Staff: Irina A. Iles, PhD, MPH

Irina A. Iles, PhD, MPH is a Program Director in the Health Communication and Informatics Research Branch (HCIRB) of the Behavioral Research Program (BRP). Her scientific interests broadly include exploring how our scientific understanding of human decision making in health contexts can be fostered and integrated with health communication theories and practices to design effective health messages that promote health. She is also interested in understanding how we can communicate scientific uncertainty in an accessible manner to foster trust in health information.

Prior to joining NCI, Dr. Iles served as a social scientist in the Office of Communications, Research and Risk Communication, which is a part of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). While there, she engaged in qualitative and quantitative research studies on a variety of topics, including opioids, benzodiazepines and biosimilars, and led a multi-phase project investigating optimal communication strategies to inform the public about FDA-regulated products during public health emergencies. She completed her post-doctoral training as an NCI Cancer Prevention Fellow in BRP.

Dr. Iles received her PhD from the University of Maryland at College Park's Department of Communication, with a concentration in health and risk communication, and her MPH from Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health with a concentration in epidemiology and biostatistics.



Secondary Branch/Office Appointment:  Basic Biobehavioral and Psychological Sciences Branch (BBPSB)

Current and/or past BRP mentors include William Klein, Rebecca Ferrer and Rachel Grana Mayne.


Scientific Interests

  • Message effects
  • Risk perception
  • Health behavior change
  • Survey and experimental designs

Selected Publications and Presentations

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