Innovator Award

Rena Patel, MD, MPH, MPhil

The Innovator Award recognizes HIVMA members in early- or mid-career who have made outstanding and original contributions to HIV medicine in clinical care, provider education, research or advocacy. The 2025 recipient is Rena Patel, MD, MPH, MPhil.

Dr. Patel is a visionary physician-scientist who has made remarkable contributions to HIV medicine, including cutting-edge research and service that have directly impacted public health. Currently at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Dr. Patel previously served in positions at the University of California at San Francisco and the University of Washington.

Dr. Patel conducts community-engaged mixed methods research, using both qualitative and quantitative tools, in HIV, women’s health and health equity in the U.S., Kenya, South Africa and Botswana. Her research produced some of the earliest data on increased vulnerability to COVID-19 among people with HIV, which directly informed guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention prioritizing some people with HIV for COVID-19 vaccines when they first became available. Her group also published some of the first data supporting the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccination among people with HIV, including in comparison to other immunocompromised patients, and went on to explore the social determinants of health influencing health outcomes among minoritized groups affected by HIV.

With an outstanding record of leadership and service, Dr. Patel serves as associate director for research at the Mary Heersink Institute for Global Health and was the assistant director for the Minority Health and Health Equity Research Center. At UAB, she is expanding a community-based participatory research project from Seattle to Alabama, where her team implements community-based stigma reduction interventions to improve HIV testing among African immigrant and African American communities. She is also laying groundwork to utilize mobile vans with community-based organizations to conduct HIV testing and offer long-acting PrEP in rural and Black communities in Alabama.

HIVMA is pleased to honor Dr. Patel with the HIVMA Innovator Award for her novel and prolific research and outreach endeavors that have directly impacted public health and for her unwavering commitment to justice in HIV medicine

2024 – Onyema Ogbuagu, MD, FACP, FIDSA
2023 – Nwora Lance Okeke, MD, MPH