Please join us in welcoming Natcha De Genna, PhD, to the role of Assistant Center Director for Community Outreach and Engagement (COE) at UPMC Hillman Cancer Center. Dr. De Genna’s role was effective September 1, 2024. She holds appointments as Associate Professor at the University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) in Psychiatry, Epidemiology, and Clinical and Translational Science. She is also a member of the Biobehavioral Cancer Control research program at UPMC Hillman.
As the inaugural Assistant Center Director for Community Outreach and Engagement, she will work closely with the Associate Director for COE, the UPMC Hillman Cancer Center Community Advisory Board, and the Committee for Health Equity and Community Outreach and Engagement on strategic planning, implementation, and evaluation related to the COE specific aims for our cancer center.
Dr. De Genna’s primary research interest is reducing health inequities in perinatal substance use, especially tobacco, the leading cause of cancer. Her research program has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health since 2009. She has used advanced analytic skills to model long-term patterns of substance use in pregnant and parenting people and the impact of prenatal exposures on development. Dr. De Genna is also committed to engaging in collaborative research, leveraging the expertise of people with lived and living experience to advance science and better address community needs.
Dr. De Genna is an active member of the scientific enterprise. She has authored more than 50 publications, several book chapters and invited papers, and has presented at many conferences. Dr. De Genna teaches Epidemiology classes and has mentored many medical, graduate, and undergraduate students at Pitt. She serves on editorial boards, study sections, and committees for scientific societies and across the university, with a focus on underrepresented groups, belonging, and inclusion.
Dr. De Genna earned her PhD in Developmental Psychology from Concordia University in Montreal, Québec and completed her postdoctoral fellowship, a T32 with Marie Cornelius on substance use epidemiology, at Pitt.
