Wools-Kaloustian takes new role

Kara Wools-Kaloustian, MD, has accepted the post of Executive Site Director for AMPATH Kenya, a role she will officially step into in early January.

As she takes on this new leadership position in the AMPATH –the Academic Model Providing Access to Healthcare – partnerships, she will be stepping away from her role as the Department of Medicine’s Vice Chair of Research, as well as her roles of Director of Research for the Indiana University Center for Global Health Equity (IUCGHE) and Co-Director of Research for the AMPATH partnership. She will continue to serve as Principal Investigator of East Africa International epidemiology Databases to Evaluate AIDS (EA-IeDEA).

Soon, searches will begin to fill these openings.

“I am incredibly grateful to Kara for the work she has done with the Department of Medicine alongside her great work for AMPATH and the IU Center for Global Health Equity,” said David Aronoff, MD, the Chair of the IU School of Medicine the Department of Medicine.

“She has proven herself to be an exceptional mentor and friend to so many of us, especially the young investigators joining our teams early in their careers, and these contributions will not be forgotten and will continue in new ways as she takes on this new challenge.”

The new role within AMPATH is an exceptional fit for Wools-Kaloustian.

She was in the first IU School of Medicine residency class to complete rotations at Moi University in Kenya in 1991 and the first fellow to conduct research as part of the partnership in 1992. She served as one of the earliest medicine team leaders from 1993-94 and, with support from the World AIDS Foundation, she established both an educational program about sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and HIV for health care providers, and an STI diagnostic laboratory in collaboration with the Faculty of Health Sciences at Moi University. In 2003, she became one of the founding co-directors of field research in Kenya. In 2019, she was named the AMPATH North American Co-Director of Research.

In 2022, Wools-Kaloustian was honored for her international contributions with the Indiana University John W. Ryan Award for Distinguished Contributions to International Programs and Studies. This award is given to faculty members and librarians from IU’s nine campuses for exceptional contributions international programs and studies within the university.

“Kara has a distinguished history as the co-director of research for the AMPATH partnership and director of research for the Indiana University Center for Global Health Equity where she played a pivotal role in advancing our research initiatives, particularly in the areas of HIV/AIDS, chronic disease care and reciprocal innovation,” said Adrian Gardner MD, MPH, director of the IU Center for Global Health Equity.

“But Kara's expertise extends beyond her research contributions. She has been instrumental in the design and implementation of comprehensive care programs that have significantly improved patient outcomes. Her leadership has been central to fostering collaborations that bridge the gap between research and clinical practice, ensuring that our work is both innovative and impactful. We look forward to the impact that her collaborations with her Kenyan and North American colleagues will continue to have on improving health for people in Kenya and Indiana.”

Wools-Kaloustian was the Director of the Department of Medicine Division of Infectious Diseases in 2020 at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. As the department’s Vice Chair of Research, she led the establishment of a strategic plan for research that will direct research goals into the future.

She was given the Outstanding Mentorship Award in 2024 as part of the department’s annual Pyramid Awards. These awards recognize those who have made noteworthy impacts within the department.