Leadership Meredith Hawkins, MD, MS, FRCP(C) Director Dr. Meredith Hawkins is Professor of Medicine and Associate Director of the Einstein-Mt. Sinai Regional Diabetes Research Center. She holds the Harold and Muriel Block Chair in Medicine. Motivated by her extensive experience managing diabetes in low and middle income countries since 1996, Dr. Hawkins founded the Global Diabetes Initiative in 2008, and formally established the Global Diabetes Institute in 2012. As Director, Dr. Hawkins has been spearheading many efforts globally, including comprehensive metabolic studies in partnership with Christian Medical College, Vellore, building medical education partnerships in Uganda and elsewhere, and serving in the leadership of annual International Continuing Medical Education Meetings, in which she developed an educational program for comprehensive diabetes management in low income settings. Dr. Hawkins earned her M.D. degree cum laude from the University of Toronto and a Master of Science in Clinical Research Methods cum laude from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Her team’s current research interests include the effects of nutrient deficiency and excess on the pathogenesis of diabetes mellitus, delineating central regulation of glucose metabolism, and hypoglycemia-associated autonomic failure. Dr. Hawkins has received research grants from the National Institutes of Health (continually since 1999), the American Diabetes Association, the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation International and the Diabetes Action Foundation International. She is the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including the Junior Physician Scientist Award (2001) and the Outstanding Investigator Award (2012) from the American Federation of Medical Research, the Novartis Young Investigator award in Diabetes Research (2007), and election to the American Society for Clinical Investigation (2012). She recently served on the Congressionally-appointed National Clinical Care Commission. Pradnyashree Wadivkar, MD, MPH, PMP Pradnyashree joined the Global Diabetes Institute (GDI) as a Program Manager in September 2023. She coordinates the institute's multifaceted functions while bolstering its research endeavors. She is a licensed physician in India and a Master of Public Health (MPH) graduate from Columbia University with over a decade of experience in clinical medicine and public health. Pradnyashree's experience during her medical internship on the impact of public health, especially in underserved populations, inspired her to specialize in Community Medicine. During her MD, she researched to understand the barriers and facilitators of healthcare delivery and published her findings in international public health journals. Then, she served in government as a Specialty Medical Officer at Seth G.S. Medical College and KEM Hospital, contributing to the implementation of national healthcare programs, including the Universal Immunization Program and Integrated Disease Surveillance Project. As an Assistant Professor at K.J. Somaiya Medical College and Research Centre, she worked as a vaccination coordinator for under-five immunizations, an epidemiology cell manager supporting institutional research activities, and an academic supervisor managing the medical education curriculum of 50+ medical students. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she provided frontline medical care and managed a vaccination center, administering vaccines to hundreds daily. Driven by her passion for knowledge and the aspiration to contribute globally, Pradnyashree pursued an MPH at Columbia University. During her MPH, she worked as a healthcare consultant for a hospital and a non-profit organization, optimizing healthcare strategies. Upon completing her MPH, she assumed her current role as Program Manager, collaborating with Dr. Meredith Hawkins and the team on GDI's strategic planning, growth, and development. Monica Nogueira Cordeiro, MD Dr. Monica Nogueira is an Endocrinologist and a postdoctoral research fellow at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. She earned her medical degree from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) in Brazil and has worked with underserved populations not only in Rio de Janeiro but also in Westchester County and in the Bronx. After graduating from the endocrinology fellowship at Montefiore Medical Center, she was awarded a Diversity Supplement by the NIDDK division of the NIH for the Dr. Meredith Hawkins R01 grant: "Regulation of Endogenous Glucose Production by Central KATP Channels." The grant will allow her to study the intersection of social determinants of health and human physiology and metabolism. Dr. Hawkins' ongoing work suggests that central nervous system (CNS) signals play an important role in regulating EGP in humans. The fact that this regulation is impaired in T2D could help to explain associations between glycemic control and economic instability as well as other social determinants of health. Together with her mentors, Drs. Meredith Hawkins and Alyson K. Myers, she will work towards her goal of mitigating health disparities in minoritized populations. Elizabeth Walker, PhD, RN, CDE Dr. Walker is professor emerita of medicine and of epidemiology & population health at Einstein, where she served for many years as director of the prevention and control core for the Diabetes Research Center. Dr. Walker has deep experience in the development, implementation and evaluation of a number of diabetes self-management interventions, which include healthy eating, physical activity, and medication adherence components; all are grounded in behavioural theory. She is experienced in research interventions that range from research capacity-building for health care professionals in community health centers, to peer training and peer-based interventions in the community. She has served as the principal investigator of a large behavioral intervention study in minority diabetes populations, and as co-investigator for the multi-center Diabetes Prevention Program Outcomes Study (DPPOS). Professor Walker has served as co-chair of an expert panel on risk perception and decision-making in chronic disease affiliated with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and as national President of Health Care & Education of the American Diabetes Association. In 2008, she was named a Fellow of the American Association of Diabetes Educators. She made several trips to Uganda with the Global Diabetes Institute, participating actively in several diabetes educational conferences for doctors and nurses serving at 20 specialty clinics around Uganda. She also participated in the first Ugandan Diabetes Research Symposium at Makerere University in 2010, and developed an outstanding Uganda-specific educational poster regarding hypoglycemia that has been approved by the Ugandan Ministry of Health. Subsequent to her work in Uganda, Dr. Walker has provided extensive leadership to Chronic Care International in developing and implementing their diabetes management strategies in the Dominican Republic. Louis M. Weiss, MD, MPH Dr. Weiss has been the Director of the Einstein Global Health Center (GHC) since July 2010. The Center supports faculty initiatives in global health, including providing advice and support for the Global Diabetes Institute. In the capacity of Director of the GHC, Dr. Weiss has helped develop a robust program of international electives for medical students, including many Einstein medical students who have worked with the Global Diabetes Institute over many years. Dr. Weiss is a tenured Professor of Medicine (Infectious Diseases) and Pathology, Vice Chair of Academic Affairs and Research in the Department of Pathology, and co-Director of the Einstein Global Health Center. He has been a faculty member at Einstein since 1989 and maintains an active research program in parasitology and infectious diseases. His major research interests are latent infection due to Toxoplasma gondii, the structural biology of the invasion mechanism (polar tube) in microsporidia, and the development of cardiomyopathy due to Trypanosoma cruzi. He has over 200 publications in peer-reviewed journals. He has published six books on parasitology and infectious diseases: of these, "Toxoplasma gondii: the model apicomplexan" is the standard reference for this pathogen and is currently in its 3rd Edition; and "Microsporidia: Pathogens of Opportunity" is the standard reference for studies on these organisms and was recently translated into Chinese. His research program has been supported continuously by NIH grants since 1989. He has participated in numerous training grants and is the principal investigator on a T32 grant on emerging infectious diseases, which is in its 15th year. BWF developed a predoctoral training program entitled “Institutional Program Unifying Population and Laboratory Based Sciences,” and the Einstein PCI program was awarded funding from BWF in 2013. He has served as co-Director of the PhD in Clinical Investigation (PCI) program since receipt of this BWF grant. Nihal Thomas, MD., MNAMS, DNB(Endo), FRACP(Endo), FRCP(Edin), FRCP(Glasg), FRCP (London), FACP, Ph.D. (Copenhagen) Dr. Nihal Thomas has been part of the leadership of the Global Diabetes Institute since 2010. He is currently Senior Professor in the Department of Endocrinology at Christian Medical College (CMC) Vellore, India, where he formerly also served as Head of Endocrinology, Vice Principal for Research, and Associate Director. Dr. Thomas has run more than 65 multinational and in-house designed clinical trials in Diabetes Mellitus. He has collaborated with researchers at Copenhagen University, Oxford University, Karolinska Institute and Albert Einstein College of Medicine. In addition, he has edited two books, is an Associate Editor for the Indian Journal of Endocrinology, and an Editorial Board member for the journal Clinical Endocrinology. He initiated a World Diabetes Foundation project to train 130 hospitals in rural India and subsequently from Project HOPE, which has resulted in a sustainable training program for doctors and educators and diabetes, inclusive of a distance education program. Dr. Thomas has received grants to support research and outreach programs from international and national agencies up to 700 million rupees (US$8.6 million) and is the recipient of the Yedanapalli research award for the year 2009, the INCLEN young investigator of the year award 2004, and the Tamil Nadu Medical Council Award for the year 2022. His team in the Endocrinology department were awarded the following prestigious awards: British Medical Journal South Asia Diabetology Team of the Year for 2015, Excellence in Patient Care Awards for the Royal College of Physicians in the year 2017, and the World India Diabetes Foundation Award for the year 2018.
