Consuelo H. Wilkins, MD, MSCI, tenured Professor of Medicine, is Senior Vice President and Senior Associate Dean for Health Equity and Inclusive Excellence, Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Dr. Wilkins is a nationally recognized thought leader in health equity and in addressing the elimination of systemic inequities that impact the health and well-being of minoritized racial and ethnic groups. Throughout her career, her research has focused on racial and ethnic health disparities using a community engaged approach. She is currently Principal Investigator of three National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded centers: the Southeastern Collaborative for Innovative and Equitable Solutions to Chronic Disease Disparities, which is a collaboration between Vanderbilt, Miami and Meharry; the Vanderbilt Clinical and Translational Science Award; and a national Recruitment Innovation Center, which is part of the Trial Innovation Network. She has established centralized resources to facilitate authentic community engagement--including setting standards for compensating community partners, educating researchers and administrators on best practices in community engagement, and she has developed templates to expedite awards to communities. As Chief Equity Officer at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Dr. Wilkins led the development and implementation of the institution’s Racial Equity Plan--a comprehensive roadmap for addressing structural racism. Dr. Wilkins earned a Bachelor of Science in microbiology and Doctor of Medicine from Howard University. She completed a residency in Internal Medicine at Duke University Medical Center and a Geriatric Medicine fellowship at Washington University School of Medicine/Barnes-Jewish Hospital. Following medical training, she earned a Master of Science in Clinical Investigation from Washington University School of Medicine.