Cancer Control and Health Equity Program (CCHE) Members

Name (click for info)	Affiliation	Research Interests
Abroms, Lorien	SPH: Prevention and Community Health	Dr. Abroms researches the application of communication technology in designing scalable programs aimed at tobacco cessation.
Abutaleb, Ameer	SMHS: Surgery	translational and clinical studies in viral hepatitis and HIV-related liver disease
Andrade, Elizabeth	SPH: Prevention and Community Health	Dr. Andrade’s research centers on community-based participatory, mixed-methods work to design and evaluate culturally and linguistically tailored health communication interventions that address health disparities, including chronic disease risk among Latino and Black adults (through the NIH CEAL network) and health misinformation via Brigada Digital de Salud. She also studies risk and disaster communication, including Puerto Rico’s crisis communication and community resilience after Hurricane María, and earlier led community-based water, sanitation, and hygiene interventions in Latin America.
Anenberg, Susan	SPH: Environmental and Occupational Health	Dr. Anenberg's research examines interrelationships between air quality, climate change, public health, and environmental policy.
Applebaum, Kate	SPH: Environmental and Occupational Health	She studies environmental and occupational exposures influencing the risk of chronic diseases and cancer, including cancer of the lung, head and neck, skin, kidney, and brain. She focuses on exposures such as pesticides, heavy metals including arsenic, lead and cadmium, silica dust, asbestos, endotoxin, and metalworking fluids. Current projects focus on chronic kidney disease (CKD). She examines CKD in male sugarcane workers in Nicaragua, in Hispanic/Latino populations in the U.S., and in pesticide applicators and autoworkers in the U.S.
Asgary, Ramin	SPH: Global Health	Dr. Asgary’s research covers health services and implementation research in humanitarian and low-resource settings, including digital-health cervical and breast cancer screening in Africa and Central Asia, and mHealth/SMS randomized trials for diabetes and hypertension among homeless adults. He also works on research ethics, accountability, and quality assurance in humanitarian settings, on health communication during epidemics, and on educational research on global, humanitarian, and homeless health curricula.
Berg, Carla	SPH: Prevention and Community Health	Her research primarily focuses on sociocontextual factors related to substance use, particularly tobacco and marijuana, ranging from macro-level factors such as policy and marketing to interpersonal and individual factors (e.g., psychological, biological). She has also conducted research regarding health behaviors and quality of life among cancer survivors.
Bernat, Debra	SPH: Epidemiology	Dr. Bernat's research focuses on smoking in youth in terms of environments and characteristics and policy.
Bluhm, Elizabeth	SMHS: Medicine	Dr. Bluhm's clinical and research focus is in the area of late health effects after cancer therapy. She provides primary care and general preventive medicine to adults, including adult survivors of childhood cancer and breast cancer.
Braffett, Barbara	SPH: Epidemiology	Her recent work has focused on the effects of demographic, traditional, and diabetes-related risk factors on the risk of micro- and macrovascular disease in type 1 and 2 diabetes and the extent to which these factors co-progress over time, employing various longitudinal and survival modeling techniques, and assessments of mediation.
Broniatowski, David	SEAS: Engineering Mgt & Systems Engineering	Research interests include decision-making under risk, group decision-making, system architecture, and behavioral epidemiology. Current projects include computational analysis of expert groups, data and models of risky decision making, big data and health, and information flow and systems architecture.
Calabrese, Sarah	CCAS: Psychology	Research focuses on sexual stereotypes and discrimination in the context of health. Specifically, Dr. Calabrese focuses on sexual health promotion among Black men who have sex with men and other socially marginalized groups. Research identifies and addresses barriers to HIV prevention, including inequities in access to new and forthcoming biomedical prevention resources.
Chen, Kuan-Lung Daniel	SPH: Global Health	Uses mixed-methods, practice-based approaches (measurement development, needs assessment, evaluation, participatory research, system dynamics modeling) to advance equity and community resilience. He focuses on amplifying community voice, building better equity data tools, and developing metrics that hold systems change accountable.
Ciarleglio, Adam	SPH: Biostatistics & Bioinformatics	His research integrates functional data analysis, machine learning, and treatment regime estimation methods to address questions related to mental health.
Cleary, Sean	SPH: Epidemiology	Dr. Cleary conducts epidemiological research in a variety of settings with methods ranging surveys, psychometrics, GIS, structural equation modeling, latent growth analysis and more.
Conserve, Donaldson	SPH: Prevention and Community Health	His research focuses on implementing and disseminating evidence-based HIV prevention, care, and treatment interventions for scale-up and population impact.
Dietz, William	SPH: Prevention and Community Health	His work in the field of childhood obesity includes the first study to demonstrate a relationship between television viewing habits and obesity in young children.
DiPietro, Loretta	SPH: Exercise & Nutrition Sciences	Dr. DiPietro has worked in the field of physical activity, obesity, metabolism, and aging for most of her career.
Dor, Avi	SPH: Health Policy and Management	Current research focuses on novel aspects of medical pricing, cost-sharing in pharmaceutical insurance and spillover effects, and the role of management contracts in the locally competitive positions of American hospitals.
Evans, Scott	SPH: Biostatistics & Bioinformatics	Professor Evans interests include the design, monitoring, analyses, and reporting of and education in clinical trials and diagnostic studies.
Evans, W. Douglas	SPH: Prevention and Community Health	Dr. Evans' research includes prevention intervention and evaluating intervention programs using communication and marketing strategies. He has worked on tobacco and cancer control; nutrition, physical activity, and obesity; diabetes; asthma; HIV/STDs; and reproductive health. He currently studies the use of digital media to deliver and evaluate health interventions.
Frame, Leigh	SMHS: Clinical Research and Leadership	Dr. Frame is an expert in research that brings together nutrition and immunity through a translational research perspective. Her research focuses on the role of the microbiome and nutrition in promoting health, and the consequences of malnutrition in obesity. She is skilled in evaluating the role of vitamin D as an immune modulatory hormone particularly in skin, the primary site of vitamin D production and activation.
Ganiban, Jody	CCAS: Psychology	Her current projects include assessments of personality, temperament, and genetic makeup, as well as parenting behaviors and conflict between caregivers.
Goldman, Lynn	SPH: Environmental and Occupational Health	She studies public health issues such as cancer and tobacco use and has engaged in translating research to policy.
Greenberg, Alan	SPH: Epidemiology	Research interests include epidemiology, HIV/AIDS, infectious disease, and underserved populations.
Griffith, Kathleen	SON: Acute/Chronic Care	Dr. Griffith's research focus is on symptom management related to cancer and its treatment, specifically addressing the mechanisms of weight gain during breast cancer chemotherapy and management of chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy.
Hamasaki, Toshimitsu	SPH: Biostatistics & Bioinformatics	His research interests include the design, monitoring, analyses, and reporting of clinical trials.
Helmchen, Lorens	SPH: Health Policy and Management	Dr. Helmchen’s research focuses on healthcare research, medicaid and cancer policy.
Horton, Katie	SPH: Health Policy and Management	Dr. Horton studies health policy with regards to substance abuse and cancer.
Hu, Xindi (Cindy)	SPH: Environmental and Occupational Health	Studies how chemical exposures in environmental media drive population health outcomes and disparities, using exposure science, geospatial data science, and health informatics. Her projects include machine-learning models of PFAS in drinking water, large healthcare-dataset analyses, wastewater-based tracking of drug use and COVID-19, and studies of heatwaves and long COVID.
Kogan, Mikhail	SMHS: Medicine	Dr. Kogan studies insomnia, neurodegenerative diseases, intravenous nutrients and chelation, and medical shared group visits.
Ku, Leighton	SPH: Health Policy and Management	Dr. Ku is interested in applying the lessons of research to policies and programs at the federal and state levels, and working with governmental officials, community groups and advocacy organizations to advance policies and progress
Kuiper, Jordan	SPH: Environmental and Occupational Health	An environmental and perinatal/pediatric epidemiologist who studies how early-life exposure to phthalates, organophosphate esters, bisphenols, and PFAS affects children’s health, including infants in neonatal intensive care. She also applies precision-medicine and machine-learning methods to identify risk factors and biomarkers for conditions like hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy and to examine social influences on neurodevelopment.
Le, Daisy	SON: Policy Populations & Systems	Research interest includes the intersection of health disparities, social determinants of health, and commuity-engaged research by developing, implementing, and evaluating population-relevant/appropriate strategies to improve cancer screening and access to care among racial and gender minorities living with, or at risk, for HIV. "
Levine, Jennifer	CNMC: Pediatrics	Cancer Survivorship
Long, Michael	SPH: Prevention and Community Health	Conducts research at the intersection of epidemiology and quantitative policy analysis with the goal of identifying cost-effective and politically feasible policy solutions to promote community health.
Lora, Karina	SPH: Exercise & Nutrition Sciences	Research interests include: parental influences on children food consumption and obesity development, dietary assessment methodology, food insecurity, and social determinants of health; cancer control and health equity
Lyon, Maureen	CNMC: Pediatrics	Dr. Lyon's research interests include advance care planning, medication adherence, adolescents, adults, and complex chronic conditions.
McDonnell, Karen	SPH: Prevention and Community Health	Dr. McDonnell evaluates gender based violence in immigrant communities, tests a community-centered FGM/C prevention project, and takes a public health approach to gender based violence and HIV.
Moghtaderi, Ali	SPH: Health Policy and Management	A health economist who studies how policy rules, industry organization, and financial incentives shape the choices of doctors and patients, and in turn patient outcomes and medical spending. He often uses causal study designs to isolate these effects.
Mortman, Keith	SMHS: Surgery	His particular area of clinical and research interests include the treatment of lung and esophageal cancer, the treatment of mediastinal masses and cysts, and the treatment of hyperhidrosis, achalasia, and complex pleural space disease.
Mowbray, Catriona	CNMC: Pediatrics	supportive care studies in oncology
Nicholson, Wanda	SPH: Prevention and Community Health	OB/GYN, Women's health, community-academic partnerships
Odlum, Michelle	SON: Policy Populations & Systems	Studies how to reduce health inequities through informatics, applying data science, AI, and big data analysis to social media data to help prevent and control outbreaks of Ebola, MRSA, HIV/AIDS, and COVID-19 in high-risk populations. Her work also addresses the challenges of aging with HIV and aims to guide precision-focused intervention design.
Ortega-Santos, Carmen	SPH: Exercise & Nutrition Sciences	Studies how combining nutrition with tailored exercise changes the gut microbiome to improve metabolic health, focusing on adult women with obesity. She also examines digestive health in athletes using prebiotic approaches.
Pratt-Chapman, Mandi	SMHS: Medicine	health equity, implicit bias, LGBTQI health, cancer survivorship, patient navigation, and cancer control. Her work centers on developing clinical guidelines and building workforce capability for patient-centered, equitable care, particularly for LGBTQI populations.
Puchalski, Christina	SMHS: Medicine	Dr. Puchalski's research has ranged from biochemistry to issues in ethics, culture, and spiritual care. She focuses on palliative care, spirituality, and compassionate care as part of the health of a person.
Robien, Kim	SPH: Exercise & Nutrition Sciences	Dr. Robien's group is currently studying the extent to which dietary exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals (especially bisphenols and phthalates) is associated with doxorubicin resistance among women with triple negative breast cancer, as well as the effect of body composition (lean body mass vs. adipose tissue) on chemotherapy toxicity and treatment completion rates among patients undergoing treatment for breast cancer.
Roche, Kathleen	SPH: Prevention and Community Health	Dr. Roche's research program examines parenting influences on the health and well-being of adolescents facing challenges tied to immigration status, neighborhood disadvantage, acculturation to the US, and discrimination.
Schaffer DeRoo, Sarah	CNMC: Pediatrics	Her research interests are vaccine hesitancy and vaccine delivery. She conducts health services research on vaccine delivery and on interventions that address parental vaccine hesitancy.
Sikka, Neal	SMHS: Emergency Medicine	Dr. Sikka's research has focused on improving patient care through technology, and using remote medical monitoring to improve care for peritoneal dialysis patients. Most recently, he is PI on a CareFirst Foundation Grant to provide specialty care via telemedicine in the DC area.
Teal, Christine	SMHS: Surgery	Dr. Teal studies breast cancer genes, diagnostics, progression and treatment, as well as mastectomies.
van Dam, Rob	SPH: Exercise & Nutrition Sciences	Dr. Rob van Dam’s research focuses on the role of diet and physical activity in preventing obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases in different ethnic groups. His research is mainly based on large-scale cohort studies integrating reported diet, dietary biomarkers, and biomarkers of intermediate pathways. He has led cohort studies, dietary intervention studies, meta-analyses, and qualitative and quantitative research on cultural and environmental determinants of dietary behaviors and obesity.
Vichare, Anushree	SPH: Health Policy and Management	Examine the role of healthcare system level factors such as cost-sharing, physician reimbursement and patient-provider communication in disparities related to healthcare access and quality of care among the underserved populations.
Visek, Amanda	SPH: Exercise & Nutrition Sciences	My translational approach to scientific research has focused on the application of pediatric sport psychology to issues of public health practice relevance.
Walley, Susan	CNMC: Pediatrics	Prevention of youth tobacco use and tobacco-related diseases, cancer control and prevention.
Wallington, Sherrie	SON: Policy Populations & Systems	Dr. Wallington conducts research on health communication, social determinants of health, and community-based participatory research strategies that focus on prevention, health disparities, and clinical trial recruitment and engagement. She has a particular interest in cancer, particularly prostate, breast, and HPV-associated cancers.
Wang, Yan	SPH: Prevention and Community Health	1) Epidemiology and prevention intervention on risky health behaviors and health problems, including substance use, especially tobacco smoking, obesity, risky sexual behaviors, unintentional injuries, mental health disorders, and medical problems, e.g. lung cancer and HIV infection. 2) Statistical methodology and causal inference
Yang, Tony	SON: Health Policy and Media Engagement	Dr. Yang's main scholarly interest is in policy issues at the intersection of the legal and health systems, especially in the following areas: Vaccination Law and Policy, Pharmaceuticals and FDA-regulated Products, Medical Malpractice and Maternity Care.
Young, Heather	SPH: Epidemiology	Her areas of research interest include cancer particularly reproductive cancers, environmental and occupational exposure assessment, reproductive outcomes related to environmental and occupation exposures, pesticide exposure assessment, and health of military and veteran populations.
Zhou, Qiuping	SON: Policy Populations & Systems	Current research includes assessing the perceived benefits and burdens of cancer clinical trial participation and clinical trial retention, lifestyle behaviors among adults with prediabetes/diabetes, and health care for the underserved population.