Staff: Leeann N. Siegel, PhD, MPH
Leeann N. Siegel, PhD, MPH
Cancer Research Training Award Postdoctoral Fellow
Leeann Siegel, Ph.D., M.P.H., was a Cancer Research Training Award postdoctoral fellow in the Tobacco Control Research Branch (TCRB) from July 2021 to August 2023.
Dr. Siegel's research focuses on in applying the methods and theories of communication research to help inform tobacco cessation interventions and address tobacco-related health disparities. Dr. Siegel is also interested in examining how media influences people's health-related behaviors and cognitions. Her past research has explored how media shapes people's norm perceptions, beliefs, and policy opinions, as well as the role of media in spreading misinformation.
Dr. Siegel completed her Ph.D. in Health Communication at the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communication. Her dissertation combined content analysis and online experiments to examine how tobacco use depictions in media affect young people's smoking-related norm perceptions. Prior to completing her doctoral studies, Dr. Siegel earned a master's degree in public health from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, where she studied Social & Behavioral Studies. She also holds a Bachelor of Arts from Cornell University.
"Where are they now?": Following up with past BRP fellows
Updated September 2023
Current Title
Communication Research Scientist
RTI International
How has your BRP fellowship influenced your career?
Throughout my postdoctoral fellowship in the Tobacco Control Research Branch (TCRB) of BRP, I received excellent mentorship, both from my official mentors as well as from other colleagues. I was also given many opportunities to lead research projects and to learn about different health topics and research areas through participating in working groups and interest groups and taking part in trainings. Overall, the training I received during my postdoctoral fellowship prepared me to succeed as an independent researcher.
Describe a favorite memory or two from your fellowship experience.
One of my favorite memories from my fellowship was participating in the Sallie Rosen Kaplan Postdoctoral Fellowship Program for Woman Scientists. The program allowed me to build my leadership skills, get additional mentorship as I went through the job search process, and form strong friendships with the other NCI postdocs in my cohort.
Describe your current position, your current organization, and what you do.
I am a Communication Research Scientist at RTI International, an independent nonprofit research institute. In my role at RTI, I contribute to formative research and evaluation research projects focused on public health campaigns for a variety of clients in federal government and state governments.
Awards, Honors, and Recognitions
- Sallie Rosen Kaplan (SRK) Postdoctoral Fellowship for Women Scientists (2023)
Publications from Fellowship Work
- Siegel LN, Cook S, Oh H, Liber AC, Levy DT, Fleischer NL. The longitudinal association between coupon receipt and established cigarette smoking initiation among young adults in USA. Tob Control. 2023 Jul 19:tc-2023-058065.
- Siegel LN, Levin AV, Kranzler EC, Gibson LA. Do Longitudinal Trends in Tobacco 21-Related Media Coverage Correlate with Policy Support? an Exploratory Analysis Using Supervised and Unsupervised Machine Learning Methods. Health Commun. 2022 Jan;37(1):29-38.
- Woko C, Siegel L, Hornik R. An Investigation of Low COVID-19 Vaccination Intentions among Black Americans: The Role of Behavioral Beliefs and Trust in COVID-19 Information Sources. J Health Commun. 2020 Oct 2;25(10):819-826.
- Liu J, Siegel L, Gibson LA, Kim Y, Binns S, Emery S, Hornik RC. Toward an Aggregate, Implicit, and Dynamic Model of Norm Formation: Capturing Large-Scale Media Representations of Dynamic Descriptive Norms Through Automated and Crowdsourced Content Analysis. J Commun. 2019 Dec;69(6):563-588.
- Gibson LA, Siegel L, Kranzler E, Volinsky A, O'Donnell MB, Williams S, Yang Q, Kim Y, Binns S, Tran H, Maidel Epstein V, Leffel T, Jeong M, Liu J, Lee S, Emery S, Hornik RC. Combining Crowd-Sourcing and Automated Content Methods to Improve Estimates of Overall Media Coverage: Theme Mentions in E-cigarette and Other Tobacco Coverage. J Health Commun. 2019;24(12):889-899.
Current and/or past BRP mentors include Stephanie Land and Joseph Ciccolo.
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