Dr. Floyd Malveaux Interview for the Legacy of Leadership Awards

Sure because you and your you must do. It Right. I probably decided very early in my life that I wanted to be in medicine. I had a slight detour However in after undergraduates who I became very enthused with the research and met some very good researchers and top notch researchers who really interested me in the area of microbiology and I pursued it. One of my mentors at that time Joe Cooney played a very significant role in my pursuing microbiology and I did that I pursued it through graduate studies and and got a Ph.D. in microbiology. When I came to Howard actually that as in the College of Medicine as then as an assistant professor right out of school I haven't finished my Ph.D..

I soon discovered that I really did want to see patients and be engaged in research but make it more patient oriented. So I did not necessarily want to spend the rest of my career in a in a laboratory Hamelin test tubes petri dishes at that time and wanted to be more engaged with patients. If you were right. Well for me a lifelong learning really. It did start very early in my life. I have parents who encouraged me to pursue education and to pursue higher education. In fact I never knew it was an option not to

have higher education so they were very instrumental in in Katyn I think that philosophy and pursue an education. So it was it was relatively easy in my position now as the dean of the College of Medicine and provost for for health affairs it's a natural because I feel very comfortable in academic medicine first of all even though I do enjoy seeing patients. At least I did I don't see patients anymore. But in any case an academic environment feels very natural for me and I'm able to pursue research able to pursue teaching and so on. So in my role actually I'm able to to really fulfill. I think my own personal dreams and my own ambitions and passin whatever knowledge and skills I have to students and to faculty

and to anyone else who wants to listen to me. What's happening. OK. A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T

U V W X Y Z. Say that you're researching right now that you know your research well. My my research or really is is very important to me. I thrive actually on research I enjoy it I enjoy talking about it and I've been very fortunate I've had very good mentors. I've had good opportunities to get funded and pursue some of the questions that I thought were important questions. Very rarely in my in my career I was able to to work with an individual at Johns Hopkins University Larry Lichtenstein who served as my mentor at that time and I was

able to pursue I think some very important. Research and answer some questions that were important at the time. Well for example we found that that molecules that are present in allergic individuals in relatively high quantity we call it i.e. circulates in the bloodstream and those molecules were able to really modulating to change a number of receptors on cells surfaces and so on. That was work actually done 25 years ago and today in fact we are now in the midst of trials clinical trials to test the use of anti G and R and module eat their receptor on cells certain types of cells and make people less allergic so now we're using it as a vaccine. So those studies will vary somewhat all I think in terms of the clinical trials that we're engaged in now. And ironically enough we're likely to be one of the sites

to do those trials here at Howard University is so it's like coming full circle. And and so I feel very gratified by that. The other thing I think that that is important is that we've now recognized for some 20 years or so that as a. Especially is quite prevalent in our urban areas and especially among minority patients. I was fortunate to be one of the first individuals to define and to recognize that phenomenon the fact that Asamoah deaths were increasing but the fact that these deaths were increasing disproportionately in minority communities living in our inner cities in our urban areas. So I have pursued those studies pursued interventions to reduce the amount of morbidity in our communities and I've been very fortunate to have individuals who work closely with me even now in pursuing these important questions

here. Technology is playing a very important role in the evolution of medicine all the way from discovery to delivery of the bit side to delivery in our clinics. And we want to make sure that our medical students our residents our fellows and even our faculty are well prepared in terms of utilizing that technology in gaining in information access in information in being able to use technology in terms of teaching our students. Our students are now are very well equipped and versed with the use of

technology much more so than I or my faculty actually. And they're able to access the information through the Internet in various means. They have laptop computers that they can take their lectures and solo by and all of the information and put it in a digital form and actually access that information. I want to also be able to send a message to our students and give them the opportunity to be able to talk about the diagnosis of diseases we've just done ravelled the genetic code. Now the work really begins as we start talking about what that code means we have all of the alphabets in the in the letter and we have the words. But now we have to start making sentences and paragraphs out of that information and that's the real challenge. I want the students the faculty to be involved in that process to be able to take that information

and give advice to patients and give them some sense of warning in terms of what their genetics means in terms of their lives and what it is that they may develop later in life diseases for example but also give them a sense of hope because we can actually change that genetic material we can manipulate that genetic material for the benefit of our patients. And again I think the students I think the faculty need to be involved in that process and understand that process. Yeah. The general Clinical Research Center is one of the one of the first initiatives that I was able to bring to fruition

during my dean ship the GCR sea is as we call it is actually a research infrastructure to support clinical research. We have the only G C R A C in fact in a historically black institution in this country. So we were the first and we're very proud of that fact. You have to compete for GCR sees there only about 80 of these throughout the country. So it's a highly competitive process but it's one that truly does support the clinical research that we have here at Howard. OK now we're doing great.

Yeah right. OK. Right there. Are there other goes that I want to achieve in medicine I think there are so many if it's hard to perhaps define in any numerate especially if I want to be able to I think and to be able to show how technology can be utilized in medicine

where we're now in the midst of tele medicine for example. I would really like to be able to apply some of those principles in the delivery of health care again in our urban centers. Tele medicine was desert was developed to address remote control of course of medicine and the delivery of health care in remote areas so the rule areas one of the first areas to to see the application battlefield applications are are obvious as well. But I think that this is the opportunity to apply this technology to solving problems in our urban areas and especially related to chronic diseases. So I'd love to be able to to see that. The other thing is that. I'd love to be able to see the the transformation and almost to accelerate the transformation to utilize to

the genetic information that we're seeing and the variability among individuals and why some individuals will does develop certain diseases when exposed to certain environments. So to bring together to that nexus of the genetic implications and the environmental exposure and see how those two things actually fit together to cause some of the problems and the conditions that we see especially in our minorities in living in urban areas. All right. Well this legacy leadership award is is first of all truly humbling.

And it's it's I have I think everyone has heard before that it's great to be acknowledged by one's peers and and I think you only have to be in that position to really know what it feels like because I truly am and humbled and honored by by this opportunity and to be recognized in such a way. I think it gives perhaps not only personal gratification but some satisfaction in terms of the the number of hours and days that one puts into him to achieve in certain types of things. And of course a very strong support system. You can't do these types these types of things along. I've had it and been very fortunate to have had many mentors along the way. Many giants of that that who have truly helped me through this process. Some individuals that I probably won't go into their names at this time because I mean leave someone out. But there are many many individuals and of course the the the support from my family my wife Myrna has is just tremendous in terms of her

support. She's my number one fan. And and I think she deserves a great deal of credit that you know really you know you know. I think you know again my pleasure. OK great.