The overall goal of this program is to reduce cancer incidence, morbidity and mortality, and improve outcomes, with special emphasis on health disparities. The program also provides research training for graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and junior faculty through the Minority Health & Health Disparities Research Center training programs.

Current Projects

Current projects include behavioral intervention studies, prevention trials, observational and outcomes studies, cancer surveillance, and community-based research with a strong track record in the use of community health workers (CHW) and volunteers. The program has a significant number of scientists with research focus on African American and Hispanic populations. The Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Shared Facility of the Cancer Center is an integral part of this program.      

Faculty

The studies conducted are collaborative and multi-disciplinary and capitalize on the strengths that UAB provides in its broad spectrum of researchers and scientists, including faculty at the UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Center for Health Promotion.

• Monica L. Baskin, PhD (leader)
• Mona Fouad, MD MPH
• Sejong Bae, PHD
• Tiffany L. Carson, PhD MPH
• Dongquan Chen, PhD MSHI
• Renee A. Desmond, DVM PhD
• Young-il Kim, PhD
• Yufeng Li, PhD
• Robert A. Oster, PhD
• Maria Pisu, PhD
• Isabel C. Scarinci, PhD MPH
• Yu-Mei M. Schoenberger, PhD
• Sara J. Knight, PhD

Faculty with a secondary research interest in this area are:

• Ellen Funkhouser, Dr Ph
• Young-il Kim, PhD
• James M. Shikany, DrPH, PA-C