About Us

The Center for Investigations of Health and Education Disparities (CiHED) is a collaborative effort between UC San Diego researchers, educators, scholars, and community leaders within the San Diego area. Through Research, Training, and Outreach, CIHED and its partners hope to find practical interventions to reduce the health and educational gaps between ethnic and socioeconomic groups in the United States.

Center Director

Dr. Antonio De Maio, Ph.D.

Dr. De Maio is a well-recognized international expert in the heat shock response field with an active research group that studies the response to injury at the cellular and systemic levels. He was president of the Cell Stress Society International from 2009–2010. Dr. De Maio obtained his Ph.D. from the Weizmann Institute in Israel and continued with postdoctoral training in the U.S. at The University of Massachusetts (Worcester, MA) and Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, MD). He was appointed a faculty member at Johns Hopkins Medical School in 1994 and stayed with Johns Hopkins until 2005. In 2006, Dr. De Maio was recruited to the West Coast, where he joined the faculty of the University of California, San Diego as a Tenured Professor in the School of Medicine.

Dr. De Maio is an active advocate for diversity at UCSD and has established several programs aimed at providing opportunities for students from various underrepresented groups, including those with disabilities, students from disadvantaged backgrounds, and students from minority groups that are traditionally underrepresented in science. He is the Director of Pathways for the Advancement of Diversity in Research and Education (PADRE), which supports programs that motivate, mentor, and facilitate the transition of students from disadvantaged economic and social backgrounds to higher education. Dr. De Maio is also Principal Investigator for the NIGMS-funded Initiative for Maximizing Student Development (IMSD) program and Co-PI of the UCSD Minority Access to Research Careers (MARC) program. Shortly after arriving at UCSD in 2007, Dr. De Maio was presented with a Vice-Chancellor of Health Sciences Equal Opportunity Diversity Award in recognition of his efforts to recruit underrepresented minority students to UCSD. In 2010, he was named Mentor of the Year by the Compact for Faculty Diversity of the Institute on Teaching and Mentoring, which is a coalition of federal and foundation programs that mentor underrepresented students in STEM careers.