Shawn M. Bediako, PhD

Shawn M. Bediako, PhD, is a senior program officer at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), where he supports science education initiatives and leads the implementation of programs designed to facilitate institutional transformation. Prior to joining HHMI, Bediako was director of the Office of Education for the Division of Intramural Research at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute at the National Institutes of Health. From 2005 to 2020, Bediako garnered federal and institutional grants for his innovative research on sickle cell disease stigma at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, where he rose through the academic ranks to become the first African American to earn both tenure and promotion to the rank of full professor in the Department of Psychology. He is now actively engaged in mentoring and training a new generation of culturally literate researchers who contribute to interdisciplinary and multidimensional science.

Bediako graduated with a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Central Arkansas and received his master’s in community psychology from Florida A&M University. He earned a doctorate in social and health psychology from Stony Brook University and completed a master’s in public administration from the University of Baltimore. He has held faculty or scholarly appointments at the Community College of Philadelphia, Ithaca College, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of Cincinnati, and the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.