Breakfast Seminar: Shoba Ramanadhan, Harvard School of Public Health

Participatory implementation science – ongoing, iterative collaboration between researchers and stakeholders to improve the pathway between research and practice – offers an important opportunity to address cancer and other health disparities. Dr. Ramanadhan will present findings from recent studies conducted in partnership with community-based organizations working with underserved populations in Massachusetts. She will focus on interventions to build staff capacity and activate social networks so that community organizations are better able to leverage and contribute to the cancer prevention and control evidence base.

Dr. Ramanadhan’s research focuses on reducing cancer disparities through knowledge translation in community settings. She is particularly interested in opportunities to use community engagement, capacity-building, and staff social networks to create sustainable, system-level change in community-based health promotion efforts. She is also interested in the role of interpersonal social networks for supporting behavior change related to cancer control. While in her position as a Research Scientist at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, she has taught courses on theories of behavior change and mixed-methods research at the Harvard School of Public Health. She also mentors students (at the undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral levels) interested in cancer disparities and population health and serves as a consultant for the Harvard Catalyst, providing expertise in the areas of mixed-methods, participatory, and qualitative research to Harvard-affiliated researchers.

The Cancer Outcomes Research Program Breakfast Seminar Series is organized by Drs. Ethan Basch, Stephanie Wheeler, and Matthew Nielsen. Please arrive at 7:45am to join us for a hot breakfast buffet prior to the start of our 8:00am meeting. Parking is available at the Rams Head parking deck next door; we will give you vouchers to park for free.