Joshua Joseph receives 2024 Early Career Distinguished Scholar Award
Joshua J. Joseph, MD, MPH, FAHA, associate professor and Endowed Professor for Research in Internal Medicine in the College of Medicine, has earned The Ohio State University 2024 Early Career Distinguished Scholar Award. Senior leadership in the Enterprise for Research, Innovation and Knowledge surprised Joseph with the honor during a recent virtual department meeting.
“I am incredibly thankful and grateful to everyone here and especially the ACCELERATE Research team and community partners that I'm fortunate and privileged to work with,” said Joseph, upon learning of his award. “None of this work happens without our great team of academic, community, government and industry partners all working on collaborative team science to drive change and advance health.”
Joseph’s research focuses on advancing prevention and treatment of obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease through a health equity lens with four pillars: examining the role of stress hormones in cardiometabolic disease; health system to community innovation; community-based participatory research; and quality improvement.
“Joshua is a deeply thoughtful and creative physician scientist and mentor,” said Peter Mohler, executive vice president for research, innovation and knowledge. Over his career, he has translated his findings into clinical- and community-based solutions to improve the health of people across central Ohio and beyond.”
“Your scholarly contributions and the impact that you're making on the communities we collectively serve is truly unparalleled and unmatched,” said College of Medicine Dean Carol R. Bradford, MD, MS, FACS. “Through your outreach and research efforts, we're really elevating the bar for addressing social determinants of health and ensuring all of us have equal access to healthy lives and healthy outcomes.”
“He is clearly a rising star in endocrinology at the national level, at Ohio State, and in our community who has had high impact through his research and clinical/community efforts with a remarkable trajectory,” said Rama Mallampalli, MD, PhD, Department of Internal Medicine chair, in his nomination letter.
Joseph received his medical degree at Boston University and completed his residency at Yale. He completed a clinical research fellowship at the National Institutes of Health - National Heart Lung and Blood Institute and Johns Hopkins. He joined the faculty at Ohio State in 2016 and earned his Master of Public Health as a Buckeye. He is founder and medical director for the Healthy Community Center, which focuses on nutrition and wellness on the near east side of Columbus. Joseph serves as chair of the Endocrine Society Clinical Affairs Core Committee, chair-elect of the American Heart Association Council on Lifestyle and Cardiometabolic Health Diabetes committee, president-elect of the Central Ohio American Heart Association Board and as a member of the Columbus Board of Health.
The Early Career Distinguished Scholar Award is among the highest annual honors awarded to early career faculty at Ohio State. The university-level award honors three to four faculty members who are assistant or early associate professors who show promise of making significant contributions to Ohio State and their field for years to come. Award recipients are nominated by their departments and chosen by a committee of senior faculty, including past award recipients. Distinguished scholars receive an honorarium and a research grant to be used over the next three years.
Quotes from Joseph’s nomination:
“Not only is Dr. Joseph an exceptional physician-scientist, but he is also committed to ending diabetes and cardiovascular disease through community engagement, quality improvement, and advancements in clinical care delivery with a focus on health equity,” E. Dale Abel, MD, PhD, University of California at Los Angeles.
“With respect to teaching, Dr. Joseph is an incredible teaching and mentoring resource to Ohio State, including to PhD and master’s students. Some of his mentees have already gone on to win awards and achieve grant funding, publications, and national poster presentations despite the short period of time since Dr. Joseph joined The Ohio State University. This is strong evidence of excellence in teaching,” Laura C. Alonso, MD, Weill Cornell Medicine.
“Joshua’s dedication to the work of building healthier communities and to mitigating cardiometabolic and diabetes mortality inspired me to aim for greater heights...If I am where I am today, it is because I stand on the shoulder of giants—that “giant” for me was Joshua,” Emmanuella Aboagye-Mensah, MPH/doctoral student, Ohio State’s College of Public Health.