Claudia R. Baquet MD, PhD, MPH

Dr. Claudia R. Baquet is a Professor of Medicine and Associate Dean for Policy and Planning. She serves as an advocate for quality health care with a focus on research related to health needs, clinical trials research, and models of care for the medically underserved and minority communities. Dr. Baquet has served as Director of the Maryland Area Health Education Center Program (MDAHEC) for 16 years and Director of the Center for Health Policy/Health Services Research, one of four organized research centers at the UMB. In 2007, she became director of the UMB academic Program in Minority Health and Health Disparities Education and Research.

Dr. Baquet was Deputy Assistant Secretary of Health (Minority Health) at the US DHHS from 1992-1994. At NIH, she was Associate Director for Cancer Control Science and Chief of the Special Populations Research at National Cancer Institute. While at NCI, she spent 11/2 years as a research and policy fellow in the Office of Senator Ted Kennedy. Her research at NCI included intervention trials to address barriers to cancer screening and tobacco use prevention and cessation for multiple racial/ethnic and underserved populations. Her research laid the foundation for the field of cancer health disparities research and clinical trial accrual strategies for African American and rural patients.

Dr. Baquet received her MD in 1977 from Meharry Medical College (Tennessee) and her MPH in epidemiology in 1983 from Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health. Her residency was in Pathology at St. Louis University and Wadsworth Veterans Administration Hospital in California. Her research focus includes cancer disparities research; strategies for increasing access/participation of diverse communities in clinical trials; policy research on assuring equity and research translation strategies to assure research literacy in disparity communities. She is committed to mentoring students, junior investigators, and community health professionals in health disparities research, bioethics and research ethics, community engagement, and careers in medicine and public health. Her grant portfolio totals in excess of $78 million since joining the UMSOM faculty from federal, state, and foundation sources. She is PI on the National Bioethics Research Infrastructure grant and PI on the Social Determinants of Health Rural Telehealth study funded by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities. (NIH). She often chairs NIH Peer Review and Study Sections. She is a member of the Social, Ethical Issues in Research Study Section at NIH. In November 2011, she was honored by the MD Governor's Cancer Commission with the Abeloff Award for Excellence in Cancer Research, Public Health, and Cancer Control.