipeline — from precollege and undergraduate through graduate and postdoctoral training.  

1993 — The Health Revitalization Act of 1993 (P.L. 103-43), established the Office of Research on Minority Health in the Office of the Director of the National Institutes of Health. Dr. John Ruffin was appointed Associate Director for Research on Minority Health. 

2000 — P.L. 106-525, Minority Health and Health Disparities Research and Education Act of 2000, established the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities. It also called for the development of a NIH comprehensive strategic research plan and budget for health disparities research. It authorizes the NCMHD Director and the Director of the Agency for Health care Research and Quality (AHRQ) to define health disparity populations. The law also requires the NCMHD to maintain communications with all Public Health Service agencies and other Departments of the Federal government to disseminate health disparities research information.

2010 — On March 23, 2010, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (P.L. 111-148) passed and re-designated the NCMHD to an Institute, the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD). The law gave the NIMHD authority to plan, review, coordinate, and evaluate the minority health and health disparities research and activities conducted and supported by the NIH Institutes and Centers. In addition, it transferred all of the responsibilities of the NCMHD to the NIMHD and expanded the eligibility criteria for the Research Endowment program to include institutions with an active NIMHD Center of Excellence grant.