Dr. Mary Awuonda currently serves as an Associate Professor and Director of the Center of Excellence at the Howard University College of Pharmacy. In her directorship role, she helps the College advance its healthcare workforce diversification mission and student academic success initiatives. Mary believes that a student-centered organizational mindset and pipeline programs are critical to supporting the advancement of underrepresented minority students into health care professions. To that end, Mary has successfully facilitated continuous funding for the Center for the past ten years. She has also designed three pipeline academic programs and managed 18 academic and clinical partnerships working with the Center.

Mary received her Ph.D. in Pharmacy Administration with an emphasis in training in Pharmacoepidemiology and Health Services Research from Howard University and has been an active faculty researcher for the past 11 years. She is well published in the areas of minority health, health disparities, health outcomes research, and workforce diversification. Most recently, these efforts have expanded in the District of Columbia in her role as a Co-Principal investigator on the recently $8 million dollar funded Public Health Informatics and Technology (PHIT) for DC (PHIT4DC) PHIT4DC cooperative agreement. Initiated as a joint effort between the University of the District of Columbia (UDC) and Howard, the grant aims to develop a pipeline of underrepresented minority PHIT students and workforce trainees for Washington DC and other medically underserved areas.