About our program
Welcome to UTHealth School of Public Health’s Cancer Control Research Training Program.
The Cancer Control Research Training Program has both predoctoral and postdoctoral fellowships funded by the National Cancer Institute to launch your successful career in cancer prevention and control research.
Applications are now open! Please review the information available on each tab for application documents and directions.
The people—faculty mentors, advisory committee, and program directors—and robust curriculum are the heart of our program. The program offers more than 30 investigators with experience and training in multiple disciplines and cultural backgrounds who have built collaborative networks in Houston, the U.S., and internationally. Mentors work closely with research centers at the school—e.g., The Center for Health Promotion and Prevention Research, the Michael & Susan Dell Center for Healthy Living, and the Institute for Health Policy—and with MD Anderson and Simmons Cancer Centers.
In our 27th year, the Cancer Control Research Training Program has a strong history of achievement and offers unique training in health disparities, implementation and dissemination science, and program development and adaptation. Historically, one-third of our fellows are from under-represented groups. Our fellows go on to strong postdoctoral programs and faculty positions.
Questions? Email us at ncifellowships@uth.tmc.edu.
About the predoctoral program
Download the predoctoral fellowship application.
Our funding from the National Cancer Institute provides four fellowship positions per year for doctoral students who show outstanding promise for research careers in cancer prevention and control. Fellowships are awarded to newly admitted or continuing students at UTHealth School of Public Health doctoral programs at all campuses. See the Doctoral Fellow Individual Development Plan.
Predoctoral fellows receive:
- Support for up to 4 years
- $26,324 annual stipend plus health insurance
- Tuition and fees, books, software, and travel
- Outstanding faculty mentoring in a thriving interdisciplinary research environment
- Weekly contact with faculty, postdocs, and other doctoral fellows through a seminar focused on proposal writing, publication, and career development
Historically, one-third of our fellows have been members of under-represented groups. Recent predocs have moved to postdoctoral positions at Washington University at St. Louis, UT Southwestern, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, Fred Hutchison Cancer Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, National Cancer Institute, and the Epidemic Intelligence Service (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention).
About the postdoctoral program
Download the postdoctoral fellowship application.
Our funding from the National Cancer Institute enables us to support four postdoctoral fellows per year. Postdocs in the training program must have a PhD, DrPH, MD or other doctoral degree in health promotion/health education, a behavioral or social science discipline, communication, epidemiology, health services research, health economics, health policy, biostatistics, or a related area of study.
Over a two to three year period, postdocs build their publication records, gain valuable experience on interdisciplinary research teams, take advanced courses, and write at least one proposal for their own funded research in cancer prevention and control. See the Postdoctoral Fellow Individual Development Plan.
Postdoctoral fellows receive:
- Support for up to 3 years
- Annual stipend starting at $48,432, depending on experience
- Health insurance, tuition and fees, books, travel, and software
- Access to project portfolios with interdisciplinary teams addressing diverse risk factors with a strong focus on under-served groups
- Excellent mentoring and training opportunities that advance fellows’ skills, experience, networks, and research productivity
- Weekly contact with faculty, doctoral fellows, and other postdocs in an ongoing seminar on proposal writing, publication, and career development
Alumni are on the faculties at Duke, University of Arizona, Baylor College of Medicine, UTHealth School of Public Health, UT Southwestern, University of South Carolina, University of California at San Francisco, Medical College of South Carolina, and Pennsylvania State University.
Meet the faculty supporting the program
Program directors
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Maria E. Fernandez, PhD, DirectorLorne Bain Distinguished Professor of Health Promotion & Behavioral Sciences and Director, Center for Health Promotion and Prevention Research Teaching Interests: Health promotion & behavioral sciences, health promotion planning and implementation using intervention mapping, and dissemination and implementation Research Interests: Dissemination and implementation research, health promotion planning; intervention mapping, health equity / health disparities, cancer control, Hispanic and other underserved populations, health promotion program evaluation, technology in health promotion, primary care, health communications |
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Sally W. Vernon, PhD, MA, Program Co-DirectorProfessor of Behavioral Sciences and Epidemiology, Chair, Department of Health Promotion and Behavioral Sciences Blair Justice, PhD Professorship in Mind-Body Medicine and Public Health, and Senior Investigator, Center for Health Promotion and Prevention Research Research Interests: Cancer prevention and control for breast, cervical and colorectal cancers, psychosocial issues in cancer genetic testing, measurement of psychosocial constructs, reliability and validity of self-report cancer screening behaviors, cancer screening and prevention, and HPV |
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Patricia Dolan Mullen, DrPH, MLS, Program Co-DirectorThe University of Texas System Distinguished Teaching Professor and Professor of Health Promotion and Behavioral Sciences and Senior Investigator and Training Director, Center for Health Promotion and Prevention Research Teaching Interests: Research and career development skills for doctoral students and postdoctoral fellows, with an emphasis on innovation and systematic review and meta-analysis Research Interests: Maternal and fetal health, smoke-free homes, informed decision-making for cancer and other screening tests, adaptation of evidence-based interventions, systematic review and meta-analysis, and evaluation research |
Advisory committee
Our Advisory Committee represents wide-ranging expertise in cancer prevention and control and in training and mentoring predoctoral and postdoctoral fellows within UTHealth School of Public Health, MD Anderson Cancer Center, and other academic environments.
Deanna Hoelscher, PhD, RD, LD, CNS, Regional Dean of the UTHealth School of Public Health Austin Campus, John P. McGovern Professor in Health Promotion and founding Director of the internationally renowned Michael and Susan Dell Center for Healthy Living leads multiple additions to the CATCH school health program that have undergone successful testing and dissemination.
Cheryl L. Perry, PhD, is the Director and PI of the Tobacco Center of Regulatory Science on Youth and Young Adults. She served as Scientific Editor of the 1994 and 2012 Surgeon General's Reports on preventing tobacco use among youth and young adults, and on the Scientific Editorial team for the 1st national report on e-cigarettes in 2016.
Xianglin Du, MD, PhD, Epidemiology, Human Genetics, and Environmental Health Sciences, is a gerontologist and cancer epidemiologist who has received ongoing support from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality for analyses of SEER-Medicare data on cancer screening, stage at diagnosis, treatment disparities, and survivorship issues. He leads Program trainees in analyses of these and newly linked national databases, leading to numerous publications in high impact cancer journals.
Stephen H. Linder, PhD, Professor of Management, Policy, and Community Health and Director, Institute for Health Policy has won numerous state-wide teaching awards. He has extensive experience with "knowledge transfer" projects, with community-based environmental risk assessment, and with community surveys that provide data to the public for community planning.
Karen Basen-Engquist, PhD, MPH, is Annie Laurie Howard Research Distinguished Professor in the Division of Cancer Prevention and Director, Center for Energy Balance in Cancer Prevention and Survivorship. She is an alumna.
Loma Haughton McNeil, PhD, MPH, is Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Health Disparities Research. She also directs the Center for Community-Engaged Translational Research.
Jasmine Tiro, PhD, is the Co-program Leader of Cancer Control and Population Sciences at the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center. She is an Associate Professor, Division of Clinical Sciences at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.
Mentors
All fellows have at least two mentors from complementary disciplines. Fellows have the opportunity to work with faculty members whose research represents a wide spectrum of research populations, methods, and theories. Mentoring is taken seriously in the Center, and the Program has formalized expectations of predoc and postdoc mentors.
Good mentoring is modeled by senior investigators and is practiced at all levels.
Current fellows
Predoctoral fellows
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Danmeng Huang, MPASeptember 2015 - August 2018 |
Andrea Betts, MPHSeptember 2016 - Present |
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Gordon Watt, BASeptember 2017 - August 2018 |
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Lynn Ibekwe, MPHSeptember 2017 - Present |
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Jessica Austin, MPHMay 2018 - Present |
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Jenna Parro, MHAAugust 2018 - Present |
Postdoctoral Fellows
Program alumni
Postdoc alumni
William Calo, PhD, JD, MPH (September 2010 - June 2014)
Assistant Professor, Dept. of Public Health Sciences, Penn State University College of Medicine & Cancer Institute at Hershey, PA
Kimberly Enard, PhD, MBA, MSHA (December 2012 - July 2014)
Assistant Professor, Dept. of Health Management & Policy, St. Louis University
Casey Durand, PhD, MPH (July 2012 - September 2014)
Assistant Professor, Dept. of Health Promotion & Behavioral Sciences, UTHealth School of Public Health
Albert Farias, PhD (March 2013 - August 2015)
Assistant Professor, Dept. of Clinical Preventive Medicine, University of Southern California
Marieke Hartman, PhD, MS (March 2013 - August 2015)
Lecturer, Dept. of Life Sciences, Erasmus University Rotterdam
Aubree Shay, PhD, LCSW, MSSW (February 2014- August 2016)
Assistant Professor, Dept. of Health Promotion & Behavioral Sciences, UTHealth School of Public Health in San Antonio
Timothy Walker, PhD (September 2016 - July 2018)
Assistant Professor, Dept. of Health Promotion & Behavioral Sciences, UTHealth School of Public Health
Predoc Alumni
Logan Thornton, DrPH, MPH (May 2011 - March 2014)
Assistant Director, Healthcare Transformation Initiatives at UTHealth McGovern Medical School
Emily Neusel Ussery, PhD, MPH (September 2013 - May 2015)
Epidemiologist, Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Matthew Koslovsky, PhD (April 2015 - October 2016)
NSF/RTG Postdoctoral Research Associate in Data Science at Rice University
Shelley Bluethmann, PhD, MPH, MA (June 2014 - April 2017)
Assistant Professor, Dept. of Public Health Sciences, Penn State University College of Medicine & Cancer Institute at Hershey, PA
Van T. Nghiem, PhD, MSPH (September 2014 - July 2017)
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
Serena A. Rodriguez, PhD, MPH, MA (May 2016 - August 2017)
Postdoctoral Researcher, Dept. of Clinical Sciences, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center
Natalia Heredia, PhD, MPH (September 2014 - May 2018)
Postdoctoral Fellow, Dept. of Health Disparities Research at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center