Featured Grantees
The researchers highlighted below have been awarded at least one Behavioral Research Program-funded NIH grant. Read on to learn about their experiences as grantees.
Note: The views expressed here are those of the grantees only and do not represent any official position of the National Cancer Institute.
Health Communication and Informatics Research Branch
As a Hispanic physician-scientist, I have witnessed firsthand the disparities in access to cancer care, particularly among our minority populations. It is extremely important for me to improve access to care and provide the same opportunities to all children with cancer, regardless of their background. ”
Well-intentioned health campaigns, health messages, and even health promoting conversations between providers and patients can have unintended effects, such as stigma. Empathic communication between health care providers and patients is at the core of connecting with and providing compassionate cancer care. ”
It often takes decades for highly effective medical interventions to become widely used and many patients never receive guideline recommended care. I believe that health communication science coupled with cancer care delivery research is an essential strategy that we can use to close these care gaps. ”
Ganna Kostygina, PhD
- NORC at the University of Chicago
My early collaborative work helped me realize that new technologies carry tremendous potential for advancing the science of health communication, yet this potential is largely underleveraged. ”
Stacy Loeb, MD, MSc, PhD (Hon)
- New York University School of Medicine
The vast majority of U.S. adults look online for health information, but very little is known about the quality of information that they encounter and its influence on clinical decision-making. ”
Hui-Chun I. Su, MD, MSCE
- University of California - San Diego
As a clinician scientist, I see barriers to patient access every day. My “ah-ha” moment was when I learned about implementation science… to design interventions that fit and can be adapted to different contexts. ”
My research aims to equip patients with advanced cancer with self-advocacy skills to ensure they can address challenges that arise during their care. ”
Betina R. Yanez, PhD
- Northwestern University - Chicago
Our goal is to alleviate depressive symptoms, promote well-being, and address health inequities, thereby bridging the gap between research and implementation in cancer care. ”
Tobacco Control Research Branch
Stella A. Bialous, DrPH, FAAN
- University of California - San Francisco
Understanding how tobacco industry's target marketing, co-option of civil and political leaders, and misinformation provide a road map to develop policies and programs that can effectively counter these activities and address disparities. ”
Daniel P. Giovenco, PhD, MPH
- Columbia University Health Sciences
Tobacco use is now unjustly concentrated among socially and economically disadvantaged populations and poses one of the most urgent threats to public health and social justice. I am deeply motivated to continue this line of work until tobacco use no longer poses a major threat to population health and society. ”
I came into the area of tobacco control by way of observing that a high percentage of our participants in clinical trials of alcohol, methamphetamine and opioid use smoke. ”
While working as a smoking cessation research coordinator in safety-net clinics, I realized that traditional approaches to treating tobacco use were ignoring the structural and social determinants of health that were making it difficult for patients to engage in treatment and quit smoking. ”
The first time I saw a patient with an IV pole smoking on the sidewalk outside of the hospital, it stopped me in my tracks. Here was a person who was facing significant health challenges from their smoking and still could not quit. If this health event was not enough of a motivation, then I would make it my mission to design interventions to help them successfully quit. ”
I am excited about the potential of mobile health methods to test mechanisms of action and "active ingredients" of behavioral interventions. ”
The moment I realized that the majority of research questions can be answered with information and data that has already been collected - Existing data is just like a puzzle, you just need to figure out how the pieces fit. ”
Basic Biobehavioral and Psychological Sciences Branch
Allison J. Applebaum, PhD
- Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
After a decade of working with caregivers of patients with all sites and stages of cancer across the entire caregiving trajectory, it became clear to me that caregivers have become the invisible backbone of our healthcare system. These clinical experiences, and my own caregiving journey, inspired my work to support caregivers, to help them engage in caregiving without personal detriment, and to assist them in enhancing and sustaining well-being, resilience, and growth in the face of suffering ”
Kimberly Canter, PhD
- Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children
My interest in serving this population began in college, when a lightbulb went off during an introductory psychology class. I had planned to pursue a career in medicine but was much more interested in the opportunity to help patients and families cope and manage stressors. My personal and professional experiences with cancer have fueled my passion to provide high-quality, accessible psychosocial care to families as they navigate what is likely one of the worst times of their lives. ”
Judith E. Carroll, PhD
- University of California - Los Angeles
I was first motivated to work in biobehavioral research as an undergraduate student when I heard about research that demonstrated a significant impact of our thoughts and behaviors on our physical health and disease risk. I then realized I had an innate curiosity for understanding the basic biological mechanisms that connect the mind and body. ”
Julienne E. Bower, PhD
- University of California - Los Angeles
Understanding the relationship of biological aging with cognitive and physical health outcomes, and the role of modifiable behavioral factors, has implications for future interventions designed to mitigate morbidity associated with these biomarker risk profiles in breast cancer patients. ”
Based on my personal experience as a patient, I decided to expand my research from radiology to pathology to turn the microscope back on ourselves (the physicians), and to see how we can improve diagnostic accuracy and patient outcomes. ”
Robert J. Ferguson, PhD
- University of Pittsburgh
In early surveys of the cognitive rehabilitation outcomes literature, I recognized that focusing solely on enhancing memory performance as assessed by neurocognitive testing was incomplete; cognitive abilities - e.g., memory, attention, emotion regulation - exist to perform valued activities in daily life. Using effective behavior change methods to enhance performance in daily activity was key to quality of life and functional improvement, regardless of the cognitive change one experiences after cancer. ”
Matthew C. Hocking, PhD
- Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
As a graduate student, I worked in a multidisciplinary clinic where I conducted psychological consultations for survivors of childhood cancer. The experience of meeting these youth who had been cured of their cancer but were experiencing significant health problems and developmental issues had a substantial impact on me. I became particularly fascinated by the effects of cancer treatments on the developing brain and the different problems that occur as a result. ”
The most profound influence on my work was my mentor, Dr Jane Weeks, who taught me that doing research, and working with the smartest, most interesting, most fun people, can be one of the great joys of life. ”
I began my career as a family doctor working in neighborhood health centers in underserved communities. The turning point in my career from clinician to clinician researcher occurred on a job interview in an internal medicine department at a teaching hospital caring for a large population of older individuals. ”
Brenna C. McDonald, PsyD, MBA, ABPP
- Indiana University School of Medicine
I was first directly exposed to fMRI maps when interviewing for fellowships over 20 years ago. Actually seeing activation of the motor strip exactly where it "should" be in the brain gave me my first real glimpse of the potential power of the technology for exploring brain-behavior relationships and understanding cognitive dysfunction, which has been the focus of my research for the past two decades. ”
Young adulthood is often an incredibly challenging time. Adding a cancer diagnosis can make this life stage exponentially more difficult. Adolescent and young adult (AYA) cancer survivors require tailored, age-appropriate supportive care services to maintain high physical, mental and social quality of life. My hope is to identify the clinical and lifestyle interventions that AYA cancer survivors want to ensure healthy survivorship for this distinct group. ”
Frank J. Penedo, PhD
- University of Miami Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center
The most profound a-ha moment early in my career was that stress and other psychosocial factors can truly get "under the skin" and impact critical clinical markers in HIV, cancer, CVD, and other conditions. ”
Michael H. Antoni, PhD
- University of Miami Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center
My first experience "connecting the dots" from experimentally inducing stress reduction to biobehavioral changes to long-term clinically meaningful physical health outcomes was when I observed that women with breast cancer who completed a group-based cognitive behavioral stress management program not only reported decreased anxiety, negative affect, and improved quality of life, but also had physiologic changes during primary treatment, which predicted lower odds of disease recurrence over the next 10+ years. ”
Hermine Poghosyan, PhD, MPH
- Yale University
Tobacco use, which is the leading cause of preventable premature death worldwide, affects too many cancer survivors, their families, and friends. My goal is to find ways to better promote smoking cessation among individuals who have received a cancer diagnosis and their social network members, including families, friends, and others. ”
The explosion of genetic information into the lives of patients and populations requires that we find tools that will translate genomics to better patient experiences in decision-making, treatment, quality of life, and outcomes. To achieve this goal, we must nucleate interdisciplinary teams that include geneticists, population scientists, behavioral scientists, oncologists, and others to develop and implement comprehensive and impactful patient tools. ”
Health Behaviors Research Branch
Marc A. Adams, PhD, MPH
- Arizona State University - Tempe
Early in my career I discovered the world outside of the skin was just as complex and interesting as the one inside of the skin. That moment led me down a path of discovery of the principles of behavior change in our macro- and micro-environments and how these mechanisms influence preventive behaviors for chronic disease, such as physical activity. ”
Wendy Demark-Wahnefried, PhD, RD
- University of Alabama at Birmingham
I am motivated daily by the participants in our studies who continually teach me new things and who provide inspiration. ”
Stacey Kenfield, ScD
- University of California - San Francisco
A cancer diagnosis is a teachable moment when individuals are motivated to change behavior to reduce risk of adverse health outcomes. This has led me to focus my research on elucidating the role of lifestyle factors in relation to patient-reported outcomes (e.g., quality of life, treatment side effects) and clinical outcomes (e.g., recurrence, mortality) in adults with cancer to improve quality of life, cancer prognosis, and overall health. ”
I first became interested in how neighborhood green spaces may improve health through my work in New Zealand, where green spaces tend to be high quality and accessible. Now I live in Michigan, where Detroit is recovering from decades of disinvestment in its parks. While improvements have been made, neighborhoods remain where the city's parks renaissance has not reached. This study allows us to test how restoring parks to be vibrant green spaces may contribute to health in underserved communities. ”
Dorothy W. Pekmezi, PhD
- University of Alabama at Birmingham
The most profound influences on my research program have come from clinical encounters and qualitative research, in which patients/participants are often eager to eat healthier and exercise more but describe real barriers to accessing related programs/resources (costs, transportation, etc.) and desire encouragement and accountability. ”
My "ah-ha" moment came as a first year PhD student, when my mentor Dr. Marci Campbell invited me to eastern North Carolina to attend my first community-based research meeting. That was my first time seeing community-based research in action; lessons I have been applying to my research ever since. ”
Andrew D. Ray, PT, PhD
- Roswell Park Cancer Institute Corp
I always knew there was something special about my work, but it wasn't until I presented my findings to a neighboring University I realized how strong my pilot data really was. ”
Through interdisciplinary collaborations, I learned the research I was conducting at NASA to monitor and prevent toxicities in astronauts was very applicable to cancer patients. This motivated me to explore whether the tools and techniques used by NASA to offset spaceflight-related toxicity could be applied to improve long-term health and quality of life in cancer patients impacted by therapy-related toxicities. ”
Erin L. Van Blarigan, ScD
- University of California - San Francisco
Cancer survivors' experiences and perspectives have a profound influence on my program of research. ”
Yelena P. Wu, PhD
- Huntsman Cancer Institute - University of Utah
Childhood ultraviolet radiation exposure and sunburns are key modifiable risk factors for development of skin cancers, such as melanoma, later in life. However, there are few skin cancer prevention programs targeting adolescents, including in schools, that focus on teen intentional tanning and sun protection behaviors. ”