Dr. Ashenafi Cherkos awarded prestigious AIM-AHEAD Fellowship in Leadership
Dr. Ashenafi Cherkos, assistant professor at The University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth, has been awarded the prestigious AIM-AHEAD Fellowship in Leadership for the Fall 2023 cohort. Cherkos serves in the School of Public Health’s Department of Population and Community Health.
The National Institutes of Health’s Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning Consortium to Advance Health Equity and Researcher Diversity (AIM-AHEAD) program’s goal is to create more diversity within artificial intelligence and machine learning models and to improve the capabilities of this emerging technology for addressing health disparities and inequities, along with other health-related areas.
The AIM-AHEAD Research Fellows Program supports and engages early-career researchers in the implementation of novel and innovative data science and data-focused research problems.
“Being selected for this fellowship places Dr. Cherkos among a distinguished group of national researchers who are driving the future of public health,” said Dr. Shafik Dharamsi, dean of SPH.
“This accomplishment underscores his commitment to advancing the field of public health and his dedication to driving transformative change in response to addressing health inequities.”
The AIM-AHEAD Leadership Fellowship offers participants a $50,000 stipend for expenses during their training experience.
Cherkos holds a Ph.D. in epidemiology and an MPH in maternal and child health epidemiology from the University of Washington, Seattle. He has worked in public health research and practice, mainly focusing on maternal and child health and infectious diseases, for the last 16 years.
He is a member of the American Public Health Association and the Society of Epidemiologic Research. He received a Junior Investigator Award from the University of Washington Advanced Tuberculosis Research and Training Center in 2022.
Dr. Cherkos joined HSC in 2022.
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