Martin Mendoza, PhD, Director for the Division of Policy and Data in the U.S. Office of Minority Health

Marin Mendoza

Martin Mendoza, PhD, serves as Director for the Division of Policy and Data (DPD) in the Office of Minority Health (OMH) at the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). In this capacity, Dr. Mendoza provides leadership, oversight, and direction to DPD's role in developing health policies and initiatives that are designed to address the elimination of health disparities and advance health equity.

Prior to joining OMH, Dr. Mendoza served as the lead for extramural research for the Office of Minority Health and Health Equity (OMHHE) in the Office of the Commissioner at the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In this role, he oversaw all OMHHE extramural research which included multiple projects in the FDA Centers of Excellence in Regulatory Science and Innovation (CERSI). Dr. Mendoza has spoken before Congress in support of OMHHE’s programs and mission, authored multiple Congressional response letters and reports, and has been an invited speaker at numerous scientific/industry meetings and workshops. He is the primary author for OMHHE’s pivotal FDA guidance document "Collection of Race and Ethnicity Data in Clinical Trials" and is a recognized global expert in clinical trial diversity.

Before FDA, Dr. Mendoza served in the Division of Clinical Research at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). There, he was part of programmatic management for all extramural NINDS-sponsored clinical trials, worked to evaluate human subjects protections for these trials, and oversaw the institute’s Congressionally-mandated reporting of women and minorities in clinical research.

Preceding NINDS, Dr. Mendoza was an active researcher within the NIH Intramural Research Program. He conducted his primary laboratory-based research training in the Pediatric Oncology Branch at the National Cancer Institute and served as a genetic mapper for the Human Genome Project at the National Human Genome Research Institute.

Dr. Mendoza is a graduate of the University of Maryland Baltimore County and received his doctorate in cancer biology from Johns Hopkins University.


Panel Information

Thursday, August 13, 2020

6:00 PM EST

Health and Wellness

Our Health: La Primera Riqueza es la Salud

Sponsor: AARP

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