Menu

Dr. Moro O. Salifu to Be Honored by Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health

Apr 11, 2011

On April 14 at Sports Ball 2011, the annual gala fundraising event for the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health, Moro O. Salifu, MD, MPH, MBA, professor of medicine and chief of nephrology at SUNY Downstate Medical Center, will be honored for his contributions to Brooklyn community health. Other honorees include talk show host Tavis Smiley, attorney and television personality Star Jones, and New York Times sports columnist Bill Rhoden.

An ardent advocate for patients with kidney failure, and others who need organ transplants, Dr. Salifu is outspoken on the need for organ donation, especially in the Black community. African Americans are three times more likely to experience kidney failure than Americans of European descent.

Board-certified in internal medicine and nephrology, Dr. Salifu is known for his outstanding clinical skills. He also is a highly respected and productive researcher. A study on atherothrombosis that he conducted with colleagues was cited as one of the top scientific articles published in the journal Thrombosis and Haemostasis in 2006-2008.

 Dr. Salifu succeeded Distinguished Teaching Professor Eli A. Friedman, MD, who was division chief for 46 years. Before assuming his current leadership role, Dr. Salifu was associate division chief, director of the Fellowship Program, medical director of transplantation, and director of the Vascular Access Program. 

A native of Ghana, Dr. Salifu received his medical degree from Dokuz Eylul University in Turkey and did his residency, internship, and fellowship training at SUNY Downstate. After joining the faculty of medicine, he went on to earn a master of public health degree at Downstate.

The Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health was created by the late tennis great and humanist Arthur Ashe and has its main office on the SUNY Downstate campus. Downstate is an active partner in many of its programs and goals, including science enrichment for young people and research aimed at reducing health disparities in Brooklyn.

 

###


About SUNY Downstate Medical Center

SUNY Downstate Medical Center, founded in 1860, was the first medical school in the United States to bring teaching out of the lecture hall and to the patient’s bedside. A center of innovation and excellence in research and clinical service delivery, SUNY Downstate Medical Center comprises a College of Medicine, College of Nursing, School of Health Professions, a School of Graduate Studies, School of Public Health, University Hospital of Brooklyn, and a multifaceted biotechnology initiative including the Downstate Biotechnology Incubator and BioBAT for early-stage and more mature companies, respectively.

SUNY Downstate ranks twelfth nationally in the number of alumni who are on the faculty of American medical schools. More physicians practicing in New York City have graduated from SUNY Downstate than from any other medical school.