BALTIMORE, Md. — Gregory Dale Kirk, a 1984 graduate of Sallisaw who is a researcher for the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, has been elected a 2024 Fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science. A professor of medicine, epidemiology and oncology, Kirk is an infectious diseases epidemiologist and academic leader at the Johns Hopkins school and the Bloomberg School of Public Health. Kirk’s research focuses on understanding the longterm consequences of living with HIV or hepatitis. He leads epidemiological groups of persons with chronic viral infections in underrepresented populations in Baltimore and international settings. He has contributed to more than 350 peer-reviewed publications.

Kirk currently serves as vice dean for research at the Bloomberg school, and previously held the role of vice chair for clinical and translational research in the Department of Medicine. He earned his medical degree from the University of Oklahoma College Medicine before going to Johns Hopkins, where he completed a preventive medicine residency and obtained his Master of Public Health and doctorate in epidemiology from the Bloomberg School of Public Health. He also completed an internal medicine residency at Georgetown University and a fellowship in infectious diseases at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Kirk is the son of Dale and Ora Lee Kirk, and grew up in the McKey community.