Dr. Michael Fine is a tenured Distinguished Professor of Medicine in the Division of General Internal Medicine, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and the founding Director of the VA Health Services Research and Development (HSR&D) Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion (CHERP), providing scientific and administrative leadership for this Center for over 21 years. He has a 32-year track record of conducting research on the quality and equity of health and health care for vulnerable patient populations (e.g., racial/ethnic minorities) and patients with common medical problems (e.g., pneumonia, venous thromboembolism, diabetes). He has served as PI or Co-PI on several large, multicenter NIH R01 awards; PI of an NIH K24 Mid-Career Investigator Award; and senior co-investigator on multiple large-scale studies related to health equity and clinical therapeutics, which are the two research foci for CHERP. Dr. Fine has leveraged his research experience and expertise to launch the careers of a new generation of health services investigators by mentoring nearly 70 medical students, residents, post-doctoral fellows, junior faculty, and international Scholars, including numerous URM individuals. His past mentees include highly successful past and present NIH (n=7) and VA HSR&D (n=13) career development awardees, many of whom now hold leadership positions in academic medicine and the Veterans Health Administration. These accomplishments and leadership roles formed the foundation for receiving the 2016 Distinguished Research Mentor Award from the ICRE at the UPitt and the 2018 Daniel Deykin Award for Outstanding Mentor from the VA HSR&D Service.