Michele Kim Evans is an American internist and medical
oncologist
Oncology is a branch of medicine that deals with the study, treatment, diagnosis and prevention of cancer. A medical professional who practices oncology is an ''oncologist''. The name's etymological origin is the Greek word ὄγκος (''ó ...
. She is a senior investigator and Deputy Scientific Director at the
National Institute on Aging
The National Institute on Aging (NIA) is a division of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), located in Bethesda, Maryland. The NIA itself is headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland.
The NIA leads a broad scientific effort to understand the ...
.
Education
Evans graduated from
Barnard College
Barnard College of Columbia University is a private women's liberal arts college in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a group of women led by young student activist Annie Nathan Meyer, who petitioned Columbia ...
in 1977 with an
A.B. degree
A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ye ...
in biology. She received a medical degree from the
University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey
The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) was a state-run health sciences institution of New Jersey, United States.
It was founded as the Seton Hall College of Medicine and Dentistry in 1954, and by the 1980s was both a major ...
-
Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School is a medical school of Rutgers University. It is one of the two graduate medical schools of Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences, together with New Jersey Medical School, and is closely aligned with Ro ...
in 1981. Evans received postgraduate training in internal medicine at
Emory University School of Medicine
The Emory University School of Medicine is the graduate medical school of Emory University and a component of Emory’s Robert W. Woodruff Health Sciences Center. Before it was established as the Emory School of Medicine in 1915, the school fi ...
and fellowship training in medical oncology within the Medicine Branch of the Clinical Oncology Program at the
National Cancer Institute
The National Cancer Institute (NCI) coordinates the United States National Cancer Program and is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which is one of eleven agencies that are part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. ...
.
Career
Evans is an internist and medical oncologist who was trained as a physician scientist. She conducts epidemiologic clinical research in
health disparities
Health equity arises from access to the social determinants of health, specifically from wealth, power and prestige. Individuals who have consistently been deprived of these three determinants are significantly disadvantaged from health inequiti ...
and basic bench research on the biology of health disparities. She has investigated the impact of factors including housing insecurity, obesity, and even coffee drinking on health outcomes. Evans and her colleagues argue race is an important social issue affecting patient and public health. According to the National Institutes of Health, "Under Dr. Ruffin’s leadership, minority health and health disparities research became a major focus area within NIH...Dr. Ruffin’s dream of an Institute with an intramural research program dedicated to minority health and health disparities research has been realized." She served as a member of the
United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps
The United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps (PHSCC), also referred to as the Commissioned Corps of the United States Public Health Service, is the federal uniformed service of the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS) and one of the ...
until 2017, retiring as a captain.
Evans serves as Deputy Scientific Director at
National Institute on Aging
The National Institute on Aging (NIA) is a division of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), located in Bethesda, Maryland. The NIA itself is headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland.
The NIA leads a broad scientific effort to understand the ...
(NIA) as well as the Training Director for the NIA Intramural Research program. She is a senior investigator of NIA's Laboratory of Epidemiology and Population Science. Dr. Evans has been published in ''
The New England Journal of Medicine
''The New England Journal of Medicine'' (''NEJM'') is a weekly medical journal published by the Massachusetts Medical Society. It is among the most prestigious peer-reviewed medical journals as well as the oldest continuously published one.
His ...
'', and ''
Molecular and Cellular Biology
''Molecular and Cellular Biology'' is a biweekly peer-reviewed scientific journal covering all aspects of molecular and cellular biology. It is published by the American Society for Microbiology and the editor-in-chief is Peter Tontonoz (University ...