Dr. Emma Fernández-Repollet received her B.A. in Education from the University of Puerto Rico Rio Piedras Campus, her M.S. and Ph.D. in Physiology from the University of Puerto Rico Medical Sciences Campus, and a postdoctoral training in renal physiology at Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She joined the faculty of the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Puerto Rico Medical School in 1982. Her academic experience includes teaching medical, graduate and dental students, as well as maintaining an active Research Center in Minority Institutions (RCMI) program focusing on developing research infrastructure since 1986. She is a co-inventor in two patents on the area of flow cytometry. Dr. Fernández-Repollet served as Vice President for Research and Technology at the University of Puerto Rico from 2003-2009. She was a member of the Puerto Rico Trust for Science, Technology and Research, an autonomous entity created to provide ongoing funding for research and development projects and infrastructure advancements in the Island. She has also served on a number of review groups and advisory committees of the National Institutes of Health, including the committee for developing the National Center for Research Resources Strategic Plans for 2004-2008 and 2009-2013 and the National Advisory Research Resources Council at NCRR-NIH. She was also the President of the National RCMI Program Directors Association from 2003-2006, Secretary of the Board of Directors of the Center for Quantitative Cytometry from 1990-2004, and member the Board of Directors of the Alliance for the Economic Development of Puerto Rico and the Puerto Rico Diabetes Center. Dr. Fernández-Repollet served as Vice President of INDUNIV, an industry-university research consortium from 2003-2009 and as President of the Puerto Rico Health Care Council from 2011-2012. In 2007, Dr. Fernández-Repollet was recognized as Distinguished Ex-Alumni Graduate by the School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Puerto Rico Medical Sciences Campus. She received the 2008 Fred Greenwood Award in recognition of her contributions in the area of research administration and health disparities. She is currently a member of the External Advisory Committees of the RCMI Basic and Translational Research Center for Reducing Health Disparities at Hunter College, New York and the RCTR Meharry Clinical and Translational Research Center (MeTRC) at Meharry Medical College, Tennessee. She is also Chair of the Steering Committee of the RCMI Translational Research Network (RTRN), a national network of RCMI institutions.