After 35 years of service to the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Mona Fouad, M.D., MPH, will retire from her role as director of the UAB Comprehensive Healthy Living Research Center effective December 31, 2026.
Since joining UAB in 1991, Fouad has helped shape research, education, mentorship, and community partnerships not only at UAB, but across the state of Alabama and around the world. Throughout her distinguished career, Fouad led the development and growth of research centers and initiatives that translate science into real-world solutions.
Among her early accomplishments was the founding of the UAB Minority Health & Health Equity Research Center, an interdisciplinary effort that addressed complex health challenges. Under her leadership, the center helped expand research capacity, fostered collaboration, and supported the development of investigators whose work continues to this day.
Fouad developed widely emulated models in recruitment and retention of participants in clinical trials, innovative community-based approaches to improving breast and cervical cancer outcomes, and impactful research partnerships with communities aimed at chronic disease prevention and control. In recognition of her significant contributions to the field and to UAB, Fouad was selected as the 2018 UAB Distinguished Faculty Lecturer for advancing the frontiers of science and her outstanding contributions to education, research, and public service.
Just one year prior, in 2017, she was elected to the National Academy of Medicine, one of the nation’s most prestigious scientific organizations. Shortly after, in 2020, Fouad was named the inaugural holder of the Edward E. Partridge, M.D., Endowed Chair for Cancer Disparity Research. She has served in multiple advisory roles for the National Institutes of Health, and in 2022 received the Vilcek-Gold Award for Humanism in Healthcare.
In 2025, Fouad founded the UAB Comprehensive Healthy Living Research Center to support scientists working to prevent chronic disease through community-engaged research. The center builds on decades of work fostering partnerships between researchers and the populations they serve. In addition, she mentored more than 400 faculty, fellows, graduate and undergraduate students. Such efforts have helped strengthen UAB’s research enterprise and created lasting opportunities for partnership and innovation.
In addition to her work across the United States, Fouad established a global research program with Alexandria University Faculty of Medicine to address cancer burden in Egypt, creating opportunities for research, education, and training between the two institutions.
“The most important lesson I have learned is that meaningful change happens when people come together,” Fouad said. “That belief has guided my work throughout my career, and it continues to inspire me.”
Moving forward, Fouad will continue to serve as chief executive officer of Live HealthSmart Alabama—UAB’s inaugural grand challenge winner—and will remain actively engaged in research as a multiple principal investigator on several major initiatives including Alabama CEAL, the CARES Center, Clinical Trials Access Collaborative (CTAC), and All of Us.
While her tenure as director of the UAB Comprehensive Healthy Living Research Center will conclude, her work will continue through the programs and people she helped shape.
“It has been an extraordinary privilege to work alongside passionate and talented colleagues and friends,” said Fouad. “Together, we have built programs, centers, and partnerships that have impacted health in areas where people need it most. I am excited to continue that work, helping people and communities thrive.”