Investigators

Summary

I am a behavioral scientist with a research focus on understanding and addressing cancer health disparities. My clinical training as a psychologist and extensive NIH-funded research history includes the design, evaluation and dissemination of behavioral and environmental interventions to address cancer and other chronic conditions. My approach relies heavily on community-based participatory research (CBPR) to identify sociocultural and environmental determinants of health among populations at greater risk of disease (e.g., African Americans, lower income populations, rural residents). For example, I served as PI for the Full Research Project on a community network partnership center grant (U54CA153719) that involved a cluster-randomized trial of a multi-level weight loss intervention for African American women at higher risk of cancer who live in the rural Deep South (Alabama and Mississippi) and a cluster-randomized trial testing the efficacy of a weight loss intervention for African American cancer survivors in the Black Belt of Alabama (R01CA160313). My collective work has cemented my expertise in outreach and engagement, the recruitment and retention of underrepresented groups into biobehavioral research, recruitment of family and non-family support, community-engaged research, mixed-method designs, and dissemination of research findings to multiple audiences (including participants and community partners). I believe membership in the HCC research program will afford me greater access to collaborations and resources to expand my work and adapt research originally conducted in the Deep South to populations in Pennsylvania.