Media contact: Hannah Echols
University of Alabama at Birmingham
Edwin Aroke, Ph.D., CRNA, is being honored for his research on pain disparities and the roles of CRNAs in pain management.
(Photo by: Frank Couch) School of Nursing assistant professor Edwin Aroke, Ph.D., CRNA, has been named the 2021 John F. Garde Researcher of the Year by the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists Foundation.
The award recognizes individuals who have made significant contributions to the practice of anesthesia through research. Aroke’s research focuses on pain disparities and the role of epigenetics in pain. Through this research, Aroke aims to help certified registered nurse anesthetists recognize the role they play in pain management and potential disparities and understanding the underlying mechanisms of pain.
“It’s one thing to say Black people experience pain differently than white people, but it is completely different to ask and research why racial disparities take place or exist, especially since race is such an arbitrary concept,” Aroke said. “Through this research, we can look at lived experiences and how those experiences literally enter the body through epigenetics, and more.”
The John F. Garde Researcher of the Year Award recipients are nominated by their peers in AANA and selected by the AANA Foundation Professional Development Committee and the AANA Foundation Board of Trustees. The award also recognizes Aroke’s hard work in his research in three interrelated areas: anesthesia/pain, health disparities, and omics sciences — a field of study in biological sciences that end with -omics, such as genomics or metabolomics.
Aroke joined the UAB School of Nursing in 2017 after finishing his doctoral program. In the past several years, Aroke has received multiple grants, including a $50,000 grant from the UAB Obesity and Health Disparities Research Center. He recently received his first R01 grant from the National Institutes of Health for $1.7 million. Read more about Aroke’s research here.