Dr. Griffin Rodgers
Public Health Official
Rodgers directs the National Institutes of Health’s unit on diabetes and digestive and kidney diseases—one of the NIH’s largest, with a budget of almost $2 billion. In that capacity he is responsible for addressing diseases that are among the most important causes of morbidity and mortality around the world. Rodgers is a master of the American College of Physicians and a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies of Science, and he has conducted important research on sickle-cell disease, which disproportionately affects people of African descent.
At a congressional hearing last year, Rodgers testified that the outlook for children living with diabetes is bright, thanks to decades of public-health efforts and improving technology. “Still, the burden of living with diabetes is enormous,” he said. “And so it’s critical to build on the progress to find ways to prevent and cure the disease.”
