IHS Director recognizes Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health Director with award

Mathuram Santosham, M.D., M.P. H., director of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Center for American Indian Health and a professor at the school, is the recipient of an Indian Health Service (IHS) Director’s Special Recognition Award for University/Educational Partnership. Yvette Roubideaux, M.D., M.P.H., director of the IHS, will present the award to Dr. Santosham at a June 29 ceremony in Washington, D.C.

“This award is in recognition of Dr. Santosham’s leadership in helping to found the Center for American Indian Health at John Hopkins and for over three decades of research in childhood immunizations that started on the White Mountain Apache Reservation,” said Dr. Roubideaux. “As a result of his work, hundreds of American Indian and Alaska Native children’s lives are saved each year from life-threatening diseases such as meningitis and childhood pneumonia.”

The Center for American Indian Health is a national leader in partnering with tribes to achieve renewed health and well-being for Native Americans. The Center’s mission is to work in partnership with American Indian and Alaskan Native communities to raise their health status, self-sufficiency, and health leadership to the highest possible level.

Since its origins with Dr. Santosham’s work among southwestern tribes in the 1980s, the Center has focused on strengths-based approaches that foster tribes’ rich heritage and increase tribal health leadership through training, employment, and professional education. All of the center’s programs are designed with local community advisory boards to ensure cultural competency and community acceptance.