Eliseo J. Pérez-Stable

Eliseo J. Pérez-Stable is a Cuban-American physician-scientist. He is the director of the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities.

Early life and education Pérez-Stable was born in Cuba. In the early 1960s, his parents, fearful of the communist rise in their country, sent him to the United States to live with his grandparents. He grew up in Miami, Florida. When his parents emigrated, he moved to Pittsburgh.

Career Pérez-Stable began his research at UCSF in the 1980s as a professor of medicine, chief of the Division of General Internal Medicine, and director of the Center for Aging in Diverse Communities (CADC).

On March 31 during the 2025 United States federal mass layoffs, Pérez-Stable was placed on administrative leave. His departure from NIH on October 1, 2025, ended both his NIMHD directorship and his tenured senior investigator position.

Research Pérez-Stable's expertise spans a broad range of health disparities disciplines. His research interests have centered on improving the health of racial and ethnic minorities and underserved populations, advancing patient-centered care, improving cross-cultural communication skills among health care professionals, and promoting diversity in the biomedical research workforce. Pérez-Stable has spent more than 30 years leading research on smoking cessation and tobacco control policy in Latino populations in the United States and Latin America. His collaborations with researchers and public health advocates in Argentina have helped to put tobacco use on the country's public health agenda, raising awareness of tobacco use as a critical public health problem, building capacity for tobacco control policy, and creating opportunities for prevention and treatment measures through physician education and smoking cessation programs. Pérez-Stable served as a member of the National Institute on Aging's Advisory Council from 2011 to 2014 and as the chair of the council's Minority Task Force on Aging from 2012 to 2014. He has authored numerous scientific papers, reviewed articles for a variety of professional publications, and delivered keynote lectures and presentations at many domestic and international conferences.