Addressing Social Risks in Cancer Care Delivery Virtual Workshop (Speaker Bios)

Dr. Alyce Adams is the Stanford Medicine Innovation Professor and a professor in the departments of Epidemiology and Population Health and Health Policy at the Stanford School of Medicine. She also is the Associate Director for Community Outreach and Engagement at the Stanford Cancer Institute. Dr. Adams’ multifaceted research focuses on racial and socioeconomic disparities in chronic disease treatment outcomes; engages interdisciplinary stakeholders; seeks to evaluate the impact of changes in drug coverage policy on access to essential medications; examines the drivers of disparities in treatment adherence among insured populations; and tests strategies for maximizing the benefits of treatment outcomes while minimizing harms through informed decision-making. Her work leverages big data and advanced statistical and computational methods to address modifiable determinants of health disparities at the health system and policy levels. Dr. Adams received her Ph.D. in health policy and an M.P.P. in social policy from Harvard University.

Dr. Brenda A. Adjei works in the Office of the Associate Director of the Healthcare Delivery Research Program. Dr. Adjei currently serves as a Program Director of the Cancer Care Delivery Research component for the NCI Community Oncology Research Program (NCORP), a consortium of seven Research Bases and 46 community oncology practices, hospitals, and integrated health systems that support NCI’s cancer clinical trials. Within HDRP, Dr. Adjei’s programmatic focus seeks to strengthen the Program’s healthcare disparities research profile. Dr. Adjei’s research interests include disparities in access to, receipt and outcomes of cancer care; social determinants of health; evaluation of multilevel cancer education and outreach programs; and cancer care delivery in community-based programs. Dr. Adjei received a B.S. from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, an M.P.A. in Health Services Management from New York University, and an Ed.D. in health and behavioral sciences from Teachers College, Columbia University.

Dr. Kassandra I. Alcaraz is Assistant Professor of Oncology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She also serves as Assistant Director for Health Equity in the Office of Cancer Research, Training and Education Coordination in The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Alcaraz’s research examines socio-environmental determinants of health disparities across the cancer control continuum, with the goal of implementing contextually-appropriate and sustainable interventions in clinical and community settings. Currently, she is pioneering transdisciplinary research to investigate how social and life contexts influence health behavior and cancer outcomes in minoritized and marginalized communities. Prior to joining the faculty at Johns Hopkins, Dr. Alcaraz established and led a national cancer disparities research program as Senior Principal Scientist and Director of Health Disparities Research at the American Cancer Society. Dr. Alcaraz obtained her MPH in biostatistics and epidemiology from Saint Louis University, and completed her PhD at Washington University in St. Louis, where she led a number of community-based cancer disparities studies.

Dr. LeeAnn Bailey is Chief of the Integrated Networks Branch of the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) Center to Reduce Cancer Health Disparities. In this role, she manages, develops, and assesses strategies for enhancing the integration and dissemination of diversity training, women’s health, and sexual and gender minority efforts within and across NCI, as well as within the scientific community and underserved communities through NCI-supported networks. Dr. Bailey identifies and leverages opportunities to address unmet needs in cancer health disparities research. Prior to joining NCI, she was a healthcare consultant at Deloitte Consulting LLP. She has also been a principal investigator researching tissue engineered products and cellular inflammatory responses at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Dr. Bailey received her M.B.B.S (M.D. equivalent) from the University of Adelaide Medical School with an emphasis on aboriginal health and pediatric oncology. Dr. Bailey also has a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics and a M.S. in Biological and Physical Sciences from the University of Virginia School of Medicine.

Dr. Matthew Banegas is Associate Professor and co-director of the Center for Health Equity Education and Research in the Department of Radiation Medicine and Applied Sciences at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). He also is a member of the Cancer Control Program at the UCSD Moores Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Banegas’s research focuses on understanding the associations between socioeconomic factors, health throughout life, and strategies to integrate social care into health care settings. Dr. Banegas received his Ph.D. in health services research, with a concentration on cancer prevention and control, from the University of Washington/Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

Bibiana Bishop has extensive expertise coordinating projects in her current position as Program Manager of the Center for Cancer Health Equity at The James Comprehensive Cancer Center Hospital and Solove Research Institute, Ohio State University Medical Center. She onboards and trains all patient navigators at the center and the program coordinators and community health workers hired to conduct community outreach for diverse populations. Ms. Bishop has more than ten years of experience working with diverse communities throughout central Ohio and extensive experience as a Spanish bilingual social worker working with Spanish-speaking communities. During her time at the center, Ms. Bishop has collaborated with multiple free clinics and federally qualified health centers to bring mobile mammography services to their facilities, as well as other cancer screenings. She has B.S. and M.S.W. degrees from The Ohio State University.

Dr. Kelly Blake is a Health Scientist and Program Director in the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) Health Communication and Informatics Research Branch (HCIRB). She also serves as Director of NCI’s Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) and conducts research examining how media exposure influences health behavior and attitudes toward public health policy. Dr. Blake’s research seeks to understand the social determinants of health, with a focus on how communication inequalities and knowledge gaps exacerbate health disparities among disadvantaged populations. Dr. Blake earned a Doctor of Science degree in social epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health, a master’s degree in community health education from West Virginia University, and a bachelor’s degree in journalism and mass communication from Marshall University.

Dr. Kira Bona is Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and an Attending Pediatric Oncologist at Dana-Farber/Boston Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders Center. As a physician-scientist, Dr. Bona’s research program focuses on poverty-associated disparities in relapse and survival in pediatric cancer. Specifically, the Bona Lab at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute studies disparities in childhood cancer with a focus on improving childhood cancer outcomes by systematically considering poverty as a risk factor in the clinical trial setting and a target for interventions. Dr. Bona received her MD from the Yale University School of Medicine and her MPH from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health with a focus on clinical effectiveness.

As Executive Vice President of Health Equity Initiatives and Community Engagement for Patient Advocate Foundation, Ms. Shonta Chambers is responsible for the development and execution of the Foundation’s national strategy to address health equity, with a specific focus on persons with chronic and complex health conditions residing in lowincome communities with high disease morbidity and premature mortality. With more than 20 years’ experience in chronic disease prevention, health promotion, community engagement and women’s health, Ms. Chambers leads PAF’s health equity work promoting person-centered care, she engages strategically with community stakeholders, aligning with all facets where people seek assistance, to mitigate as many barriers to health care as possible. Shonta also serves as the Principal Investigator for one of CDC’s eight national networks where she provides leadership in the implementation of evidenced based strategies to advance the prevention of commercial tobacco use and promote early detection of cancer among populations with low socio-economic characteristics with the overall goal of decreasing related disparities.

Dr. Erika Cottrell holds a joint appointment as Associate Professor at Oregon Health & Science University and an Investigator at Oregon Community Health Information Network (OCHIN). Trained as a sociologist, her primary areas of research are social determinants of health, health equity, patient health experiences, and health policy. At OCHIN, her research seeks to understand the effect of structural/community and individual-level social determinants of health (SDoH) on health disparities; develop and test EHR-based tools for identifying and addressing adverse SDoH (also known as social risk factors) in community health centers; and evaluate the impact of payment reform and policy changes (including the Affordable Care Act) on reproductive health care utilization in safety-net settings. At OHSU, she is Director of the Health Experiences Research Core for the Oregon Clinical & Translational Research Institute and leads projects examining the lived experience of childhood, adolescent and young adult cancers, and opioid use disorder. Dr. Cottrell earned her PhD in Sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her Master in Public Policy from Harvard University.

Dr. Robert Croyle was appointed director of the Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences, National Cancer Institute (NCI), in July 2003. In this role, he is responsible for overseeing a research portfolio and operating budget of more than a half billion dollars and serves on NCI’s Scientific Program Leaders Committee. As a division, DCCPS covers a wide range of scientific domains and disciplines, including epidemiology, behavioral science, surveillance and statistics, cancer survivorship, and health services and outcomes research. He previously served as the division’s associate director for the Behavioral Research Program, leading its development and expansion. Before coming to NCI in 1998, he was professor of psychology and a member of the Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. Prior to that, he was a visiting investigator at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, visiting assistant professor of psychology at the University of Washington, and assistant professor of psychology at Williams College in Massachusetts.

Dr. Kia Davis is Assistant Professor in the Division of Public Health Sciences at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. She is also Co-Leader of the P50 Implementation Science Center for Cancer Control’s Practice Surveillance Unit. As a social epidemiologist, Dr. Davis is interested in understanding how social and structural determinants impact health to inform social change. Dr. Davis’ research program focuses on the relationships between socioeconomic status, stress, and cancer risk factors in underserved communities with an eye towards Improving measurement of socioenvironmental stressors in diverse populations and developing scalable interventions to reduce the burden of cancer risk in communities of color. Dr. Davis received her Sc.D. from the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health and her MPH from St. Louis University’s School of Public Health.

Mike DeCastro is Head of Sales for Uber Health. In this role, he is responsible for spreading awareness and forging partnerships with payers, health care, and community organizations across the country to meet the mobility needs of their patients. Prior to joining Uber Health, Mr. DeCastro held commercial leadership roles in digital health at Topcon Healthcare Solutions and GoCheck Kids. He has more than 10 years of experience with medical devices, population health, and value-based care.

Dr. Wendy Demark-Wahnefried is Associate Director for Cancer Prevention and Control for the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center at UAB, Professor and Webb Endowed Chair of Nutrition Sciences, and an American Cancer Society Clinical Research Professor. She is a nutrition scientist whose research ranges from determining molecular mechanisms of nutrition-based therapies to developing and testing home-based interventions that are scalable, and which improve diet, physical activity and functional status among cancer survivors. Dr. Demark-Wahnefried earned her bachelor’s degree in nutritional science and chemistry from the University of Michigan. She completed her graduate work at Baylor College of Medicine Texas Woman’s University in Houston and at Syracuse University.

Dr. Jennifer (Jen) DeVoe is a practicing family physician and health services researcher based in Portland, Oregon. As the Chair of the Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) Department of Family Medicine, she oversees nearly 200 faculty, 80 resident physicians, and several of OHSU’s primary care clinics. Dr. DeVoe also serves as the inaugural director of OHSU’s new Center for Primary Care Research and Innovation and a co-principal investigator of the BRIDGE-C2 Center (Building Research in Implementation & Dissemination to Close Gaps and Achieve Equity in Cancer Control Center). She is among the early pioneers leveraging electronic health record (EHR) data for use in health services, health disparities, and implementation science research studies. She served as the first Chief Research Officer at the OCHIN health information network of over 400 community health centers and oversees a portfolio of research related to identifying and addressing social determinants of health in primary care settings and utilizing novel EHR-based tools to support this work. Dr. DeVoe earned her MD from Harvard Medical School in 1999. Selected as a Rhodes Scholar in 1996, she also earned an MPhil and DPhil from Oxford University in 1998 and 2001, respectively.

Yolanda ”Yoli” Diaz experienced the financial toxicity associated with a cancer diagnosis with her eldest son and father. After volunteering for organizations and witnessing disparities in cancer treatment, she founded Cancer Aid Resource & Education, Inc. (CARE) in February 2013 - a grassroots, boots on the ground, nonprofit organization to fulfill a need to help cancer patients. CARE’s mission is to support recently diagnosed cancer patients in Doña Ana County undergoing active treatment for any type of cancer. Low and moderate-income patients deemed eligible through application to the CARE Support Program receive aid for nonmedical expenses, such as gas cards, food and nutritional supplement cards, payments for self-pay health insurance, rent/mortgage, utilities, phone, etc. Yoli recognizes that healthcare inequity must be addressed, especially in our border region, and that patient centered cancer care may be lacking for those experiencing such healthcare inequity. Yoli believes that cancer health disparities must be addressed not only on an individual level, but also at a systemic level to change the status quo.

Dr. Kemi M. Doll is a gynecologic oncologist, health services researcher, and Associate Professor at the University of Washington, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology with academic appointments in both the School of Medicine and School of Public Health. She has expertise in population-level analysis of cancer care, patient-reported outcomes in cancer surgery, and racial inequity in endometrial cancer. She is the founder of ECANA: The Endometrial Cancer Action Network for African Americans, an organization that seeks to bring together patients, doctors, community leaders and advocates to improve the lives of black women affected by endometrial cancer. Dr. Doll earned her MD from Columbia University and an Master of Science in Clinical Research from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Dr. Francesca Gany is the Chief of the Immigrant Health and Cancer Disparities Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, the Director of the Center for Immigrant Health and Cancer Disparities, and a Director of the community based participatory South Asian Health Initiative. She has been the PI on pioneering immigrant health and health equity studies in social determinants of health, shared cancer/CVD risk reduction, health care access, treatment adherence and QoL, language and cultural responsiveness, mHealth, and telehealth. Her work seeks to bridge immigrants, minority community members, and the medically underserved with the healthcare system, and to eliminate health disparities. Dr. Gany’s work directly addresses socioeconomic barriers to cancer treatment completion within the community. Specifically, the FOOD (Food to Overcome Outcomes Disparities) Project, studied the impact of medically tailored food pantries and food vouchers on cancer treatment outcomes.

Dr. Scarlett Lin Gomez is Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics and a member of the Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of California, San Francisco. She is also co-leader of the Cancer Control Program and a member of the Prostate Cancer Program Leadership Committee. Dr. Gomez is director of the Greater Bay Area Cancer Registry, a participant in the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program and the California Cancer Registry. Her research focuses primarily on cancer health disparities/inequities and aims to understand the multilevel drivers of these disparities. She received her MPH degree from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and her PhD from Stanford University.

Dr. Laura Gottlieb is Professor of family and community medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. Her research explores health care sector programs and policies related to identifying and addressing social risk factors in the context of care delivery. Dr. Gottlieb is the founding co-director of the Social Interventions Research and Evaluation Network, a national research network that advances research on health care strategies to improve social conditions. She also is the associate director of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Evidence for Action National Program Office. She is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) and served on the 2018-2019 NASEM Committee on Integrating Social Needs Care into the Delivery of Health Care to Improve the Nation’s Health.

Dr. Ann W. Jackson is a physical therapist, health advocate, citizen scientist, and lifelong learner who has spent her career focusing on optimizing the functionality of individuals across the lifespan, no matter their circumstances. In 2015, while undergoing treatment for a cancer diagnosis, Ann witnessed firsthand the social and financial hardships her fellow cancer patients faced while navigating a cancer diagnosis. In 2017 she partnered with University of Chicago Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Lindau Lab to open a food pantry within the cancer center. Then in March 2020 amidst the COVID-19 shutdown, Ann and a committed team of volunteers delivered groceries to food insecure cancer patients and organized community events catered to those in need. The work gained official recognition and in March 2020 she founded, The Center for Food Equity in Medicine, a non-for-profit organization whose mission is to address food insecurity and other social risks among cancer patients. She holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Physical Therapy from Georgia State University, a Master of Public Health from the University of South Carolina, Doctorate in Physical Therapy from Rosalind Franklin University, and a certificate in Clinical Medical Ethics from the University of Chicago’s MacLean Center.

Dr. Paul Jacobsen is the Associate Director of the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) Healthcare Delivery Research Program (HDRP). Dr. Jacobsen leads a team whose mission is to serve as a catalyst for the field of health care delivery research and to enhance data resources, measures, and NCI’s grant portfolio in this domain. Over the course of 30 years, Dr. Jacobsen’s research has focused on patient-centered health outcomes, behavioral aspects of cancer prevention and detection, and supportive care medicine. He has worked closely with the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, and other organizations that influence how cancer care is delivered through their guidelines and educational activities. Dr. Jacobsen is a past recipient of the Trish Green Award for Excellence in Quality of Life Research from the American Cancer Society and the Jimmie Holland Distinguished Leadership Award from the American Psychosocial Oncology Society.

Dr. Roxanne E. Jensen is Program Director in the Outcomes Research Branch of the Healthcare Delivery Research Program at the National Cancer Institute. Her research focuses on measuring patient-reported outcomes during and after cancer treatment and integrating patient-generated health data into cancer clinical care settings. Dr. Jensen led multiple studies investigating best practices on how to collect, integrate, and record patient-reported outcomes in electronic health records. This process improves the quality of care. She also coordinated the Measuring Your Health (MY-Health) study, a large Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results-linked cancer survivor cohort evaluating the validity and generalizability of using the Patient-Reported Outcomes Information System (PROMIS) measures within and across cancer populations. Currently, Dr. Jensen is a science officer for the Improving the Management of Symptoms Across Cancer Treatment (IMPACT) consortium, a Cancer MoonshotSM initiative designed to evaluate the implementation of systematic symptom management in cancer care delivery.

Bella Kirchner is Director of Research and Education at Aunt Bertha, the leading nationwide social services search and referral platform used by healthcare systems, cause organizations, insurers, community colleges, governmental entities, and many others. She works to support the organization in research-related matters and customer and team member education. Before starting at Aunt Bertha, she served as director of Population Health Management at a large multi-specialty clinic system, driving value-based care strategy working to improve the quality of care for patients across the organization. Before that, she spent seven years working for community health organizations in Austin, Texas, in health information technology and quality and process improvement roles. Ms. Kirchner started her health care career at Epic, the nation’s most widely used electronic health records vendor.

Dr. Anne-Marie Langevin is the Greehey Distinguished Chair in Pediatric Oncology at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio. She is also the Principal Investigator of the Texas Pediatric Minority Underserved NCORP, a clinical trials program covering the Texas-Mexico border region to Central Texas. Dr. Langevin serves as the Principal Investigator for the Children’s Oncology Group (COG) and the POETIC consortium at UT Health San Antonio and Chair for the COG NCORP Committee. She has a special interest in pediatric oncology drug development, pediatric cancer control clinical trials, bone and soft tissue sarcomas, and solid tumors in children, adolescents and young adults. She has also been involved in Spanish translation and validation projects pertaining to symptom assessment inpediatric oncology. Dr. Langevin is a graduate of the University of Montreal, completed her residency in internal medicine and hematology at the Hospital Maisonneuve Rosemont, Hotel-Dieu de Montreal and Hospital Ste-Justine. She has fellowship training in pediatric hematology/oncology clinical fellowship and drug development.

Dr. Simon Craddock Lee is Associate Professor of Population and Data Sciences at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, where his research focuses on mixed-methods implementation science to improve cancer prevention and care delivery in safety-net settings, urban and rural. He serves as Program Co-Leader for Population Sciences & Cancer Control research in the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center. An advocate of team science, he is MPI of an NCI-funded R01 implementation study to test care coordination strategies among breast and colorectal cancer patients previously diagnosed with multiple chronic conditions in Dallas County’s integrated safety-net health system. He leads the third competitive renewal from the Cancer Prevention & Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) evaluating a novel de-centralized delivery model for rural breast cancer screening and patient navigation in 33 counties across North Texas. A Yale graduate, Dr. Lee received his MPH from the University of California, Berkeley and his doctorate from the Joint Program in Medical Anthropology at University of California, San Francisco and Berkeley.

Dr. Cara C. Lewis is a clinical psychologist, associate investigator at Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute, and affiliate faculty in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Washington. She is also a Beck Scholar with expertise in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. She is Past President of the Society for Implementation Research Collaboration and co-founding Editor-in-Chief of Implementation Research and Practice, a journal published in partnership with SIRC and Sage. Her research focuses on advancing pragmatic and rigorous measures and methods for implementation science and practice and informing tailored implementation of evidence based practices across diverse settings, populations, and problem areas. She is also Co-Director of the Social Needs Network for Evaluation and Translation (SONNET), which is a national Coordinating Center for bringing research, evaluation, and implementation support to bear across Kaiser Permanente in the service of addressing social risk among its members.

Dr. Stacy Lindau is Professor of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Medicine-Geriatrics at the University of Chicago and a practicing gynecologist. She is an NIH-funded investigator with expertise in preservation and recovery of sexual function in the context of cancer and in social risk interventions in healthcare. Dr. Lindau directs the CommunityRx program of research which examines how and why connecting patients and caregivers to community-based resources drives health and health equity. She also directs Feed1st, a fully selfserve, no barriers, medical center-based system to mitigate food insecurity triggered or exacerbated by living with or caring for people with cancer and other illnesses.

Dr. Jason Mendoza is a pediatrician and clinician-scientist, with appointments as Professor and Associate Program Head of Cancer Prevention at Fred Hutch and Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Washington. He leads population health equity programming and facilitates research on cancer equity as Associate Director of Community Outreach and Engagement (COE) for the Fred Hutch/UW Cancer Consortium, an NCI-designated comprehensive cancer center. He also leads an NIH-funded research portfolio focused on community-engaged, behavioral interventions to eliminate inequities in nutrition and physical activity among underserved and underrepresented youth and young adults as well as cancer survivors. Besides his commitment to pursuing equity in his health research projects, he also participates in or leads several programs to improve diversity in the biomedical workforce. He has been a member of the National Advisory Committee for the “Research in Academic Pediatrics Initiative on Diversity” since 2015 (R25DK096944). He is also the multiple-PI of the NRSA T32 funded Child Health Equity Research Program for Post-doctoral Trainees at the UW, which has six post-doctoral trainees and all of whom identify as underrepresented.

Dr. April Oh is 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) training program.

Dr. Craig Pollack is the Katey Ayers Endowed Associate Professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing and in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He is a practicing primary care, internal medicine physician whose research focuses on social determinants of health, with an emphasis on housing policies, and on cancer care. In work funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Pollack is examining the health effects of housing mobility programs that enable families to move from areas of concentrated poverty. Additional research investigates the impact of housing affordability and place-based initiatives on health care use, spending, and outcomes. Dr. Pollack also investigates issues related to health disparities and the role of provider and patient social networks across the cancer continuum. He currently works part time on a temporary assignment as a Senior Research Advisor with HUD’s Office of Policy Development & Research, assisting the agency on the intersection of housing and health.

Dr. Gurvaneet Randhawa is Medical Officer in the Health Systems and Interventions Research Branch (HSIRB) of the Healthcare Delivery Research Program at the National Cancer Institute. His research interests include the design and evaluation of new information technology (IT)-based care delivery models that support communication, collaboration, and coordination in care delivery and that reduce the cognitive burden on clinicians and patients. He is also interested in new IT-based approaches to conduct large-scale cancer care delivery research, especially those using distributed research in large data networks. He serves as the DCCPS liaison to the NCI Small Business Innovation Research Development Center.

Martin Richards became the executive director of Community Farm Alliance (CFA) in November of 2010. CFA envisions a food and fiber system that provides nutritious food for Kentuckians in a manner that is socially, economically, and ecologically sustainable. A graduate of UK’s College of Architecture, Martin has farmed his family’s land in Woodford County, been a partner in Pranja Design/Construction, and most recently was the economic development organizer for Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, working on energy and sustainability issues. Martin has been an active member of CFA since he joined in 1995, serving as the board president in 1998. He was the first CFA Fellow during the passage of HB 611 that created the Kentucky Agricultural Development Fund.

Dr. Margaret (“Peggy”) Rosenzweig is a long-time nurse, nurse practitioner, educator and community advocate. She is a tenured Distinguished Service Professor of Nursing at the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing, Professor of Medicine and Associate Director for Catchment Area Research at the Hillman Cancer Center. Dr. Rosenzweig’s 20-year program of externally funded research is directed toward better understanding the impact of the patient’s life stress and social determinates of health on their experience during cancer illness and treatment in order to ensure optimum and equitable care. At the UPMC/Magee Women’s Cancer Center, Dr. Rosenzweig leads a multi-disciplinary team of clinicians and researchers to better understand and care for women with metastatic breast cancer, evaluating social determinates of health and linking to available resources. This program is now extended to an End-of-life Doula Program for Black women in the Pittsburgh community. Dr. Rosenzweig serves as a standing member of the Health Equity Study Section at the NIH.

Dr. Janeth Sanchez is Program Director in the Health Systems and Interventions Branch (HSIRB) of the Healthcare Delivery Research Program at the National Cancer Institute. Dr. Sanchez’s scientific and programmatic interests are centered on advancing the science of health equity and improving cancer care delivery for diverse patient populations. As Program Director, Dr. Sanchez manages a portfolio of research focused on promoting multilevel interventions that mitigate the effects of social risks and care fragmentation, especially for health disparity and underserved populations. As a Health Services Researcher, she leads several projects on understanding the impact of social determinants of health on the equitable access to and delivery of high-quality and cost-effective care. Dr. Sanchez earned her doctorate in Health Services, with an emphasis in evaluative sciences and statistics, from the University of Washington. She also holds an MPH in community health education, a BS in biology, and a BA in Spanish from New Mexico State University.

Joan Scales is the Psych-Oncology Program Director at Markey Cancer Center at University of Kentucky where she has overseen the exponential growth in service offerings to Markey patients including implementation of distress screening, expansion of counseling services and additions to both social work and dietary staff. Joan and her team also work on national and local research opportunities including the implementation of evidence-based tobacco cessation programs in Markey clinics. Employed by UK HealthCare for over 11 years, Joan has worked with both pediatric and adult oncology populations. She has previous experience with The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society as well as Hospice of the Bluegrass. Joan earned her Master of Science in Social Work from the University of Louisville, Kent School of Social Work.

Mayra Serrano is the Senior Manager at the Center of Community Alliance for Research & Education (CCARE), City of Hope’s Community Outreach and Engagement Center. Her work at CCARE focuses on partnering with community advocates and organizations to develop and implement community participatory programs and interventions to reduce the risk and burden of chronic illnesses, including cancer, obesity and diabetes. She coordinates the Community Outreach and Engagement strategy for City of Hope, which is committed to building strong bidirectional relationships with and increasing participation of underrepresented communities in the development of research and policy. Her work as a scholar activist is focused on promoting the voices of underserved populations through coalition building, advocacy training, and capacity building. Mayra holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Biology from Whittier College and received her Master’s in Public Health in Community Health Sciences from UCLA. She is currently pursuing her Doctor of Public Health degree at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Dr. Vanessa B. Sheppard is Professor and Chair of the Department of Health Behavior and Policy in the School of Medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University. As Chair, Dr. Sheppard leads a department of interdisciplinary faculty who teach in one of two doctoral programs and whose scholarship centers on improving health care and health outcomes in diverse populations. She also serves as Associate Center Director for Community Outreach Engagement and Health Disparities at the VCU Massey Cancer Center where she leads Massey’s community engagement efforts to advance high-priority disparities and minority health research across its various research programs and themes. With expertise in health services research, clinical trials and behavioral interventions, Dr. Sheppard’s research aims to address gaps in care for racial/ethnic minority women. Her research focuses on factors that have the potential to improve cancer outcomes, such as treatment adherence, patient-provider relationships, obesity and physical activity.

Dr. Angela Usher serves as the manager of Supportive Oncology Services at the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center. Supportive Oncology Services encompass psychiatry, palliative care, social work, dietetics, nurse navigation, creative arts, child life, acupuncture, and education services for outpatient adults and pediatric hematology and oncology patients and families. Dr. Usher’s research focus is the psychosocial needs of cancer patients emphasizing social risks, financial hardship, distance to treatment, and rural disparities. Dr. Usher holds a doctorate from the University of California, Davis, in nursing research and is a licensed clinical social worker with specialty certification in oncology social work.

Dr. Donald Warne serves as the Associate Dean of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion; Chair of the Department of Indigenous Health; Director of the Indians Into Medicine (INMED) and Public Health Programs; and Professor of Family and Community Medicine at the School of Medicine and Health Sciences at the University of North Dakota. Dr. Warne is the Principal Investigator for the Indigenous Trauma & Resilience Research Center at UND, and he also serves as the Senior Policy Advisor to the Great Plains Tribal Leader’s Health Board in Rapid City, SD. Dr. Warne is a member of the Oglala Lakota tribe from Pine Ridge, SD and comes from a long line of traditional healers and medicine men. Donald Warne received his MD from Stanford University School of Medicine in 1995 and his MPH from Harvard School of Public Health in 2002.

Dr. Stephanie Wheeler is a Professor of Health Policy and Management at the University of North Carolina Gillings School of Public Health and Associate Director of Community Outreach and Engagement (COE) for the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Wheeler is a health services researcher and decision scientist focused on improving cancer care delivery for medically underserved groups (e.g., low income, racial/ethnic minorities, rural, uninsured persons), with particular emphasis on improving value, understanding the financial and psychosocial impacts of cancer, and reducing health disparities. Dr. Wheeler’s research interests and passions lie in the elimination of health disparities and improvement of access to care for vulnerable populations, particularly as applied to breast, colorectal, ovarian, and cervical cancer care and reproductive/sexual health care. Stephanie has a PhD in Health Policy and Management from UNC and earned her MPH degree with Honors distinction from the University of Cape Town (South Africa).

Dr. Robert Winn is Director of the NCI-designated Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Massey Cancer Center. In addition to directing the activities of Massey’s 250 research members – researchers and physicians from 39 departments in 9 colleges and schools at VCU – he also manages a research laboratory at VCU. Dr. Winn’s current basic science research focuses on the translational aspects of the role that proliferation pathways and cellular senescence play in lung cancer. He is leading the nation in establishing a 21st-century model of equity for cancer science and care, in which the community is informing and partnering with Massey on its research to best address the cancer burden and disparities of those the cancer center serves. Dr. Winn holds a B.A. from the University of Notre Dame and an MD from the University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor. Robert completed an internship and residency in internal medicine at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center in Chicago and a fellowship in pulmonary and critical care medicine at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver.

Dr. Robin Yabroff is Scientific Vice President of Health Services Research at the American Cancer Society. She has more than 20 years of experience conducting research on the economic burden of cancer; patterns of cancer care, including high-cost prescription drugs; health insurance benefit design; and patient, provider, and health system factors associated with quality and value of cancer care. She currently has adjunct positions within the Department of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University and the Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University. She is an Associate Editor for the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, a founding member of the editorial board of the Journal of Cancer Survivorship, and a member of the editorial board of the JCO Oncology Practice. Dr. Yabroff has received multiple National Institutes of Health Merit Awards for her research leadership and mentorship. She earned her PhD in epidemiology from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and received an MBA from the University of Rochester.