News

Idalia Ramos Sanchez, M.P.H.’81 Appointed as Senior Policy Advisor at National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities

Idalia Ramos Sanchez, M.P.H. ’81, has been appointed senior policy advisor at the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NCMHD), a National Institutes of Health (NIH) center.  Sanchez, an expert in health equity especially relating to HIV/AIDS, will serve as the primary legislative liaison within the Division of Scientific Strategic Planning and Policy Analysis, which is in charge of developing the strategic plan of the NCHMD to eradicate health disparities.

“The Center is undertaking critically important work in understanding the nature of the health disparities that afflict so many Americans and how to eliminate them,” said John Ruffin, Ph.D., director of NCMHD. “Ms. Sanchez's extensive policy and legislative experience will help us shape programs to meet congressional intent and provide policy guidance to our grantees.”

As Chief of the Policy Development Branch of Health Resources and Services Administration at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, she played a pivotal role in the Department’s success in the recent reauthorization of the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Modernization Act of 2006 which provides over $2 billion in funding each year for HIV/AIDS care and treatment in the United States.  The Ryan White Program is the single largest federal program designed specifically for persons living with HIV/AIDS.

Sanchez played a role in the research and the writing of the 2000 minority health disparities bill which created the NCMHD.  “I have always felt linked to NCMHD and the importance of its mission,” said Sanchez. “I look forward to using my policy development and legislative background to help the Center bring fairness and equity in research, care and treatment for all Americans.”

Prior to joining federal service in 1997, Ms. Ramos Sanchez oversaw Connecticut's Ryan White Title II program and served as a key advisor on HIV/AIDS prevention, care and treatment efforts in the state for almost a decade.  She also served in U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy's office during the 2000 reauthorization of the Ryan White Program as staff to the congressional committee working on this critically important authorizing legislation.

The NCMHD is a component of the NIH. The NCMHD promotes minority health and leads, coordinates, supports and assesses the NIH effort to eliminate health disparities. The NCMHD programs focus on expanding the nation's ability to conduct research and to build a diverse culturally-competent research workforce to eliminate health disparities.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Nation’s Medical Research Agency, is comprised of 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is the primary Federal agency for conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and investigates the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit the NIH Web site.