Joyce Balls-Berry, PhD

2025 Dean’s Impact Award Recipient

With an infectious combination of passion and compassion, Joyce E. Balls-Berry, PhD, amplifies silenced voices and pushes for research to include people from all backgrounds, which helps to ensure that interventions benefit all populations, rather than just a select group. As inaugural leader for the Health Disparities and Equity Core at the WashU Medicine Knight Alzheimer Disease Research Center, Balls-Berry has carried on the historical legacy of the center’s African American Advisory Board; she launched the COEQUAL Registry in collaboration with civic leaders and patient and family advocates, and has recruited over 800 participants from a range of backgrounds to fundamentally enhance the center’s Alzheimer’s research. Balls-Berry promotes access to genetic testing and treatment as community engagement lead for the WashU Institute for Clinical and Translational Science Precision Health, while also representing WashU’s patient engagement efforts for The National Patient-Centered Clinical Research Network. Balls-Berry also has established the Minority Women Research Network and serves as a patient advocate for women’s reproductive health. She is an active and visible presence in the local community, coordinating outreach programs from the Precision Health for the Ages workshop series to Brain Aging Cafe events at community centers. In St. Louis and beyond, Balls-Berry is a true champion for health care access, literacy and representation in research.