University of Maryland School of Public Health professor Dr. Stephen B. Thomas has been appointed as a standing member to the Health Disparities and Equity Promotion (HDEP) Study Section of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Dr. Thomas, a professor of health services administration and the director of the Maryland Center for Health Equity, is a leading expert in the effort to eliminate racial and ethnic health disparities. He has studied how to address several conditions from which minorities generally face poorer outcomes, such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity, and HIV/AIDS. He is principal investigator of the Research Center of Excellence on Minority Health Disparities, funded by the NIH-National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities. He is also principal investigator, with Dr. Sandra C. Quinn, of the NIH National Bioethics Infrastructure Initiative: Building Trust Between Minorities and Researchers.