New Grantee Workshop (Speaker Bios)

Mark Alexander is a Public Health Advisor in the Office of the Director in the Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences (DCCPS) at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), where he serves as an advisor to the Division Director and the Deputy Directors Leadership team on grants policy and procedures. In this role, Mark oversees the DCCPS grants portfolio of more than 800 active grants from across the division’s four Programs and the Office of Cancer Survivorship. He also serves as the DCCPS representative on the NCI Equity Council and is the DCCPS grants’ liaison to several NCI divisions, offices, and centers. Mark has co-chaired the DCCPS New Grantee Workshop for over 13 years.

Amy joined NIH in 2001 as a Junior Grants Management Specialist at the National Heart, Lung, & Blood Institute. After fourteen years and three other NIH Institutes/Centers, Amy joined the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Office of Grants Management as a Team Leader in 2016. Since 2019, Amy has served as a senior member of the management team and a Branch Chief in the Office of Grants Administration at NCI. Amy represents the NCI Office of Grants Management in several different organizations such as the Society for Research Administrators, the NIH Grants Management University, as well as other internal NCI committees and groups such as the Early-Stage Investigator (ESI) Activities Committee.

Ms. Charlisse Caga-anan is a program director in the Genomic Epidemiology Branch (GEB) of the Epidemiology and Genomics Research Program (EGRP) in NCI's Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences (DCCPS). In this capacity, she works to implement the NIH Genomic Data Sharing Policy and grow NCI's portfolio of bioethics research grants. She currently serves as the DCCPS Genomic Program Administrator and was formerly the chair of the extramural NCI Data Access Committee (eNCI DAC). She also works to implement the new NIH Data Management and Sharing Policy.

Ms. Caga-anan is the NCI scientific contact for the NHGRI Funding Opportunity Announcements (FOAs) to conduct research on the ethical, legal and social implications (ELSI) of genomics (R01, R21, and R03). She is also an NCI point of contact for NIH-funded bioethics research. She co-organizes the NCI Ethical and Regulatory Issues in Cancer Research (ENRICH) Forum.

Prior to joining EGRP, Ms. Caga-anan was a postdoctoral scholar at the Center for Genetic Research Ethics and Law, an NIH-funded Center for Excellence in Ethical, Legal, and Social Implications (ELSI) Research. In this capacity, she conducted research pertaining to ELSI issues in genetics/genomics research. Ms. Caga-anan also completed the Cleveland Fellowship in Advanced Bioethics, during which she trained in clinical ethics consultation and examined ethical and legal issues in pediatrics, clinical genetics, genetics/genomics research.

Kate Castro, MS, RN, AOCN®, is Program Director in the Office of the Associate Director of the Healthcare Delivery Research Program. Ms. Castro serves as the Operations Lead for cancer care delivery research (CCDR) responsible for the planning, execution and evaluation of activities related to program management in the NCI Community Oncology Research Program (NCORP). She serves as the CCDR Advisor to the NCORP Research Bases and NCORP Sites. Kate is the Program Director for a portfolio of grants focused on management of patients receiving oral anticancer agents and interventions to mitigate financial hardship experienced by cancer patients. Kate’s thirty years of oncology nursing experience include clinical and care coordination roles in hematology and stem cell transplantation as well as clinical nurse specialist roles in oncology and hematology. She received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of North Dakota and her Master of Science from the University of Minnesota.

Veronica Chollette, RN, MS is a Program Director in the Health Systems and Interventions Research Branch (HSIRB) of the Healthcare Delivery Research Program. She has been managing a portfolio of grants at NCI for over 30 years. In HSIRB, her training and experience allow her to manage NCI-funded social and behavioral research directed at multiple contextual levels to improve rates of cervical cancer screening and HPV vaccination; factors associated with disparities in Prostate Cancer, PSA screening and the downstream consequences following screening; and studies that improve interprofessional teamwork in healthcare delivery. She is a co-lead of the Healthcare Teams Initiative, which addresses multiple strategies to improve patient outcomes through the delivery of healthcare grounded in principles of evidence-based team research. Ms. Chollette received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing and master’s degree in Health Systems Management from George Mason University.

Susan M. Czajkowski, Ph.D., is Chief of the Health Behaviors Research Branch (HBRB) of the National Cancer Institute (NCI). She is an expert on psychosocial and behavioral risk factors for disease, including the development and testing of interventions for behavioral risk factors such as obesity, physical inactivity, adverse diets, and non-adherence to medical regimens; the roles of social support and depression in disease risk and recovery; and the assessment of health-related quality of life and psychosocial functioning in patients with chronic diseases.

Prior to joining the NCI, Dr. Czajkowski was a Program Director at the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, where she managed research initiatives testing of interventions to improve adherence to lifestyle and medical therapies in patient populations, including in minority patients and the medically underserved, and was project officer for the Enhancing Recovery in Coronary Heart Disease (ENRICHD) Patients Study, a large, multicenter randomized clinical trial to evaluate the effects of treating depression and low social support on survival and recurrent events in myocardial infarction patients.

Dr. Czajkowski was also the lead project officer for the NIH-funded Obesity Related Behavioral Intervention Trials (ORBIT) network, a cooperative agreement program supporting seven research sites across the U.S. with the goal of translating findings from basic research on human behavior into more effective interventions to alter obesity-related health behaviors (e.g., diet, physical activity). As part of the ORBIT consortium, Dr. Czajkowski led the development of the ORBIT model for designing and testing behavioral treatments for chronic diseases (http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/hea/34/10/971). Dr. Czajkowski is a Fellow in the Society of Behavioral Medicine, and recently served as President of the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research (2014 - 2015).

Dr. Davani has been Chief of the Diversity Training Branch of NCI’s CRCHD since 2022. In this capacity, he plays a central role in the strategic planning of the Branch and program implementation to enhance workforce diversity in cancer research. He oversees management of NCI’s diversity-focused training programs, including the extramural Continuing Umbrella of Research Experiences (CURE) program.

Prior to his appointment as Chief, Dr. Davani served as a Program Director in the Division for Research Capacity Building, National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), where he oversaw the IDeA Regional Entrepreneurship Development Program and managed grants for the Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence, IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence, Science Education Partnership Awards, and Native American Research Centers for Health Programs. Before his time at NIGMS, Dr. Davani was a Program Director in NCI’s CRCHD, during which time he led the development, implementation, and management of various programs that address cancer health disparities. In this capacity, Dr. Davani managed, comanaged, or coordinated multiple CURE programs, Comprehensive Partnerships to Advance Cancer Health Equity (CPACHE U54) partnerships, and the PACHE Feasibility Studies to Build Collaborative Partnerships in Cancer Research (P20) program, among others.

Prior to first joining NCI, Dr. Davani served as a Scientific Review Manager in the Peer Review Science and Management Division of SRA International. While at SRA, he oversaw and managed the scientific review process for multiple research programs, including breast, ovarian, and lung cancer, for the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs. He received his Ph.D. in molecular endocrinology from Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden.

Dr. Davani is committed to developing innovative research and educational programs to advance health equity and promote diversity in biomedical research.

Dr. Katrina Goddard was appointed Director of the Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences (DCCPS) in October 2021. In this position, she oversees a division that covers a wide range of scientific domains and disciplines, including epidemiology, behavioral science, surveillance and statistics, cancer survivorship, and health services and outcomes research.

Prior to joining NCI, Dr. Goddard was a Distinguished Investigator and Director of Translational and Applied Genomics at the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research (CHR) in Portland, OR. Before joining CHR in 2007, she was faculty in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics (now Population and Quantitative Health Sciences) at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH. She was also a mid-career fellow at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Genetics & Public Health Research and Practice.

Dr. Mandelblatt is the founder and inaugural director of the Georgetown Lombardi Institute for Cancer and Aging Research and a tenured Professor at Georgetown University. With her clinical translational training in geriatrics, health services research, and cancer epidemiology, Dr. Mandelblatt is a nationally recognized population scientist with more than three decades of continuously, multi-RO1 funded NIH collaborative research focused on cancer, aging and policy.

Dr. Mandelblatt is one of the first cancer researchers to address intersectionality and aging and is the author of nearly 300 highly cited research papers focused on these topics (H-index of 81). Her early screening research provided the foundation for the addition of Medicare benefits to cover Pap smear screening. This was the first covered preventive service under Medicare and illustrated differential outcomes among older black women. Based on her investigations into barriers to screening in older, minority, and other underserved groups, Dr. Mandelblatt was invited to participate in an Institute of Medicine report "Ensuring Quality Cancer Care" in 1998.

Dr. Mandelblatt is a pioneer and leader in gero-oncology. Beginning with her publication in JAMA on cancer and aging in 1986, with her colleagues she has contributed to a large body of clinical translational research in cancer screening, treatment, and survivorship care for diverse older individuals. A unique aspect of her current clinical survivorship research is the use of population-based research findings to drive basic discovery about cancer and aging in animal models, to use mechanistic insights from the basic science laboratory to inform the next generation of clinically relevant population research studies, and to address policy questions that follow from these discoveries to increase equity in care of older women.

View her full bio at https://gufaculty360.georgetown.edu/s/contact/00336000014RVZDAA4/jeanne-mandelblatt

Received B.A. in Biology from the University of Virginia and M.P.H in Health Administration from the University of South Carolina. Currently holds Certification in Research Administration (CRA) since 2007. Selected as Branch Chief in 2021 and Supervisory Grants Management Specialist for the National Cancer Institute and the Office of Grants Administration (OGA) since 2015. I’m currently responsible for supervising 1st line supervisors, serve as OGA Liaison to various divisions and centers including Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences (DCCPS), Office of HIV and AIDS Malignancy (OHAM) and Center for Global Health (CGH) and lead a large branch of Grants Management Specialists. Previously a Team Leader in the Grants Management Program at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) for 8 years and a career spanning more than 20 years in Grants Management at NIH. The mission and vision of NCI is so profound and important to me, working with amazing people and leaders in this quest to lead, conduct, and support cancer research across the nation and help all people live longer, healthier lives.

Michelle Mollica, PhD, MPH, RN, OCN, serves as deputy director of the NCI Office of Cancer Survivorship. In this role, Dr. Mollica is responsible for developing, supporting, and promoting research efforts focused on cancer survivorship. Dr. Mollica also holds a secondary appointment as a program director in the Outcomes Research Branch (ORB) of the Healthcare Delivery Research Program, where she manages a research portfolio of grants focused on cancer survivorship and healthcare delivery across the lifecourse, from childhood through older adulthood. Dr. Mollica serves as scientific lead for several recent notices of funding opportunities focused on specific aspects of survivorship care.

With an enduring interest in improving care for those impacted by cancer, Dr. Mollica has specific expertise in the intersection of survivorship and healthcare delivery, including the transition into post-treatment survivorship, models of survivorship and palliative care, integration of oncology and non-oncology providers, and special survivorship populations (e.g., individuals living with advanced and metastatic cancers, cancer caregivers, and pediatric and adolescent and young adult cancer survivors). She has a background in mixed methods research and community-engaged research, and has experience conducting qualitative research and intervention development in underserved populations.

Dr. Mollica came to NCI as a Cancer Prevention Fellow in ORB, before serving as a program director in the branch. Prior to NCI, Dr. Mollica spent over 10 years working clinically as an oncology nurse at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City and at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center in Buffalo, NY.

April Oh, Ph.D., M.P.H., is a Senior Advisor for Implementation Science and Health Equity in the Implementation Science (IS) Team in the Office of the Director in the Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences (DCCPS) at the National Cancer Institute (NCI). She leads efforts to advance the intersection of implementation science and health equity research. Dr. Oh provides scientific leadership for NCI’s Implementation Science in Cancer Control (ISC3) Program which supports the rapid development, testing, and refinement of innovative approaches to implement a range of evidence-based cancer control interventions. Dr. Oh also co-directs the Speeding Research Tested Interventions into Practice (SPRINT)exit disclaimer training program.

Dr. Oh previously served as a Program Director in the NCI Behavioral Research Program with research interests in multi-level health communication, implementation science, social determinants of health, neighborhood and policy effects on community health, obesity-related behaviors, and digital health technologies to promote behavior change and cancer prevention and control. She previously served as Senior Policy Advisor to the 19th U.S. Surgeon General on nutrition and obesity-related programs.

Dr. Oh holds a doctoral degree in public health (community health sciences) from the University of Illinois at Chicago, a master's degree in public health from the University of Michigan, and a bachelor's degree in public health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Taunton Paine is the Director of the Scientific Data Sharing Policy Division. Taunton leads a team responsible for a broad array of issues relating to data sharing and access, including the NIH Policy for Data Management and Sharing, and the NIH Genomic Data Sharing Policy. Taunton also works with other NIH senior leaders in identifying scientific data sharing issues that require cross-NIH coordination. Before becoming director of the division, Taunton led the clinical research policy team within the OSP Division of Clinical Research and Healthcare Policy. While there, he advised NIH leadership on matters related to the Common Rule, Certificates of Confidentiality, HIPAA, and other privacy and human participant protections issues. Taunton began his OSP career in 2011 and first worked on issues relating to biosecurity and dual use research of concern. He holds a dual master’s degree from Columbia University and London School of Economics and Political Science, where he studied the history of international relations.

Frank J. Penedo, Ph.D. is a professor in the Departments of Psychology and Medicine, center Associate Director for Cancer Survivorship and Translational Behavioral Sciences and the Sylvester DCC Living Proof Endowed Chair in Cancer Survivorship at the University of Miami Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center. He received his Ph.D. in clinical health psychology at the University of Miami and completed his clinical residency at the University of Pittsburgh Western Psychiatric Institute in psychosocial oncology and behavioral medicine. From 2000 until 2012, he held a faculty position in the Department of Psychology at the University of Miami. In 2012, he joined Northwestern University in Chicago and was awarded the inaugural Roswell Park endowed chair in Medical Social Sciences. There he served as Director of Survivorship and established the Cancer Survivorship Institute. His research evaluates sociocultural, biobehavioral and psychosocial mechanisms underlying chronic diseases outcomes, and the efficacy of psychosocial interventions in improving health outcomes with a focus on translational and health disparities research. He served as President of the International Society of Behavioral Medicine, and his research and mentoring have been recognized by numerous awards from prestigious societies in his field. He is an elected fellow of the Society of Behavioral Medicine and the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research, served in numerous NIH study sections, is associate editor or referee for multiple journals and was recently appointed to the National Advisory Council on Minority Health and Health Disparities. He is the author of more than 300 articles in chronic disease management and has been continuously funded by the NIH for the past 20 years.

Frank Perna, EdD, PhD, is a Psychologist and Program Director within the Behavioral Research Program, Health Behaviors Research Branch. Dr. Perna provides leadership and oversees a research portfolio related to physical activity promotion, exercise intervention for cancer survivors, and skin cancer prevention and control. He holds a secondary appointment with the Implementation Science team.

Prior to coming to NCI, Dr. Perna was a tenured associate professor at West Virginia University and later served as an associate professor and director of health psychology at Boston University School of Medicine where he maintained an active program of (NIH) funded research and a clinical practice. Throughout his career, his work has addressed exercise intervention for persons with or at risk for chronic disease. His other research and practice areas include performance enhancement work with professional and recreational athletes, facilitating adjustment to athletic injury, and skin cancer prevention and control.

Dr. Perna has been listed on the Sport Psychology Registry of the United States Olympic Committee. He served as a research psychologist at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia. He was elected to the executive boards of the Association of Applied Sport Psychology and the American Psychological Association's Division of Exercise & Sport Psychology, and he served on the editorial board for the Journal of Applied Sport Psychology and on two Commonwealth of Massachusetts Expert Panels on the Safety of Bariatric Surgery. He was also the recipient of the Dorothy Harris Early Career Contribution award and the Walter Peach Health Psychology career award from the Association of Applied Sport Psychology. He received his Bachelor's degree from the East Stroudsburg University, obtained Doctorates in Counseling Psychology and Health Psychology from Boston University and the University of Pittsburgh, respectively, and completed a clinical psychology internship in medical psychology at the Boston Veterans Administration Medical Center.

Jen Poynter, PhD, is a Professor in the Division of Epidemiology and Clinical Research in the Department of Pediatrics. Dr. Poynter is a molecular epidemiologist who leads a research team focused on pediatric and adolescent germ cell tumors (GCT) and myeloid malignancy. The major goals of her GCT research are to understand genetic susceptibility, epigenetic alterations and late effects of treatment, including ototoxicity and neuropathy. She is also working on studies to understand how lifestyle and genetic factors influence risk of developing pediatric and adult myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). Finally, she is one of the leaders of the 10,000 Families Study, a newly funded cohort study to evaluate the association between environmental exposures and hematologic malignancy in Minnesota. Dr. Poynter is the Co-Associate Director of Community Outreach and Engagement at the University of Minnesota Masonic Cancer Center. Her work is funded by the National Institutes of Health, Department of Defense, Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation and the Children’s Cancer Research Fund.

Mr. Scott Rogers, with the Epidemiology and Genomics Research Program's (EGRP) Office of the Director (OAD), coordinates grants management activities, he serves as the principal EGRP liaison to the DCCPS' Office of the Director on grants administrative policy and management issues, and communicates with staff across EGRP on these issues.

In 2006, he joined EGRP as a federal employee but had been working the previous two years under a contract as a research associate on the Alpha-Tocopherol Beta-Carotene (ATBC) Study, an NCI chemoprevention trial that investigated whether vitamin E and beta-carotene could protect smokers from lung cancer. This research experience enabled Mr. Rogers to collaborate with scientists in the Tobacco Control Research Branch of the Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences (DCCPS) and the Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics (DCEG), which is the intramural epidemiology component of NCI.

Prior to coming to work at NCI, Mr. Rogers was a senior scientist in the Department of Preventive Sciences, University of Minnesota, where he worked with a team studying chronic pain in patients with bone cancer and spinal cord injuries and specialized in immunohistochemistry and cell imaging.

Salma Shariff-Marco is an Associate Professor in the Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics and Co-Director of the Biostatistics and Population Research Shared Resource of the Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Shariff-Marco is also a co-Investigator of the Greater Bay Area Cancer Registry, which is part of the National Cancer Institute's Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) program and the statewide California Cancer Registry. As a social and behavioral scientist, her research addresses the role of structural and social drivers of health and health inequities. Dr. Shariff-Marco leads and collaborates on several studies examining the role of social status (race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, immigration) and social and built environment factors on disparities in cancer outcomes across the continuum from prevention to mortality. Currently, she is leading three R01 studies to understand the multilevel drivers of cancer and disparities (including cancers of the liver, breast, cervix, colon and rectum). These studies integrate data from multiple sources including surveys, electronic health records, cancer registry, and geospatial data.

Ms. Nonniekaye Shelburne is a program director in the Epidemiology and Genomics Research Program's (EGRP) Clinical and Translational Epidemiology Branch (CTEB). Her research portfolio focuses on improving outcomes for cancer survivors through risk identification and mitigation and management strategies for early and late-onset adverse events related to cancer and cancer treatment. Ms. Shelburne oversees multiple Programmatic research initiatives across cancer survivorship, with special focus on Cancer Treatment-related Cardiotoxicity, Oncologic Emergencies and the Comprehensive Oncologic Emergencies Research Network (CONCERN), Blood and Marrow Transplantation Late Effects, Cancer Moonshot: Inherited Cancer Syndromes, and Adolescent and Young Adult Cancer Survivorship.Before joining EGRP in 2010, Ms. Shelburne worked as an acute care nurse practitioner and oncology clinical nurse specialist with the Hematology/Oncology/Stem Cell Transplant Program of Care at the NIH Clinical Center. From 1998-2004, she was a clinical research nurse within the same program.

Emily S. Tonorezos, MD, MPH, serves as Director of the Office of Cancer Survivorship, part of the Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences at the National Cancer Institute (NCI). In this position, Dr. Tonorezos leads NCI’s efforts to address the challenges facing cancer survivors and their families -- to prevent or mitigate adverse effects and to improve the health and well-being of cancer survivors from the time of diagnosis through the remainder of their lives.

Dr. Tonorezos is a general internist, having earned her medical degree from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and masters in public health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She completed internal medicine residency and chief residency at Columbia University Medical Center, as well as a general internal medicine fellowship at the Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Nastaran (Nas) Zahir, Ph.D. is Director of the Cancer Training Branch in the Center for Cancer Training where she oversees funding for research fellowships, training, education, and career development programs funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Dr. Zahir strives to foster collaborative team science and support cancer education, outreach, and advocacy activities spanning the cancer research continuum. She serves as vice co-chair of the NIH Training Advisory Committee. From 2013-2021, Dr. Zahir served as Associate Director at the NCI Division of Cancer Biology where she coordinated programs that integrate physical sciences perspectives in cancer research. She joined the NCI in 2009 as a Program Director in the Office of Physical Sciences-Oncology. Dr. Zahir is a fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering where she was recognized for her advocacy of training and support for engineering approaches to cancer research. Her research expertise and mentorship roles have been in the areas of tissue engineering at the NIH, breast cancer mechanobiology at the University of Pennsylvania Department of Bioengineering, and plasma physics and radiation biology at the University of California, Berkeley Department of Nuclear Engineering.