Rheumatology Group Bestows Prestigious Honor on Jarvis

The designation of master is conferred on members 65 or older who have made outstanding contributions to the ACR and the field of rheumatology through scholarly achievement and/or service to their patients, students and the profession.

A fellow of the ACR since 1985, Jarvis is also an elected member of the American Association of Immunologists, the Society for Pediatric Research and the American Pediatric Society.

For four decades, he has been conducting research on pediatric rheumatic diseases, such as juvenile idiopathic (juvenile rheumatoid) arthritis, inflammatory muscle disease and systemic lupus.

Jarvis, who is of Akwesasne Mohawk ancestry and who works on American Indian and Alaska native child health issues, has chaired the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Native American Child Health.

He conducts research at UB’s Clinical and Translational Research Center that is focused — in part — on why rheumatic diseases are so common and severe in indigenous American children, especially the role of epigenetic factors from historical traumas and cultural dislocation that may affect how these diseases are expressed in indigenous children.

Jarvis was principal investigator on a $1.2 million National Institutes of Health grant to study biomarkers in juvenile idiopathic arthritis.

A UB faculty member since 2012, Jarvis has served as division chief of allergy/immunology and rheumatology and as director of research for allergy/immunology and rheumatology and in UBMD Pediatrics and Oishei Children’s Hospital.

Jarvis’ research has been funded by the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development — both of the NIH — and numerous private foundations, including the Arthritis Foundation and the Rheumatology Research Foundation.