Pamela L. Thornton, Ph.D.
Responsibilities & Activities
Program Director for the Type 1 Diabetes Therapeutics Program focused on research projects and activities involving youth and adults living with type 1 diabetes. This program includes clinical, observational, and interventional studies to assess and understand effects of therapeutics and clinical management, differences in health and healthcare outcomes, and dissemination and implementation science.
Program Director for career development awards focused on diabetes. I advise career development grant applicants, administer awards, and coordinate scientific workshops.
Coordinator for NIDDK-wide health disparities research efforts, community engagement, and biomedical training activities to support multidisciplinary investigators who are equipped to address the complexities of NIDDK mission diseases.
Research Programs
Clinical Research in Type 1 Diabetes
Determinants, etiology, progression, prevention, and treatment of type 1 diabetes in children and adults.
Clinical Research in Type 2 Diabetes
Progression and treatment of type 2 diabetes in children and adults. Dissemination and Implementation science. Community engaged research methodologies.
Diabetes Centers
Enhancing and extending the effectiveness of diabetes research by encouraging collaboration among investigators from relevant disciplines.
Diabetes: Treatment, Prevention, & Complications
The Diabetes: Treatment, Prevention, and Complications Program supports both basic and clinical studies aimed at addressing the prevention, treatment and pathophysiology of type 1 and type 2 diabetes across the lifespan.
Committees & Working Groups
- NIDDK Health and Engagement Research Workgroup, Chair
- DEM Engagement Working Group, Member
- Clinical Advancement based on Research Evidence (CARE), Member
- NIDDK Obesity Research Working Group, Member
- NIH Dissemination & Implementation Workgroup, Member
Select Experience
Program Director, National Institute of General Medical Sciences; National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, 2013-2016
Principal, Healthcare and Public Health, U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services and Veterans Affairs Portfolios, The MITRE Corporation, McLean VA, 2007-2013
Senior Research Associate, Joint Center Health Policy Institute, Washington, DC, 2006-2007
Postdoctoral Fellow, W.K. Kellogg Foundation Health Disparities Scholars Program, The University of Michigan Institute for Social Research, Ann Arbor, MI, 2003-2005
Adjunct Faculty and Lecturer Human Behavior; Evaluation Research Methods, University of Maryland, Baltimore MD, 2006-2012
Ph.D., University of Maryland Baltimore School of Social Work, 2003
M.S.W., Catholic University of America School of Social Services, 1998
B.S., Howard University, 1993