Ronit Elk, PhD has recently joined the University of Alabama, Birmingham as Professor in the School of Medicine; Division of Geriatrics, Gerontology and Palliative Care, and as Associate Director of the Southeast Institute for Innovation in Palliative and Supportive Care. Her prior position was at the University of South Carolina, Columbia. Using Community Based Participatory Research, her NIH-funded research focuses on partnering with underserved populations, in particular rural African American communities, to determine effective culturally-based palliative care programs. Her first academic appointment was at the University of Texas in Houston where she was NIH-funded to explore effective interventions for “hard to reach” populations. She served as guest editor, Special Issue on “Palliative and End of Life Care for African Americans,” Journal of Palliative Medicine, Ronit has extensive expertise in grant writing, reviewing and funding; in addition to serving on several NIH Peer Review Committees for over 8 years, she directed the first extramural Cancer Control and Prevention Research at the American Cancer Society from 2001-2011; this included establishing a nationally-recognized cancer health disparities program, and forming a partnership with the National Palliative Care Research Center to establish the first palliative care research funding program in the US
Personal: Ronit was born in Israel but spent her early life moving from country to country, as her father was Israeli Ambassador to Turkey, India, Uganda, Kenya and South Africa. She immigrated to the US over 30 years ago, but still talks with a “funny accent.” She is the proud grandmother of 3 year old twins, a boy and a girl, who live in Israel.
