Consortium for Cancer Implementation Science (CCIS) Annual Meeting (Speaker Bios)

Jessica D. Austin PhD, MPH is an Assistant Professor of Epidemiology and Cancer Population Sciences at Mayo Clinic Arizona and an Adjunct Professor in the College of Health Solutions at Arizona State University. Dr. Austin received her PhD from the University of Texas Health Science Center where she completed her tenure as an NCI T32 Fellow. She also completed her postdoctoral fellowship at Columbia University Medical Center prior to joining Mayo Clinic in 2021. Dr. Austin research focuses on understanding multi-level factors hindering or facilitating the development and equitable implementation of evidence-based cancer prevention and control programs, guidelines, or policies. To do this, she uses mixed-methods to characterize factors across multiple levels of the socioecological model and theory-driven approaches and frameworks to develop, adapt, and implement appropriate interventions or implementation strategies. Dr. Austin serves a member of Center for Translational Sciences Rural Health Core at Mayo Clinic and the Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center Community Outreach and Engagement Faculty Research Council. She serves as the Chair for the Consortium for Cancer Implementation Science Complex/Multilevel Intervention action group and serves as PI and Co-I on numerous internal and NIH-funded studies using community engaged and implementation science principles to reduce cancer health disparities across historically underserved populations and in underresourced settings.

Dr. Belone (Diné) is from the Navajo community called Naakaii Bito’ located on the Navajo Nation. At the beginning of this year Dr. Belone was promoted to full professor within the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center’s College of Population Health.

For the past 23 years, Dr. Belone has been engaged in community-based participatory research (CBPR) with an Indigenous paradigm focused on health disparities with southwest tribal nations. Her first National Institutes of Health (NIH) R01 study funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (2014-2021, Belone/Wallerstein) with three southwest Tribal Research Teams (Apache, Navajo & Pueblo) conducted a rigorous examination of an Indigenous family prevention program called the Family Listening Program (FLP). In 2020, Dr. Belone received a second R01 funded by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD, 2020-2025, Belone) a dissemination and implementation study utilizing a CBPR approach in partnership with six tribal nations in the implementation of FLP an evidence-based Indigenous family prevention program.

From 2005 to 2021, Dr. Belone has been co-investigator in the national examination of research partnering processes to strengthen the science of CBPR to improve health and health equity outcomes through multiple funding sources from the National Institutes Health, the last funded by the National Institute of Nursing Research (2015-2021/PI Wallerstein).

Since 2017, Dr. Belone has served as the Director of the Community Engagement and Dissemination Core (CEDC) of the UNM Transdisciplinary Research Equity & Engagement Center, one of twelve U54 Centers across the country (NIMHD, 2017-2023, Cacari-Stone).

Dr. Jeremiah Brown is the founding Director of the Dartmouth Center for Implementation Science and a tenured professor of Epidemiology, Biomedical Data Science, and Health Policy and Clinical Practice at The Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. Dr. Brown is the current Chair of the Science of Implementation in Health and Healthcare (SIHH) NIH Study Section. He has received multiple R01s from NHLBI, NIDDK, and NIAID to develop and implement interventions for evidence-based interventions including two national cluster-randomized effectiveness-implementation trials.

Dr. David Chambers is Deputy Director for Implementation Science in the Office of the Director in the Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences (DCCPS) at the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Dr. Chambers manages a team focusing on efforts to build and advance the field of Implementation Science (IS) through funding opportunities, training programs, research activities, dissemination platforms, and enhancement of partnerships and networks to integrate research, practice and policy.

From 2008 through the fall of 2014, Dr. Chambers served as Chief of the Services Research and Clinical Epidemiology Branch (SRCEB) of the Division of Services and Intervention Research at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). He arrived at NIMH in 2001, brought to the Institute to run the Dissemination and Implementation Research Program within SRCEB, developing a portfolio of grants to study the integration of scientific findings and effective clinical practices in mental health within real-world service settings. From 2006 to the fall of 2014, Dr. Chambers also served as Associate Director for Dissemination and Implementation Research, leading NIH initiatives around the coordination of dissemination and implementation research in health, including a set of research announcements across 15 of the NIH Institutes and Centers, annual scientific conferences, and a summer training institute.

Prior to his arrival at NIH, Dr. Chambers worked as a member of a research team at Oxford University, where he studied national efforts to implement evidence-based practice within healthcare systems. He publishes on strategic research directions in implementation science and serves as a plenary speaker at numerous scientific conferences. He received his A.B. degree (with Honors) in Economics from Brown University in 1997, and an M.Sc. and D.Phil degree in Management Studies (Organisational Behaviour) in 1998 and 2001, respectively, from Oxford University (UK).

Graham Colditz, MD, DrPH, is a renowned leader in cancer prevention. As an epidemiologist and public health expert, he has a longstanding interest in the preventable causes of chronic disease, particularly among women. He also studies strategies to speed translation of research findings to equitable prevention programs that work. His past research has focused on the health effects of smoking, weight and weight gain, physical activity, diet, and the adverse effects of medications such as postmenopausal hormone therapy, documenting that current use increases risk of breast cancer.

Colditz’s research includes developing statistical models to classify levels of risk more accurately for several cancers, with particular emphasis on breast cancer. His areas of expertise include tobacco and obesity in relation to cancer. He documented that smoking increases the risk of stroke and total mortality among women and that weight gain increases the risk of diabetes. Colditz has focused extensively on the validation of self-report information for use in large scale epidemiologic studies and refined diet assessment tools for use in public health settings such as WIC.

Colditz has devoted time to the application of scientific advances in cancer prevention to broader population programs working initially with the American Cancer Society and the Massachusetts Cancer Control Program. He has led work groups to identify prevention research priorities for the NCI. He also developed the website Your Disease Risk to assess individual risk and communicate tailored prevention messages to the public. He has received awards for his research and is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and a Fellow of the AAAS.

Dr. Julie Dang is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences at the University of California, Davis and also serves as the Executive Director of the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Office of Community Outreach and Engagement. She has over 14 years of experience engaging diverse and underserved communities and clinics in the development, implementation, and evaluation of culturally tailored interventions to advance cancer health equity. She has developed, implemented, and evaluated programs and studies that have focused on increasing community participation in cancer screening and prevention clinical trials; led multi-site community outreach and engagement efforts in diverse and underrepresented communities; and developed a collection of community tested in-language culturally tailored recruitment, outreach, and educational materials. Dr. Dang is experienced in working in diverse settings including rural clinics, tribal clinics, federally qualified health centers, primary care networks and in training health care workers on enhancing cancer outcomes for low-income, ethnically diverse patient populations

Dr. Housten’s research focuses on supporting cancer screening and treatment decision-making to reduce health disparities and to address challenges associated with health literacy in diverse populations. Specifically, she is interested in the dissemination and implementation of decision support strategies to improve health behaviors and outcomes, particularly in populations that experience cancer-related health inequity. With a focus on how people evaluate and apply health information, her research uses qualitative and mixed-methods to identify challenges and opportunities to strengthen patient-provider engagement in decision-making across the cancer care continuum.

Xavier Morales, Ph.D., MRP, is the executive director of Praxis Project, a national organization dedicated to supporting communities in building power for health. Xavier is a longtime advocate for community-driven initiatives to achieve health equity and environmental justice. Taking an expansive view of what constitutes good health and community wellness, he works in partnership to enable opportunities across the determinants of health, seeking sustainable solutions that center community, equity, and racial justice. Xavier is a former Peace Corps volunteer (Hungary) originally from Sanger, California. He received his degrees from UC Berkeley and Cornell University.

Dr. Nodora is committed to improving health outcomes through discovery, implementation, and dissemination of effective health promotion and health service interventions. He is Associate Professor in the Department of Radiation Medicine and Applied Sciences (RMAS) and a full member of the Moores Cancer Center (MCC). At MCC he serves on the Community Outreach and Engagement (COE) Steering Committee. Additionally, he is a member of the RMAS Center for Health Equity Education and Research (CHEER). As part of RMAS, CHEER and the MCC COE, Dr. Nodora developed community-based efforts that focus on improving the health of underserved patient populations by addressing social and economic issues. His research focuses on systems interventions, informed decision-making, and patient-provider communication among poor and underserved populations. In partnership with the Northern San Diego Indian Health Council, he is Principal Investigator (PI) on an NIH-funded Native American Research Centers for Health (NARCH) cervical cancer prevention grant. He is also PI on two Health Resources Services Administration (HRSA) grants partnering federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) with MCC to increase cancer screening. He is PI on an FQHC-based COVID-19 testing consortium study and Co-Investigator (Co-I) on a community health center-based colorectal cancer screening consortium study. His various research grants, including multi-site research consortia, have provided him with significant experience in leading and working with multidisciplinary research teams and the application of quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods.

Ramzi Salloum, PhD is an Associate Professor in the Department of Health Outcomes and Biomedical Informatics at the University of Florida College of Medicine. Salloum serves as the Director of the Learning Health System Program with the UF Clinical and Translational Science Institute and the Associate Director of Community Outreach and Engagement with the UF Health Cancer Center. He received a Ph.D. in economics from Wayne State University and completed NCI-supported postdoctoral training in cancer care quality at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Public Health.

Dr. Salloum’s work considers the dissemination and implementation of evidence-based practices across the cancer care continuum. Dr. Salloum’s research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. He has authored more than 180 peer-reviewed publications.

Dr. Salloum has been an invited faculty member in the NCI’s Training in Dissemination and Implementation Research in Cancer (TIDIRC), and currently serve as the chair of the Learning Health Systems action group in the NCI’s Consortium for Cancer Implementation Science. He is currently multi-PI on three implementation trials in primary care settings. In addition, he is a member of the State of Florida Cancer Control and Research Advisory Council.

Dr. Shelley is a Professor of Public Health Policy and Management, and Co-Director of the Global Center for Implementation Science, in the New York University School of Global Public Health (GPH). She has over two decades of experience studying methods for accelerating the translation of research into practice in a range of health care and community settings. This research has been consistently funded by NIH and AHRQ with a specific focus on studying the effectiveness of multilevel strategies to support optimal implementation of evidence based interventions for the prevention and treatment of cancer risk factors in a range of health care settings in the U.S. and Viet Nam. This includes an active National Cancer Institute (NCI)-funded study that is comparing the effectiveness of three tobacco cessation interventions among people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWH) and simultaneously examining the feasibility of strategies for implementing tobacco use treatment in HIV care settings. Dr. Shelley is also actively involved in building local and global capacity to conduct implementation research and enhance implemetntation practice. With colleagues at GPH and Hanoi University of Public Health, she recently launched a D43 Fogarty Training Grant, "Advancing Implementation Research Capacity in Viet Nam". The grant will build regional capacity to apply implementation research methods to address the growing burden of non communicable diseases among PLWH.

Dr. Erika Trapl is Associate Professor of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences and has served as the Associate Director of Community Outreach and Engagement at the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center since 2020. She also directs the Prevention Research Center for Healthy Neighborhoods at CWRU. Dr. Trapl is trained as a behavioral epidemiologist and has led a community-partnered research program for over 15 years. Dr. Trapl’s research has focused on tobacco control, dietary interventions, and cancer screening behaviors among marginalized populations, as well as examining implementation of individual, systems, and policy interventions to increase reach, broaden impact, and improve health. She leads the Cleveland African American Prostate Cancer Project, a program developed with barbers to be implemented in barber shops to raise awareness and promote prostate cancer screening among younger Black men.

Dr. David J. Tsosie is originally from Jeddito, Arizona, but was forcibly relocated to Nahata Dziil Chapter in Sanders, Arizona by the Federal government. He is a member of the Todi’chinii Clan, born for the Toh’tsonii Clan, his maternal grandfather was a member of the Tachinii Clan and his paternal grandfather is a member of the Kinya nanii Clan. He obtained his Bachelor of Science Degree in Elementary Education from Brigham Young University, his Master of Educational Administration from Pennsylvania State University and his Doctor of Education Supervision and Leadership from Arizona State University.
In 1983, he was elected to and served on the Navajo Nation Council representing the communities of Jeddito and Low Mountain Chapters for several years. While on the Council, he served as the Chairman of the Education Committee, a member of the Transportation and Community Development Committee, the Intergovernmental Relations Committee, the Navajo Hopi land Commission and a Board of Regent member for the Navajo Community College, now known the Dine College. He served as a County Board Supervisor for Navajo county for several years. Upon leaving the Navajo Nation Council, he was appointed as the Executive Director for the Division of Community Development. He worked to bring about housing development for low-income families, built community facilities and community infrastructural development, and explored and developed revenue generating opportunities for communities across the Navajo Reservation. In 1995, he left the Navajo Nation government and started a non-profit organization that provided homeownership opportunities for low-income and elderly families on the Navajo Reservation.
He served as a Board of Director of the Ft. Defiance Indian Hospital Board, Incorporated, a Special Advisor to the Dine Hataalii Association, and served as the President of the Azee Bee Nahagha of Dine Nation. Currently he serves as an Advisor to the University of Arizona and Northern Arizona University Native American Cancer Prevention Project, a Principal Investigator on a study that examined the effects of oil drilling and fracking activities on the health of the people living near oil fields, a Cultural Advisor on the assessment of the Uranium mines on the Navajo Nation, a Project Director of a Family Listening Program aimed at establishing communication between the youth and their parents, and a member of the Dine Centered Research and Evaluation team. This organization (DCRE) is founded on the premises of researching problems and issues using our traditional and spiritual teachings rather than depending solely on the use of western methodologies. He believes his Dine cultural teachings and educational background will provide him with opportunities to convey the importance of the Dine holistic way of thinking to the young Dine population. Dr. Tsosie believes in the teaching of our elders “if you want to get any place in life, only you can make it happen.”

Cynthia A. Vinson, Ph.D., M.P.A., is a senior advisor for the Implementation Science Team in the Office of the Director in the Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences (DCCPS) at the National Cancer Institute (NCI). She currently works on building and sustaining the field of implementation science to enhance the integration of evidence-based guidelines, programs, and policies for cancer control in public health and clinical practice. Dr. Vinson leads the Consortium for Cancer Implementation Science (CCIS) seeks to develop a new approach for the field to work together to address key challenges and identify and develop new areas of investigation toward advancing the IS agenda in cancer control. Dr. Vinson also co-leads NCI’s Implementation Science Centers in Cancer Control (ISC3) which supports the rapid development, testing, and refinement of innovative approaches to implement a range of evidence-based cancer control interventions.

As a member of the Comprehensive Cancer Control National Partnership she is responsible for working within NCI and with other agencies and organizations to translate research funded by DCCPS into practice.

She has helped launch many of the IS Team’s current initiatives, including Evidence-Based Cancer Control Programs (EBCCP) and SPeeding Research INTerventions, and many funding opportunities conferences and trainings.

Dr. Vinson has a doctorate in public administration and health policy from George Washington University, and a master’s in public administration and international development from Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey.

Waverly Willis bio
Waverly Willis wears many hats at the same time and pulls it off flawlessly. This entrepreneur, and pillar in the community of Cleveland, Ohio is the owner of Urban Kutz Barbershop which has 3 locations and continues to be ranked as one of the best barbershops in Cleveland. Waverly is also the founding executive director of The Urban Barber Association (TUBA) which is a network of barbershops and salons that use their businesses as a vehicle to enlighten and empower the community. TUBA’s programs span from career training and placement for people with felony backgrounds to child literacy all the way to its barbershop blood pressure program which garnered national exposure. Through entrepreneurial and philanthropic accolades Waverly has been spotlighted on various local & national stages such as the Nick Cannon show, NPR, AARP magazine, Fox 8 ,19 action & channel 3 Cleveland news. He has received proclamations from Cleveland Mayor, Justin Bibb & Ohio State Senator Nikki Antonio .
Waverly’s barber career boasts over 20 years of experience and he shares it with the future generations of barbers by being a barber instructor at barber colleges in greater Cleveland.
This man is truly one of Cleveland’s unsung heroes that has overcame many short comings in life such as severe drug and alcohol addiction, chronic homelessness , bankruptcy , and cancer but he constantly continues to raise the bar for himself and others in many capacities. In a successful attempt to continue his journey of being a trend setter, Waverly began accepting cryptocurrency as a form of payment for his barbering services at Urban Kutz Barbershop.The crypto world nicknamed Waverly " The Bitcoin Barber"
It’s no wonder why his city calls him “ Cleveland’s Favorite Barber Big Wave the boss”