CTSA News

Elaine H. Morrato, DrPH, MPH, FISPE, longtime leader of the Institute for Translational Medicine’s (ITM) Loyola site, has been named an ITM Director as she joins the University of Chicago faculty as Professor of Medicine, effective September 1.
Morrato will serve alongside David Meltzer, MD, PhD, and Joshua Jacobs, MD, as the ITM’s third Multiple Principal Investigator (MPI). Her appointment will strengthen translational science expertise and the collaborative leadership that drives ITM’s mission to accelerate discoveries into better health.
A nationally recognized leader in implementation science and founding dean of the Parkinson School of Health Sciences and Public Health at Loyola University Chicago, Morrato has championed interdisciplinary collaboration and innovative approaches that help move evidence into practice to improve health for all. Her work has also helped expand entrepreneurship and innovation in translational research through the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) I-Corps program and strengthened Electronic Health Record-based research across the ITM consortium through the ENACT Network.
In her new role, Morrato will continue to help shape the ITM’s vision while advancing innovative, team-based approaches to translational and foundational sciences.
“I am excited to join the University of Chicago and serve as an ITM Director at a time of tremendous opportunity in translational science,” said Morrato. “Having worked in the pharmaceutical industry, at the FDA, and in academic medicine and public health, I have seen firsthand the challenges of translating discovery into real-world impact. I look forward to working with colleagues across the ITM to advance translational science and improve health for the communities we serve.”
“ITM investigators have had the privilege of collaborating with Dr. Morrato for over 4 years in her role as site leader at Loyola,” said Jacobs and Meltzer. “It was evident from the start of her engagement in the ITM that her knowledge of the national Clinical and Translational Sciences Awards (CTSA) landscape and her expertise in implementation science were a great asset to our team. Her new role as MPI is well deserved; implementation of her vision for the future of ITM programs will keep us at the forefront of translational science advancements and benefit translational science investigators throughout all of our institutions as well as the national CTSA consortium.”
Morrato’s appointment reflects the ITM’s continued commitment to collaborative leadership and to building a research ecosystem that translates scientific discoveries into meaningful improvements in health for all people throughout the Chicagoland region and beyond.