Staff: Mark Parascandola, PhD, MPH
Mark Parascandola, PhD, MPH
Mark Parascandola, Ph.D., M.P.H., is an Epidemiologist with the Tobacco Control Research Branch in the Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences at the National Cancer Institute (NCI). He received his Doctorate in Philosophy of Science from Cambridge University and his Master of Public Health degree in Epidemiology from the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health. Dr. Parascandola also completed an NCI Cancer Prevention Fellowship. He has authored numerous published articles on tobacco use prevention, tobacco control policy, and epidemiologic research methodology. He served as an editor for the NCI/WHO report The Economics of Tobacco and Tobacco Control (2016), the NCI/CDC report Smokeless Tobacco and Public Health: A Global Perspective (2014), and the two-volume encyclopedia Tobacco: Its History and Culture (2005). He also served as a member of the IARC Working Group on Methods for Evaluating Tobacco Control Policies in 2007. As a Program Director at NCI, Dr. Parascandola currently oversees a research portfolio with a focus on global tobacco control, smokeless tobacco use, and implementation science. Dr. Parascandola has served as an Embassy Science Fellow and expert advisor on tobacco control and air pollution and health at the U.S. Embassies in Beijing, China, and Warsaw, Poland.
Secondary Appointment: NCI Center for Global Health
Current and/or past BRP mentees include Mandeep Virk-Baker and Iva Stoyneva.
Scientific Interests
- Global health
- Smokeless tobacco
- Epidemiologic methods
- Evaluation of tobacco control policies
Selected Publications and Presentations
- Sturke R, Vorkoper S, Duncan K, Levintova M, Parascondola M. Addressing NCDs through research and capacity building in LMICs: lessons learned from tobacco control. Glob Health Action 2016 Aug 19; 9:32407.
- Mehrtash H, Duncan K, Parascandola M, David A, Gritz ER, Gupta PC, Mehrotra R, Amer Nordin AS, Pearlman PC, Warnakulasuriya S, Wen CP, Zain RB, Trimble EL. Defining a global research and policy agenda for betel quid and areca nut. Lancet Oncol 2017 Dec; 18(12):e767-e775.
- Sinha DN, Gupta PC, Kumar A, Bhartiya D, Agarwal N, Sharma S, Singh H, Parascandola M, Mehrotra R. The poorest of poor suffer the greatest burden from smokeless tobacco use: A study from 140 countries. Nicotine Tob Res 2017 Dec 22.
- Bloch M, Parascandola M. Tobacco use in pregnancy: a window of opportunity for prevention. Lancet Glob Health 2014 Sep; 2(9):e489-e490.
- Parascandola M. Lessons from the history of tobacco harm reduction: The National Cancer Institute's Smoking and Health Program and the "less hazardous cigarette". Nicotine Tob Res 2005 Oct; 7(5):779-89.
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