Staff: Kelly Blake, ScD

Kelly Blake, ScD, is a Health Scientist and Program Director in the National Cancer Institute's (NCI) Health Communication and Informatics Research Branch (HCIRB) where she also serves as Director of NCI's Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS). Dr. Blake oversees cancer prevention research examining social determinants of health behavior and attitudes toward public health policy, primarily focusing on how communication inequalities and knowledge gaps exacerbate cancer disparities among disadvantaged populations.

Before re-joining NCI in 2009, Dr. Blake was a cancer prevention fellow at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston (2005-09), working in Dr. K. Viswanath's research lab as she pursued her doctoral training. During that time, she also served as a teaching fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Prior to that, she served as a science writer and editor in the Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences (DCCPS) Office of the Director (OD) (2001-05). Before that, she was a hospital-based public health educator and site coordinator for the West Virginia Rural Health Education Partnerships Program (1997-2001) and a health communication research fellow at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) (1996-97).

She earned a doctor of science degree in social epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health, a master's degree in community health education from West Virginia University, and a bachelor's degree in journalism and mass communication from Marshall University.



Secondary Branch/Office Appointment:  Tobacco Control Research Branch (TCRB)

Current and/or past BRP mentors include Michele Bloch.

Current and/or past BRP mentees include David Dean, Abby Prestin and Youn Ok Lee.


Scientific Interests

  • Media effects
  • Social epidemiology
  • Communication inequality
  • Public health policy
  • Tobacco control
  • Survey research methods
  • Rural cancer control

Selected Publications and Presentations

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