Annual Meeting of the NCI Cohort Consortium (Speaker Bios)

Dr. Ilona Argirion earned her M.P.H. in epidemiology and her Ph.D. in environmental health sciences (occupation and environmental epidemiology) from the University of Michigan. During her time at UofM, Dr. Argirion worked to establish and managed several international epidemiologic studies aimed at investigating molecular biomarkers of oral cancer development, infectious disease etiology in oropharyngeal and nasopharyngeal carcinoma, and the role of occupational exposures on head and cancer development. Upon completing her Ph.D., Dr. Argirion conducted postdoctoral research at the National Cancer Institute’s Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, where she largely focused her research on cancers with infectious etiology. Her multifaceted research portfolio included: evaluation of biological differences in hepatic disease progression among those chronically infected with hepatitis B and C, prevalence of hepatitis D and associated hepatic injury in women living with or at risk for human immunodeficiency virus, humoral immune response variability across patients with Epstein–Barr virus related cancers, and studies focused on better understanding the underlying etiology and biology of biliary tract cancers. Most recently, Dr. Argirion has been appointed as an Assistant Professor at the Georgetown University School of Health, where she can pursue both her passion for teaching as well as research.

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, serving as the DCCPS Genomic Program Administrator. She also works to implement the new NIH Data Management and Sharing Policy. Additionally, Ms. Caga-anan is the NCI scientific contact for the NHGRI funding opportunities to conduct research on the ethical, legal and social implications (ELSI) of genomics (R01, R21, and R03); and the NCI point of contact for NIH-funded bioethics research.

Castine Clerkin is the Program Manager for NAACCR’s Virtual Pooled Registry Cancer Linkage System. In this role she manages VPR linkage requests, ongoing system enhancement, communication with researchers and registries, and workgroup and task force initiatives. Prior to joining NAACCR, Castine was a Program Consultant with CDC’s National Program of Cancer Registries for over 7 years and led various special projects, including early case capture of childhood cancer cases. Castine began her career in cancer surveillance in 2001, working as the epidemiologist and data manager for the Maine Cancer Registry.

Dr. Nicole Gerlanc is the lead data analyst for the DCEG Connect Cohort study. In this position, Dr. Gerlanc works closely with study operations, data science, and epidemiology and biostatistics principal investigators in DCEG to develop workflows, data structure, data standards, completion metrics, and dashboard and progress reports for cohort data capture, validation, reporting and sharing. Additionally, Dr. Gerlanc has been a lead in the design and use of tools to support FAIR data practices for Connect, DCEG and beyond. She has 23 years of experience in data management and analyses in the areas of epidemiology, environment and life history interactions, item response analysis, and psychometrics. Prior to joining DCEG, Dr. Gerlanc was a statistician at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) working on several projects in maternal and child health including Fetal Growth, Fetal Growth 3D, Effects of Aspirin in Gestation and Reproduction (EAGeR), and Study of Pregnancy and Neonatal Health (SPAN).

Dr. Rena Jones is an Investigator in the Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology Branch of the Division of Cancer Epidemiology & Genetics at the National Cancer Institute, where her intramural research program seeks to identify and clarify the role of environmental exposures in the development of cancer. Dr. Jones’ work relies on the application of geospatial data and methods to assess long-term exposure to environmental hazards and investigate their role in cancer etiology. She leads large-scale, multidisciplinary efforts to characterize general population exposure to widespread environmental contaminants, including air and water pollutants, often leveraging regulatory and environmental monitoring data. She Co-Chairs the NCI DCEG Geographic Analysis Working Group and is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology and the International Journal of Health Geographics. She received her MS and PhD degrees in Epidemiology from the University at Albany, State University of New York.

Jim is a Professor in the Department of Computational and Quantitative Medicine at City of Hope. He and Dr. Elena Martinez serve as PIs of the California Teachers Study (CTS). Jim’s work combines epidemiology, informatics, and analytics. Before joining City of Hope, he spent 11 years in the NCI’s intramural research program, where he focused on female reproductive cancers. In 2013 he began leading the CTS’s cloud strategy for biobanking and data collection, management, and sharing. Today the CTS is one of the first cohorts to adopt the NCI’s Cancer Research Data Commons Framework and make all its resources openly available to the entire research community.

Dr. Martinez is an epidemiologist with expertise in cancer and cancer disparities research. She is currently Professor in the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science and Associate Director of Population Sciences, Disparities and Community Engagement at UC San Diego’s Moores Cancer Center. She is MPI of the California Teachers Study. Nationally, she has established strong leadership and commitment to the area of cancer health disparities, particularly in relation to Hispanic/Latino populations in the United States. Dr. Martinez is the immediate past President of the American Society for Preventive Oncology. She has served on NCI’s Board of Scientific Counselors and Board of Scientific Advisors. She was one of 28 members nationally who served on the prestigious Cancer Moonshot Blue Ribbon Panel. She is multiple principal investigator (MPI) of several NCI-funded team science research projects that focus on addressing cancer disparities and inequities.

Dr. Lauren E. McCullough is an Associate Professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the Rollins School of Public Health and Visiting Scientific Director at the American Cancer Society. Her overarching research interests are in cancer epidemiology, specifically the role of social and structural determinates of health to the breast tumor microenvironment, as well as disparities in cancer outcomes. Her research program integrates molecular epidemiology, epigenetics, and other biomarkers for disease risk and progression; environmental and social epidemiology; health services research; and causal inference methods. The goals of her research program, BRIDGE, is to improve cancer outcomes in underserved populations by bridging clinical and population research, molecular and social epidemiology, and scientist with the communities they serve. In doing so, she hopes to identify culturally relevant and sustainable targets for pharmacologic, behavioral, and policy intervention.

Dr. Merritt received her PhD in Population Studies at the University of Queensland and developed expertise in both molecular biology and epidemiology in postdoctoral training at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard School of Public Health and Imperial College London. She is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Sydney and Co-Lead of the Ovarian Cancer Research Stream in the Daffodil Centre. Her research program integrates molecular epidemiology, biomarkers for disease risk and progression, and disparities research using data from prospective cohort studies. She has >85 publications focused on understanding lifestyle (including nutritional, metabolic, pharmacologic and reproductive factors) and underlying biological factors that influence risk and survival for ovarian and endometrial cancers. Her work in this area was recognized by Nature in their 2018 “world at their feet” list. In 2021 she was awarded a Department of Defense Ovarian Cancer Academy Early-Career Investigator Award to support her research on aspirin and NSAID use and ovarian cancer survival using data from the Ovarian Cancer Cohort Consortium (OC3). Her long term goals are to improve primary and tertiary prevention strategies for women with ovarian and endometrial cancers.

Dr. Alpa V. Patel earned her Bachelor of Science from the University of Florida, her Master of Public Health in Epidemiology from the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University, and her Doctoral degree in Preventive Medicine with a concentration in Epidemiology from the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California. She has been with the American Cancer Society for 25 years and is the Senior Vice President of Population Science at the American Cancer Society where she oversees a team of approximately 50 research and study operations staff. She serves as the principal investigator of the Cancer Prevention Studies (CPS) II and 3 that are long-term, large-scale, epidemiologic cohort studies established by the American Cancer Society. Dr. Patel is a recognized leader as a cancer epidemiologist. She serves on the National Cancer Institute’s Board of Scientific Counselors along with several other national and international scientific advisory committees and is a Fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine. She has published over 250 scientific articles and book chapters, and her research has contributed significantly to national and international cancer prevention guidelines, such as the US Physical Activity Guidelines for Health and the American Cancer Society’s Nutrition and Physical Activity Guidelines for both cancer prevention and cancer survivorship.

Dr. Sonia Rosenfield is a health science administrator in the Epidemiology and Genomics Research Program's (EGRP) Office of the Associate Director (OAD). In this role, she leads the EGRP strategic planning activities and provides support for several programmatic activities such as the development of new initiatives that promote EGRP scientific priority areas, assessment and evaluation of ongoing EGRP initiatives, and data sharing. Her work focuses on the implementation of the new NIH Data and Management Policy across the program and the Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences (DCCPS). Dr. Rosenfield is also a member of several DCCPS working groups that aim to promote the division’s priority areas such as data strategies, cancer health disparities, climate change, and digital health.

Prior to joining EGRP, Dr. Rosenfield was a health science administrator at NCI’s Center for Research Strategy where she collaborated with many groups throughout NCI and NIH on health policy, partnership building, and streamlining research. There, she contributed to the development and realization of several trans-NCI initiatives. She organized workshops, including the Annual NCI Cancer Disparities Workshops, that led to the development of several NCI funding initiatives and working groups, and she co-led the establishment of an interagency task force on cancer diagnostic devices for near-patient use.

Dr. Rosenfield first joined NCI in 2012 as a Cancer Research Training Award fellow in the Center for Cancer Research where she trained in molecular and cellular biology of cancer, stem cell research, developmental biology, and drug development. Dr. Rosenfield has also held appointments in several national research institutions such as the Scripps Research Institute, Johnson & Johnson, and Georgetown University.

Ashley Wilder Smith, PhD, MPH, is Chief of the Outcomes Research Branch (ORB) at the National Cancer Institute (NCI). ORB supports investigations to understand and improve health outcomes and quality care for cancer patients, survivors, caregivers, and families with a cross-cutting emphasis on health equity. Dr. Smith carries out the mission of ORB by facilitating research designed to integrate the perspectives of cancer patients/survivors across the lifecourse, their caregivers and family members, and to integrate those perspectives into healthcare settings with a goal to optimize patient engagement, health and well-being. In addition to overseeing all ORB grants, contracts and research activities, Dr. Smith collaborates across NIH and the Department of Health and Human Services to study and improve the measurement and evaluation of patient-reported care quality and health outcomes in observational studies, clinical trials, and for use in clinical care. She is currently the NCI Chief Science Officer of IMPACT: Improving the Management of symPtoms during And following Cancer Treatment, a Research Consortium designed to accelerate the use of systematic cancer symptom management systems integrated into electronic health record systems to collect patient-reported data and support clinical responses consistent with evidence-based guidelines. She also served as the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Chief Science Officer of a trans-NIH initiative to make four person-centered health outcome assessment systems available: PROMIS®, the NIH Toolbox®, Neuro-QOL, and ASCQ-Me™. These tools were transitioned to independence from NIH funding and are now offered through an integrated platform for automated use in one publicly available resource, HealthMeasures. Dr. Smith earned her MS and PhD degrees in Health Psychology from the University of Pittsburgh. She completed an NCI Cancer Prevention Fellowship, which included earning an MPH in Epidemiology, also from the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Smith joined the ORB in 2006 and became Branch Chief in 2014.

Ashley Wilder Smith is Chief of the Outcomes Research Branch (ORB) at the National Cancer Institute (NCI). ORB supports investigations to understand and improve health outcomes and quality care for cancer patients, survivors, caregivers, and families with a cross-cutting emphasis on underserved populations and health equity. Dr. Smith carries out the Branch mission by facilitating research designed to integrate the perspectives of cancer patients/survivors across the life course and to integrate those perspectives into healthcare settings with a goal of optimizing patient engagement, health and well-being. Along with overseeing ORB's portfolio of grants, contracts and research activities, Dr. Smith collaborates on efforts across the NIH and the Department of Health and Human Services to study and improve the measurement and evaluation of patient-reported care quality and health outcomes in observational studies, clinical trials, and for use in clinical care. She is currently the NCI Chief Science Officer of IMPACT: Improving the Management of symPtoms during And following Cancer Treatment, a Research Consortium designed to accelerate the use of systematic cancer symptom management systems integrated into electronic health record systems to collect patient-reported data and support clinical responses consistent with evidence-based guidelines. She also served as the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Chief Science Officer of a trans-NIH initiative to make four person-centered health outcome assessment systems available: PROMIS®, the NIH Toolbox®, Neuro-QOL, and ASCQ-Me™. These tools were transitioned to independence from NIH funding and are now offered through an integrated platform for automated use in one publicly available resource, HealthMeasures. Dr. Smith earned her MS and PhD degrees in Health Psychology from the University of Pittsburgh. She completed an NCI Cancer Prevention Fellowship, which included earning an MPH in Epidemiology, also from the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Smith joined the ORB in 2006 and became Branch Chief in 2014.

Emma Spielfogel is the data analyst for the California Teachers Study. In this role, Emma leads all data activities of the CTS, working closely with researchers and a technical team to curate complex data sources and provision data for analyses. Emma heads the CTS’ data visualization work, developing public-facing visualizations in Tableau and R and creating custom, ad-hoc dashboards for specific projects. Before joining the CTS in 2018, Emma taught English in the Académie de Rouen in France.

Ruth Travis is a molecular epidemiologist, whose main research interests are the molecular and lifestyle determinants of common non-communicable diseases, particularly cancer. Her work involves combining the resources of established large cohort studies and international consortia with study designs that take advantage of new technology, both in terms of ‘omics’ and electronic data linkage. She leads a programme of research on prostate cancer aetiology funded by Cancer Research UK, with a particular focus on risk factors for aggressive disease. A major research interest is the role of circulating biomarkers, including blood proteins, metabolites and hormones in cancer development. She leads a pan-cancer programme on proteomics and other molecular factors, exploiting large-scale biomarker and genetics datasets. Ruth is Chair of the Prostate Cancer Working Group for the Europe-wide EPIC study, co-ordinates the Endogenous Hormones, Nutritional Biomarkers and Prostate Cancer Collaborative Group, which aims to conduct individual pooled analyses of the relationship between circulating biomarkers and prostate cancer risk from cohort studies from around the world, and leads prostate cancer epidemiological research in UK Biobank. Ruth is a member of the EPIC and EPIC-Oxford Steering Committees and she represents EPIC as a member of the PRACTICAL international cancer genetics consortia. Ruth also leads research on the effects of shift work and circadian disruption on chronic conditions and diseases within the Million Women Study, EPIC-Oxford and UK Biobank cohorts. She joined the Cancer Epidemiology Unit in 2001 after studying Biological Anthropology (University of Cambridge, 1997-2000) and Epidemiology (LSHTM, 2000-01), and obtained a DPhil in Cancer Epidemiology (University of Oxford) in 2005.

Alexandra J. White, PhD leads the Environment and Cancer Epidemiology Group in the Epidemiology Branch at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. She received her PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in Epidemiology. She is a Co-PI of the Sister Study cohort, a US-wide prospective study of women who have a sister with breast cancer. Her research is broadly focused on environmental risk factors for women’s cancers. Dr. White’s work has incorporated GIS-based residential measures of environmental exposures such as air pollution, ultraviolet light and light at night in addition to biomarkers and questionnaire-based data. She is particularly interested in evaluating the risk of cancer associated with multiple co-occurring exposures, or “mixtures”.