The Washington Business Journal’s Sara Gilgore spoke with Whitman-Walker Health System CEO Dr. Heather Aaron about the ramifications of a recent and significant loss of funding from NIH, putting in jeopardy important scientific research that is done by The Institute for Health Research & Policy at Whitman-Walker.
Excerpt:
“The National Institutes of Health has rescinded $1.4 million of a $2 million grant to Whitman-Walker Health System, putting construction of a biomedical research lab in Congress Heights in jeopardy.
The health system — the entity within D.C.’s Whitman-Walker that encompasses a research institute, real estate division and foundation — had expected to start construction in the next month on the roughly $7.7 million project.
But the organization is now evaluating how to go forward after losing the remainder of the NIH grant in the sweeping funding cuts at the agency and across the federal government, according to CEO Heather Aaron. The NIH awarded the grant in 2022.
She and her team are working with community and philanthropic partners to ensure it still happens, saying the lab will “bring essential and life-sustaining medical breakthroughs to the members of our D.C. community who need them the most.”
“Our priority is still to make the biomedical hub a reality,” Aaron said, noting heart disease and cancers are the top major causes of death on the city’s east side.
The project would bring a 9,400-square-foot lab to the third floor of the organization’s new 118,000-square-foot Max Robinson Center at 1201 Sycamore Drive SE. The project team includes Rockville general contractor Davis Construction and architecture firm Gensler.
Whitman-Walker’s Institute for Health Research and Policy conducts research across HIV, cancer, mental health, transgender health and other areas. That includes clinical trials locally and across the country, involving more than 6,000 participants in studies over the past four years, according to the organization.
The termination letter about the NIH funding “clearly spelled out this administration’s disdain for our critical work to address racial disparities in health and health care access,” Aaron said. “Given the magnitude of disparities that affect Black and other communities of color here in D.C. and across the country, it is unconscionable that this administration wishes to pretend that the lives of our community members are expendable.”
“Too many members of our communities continue to lack access to medical breakthroughs that can cure disease, and improve health and well-being,” Aaron said. “Whitman-Walker is prepared to work with all partners across the health care sector and beyond to ensure that all people, regardless of gender, race or creed, have access to the life-saving benefits of clinical and public health research.”
Read the full article (subscription required) here: https://www.bizjournals.com/washington/news/2025/03/27/whitman-walker-health-nih-funding.html
