Staff: Tanya Agurs-Collins, PhD, RD
Tanya Agurs-Collins, PhD, RD
collinsta@mail.nih.gov
240-276-6956
Tanya Agurs-Collins, PhD, RD, is the Acting Branch Chief and a Program Director in the Health Behaviors Research Branch, Behavioral Research Program, Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences, National Cancer Institute (NCI). In this capacity, she is responsible for directing, coordinating, and managing a research grant portfolio in diet, physical activity, and weight-loss behavioral interventions for cancer prevention and survival. Dr. Agurs-Collins' scientific interests include race and ethnic disparities in dietary intake and obesity on cancer risk and survival. She is also interested in understanding individual genetic variation in diet and physical activity behaviors and response to weight loss interventions.
Dr. Agurs-Collins has a PhD in Nutritional Sciences with an emphasis in epidemiology and a master's degree in Public Health Nutrition from the Pennsylvania State University in University Park, Pennsylvania. She also holds a bachelor's degree in Nutrition and Dietetics from Howard University in Washington, DC. Prior to joining NCI, Dr. Agurs-Collins was an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine at Howard University College of Medicine and a nutritional epidemiologist at the Howard University Cancer Center. She is a registered dietitian with the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
Past BRP mentees include Sara Tamers, Doratha Byrd, and Shakira Nelson.
Current and/or past BRP mentees include Catherine Pichardo, Amanda Acevedo and Adaora Ezeani.
Scientific Interests
- Lifestyle factors
- Biomarkers and cancer risk in ethnic/minority populations
- Gene-behavior interactions
- Obesity and cancer risk
- Health Disparities
Selected Publications and Presentations
- Pichardo CM, Ezeani A, Dwyer LA, Wali A, Czajkowski S, Nebeling L, Agurs-Collins T. Structural Racism and Obesity-Related Cancer Inequities in the United States: Challenges and Research Priorities. Int J Environ Res Public Health 2024 Aug 17; 21(8):1085-1085.
-
Agurs-Collins, T, Alvidrez J, Ferreira SE, et al.
Perspective: Nutrition Health Disparities Framework: A Model to Advance Health Equity.
Adv Nutr 2024 March 21.
- Ezeani A, Tcheugui JBE, Agurs-Collins T. Sex/gender differences in metabolic syndrome among cancer survivors in the US: an NHANES analysis. J Cancer Surviv 2023 Jun 22.
- Agurs-Collins T, Ross SA, Dunn BK. The Many Faces of Obesity and Its Influence on Breast Cancer Risk. Front Oncol 2019 Sep 4; 9:765.
- Agurs-Collins T, Persky S, Paskett ED, Barkin SL, Meissner HI, Nansel TR, Arteaga SS, Zhang X, Das R, Farhat T. Designing and Assessing Multilevel Interventions to Improve Minority Health and Reduce Health Disparities. Am J Public Health 2019 Jan; 109(S1):S86-S93.
To request edits to this profile, please contact us at ncidccpsbrpadvances@mail.nih.gov.