ECU’s Center for Health Disparities names director

Dr. Keith Keene has been named director of the East Carolina University Brody School of Medicine Center for Health Disparities (CHD), effective Aug. 1, 2020. He has served as the center’s interim director since 2018.

Keene is also an associate professor in ECU’s Department of Biology, bringing a unique perspective that spans the university’s Main and Health Sciences campuses and bridges the center’s mission with ECU’s purpose.

Dr. Keith Keene, associate professor in ECU’s Department of Biology, has been named director of the Center for Health Disparities. (ECU file photo)

“I seek to identify synergistic opportunities that will allow faculty from both campuses to achieve their goals while working collaboratively with the center to reduce disparities across our region,” Keene said. “The center’s research theme includes biological, social and environmental contributors to disease and will allow the formation of larger interdisciplinary teams that involve nearly every school, college and department at ECU, not just biomedical-related disciplines.”

That interprofessional collaboration is a signature of ECU’s Division of Health Sciences’ approach to improving the quality of life in the region and state.

“Collaborations with colleagues across a broad range of disciplines will be vital to the center’s overall success,” Keene said.

The CHD’s mission is to reduce health disparities of vulnerable populations and disadvantaged communities across eastern North Carolina through research, education and training, community engagement and outreach. The center’s faculty, staff and community members partner to address disparities in obesity, diabetes, cancers and cardiovascular disease among rural, ethnic-minority, medically underserved and low socioeconomic populations.

Eastern North Carolina consists of the 41-county region east of Interstate 95. Health in this region is significantly poorer than health in the rest of North Carolina, according to CHD data. Prevalence and mortality rates from cancers, cardiovascular diseases and diabetes are far higher in eastern North Carolina than in the rest of the state. Health for all racial/ethnic groups, and for all income and education groups is poorer in the region than in the rest of NC.

The CHD also focuses on participating in pipeline programs to increase the access of minority and underrepresented students to biomedical careers.

“Our interests in creating education and training pipelines will help achieve our university’s mission of creating a diverse and inclusive environment,” Keene said.

His immediate goals as director are to expand the CHD’s research enterprise by developing an integrated research agenda focused on biological, environmental and social determinants of health disparities; to nurture current and new partnerships with community organizations and to create and expand pipeline and training programs for under-represented undergraduate and graduate students interested in health disparities research and education.

ECU public health experts are confident in Keene’s leadership and future at the helm of the CHD.

“I am very excited that Dr. Keene has been named the director of the ECU Center for Health Disparities,” said Dr. Ronny Bell, professor and chair of the Department of Public Health. “Dr. Keene is a nationally recognized health disparities researcher, and he has done a wonderful job in the interim director role over the past two years. I am confident that under Dr. Keene’s leadership, the Center for Health Disparities will prosper and serve as a catalyst to bring researchers from across our institution and other institution to achieve the goal of understanding and addressing health disparities in our region.”

Keene came to ECU in 2012 from the University of Virginia, where he was an assistant professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences. He had previously earned a PhD in molecular medicine in 2007 from the Wake Forest University School of Medicine. His tenure at ECU has included contributions to the fields of Type 2 diabetes and stroke genetics through several national and international collaborations and consortia. His research efforts have resulted in numerous peer-reviewed publications in journals including Stroke, Lancet Neurology, Nature Communications, Nature Genetics, the American Journal of Human Genetics and more. These efforts have resulted in ~$3 million in grant funding as PI/Co-PI while at ECU.

Keene seeks to form bonds that not only span ECU’s campuses but also connect with the communities they serve.

“It is critical to have a center that can bridge both campuses while also having direct interactions with the communities we aim to serve,” he said. “Our Community Outreach and Engagement Core is essential for making the center and university more visible to the community and will help build community trust as we seek to engage more eastern North Carolina residents in research studies and clinical trials.”

Through those efforts, the Center for Health Disparities serves as a hub that monitors success based not on numbers, but on lives.

“As the Center for Health Disparities works to accomplish its goals and missions, we recognize that our success is critical to achieve health equity,” Keene said. “Service to our region’s most vulnerable, underserved, and at-risk populations, remains at the forefront of all CHD efforts.”