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INFORMATION FOR

Mentorship

Evidence suggests that traditional one-to-one mentoring approaches are not as effective as team mentoring approaches, where mentors with different skills, experiences, and knowledge bases provide mentoring to early career investigators. Team mentoring provides Fellows with access to mentors that may have strengths in different content and professional areas to provide Fellows with a wealth of advice. We utilize a team mentoring system where Pre- and Post-Doctoral Fellows are mentored by Primary and Secondary Mentors. In addition, Peer Mentors (Yale CPC Training Program alumni) will mentor Post-Doctoral Fellows, and Post- Doctoral Fellows will mentor Pre-Doctoral Fellows. The Yale CPC Training Program Steering Committee will provide training and support to Primary, Secondary, and Peer Mentors. In addition to the regular meetings between a Fellow and one or two Mentors, each Fellow will meet with all Mentors together at least once a year.

Individual Development Plan (IDP): Upon entry in the Yale CPC Training Program, each Fellow will work with their Mentoring Team and the Steering Committee to design an IDP. The IDP will be tailored based on each fellow’s background, research interests, career goals and mentors’ guidance and resources. The IDP process will be a two-way interaction between Fellows, Mentors, and Steering Committee. The plan will be evaluated every 6 months and updated as necessary. The IDP will identify a research project and laboratory or clinical environment for the Fellow to work in, create personalized didactic plans, set expectations and timelines, assist in the transition to independent lab space when appropriate, and provide guidance to transition fellows off the T32 and onto support from an individual career development award.

The Mentoring Team will use the IDPs to monitor the Fellows’ progress and will review and provide input on manuscripts and grant proposals. The Mentoring Team will also ensure coordination of each Fellow being trained in our five thematic areas. Mentors will verify that 1) the Fellow is receiving the appropriate training for a successful career in CPC; 2) the research is of sufficient rigor and quality to provide an outstanding training opportunity; 3) the research is progressing well and when necessary, changes in research plans are made; and 4) career development is suitable for the level of the Fellow and that the Fellow will reach expected milestones such as manuscript and grant submission and scientific presentations. The mentorship team will be available to the Fellow to review drafts of scholarly documents including grants and manuscripts and provide constructive feedback.

Primary Faculty

  • Elizabeth Claus, PhD, MD

    Professor of Biostatistics; Director of Medical Research, School of Public Health

    Research Interests
    • Astrocytoma
    • Breast Neoplasms
    • Epidemiology
    • Glioma
    • Meningioma
    • Neurosurgery
    • Oligodendroglioma
    • Statistics as Topic
    • Central Nervous System Neoplasms
    Elizabeth B. Claus, MD, PhD is Professor and Director of Medical Research in the Yale University School of Public Health as well as Attending Neurosurgeon and Director of Stereotactic Radiosurgery within the Department of Neurosurgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. She is a member of the board of advisors for the Acoustic Neuroma Association (ANA) as well as the Central Brain Tumor Registry of the United States (CBTRUS). Dr. Claus' work is focused in cancer and genetic epidemiology with an emphasis on the development of risk models for breast and brain tumors. She is the overall PI of the Meningioma Consortium, the Meningioma Genome-Wide Association Study, and the Yale Acoustic Neuroma Study as well as a co-investigator of the GLIOGENE (Genes for Glioma) and International Glioma Case/Control (GICC) projects. In addition to her research activities, Dr. Claus is a Board-certified neurosurgeon who completed her residency in neurosurgery at Yale-New Haven Hospital and her fellowship in neurosurgical oncology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Her clinical focus is on the treatment of meningioma, glioma, acoustic neuroma and brain metastases.  Claus launched the International Low-Grade Glioma (LGG) Registry in 2016 to discover why some people develop LGG, a slow growing but malignant brain tumor primarily affecting young adults, while others do not. The goal of the registry is also to learn more about the effect of this diagnosis and the associated treatments on daily life including the ability to work, drive, sleep, exercise, or take care of oneself and/or a family member. Recently Dr. Claus and a team of fellow scientists received funds from the National Cancer Institute to investigate the molecular evolution of LGG. The project, OPTimIzing engageMent in discovery of molecular evolution of low grade glioma” or OPTIMUM, will enroll 500 participants diagnosed with LGG and who have had two or more surgeries for their glioma and genotype these tumors to establish a comprehensive genomic characterization of the glioma tumors across time.
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  • Andrew DeWan, PhD, MPH

    Associate Professor of Epidemiology (Chronic Diseases); Co-Director, Yale Center for Perinatal, Pediatric and Environmental Epidemiology, Yale School of Public Health; Director of Graduate Studies, Yale School of Public Health

    Research Interests
    • Asthma
    • Chronic Disease
    • Epidemiology
    • Genetics
    • Leukemia
    • Norway
    • Pre-Eclampsia
    • Sepsis
    • Biostatistics
    • Genetic Pleiotropy
    Andrew DeWan is a genetic epidemiologist with a focus on extending and applying analytical methods to identify genetic susceptibility variants for complex traits. A key theme throughout his work is applying a strategy of delineating narrowly defined phenotypes and stratification by ancestry to reduce heterogeneity and increase statistical power. To better elucidate the genetic architecture of complex traits, his research extends analytical methods to identify genetic interactions as well as pleiotropy. He has applied these genetic mapping methods across a number of diverse phenotypes including asthma, obesity, leukemia, pediatric lung cancer, preeclampsia, preterm birth, and bacterial bloodstream infections. He has been the Principal Investigator of external grants to fund his research (5 NIH grants, including three R01s). He is the Co-Director of the Yale Center for Perinatal, Pediatric and Environmental Epidemiology (CPPEE) which brings together diverse faculty with interests in the health of women and children through epidemiologic research investigating the impact of environmental, genetic and clinical factors on pregnancy, birth and childhood. He recently served a three-year term as a member of the Program Committee for the American Society of Human Genetics, the primary scientific organization for human geneticists worldwide. He has been able to incorporate his research interests through to his educational activities, teaching the course Genetic Concepts in Public Health, guest lecturing on genetic epidemiology and teaching at international courses for linkage and association analyses.
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  • Nicole Deziel, PhD, MHS

    Associate Professor of Epidemiology (Environmental Health Sciences); Co-Director, Yale Center for Perinatal, Pediatric and Environmental Epidemiology (CPPEE)

    Dr. Deziel obtained a Master’s of Industrial Hygiene and Doctorate in Environmental Health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Her research is focused on applying statistical models, biomonitoring techniques, and environmental measurements to provide comprehensive and quantitative assessments of exposure to traditional and emerging environmental contaminants in population-based studies. Her research uses a combination of large, administrative datasets and detailed community-focused studies to advance understanding of environmental exposures to chemicals, particularly carcinogens and endocrine disruptors. This research also serves to illuminate exposure mechanisms underlying associations between environmental chemicals and disease, thereby informing more effective policies to reduce exposures and protect public health. Dr. Deziel's contributions have been directed at two main areas: (1) exposure and human health impacts of unconventional oil and gas development (“hydraulic fracturing”) and (2) residential exposure to chemicals in common consumer products (e.g., pesticides, flame retardants) and cancer risk (particularly thyroid cancer). In addition, she consider disproportionate burdens of exposures (“environmental justice”) and the combination of environmental and social stressors in the context of her work.
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  • Leah Ferrucci, PhD, MPH

    Assistant Professor of Epidemiology (Chronic Diseases)

    Research Interests
    • Breast Neoplasms
    • Chronic Disease
    • Diet
    • Epidemiology
    • Public Health
    • Skin Neoplasms
    • Tanning
    • Colorectal Neoplasms
    • Survivors
    • Metabolomics
    Leah M. Ferrucci, PhD, MPH is an assistant professor at the Yale School of Public Health. Dr. Ferrucci earned her BA from the University of Pennsylvania and her MPH in the Social and Behavioral Sciences at the Yale School of Public Health. She received a PhD in nutritional cancer epidemiology through a joint training program with Yale University and the National Cancer Institute. Throughout her career, Dr. Ferrucci has focused on modifiable cancer risk factors, including nutrition and ultraviolet radiation related exposures, as well as cancer survivorship. She has worked not only in the study of the etiology of early-onset basal cell carcinoma (e.g. indoor tanning, alcohol intake, tea, coffee, and caffeine), but also translating these findings into behavioral interventions to reduce indoor tanning in young women and adolescent girls. Dr. Ferrucci is also studying diet quality, obesity, energetics, metabolomics, and the microbiome in the context of weight loss and lifestyle intervention trials for breast cancer survivors and ovarian cancer survivors.
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  • Cary Gross, MD

    Professor of Medicine (General Medicine) and of Epidemiology (Chronic Diseases); Founder and Director, Cancer Outcomes, Public Policy and Effectiveness Research (COPPER) Center, Yale School of Medicine; Director, National Clinician Scholars Program

    Research Interests
    • Chronic Disease
    • Epidemiology
    • Health Policy
    • Internal Medicine
    • Ethics, Research
    Dr. Cary Gross is a Professor of Medicine and Public Health, and Director of the National Clinician Scholars Program at Yale. Dr. Gross completed his residency in Internal Medicine at New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center and served as chief medical resident at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center the following year. His research addresses comparative effectiveness, quality, and health equity, with a focus on cancer prevention and treatment. He aims to use real-world research to generate knowledge that will inform change in clinical care and health policy. He is a founding Director of Yale’s Cancer Outcomes Public Policy and Effectiveness Research Center (COPPER). His research has been supported by the National Cancer Institute, the American Cancer Society, among others. As a former Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholar, Dr. Gross has advanced training in biostatistics, epidemiology, research ethics, and outcomes research. Follow him on twitter: @cpgYale
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  • Melinda Irwin, PhD, MPH

    Associate Dean of Research and Susan Dwight Bliss Professor of Epidemiology (Chronic Diseases); Deputy Director (Public Health), Yale Center for Clinical Investigation; Deputy Director, Yale Cancer Center

    Research Interests
    • Breast Neoplasms
    • Neoplasms by Histologic Type
    • Obesity
    • Ovarian Neoplasms
    • Weight Loss
    • Exercise
    Melinda L. Irwin, PhD, MPH is the Susan Dwight Bliss Professor of Epidemiology and Associate Dean of Research at the Yale School of Public Health, Deputy Director of the Yale Cancer Center, and Deputy Director (Public Health) in the Yale Center for Clinical Investigation. Nationally, Dr. Irwin co-leads the SWOG Cancer Research Network Cancer Survivorship Committee. In 2018, Dr. Irwin completed the yearlong Hedwig van Ameringen Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine (ELAM) Program. Dr. Irwin’s experience working across departments, schools, and with interdisciplinary groups of investigators has provided her with the skills to train and mentor effectively.  Dr. Irwin is a prominent leader in the field of cancer prevention and survivorship research. Her research over the past 20 years has focused on randomized trials of exercise and weight loss on biological markers, treatment side effects and quality of life in people with diagnosed with cancer. She has received funding from the National Institutes of Health, American Cancer Society, Breast Cancer Research Foundation, American Institute for Cancer Research, Komen for the Cure, and Livestrong Foundation. She is currently leading an NCI-funded clinical trial examining the impact of nutrition and exercise on improving chemotherapy completion rate, endocrine therapy adherence, biomarkers, body composition and quality of life in women beginning chemotherapy for breast cancer, and a also leading a newly funded NCI U01 trial of exercise and nutrition on treatment outcomes in women newly diagnosed with ovarian cancer.  Dr. Irwin is committed to training the next generation of scientists and is currently leading an NCI T32-funded Cancer Prevention and Control Training Program for pre- and post-doctoral fellows and an NCI R25-funded Transdisciplinary Research on Energetics and Cancer (TREC) Training Program for early career investigators. At Yale, Dr. Irwin has advised, mentored and trained over 100 trainees. Her commitment to training the next generation of scientists is evident in the enthusiasm she brings to mentoring. Her vision is to maximize opportunities for early career investigators so they can become leaders in their respective fields and have a maximal impact on the health and well-being of patients and the population.
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  • Caroline Helen Johnson, PhD

    Associate Professor of Epidemiology (Environmental Health Sciences)

    Research Interests
    • Environmental Exposure
    • Mass Spectrometry
    • Metabolomics
    • Biostatistics
    Caroline H. Johnson, PhD, is a Tenured Associate Professor of Epidemiology in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at Yale School of Public Health. She graduated from Imperial College London in 2009 with a PhD in Analytical Chemistry. Since then she has held postdoctoral and staff appointments at the National Cancer Institute and The Scripps Research Institute. Dr. Johnson's research uses mass spectrometry-based metabolomics to understand the role of metabolites in human health. Her primary research interest is to investigate the relationship between genetic and environmental influences (diet, hormones and microbiome) in colon cancer. She is also examining exposures during pregnancy.
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  • Suchitra Krishnan-Sarin, PhD

    Albert E. Kent Professor of Psychiatry; Chair, Human Investigations Committee (IRB), Human Research Protections Program; Professor, Chronic Disease Epidemiology

    Research Interests
    • Adolescent Psychiatry
    • Alcohol Drinking
    • Behavioral Medicine
    • Marijuana Abuse
    • Nicotine
    • Psychotherapy
    • Tobacco
    • Tobacco Use Disorder
    • Smoking Cessation
    • Substance-Related Disorders
    • Alcohol-Related Disorders
    • Psychiatry and Psychology
    • Marijuana Use
    Dr. Suchitra Krishnan-Sarin is a Professor of Psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine. She is also a Chair of the Human Investigations Committee (IRB) at Yale. Her research is focused on developing a bio-behavioral understanding of substance use behaviors in adult and adolescent substance users, with the goal of developing optimal prevention and cessation interventions. In the area of adolescent tobacco use, her research focuses on understanding the appeal, abuse potential and patterns of use of tobacco products, developing and testing the use of novel behavioral and pharmacological cessation and prevention interventions, and understanding behavioral and neural predictors of use and cessation behaviors. She has contributed to the Surgeon General’s reports on youth tobacco use behaviors, served as a member of the FDA’s Tobacco Product Scientific Advisory Committee and currently serves on the CDC's Interagency Commission on Smoking and Health. Dr. Krishnan-Sarin is the Co-PI on the Yale Tobacco Centers Of Regulatory Science, funded by the NIH and FDA, which is using a multidisciplinary approach to understand the role of flavors and other constituents of tobacco products in tobacco and nicotine addiction. She also leads the ENACT initiative funded by the American Heart Association which is focused on developing interventions for e-cigarette use behaviors among youth.  In a separate and distinct line of research Dr. Krishnan-Sarin also develops and tests novel pharmacological interventions for alcohol use disorders in adults and examines neurochemical predictors of alcohol use and treatment response.
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  • Shuangge Steven Ma, PhD

    Department Chair and Professor of Biostatistics; Affiliated Faculty, Yale Institute for Global Health; Director, Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Shared Resource

    Research Interests
    • Economics
    • Neoplasms
    • Biostatistics
    Dr. Ma received his Ph.D. degree in statistics at University of Wisconsin in 2004. Prior to arriving at Yale, Dr. Ma was a Senior Fellow in Collaborative Health Studies Coordinating Center (CHSCC) and Department of Biostatistics at University of Washington. He has been involved in developing novel statistical and bioinformatics methodologies for analysis of cancer (NHL, breast cancer, melanoma, lung cancer), mental disorders, and cardiovascular diseases. He has also been involved in health economics research, with special interest in health insurance in developing countries.
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  • Xiaomei Ma, PhD

    Interim Department Chair and Professor of Epidemiology (Chronic Diseases); Co-Leader, Cancer Prevention and Control

    Research Interests
    • Chronic Disease
    • Epidemiology
    • Leukemia
    • Lymphoma
    • Myelodysplastic Syndromes
    • Myeloproliferative Disorders
    • Neoplasms
    Dr. Ma is Professor of Epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health, and Co-Leader of the Cancer Prevention and Control Research Program at the Yale Comprehensive Cancer Center, Yale School of Medicine. She studies the etiology and health outcomes of different types of cancer, with a focus on pediatric cancer and malignancies of the hematopoietic system (e.g., leukemia, lymphoma, myelodysplastic syndromes, and myeloproliferative neoplasms). Her research has addressed the impact of immunological factors, chemical exposures, and genetic characteristics on the risk of cancer. In addition, she has assessed the patterns of care and cost implications of cancer screening and treatment in older adults.
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  • Linda Niccolai, PhD

    Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor of Epidemiology (Microbial Diseases); Affiliated Faculty, Yale Institute for Global Health; Director, HPV Working Group at Yale; Director, CT Emerging Infections Program at Yale, Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases

    Research Interests
    • Epidemiologic Methods
    • Epidemiology
    • HIV
    • Sexually Transmitted Diseases
    • Vaccines
    • Communicable Diseases, Emerging
    • Qualitative Research
    • Human papillomavirus 11
    Linda Niccolai is the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at Yale School of Public Health and Professor in the Department of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases. She is an internationally recognized scholar in infectious disease epidemiology with specific interests in vaccine-preventable diseases and sexually transmitted infections. Her vaccinology research focuses on understanding uptake, impact, and effectiveness of HPV and other adolescent vaccines with an emphasis on addressing health disparities. Her STI research focuses on social and behavioral aspects of transmission dynamics and prevention. Funded by a diverse grant portfolio (NIH, CDC, and private foundations), her work is interdisciplinary by design and includes behavioral and clinical epidemiology, surveillance, and qualitative approaches. As Director of the CT Emerging Infections at Yale, she oversees a large program of public health surveillance and applied epidemiology research focused on respiratory viruses (including SARS-CoV-2), foodborne illness, healthcare associated infections at the community interface, and HPV vaccine impact. Dr. Niccolai is currently on the editorial board for Sexually Transmitted Diseases, and she has served as an adviser and reviewer for National Institutes of Health (including serving as chair of Health Promotion in Communities study section) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conferences and grant programs. She participated as a Fellow in the 2023-2024 Hedwig van Ameringen Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine® (ELAM) Program, a prestigious leadership program committed to advancing women for leadership positions in academic medicine. Dr. Niccolai received her Sc.M. at Harvard School of Public Health and her Ph.D. at Tulane University. She has been teaching epidemiology methods courses to MPH, MS, and PhD students for over 20 years.
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  • Marcella Nunez-Smith, MD, MHS

    Associate Dean for Health Equity Research and C.N.H. Long Professor of Internal Medicine (General Medicine), of Epidemiology (Chronic Disease) and of Public Health (Social And Behavioral Sciences) & Professor of Internal Medicine (General Medicine); Affiliated Faculty, Yale Institute for Global Health; Founding Director, Equity Research and Innovation Center (ERIC), Yale School of Medicine; Director, Center for Research Engagement (CRE); Director, Center for Community Engagement and Health Equity; Deputy Director for Health Equity Research and Workforce Development, Yale Center for Clinical Investigation (YCCI); Director, Pozen-Commonwealth Fund Fellowship in Health Equity Leadership

    Research Interests
    • Chronic Disease
    • Health Services Research
    • Internal Medicine
    • Social Justice
    • Socioeconomic Factors
    • Global Health
    • Women's Health
    • Caribbean Region
    • Vulnerable Populations
    • Minority Health
    • Healthcare Disparities
    • Community-Based Participatory Research
    • Social Discrimination
    • Social Determinants of Health
    • Patient Reported Outcome Measures
    • Global Burden of Disease
    • Population Health
    • COVID-19
    Dr. Nunez-Smith is Inaugural Associate Dean for Health Equity Research; C.N.H Long Professor of Internal Medicine, Public Health, and Management; Founding Director of the Equity Research and Innovation Center (ERIC); Director of the Center for Research Engagement (CRE); Associate Cancer Center Director for Community Outreach and Engagement at Yale Cancer Center; Chief Health Equity Officer at Smilow Cancer Hospital; Deputy Director for Health Equity Research and Workforce Development at the Yale Center for Clinical Investigation; Core Faculty in the National Clinician Scholars Program; Research Faculty in the Global Health Leadership Initiative; Director of the Pozen-Commonwealth Fund Fellowship in Health Equity Leadership; and Co-Director of the Doris Duke Clinical Research Fellowship. Dr. Nunez-Smith’s research focuses on promoting health and healthcare equity for structurally marginalized populations with an emphasis on centering community engagement, supporting healthcare workforce diversity and development, developing patient reported measurements of healthcare quality, and identifying regional strategies to reduce the global burden of non-communicable diseases. Dr. Nunez-Smith has extensive expertise in examining the effects of social and structural determinants of health, systemic influences contributing to health disparities, health equity improvement, and community-academic partnered scholarship. In addition to primary data collection, management, and analysis, ERIC has institutional expertise in qualitative and mixed methods, population health, and medical informatics. Dr. Nunez-Smith is the principal investigator on many NIH and foundation-funded research projects, including an NIH-funded project to develop a tool to assess patient reported experiences of discrimination in healthcare. She has conducted an investigation of the promotion and retention of diversity in academic medical school faculty and has published numerous articles on the experiences of minority students and faculty. Funded by NIH/NIMHD, she established the Eastern Caribbean Health Outcomes Research Network (ECHORN), a research collaborative across four Eastern Caribbean islands, supporting several chronic disease research projects and enhancing health outcomes research and leadership capacity in the region; the flagship ECHORN Cohort Study recruited and is following a community-dwelling adult cohort (n=3000) to examine novel chronic disease risk and protective factors. She received NIH/NHLBI funding to build upon this work by recruiting children into an expanded intergenerational ECHORN cohort, inclusive of a biorepository. She is also PI on one of five NIH/NIMHD-funded Transdisciplinary Collaborative Centers on Health Disparities focused on Precision Medicine which leverages the ECHORN infrastructure to conduct collaborative research on hypertension and diabetes. Most recently, as the COVID-19 pandemic has shed national attention on the health and healthcare disparities of marginalized populations, she received NIH funding to leverage ECHORN to improve the COVID-19 testing cascade in Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. Further, she was called upon to chair the Governor’s ReOpen CT Advisory Group Community Committee and was subsequently named co-chair of the Biden-Harris Transition COVID-19 Advisory Board. She served as Senior Advisor to the White House COVID-19 Response and Chair of the Presidential COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force at the Department of Health and Human Services. Dr. Nunez-Smith has mentored dozens of trainees since completing fellowship and has received numerous awards for teaching and mentoring. An elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, Dr. Nunez-Smith is board certified in internal medicine, having completed residency training at Harvard University’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital and fellowship at the Yale Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program, where she also received a Masters in Health Sciences. Originally from the US Virgin Islands, she attended Jefferson Medical College, where she was inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society, and she earned a BA in Biological Anthropology and Psychology at Swarthmore College.
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  • Harvey Risch, MD, PhD

    Professor Emeritus and Senior Research Scientist in Epidemiology (Chronic Diseases); Affiliated Faculty, Yale Institute for Global Health

    Research Interests
    • Esophageal Neoplasms
    • Ovarian Neoplasms
    • Pancreatic Neoplasms
    • Polymorphism, Genetic
    • Gonadal Steroid Hormones
    • Stomach Neoplasms
    • Helicobacter pylori
    • Molecular Epidemiology
    • Germ-Line Mutation
    • Host-Pathogen Interactions
    Dr. Harvey Risch is Professor Emeritus of Epidemiology in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at the Yale School of Public Health and Yale School of Medicine. Dr. Risch received his MD degree from the University of California San Diego and PhD, in mathematical modeling of infectious epidemics, from the University of Chicago. After serving as a postdoctoral fellow in epidemiology at the University of Washington, Dr. Risch was a faculty member in epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of Toronto before coming to Yale. Dr. Risch's research interests are in the areas of cancer etiology, prevention and early diagnosis, and in epidemiologic methods. He is especially interested in the effects of reproductive factors, diet, genetic predisposition, histopathologic factors, occupational/environmental/medication exposures, infection and immune functioning in cancer etiology. His major research projects have included studies of ovarian cancer, pancreas cancer, lung cancer, bladder cancer, esophageal and stomach cancer, and of cancers related to usage of oral contraceptives and noncontraceptive estrogens. Dr. Risch is Associate Editor of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Editor of the International Journal of Cancer, and for six years was a Member of the Board of Editors, the American Journal of Epidemiology. Dr. Risch is an author of more than 400 original peer-reviewed research publications in the medical literature and those research papers have been cited by other scientific publications more than 55,000 times. Dr. Risch has an h-index of 116 and is a Member of the Connecticut Academy of Sciences and Engineering. Twitter: https://twitter.com/DrHarveyRi... Telegram: https://t.me/HarveyRischMDPhD Please Note: The Telegram Channels @DrHarveyRisch and @HarveyRisch are not mine.
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  • Donna Spiegelman, ScD

    Susan Dwight Bliss Professor of Biostatistics; Director, Center for Methods in Implementation and Prevention Science (CMIPS); Professor of Statistics and Data Science; Professor of Medicine (Cardiovascular Medicine); Assistant Director, Global Oncology, Yale Cancer Center

    Research Interests
    • Cardiovascular Diseases
    • Epidemiologic Methods
    • Health Plan Implementation
    • Maternal Mortality
    • Obesity
    • Global Health
    • HIV Infections
    • Clinical Trial
    • Biostatistics
    • Implementation Science
    Donna Spiegelman was appointed the Susan Dwight Bliss Professor of Biostatistics at the Yale School of Public Health in 2018; she is also Professor of Statistics and Data Science at Yale University. Dr. Spiegelman founded and directs the Yale Center for Methods in Implementation and Prevention Science (CMIPS) and she also leads the Global Oncology program at Yale Cancer Center. As one of the few people in the world with a joint doctorate in biostatistics and epidemiology, she can freely speak the languages of both disciplines and switches between these two professional cultures, playing the role of interlocutor for each. She is interested in problems arising in epidemiology that require resolution, at least in part, through biostatistics. The emerging field of implementation science is among Dr. Spiegelman's major areas of interest. This field examines barriers to the implementation of evidence-based interventions, as well as the factors that facilitate uptake of these tools. She founded CMIPS to develop tools for implementation science as well as to further the field's deployment to improve public health. The Center comprises 4 tenure-track full-time faculty members in biostatistics, social science and health economics; many additional faculty at YSPH and YSM; and PhD students, post-doctoral fellows, and master's degree students. With colleagues at CMIPS, she studies the design and conduct of implementation studies and pragmatic trials. Topics include stepped-wedge and cluster randomized trials; positive spillover effects; two-stage designs; causal inference for large-scale public health interventions, including causal mediation analysis; correction for biases related to non-adherence and measurement error; and external generalizability; among others. CMIPS also focuses on developing methodsfor learning health care systems. One of CMIPS' primary goals is to develop new statistical methods for implementation science. One such innovation is the Learn as You Go (LAGO) design, which allows researchers to repeatedly adapt ongoing trials in response to new trial data. Such designs help to prevent “failed trials." They can also optimize combination treatment regimens and inform cost-effective health promotion programs. Other biostatistical methods Dr. Spiegelman has developed relate to a wide range of topics, including meta-analysis, measurement error and misclassification, gene-environment and other interactions, smoothing, study design, and population-attributable risk. Before coming to Yale, she served as professor, mentor, and expert statistician at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health for nearly 30 years.
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  • Vasilis Vasiliou, PhD

    Department Chair and Susan Dwight Bliss Professor of Epidemiology (Environmental Health Sciences) and of Ophthalmology and Visual Science and of Environment; Director, Yale Superfund Research Center; Affiliated Faculty, Yale Cancer Center; Affiliated Faculty, Yale Institute for Global Health; Co-Director, Environmental Health Sciences Track, Executive MPH

    Research Interests
    • Alcoholism
    • Aldehyde Dehydrogenase
    • Diabetes Mellitus
    • Environmental Health
    • Glutathione
    • Gout
    • Ophthalmology
    • Mass Spectrometry
    • Genomics
    Vasilis Vasiliou, is Professor and Chair of the Department of Environmental Health Sciences. He received his BSc in Chemistry (1983) and PhD in Biochemical Pharmacology (1988) from the University of Ioannina, Greece. He then trained in gene-environment interactions, molecular toxicology and pharmacogenetics at the Department of Environmental Health in the College of Medicine at the University of Cincinnati (1991-1995). In 1996, he joined the faculty of the University of Colorado School of Pharmacy where he rose through the ranks to become Professor and Director of the Toxicology Graduate Program. Since 2008, he was also Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. In July 2014, he joined the faculty of Yale University in his new position. Professor Vasiliou has established an internationally-recognized research program that has been continuously funded by NEI/NIH and NIAAA/NIH since 1997, and recently NIEHS. His research interests include the etiology and molecular mechanisms of environmentally-induced human disease, such as liver disease, obesity & diabetes, cancer, and neurodegenerative diseases. His research focuses on the means by which the exposome (total exposures throughout life), metabolism (specifically aldehyde dehydrogenases and cytochrome P-450s) and antioxidants (glutathione and catalase) contribute to human health and disease. His laboratory utilizes state-of-the-art integrated system approaches that include metabolomics, lipidomics, exposomics, tissue imaging mass spectrometry, deep-learning, as well as human cohorts and genetically-engineered mouse models in order to elucidate mechanisms, and to discover biomarkers and novel interventions for human disease. Dr Vasiliou is the director of the NIEHS-funded P42 Yale Superfund Research Center and also the director of the NIAAA-funded R24-Resource Center for Mouse Models and Metabolomics Tools to Investigate Alcohol Metabolism and Tissue Injury. Dr. Vasiliou has published over 250 papers and edited three books on Alcohol and Cancer. Dr. Vasiliou is the editor of Human Genomics and serves on the editorial boards of several toxicology and visual sciences journals. Professor Vasiliou is committed to training the next generation of scientists. At the University of Colorado, he was the Director of the Environmental and Molecular Toxicology Graduate Program for 15 years. At Yale he leads an NIAAA-funded T32 Translational Alcohol Research Program (TARP) Training Program for post-doctoral fellows, and an NIHES -funded R25 Summer Research Experience in Environmental Health (SREEH) Training Program that introduce undergraduate students in Connecticut (CT) to Environmental Health Research. Dr. Vasiliou has trained mentored and advised more than 60 trainees ranging from MPH and PhD students to postdoctoral fellows and junior faculties.
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  • Shi-Yi Wang, MD, PhD

    Senior Research Scientist in Epidemiology

    Research Interests
    • Breast Neoplasms
    • Terminal Care
    Dr. Wang is an Associate Professor at the Yale School of Public Health, faculty member of Cancer Outcomes, Public Policy and Effectiveness Research (COPPER) Center, and faculty member of Public Health Modeling Concentration, Yale School of Public Health. His primary interests focus on outcomes research and decision science. He is interested in combining systematic literature reviews, secondary data analyses, and simulation modeling to examine issues that are critical to clinicians and policy makers’ decision making. He has been working on several breast cancer projects, including an evaluation of preoperative breast MRI, development of an individualized decision aid to help radiotherapy decision-making, and assessment of sentinel lymph node biopsy for patients with ductal carcinoma in situ. He is also evaluating end-of-life care quality. He has served as the primary investigator or co-investigator in several projects (funded by Yale Cancer Center, AHRQ, NCI, ACS, and PCORI).
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  • Hongyu Zhao, PhD

    Ira V. Hiscock Professor of Biostatistics, Professor of Genetics and Professor of Statistics and Data Science

    Research Interests
    • Genetics
    • Public Health
    • Computational Biology
    • Statistics
    • Genomics
    • Proteomics
    • Biostatistics
    • Single-Cell Analysis
    • Microbiota
    • Wearable Electronic Devices
    Dr. Hongyu Zhao is the Ira V. Hiscock Professor of Biostatistics and Professor of Statistics and Data Science and Genetics. He received his B.S. in Probability and Statistics from Peking University in 1990 and Ph.D. in Statistics from the University of California at Berkeley in 1995. His research interests are the developments and applications of novel statistical methods to address scientific questions in genetics, molecular biology, drug developments, and precision medicine. Some of his recent projects include large scale genome wide studies to identify genetic variants underlying complex diseases, genetic risk prediction, single cell analysis, biological network modeling and analysis, disease biomarker identification, genome annotation, cancer genomics, microbiome analysis, image analysis, and wearable device data analysis. He has published over 700 articles in statistics, human genetics, bioinformatics, genomics, and proteomics, and edited three books on human genetics analysis and statistical genomics. He has trained over 110 doctoral and post-doctoral students, many of whom are holding tenured or tenure-track positions at major universities in the states and overseas. Dr. Zhao has served as an editor and/or associate editor of leading statistical and genetics journals, including as a Co-Editor of the Journal of the American Statistical Association Theory and Methods and a co-Editor of Statistics in Biosciences. He was the recipient of the Mortimer Spiegelman Award for a top statistician in health statistics under the age of 40 awarded by the American Public Health Association and the Pao-Lu Hsu Award from the International Chinese Statistical Association. His research has also been recognized by the Evelyn Fix Memorial Medal and Citation by UC Berkeley, a Basil O'Connor Starter Scholar Award by the March of Dimes Foundation, election to the fellowship of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Statistical Association, the Institute of Mathematical Statistics, and Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering.
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  • Yong Zhu, PhD

    Associate Professor Emeritus of Epidemiology; Track Director, Environmental Health Sciences, Executive MPH; Assistant Director, Global Epidemiology

    Research Interests
    • Breast Neoplasms
    • Environmental Health
    • Genetics, Medical
    • Public Health
    • Testicular Neoplasms
    • Molecular Epidemiology
    Dr. Yong Zhu is an Associate Professor at Yale University School of Public Health and Assistant Director of Yale Cancer Center for Global Cancer Epidemiology. Dr. Zhu's research interests are oriented towards the use of the molecular epidemiological approach in the study of genetic susceptibility biomarkers and their interactions with environmental exposures in human disease development. Dr. Zhu has been developing and validating novel phenotypic and genotypic assays and biomarkers for several cancer types, including non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, breast, bladder, lung and prostate cancer. By utilizing various techniques in genetics, epigenetics, cytogenetics, cell biology, and computational biology, his studies have identified biomarkers that can characterize inherited predisposition and cellular response to environmental factors. Current research focuses on studying the role of two transcriptional factors, circadian genes and small noncoding RNAs, in tumorigenesis.
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Resource Faculty

  • Kerin Adelson, MD

    Associate Professor Adjunct

    Research Interests
    • Breast
    Dr. Adelson is an Adjunct Associate Professor and was previously Chief Quality Officer for Yale Cancer Center and Smilow Cancer Hospital. Dr. Adelson graduated from Yale University School of Medicine, completed residency at Mount Sinai Medical Center and Fellowship in oncology at Columbia Presbyterian. In her Quality role, Dr. Adelson focused on improving care coordination for all patients treated in the Smilow network, aligning care with national quality metrics, and developing models to enhance patient involvement in decisions about their cancer-care. Dr. Adelson sits on several national committees including the Southwest Oncology group Cancer Delivery Committee, the National Cancer Care Network Policy Committee and the American Society of Clinical Oncology Health Information Technology Committee.
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  • Brenda Cartmel, PhD

    Senior Research Scientist in and Lecturer in Epidemiology (Chronic Diseases)

    Research Interests
    • Carcinoma
    • Chronic Disease
    • Epidemiology
    • Nutrition Disorders
    • Ovarian Neoplasms
    • Stress, Psychological
    • Tanning
    • Disease-Free Survival
    • Nutritional Sciences
    Dr. Cartmel's primary research interests are in the area of cancer prevention and cancer survivorship. Dr. Cartmel is Co-Leader for the 'Personalized Intervention Program: Tobacco Treatment for Lung Cancer Screening Patients (PIP), one of four projects which are part of the Yale Lung SPORE (PI: Dr. Roy Herbst).  In addition to this study, Dr. Cartmel is involved in several diet and exercise intervention studies in cancer survivors (Melinda Irwin Ph.D. and Tara Sanft, M.D. PIs).  She is also participating in a nationwide longitudinal quality of life study in cancer survivors in which she is studying communication of health information to long-term cancer survivors. Other interests include the use of a novel noninvasive assessment method of skin carotenoids and skin cancer etiology and prevention, including work on tanning addiction.
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  • Lisa Fucito, PhD

    Associate Professor of Psychiatry; Director, Tobacco Treatment Service, Psychiatry

    Research Interests
    • Alcohol Drinking
    • Alcoholism
    • Nicotine
    • Sleep
    • Technology
    • Exercise
    • Tobacco Use Cessation
    • Vulnerable Populations
    • Harm Reduction
    • Secondary Prevention
    • Tertiary Prevention
    • Sedentary Behavior
    • Mobile Applications
    • Tobacco Use
    • Sleep Hygiene
    • Health Risk Behaviors
    I am an expert in tobacco and hazardous alcohol use, other modifiable lifestyle risk behaviors (i.e., deficient sleep, and physical inactivity), and digital health technology. My research focuses on: 1) better understanding and predicting these risks; 2) phenotyping risk variability within individuals; 3) developing novel lifestyle interventions that are tailored to these unique risk profiles; and 4) implementing lifestyle risk behavior/mental health screening and intervention in clinical settings. I utilize various technologies including biosensors, smartphones, telehealth, and electronic health record tools to monitor these behaviors, derive integrated biometric feedback, deliver interventions, and improve healthcare. In addition, I am interested in digitally-derived endpoints as alternative endpoints for clinical trials. In a separate and distinct line of research, I study the effects of different tobacco products and their constituents in adults to inform the regulation of tobacco products by the FDA. I also direct the Tobacco Treatment Service at Smilow Cancer Hospital and teach/mentor graduate students, residents, fellows, and junior faculty in addiction, behavioral medicine, health technology, and clinical research. Current studies include: (1) Observational Study: phenotyping heavy drinking and alcohol use disorder risk in young adults using advances in web-based neuropsychological assessment, smartphone sensing technology, machine learning and statistical modeling (N=350) (2) RCT: evaluating effects of e-cigarettes vs. oral nicotine pouches and their constituents (menthol flavor, nicotine concentration) on cigarette smoking in adults (N=256) (3) RCT: testing a personalized sleep/cardiovascular wellness feedback intervention using the OuraRing and smartphone diaries for young adults who drink heavily (N=60) (4) RCT + imaging study: testing CBT for insomnia as an adjunct to standard tobacco treatment and the neurobiological mechanisms underlying deficient sleep as a tobacco relapse precipitant (N=114)
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  • Scott Huntington, MD, MPH, MSc

    Associate Professor of Internal Medicine (Hematology); Chief Quality Officer, Smilow Cancer Hospital and Yale Cancer Center; Chief, Inpatient Cancer Medicine

    Research Interests
    • Hematologic Diseases
    • Insurance
    • Lymphoma
    Scott Huntington, MD, MPH is a clinician and researcher at the Yale School of Medicine specializing in the care of patients with lymphoma and chronic lymphocytic leukemia. He is an Associate Professor of Medicine (Hematology) and the Medical Director of Yale Cancer Center's Hematology Outpatient Program. Prior to joining Yale, he completed his hematology-oncology training and received a Master of Science in Health Policy Research at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Huntington serves as an investigator on clinical trials evaluating novel cancer therapeutics and is an active member of Yale’s Cancer Outcomes, Public Policy, and Effectiveness Research (COPPER) Center, where he leads research focused on improving the delivery of complex cancer treatment during routine care.
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  • Beth Anne Jones, PhD, MPH

    Research Scientist in and Lecturer in Epidemiology (Chronic Diseases); Inaugural Director, Cancer Screening & Prevention Program

    Research Interests
    • Breast Neoplasms
    • Neoplasms
    • Primary Prevention
    • Social Class
    • Socioeconomic Factors
    • Epidemiologic Factors
    • Health Care Quality, Access, and Evaluation
    • Minority Health
    • Health Status Disparities
    • Healthcare Disparities
    • Secondary Prevention
    • Social Determinants of Health
    • Health Care
    Dr. Jones is a Yale-trained cancer epidemiologist whose work and teaching focus is on health disparities. Her research is primarily focused on racial/ethnic differences in cancer screening, prevention, and cancer outcomes. A recently completed study tested 4 evidence-based interventions to address overdue colorectal cancer screening in a large urban primary care clinic. Ongoing projects include working with Implementation Science research teams to address system and patient level factors that compromise the full benefit of cervical cancer screening in minority populations and in developing mitigation strategies to protect respiratory health in large clinical workplace. Other projects focus on the impact of COVID-19 on adults and GEN-Z populations in at-risk communities with implications for cancer prevention and screening behaviors. In leadership roles in Community Outreach Education efforts for the Yale Comprehensive Cancer Center and as inaugural Director of Smilow Cancer Hospital's Cancer Screening & Prevention Program, Dr. Jones has led a number of programmatic efforts to engage underserved communities in cancer prevention and screening activities throughout a large catchment area. Using best community practices, adapted due to recent pandemic, we created a platform for reaching nearly 100,000 community members per year with vetted, evidence-based health prevention and screening messages in Spanish and English languages, launched a community facing navigation program that screened and addressed social determinants of health (SDOH) barriers, and are now adapting some of these strategies to engage traditionally under-served populations on the important role of cancer related genetic testing in a large health system. These translational efforts are a natural outgrowth of her population-based studies of mammography screening and other health behaviors, breast density, and colorectal cancer screening in Hispanic/Latinas and African American/Black women living in the Northeast, US. Using a multidisciplinary approach, she has also evaluated the role(s) of obesity, tumor characteristics, selected genetic alterations and genetic polymorphisms, as well as social class, medical care, and psychosocial factors, in explaining differences cancer stage at diagnosis and survival between African Americans and Whites in breast, prostate, and colorectal cancer.
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  • Michael S. Leapman, MD, MHS

    Associate Professor of Urology; Clinical Program Leader, Prostate & Urologic Cancers Program, Yale Cancer Center; Assistant Professor, Chronic Disease Epidemiology

    Research Interests
    • Urinary Bladder Diseases
    • Delivery of Health Care
    • Health Services Research
    • Kidney Diseases
    • Prostatic Neoplasms
    • Ureteral Diseases
    • Urologic Neoplasms
    Clinical interests: Prostate cancer: low-risk prostate cancer, active surveillance, nerve-sparing robotic prostatectomy, focal therapy, high-risk disease, pelvic lymph node dissection, imaging, risk stratification; molecular imaging; PSMA; focal therapy; bladder cancer: intravesical therapy, TURBT, radical cystectomy with urinary diversion, continent urinary diversion, neobladder, ileal conduit. Kidney cancer: laparoscopic radical nephrectomy, laparoscopic partial nephrectomy, robotic partial nephrectomy, open radical nephrectomy, open partial nephrectomy. Testicular cancer. Upper tract urothelial carcinoma: laparoscopic, open nephroureterectomy, ureterectomy Watch a video with Dr. Michael Leapman >>Michael Leapman, MD was drawn to the field of urology for the opportunity to care for patients with urologic cancers. He aims, above all, to deliver the highest level of care possible with the utmost consideration and compassion for the impact that cancer places on patients, as well as their families, friends and communities.Dr. Leapman graduated from Cornell University where he majored in Neurobiology and Behavior, and received his medical school degree from the University of Maryland in Baltimore. He completed his General Surgery and Urology training at the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, NY. Subsequently, he completed a urologic oncology fellowship at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) accredited by the Society of Urologic Oncology. He joined the faculty at the Yale University School of Medicine and Yale Cancer Center in 2016, specializing in urologic oncology with a joint appointment at the West Haven Veterans Affairs Medical Center.
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  • Stephanie O'Malley, PhD

    Elizabeth Mears and House Jameson Professor of Psychiatry; Deputy Chair, Clinical Research

    Research Interests
    • Alcoholism
    • Psychiatry
    • Smoking
    • Substance-Related Disorders
    • Risk Reduction Behavior
    • Psychiatry and Psychology
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  • Tara Sanft, MD

    Associate Professor of Medicine (Medical Oncology); Chief, Patient Experience Officer; Medical Director, Survivorship Clinic

    Research Interests
    • Breast Diseases
    • Communication
    • Survivorship
    I am board certified in both medical oncology and hospice and palliative medicine, which I feel helps me treat the "whole person" and not just a disease. As the Chief Patient Experience Officer at Smilow Cancer Hospital, I enjoy thinking about improving care, especially where the provider and patient experience overlaps. As a breast oncologist, I have a busy practice and enjoy taking care of women with newly diagnosed breast cancer. As the director of the Yale Survivorship Clinic, one of the nation’s only multi-disciplinary clinics specializing in cancer survivorship, I learn from patients about key issues after treatment and this informs my role as Chair of the NCCN Survivorship Guidelines. My research focuses on healthy lifestyles and quality of life after cancer. I am a facilitator for Relationship-Centered Communication Workshop that address how we develop therapeutic relationships with our patients and each other. Learn more about Dr. Tara Sanft>>
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  • Sangini S. Sheth, MD, MPH, FACOG

    Associate Professor, Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences; Affiliated Faculty, Yale Institute for Global Health; Director of Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (DEI), Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences; Associate Chief, Gynecologic Specialties; Director of Colposcopy and Cervical Dysplasia, Gynecologic Specialties

    Research Interests
    • Adolescent
    • Uterine Cervical Dysplasia
    • Contraception
    • Gynecology
    • Health Plan Implementation
    • HIV
    • Maternal Mortality
    • Mexico
    • Nepal
    • Obstetrics
    • Pregnancy
    • Global Health
    • Women's Health
    • Reproductive Medicine
    • Information Dissemination
    • Human papillomavirus 16
    • Papanicolaou Test
    As a member of the winning research team for Yale’s 2015 Excellence in Educational Innovation Prize, Dr. Sangini S. Sheth is equally at home caring for patients and mentoring young doctors. She serves as an associate professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences at Yale School of Medicine. “I deeply enjoy the great breadth and depth of Ob/Gyn,” says Sheth. “Discussing preventative medicine in clinic one day and performing complex surgery with advanced technology the next.”A native of Connecticut, Dr. Sheth graduated cum laude from Yale University and returned to her alma mater in 2013 after receiving her MD and MPH from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Bloomberg School of Public Health. In clinical practice, she is passionate about providing a full range of gynecologic services to women in all stages of life, from cervical cancer prevention and prenatal care to advanced treatments and surgery for conditions like fibroids and abnormal uterine bleeding. Her role as an educator and academic at Yale School of Medicine consistently informs the care she provides her patients. “There are several quickly changing areas within Ob/Gyn,” Dr. Sheth says. “I'm excited to be a frontline provider with a researcher's lens.”As part of her continuing commitment to improving women’s reproductive health worldwide, Dr. Sheth has partnered with colleagues in Nepal and Mexico on public health and implementation science studies to improve cervical cancer prevention programs. She is particularly sensitive to those who may feel marginalized by age, gender, race or ethnicity, and women living with HIV. “The field of women's reproductive health is inherently linked to social and political advocacy and addressing health inequities is central to my work,” Dr. Sheth says. An advocate of patient education, she believes in partnering with patients and encouraging women to become knowledgeable and active participants in all aspects of their reproductive health.Dr. Sheth is a member of the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the Association of Professors of Gynecology and Obstetrics, the Society for Academic Specialists in General Obstetrics and Gynecology and the American Society for Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology.
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  • Andrea Silber, MD

    Professor of Medicine (Medical Oncology)

    Research Interests
    • Breast
    Dr. Silber is the Associate CEHE Director for Clinical Research. As a medical oncologist who serves as the Medical Director and Physician Champion of the Centers for Disease Control/Connecticut Department of Public Health's 5-year provider supported grant at Yale New Haven Hospital entitled, The Connecticut Cancer Screening Program (CCSP), she designed the Comprehensive Breast Cancer Outreach and Support Program for Underserved Women, which is a culturally competent program supported by the Breast Cancer Alliance of Greenwich. She has supervised Community Health Educators dating back to 1996, when she received a national Komen award for the Sister to Sister Program, and has been recognized for expertise in breast cancer among African American women. She has directed a cancer clinic for the uninsured and underinsured for two decades and have formed community relationships, which require many years to nurture and demonstrate constancy. This year, she became the principal investigator of the Avon-Pfizer Metastatic Breast Cancer Grants Program: Identify-Amplify-Unify. This program assists organizations that provide information and services to help patients in navigating the medical and emotional challenges associated with their disease. Dr. Silber was awarded this grant from a highly competitive pool of 23 non-profit organizations nationally. Also, this year, CT Health and Educational Facilities Authority (CHEFA) awarded a grant to fund a novel program called “Breast Cancer S.W.A.T. Team- We’ve got your back!”. Learn more about Dr. Silber>>As a principal investigator, she assists economically disadvantaged breast cancer patients to adhere to treatment using medical legal partnership. This year, she was selected to participate as a leadership fellow of the Connecticut Health Foundation. The fellowship was established in 2005, and brings together diverse individuals from multiple sectors who are dedicated to achieving health equity. Each year, the foundation selects up to 20 participants into this competitive ten-month program. Throughout this program, her project has been to increase clinical trial participation among ethnic minorities and capitalize on opportunities created by the Affordable Care Act.  On May 1, 2015, she was named Assistant Clinical Director for Diversity and Health Equity at Yale Cancer Center and focuses on engagement with community partners in improving education for prevention and screening and access to cancer care for diverse populations within the local community as well as Greater New Haven area.
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  • Sten H. Vermund, MD, PhD

    Anna M.R. Lauder Professor of Public Health

    Research Interests
    • Environment and Public Health
    • HIV
    • Public Health
    • Global Health
    • Women's Health
    • Child Health
    Dr. Sten Vermund is a pediatrician and infectious disease epidemiologist focused on diseases of low and middle income countries. His work on HIV-HPV interactions among women in Bronx methadone programs motivated a change in the 1993 CDC AIDS case surveillance definition and inspired cervical cancer screening programs launched within HIV/AIDS programs around the world. The thrust of his research has focused on health care access, adolescent sexual and reproductive health and rights, and prevention of  HIV transmission among general and key populations, including mother-to-child.  Dr. Vermund has become increasingly engaged in health policy, particularly around sustainability of HIV/AIDS programs and their expansion to non-communicable diseases, coronavirus pandemic response and prevention, and public health workforce development. His recent grants include capacity-building for public health in Chad, molecular epidemiology for HIV in Kazakhstan, and COVID-19 vaccine studies in Dominican Republic and Connecticut. He has worked with schools and arts organizations for COVID-19 risk mitigation and institutional safety.
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  • James B. Yu, MD, MHS, FASTRO

    Assistant Professor Adjunct

    Research Interests
    • Breast Neoplasms
    • Head and Neck Neoplasms
    • Urogenital Neoplasms
    • Central Nervous System Neoplasms
    • Radiotherapy, Intensity-Modulated
    James Yu, MD, MHS, is a practicing radiation oncologist at Smilow Cancer Hospital at Saint Francis Hospital, Department of Radiation Oncology, in Hartford, CT. He is a former Professor of Radiation Oncology at the Yale School of Medicine, and former Associate Chief Medical Officer of the Smilow Cancer Hospital and Care Centers. He was most recently the Executive Vice Chair of Columbia University Irving Medical Center Department of Radiation Oncology. Dr. Yu specializes in treating genitourinary cancers such as kidney, bladder and prostate, central nervous system cancers and cases requiring stereotactic radiosurgery, and has presented and lectured internationally on these subjects. He also treats rectal, breast, and lung cancers at Saint Francis Hospital. In his academic work, Dr. Yu conducts research on ways to use radiotherapy treatments to improve outcomes for cancer patients. “We need to push the field ever forward and not be satisfied with merely prolonging survival,” says Dr. Yu. “I think radiosurgery will play a role in this. As systemic therapies improve and our ability to control microscopically disseminated disease improves, noninvasive ablative therapies will become ever more important.” As a former Yale Center for Clinical Investigation scholar and founding member of the Cancer Outcomes, Public Policy, and Effectiveness Research (COPPER) Center at Yale, Dr. Yu’s research centers on the comparative effectiveness of new radiation technologies and how these new technologies are adopted nationally. Dr. Yu is currently the Deputy Editor-In-Chief of the journal Practical Radiation Oncology and is on the editorial boards of the Journal of Clinical Oncology - Clinical Cancer Informatics, JNCI, JNCI-Cancer Spectrum, European Urology - Oncology, Journal of Surgical Oncology, and Oncology (Williston Park), and former editorial board member of the Journal of Clinical Oncology. He has published over 350 original manuscripts and co-edited the textbook Pocket Radiation Oncology and Principles of Clinical Cancer Research. He is the radiation oncology co-chair for the Southwest Oncology Group Genitourinary Cancers Committee, and a nationally recognized expert in patient reported outcomes.
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