Meet-the-Experts Student Breakfast

Robert M. Mayberry, M.S., M.P.H., Ph.D.

Dr. Mayberry is director of health equity research, Institute for Health Care Research and Improvement, at Baylor Health Care System (BHCS), Dallas. In this position, he leads efforts to improve healthcare quality by conducting scientific inquiries into variations in quality of care by race and ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and other patient characteristics. He also implements evidence-based interventions to eliminate inequities in healthcare and works to integrate scientific findings into clinical decisions and healthcare policy to achieve equitable and best care practices.

Dr. Mayberry is the former director of the Program for Healthcare Effectiveness Research; associate director for research, Clinical Research Center ; and professor of epidemiology, Department of Community Health and Preventive Medicine, Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM), Atlanta. He provided leadership in establishing an infrastructure of researchers, advisors, consultants, and technical research staff to support research on healthcare effectiveness and outcomes, health services, prevention, and disparities. A cornerstone of his research efforts at Morehouse School of Medicine was the establishment of an Excellence Center to Eliminate Ethnic/Racial Disparities (EXCEED), which was funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. As principal investigator and co-investigator, he contributed to grant application funding of more than $30,000,000 in his ten years of service to MSM.

Receiving his doctoral training in epidemiology from the University of California, Berkeley, Dr. Mayberry has more than 20 years of experience in research, teaching, program planning and evaluation, and policy analysis. He has served in several academic and governmental positions including the assistant dean of the graduate school at the University of South Carolina, where he increased graduate minority student enrollment and retention in public health; senior epidemiologist for minority health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where he facilitated strategies and intervention program development and implementation to address minority health and health disparities within the federal government and at the state and local levels; and visiting professor of epidemiology, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, where he taught epidemiology and conducted research to better understand racial/ethnic differences in cancer survival.

Dr. Mayberry is a nationally noted scientist and scholar and one of the original leaders in minority health and health disparities research. He has influenced policy and funding decisions for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Agency for Health Care Research and Policy, and the National Quality Forum in this regard. Having served and chaired many local and state commissions and task forces, Dr. Mayberry is active in local, state, and national health services and public health organizations including AcademyHealth (nationally elected member of the Board of Directors and member of Annual Research Meeting Planning Committee), Coalition for Health Services Research, and the American Public Health Association (Epidemiology and Medical Care Sections Planning Committees). He was an appointed member of Georgia Governor's Council on Maternal and Infant Health and chaired its Evaluation and Strategy Workgroups which identified priorities and solutions for maternal and infant health among stakeholders throughout the state. Recently, he led the evaluation of the Pfizer Foundation Southern HIV/AIDS Initiative and provided technical assistance to the 24 community-based organizations providing health education and prevention interventions to diverse local communities in nine states. Dr. Mayberry serves as an expert consultant and scientific reviewer for several academic, private and federal organizations and reviewer for several peer-review scientific journals.