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Townhall on COVID-19 Vaccine

Dr. Gary H. Gibbons


Join Gary H. Gibbons, M.D., director of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), along with leading African American researchers and physicians for a two-part forum to provide the African American community with the facts and expert perspectives regarding the decisions associated with participating in COVID-19 vaccine studies and acceptance of proven safe and efficacious vaccines when available.

Date: September 16 and 17, 2020
Time: 7:00—8:00 p.m. EDT
Location: Streamed live here

This event is sponsored by The Black Coalition Against COVID, a D.C. community-based grass roots initiative, with support from Howard University and HU WHUR Radio 96.3, Morehouse School of Medicine, the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, Meharry Medical College, the National Medical Association, the W. Montague Cobb/ NMA Health Institute and the National Urban League.

NHLBI and NIMHD are collaborating on this event through the NIH Community Engagement Alliance (CEAL) Against COVID-19 Disparities. https://covid19community.nih.gov/

At NHLBI, Dr. Gibbons versees the third largest institute at the NIH, with an annual budget of more than $3 billion and a staff of 917 federal employees. The NHLBI provides global leadership for research, training, and education programs to promote the prevention and treatment of heart, lung, and blood diseases and enhance the health of all individuals so that they can live longer and more fulfilling lives.

Prior to being named director of the NHLBI, Gibbons served as a member of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Advisory Council (NHLBAC) from 2009-2012. He was also a member of the NHLBI Board of Extramural Experts (BEE), a working group of the NHLBAC.

Before joining the NHLBI, Gibbons served as the founding director of the Cardiovascular Research Institute, chairperson of the Department of Physiology, and professor of physiology and medicine at the Morehouse School of Medicine, in Atlanta.

Under his leadership of the Cardiovascular Research Institute, Gibbons directed NIH-funded research in the fields of vascular biology, genomic medicine, and the pathogenesis of vascular diseases. During his tenure, the Cardiovascular Research Institute emerged as a center of excellence, leading the way in discoveries related to the cardiovascular health of minority populations. Gibbons received several patents for innovations derived from his research in the fields of vascular biology and the pathogenesis of vascular diseases.

Gibbons earned his undergraduate degree from Princeton University in Princeton, N.J., and graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Medical School in Boston. He completed his residency and cardiology fellowship at the Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. Prior to joining the Morehouse School of Medicine in 1999, Gibbons was a member of the faculty at Stanford University in Stanford, Calif., from 1990-1996, and at Harvard Medical School from 1996-1999.

EDIT: View the recorded conversation.



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