Skip to Content

Press Releases

Womack Welcomes NIH Director to Arkansas's Third District

BENTONVILLE, Ark. — Congressman Steve Womack (AR-3) joined state and local community leaders in welcoming the Director of the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., to the Third District of Arkansas on Tuesday, April 3, 2018. Dr. Collins was sworn in as the 16th Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) on August 17, 2009, and continues to serve as Director of NIH under President Donald J. Trump. Dr. Collins visited the Natural State at the invitation of Congressman Womack.

Dr. Collins began his day in Bentonville, visiting Bentonville High School, participating in a question and answer session, and sharing his experience and the future of NIH. Afterwards, Dr. Collins and Congressman Womack attended the Kiwanis Youth Excellence Banquet, where students were honored and received awards for overcoming adversity, to speak about the importance of leadership and service. They later toured the newly-opened Arkansas Children’s Northwest Hospital, met with constituents to discuss the Marshallese population in Arkansas, and visited the University of Arkansas – Fayetteville.

Director of the National Institutes of Health Dr. Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D.: “I’m very grateful to Rep. Steve Womack for introducing me to the people and research institutions in Arkansas’s Third District. There is a remarkable amount of research and medical talent hard at work at the University of Arkansas, the Arkansas Children’s Research Institute, and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, and after meeting with many high school students today, I’m excited about the future generation of researchers.”

U.S. Representative Steve Womack: “I would like to thank Dr. Collins for visiting the Third District of Arkansas, where he was able to see firsthand the promising extramural NIH research being done in Northwest Arkansas and discuss with students the future of medical research. I look forward to continuing to work with Dr. Collins in support of NIH’s mission to benefit Arkansas and all Americans.”

 

Congressman Steve Womack has represented Arkansas’s Third Congressional District since 2011. He serves as the Chairman of the House Committee on the Budget and is a member of the House Appropriations defense, military construction-veterans affairs, and labor-health and human services subcommittees.

womack.house.gov  

                                                            

###