NEWS

Note: Below represents a write-through of release number 561 to add the name of a second UNC faculty member named to the Institute of Medicine.

CHAPEL HILL -- Two University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill faculty members have been elected to the Institute of Medicine, a sister organization of the National Academy of Sciences.

They are Dr. Luis A. Diaz, C.E. Wheeler Jr. distinguished professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine; and Sheila T. Leatherman, an adjunct professor in the UNC School of Public Health’s department of health policy and administration.

The institute and NAS are both part of the National Academies, an entity that also includes the National Research Council and the National Academy of Engineering.

Sixty-five new members were recently elected to the Institute of Medicine, raising the total active membership to 1,358. Current active members elect new members from among candidates chosen for their major contributions to health and medicine or to related fields such as social and behavioral sciences, law, administration and economics.

Diaz, who is chairman of the department of dermatology, received his medical degree from Universidad Nacional de Trujillo in Peru. He completed his residency at the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1974.

His research focuses on human autoimmunity and autoimmune blistering diseases; his studies focus on defining the immunopathological mechanisms involved in three human autoimmune diseases.

Leatherman is the founder and chair of the Center for Health Care Policy and Evaluation in Minnesota. Her areas of research are quality of care, health policy and managed care.

UNC ranks 11th among public research institutions for the number of members in the National Academies, including the National Academy of Sciences (ten), the National Academy of Engineering (five), and the Institute of Medicine (20). In addition, UNC counts 16 of its faculty among the members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

For more information on the institute, click on www.iom.edu.

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School of Public Health contact: Lisa Katz, (919) 966-7467 or lisa_katz@unc.edu
News Services contact: Deb Saine, (919) 962-8415