Cancer Control Research Training Program

About the doctoral program

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.

Doctoral 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

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

	Maria E. Fernandez, PhD, Director Lorne 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
	Sally W. Vernon, PhD, MA, Program Co-Director Professor 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
	Patricia Dolan Mullen, DrPH, MLS, Program Co-Director The 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

	Danmeng Huang, MPA September 2015 - August 2018 Working on: PhD, Policy & Management Science Research Interests: Decision science, economic evaluation, policy evaluation, claims data, and breast cancer screening CV
	Andrea Betts, MPH September 2016 - Present Working on: PhD, Health Promotion & Behavioral Sciences, in Dallas Regional Campus Research Interests: Cancer survivorship, adolescent & young adult cancer, mixed methods research CV
	Gordon Watt, BA September 2017 - August 2018 Working on: PhD, Epidemiology, in Brownsville Regional Campus Research Interests: Liver disease in Mexican Americans living along the Texas-Mexico border, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, health disparities, cohort studies CV
	Lynn Ibekwe, MPH September 2017 - Present Working on: PhD, Health Promotion & Behavioral Sciences Research Interests: Health disparities in cancer prevention & control, chronic disease prevention & management, health promotion for minority populations, intervention development, implementation, evaluation, and dissemination CV
	Jessica Austin, MPH May 2018 - Present Working on: PhD, Health Promotion & Behavioral Sciences, at Dallas' regional campus Research Interests: Cancer survivorship, health services research, survivorship care planning, patient centered communication, self-management, dissemination & implementation science, mixed-methods research, multi-level interventions CV
	Jenna Parro, MHA August 2018 - Present Working on: PhD, Health Promotion & Behavioral Sciences Research Interests: Cancer health disparities, women’s health, LGBTQ health, underserved populations, health communication, qualitative research CV

Postdoctoral Fellows

Amy E. Hughes, PhD Career Aspirations: Research and teaching in an academic setting Research Interests: Applications of spatial statistics & spatial econometrics; geographic policy implications relevant to cancer screening and outcomes research CV Publications: Estimating the Health and Economic Impacts of Changes in Local Air Quality The Utility of EMR Address Histories for Assessing Neighborhood Exposures  Understanding how low-socioeconomic status households cope with health shocks: An analysis of multi-sector linked data  Financial Incentives for Promoting Colorectal Cancer Screening: A Randomized, Comparative Effectiveness Trial  Neighborhood Effects in a Behavioral Randomized Controlled Trial  Using address histories in health research: challenges and recommendations for research

Gregory Knell, PhD Career Aspirations: Research and teaching in an academic setting Research Interests: Epidemiology of sleep, physical activity, and sedentary behaviors and their role in chronic disease and cancer prevention and control; Physical activity measurement CV Publications: Transit use and physical activity: Findings from the Houston travel-related activity in neighborhoods (TRAIN) study  Clinical importance of non-participation in a maximal graded exercise test on risk of non-fatal and fatal cardiovascular events and all-cause mortality: CARDIA study  Ecological Momentary Assessment of Physical Activity: Validation Study  The Effect of Light Rail Transit on Physical Activity: Design and Methods of the Travel-Related Activity in Neighborhoods Study The Association of Trip Distance With Walking To Reach Public Transit: Data from the California Household Travel Study

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