Marie Bernard facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Marie A. Bernard, M.D.
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Bernard in 2023
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Marie Antonia Bernard
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| Fields | Geriatric Medicine |
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Marie A. Bernard, M.D. is a very important scientist who has spent her career helping people, especially older adults. She worked at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which is a big government agency that does health research. Dr. Bernard was the Chief Officer for Scientific Workforce Diversity. This means she worked to make sure that people from all backgrounds, like different races, genders, and ages, had a chance to become scientists and researchers.
Dr. Bernard's Important Work
Before her most recent role, Dr. Bernard was a leader at the National Institute on Aging (NIA). The NIA is a part of the NIH. At NIA, she helped manage about $3.1 billion in research. This research focused on understanding aging and diseases like Alzheimer's disease, which affects memory and thinking.
Dr. Bernard also worked on important projects to make science more fair and welcoming for everyone. She helped lead an effort called NIH UNITE. This project started in 2021 to find and fix any unfair practices or racism within the NIH. It also worked to make health research jobs more fair. She also helped create a big plan for 2023-2027. This plan was to make sure there is more diversity, fairness, and inclusion in science.
She also helped lead a group that made sure clinical research included people of all sexes, genders, races, and ages. Dr. Bernard also worked on goals for "Healthy People 2020." This is a program by the United States Department of Health and Human Services. She focused on goals for older adults and for diseases like dementia, including Alzheimer's disease.
Before joining the NIH in 2008, Dr. Bernard worked at the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine. There, she was a professor and helped start a special department for older adult medicine. She also worked at the Oklahoma City Veterans Affairs Medical Center. She helped care for older veterans there.
Dr. Bernard is very interested in how nutrition and daily activities affect older people. She especially focuses on different ethnic minorities. She retired from her federal job on December 31, 2024.
Education and Early Career
Dr. Bernard started her college education at Bryn Mawr College in 1972. She studied chemistry and graduated with honors. She then went to the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and earned her M.D. degree in 1976.
She trained to become a doctor at Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. After her training, she continued to work at Temple's School of Medicine. She taught medicine and helped lead the medical clinics. She also helped with student admissions.
In 1990, Dr. Bernard moved to the University of Oklahoma. Her goal was to build programs for teaching and research about older adults. She started and directed Oklahoma's Reynolds Department of Geriatric Medicine. This was only the third department like it in the U.S. She also helped lead care for older veterans at the Oklahoma City Veterans Affairs Medical Center.
Dr. Bernard also received extra training in health research and leadership. She helped create a plan for the National Institute on Aging in 2015. This plan looked at how to improve research on health differences among different racial and ethnic groups as they age. On May 26, 2021, she was named the Chief Officer for Scientific Workforce Diversity at the National Institutes of Health.
Awards and Achievements
Dr. Bernard has received many awards for her important work. These awards show her leadership in helping older adults and making science more fair.
- 2023: Inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society.
- 2022: Received the John A. Hartford Foundation Trustee award.
- 2020: Gave the Barbara Payne Lectureship in Gerontology at Georgia State University.
- 2014: Received the Kent Award from the Gerontological Society of America. This award is for leaders in the field of aging.
- 2013: Received the Clark Tibbits Award. This award is for great contributions to education about aging.
- 2008: Received the "50 over 50 Award" from AARP, Oklahoma Chapter.
- 2007: Received the Pathmakers award from the Oklahoma City/County Historical Society.
- 2007-2010: Was a Hartford Senior Leadership Scholar.
